PARIS, France - With former W&M women's soccer standout Jill Ellis '88 at the helm of the United States Women's National Team, 50 Tribe women's soccer alums, family, and friends have made the trek to France for the United States' final two games of the group stage. To read a blog from the first two day's of the trip click here.


Blog 2 - Off Day in Paris

Our last day in Paris was all about playing tourist. Most of the group toured Montmarte, a village in Paris sitting 130 meters above the city with a breathtaking view and the iconic Sacre-Coeur Basilica. It's the second highest point in the city, and walking up to the "hill" entailed dodging scam artists known for pickpocketing and pilfering smartphones. Our tour guides led us through the quaint village, which featured both fake and actual street artists who will sketch your portrait for a few euro.

A few of us visited the Basilica, which dates back to the Middle Ages, and Shacks later joined the Duffy family for a ride on the ornate carousel at the base of the hill.

After lunch, a group of the '80s Greaties (Beth Sanford Fuchs, Carrie Taylor, Kathleen McCarthy Sober, and Marianne Bernhardt Rossignol) took an electric bike tour of the city, and Marsha Fishburne Lycan, her daughter Allie, sister Holly, and niece Daisy zipped through Paris traffic on electric scooters. (They later decided it was way too dangerous).

Another group braved another ride in the hot yoga coach - aka an AC-challenged bus with no way to open windows - over to the Louvre and promptly got accidentally separated into multiple groups. Each group somehow navigated their way around the massive museum without guides or anyone who actually speaks or reads French. The big attraction, of course, was to see the Mona Lisa encased in glass in a jam-packed salon full of tourists snapping photos of the famous but relatively small portrait. The Tribe also checked out Egyptian artifacts, a collection from Napoleon, and Rodin sculptures.

- Kelly Jackson Higgins '85