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2024 Day Four of Paris Trip
Todays schedule included a trip to the Palace of Versailles on this overcast morning in France. Louis XIII built a simple hunting lodge on the site of the Palace of Versailles in 1623. With his death came Louis XIV who expanded the château into the beginnings of a palace that went through several changes and phases from 1661 to 1715. It was a favorite residence for both kings, and in 1682, Louis XIV moved the seat of his court and government to Versailles, making the palace the de facto capital of France. This state of affairs was continued by Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, who primarily made interior alterations to the palace, but in 1789 the royal family and capital of France returned to Paris. For the rest of the French Revolution, the Palace of Versailles was largely abandoned and emptied of its contents, and the population of the surrounding city plummeted.
Napoleon, following his coronation as Emperor, used Versailles as a summer residence from 1810 to 1814, but did not restore it. Following the Bourbon Restoration, when the king was returned to the throne, he resided in Paris and it was not until the 1830s that meaningful repairs were made to the palace. A museum of French history was installed within it, replacing the apartments of the southern wing.
After returning from Versailles, James’ class visited the Eifel tower at night and got some great pictures
2024 Day Three of Paris Trip
The first full day in Paris was today and James’ French class was now in session. One of the places that they visited was the Notre Dame cathedral of Paris. It is in the center of the city and was the setting for the famous film = “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” which starred Charles Laughton in 1939. A fire broke out at Notre Dame on 15 April 2019. The fire made the roof and main spire fall. The building’s vaulted stone ceiling contained the burning roof as it collapsed, preventing worse damage to the interior.
Around 23:00 local time, the spokesperson of the Paris firefighters said that the structure would probably be saved. James took pictures of the construction currently going on at this world famous cathedral.
Over 400 people helped fight the fire that day in 2019 and as you can see by these pictures, they saved the cathedral.
2024 Day Two of Paris Trip
Once the plane left New York, James was fascinated by the plane tracker which showed exactly where the plane was via a gps system.
After the long trans-atlantic flight the first day in Paris was a real adventure. Despite being tired James class did what most people would do on such a trip, they went to visit the Eifel tower and grab a bite of food to eat at a local cafe. The Eiffel Tower was built by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel for the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Even though Gustave Eiffel is credited for the Eiffel Tower it was actually two lesser known people who came up with the original drawing of it. These people were Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier. These two men were the chief engineers of Eiffel’s engineering firm. The main architect was Stephen Sauvestre. James held up his VIP Camp sign for his friends at camp and will do this repeatedly during this trip.
Despite being tired, James had a wonderful time and called home to let his family know he was alright.
2024 Day One of Paris Trip
As part of his French class James’ class went to France for nine days. The first day was a trip to Metro Airport where James flew to New York. After a layover in New York James went on a trip over the Atlantic ocean and on to France. Mom and Dad took pictures of James’ plane as it left Metro airport and James took some pics out of the planes window as it left the motor city. James said he could see the new Gordie Howe bridge (which is still under construction) as the pane flew to New York. While waiting in NY, James took a great pic of the sunset from JFK airport. This was James’ first time on an airplane.
Continue reading “2024 Day One of Paris Trip”
2024 Happy Valentines Day
Happy Valentines Day! Continue reading “2024 Happy Valentines Day”
2024 Congrats to our Football Teams
Today is Super Bowl Sunday and while most don’t care who wins, it should be mentioned that it was a really great year for football in Detroit and the state of Michigan, maybe the best ever. While the playoffs were going on you could see the pride in signs on the roads, in the work places, and on billboards. They were all celebrating the playoffs – both pro and college.
The Michigan Wolverines, after losing in the playoffs the last two years (last years lost really hurt as most felt they took TCU lightly), the Wolverines won it all. After a relatively easy schedule (and a sign stealing controversy to boot), The Wolverines beat ranked teams to win it all. First the Penn State win at Penn State, then Ohio State, then iowa to win the Big Ten Championship, then Alabama in the playoffs, and finally Washington in the championship game.
And while the Lions did not make it to the superbowl, they did win two playoff games and had a 17 point halftime lead in the NFC championship game.
All in all it was a great football season!
Bowling With VIP Camp 2024
James had his first VIP camp activity today at the bowling alley. This puts the final stamp on his Christmas/Winter vacation as he will be starting school Monday. James was losing by 22 but came back with a spare and a strike to make it close (he lost only by two), however the fun was not in winning the bowling game but in seeing all his friends from summer camp.
Around a dozen campers showed up for the bowling and some of the talk was how Michigan would do in the National Championship game on Monday, should be alot of fun.
One of the staff was a volunteer from France during their exchange period and James had a chance to practice his French.
2024 New Years
Happy New Year! This was a strange one as prior to New Years Eve we had the Monday night football (between the Lions and Cowboys), was held on Saturday, Dec 30 (New Years Eve – Eve). This game will live in infamy as the Lions had the game stolen from them due to the refs – again. In this case they called out the wrong eligible receiver and then flagged Detroit for illegal touching and took the points away on what might have been a game winning two point conversion.
During the day on New Years Eve we spent our time watching some of the bowl games as we tried to get the bad feelings of the Lions game out of our system and prepare for Michigan’s third straight appearance in College Football playoffs. We also enjoyed Prime Rib for the second straight year, although last year we had it at Christmas.
James did his annual countdown for us in the living room. Once again, after the big moment, we went outside to see the impromptu fire works show that the neighbors put on each New Years.
Later New Years Day we saw Michigan defeat Alabama in overtime and will participate in the National Championship game next week against Washington.
Have a Happy New Year!
Christmas 2023
We had a great Christmas but what really was a surprise was the Lions winning the division for the first time in about thirty years on Christmas Eve. Congrats to the new division champs, but enough on the Lions.
We spent at least an hour opening gifts and I think everyone got what they wanted. Deviled eggs again were a hit with no left overs and we even brought out the Donald Trump standup out of the rafters for Christmas since we are going into an election year. Lots of fun, great food (turkey and stuffing with all the trimmings) and great gifts made this a great day and lots of fun. Later in the evening we got a special treat with a firework show on our block.
Merry Christmas everyone.
