Opera Garnier and the Weekend

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, but I'll start with Tuesday.

I went to the theater to see Mamma Mia with my French parents. I'd already seen the movie in the U.S. but it was fun seeing it again dubbed in French except for the songs. My parents liked it and my French mom thought Pierce Brosnan was handsome, but she like everyone else I'm sure, didn't like his voice. Before we saw the movie, we ate dinner at the house and my mom cooked the most interesting meal--ham slices wrapped around cooked bananas in this banana-y sauce: two things I'm not a huge fan of. It didn't taste bad necessarily, but it was one of the weirdest combinations I've ever tasted and it wasn't a particularly good combination. She asked me if I liked it, and I didn't have the heart to tell her that I didn't really, so I said "yes" and "it's very different. I've never tasted this before." And then my French dad told me that she had created the dish herself. Glad I didn't tell the full truth. I also hope she won't make it again...

The next day we all visited the Opera Garnier in Paris. It was absolutely beautiful. The architecture was incredible, ornate, and very rich. The staircases were made of marble, and there were four different levels of the theatre. It was a prime social gathering for the noble families of Paris 300 years ago--it was expected that families come three times a week. A lot to live up to, but if I had an excuse to go to that opera that often, I'd take it too. We couldn't actually see the stages because the rooms were closed, but we can see it another time for free when it's open again.

On Thursday, Dr. Patton arrived and we all had lunch at his and Dr. Morgan's appartment to welcome him. Deem prepared a wine tasting for us and had us try three different wines. So we all hung out for about an hour eating cheese, bread, and different deli meats, crepes, and chocolate and drinking wine. It was a lot of fun and the wine helped me anticipate Mme Vaudel's conversation class more. I probably talked the most I've ever talked in that class that day and our conversation topics were fun because we all just relived our childhoods the entire time. I'm pretty sure Mme Vaudel had no idea what we were talking about most of the time, but it was fun for us.

On Friday, after Monsieur Sinniger's class, a lot of our group organized a trip to Burgundy on their own so some of them left to go there. I didn't want to spend the money required for that trip, nor did Roz, so we hung out together the majority of the weekend. I went over to her house to watch a movie. We watched a French movie called "Je vous trouve très beau" which ended up being a cute and funny little film. Then Roz, Enna, Erika, Lubaina and I went out to dinner in Paris and we ate at this great Italian place in Pigalle. We ended up seeing some of the Moulin Rouge and that entire street in Pigalle is devoted to sex shops and strip clubs--very colorful I guess you could say. Once we walked out of that area, we found a side street where this Italian place was and the food was delicious. After dinner, Erika and Lubaina went back to Versailles and Roz, Enna, and I stayed in Paris to find a club to go to. Enna had a book that listed a bunch of different cafés in Paris and she found a section in the book where music was played at certain cafés. She found one that played African music and that sounded cool because we thought we'd be able to dance to it, but when we actually found the café, it wasn't as great as we had made it out to be. The African music just came from a stereo, and the decor of the place was pretty cool, but no one was dancing--it was just a place for people to chill out and drink, which is fine, just not what we were looking for. So we looked up another café and saw that it had live music, so we found our way to that other café (which was pretty far from the last one we went to) and saw that there was live music, but no one was dancing to it--just sitting around and enjoying the band. We hung out there for a bit and listened to the band, but we were pretty disappointed that we didn't find a place to dance at. We spent most of the night traveling around Paris by the metro or just walking. So when I got home, I decided to look up dance clubs in Paris so we could actually accomplish our goal of dancing this weekend.

So the next day, Roz and I (Enna went to Burgundy that day with Lubaina) spent our day at the Marché aux Puces where there were a bunch of different stands selling everything from clothing, belts and accessories, shoes, scarves, hookahs, and lingerie. The lingerie sold here is really cheap, especially if you get it from the market, and Roz profited from that. After the market, we came back to Versailles ate some dinner, and got ready to go clubbing in Paris. We picked a place to go called SanZ Sans. We got there early, around 9:00 because we didn't want to stay out too late. The club is a bar and also a restaurant so most people were just eating at that time, so Roz and I hung out at the bar and ordered drinks. The drinks were also almost half price at that time--after 10:00, the are more expensive, so we took that opportunity to order all the drinks we wanted. Around 10:30 more people started pouring in, and they removed the bar stools so that everyone could dance in the area around the bar. At first there weren't a lot of people dancing, but towards 11:30 the place was pretty crowded. The music was really good and Roz and I had fun people watching. We talked a little bit with a French guy and then another guy approached us and told us that we were beautiful. His name was Marco and he was Italian--go figure. He was very flirty and touchy and wanted to dance with both of us, but he was pretty sketchy and not very cute so we said we'd dance with him later. Then he was all over another girl five minutes later. Oh well. The rest of the night was so fun though--a lot of great music was played and the place was packed and it was so nice to finally get out and dance because we hadn't done that in a while. As we were leaving this one black guy who was dancing near us looked at us and said "Bye!" when we left, which was really cute. Then we ran into a drunk girl on the street who heard us speaking English and decided to practice her English with us. She asked us where we were from and I said "United States" and she said, "I think that is the most beautiful town (yes, town) in the world. They really know how to party over there." Thankfully she had a sober friend with her who eventually clamped her hand over the other girl's mouth and just had her move along the street.

Unfortunately, we missed the last train to Versailles and we tried to find a night bus to take, but we learned that our only option was to take a taxi. And since we're like 30 minutes or more outside of Paris, we did not want to have to pay for that, so Roz had to call her French parents (they told her if she couldn't find a way to get home, to call them) and her dad came and picked us up. We felt awful that he had to do that because it was 2:45 in the morning when he got to Paris and found us. He was such a sweetheart though, probably the cutest French man I've ever met. Despite it being 3:00 in the morning, he was very lively and joked with us for the whole car ride. He acted like it was no big deal for him to pick us up, and I really enjoyed his company and was glad I got to meet him. He dropped me off at my house and everything, and was just really sweet. But Roz and I will definitely try to make the train next time.

