To start the trip off, we all met at Bedford train station bright and early on Monday morning and said our goodbyes to our parents. We got on the train which took us from Bedford to St Pancras where we independently went through security. After that, it was time to get on the Eurostar where we sat, played games and ate our breakfast. Yummy!

When we had arrived in Paris, we were all super excited and hopped on a bus for a tour of Paris with our tour guide Vincent. Most of us hadn’t visited Paris before and so we learnt many interesting facts. Did you know that Paris is split up into districts from 1-20 to show the most expensive and least expensive places to live? 1 is the most expensive and Vincent told us that not many people can afford to live there.

Along the way, we stopped at some places to take photographs and ate our lunch.  We even visited Napoleon’s tomb, it was huge, did you know his coffin has 7 layers to make it bigger.  We also saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time on the trip, the Arc de triomphe, drove down the Champs-Élysées and looked around the many districts. We learnt that Paris had given New York the Statue of Liberty but really wanted to keep it so they made 7 smaller ones that are dotted around the city.  We think that by the end of our trip we had seen them all!

Then it was time to check into our hostel; we had a bit of chill-out time and then went down to the restaurant (called Belushi’s) for some dinner before walking to Montmartre to see the beautiful Eiffel Tower light show. After that, it was time to get a well-needed sleep!

The next day (Tuesday) was packed with lots of activities therefore we did lots of walking. Our first stop was Notre Dame which is a grand cathedral. Here we got the freedom to go with our partner to sketch either the surroundings or Notre Dame itself.  After the fire in 2019 the building is being rebuilt and there was a lot of work going on so we couldn’t go in but it was still amazing to see and sketch.

Next, we walked around Paris for a while and stopped at a park where some of us used our pocket money to buy ice cream, milkshakes and waffles. We came across a traditional Parisian sweet shop too which sold a variety of sweets and chocolates.

Our next stop was The Montparnasse Tower which was 56 floors high! The Montparnasse is the only skyscraper in Paris because when it was built it didn’t work with the architecture so they thought once was enough and never again… Interesting right? The view was awesome, when we got to the top we had a panoramic view of Paris, we could see all of the places we had seen from the ground and took lots of photo’s, including sitting and standing around a large PARIS sign, which was fun.  Every child on the visit made it to the top of the tower and we were very proud of each other.  To get back to the hotel we travelled on the Metro which is Paris’s underground train.  It was very busy but it didn’t take very long to get back to Gare de l'Est which was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel.  After dinner we had a well earned rest to get ready for our next day’s adventures

On Wednesday, we visited a museum called Musee D’orsay where artwork was kept. Some of the paintings and sculptures would of cost millions of pounds! One of the overall favourite paintings was Starry Night which was painted by Vincent Van Gogh. Here we had the opportunity to sketch one of our favourite pieces of artwork and we was able to share our artwork with the group. They were amazing!

After lunch, which we ate in the park, we had time to play on the play equipment which was so much fun. Then we walked towards the River Seine for our river cruise.  On the way we stopped at the foot of the Eiffel Tower to see it from a different view and again took lots of photos.

We saw Paris from the river next, it was lovely to sit and see the city go by.  The Parisians were very friendly and lots of them waved to us on the boat as we went past them.  When the cruise was finished we caught the Metro back to our hotel

As Thursday was the day we were leaving, it was a more chilled out day. We went to a souvenir shop near Notre Dame where we bought all sorts of things including berets, keyrings and much more. Next door to the shop, was a cart which sold crepes and so we also were allowed to buy these as well. There were many various toppings to choose from: lemon and sugar, chocolate and strawberries, ham and cheese etc.

After our Paris adventures, we headed to the railway station to catch the Eurostar and made our way back to Bedford and we were all happy to see our parents and share our Parisian adventure!

Overall, it was a brilliant trip thanks to all the teachers!

Click on the album links to see some photos of our adventure ALBUM 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Written by Simrita