Mes adventures en France: June 2011

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Reflections

I’m home now, and as busy as ever catching up with friends, family, work and these blogs (as I’m sure was obvious by the sudden update of all of the rest of these.) But it’s great because I don’t have the time to miss France yet. We were told to watch out for reverse culture-shock, but I haven’t seen any of it yet. Yes we have an obscene amount of processed food items in stores and the roads and cars are ginormous, but it’s not a problem, it’s just different.

Maybe the fact that I’ve been welcomed home so thouroughly has made a difference. After I made it through security at the airport (with my suitcase this time,) I came through the doors and saw a bunch of people with names on signs (probably waiting for someone they hadn’t met yet) and thought “haha a sign would be so cool” for a split second before I headed to the doors to go find my family. On my way, I heard “Holly!” in the voice of Christine and she and my sister were there waiting for me with a sign! It was so cute!! I didn’t even know Christine was with my family! After we headed to my house where I delivered everyone’s gifts and then we headed out to dinner at Red Robin. What a happy occasion it was!

Thank you to everyone who’s put up with my grammar mistakes (science major, not English!) and read these stories – it’s been so much fun recounting my tales and I’m happy that it’s all documented so I’ll never forget my time in France! Take care!

Au revoir pour la dernière fois!

The Journey Home

I love traveling, I really do. Its time you get to do whatever the heck you want. You can think, read, listen to music, sing, annoy your neighbor, make a friend, the opportunities are endless.

I had a layover in Amsterdam (no I didn’t go explore, it was only an hour and a half) and on the way over there I made friends with a nice couple from North Carolina. The husband is a professor and the wife is a family physician. Their daughter is in the Peace Corps in France right now and she showed them around while they visited her (this was their first time to France.) I loved sharing travel experiences and hearing all of their opinions – I need to start making the initiative to talk to strangers more often (sorry mom and dad, I know that’s not quite what you taught me)! Their second flight was from Amsterdam to Detroit like me, so we found our way to the airplane and sat down together at the gate to continue sharing stories. Somehow, despite our paying attention to the monitor and the announcements, we missed our call! When we realized the monitor said that our gate was closing, we rushed up explaining who we were and the workers were like “Where have you been?! We’ve been waiting for you!” We really were trying to pay attention and the workers were a little meaner than necessary, but that’s ok because we still got on the plane! I just really hope my luggage makes it with me! One guy mentioned something about them thinking we weren’t coming so they had taken our bags off?! I'm hoping that they didn't!

I feel like some airline god has been setting up all of my seating arrangements, because on the long ride over the Atlantic, I made another friend. She studied abroad just like myself, only she was in a French city near Germany studying with her college professor. It was neat comparing/contrasting experiences. We’ve both decided we can’t wait to eat pizza without forks!

So I’ve watched two movies: Just Go With It and The Dilemma, worked on my art paper, and finished a great deal of this blog (that’s why there all here now!) There’s still a few hours left, and I am very eager to be back in the US, using my cell phone, and seeing my friends and family.

I will definitely miss the French, the great friends I’ve made, and the ancient architecture (you can’t go two feet without finding a building at least 2 centuries old.) I won’t miss the crowded metro, or the smell of smoke everywhere (I know I wrote about it not being as bad as it appear, but I’m still really sensitive to the smoke) however.

I didn’t get to go up the Eiffel Tower at night, or go up the stairs of Notre-Dame or ride a bike through the city, but Stephanie helped me out a lot by telling me what her professor told here – those things aren’t what I didn’t get to do, they’re just the things I’m saving until next time!

Until next time!

Last Week!

So this last week has really flown by. I was eager to get home to my friends and family (they bribed me with dinner at Red Robin and a picnic!) so I thought it would drag on forever, but I guess all of the fun that I’m having has overcompensated because it has passed far too quickly.

Obsession: There is a free newspaper that you can get if you take the metro. Seeing as I took the metro every day, I usually took one to practice my French reading. I happened to notice that there was a Sudoku puzzle on the last page one day and decided to give it a try. It’d been a while (since high-school really) since I’d regularly done Sudoku puzzles, but it wasn’t difficult at all to become obsessed again. What started out as a French reading exercise became “I wonder whether the Sudoku will be hard today?!” Really though, sometimes they’re super easy, do-it-in-3-minutes puzzles and sometimes they’re stare-at-them-all-day-think-you’re-getting-somewhere-and-realize-you’ve-made-a-mistake-and-give-up puzzles. I’ll have to find my Sudoku book so I don’t have complete withdrawals from my daily life in France.