Then today, I ate lunch with Roz, Madame Chauchat, and her husband at their house. Madame Chauchat is the best cook. This was actually my second time eating at her house because she made lunch for my class on Tuesday so we could hang out and talk since the only time we ever see her is for grammar class. Both times, she made excellent meals and desserts. She and her husband were so cute too, and we all spoke in French the entire time talking about a lot of different things. I just love her--she's my favorite teacher here and she's so fun to hang out with. She's so easy to talk to too, even in French. After eating lunch in her little sunroom, we went to this small living room and drank coffee and tea. It was so cute and French. Then she suggested we go see Marie Antoinette's farm at Versailles (when Marie Antoinette lived at Versailles, she had a little farm area with little cottages that she would spend a lot of her time at entertaining friends and taking care of a little farm, and all that is still at the castle). So Monsieur Chauchat drove Roz and I to the farms and Roz and I walked around the area. I had actually already been to that area with Michele, and we saw we had to pay to get into the actual farm area, which we didn't want to do. But it was a beautiful day, so Roz and I just walked around the extensive grounds and walked into the gardens of Versailles. It was so nice because we just walked and talked about a bunch of different things and there were a ton of French families out in the area. It was so cute, especially when we saw this little french girl feeding the sheep that were in the pasture area with her grandmother. We probably spent 2 or more hours out in Versailles just walking around enjoying the weather and the views. And now I have to catch up on my grammar homework. Until next time...

Grenoble, Annecy, and the Alps

On Friday, we left for Grenoble and barely caught our train from Versailles to Paris. When we arrived in Paris, we then took a train to Grenoble that lasted three hours. And of course, me having the luck that I have, I managed to be the lucky person who got to sit next to a creeper. This was a black guy in black leather pants who had the deepest, gruffest voice I've ever heard and a unique body odor. Yeah, it was a long three hours. Most of the time he slept, and made random deep moans while sleeping. Eventually though, he woke up and started sipping on a large can of beer that he had hidden in the trash can in our compartment. That was about when he started talking about Sarcozy...what he said didn't make a whole lot of sense and I could feel him looking at me every so often, which was really uncomfortable. I was really happy to arrive.

So we go to our hotel and drop off our bags and Deem takes us around the city. We took the city's network of trams and Deem took us to some historical parts of the city--mainly just really old buildings and stuff. Then he took us to a cathedral, which was interesting because the cathedrals in Grenoble are much less elaborate than the gothic cathedrals we've been seeing--they were much plainer, and one was actually built right next to a bar (or rather the bar owner decided to situate his business next to the cathedral to provide some irony). Since Grenoble is located in the Alps, we were able to take a tram car that just looked like a big bubble up a mountain. Once we got to the top, we were able to see the majority of the city situated against the mountain range right as the sun was setting. It was beautiful and as usual, Deem planned that we arrive on this mountain at sunset. So we all took a million pictures and then took the bubble back down the mountain. Then we went to a restaurant that specialized in making dishes specific to that area--mountain food basically. So we ate this thing called a raclette which consists of the waiters bringing a giant chunk of cheese from a cheese wheel to your table and putting it under this heater for it to melt. Then they give you a plate of different deli meats, a salad, and a small bowl of potatoes. Michele, Roz, and I shared this meal between us and it was so much food. Michele and I ordered a pitcher of red wine between us and Michele really loves wine, especially if it's red wine, and at one point while I'm eating all the different parts of my meal, I notice that the pitcher is totally empty! I only had one glass of wine and Michele had already drunk the rest! Lol and she was pretty much really drunk from that point on. It was entertaining because Michele is not really a happy drunk, she kind of adopts this "f*** it" kind of attitude whenever she talked about anything. It was entertaining. In fact, the whole evening was one of the best I've had. I felt good after my kir (which is like fruity champagne) and glass of wine, Michele was was feeling better about the fact that she couldn't understand French well, our waiter was cute, and Roz and I had some great conversations. We basically laughed the entire evening. It was so fun.

Then we went back to the hotel, and Michele and Katie decided they wanted Deem to tell us a story before we went to bed. So we all gathered in the triple I was sharing with Roz and Michele and Deem told us the story of Charlotte Cordet, who was a young murderer during the French revolution. Interesting story. Then Deem left, Michele passed out, and we all went to sleep.

The next day, we left at 9:00 to catch a train to Annecy, a little French town deeper in the Alps. When we got there, there was a little market/festival thing going on. These people walked out wearing old fashioned mountain clothes and carrying these long horn-like instruments. I forgot to find out what they were called. But the players formed a circle and played these horns for the crowd, which was really cool. Then we pet this giant Saint Bernard dog who had a complicated name that I can't remember. Then we walked around the city some and walked through this huge marketplace that was selling lots of homemade items like james, pastries, candies--one stand was even making its own apple juice. We bought a bottle of it and shared it between us, and it was delicious. This marketplace was really cool because there were a lot of people dressed in old fashioned clothing from like the 1600's or something and there was lots of music and it was just very lively. We then ate lunch at a café and spent so much time there--our lunch lasted 2 and a half hours, but it was so good and worth it. That's basically how the French eat anyway when they go out--meals usually take 2 and a half to 3 hours. After lunch we saw a parade that consisted of musicians and dancers and horse-drawn carriages. They were celebrating the return of the farm animals from the mountains. For many months from spring until now (the fall) the farm animals of the city move to the mountains and spend the spring and summer months living up in the mountains and at this time with shepherds and at this time, they return from the mountains before winter hits and there's a parade and celebration celebrating their return. So after watching the dancers and musicians, the animal herds came through. There were herds of goats and lots of cattle and even some baby cows. They all had giant bells around their necks and a lot of cattle had their necks adorned with flowers. It was interesting--only downside was all the poop in the street after the parade was over.

After watching the parade, we went to a park that was just in front of the mountains. It was so beautiful. We were lucky to have a really nice day and the blue sky combined with the green grass and the changing trees and the mountains created a beautiful scene. There was a river bordering this town so we walked to the river and took a boat tour around the city looking at all the mountains. It was so beautiful and lots of people were on the water in their own sailboats or smaller boats. We even saw a castle on a little island in the middle of the river. We even met some other American students on that boat who were from California. One particular girl we met was named Apple--so apparently there are others who share the same exotic name as Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter. After the boat ride, we walked around the city some more and fed the many swans that lived in that city. Then we had to catch a train back to Grenoble. When we got back, we were on our own for dinner so Roz and I went out and bought a pizza to take back to our hotel room while Katie and Monika went out to clubs. Katie ended up coming back early, but Monika had some fun till 4:00 AM. Roz, Michele, and I just hung out in our room watching French TV, eating pizza, and talking. We talked for about three hours, which was really nice because we don't have many opportunities to actually do that since we're constantly on the go. So even though I stayed in, it was still really fun.

