By Dinah and Elina
We covered a lot of mileage on our third day. 633 to be exact.
First, we woke up, packed up, and said a quick goodbye to our Paris hostel. We entered the common area to find two bags of fresh croissants and pains au chocolats from a local boulangerie, courtesy of Madame Bonnemaiso. Then, I (Dinah), along with a few other student volunteers, took a stroll around the neighborhood of Le Marais to pick up lunch for the group. We returned to the hostel, loaded our bus, and made our way to l’Arc de Triomphe for our last stop in Paris.
Once we took in the Champs-Élysées from below, we trekked up the 284 stairs to the very top of l’Arc to soak up Paris from yet another angle. (The burn was worth it.) After we descended, we made our way to the Gare de Lyon to catch the TGV to Marseille. This high-speed rail was the first of two train rides to reach our destination of Carcassonne in the southwest of France. Students slept, worked, ate their lunch, looked dreamily out of the windows, or simply chatted and relaxed during this three hour and forty minute ride, and sooner than we could believe, we were on our second train from Marseille to Carcassonne — another three hour ride.
We spotted la Cité of Carcassonne from the train, and immediately, we couldn’t wait to see it up close in the coming days. After disembarking at the Gare de Carcassonne, we made our way to a local hotel to partake in a potluck with our host families. Each student group presented their host families with a rose (not unlike “The Bachelor”), and we began to feast.
Next, we headed to our homes for the next four days, and I (along with my partner Elina), enjoyed time with our host family over dinner, where we partook in du poulet avec moutarde, de la salade, and des patates and spoke—for the most part—entirely in French. We were also introduced to their three dogs and two cats, whose names we are sure to learn during our stay.
From Paris to Carcassonne, this day was filled with movement, both literally and figuratively!
