Departure date announced!

It is official! We leave Friday, July 22, and return Wednesday, August 10.

Scavenger hunt

Here are the questions for our scavenger hunt:

1. Who painted the Mona Lisa?
2. Why was the Eiffel Tower built?
3. In Paris, what is the furthest distance you will ever be from a Metro stop?
4. In what year did the Louvre become a museum?
5. How many avenues extend out from the traffic circle surrounding the Arch of Triumph?
6. When the Eiffel Tower was built, it was the tallest man-made object in the world. What structure held the record before it was built?
7. Give or take 10 million visitors, how many people have visited the Eiffel Tower?
8. When the Eiffel Tower was built, how long did people expect it to stand?
9. If you walked to the top of the Eiffel Tower, how many steps would you climb?
10. In Paris, what is the Hôtel de Ville?

Remember to email me with your answer to claim the prize!

Learn Italian

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has a fun, interactive (and best of all, free) website where you can learn some basic Italian: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/lj/menu.shtml Check it out, and next time your family eats out at an Italian restaurant, try to speak some Italian! Or, at least try to read the menu.

They also have a similar site for learning some basic French: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/ Okay, so your family may not visit too many French restauants, but you can still have some fun. Try out your French reading skills at: http://www.lemonde.fr/, a French on-line newspaper (lemonde = Le Monde = The World).

Remember, if you want to get along with French and Italian speakers on our trip, you'll be much further ahead if you at least try to meet them half way, language wise. So have some fun with French and Italian.

The Louvre Museum

If you are really looking forward to viewing some of the artwork at the Louvre, here is your chance to get a head start. This link is to the musuem's official website, which includes a virtual reality tour: http://www.louvre.org/louvrea.htm

Happy New Year

Happy New year everyone!