The next morning, Katie, Roz, Michele and I went with Deem to visit a small village in the Alps. Monika was tired from clubbing so she slept in and stayed in Grenoble. We took a bus to this village and did a 4 to 5 hour hike in the Alps. It was really hard because we walked uphill most of the time, but it was so worth it because the views of the mountains were incredible and the fact that it was fall made the hike even more beautiful. The mountains and all the different colored trees made for some pretty incredible scenery. We hiked all the way up to this small little cabin where this one guy lived during the summers. It was cool because the cabin was tiny and completely isolated. Roz and I peeked in the windows and saw a bottle of wine on the table with some glasses next to it. So I guess the guy did alright for himself. So we sat on the top of this mountain outside this little cabin and ate some food and then started our hike back down the mountain, which ended up being much harder than the hike up. My legs were hurting pretty bad and we were going downhill for the majority of the hike. And my butt is sore because of it. But it was time well spent--out of all the hikes we've done, that one was by far the hardest, but also the best. Everything was so awe-worthy.

After getting off the mountain, we walked around the village and saw more incredible views. The mountains are by far my most favorite type of scenery. The air was clean, the weather was perfectly warm and cool, and everything was colorful and green. We were all pretty ravished after our intense hike and unfortunately, France has this annoying habit of closing everything on Sundays. So we had to walk for quite a while before we could find a little food booth that was open. I ate a croque monsieur and then a chocolate waffle, and it tasted so good because I was so hungry. Then we found a place nearby that offered lots of air sports like paragliding and hang gliding. We found this area of astro turf that was used for the hangliders I guess to run off the side of the mountain. So Katie, Deem, Michele and I walked along this astroturf and I got up to the very edge of the turf that dropped off the side of the mountain. It was really scary but really cool at the same time. Then we had to catch our bus back to Grenoble and then take a train from Grenoble back to Paris and then a train from Paris to Versailles. We left Grenoble at 7:20 and I finally got back to my house around midnight. All in all, it was a beautiful weekend and we were so lucky once again to have beautiful weather for it. This weekend trip was one of my favorites, which is good because it might be my last one. Deem sadly leaves us this Saturday since we're halfway through the program, and Dr. Patton will take over and we've been told we won't have any more weekend trips except for a 10 day trip we will take around all of France later this month. Deem will be missed, but Dr. Patton should be fun too. More updates to come...a bientot!

Les Invalides

Yesterday, we all went to Paris to visit Les Invalides. All our professors came with us too because we were getting an exclusive tour--yeah it was special. We had some issues getting to Paris because the train we took that was supposed to take us to Les Invalides stopped at one of the stops and then the conductor told everyone over the intercom that we had to get off the train because it wasn't going to be running further. So everyone got off the train and no one knew why we had to get off. People were saying it was electrical issues but no one was really sure. Thankfully we were dropped off outside of Paris so all we had to do was walk around and find a metro, and luckily found the metro line that would take us to Les Invalides. So we got there and our tour guide was waiting for us. She was a really small French woman and was very interesting to listen to when you could hear her--unfortunately she spoke too softly sometimes so I didn't get to hear everything she was saying. The tour was pretty sweet though--we went into this small auditorium area and watched a powerpoint presentation about the history of the building and its functions, mostly as a military hospital. Then we walked all around the building, visiting a church where many ancient flags of France's past enemies were hung when France conquered them in battle. We even got to go into a part of the building that was closed off to the public for renovations, but our tour guide was able to get us through to see the closed off rooms, which had paintings on the walls that were being restored. Then we visited one of the museums that contained the armor of many of the French kings as well as swords and bayonets. Then we went to the section of the building where Napoleon's tomb was. Again, a couple sections of this building were roped off because the marble floors were being renovated in certain areas, but our guide took us behind the barriers and had the marble restorers talk to us about how they restore the floors. It was really cool being able to be with this little woman who could get us into the areas that everyone else couldn't see. We felt pretty special! When the tour ended, the building had closed so we all went back to Versailles since we didn't really have anything else to do.

Today, my grammar/conversation group decided after grammar class this morning that we were going to have to bring food to conversation class today to make the class seem more enjoyable than it usually is. So Erika and I went down to the Super U to get some food, and coincidentally, Mme Vaudel had planned a surprise birthday party for Lubaina's 19th birthday (which was strange and unexpected because her birthday was a good 3 weeks ago). She had made profiteroles for us, which consists of this small, sweet bread roll that you put vanilla ice cream in and then cover in warm chocolate sauce. Of course, this happens the only day of this entire program where we decide to bring a bunch of food. Oh well, profiteroles was a better substitute compared to the bags of chips and grapes we brought. So we ate profiteroles and talked for the usual two hours. Though the presence of food made the class a bit more durable, the conversation got pretty awkward when we all ran out of stuff to talk about. Two hours straight of talking is way too long.

Tomorrow I leave for Grenoble and we're supposed to have good weather, so more updates to come!

