We had numerous meetings and fundraising events over the next couple years leading up to our departure on Friday April 17, 2026. We meet at the high school for a 1pm departure on the charter bus to Logan airport in Boston.
If I recall correctly there was 49 total travelers, 37 students, 6 adult/parent travelers, and 6 chaperones. Addison's friend Ella and her dad Matt were on the trip and we spent a lot of time with them.
We arrived at Logan and got through security rather quickly, and once we arrived at our terminal we had a few hours to kill until we boarded. We had dinner at Wahlburgers and I watched wrestling on my phone, WrestleCon Supershow and Josh Barnett's BloodSport, part of GCW's the Collective, as it is WrestleMania weekend.
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We flew on British Airways, our flight left at 950pm arriving in Heathrow Airport in London at roughly 930am local time on Saturday the 18th, about a 6.5 hour flight. The plane was the biggest that I have ever flown on, with a 3 rows of seating, and somehow Addison and I were not sitting next to each other on either flight. She was sitting with Ella and Matt, and I was right across the aisle.
We got a meal on the flight which was actually quite delicious, gnocchi in a red sauce a couple sides and a tiny can of diet coke. They also brought us a snack later in the form of an ice cream and then a breakfast wrap be fore landing.
We had a 90 minute layover but by the time we traveled from one gate to the next, went through security again, and Addison getting her bag searched because of a small bottle of body wash that, once tested, they gave back to her, we only had a short time to get to the gate. We grabbed some British snacks before heading down to the gate that was boarding as we arrived.
It was a unique gate in that after having our tickets checked we boarded a shuttle that took a few minutes to get us to our plane, where we walked up a flight a stairs to board. This plane was standard, two rows of 3, but the seating arrangements were the same.
Our flight from London to Paris was about 80 minutes and with the time change we landed at 125pm local time. After going through customs, getting a sweet stamp in our passports and collecting luggage we hit the ground running!
We met up with our EF Tours guide Virginia and got right on the bus and headed into Paris. Our bus dropped us off for a walking tour where we saw Ile de la Cite, Conciergerie, Sainte-Chapelle, Notre-Dame Cathedral and other places.
Dinner that night was at La Feria, and we had roasted turkey with rice and it was not good. It was like they chopped up a whole turkey after roasting it and just scooped it into bowls, bones and all. Desert was this tart with caramel sauce that was a weird texture and not great. Not a good start to the meals.
After dinner we were waiting for everyone to finish, so many of us went to a bakery across the street and we got these sweet breads with chocolate chips that were FANTASTIC! Back on the bus we headed to the hotel, we actually stayed about an hour outside Paris at Novotel Saint-Quentin en Yvelines in Magny-les-Hameaux. The hotel is on a golf course that was used for the 2024 Olympic Games.
The hotel nicer than I thought it would be, bed was comfortable, window had no screen, but I left it open at night to cool the room down and bugs were not an issue. I was able to cast my phone to the TV. I had trouble sleeping the first night, woke up after a few hours, watched WrestleMania Night 1, then slept a couple more hours before getting going for the day. Since 1988 I have watched WrestleMania live as was happening and this was the first year that I thought it would not happen. Thanks to Jet Lag I was able to not break my streak.
Sunday April 19th
We were on the bus at 8am headed into Paris stopping at the Eiffel Tower. It was a chilly morning and the top of the tower was obscured by fog but it was so cool. Addison and I got a couple great photo's together as we explored around the base of the tower. We did not go up the tower, it was closed while we were there, but we had some great views.
Back on the bus the sky had cleared and as we drove by the tower I snagged this postcard like photo.
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We got back on the bus with our tour guide for our bus tour of Place de la Concorde, the Champ-Elysees, Les Invalides, and the Arc de Triomphe from a distance. We couldn't get up to the Arc because the whole rotary was closed as they were filming a movie chase scene around it.
We went to Versailles where we had some free time for lunch before touring the palace. We went to the first of numerous open air markets that we would go to over the next few days. Addison and I got a small container of strawberries as they were in season, and delicious!
Addison wanted a crepe, we met up with Mrs. Creamer and her husband Cory who was looking for a specific creperie she had gone to before, not sure if we found that one but we did find one. We had lunch with them and Virginia, Addison was very happy with her crepe and I LOVED my savory buckwheat crepe with grilled chicken breast, cheese, and tomato sauce.
At the Palace we were divided into two groups for the tour. We were in the first group, which we preferred as we had time in the gardens after. The palace and the grounds are huge, and every room is very elaborate with not just wall to ceiling paintings, but the ceilings are painted as well. On one hand it's gorgeous, but at the same time it's a lot and a little too much for my personal liking.
Next we walked around the Gardens of Versailles which cover over 2,000 acres of land. Along with the gardens we observed numerous fountains and statues. We met up with different people from our group at different times, and we really enjoyed ourselves exploring the area.
Once we regrouped we walked over the the restaurant for dinner which was essentially pork roast and rice, which was solid. Dessert was a tart thing again that was MEH. After dinner a group of walked down to a small supermarket to get soda pop and snacks for our rooms.
