The Train To Nowhere

chapter 21 - Parisian nights

When we arrived in Paris, I honestly don't know how I felt. I guess I just felt quite lost. Everyone was hyped and chatting and practising their French and generally buzzing. Ahmed was practising his French as we walked down the platform of the station with Noah, and saying useful questions like, "je voudrais l'eau š'il vous plaît" which means 'I would like some water please' or "pouvez-vous me dire où est le Louvre?" which means 'can you tell me where the Louvre is?'. Isaac was the only one out of the four of us who'd picked Spanish for GCSE, so would put his knowledge to use when our train stopped in Madrid. We were going to stay in Paris for the weekend, because many people had studied it or were studying it for A-level, and so it was one of the most academically useful places to visit.

        "You know I've been to Paris before," I said quietly, as Ahmed bit into an apple. "When I was like - six, my Mum took my sister and me for the weekend. I don't remember much obviously, and the memory's quite foggy now, but I do remember climbing up the Eiffel Tower and looking out over the view at night. Views like that - you never forget them for your whole life."

        "That's so cool," Ahmed responded, "I hope we can do that this trip. Although, I think I'll be most excited to see the Notre-Damne Cathedral. The architecture will be beautiful to sketch."

          "Typical artsy you," I replied.

It was raining heavily when we made our way to the hotel we were staying in for two nights, which was a small but sweet place. It had long green vines growing across the little windows with shutters, and the outside wall was painted a creamy beige colour. I set my bag down in one of the rooms with two single beds, and I found the overall experience quite disorientating considering the fact that we already had familiarised ourselves with our quaint rooms on the train. But we'd been told in the letter that we were only spending about two thirds of the nights on this trip on the train. The other third would be in hotels and lodgings in the countries we visited where possible. At least we wouldn't be on the train all the time.

Once the rain had cleared up, we went out and saw some of the tourist sites. Mr Woods said we'd be going up the Eiffel tower in the evening, as it was less crowded then than in the middle of the day. Nevertheless, my fingers were starting to feel numb as the bitter wind blew and we all stood together for a group photo in front of the Louvre museum. Pigeons were waddling around looking for scraps and crumbs and some lady with a grey coat and battered-looking shoes was feeding them. The sight reminded me of Home Alone 2. Half of our class went inside the museum with Miss Patel, one of the art teachers, while the other half visited Notre-Damne with Mr Woods. We were swapping groups tomorrow to save time as it would be more efficient for smaller groups to visit places. I was in Miss Patel's group, along with the guys and people like Maisie and Clara. Thank goodness Ben wasn't on the trip with us, I thought.

After Miss Patel had gone up to the museum desk for the section we were going to and done some talking about something, she felt it necessary to turn around and give us that archetypal teacher-talk.

         "Alright Year Twelves, we're going to visit the Monet exhibition upstairs first, and then the Roman sculptures and statues section on the other side of the building," Miss Patel announced to our group of fourteen. "Please stick together in your assigned groups, as each one of your groups have maps." She looked rather flustered as she tried to gather Sam and Dave's attention, who were messing around at the back and doing some immature impressions of some sort. "Sam! Dave! You know I won't be tolerating such ridiculous behaviour! You can act your age, or carry on acting like Year Sevens and go outside instead. I'm sure you'll have fun chasing the pigeons outside."

I heard someone smother a small laugh, but Sam and Dave reluctantly shut up. Miss Patel continued.

        "You're all sixteen or seventeen now, so I don't think you really need an adult to escort you every couple yards. However, if I hear of any messing about, you will all have your phones confiscated from you for the weekend."