Weekend in Versailles/Paris

Just spent my first weekend here in Versailles, and it was fun based on the people I spent the weekend with, but as far as finding stuff to do, it was unfortunately, a bit disappointing. Our prospects for the weekend looked good because there was an event in Paris that went on this past Saturday called La Nuit Blanche, which translates to "a sleepless night." Sounds like a huge all-night party, right? Sadly, Nuit Blanche was not at all what we thought it would be. The event consisted of a bunch of different independent films being played or certain scenes for films being filmed. We found a booklet full of the different activities going on that night, and there were a lot of different films and filmmakers all over different parts of Paris, so we went to Gare de Lyon where an Indian film was being filmed with Bollywood dancers. So we get there and the film space is right outside the station and it's packed. We get up as close as we can to see the Indian dancers, and we were excited to see them dance and just admire their beautiful costumes. So eventually, some music would start playing and the women on the "stage" would start dancing, but then the music would cut off after 30 seconds. We thought they were just having technical difficulties, so we waited until they fixed the problem. After waiting a good 15 minutes or more, the same music would start again, the women would dance, and then it'd suddenly stop in the same spot it did last time. It was really frustrating. We waited there for another 30 minutes or so hoping that we'd eventually see full performance, but it never happened. They played the music two more times (and we had to wait at least 15 minutes or more between the two times that they played this music) so by the time the music played and cut off for the fourth time, we got fed up and left. It was too crowded there and we weren't really getting to see anything. The dancers and director and crew of the film would've been there all night because the activities of Nuit Blanche lasted from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM, but we couldn't stay out late because the last train that would take us back to Versailles would leave at 11:55 that night--which I thought was annoying because if people are supposed to stay up all night for Nuit Blanche, shouldn't the trains have run all night? We had also heard that all the museums were supposed to be open all night and be free, so we all decided we wanted to go to the Louvre again that night. But when we got there, it was closed. WTF? By this time, we had to head back to the train station to get back to Versailles, but we were OK with it because the events of Nuit Blanche were not turning out to be as exciting as we had thought. I went out with Roz, Katie, Monika, and Michele, and Roz even started asking people where the party was that night, but there was no such party for Nuit Blanche. Maybe we just went to the wrong places, but it just wasn't that exciting all in all, and it was disappointing that we couldn't get into the Louvre that night. By the time we got back to Versailles, we were all pretty tired. We hung out a little bit, but there wasn't a whole lot to do and a lot of things were closed, so we ended up calling it a night at like one in the morning.
Despite the fact that Nuit Blanche did not go as planned, we were excited for Sunday because we were told that on the first Sunday of every month, the museums in Paris are free. So since we couldn't get into the Louvre last night, we took the train to Paris again to get in this time, and for free. So we get in the Louvre and get through the security. We find maps of the place, decide what we want to see, and start heading off in the direction we need to go. And just as we're about to enter a section of the building, we are told the Louvre is closed. Again, WTF? That was just irritating because we took a lot of time to get there and then for nothing. I'm annoyed we had to go through security too before they'd tell us we couldn't go in the building. So we walked around Paris for about an hour since we were there, and then had to go back to Versailles to be back home in time for dinner. Thankfully, dinner at my house was fun that night because I got to meet the older sister and brother. It was really nice because the entire Malglaive family was there (7 people) and then me, and it was fun because we were all crowded around this little table in our small dining room and it was so cramped, but it was fun because everyone was talking all at once and it was fun to just sit there and listen to them talk and laugh. The food was good too!
So all in all, not the best weekend I've had here, but despite the disappointments and setbacks, I still had a lot of fun hanging out with Roz, Katie, Michele, and Monika. And the family dinner was a perk to the weekend. Next weekend should be much better--the five of us girls who hung out this weekend will go to Grenoble with Deem (he took the other five people in our group to the country in Brittany this past weekend--we all had a choice of whether we wanted to do a country or city trip, so 5 of us chose the country trip and the other 5 the city trip). So this next weekend is our weekend to travel and eat well, so I'm looking forward to that. A bientot!

The Louvre

Yesterday we all visited the Louvre.  We got into Paris around 2:30 and a girl who went on the Versailles trip last year (Whitney Bost) flew to Versailles that day to spend her fall break here.  She met up with our group and came to the Louvre with us.  After we got our tickets we went in and were free to go wherever we wanted on our own.  So I walked around with Katie and Michael.  We walked up to the 2nd floor (there are 4 levels, but the bottom two levels are called the ground floor and the lower ground floor), so basically we walked all the way up to the fourth level of the building.  We looked at all the works up there and looked mainly for the works that we had learned about in our classes, like the works of Flagonard, Watteau, David, Ingres, La Tour, and others.  After walking through the French paintings section, we made our way to the Italian painters, and I've got to say, finding your way in the Louvre is not easy.  It is an absolutely enormous building--it was the palace of the kings of France originally before Louis XIV decided to move to Versailles and have the Chateau of Versailles built there.  The architecture of the building is beautiful and I can't imagine what the kings did with all the space they had.  It was so ridiculously large.  

Eventually we did find our way to the section of the building that housed all the Italian paintings.  This was a bit more enjoyable because there were more well-known works here, and since I don't really know much about art, it was nice to recognize some things.  Of course we saw DaVinci's Mona Lisa.  When we first entered the room where that painting was housed, I at first didn't see her because the painting isn't very big and there were a lot of people around it, covering it up.  Plus it was placed in a room that had massive colorful paintings around it, so I was also distracted by the other paintings around me before I finally realized that I was in the room where the Mona Lisa was.   We saw works by Giovanni and also saw the large painting of the coronation of Napoleon.  Before seeing this painting, we visited the Galery of Apollo, which is one of the most elaborately decorated and rich rooms I've ever been in.  It was overwhelming, but in a good way because you just kept looking up all around you, taking it all in.  It was fancy.  We also saw the actual crown of Napoleon which formerly belonged to Charlemagne enclosed in a glass case in this room--the same crown that was in that grand painting.  After looking at the Italian paintings, we looked at some Etruscan art, and then Greek and Roman sculptures.  We saw some of the works of Michealangelo and some other beautiful statues of Grecian and Roman gods and goddesses.  And then we saw the Venus de Milo.  It was very cool.  Then we moved to Egyptian art, which I've always found very interesting.  The sarcophaguses and hieroglyph stone tablets were my favorite things to look at.  They even had mummified cats in that section--which kind of made me cringe because all I could think about was shriveled cats.  Ugh. 

     By the time we finished with Egyptian art, we had spent about 3 and a half hours in the Louvre and were tired.  Katie and I had lost Michael at some point, so we decided to go back to Versailles together, and it literally took us like 30 minutes to get out of that building.  It's kind of embarrassing how long it took us because we kept trying to find our way out and ended up taking a lot wrong turns and staircases and ended up at dead ends.  It was pretty frustrating, but thank God we finally did find our way out.  We took the metro back to La Defense and hopped on a train to Versailles.  We then discovered we were on the wrong train so we got out at the next stop and had to wait 5 minutes for the next train.  Eventually one came and we got back around 8:00.  We were pretty tired because it took us about an hour and a half total to exit the Louvre, take the metro, and then take the train.  It was a long day, but worth the trouble because we saw some pretty amazing and historical works of art.  

     This weekend I'm staying in Versailles and will probably spend the weekend in Paris--hopefully I will have some interesting stories to tell.  Until then...