The first 3 nights we stayed at the same hotel, and we had breakfast there each morning. This was no simple continental breakfast, we had meats, potatoes, fruit, breads, cheeses, and an egg station. It was great start to they day for everyone.
Monday April 20th
We were back on the bus and on the road at 830am heading into Paris to visit the Louvre. We hit traffic so we were late getting to the museum, however Virginia got us all wrangled and inside. I will say the benefit of this being in a large group was the group entrance at several places that we went.
In the museum Addison and I headed to the ancient Egypt section, along the way we walked through and actual moat of a12th-century medieval fortress built by King Philip II to defend Paris. You can touch the original stone walls, I mean to me that was just amazing.
The ancient Egypt section was very cool, and we did see a mummy at the end. We then made our way over to the Italian painting section to be underwhelmed by the Mona Lisa. We ran into Jenkins along the way who pointed out some other famous paintings to us and share some of his knowledge.
The Mona Lisa viewing area is some controlled chaos of funneling into a section where you make your way to the front, get your selfie and a staff member will open the gated area and let you out the front to continue your journey.
I checked out the Venus de Milo as well, not as packed there with guests but very cool to see. At this point Addison and I split up, she wanted to go shopping with her friends and I wanted to check out a couple places I had read about before coming here.
There was a lot of walking that was done on this trip, specifically this day for me at over 25 thousand steps. Each day of this trip was near or over 20 thousand steps, and shockingly my body didn't feel that rough at the end of each day as I expected it would. I'm not used to walking that far each day and I'm not sleeping in my bed which can make it rougher on the body as well.
Along the Seine river are the Bouquinistes of Paris, green stands dating back to the 16th century that sell books and other paper goods. They were very interesting to look at and each carried a variety of paper goods with differing themes from stand to stand. I looked through several of these as I walked to and from my destination.
Knowing we had some down time I researched spots in Paris I might want to check out if given the chance and one of them was La Lucha Libre Ring Bar a Mexican wrestling themed bar with a wrestling ring and they host live matches about once a month. I knew it was closed when I went to check it out but I wanted to at least but eyes on it.
Not to far away from there was a new and used media store that I checked out looking for something cool. I have a region free 4K player so I can play blurays and DVD's from all over, different countries have different region codes on their discs and you need a compatible player.
Between France and Spain I checked out about half a dozen video stores and I did buy two French versions of Prom Night and Last House on the Left. I saw a lot of French horror movies that look really cool, however, none of them had English subtitle tracks. I was hoping to a Spanish flick called El Bar but I was unable to. I checked a few comic book shops as well during the trip.
We all met back at the Louvre to go to the park for a hands on art project. We met with an artist who explained different styles of art and tasked us with doing two drawings with colored pencils and books that he handed out.
I did not eat lunch while on my journey earlier, and there was a stand that sold New York style hot dogs, so I had to grab one. Although they put ketchup on it, the mustard had a kick so the sweetness of the ketchup cut that. It was quite good.
After our art class we headed to dinner at Chez Claude, listed as Beef Burgundy Stew, mashed potatoes, & green beans. It was basically pot roast, and dinner was good. Apple pie was advertised as dessert but it was that same tart cream thing we had the last two nights and was yet another dessert disappointment.
We had near two hours of free time after dinner until our night cruise on the River Seine. Addison went off with friends to buy a sweatshirt and check out stores, I went with Ella and Matt as they were still hungry and wanted pizza. We found a place just down the road called Pizza Pasta and it was amazing.
We got seated and ordered a couple small cheese pizza's and pomme frites. The, what I am assuming are the owners, asked where we were from, we said Maine, she brought up Stephen King. We had a great chat, later I showed her pictures of Stephen King's house on my Instagram from when I had visited.
The male owner gave us all a free small glass of what I believe was chardonnay. Ella was not impressed with it, but I drank all of mine and half of Ella's to be polite. I got a glass bottle of Coke Zero, not my first on the trip, which was excellent! The pizza was so good!
After we ate he tried to give us cappuccino, but we all passed. It was such a fun experience and really was one of my favorite parts of the trip. There was a women there dinning from California and we had a good back and forth.
We met back up for the walk over to the boat dock for out cruise. Addison got a really nice purple sweatshirt that she definitely needed, I had my flannel with me and would have given it to Addison, but it was a VERY chilly evening on the water.
The boat for the cruise was long and was packed with people, and the guide spoke in both French and English which was very appreciated. We saw many sights we had seen on land from the water as she gave us a history lesson.
The highlights of the cruise is seeing he Eiffel Tower all light up at night. Georgie McCamish, whose grandfather I worked with at Augusta Police for nearly 10 years, took an awesome photo of us with the tower in the background.
The cruise lasted just over 90 minutes and was a great way to finish out our final night in Paris. We made the long bus ride back to the hotel where I packed up for our early the next morning for our journey south to the Provence region.
We are going to call this part 1 of this adventure, check back for posts about the rest of the trip.
Until
