A Summer in Paris Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Oooh, look at all those French people,” she squealed. “Gosh, I can hardly wait to talk to them. Do you think they’ll really understand me when I say, ‘Bonjour, Monsieur. Comment allez-vous?’ “
    “Not with that accent,” Jennifer grumbled.
    “Come on, Jen,” Nina said gently. “Don’t tell me you’re not even a little bit excited about being in Paris. Just think, this is the home of the Louvre Museum and Napoleon’s tomb and the palace of Versailles....”
    Jennifer scowled. “All I can think about right now is Danny. I wonder what he’s doing at this exact moment.”
    “If he has any sense at all,” Kristy returned, “he’s fast asleep. Back home, it’s still the middle of the night. Don’t forget, here it’s six hours later than it is in Connecticut.”
    “And here,” Nina said, turning her face back to the window, “the city of Paris is just beginning to wake up. But just think: today, we’re all a part of it.”
    The girls spent the next two hours in a daze. Between jet lag and their disbelief that they were finally in Paris, Nina, Jennifer, Kristy, and the other five students from their class who were spending their summer abroad were like robots as they followed Ms. Darcy around the airport. They had their passports checked, retrieved their luggage from the revolving carousel, and waited in line to change their American dollars.
    “Look at the funny money,” Kristy cooed. Her eyes were wide as she examined the handful of exotic-looking coins and bills the teller had just handed her. “It looks like a kid’s toy.”
    “Wait until you start spending it.” Jennifer made a face. “I bet you’ll find it only goes about as far as a kid’s toy, too.”
    Nina and Kristy just looked at each other and shrugged.
    Riding from the airport into the city with their other classmates gave the girls the chance to catch their first real glimpse of the city that for the next two months would be their home. First they drove along highways, congested roads from which they could see little more besides billboards—all of them, much to the girls’ delight, in French. Then, finally, the airport bus began making its way through the outermost streets of the city. Both Nina and Kristy were beside themselves with glee.
    “Look at the shops,” Kristy squealed, pressing her nose more tightly against the bus window. “Aren’t they cute? Boucherie— that’s the butcher shop.”
    “And look over there,” Nina chimed in. “Épicier. That’s the corner grocery.”
    “Oh, look!” cried Kristy. “A patisserie. Ummm, I can’t wait to go into one of those. I love French pastry, and I can’t wait to try the authentic version!”
    “And there’s another French eating place,” Jennifer observed, showing more enthusiasm than she had since they had arrived. “I’m going to make a point of trying that one!”
    Her two friends turned to look where she was pointing—and saw that they had just gone past Kentucky Fried Chicken.
    Nina laughed. “See that, Jen? Maybe it won’t be so bad here, after all. I mean, how can you get homesick when a little bit of home has followed you here?”
    Ms. Darcy, their chaperone and tour guide, had announced back at the airport that the students would be dropped at a central point at the Sorbonne, the city’s famed university on the trendy Left Bank. Their host families would also be there, waiting to pick up their houseguests for the summer. As the airport bus turned down the Left Bank’s main thoroughfare, Boulevard St. Germaine, Kristy began to think less about the city— and more about her brand-new “family.”
    “Gosh, I hope I like the people I’m staying with,” she remarked as the bus jerked to a halt in front of a large stone building, one of the many buildings making up the Sorbonne’s far-flung campus. “I’ve been so wrapped up in the idea of coming to Paris that I haven’t given much thought to my host family. I wonder what they’ll be