Chartres, Etretat, Rouen, and Accents

On Wednesday, we didn't have civilization class (yay!) so we had the whole day free. Everyone except two girls from our group went to Chartres to visit the city and its beautiful cathedral. When we arrived in Chartres, we walked right to the cathedral and took a tour with its famous tour guide, Malcolm Miller. He's an Englishman (who also speaks French) who has been giving tours there for 51 years, which makes him like 80 years old and he's still in great shape. We took his tour in English because there were five other American tourists there, so that pretty much determined what language the tour would be conducted in. One of the first things he asked (in his little English accent) was: "Has anyone visited Chartres in the last half a century? You may have already taken one of my tours, so I'm sorry if I'm going to be repetitive." And two of the other Americans had already had him once before surprisingly. He was very knowledgeable and his voice was entrancing (but then again, I really love English accents--I think if all of my professors had English accents I'd be able to concentrate better because I didn't miss a word this guy said because I just loved listening to him). He told us about the history of Chartres and told us all the stories that were displayed in the stained glass windows throughout the church. We went outside for a while and he told us who all the sculptures on the outsides of the doors were. Most were disciples or other important biblical characters. He talked about one sculpture that was centered between two doors of the church. The sculpture was of a woman holding a child. Malcolm told us that many people mistake this sculpture, thinking the woman is Mary holding Jesus as a child. But the woman was actually Anne, Mary's mother, and the child she is holding is Mary. I remember this point the best in the tour because Mary's little child head was missing, and Malcolm told us that it was destroyed during the time of the French Revolution. He said, "The French didn't really like heads much at that time." True story. (My picture is of this statue).  Then the tour ended, which was kind of sad because he was just so interesting to listen to. He told us to visit again because he'd probably still be there. I hope so!

After the tour, we went to lunch at this nice restaurant. I can't remember what it was called but I had some really good duck there and then this fabulous chocolate dessert. It was a small sampling of 4 different kinds of chocolate desserts. So good! I was in a really good mood after that meal. I was ready for anything, which was good because Dr. Morgan (or Deem as we have come to call him) wanted us to go back to Chartres to climb up in one of the towers to the top of the cathedral. We climbed up about a hundred steps in a continuous circle before we got to the top. The climb and the dizziness was worth it though because we got a panoramic view of the city. We had good weather that day too, so it was a great view. After spending some time up there, we left the cathedral and walked through the city. It was such a cute place--lots of little bridges over small rivers and the architecture of the town was very cute and picturesque. We then went to the train station and caught a train back to Versailles. We got home a little late (everyone usually eats dinner at 8:00 with their families) and I didn't get home till about 8:15 and my sisters had just finished up eating dinner (my French mom was gone in Bretagne and my sisters had to eat early that night because some of them had to be places). They had actually made hamburgers in my honor, because I think they really think that Americans eat hamburgers at least once a week if not more, so they made hamburgers for me. When I came in, they were finishing eating and when they saw me, they started preparing a hamburger for me. So my sister Pauline starts cooking these thin circular slices of meat in a skillet while Amélie is putting peppers, tomatoes, and cheese slices on a hamburger bun (which I was shocked to discover that they actually have hamburger buns in the baguette capital of the world). So Pauline asks me if I want bacon on my burger, and I'm thinking about bacon slices, so I say no since I don't ever eat bacon with my hamburgers, and then she says "Oh..." and looks at the frying pan. It was then I realized that those two thin slices of meat in the skillet was the "bacon" that she was talking about. I didn't realize that they didn't have any beef for the actual hamburger meat--the actual essence of the American hamburger. I would've eaten that meat they were cooking for me, I just didn't realize that was the bacon they were talking about, and they didn't have any other kind of meat. So I ended up eating peppers, cheese, and tomatoes on a hamburger bun for dinner. Epic fail on my sisters' part for trying to create a hamburger for me, but I appreciated their attempt to make me feel more at home here as far as food goes. Lol, oh well...

Thursday was pretty uneventful. I had a grammar test and then conversation class with Madame Vaudel...ugh she is not very fun. I wish I had conversation with Madame Chauchat. Our conversations with Vaudel are so repetitive. All we talk about is our weekends and then we have to talk to her for 2 hours which feels like 3 with this woman. Gah. After her class though, I took a long walk around Versailles with Michele and we found the back entrance into the Chateau of Versailles where the gardens were, so that was really cool. We walked for about two hours and just talked. It was really great, and we're going to try to make that a weekly thing, so I'm excited for that.

On Friday we left for Etretat, which is a city in Normandy, and spent most of that day traveling. We left at 1:00 and didn't get there until 7:00. But we arrived just in time for sunset, and saw a beautiful view of it from our hotel (the Domaine St; Clair), which was built on a hill overlooking the sea. The hotel we stayed in was absolutely beautiful. It's like a little chateau and it was originally owned by a rich family and was their house in the early 1900's. Katie and I stayed in a room that belonged for a time to an American dancer named Isadora Duncan, who was a friend of the family's. Monika and Elizabeth stayed in the children's room and there were even old fashioned children's toys in there. We found 8 wooden bowling pins and a small wooden bowling ball that we played with. There were a ton of old fashioned teddy bears and even a telephone for the early 1900's. It was so cool. After eating dinner, we tried to go swimming in the outdoor pool at the hotel because Deem told us it was heated. Turns out it wasn't. But it was fine, because Katie and I took a bubble bath in our large bathtub that had jets in it (disclaimer: we were halfway clothed when we took this bath). We used the hotel shower gel to create bubbles, and when I poured the first bottle in, not many bubbles were made initially so I poured the second small bottle in too, and as the water filled up (combined with the jets), soooo many bubbles were created. It was actually a bit too much and our bath consisted of about a third of water and two-thirds of bubbles. It was ridiculous, but by far the best bubble bath I've ever had. Katie and I had fun too. We had bubble fights and made bubble beards--it was like we were 2 years old but it was fun.

The next day, I woke up at 9:00 with Katie and had breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, we walked down to the beach and saw the most beautiful views of cliffs and ocean. The beach was actually composed of mostly small pebbles instead of sand, and the pebbles were so smooth. It was gorgeous. Then we all had to prepare for a 4 hour hike around Etretat that Deem had planned for us. Yeah, it was intense. We stopped first at a goat farm and bought some goat cheese and cider for the picnic we would have by the cliffs. Then we walked through the countryside. It was such a beautiful day--it was sunny yet the air was really cool. It was the perfect weather for hiking. Walking through the countryside, we saw lots of wheat fields and cows and sometimes little goats. We also walked by a lot of country houses. We then found our way to the cliffs and ate lunch on a cliff that was right next to the ocean. It was incredible. We ate the goat cheese from the farm (which was so good) with fruits that Deem brought and drank wine and cider. Unfortunately the cider we bought from the goat farm actually ended up tasting kind of like a goat, so we had to sacrifice it since no one wanted to drink it. After the picnic, we hiked all around the cliffs and we had to hike up some really steep trails to get up to these cliffs. It was tough at points, but so worth it because the views were spectacular. It was the perfect day for it--I really can't believe how lucky we've been with the weather here. I took so many pictures of the blue sea, white cliffs, and green grasses. Those views were just as good if not a bit better than the ones I saw in St. Malo. If it weren't for Deem, I don't think we would have ever known about that place. It was breathtaking, and I feel so lucky to have seen something so beautiful.  The top picture is a view of Etretat.  

