by Nancy K.
C’est bien notre chance! The sun finally came out on the day we left Paris. We all slept a little later this morning, and then after breakfast, some of us took final walks in the jardin des Tuileries, some explored more the streets around the hotel. With suitcases in hand we left our hotel around 11:30 a.m. for the final subway ride to the Gare de l’Est. We grabbed lunch at the train station and then boarded our TGV train (train grande vitesse) that was to leave at 1:55 p.m., but the train never moved. Many of the students passed the time playing cards, and the great victory occurred when Cynthia was able to successfully shuffle the cards. We eventually learned that there was an electrical problem on the tracks that blocked not only our train, but all the trains leaving from and arriving to the station. After a delay of over an hour, we were finally on our way to Strasbourg, where we needed to change trains for Colmar. The delay caused us to miss the train we had planned to take, but fortunately there was another about ¾ an hour after our arrival at the Strasbourg station. We boarded the TER (train express régional) train where we were hard pressed to find seats since it was practically standing room only. We finally arrived in Colmar, got off the train and regrouped on the train platform from our widely dispersed seats on the train. We were met by our correspondents and went off to our respective French families.
All in all Paris was a wonderful experience despite the cloudy, damp weather.
