My apologies in the delay posting this. The wifi at the hotel was terrible, so I was unable to post this two days ago.

Day eight kids. Sadly we are down to our last few days of the trip. I can’t believe how quickly things have flown by! We’ll have to make the best of our remaining time and savour every memory.

So we’re on our way to Crepon for some Norman culture with a tasting of local juice and sweet breads. I never done something like this so it should be interesting. We will be greeted by the mayor of the village, so it’s almost like we’re VIP’s.

Back on the bus now heading toward Paris, which is about 4 or so hours away. We had a great morning of exploring French culture. In Crepon, we were met by the local mayor who took us on a tour of the village. We saw a monument to the Green Howards, a British regiment that liberated the town on June 6, 1944. From there we visited the local church, done in Romanesque style and dates from the 1200’s.

Saint-Médard-et-Saint-Gildard, Crepon, March 2014.

The last part of our visit to Crepon took place in the town hall, where we sampled the locally produced apple juice, brioche and biscuits. I think the kids enjoyed this part, and they certainly had their fill of food. I must have ate 10 biscuits…they were fantastic! I even spent the 4 euros to buy a package to take home to Canada.

From Crepon we hopped back on the bus for the short drive to Creully for mass. Too bad we didn’t have time to look around as it looked like a very beautiful little town. The church was called St. Martin, which dates from I believe the 1300’s. Again the church very was nice and it was neat to experience mass in another language. Fr. Martin is originally from the Congo and was very grateful for our visit.

St. Martin, Creully, March 2014.

Wow, what a long day! So I’m standing here on the street in Paris at 11:00, still dressed in my long sleeve shirt. If you remember we’ve been going since 8:00, so the bed is going to feel great, that is when I get this blog done!

I left my iPad back at the hotel, so I’m trying to do this last part on my iPhone, which is rather interesting. I’ll try to describe the very busy but very exciting last part of our day.

After checking in to the hotel, we trudged the relatively short distance to the RER (light rail) station to head into centre of the city. For the teachers (and Felicity) this was going to be an interesting (and at times stressful) experience. We rehearsed staying in our small groups and how to enter/exit the cars and where we were going.

Our journey would take us from the RER to the Metro, which was even more interesting to enter and exit. We made it in one piece and then proceeded to Notre Dame Basilica for a quick visit. The Basilica is such a beautiful church; I wish we had time to go in.

Notre Dame, March 2014.

Dinner tonight was at a place called “Flammekeuche,” which serves all you can eat pizzas in the Alsacian style. As on our last visit, we were seated in the basement, which resembles at Medieval dungeon. We gorged ourselves on the awesome food, and then ate more when they brought out the dessert pizzas. The meal was highlighted by a man who arrived and sold roses to anyone who wanted one for 2 euros. I bought one for my wife…I hope she liked it.

Alsacian Pizza, March 2014.

Flammekeuche, March 2014.

We had one more stop before we boarded the bus for hotel. Montmartre is the highest point in Paris and has a beautiful church at the top. It was back on the Metro for the ride, which included a transfer between lines. A bit stressful again, but we got to our destination fairly quickly.

You can take the Funicular up the hill, but most of us decided to take the stairs and work off dinner. It is a heart-pounding, leg-destroying 140+ stairs of agony to the top. I was lathered and winded when I got up there, but that was probably because I tried to race with the kids. The view was spectacular, but we didn’t have much time to look around very much.

Sacre-Coeur Basilica, March 2014.

Anyway, we’re still waiting for the bus, but I should go. We have an early morning tomorrow for our last day in Europe. Until then…