After the hike, we packed up our stuff and took a bus and then a train to Rouen. We got there around 8:15 and were really hungry, so we dropped our stuff off at our new hotel and ate at a restaurant called Le P'tit Bec. It was so good, and we had the cutest waiter. He kept switching from French to English when he spoke with us because he knew we spoke French but I guess he wanted to practice his English with us too, except that his English was pretty terrible. It was endearing. We all had a really great time that night--I think we all ended up getting a bit tipsy off the wine or maybe we were just all really happy because we laughed pretty much the entire evening. It was so fun, and the food was really great. By the end of the night, we were pretty exhausted from our long hike and our traveling, so it felt good to go to bed right after that.

And then today (Sunday) we spent the majority of our day in Rouen. We visited three different churches/cathedrals that were all built in the gothic flamboyant style, which is more intricately designed and built than the regular gothic style. The architecture was beautiful both on the outside and the inside. We then saw this great clock that is a staple of the city because it's like 900 years old. We got to go into the clock tower and see the mechanisms behind how the clock works. We also got to see a nice panoramic view of the city up in the tower and were there when the large bells in the tower chimed the 12th hour, which is the most important because the clock also keeps track of the days of the week and at that hour (midday), the picture for each day of the week (each day of the week is represented by a different God/planet) rotates. Not really sure why this changes at midday instead of at midnight, but that's the way it is. After that, we ate lunch at a local cafe and then were on our own to explore the city for about 2 hours.
Despite having beautiful cathedrals and a big old clock, Rouen is actually most famous for being the city where Joan of Arc was imprisoned and burned to death. We saw the tower where she was held, and Michele and I visited a small museum in our free time that was dedicated to Joan's story, and this museum was located right outside of the place where Joan was burned. Although, it was a bit morbid, it was so interesting and cool to be standing in a place where something very historical and important and tragic occurred almost 600 years ago (in 1431). After the museum we had to grab our stuff from the hotel and go to the train station to catch the train back to Versailles. Our train had not yet arrived because we got there early and since it was a nice day, we waited outside before the train came. And right were we sat down, there was a tree nearby where a drunk Irishman with a guitar was situated. He heard us speaking English and started talking to us and playing songs for us on his guitar. He said he was going to play an American song for us and sang about two lines of a song no one knew and then had to stop because he forgot the rest of it. Then he talked (in his Irish accent) about how "America has the best politicians money can buy! Ho ho ho." Then he talked about Sarcozy, saying that Sarcozy was born as a result of "the Wicked Witch of the West raping Dopey ho ho ho(one of Snow White's dwarfs). Then he tried to tell us jokes but the combination of his Irish accent and inebriation caused us to miss most of what he was saying. Finally our train arrived and we got up to go, and he then said to our group, "Wait I've got a joke for ya" so we stop and say "Ok what is it?" and he pauses, thinks for a bit and then says, "Ah I'll tell ya when yur older because I forgot it." And that was the last of what we heard from our Irish friend.

On the train ride back, Monika, Deem, Katie and I sat together and talked for the entire hour and forty five minutes we were on the train. Katie taught Deem how to play some card games because he hadn't played any cards since he was little. Deem wanted to read his book, but Katie insisted he learn how to play cards. We played gin and Go Fish. Then we talked the rest of the time about our childhoods and how Deem was obsessed with maps as a kid. He would order maps of just about every city in the U.S. and some countries and just sit there and memorize them. No joke. He remembers just about all of them too. If you dropped him off in one of the 500 plus cities that he had maps for, he'd know where he was and where to go. That's just incredible. We talked about a lot of other stuff too--life in general.
Then we got to Versailles and Michael, Katie, Elizabeth, Michele, Deem and I went out to dinner and had so much fun because we just learned a lot about Deem. He's written a Latin dictionary, and he actually starred in a Latin video that was watched among a lot of high school student who took Latin. He played Julius Caesar and was interviewed by someone while he was playing that character. He told us that some kids who had seen that video recognized him in a mall once and asked for his autograph. Then he told us about some of the travels he'd done in his life. The best story he told occurred in a field in Germany where he laid down to sleep while waiting for his train (and if you knew Deem he'd totally be one to go out and lay in a field to nap while he waits for his train). So he sleeps in this empty field and when he wakes up, he's suddenly not alone anymore. He is surrounded by hordes of men, and women, and kids and they're all stark naked picnicing and frolicking in this field. He is the only one clothed. He thought he was dreaming, and I would've too for that matter, but he wasn't. And it was so funny because he didn't know how he was supposed to leave this field unnoticed because being the only person clothed, he stuck out like a sore thumb. But then he saw a woman walking nearby who was clothed, and he thought "Oh thank God I'm not the only one" and she sees clothed Deem so she walks towards him but then she starts unbuttoning her dress and looking at him while she's doing it, and it was at that moment that Deem decided to bolt, literally. I couldn't stop laughing--that's probably the best story I've ever heard. We had a good night with him.

After dinner, I took a bus home, and while waiting for the bus, this black guy who was waiting with me started talking to me and I could tell by his line of questioning and the fact that we were the only two people at the stop that he was going to try to get my number or something or find out where I was staying. I explained to him that I was on a study abroad trip and he asked if he could take me to Paris sometime, but I told him "Probably not because we travel on weekends all the time. It's part of the program." Then he stopped talking to me. Little uncomfortable for a bit there. Then I came back to my house and found that a lot of things had been rearranged. A desk that was in my room is no longer there because Pauline is moving out into an apartment and wanted the desk in my room (which was her room) so now I have a much smaller desk and a lot more space. Even the computer was moved. So my house is pretty different now, but it's cool. As long as I have my Internet access, I'm OK. And now I will finally end this post. Until next time!

