The Eternal Flame

Dear Reader,

I love France. It's wonderful.

Yesterday I went into Paris with Patricia {the lady that found me somewhere to live} and Florence {my contact person who has done so much for me!} who both work in the school district.

A few students from my school, Michelet, were going to sing at a ceremony for the unknown soldier at the Arc de Triomphe. There is an "eternal" flame burning there as a reminder for every soldier, whether they were French or not, that fought for France. Underneath the flame is a tomb for the unknown soldier. They do this ceremony everyday at 6:30 and have grander ceremonies on important dates like November 11th, the end of WWI and July 14th, their national holiday.

It was neat to attend and I had a nice time. I met a lady there that was partially in charge of the ceremony and she gave me her blue flower pin {equivalent to the poppies that are worn}. She said that the French owe a lot to the Americans and I really appreciated it.

Also people love that I'm American. They make sure that I can see everything, they tell me all of these historical facts, offer me things like rides and invitations to certain events and at the end of the night when I was shaking the deputy mayor's hand he said "No! Kisses for the American!" And kissed me on my cheeks.

I just miss my America!

Florence, me and Patricia at the Arc de Triomphe. Apparently I was really happy to be there?

They have a procession of flags

Old Glory

The band that played, and played...

The Flame...

into which they put a sword and it gets bigger, I don't really understand why though.

Some military and other officials

The deputy mayor is the guy on the right with the sash. They just placed a big bouquet of flowers above the tomb.

In other news, I may be able to visit Normandy with one of my classes for five days for free! Wouldn't that be nice? It won't be until March so I probably wont know for a while. I hope it works out because I'd love to go up there.

That's all for now!

M