Nous avons voyagé en France

This January, part of our team had the remarkable experience of taking the January interim experience, French Sport and Culture. This course allowed us to be on campus for the first two weeks of January, followed by 2 weeks traveling around France. During the two weeks on campus we spent our days playing indoor (thank god) soccer followed by classroom sessions where we learned different aspects of the French Culture to prepare us for our time abroad.

After the two weeks on campus and a short 8-hour plane ride later, we finally had arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. We picked up our luggage and set off to meet our awesome tour guide, Dorothy, who would be with us during our time in France. We were all so excited and ready to start our adventures abroad and what better way to start than to tour a soccer stadium?!

The Stade de France is Frances' national stadium. It is home to their national soccer and rugby teams. We had the opportunity to have a tour around the stadium where we learned that is actually the 6^th largest stadium in Europe with a seating capacity of 81,338. To give you a reference point, US Bank Stadium has a seating capacity of 66,655, so you can imagine just how massive this stadium is. We were able to go into the locker rooms and go onto the field where we all could not help but picture playing a game on the field in front of 81,338 screaming fans.

Having to leave our dreams of being on Frances national team behind, we were off to continue our journey through Paris. We saw all of the notorious sites in Paris including the Notre Dame de Paris, Place de la Concorde, and the Arc de Triomphe. We spent the day trying to practice our French and take in all of the historic sites on our first day in France. 

       

We ended our day in Paris at the most-visited paid monument in the world, the Eiffel Tower. As we climbed up to the second floor of the tower we fought, what felt like, the familiar wind that usually hit us on our own Gustie hill in Minnesota. When we finally made it up, we were revealed to  the breathtaking view that overlooked the city of Paris. We tried to take it all in as we were at one of the most famous monuments in the world, while trying to fight off our jet lag after a full day of site seeing. We were reluctant to climb down the stairs and leave the tower but the thought of food and our first meal all together allowed our feet to take us there.

It was such a great day to start our trip and we were all so excited to continue our journey for our next day in Paris. Look out for more upcoming blogs about our adventures as we travel through France!