St. Malo, Le Mont Saint Michel, and Crazy Man on the Train

This weekend, we all went to St. Malo, which is a lovely city in Brittany. We took a train to Paris-Montparnesse and had about 3 hours to spare before our next train. Dr. Morgan of course had this all planned out for us. Once we arrived we walked out of the train station and right outside was the Montparnesse Tower, which is the tallest skyscraper in Paris that has a 360° view of the city. We went up into the tower and got to see the entire city of Paris, which was really cool. I'd never seen the layout of the entire city like that. We ate lunch at the little cafe in the tower and then left to catch our train to Rennes (we had to take 2 trains to get to St. Malo). We took the TGV (Train de Grand Vitesse), aka the fastest train in the world, to Rennes. It was cool except for the fact that we all had a lot of pressure in our ears every time we went through a tunnel, which was a lot. When we got to Rennes, we took another train to St. Malo and got there around 6:30. We walked along the a path next to the ocean on our way to our hotels (our group had to be separated into 3 different hotels because one couldn't take all of us). It was a beautiful walk and their were a lot of pretty sailboats in the bay. After getting settled at our hotels, we walked along the ramparts next to the beach and Atlantic ocean just as the sun was setting--it was gorgeous. Then we ate at a creperie that was really good. Brittany is famous for its crepes and galettes (which is like a crepe except with different meats and cheeses and vegetables), and at this creperie, all they served were crepes. So I had a dinner crepe and a dessert crepe, and they were very good, especially the dessert crepe. After dinner, we walked around the city for a bit and then went to bed because we had to get up early the next day.

The next day, we woke up early to go kayaking in the Atlantic. Thank God the sun was out because if it had been cloudy, we would've been really cold. Thankfully though, it was a beautiful day and I was comfortable being out in the ocean. I'd never kayaked in the ocean before, but it wasn't hard. I had a really great time and didn't have trouble maneuvering. We kayaked around the coast with our guide (Vincent) who showed us the towers and fortresses that were used to protect the city. It was so cool and fun to experience a tour that way though I was happy when we finished because by then my arms were really tired because we had to fight some of the waves created by the other boats and ships that were out there. Some of the ships were even old pirate ships, so that was cool to see that. Thankfully, no one fell into the ocean though some people had trouble maneuvering. I managed to stay mostly dry throughout the entire 2 hours we were out in the ocean, but I got soaked coming back onto the beach because a wave of water poured into my kayak when I banked. We all actually got soaked at that moment so it was a bit unfortunate. Still fun though.
After kayaking, we ate lunch at some local cafes and then walked to a bike rental place. Dr. Morgan had arranged for us to take these bikes out for 3 and a half hours and use them to tour the city on our own. He gave us maps and then sent us on our way. It was so fun biking around the city though it took me a while to get used to riding a bike again. I hadn't ridden one in probably 10 years or so. I managed though and biked along a boardwalk that ran along the beach. It was still sunny and the beach and water were just beautiful. It was kind of surreal that we were getting the opportunity to do something very untouristy even though we were tourists. Props to Dr. Morgan. I biked with Michael, Michele, Katie, and Elizabeth and after getting off the boardwalk, we managed to find some side streets that led us to some cliffs overlooking the ocean. There were also some small bike trails in that area that led up to the cliffs, so it was perfect. We had to bike between these boulders that were close together, and Katie hurt her bad foot on one of the rocks and couldn't bike further. So she decided to rest in the grasses that were next to the ocean and Elizabeth stayed with her. Michael, Michele, and I decided to explore the trails, and we biked right to the edge of a cliff and saw the most beautiful views. It was breathtaking how blue the water was and the entire scene was incredible. We took lots of pictures and climbed the rocks and just hung out there for a while, taking it all in. I wanted to stay there forever because it was so beautiful--probably one of the prettiest sights I've ever seen. We stayed up there for a while and when we got back to where we had left Katie and Elizabeth, they had already gone somewhere else. So the three of us continued to bike around close to where the cliffs were and found another area of the city that had more cliffs and trails. We locked our bikes up and walked along the trails, and luckily for us, the trails were bordered by ripe blackberry bushes, so we spent a lot of time looking for ripe ones to eat. We also coincidentally found Erika here and we all hung out and ate blackberries for a while. While we were doing this, a Frenchman came up to us and laughed when he saw us eating all the blackberries and commented on how good they are. He then asked if we wanted to know something interesting, and we said yes of course. At the end of the path was a cliff with a giant wooden cross built on the edge. He led us to the cross and told us a priest had lived there for many years in the cliffs by himself and while he lived there, he had carved heads or little sculptures of things into the rocks. And sure enough, there were a couple of little rock sculptures around the cross. He then pointed to another cliff that was farther to the right of the cliff we were on, and he said on that cliff there were many more heads and rock sculptures that the priest had carved. He said we had to pay to see it, but he showed us that it was actually pretty easy to get to that cliff by climbing down the one we were on and walking across all the rocks below that separated our cliff from the sculpture cliff. By walking this way, we could see the sculptures without paying. Erika and Michael decided they wanted to go see the sculptures. I initially didn't want to do it because I thought climbing down the cliff would be too dangerous, but once Erika and Michael started climbing down, I couldn't resist the fact that I'd be missing out on something cool that I could see for free, so I took a deep breath, followed them down the cliff and prayed I wouldn't die. Thankfully, the climb down was pretty easy and I didn't really relax until we got down to the larger rocks that were scattered along the beach because death was still a serious possibility when we were going down the cliff. Thankfully, we did not die, and we were easily able to climb up the cliff where the sculptures were. It was totally worth it because there were a ton of rock sculptures and they were all well sculpted and some were very intricate. The best part was we ran into three other girls from our group who came to see the sculptures at the same time we did--they paid, we didn't. Haha. After checking out the sculptures, we walked back to our bikes and headed back to the bike place. Unfortunately, neither of us really knew where we were going because we had just kind of stumbled upon everything we had seen. However, we managed to backtrack pretty well and through a series of lucky guesses, we managed to find our way back to the bike place 3 minutes before it was about to close. Lucky us.
After that, Michael, Monika, Katie, Elizabeth, Dr. Morgan (DM), and I all went to a really nice seafood restaurant called L'Anchrage. It was absolutely delicious. I had mussels (some of the best I've ever had) for an appetizer, veal for the entrée (it was very good as well), and a little chocolate molten cake in creme sauce for dessert. It was fabulous--a little expensive, but money well spent. Afterwards, Michael, Monika, Katie, DM, and I went out to some of the bars (yes, even DM came) and we ordered drinks and just hung out until about one in the morning. All in all, it was a very good day.

