Plan: leave apartment at 9:50 take the tram to the 7 then the 7 to the 5 and arrive at Gare Austerlitz around 10 20 giving the others 30 min to print their tickets.

What actually happened: first Michael bought the ticket for March 12th not February 12th.  Left the apartment at 10 rode the tram to the 7 then decided we weren’t going to make it in time so hailed a cab. Got to the station at 10 29. I had already printed my ticket so I was fine and Deb has a European credit card so she got hers from the machine. Dayna Caity and Seth had to wait in the longest line ever. So me and Deb took the 10 48 and they bought tickets for the 11:41.

Deb and I ate lunch at a cute little caf� in Orleans. Thankfully we had to wait an hour for them to get there because this little caf� had possibly the worst customer service ever. Not only did everything take about 3 times too long to get to us but the waiter also dropped my coca-light on the ground and completely covered my boots in diet coke. Thankfully my mom waterproofed my boots so I didn’t have to worry about them getting ruined.

Once they finally got there we headed to the hotel where all of the fencers were staying and the lady at the front desk told us how to get to the tournament. We watched the first few rounds leading up to the final 8. Then we met Mariel Zagunis the 2008 Olympics Gold Medalist (USA). The final 8 was at another place about 45 min away later that night at 8pm. There was just a little problem and that was that it was sold out and we didn’t have tickets.

Seth and Deb decided to go home rather than deal with the hassle of trying to get into the place without tickets and the 45 min tram ride to the finals. Lucky for us we found some girls from the Poland team who didn’t have anyone going to the final 8 so they gave Dayna, Caity, and me their team wrist bands so we could get into the tournament. Caity used to fence for the US national team up until the 2008 olympics. The first rounds were over at around 4 so we had until about 7 to hang out in Orleans before we had to start heading over to the complex where the finals were.  We went shopping at the little town square for about 2 hours and then we stopped at a little side street sandwich place and got Paninis for dinner.

We got to the Fencing Tournament at around 7:50 and walked right in and got to sit in the section with all of the other teams. The opening ceremony was crazy with a cover band and a light show. They were also serving flutes of champagne so we had to get those. There were glow bracelets on everyone’s chairs and noise makers. To start it off they had stunt doubles of the competitors repel from the ceiling. We were able to watch the first round which was exciting. That was followed by half time where there were two guys doing tricks on bikes. They did one trick where they hopped over a kid and the one accidently hit the little kid in the leg. We got to see Mariel start her second round but had to leave to make it to the train on time. Mariel ended up winning the whole thing.

When we got out of the complex though the tram had 20 min until it would get to the station and then a 20 min ride there was no way were going to make our train on time. So we went to the closest restaurant and asked them to call us a cab. While we were waiting for the cab though Caity thought it was necessary to stand on the corner trying to get ever car that drove by to give us a ride the train station. We got in the cab and it took us to the train station and we made it with about 10 min to spare. Then we rode the train home and got back to our apartment at about 1 am.

When we got back Michael and Kate were waiting for us and we all decided to order a pizza except I am pretty sure we found the only delivery place open past 11 pm in Paris. We ate and then went to bed it was a great day.

Travel Tip: If you go to Paris and there happens to be a fencing tournament you should go. It is a real event and if you buy tickets in advance then only end up costing between 8-12 euro.

Location: Orleans, Paris