by Catherine Tudor

When most students get out of high school and start college they can’t say they have been out of the country. Sure, they have been to places like Florida and New York, but very few will say that they been to places like Paris, Normandy or London.

So when Ms. Carney and Mrs. Shivers pitched the idea of a Europe trip late last year, there was a lot of interest in it. This trip was open to both students and parents alike. All you had to do to be part of it was sign up and pay the trip fee and you were good to go.

By the time spring break came this year, there were 12 people signed up–7 students and 5 adults: Catherine Tudor, Amanda Breeden and her dad, Evie Freeman, Jeremy Coleman, Jack Robbins and his dad, Mary Carlson Hunter and her mom, Maggie Shivers and her mom, and of course Ms. Carney.

Our group left Nashville at noon on March 14 and arrived in Paris, France by 8am the next day. As soon as we landed we went to claim our bags, do currency exchanges, and proceeded to get into a van to meet another group at the Louvre Museum to see the Mona Lisa. While we were in Paris, we visited The Louvre, Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower, the lock bridge and the Arc de Triumph.

On March 17 we left for Normandy to see the D-Day beaches. When we arrived in Normandy, we first went to a museum all about World War 2 and what led up to it. We learned all about Hitler, concentration camps, the type of people that got persecuted, and the beginning to D-Day. They even had a statue that was “the end of war kiss” at the front of the museum.

On our second and final day in Normandy, we went to visit the United States Memorial, the D-Day beaches, and other memorials dedicated to remembering D-Day. We left Normandy and headed to London by ferry on March 19. The ferry ride was around an hour and a half and we arrived in Dover and saw the white cliffs.

When we arrived in London we went straight to see Canterbury Cathedral where we were able to see the crypt of Thomas Beckett who was murdered in the cathedral. We ended our first day in London by seeing Wicked at the theatre. Wicked is a sort of backstory of how the Wicked Witch of the West became evil.

On our last day in Europe, March 20, we went on a bus sightseeing tour all around London and saw sights such as the House of Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye, Saint Paul’s Cathedral and a blue phone booth that looked identical to the one in Doctor Who. To end the day we went on the last ride in the London Eye and then took the London subway back to our hotel to get ready for our plane ride home the next day.

It was a great trip overall; we were able to explore a few new places, make some new friends, and grow closer as a whole. If and when we do something like this again, I’ll be the first to sign up.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.