Globe-Trotting Jayhawks: Caelynn Manning-Allen & Chelsea Lott
From Aug. 8-18, the Kansas women’s basketball team and staff will embark on a 10-day foreign tour through France and Switzerland, as the Jayhawks aim to build team chemistry and grow together on and off the hardwood. Throughout the tour, which includes four games, a different player on KU’s 2016-17 roster will share what the team was up to each day while abroad.
Day 3 – Paris, France
Bonjour from Paris!
During today’s adventure in France, we started off the day with a fabulous bus tour. Our tour guide was hilarious and knew so much history about Paris. After driving around and listening to her explain each and every [beautiful] building and the history of Paris, we got out to take a few pictures in front of the Eiffel tower. It was fine and dandy until we took a group picture and I (Cae) tried to jump up and fell (not smooth). Chelsea and I are both retail addicts, so we were excited to shop! We passed all of our favorite stores (that we can’t actually afford to shop in at this moment… but we’ll be soon) while exploring the city by bus. We saw many popular brands from home, which inspired us to check out the stores and shop on our own!Selfies in front of the Arc de Triomphe
We took the METRO around the city, which is the subway system in Paris. Getting to the street where the majority of the stores were at was easy peezy because I (Cae) am used to taking the train in Chicago. The stops being in French didn’t bother us either. We got off on a stop called Franklin D. Roosevelt (ironic, we know). We shopped for a few hours and walked around just to take in the scenery. We found some kind of auto show and went in to check out the cars. We saw one car that didn’t even have walls or seats in it. It was literally a glass floor, four wheels, an engine, and a steering wheel. We saw another car that was basically cut in half. The fun in the auto show began when Jessica Washington hooked up her Bluetooth to one of the cars and started blasting music.
After the auto show, we finished up shopping where we did dribbling drills in the middle of one store. The guy that worked there wanted to see what our handle looked like. Imagine being put on the spot by a handsome French guy in the middle of a bunch of other random people, no pressure. After we bought our last couple of items, we went to take pictures in front of Arc de Triomphe. It was awesome even though we nearly got hit by a car (like six times). Almost getting hit by a car was not even the craziest part of the day. We almost ended up lost in Paris because of getting on the wrong train. We listened to Peter (our camera guy), who swore he knew which train to get on. If it weren’t for Cae pulling out the map, we wouldn’t have been able to make it back to our hotel in time for our boat tour. Don’t bother asking me (Chels) for any information regarding directions because I know absolutely nothing.
We ended the day with a beautiful boat tour that took around France at night. We drove right beside the Eiffel Tower and got to see all the pretty night life that comes with taking on France! We took loads of pictures and also almost caught frost bite from being outside with no warm jackets, but we still wouldn’t complain either way. There aren’t any crybabies in Paris!
Rock Chalk!
Caelynn and Chelsea
Historical Spotlight
Eiffel Tour – The Eiffel Tower literally towers over the Champ de Mars in the smart seventh arrondissement. The Eiffel Tower provides breath-taking views from the second and third floors along with a fascinate look at the iron work from below. Gustave Eiffel commissioned to build the tower for the Exposition Universelle in 1889, the Revolution’s centenary.
Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile – Another famous landmark in Paris, the Arc de Triomphe is at the western end of the Champs-Elysees. The arc honors individuals who fought and died for France during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. The inner and outer surfaces of the arc are etched with the names of all French victories and generals. The arc was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806.
Up next McKenzie Calvert and Eboni Watts take over the blog for the Jayhawks’ fourth day in Paris.
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