On Thursday, 20th March, a group of TY students set off to Paris for the weekend ahead. We had to meet at Dublin Airport at 5pm. Once everyone had arrived, we collected our boarding passes and went through security. After that, we had around 1 hour and 30 minutes to walk around duty free with our friends and grab some food, like Burger King, etc.
We had to be at the gate by 7pm. Our flight began boarding at 7:30pm, and we took off at 8pm. We arrived in Paris at 10:30pm local time and met our coach driver, who brought us to our hotel. We arrived at the hotel at 1am, were given our room keys, and headed up to settle in and get to bed for the busy day ahead.
On Friday, 21st March, we were down for breakfast at 8:30am and set off for Disneyland at 10:30am. The coach journey was fun – Jimmy, our driver, had a microphone and we had brought a speaker, so we all sang along to a few songs. We arrived at Disneyland at 12pm, where we were given our tickets and food vouchers. The teachers then let us explore the park in groups and gave us a meeting point for the fireworks display later that evening. The fireworks started at 8pm and finished around 8:30pm. In total, we spent nearly 9 hours in Disneyland.
On Saturday, 22nd March, we had breakfast at 9am, then met Jimmy, who brought us to the Eiffel Tower. We arrived at 10:30am and collected our tickets. We took the lift to the second floor, then transferred to another lift to reach the very top – it was so high up! After everyone had made it back down, we met Jimmy again and were joined by a tour guide who got on the coach with us. We drove around Paris while he explained the history of different monuments. After that, we had a boat trip along the River Seine, which I really enjoyed – it was very relaxing. Later, we had the chance to do some shopping before meeting at 5:30pm at HD Diner for dinner. We got back to the hotel around 7:30pm.
On Sunday, 23rd March, we had to be down for breakfast at 7:30am before heading to the Palace of Versailles. It was such a beautiful experience. After our visit there, we went to the Air and Space Museum. It was interesting, though not really my thing – but the food there was lovely. We then headed to a local crêperie. The desserts were delicious, although I wasn’t a fan of the main course. We met Jimmy again at 5:30pm and made our way to the airport. We arrived at 7pm, went through security and duty free, and then had some time to relax before boarding. Our flight home was at 10:15pm (Paris time), and we arrived in Dublin at 11pm.
Overall, I really enjoyed the trip – it was an amazing experience and I’d definitely go again. The best part was that we were always kept busy and never had nothing to do!
Katie O’Rourke and Ava Seery - TY Press
