Brrr

Today I had one {or twenty} moments of having to remind myself that I love it here.

Today was the day I accompanied Mme Raffard's class on a field trip. The day started at 6ish in order to make it to the school by 8:00. After an hour long bus ride {crazy Paris traffic!} we arrived at La Concergerie, which was once a palace turned prison turned museum. It held Marie Antoinette before she was beheaded. Gruesome. Although Paris is beautiful no matter what the weather, the day was completely miserable and all I wanted to do was curl up in my little bed with the radiator on full blast listening to Christmas music. Half of the tour was spent outside in the rain and wind listening to the tour guide speaking in rapid French with me willing her to hurry and finish up! We finally were able to go inside {although it was still freezing} and listen to more interesting facts. One of my favorite things I heard {due to the reaction of the students} was the history of how the guillotine was invented. They used to use axes to behead a criminal and more times than not, the ax would miss it's mark and hit the shoulder or the jaw. The ax would be wedged in so tightly that the executioner would have to rock it back and forth in order to extract it. Then they'd try once more. It took about 20 times before the head was completely severed and the person would often painfully bleed out before their head was even fully off. I can't imagine. So Dr. Guillotine invented his infamous "humane" killing machine. From then on it became the enforcer of the death penalty and the face of the French Revolution.

Isn't that just terrible?

After the tour we had to wait in the hurricane that was going on outside for the bus. I made it home sopping wet and I shivering. I climbed into bed and slept for a few hours. It was not a fun day. But I do love France so I just have to remember that next time I can't feel my legs from the knee down. I know I'm a Utahn but I can not stand extreme weather. When I'm that cold I get physically sick and it's just completely miserable! Utah may be cold and have snow, but at least there aren't puddles that could swallow you up and sideways rain. I don't think I can handle a French winter. And it's only just begun!

On the plus side of things I'm grateful that I was able to see La Concergerie and even more grateful for a warm bed and hot meal to come home to. I just hope tomorrow will be slightly less wet!

A la prochaine!

-M