Fete de la Musique: The national festival of music was on Tuesday. In the evening, all you have to do is walk into the street and you'll happen upon music of some sort. Stephanie and I went to the Eiffel Tower and wandered around. We actually went out too early and there wasn't much to see/hear so we stopped at a cafe and tried escargots (snails!) to wait for more musicians to come. The snails were quite interesting; they're not something I'd order on my own, but if they were an appetizer somewhere, I wouldn't hesitate to have another. After our pit stop, we finally happened upon this awesome rock band. It was the perfect moment - rock band playing outside for free in front of the Eiffel Tower on a beautiful summer day. Oh, Paris, I love you!

Also on Tuesday, our art class visited the Francois-Mitterand National Library (which was quite impressive, albeit a bit cold,) Bercy Park and Bercy Village. On Wednesday we met at the Arc de Triomphe, took a bus ride (my first public transport bus ride there!) to a museum right in my arrondissement (area of Paris.) It had many lovely impressionist paintings and they had an exhibit on the paintings of these brothers whom were quite talented. Their work was original and I really enjoyed this last museum (wish I could remember it's name, oops!)

National Library

Different Angle of the National Library

In Bercy Park

Bercy Village - sooo cute!

All good things must come to an end and all classes must end with a final test/project. In art I’m doing my final project on Sacre-Coeur (that basilica atop Montmartre.) The presentation went fine in Thursday and the paper’s not due until a week from now so I have plenty of time to finish it. I’ll probably upload it because it’s really rather interesting. In French we had our final test (and they didn’t get stolen this time!)

My last day was quite lovely (and long if the size of this paragraph gives any indication.) In French class, we had a low key class period and at the end we headed to the Luxembourg Garden for a picnic. We got our certificates of completion of the French program, and I got a 16/20, hooray! Why hooray when that’s only an 80%? Because the French grading system is bizarre and a 16/20 is an A! They don’t give 20/20 ever and 19s and 18s are nearly as rare. After French, I went chocolate shopping with a couple of classmates and then I headed over to the Bois de la Bolangue to check it out. It’s a wooded area that’s about 10 minutes from where I was staying. Stephanie and I really enjoyed our promenade through the wooded area (especially after all the city streets we face every day – I see why everyone wants to live in the 16^th arrondissement where we were staying!) We marveled at how a two hour walk in sandles was no big deal at the end of our stay, but had that been the first week, we would’ve turned around after 30 minutes. I feel like I can walk anywhere after Paris! The walk was stupendous until we came upon some women wearing micro skirts and stilettos . . . did I mention that area is renowned for prostitutes? We were told we’d be fine anytime before 8pm; however, these ladies must have been eager because it was only 3 in the afternoon! It was quite shocking! We turned around and went back the way we’d approached them, so no harm done, I’m just sad that Christine was right – she’d warned (teasingly) that it’s never safe of them there. After that, Stephanie and I headed to happy hour with a bunch of classmates. Funny story, I did a terrible job of hearing where we were meeting up and as nobody was picking up their phones, we’d resigned ourselves to meandering the streets until the farewell dinner. However, by chance, we ran into one of our peers who was already there with everyone and we made it after all! It’s really lovely when things work out by miracle like that! I had a last glass of rosé and I heard a French rock song that I love and have on my ipod in the bar – my taste in music is popular there (I’d found that song through my own research)!! After cocktails, we all headed to the farewell dinner. It was super sad since everyone was taking pictures and saying their goodbyes. However, the night wasn’t over yet! A few of us headed to the Eiffel Tower one last time. We sat on the lawn, chatted, and then at 11:30, it was finally time for goodbyes. We promised one another to contact each other if we’re ever in someone’s area of the US while traveling, well wishes were made and hugs were to be had. I headed back, showered and finished packing and that was that.

Not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but my house mom watches her grandchildren all the time. There’s never a dull moment (if a little sibling disagreement is healthy, then these kids are set for life) and one has to be careful about leaving the door open because a two-year old might just decide to play cars inside your room. This is exactly what her grandson did on Friday and I stole a picture :P He’s just so cute and after all, we did play cars together – that’s some hard core bonding! Also, we said goodbye to Madame Reynaud and got a picture with here. I did appreciate when Edgar (the dog) tried to photobomb my pic by jumping between us during the photo shoot!

Adorable.

Mme Reynaud and Myself :D

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Over the Hill

And through the woods to Paris in France we go!

