Four hours of class goes quickly — and I mean quickly in every way. We move at a rapid pace, nonstop beginning at 9:00 a.m. on the dot. We have only one break in the morning, and then we’re right back to work till 1:00 p.m., when homework is assigned.

After class today, there was another cultural adventure that Irene and I had signed up for. So we had lunch – un autre quiche – before we began our 1-mile walk to meet the group at the Saint-Michel Metro stop. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we weren’t carrying our book bags with us the whole time. Oh, and this time Irene mixed up her directions and we walked to Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which was a half mile further. Essentially, we put in two miles before the lengthy tour with a thousand stairs began.

Today we were scheduled to tour La Sainte-Chapelle, sur l’île-de-la-cité, not far from la Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. Security was extremely tight. Gendarmes, armed like average guys in Ohio waiting in line at McDonald’s, were next to us as we moved inside. We went through security that was more rigid than airports, including a full body scan, pat down, and X-rays of everything inside and out of our bodies. By now Paris knows my bra and underwear size, and I expect a gift for my birthday.

La Sainte-Chapelle is right next to the Palais de Justice de Paris, where the lengthy trial for the November 2015 attacks on the Discothèque Bataclan has been going on since September – hence the guards and intense security.

After getting through security where one of my classmates was halted for having a plastic fork in his backpack, we went into the courtyard to wait for everyone else. While there, a lovely woman approached me with the most impeccable French I’ve ever heard, to ask who I was there with. When I told her, Alliance Française, she basically said, Oh good, she was where she needed to be, and she stayed next to me. I thought, OMG, she’s amazing, she must be a Level B-2 student because mon Dieu! Then it hit me. So I asked her, « Est-ce-que vous êtes la guide pour notre groupe? » Yes. She was our guide. She caught on, and laughed hard, saying yes, she already knows how to speak French. I sure know how to make an impression, don’t I?

I don’t have words to describe the beauty of the stained glass windows of La Sainte-Chapelle, nor the ornateness of this tiny but magnificent 13th Century, medieval gothic structure. Fleurs-de-lis are painted everywhere, as is/was the sign of the monarchy, and I mean everywhere. Floor to ceiling, and in between. There’s too much to tell, and I found tons of information online to help me understand all that I missed on the tour, since our guide was not bilingual.

We then toured the Palais de Justice, which is so close to Saint-Chapelle, they nearly touch. This is where the trial is going on for the 2015 Discothèque massacre, and it is also where all the 18th Century Revolutionaries were imprisoned, including Marie Antoinette (before she was beheaded [on my birthday] at La Place de la Concorde). I found it fascinating how the wheels of justice have slowed. Where once, the public guillotine was too swift, now there’s a trial happening fully eight years after the horrific incident.

I asked the young woman who led our group from Alliance Française if she was taking the Metro back to the school after the tour. She said yes, and I asked if I could tag along, which I did. Parfait! My first Metro ride, and it took merely minutes. My feet thanked me. We arrived at Saint-Placide, I came up the stairs and saw ma boulangerie préféré, and I was home.