Well, today’s story is not as fun and adventure filled as many other days were. We started the day by waking up at 5:30 to leave the hotel at 6:30 (!!!) am to head for Paris! We started off the day with the hour and a half ride through the gorgeous British countryside on our way to Dover. I felt like I was reliving scenes from All Creatures Great and Small while riding through the scenery. Eventually, we made it to Dover and, having made it early (I wish they knew we would make it early when they told us to leave at 6:30!) we had some time to spend at a little rest stop near the docks. I decided to indulge in an iced Americano before the ferry ride. After about thirty minutes of hanging out and talking to people while sipping my americano, we headed back onto the bus to make the very short journey to the ferry. Unlike some ferries I have been on, we loaded all of the cars and busses into a series of decks very low on the boat, and then we were required to exit the bus for the ride and could choose from any of the three decks for passengers, in addition to the top empty deck where we could have some nice views of the white cliffs of dover. We hung out on the boat and explored the decks, trying out all of the couches that looked worthy of sitting on for the entire ferry ride. Finally, as we rode along the beaches of France I could only think of how these beaches must have been viewed by soldiers traveling to Normandy during the Second World War, and then the announcement came on that there were only about ten minutes left in the boat ride. Remembering that I was supposed to get lunch before we exited the vessel, I rushed down flights of stairs to the food court where I bought a delicious looking piece of fruit as well as a boxed sandwich that they had in their mini grocery store on deck. Taking it with me, I dashed back to the bus just in time as all of the cars on the ferry began to slowly pull off of the ferry and into France.
As we drove through France, all anybody could do was sit and watch as the gorgeous rolling hills of the French countryside complete with an occasional dairy cow or church steeple passed by the bus. After about thirty minutes of watching the French countryside, I found myself dozing off a bit and gave in to it because of our very early morning. An hour or so later, I felt the bus slowing to a stop as we pulled into a rest stop for a bathroom break. We all unloaded off of the busses and went into a rest stop complete with food court and souvenir shop. Only spending a couple of minutes there, we all loaded back onto the busses and continued our journey into France. At this time, I decided that I would try reading for a while so I unpacked the book I have to read for school in the fall for the last leg of our journey. An hour or or so later we pulled into an area that looked a lot more populated that I had been seeing for the last hours. We pulled up to a very Parisian looking restaurant for dinner. Starving, we walked in and enjoyed some of the best quiche I have ever had in my life, chicken with a creamy mushroom sauce and rice, and finished off the meal with an apple tart. From here, we embarked on our bus back to the hotel and are now getting settled into for the night. Excited for what comes tomorrow!
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