Paris: Day 9 (4/28/07) remains copyright of the author tapatours, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The main sight is the Cathedrale Notre Dame de Chartres. Entry into the cathedral is free, but if you wish to climb the stairs up to the New Bell Tower (Clocher Neuf), it'll make you spend some of your energy...it's high, about 112 meters!! We'll spend some time walking around Chartres. We'll look at some old buildings...that's always fun, isn't it?

After lunch, we'll take a train back to Paris, but we'll stop in Versailles on the way. We'll take in the awesome palace, the Chateau de Versailles. We'll spend an hour or so going through the palace and the gardens.

Then we'll relax and check out the surrounding town of Versailles. Let's eat dinner and then take a train back to Paris.

Paris: Day 8 (4/27/07) remains copyright of the author tapatours, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We'll head up to Montmartre and see the lovely Sacre Coeur basilica first. We'll walk around and see many places that your camera will just love. The last stop of this 2 hour walk will be the Moulin Rouge.

For lunch, we'll head over to Rue Cler for a little shopping and eating.

From there, we'll go visit the military museum, Les Invalides. We'll see where Napoleon is entombed as well as a great World War 2 museum.

Afterwards, we'll go to the Rodin Museum, where you can see lots of great sculptures, such as "The Thinker."

This evening we'll have a little free time to get your souvenirs as we walk around and soak up the French atmosphere.

Paris: Day 7 (4/26/2007) remains copyright of the author tapatours, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We'll grab a cheap lunch in the underground shopping mall, the Carrousel du Louvre.

When we're full, rested, and ready to go, we'll head out to see Historic Paris. It'll be a 4 hour walk in the afternoon, but it's not too long--only 3 miles (5 km). It will take so long because we'll want to spend quality time looking at some of the churches and medieval buildings.

We start with the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Flying buttresses and gargoyles! Fun!

Walk, walk.. to the Deportation Memorial where we will remember the French Jews who were persecuted and even killed by the Nazis in France during World War 2.

We'll cross the river and check out part of the Left Bank. You'll see venders selling old books, walk through an old section of Paris, passby the Sorbonne (part of the University of Paris), and end up at Sainte-Chapelle Cathedral--famous for its awesome stained glass windows.

The last big place of the day will be the Conciergerie, which was the famous prison during the French Revolution that held the people who were waiting to be taken to the Place de la Concorde to.. umm.. lose some height. Marie Antoinette was a guest here.

We'll continue on to the Pont Neuf, the oldest standing bridge in Paris. And then we'll take our Seine River tour by boat. Vedettes du Pont Neuf
Whew. I'm tired. Bonne nuit.

Paris: Day 6 (4/25/2007) remains copyright of the author tapatours, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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First, we wake up nice and early in our lovely, inexpensive hotel. We'll be staying here:

Hotel AlHambra

We eat our little French breakfast and then take le Metro to the Charles de Gaulle-Etoile stop where we'll see the Arc de Triomphe.

We'll then start walking down the lovely Champs Elysees, the most famous avenue in Paris. This is Paris big-time: cafes, nice sidewalks, and lots of shopping (careful, it's pretty expensive).

We'll walk down the whole stretch. Yup. How far is it? It's a 3 mile walk (5 km)! Fun! Don't worry, we'll be taking our time, stopping now and then to look, take pictures, and eat.

Towards the end of Champs-Elysees, we'll take special notice of the Place de la Concorde. It was the popular place during the French Revolution -- over 2,700 people had their heads chopped off in the guillotine right here! Sounds like fun, but don't lose your head.

Oh, what next? The Jardin des Tuileries, or the Tuileries Garden. It's right next to the Place de la Concorde. We'll spend a little time here; maybe grab something to drink or eat at a cafe before crossing a bridge and going to...

The Musee d'Orsay, or the Orsay Museum. We'll look at the lovely Impressionist art by famous artists like Manet, Monet, and Renoir. Other artists are Van Gogh and Cezanne...but who are they? Ha!

In the late afternoon, we'll take a little time to do some shopping just down the road from the Orsay. Let's check out Le Bon Marche, Paris' oldest department store, and then walk down the rue de Sevres for some authentic Parisian boutiques. Please be careful and polite. Enter a boutique with a "Bonjour monsieur/madame." And don't handle any of the goods.

For dinner, we'll eat in the area. We can get stuff from the department store for a picnic in the park, or eat at a local cafe. We'll end our busy day with ride up the Eiffel Tower. How touristy is that! Yeah!

Fin. What a long day...

Paris: Day 5 (4/24/2007) remains copyright of the author tapatours, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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London: Day 4 (4/23/07) remains copyright of the author tapatours, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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London: Day 3 (4/22/07) remains copyright of the author tapatours, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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London: Day 2 (4/21/07) remains copyright of the author tapatours, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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London: Day 1 (4/20/07) remains copyright of the author tapatours, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Round-trip Airfare: 28,000 NT

8 nights Accomodations: 14,000 NT

Meals/Food: 13,000 NT

Ground Transport (Buses, Subway tix, train): 9,800 NT

Museum/Sights Fare: 4,000 NT

• Visa: 6,000 NT

*Important* Students who do not have a passport from the USA, Canada, or European Union countries will need visas to enter both England and France. If you have an American passport, Canadian, British, French, etc., lucky you. You won't need to spend money on visas.

Estimated Total Price: 69,000 NT

Price with visas: 75,000 NT

Again, this is an estimate. There are other "expenses" that I have not included, namely souvenirs, t-shirts, and any other silly gadget you or your child may want to buy and cart back to Taiwan.

We are currently working with a travel agent to get the best rates for airfare and ground transportation.

Money, Money, Money remains copyright of the author tapatours, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Airplane tickets are going to be a significant percent of our trip's cost -- about 40% of the whole price will be for airfare.

*UPDATE*
How much is Airfare going to cost you?

I previously had 38,000 as the price for airfare, but that was airfare from Taipei to Paris. After a little bit of research, I have learned that it is signicantly cheaper to fly to London instead. Flying to London will also make it easier on everyone to pass through customs as English is the lingua-franca of the Heathrow (London) International Airport. We will fly into England and on the return trip, fly out of Paris. This will save us train money and time.

-- Approximately 28,000 NT for a round-trip ticket.

Still too much? Then you can swim part of the way...

Nous allons en avion! remains copyright of the author tapatours, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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You've chosen to go to France and England. To assist you in your travel preparations, we here at TAPA have come up with a friendly website. So welcome to our humble, little blog where you'll find all of your Europe Study Tour information: itineraries, sites, hotels, eating, pics, and of course, prices.

Some questions you may be pondering:

"When are the study tours again?"

-- The study tours take place in late April. Some tours last a week; however, ours will last approximately 10 days (that includes travel time, too). We plan to leave Taipei on the evening of April 19 and will return the morning of April 30. Again:
4/19 --> 4/30

"Who are the tour leaders for our trip?"

-- Ms. Heather Runyon and Mr. Roland LaFrance are the 2 tour leaders for this trip.

Ms. Runyon has a working knowledge of all things English. Her grammar is top-notch. She is also a natural speaker of the English language and therefore should be very useful in England. While a student in Spain, Ms. Runyon journeyed to England for a short time. She has been seen wearing tennis shoes.

Mr. LaFrance has a very small working knowledge of the French language, so he should at least be useful for getting you food and for finding "les toilettes"--although he makes no guarantees. He studied in France for 1 year. He has a cactus on his desk.

Welcome remains copyright of the author tapatours, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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