The next day, we took a bus to the Mont St. Michel. DM had us get off the bus at the stop before the Mont St. Michel because he wanted us to walk up to it instead of drive right up to it. It was very cool getting to see it in the distance and walk up to it yourself and see it get closer with every step you took. It was a beautiful day again too so the cathedral just looked incredible against the blue sky, sand, water, and green grass. To get into the cathedral, we had to walk through these narrow streets bordered by shops and cafés. It was very cool walking through these streets because everything looked very old fashioned like it was from the 18th century or something. Then we climbed a million stairs and finally got to the top of the church to see the spectacular views. We then attended the last part (like the last 3 minutes) of a mass that was being held there and heard the nuns sing and the organ music that was playing. We then got to walk around the great room where the mass was held and got to see the beautiful gothic and roman architecture and the beautiful stained glass windows. After the mass, we walked all throughout the Mont St. Michel learning about the different rooms that served as a monastery for monks in the Middle Ages. All the architecture was very beautiful. After touring the cathedral, we went outside and found a patch of grass right next to the Mont St. Michel where we all sat down and had a picnic that consisted of baguettes, 4 different kinds of cheese, cookies, chocolate, pears, apples, and cider. It was delicious and the weather was perfect. That was my favorite part of the day. After the picnic, we spent the rest of the day traveling back to Versailles. We took a bus back to St. Malo and had a little bit of free time before we had to catch our train. Katie and Michael and I walked along the roads next to the beach for about 30 minutes before we all had to meet up at the hotel to grab our bags and walk to the train station. This time there was a direct train from St. Malo to Paris-Montparnesse. We left at 7:15 and didn't get into Paris until 10:30--3 hour train ride...blech. Then we had to catch a train to Versailles that would take about another 30 minutes. So we got into Versailles at 11:35 but the train station we went to was really far from where everyone lived. Three people took a taxi back home but the rest of us, myself included, waited for a bus to come that would take us all closer to where we lived. It came at 11:50. I was the last to get off and I didn't get home till 12:15. I went to bed immediately because we all had class the next day at 8:30 (this is the only class we have during the week that starts this early and they decide to schedule it on Mondays--fabulous planning people). Yeah I wasn't happy about that.

So I wake up at 7:00 the next morning and I'm super tired--big surprise. I manage to get through class and then we have 3 hours till our next class. I should've just gone home and slept but I hung out with Michele for a while at her house (which is like a mansion--she has a whole floor to herself). After an hour, I left to get lunch and then went to my house to check my email. Then I had grammar class and after grammar, I went home and slept until dinner. The dinner that night was very good and my mom made a prune pie for dessert. I thought I would hate prunes, but it was actually very good--my favorite dessert that she's made so far. After dinner, I did some homework and passed out again--all in all, pretty uneventful day.

Today after our theatre class, Michael, Katie, Elizabeth, and I went to the market and bought some cheese and baguettes and cider and went to the Versailles gardens at the chateau and had a little picnic there. It was really fun and a nice day for a picnic. It was also fun to watch the tourists. There were also a couple of cats in the garden who lounged around near us--one was a really pretty gray cat and the other was darker and not so pretty, but still cute nonetheless. We named the gray cat Louie (after all the Louis' who lived in Versailles) and we named the other cat Marie d'Autriche (Louis XIV's mom). After lunch we had conversation class, and after conversation class, Erika, Michael, and I got coffee to go (which consisted of the guy putting out coffee in a plastic dixie cup) and met Michele at the train station to go to Paris. We all wanted to visit Chinatown. We managed to find it, but were not super excited about it. I thought it would be more vibrant and market-like, but it mainly just consisted of a bunch of chinese restaurants and expensive chinese shops on this one street. It was still fun though. We tasted some food and enjoyed the fact that we had enough time to spend in Paris before having to return home for dinner. After walking through Chinatown, we decided to go back to Versailles. We took a metro to the train station and got on a train headed to Versailles. The 4 of us sat in a place on the train that had five seats and I sat next to the empty seat. I hoped no one random would sit next to me, but of course, someone did. This black guy walks in just as the doors to the train are about to close and plops down right next to me (he smelled like old cigarettes and BO too). Michele was writing in her notebook when he sat down and he leaned forward and pulled her notebook closer to him and said (in French) that he wanted to make sure she wasn't writing anything bad because is she were, he said he'd have to erase it but if it was good, she could keep it. Michele had no idea what this guy was saying to her and just stared at him blankly and the rest of us looked at each other really confused because he was acting so strangely. Then he commented how there were so many different people on the train (Frenchmen, Americans, Englishmen, Japanese, etc) and he asked what we were and we said we were American. He then said he didn't believe us and said we were English, which was interesting. Then he asked if we knew Barack, and we said yes, and he asked us if we liked him. Erika and Michael said they didn't really and I hesitated telling him my opinion because I didn't really want to get into a political discussion with this crazy black man. He took my hesitation me implying I didn't like him, but Michele said she liked him. And the man then put out his hand to shake hers and then he pointed to Michele's notebook and said in English "Write Barack is beautiful. Right there, write Barack is beautiful" (he pronounced beautiful like beeyootiful). Then he said in French to Michele, you are really nice and then he shook our hands except that when he held out his hand for us to shake, he never grabbed our hands, he just kept his stiff. Then he got up and sat on the other side of the car. It was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. Five minutes later he stands up again comes over to the side of the car where we were sitting and starts preaching loudly for the whole car to hear how the whites are sitting with the whites and the blacks are sitting with the blacks and the Japonese with the Japonese, etc and how it's good. He then said that whites should marry whites and blacks marry blacks, blah blah blah, basically talking to the whole train how segregation is great and better than interracial relationships. I was really uncomfortable and scared at that moment because he just started preaching this out of nowhere and when he was talking, he was talking in a forceful and kind of angry tone as if he were trying to get someone to disagree with him so that he could start a fight. The man was absolutely insane and I was also worried he was going to sit next to me again or possibly accuse our group of being racist. Once the train stopped, we got off and waited for the next train to come. Michael and Michele didn't know what the guy was talking about, but Erika and I understood and knew we needed to get off ASAP. That guy scared the crap out of me because you just had no idea what he would do. I was glad we were able to get off without any conflict.

Tomorrow we go to Chartres, so more updates to come. A bientot!