This morning we visited the Musee d’Orsay. Most museums are free on the 1st Sunday of the month so at first we didn’t think we could get any benefit from the Museum Pass we bought but we still were able to go through the special side entrance and didn’t have to wait in the long long line!

We spent all morning there before heading somewhere near the Louvre to first have lunch. We ended up with a simple lunch of baguette poulet (chicken sandwich), hot dog avec formage (with cheese), and beer.

After lunch we headed through the park to the Louvre and again had a special entrance with the Museum Pass so didn’t have to wait in the hot sun. We feasted our eyes on famous paintings, Italian sculptures, Hammurabi’s stone, etc. We caught a quick glimpse of the Mona Lisa and it is really smaller than I thought it would be.

We were pretty pooped out so headed to the lawns near the Eiffel Tower for a nap in the warm sun before waiting in line for tickets up to the tower. While waiting in line, they stopped selling tickets directly to the top but only allowed us to buy tickets to the 2nd floor (7.8 Euros). Once we got to the 2nd floor, we were able to easily buy tickets to the top (additional 4.2 Euros).

After our visit to the top of the tower, we met up with Timo and Elina for a simple Italian dinner before heading to Crazy Horse for a caberet show. They were having a deal of buy one tickets, get the second 1/2 off, including a 1/2 bottle of champagne per person. The show was interesting, the best part were the tap dancing twins.

If you can’t see the slideshow above, click HERE.

We took the morning train back to Paris and arrived at our hotel around 11:30am. Our room wasn’t ready yet but we left our luggage there so that we could go explore. Our first stop was for some light lunch at a sandwich place around the corner. The shop owner noticed me taking pictures of his sandwich display case and wanted me to take a picture of him too!

It started to lightly drizzle so we headed into the subway to see St. Chappelle and the Conciergie. At St. Chappelle, we bought tickets for ourselves for 10 Euros each then realized that it’d be cheaper to get the Museum Pass for 30 Euros since we’d be there for a few days. We ended up hawking our original tickets for 7.5 Euros each but I think we’ll still benefit.

We also visited Notre Dame Cathedral and Tower. Yes we did climb the 422 steps! We fortified ourselves before the climb with a croque monsieur and coffee.

Other stops for the day included Hotel de Ville (City Hall), the Picasso Museum and Centre Pompidou. Before Centre Pompidou we did some people watching and had an apple crepe and coffee at a sidewalk cafe.

We met up with Timo and Elina at St. Michel around 8:30pm and it was still bright out! We tried a restaurant with sidewalk seating and had their prix fixe set for 18 Euros which included an appetizer, entree, and dessert. We had onion soup & escargot, beef burgundy & steak, creme brulee & apple pie and ice cream.

After dinner we walked over to where we could see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. So beautiful.

If you can’t see the slideshow above, click HERE.

Our former flatmate Justine let us stay at her apartment last night since their housemate Cindy had already moved out, just our luck! So we didn’t have to worry about finding a hotel for our stay in Fontainebleau.

We woke up around 10am and headed to downtown for some breakfast. The pastries made my mouth water and I had a wonderful cafe creme, my first cup of coffee in France.

One of Ron’s classmates was walking by and gave us a macaroon. Yum!

We went into town with Justine so that she could run some errands and then we went to have lunch at Creperie Mirondelle. Lucky for us, they have an English menu.

Ron tried a glass of their cider.

Nordique: smoked small shrimps and cream coloured salmon with fresh chives.

Raclette

Afterwards we went to school to hang out for a while.

Then Ron and I went exploring Chateau Fontainebleau.

Then back to the bakery for more snacks. We had baguettes but the macaroons look yummy.

We went to another park closeby and saw some beautiful peacocks.

For dinner we went to a place called Barbizon and ate at L’Angelus. We all ordered from the set menus, they have three different sets to choose from. We shared a nice bottle of wine. Although, service left something to be desired.

Great dinner & good company.

We were invited to a BBQ at the house of some of the students.

The classic sausage BBQ…

and of course accompanied by beer…

and a random neighbor’s dog joined our party…

After I had a little nap we went to the chateau party. Apparently they have a lot of these types of parties if you stay at this campus.

Good times, good times…

We arrived at Paris airport at 7am. As we were deboarding the plane, there was security checking out passports and they actually held up a group of people to thoroughly check their visas. They took one look at our US Passports and let us through, I guess the common misconception of the French not liking Americans is not true.

We had taken Thai Airways.

Our baggage took quite a while but I entertained myself by looking around the airport.

After we got our backpacks, we went to find the train. Apparently we had to take one train to Gare du Nord then transfer and take another train to Gare de Lyon.

We also took the opportunity to book train tickets to the rest of our destinations before catching our train headed toward Montagis at 10:34. We had to run to catch it though and boy that was tough with our huge backpacks. We also had to be sure that we were in the right part of the train because the train separates and the front goes one place and the end goes another place.

But we safely arrived in Fontainebleau with the help of the significant other of another INSEAD student that just happened to be on the train as well.

We made our way to INSEAD partway on the bus then ended up walking. The signs weren’t so clear but at least we knew we were on the right track.

We made it!

First thing we did was use the fitness center to take showers and get dressed for the occasion. We’d been on the plane overnight and felt quite icky and a bit jet lagged. After freshening up, we had lunch at the school cafeteria. The kabobs were yummy! But the “admission fee” was 5.47 Euros for guests! We had to pay it since Ron’s student ID wasn’t registered with this campus.

We only had an hour or so before the graduation started so we went to have some coffee and find friends. We went inside the tent a bit late so there were hardly any seats left.

Here is Ron receiving his diploma!

We were impressed with Timo’s executive look.

Yay!

Afterwards they had a reception throughout the campus.

The partners’ reunion!

Now it’s time to PARTY!!!