Less art & architecture and more sightseeing: Tuesday we visited the Victor Hugo museum (if you’re ever in Paris, don’t stress about making it there, it’s not that amazing) and after we headed to the Marais to take a quick 2 hour walk. I honestly cannot remember everywhere we stopped by, it was more of an “absorb the atmosphere” day. Wed, we headed to the Orsay Museum which is known for its impressionist collections. Too bad they’re doing construction and a good portion of them were elsewhere; also, they don’t allow pictures . . . but it wasn’t a bad visit – there was still a lot to see! Finally on Thursday, we visited the Gustave Moreau Museum (it used to be Moreau’s studio and now it holds his works) and Montmartre, aka my favorite place ever. That was my third visit, there are a jillion steps to climb, but I always enjoy myself immensely when I’m there. The view is just so perfect and the area is so adorable, I can’t help but be in love! I really liked this week - it was informative yet so relaxing!

We had time to notice things like Mario chilling on the side of a building!

A secret beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower from Montmartre.

They don’t use the “my dog at my homework” excuse over here: All week I’d been waiting eagerly for my test score (we had taken a test the previous Thursday.) After the weekend passed by as well as Monday, we figured we’d get them on Tuesday for sure, but alas, we showed up for class and she told us we’d get them on Wednesday for sure. However, on Wednesday instead of our corrected tests, we got blank ones – some guy had stolen our professor’s bag of schoolwork on the Metro (probably thinking he’d get some good merchandise to sell instead of the schoolwork he got instead!) So we had to retake the test L Only in Paris!

La valley de la Loire: This weekend we went to the Loire Valley as a group. It was magnificent! A lot of my friends liked it better than the Normandy excursion, but it’s too hard to compare apples and oranges for me to decide between the two excursions. There was so much History at Normandy and Mt. St. Michel was a dream come true, but on the other hand the Loire Valley had very neat castles and we got a really nice bus this time where we weren’t sitting on each other’s laps. We visited three castles: Chateau de Blois, Chateau de Chenonceau and Chateau de Chambord.

Château de Blois was used as a royal palace. We had the option of a tour in French or English, and thinking « when in France » I joined the French tour guide. Thankfully, she was very aware that we were all learning French so she used common words, had ample pictures, and was super patient with us. She was wonderful and I understood at least 90% of what was said – I was so proud of myself after! Chateau de Blois is interesting because it has four different types of architecture from when it was constructed. Also, Catherine de Medici (a queen renown for her scandals) lived there and had secret compartments that we got to see. It was quite interesting, and we had some free time for lunch so my friends and I grabbed a quick sandwich and found the garden – it was a great visit!

The castle from its inside square (they were built in fort styles as protection.) Notice the different architecture types.

Fireplace :)

Catherine de Medici's secret cabinets. On the floorboard, there's the secret foot pedal.

The Salamander was thought to be able to breath fire and was hence a royal symbol.

These guys were at the head of the war between Catholicism and Protestantism.

Largest existing medieval room. (Even though the wallpaper is new . . .)

We got lost and found this view :D

We also discovered this garden by hazard.

At Chateau de Chenonceau, we had a very quick stay – we had only an hour and a half! It gave us just enough time to run around taking as many pictures as possible and run through the maze they had there. Mazes used to represent working through obstacles to achieve your goal, it wasn’t a triwizard tournament like I’d hoped. The surprise of the day was wine-tasting. I didn’t like their champagne (it wasn’t real champagne, because that has to come from the area, Champagne,) but I did like their white wine and rosé (although to be honest I’ve loved all of the rosé’s here.)

Its incredible.

Way wicked.

Only remaining part of the original castle - people kept it up to prove how cool their castle was.

The kitchen.

What an incredible view outside the study!

Maze!

At the winery: The squeezer (no I Love Lucy stomping at this place!)

The fermenting tanks

The wine is stored in these barrels.

An old time packaging set-up.

The next day we set off to Chateau de Chambord. It was absolutely magnificent! It’s the castle that inspired the story of the Beauty and the Beast. The architecture was incredible, we had 4 entire hours to explore, plus we had two surprises: one we got to choose between a free bike or boat rental and two we had cookie tasting! It was the best castle of the three by far.

ooooo

ahhhh

wow!!

I'm pretty sure this was a king's crown at some point or another, but it's been a while since I read the sign.

Twisting staircases. Two people can start at the bottom of each one and never cross paths on their way up. We actually lost Kristin when Stephanie and I tested this with her!