Traveling home
The day was long, and everyone was exhausted.
The day had finally arrived, one our group was hoping to delay for as long as possible. Our last day in Paris came much faster than I think any of us could have imagined, and we could not wait to begin everything planned for us.
First we had a full-morning walking tour through the fourth arrondissement, including sites such as the Jewish Quarter, the Holocaust Memorial, the burial site of Napoleon and the Notre-Dame, among many others. I enjoyed being able to see these locations up close, but I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to see many places from a little further of a distance — from the distance of the Seine River, to be precise.
I had been looking forward to our river boat tour since I had learned it was planned for us. I knew it would be an opportunity to relax and spend time with everyone after such a fast-paced morning and busy week. This would also be our first time traveling on water since our ferry trip to France just a few days prior. Luckily it would also be a very different experience than the turbulent journey down the English Channel.
We rushed off the bus to join the last of the crowd boarding a boat on the Seine. The boat had an open-air top deck and a lower deck closed in by windows. As appealing as the lower deck looked for the protection it offered from the chilly wind, our group rushed to the top deck to find the best seats so as to not miss any of the best views.
The 15 of us chose a group of seats in the back-right corner of the boat in order to pose for photos with the Eiffel Tower, which was coming into view along that side of the Seine. Little did we know this view would only improve by the end of our tour.
Soon we were all settled into our seats and anxious for what was waiting along the Seine for us. We began filming and photographing sights passing by us on all sides such as the Louvre, the Pont Alexandre III bridge and many beautiful churches. Our boat was greeted at every bridge we passed under with loud “bonjours” and cheerful waves.
We passed into another channel on the Seine and we began taking group photos together, reminiscing on all that we had seen that week, and what we hoped to see that night with our last few hours in Paris.
After passing under a large bridge decorated in golden flourishes, the Eiffel Tower appeared closer than we had previously thought. All 1,063 feet towered above us, poking into the low-hanging clouds.
Although the iconic structure was built 100 years after the French Revolution, its powerful symbolism still reigns tall over a historic and proud nation.