Paris je t'aime

Last weekend was the Abbey program's Paris weekend -- a nice preview of what we can expect for Paris week, and needless to say, it's going to be amazing! Paris really speaks for itself: what more can I say about the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame that hasn't already been said? This was a return visit to Paris for me, but there's always so much to do and more neighborhoods to see. I was thrilled to finally make it to Montmartre (to can-can in front of the Moulin Rouge!) and Sacre Coeur, which was one of the most amazing cathedrals I've ever seen. We were even lucky enough to catch it during Sunday's Lenten Mass, which was incredible. I also had my first memorable experience on the Champs-Élysées, which as it turns out, is a street, not a building (oops... needless to say I was lost for about half an hour looking for a large, historic building, of which there are about six near the
Champs-Élysées metro stop, but I eventually found it!). I also got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle for the first (several) times, which is nothing short of breathtaking. After dark, the Eiffel Tower is lit up to look like it's sparkling for the first five minutes of every hour, and it's spectacular.

The Canal over by our hostel!

What would this blog be without food pictures? We stopped by the Louvre and I got a Kinderchocolate and cappucino-almond ice cream :)

Speaking of the Louvre...

Some cool graffiti over by the hostel!

Even more graffiti! I wouldn't mind if this showed up in Detroit :)

Super cool glass-outside house

Generic bridge over by our hostel

Not so generic... apparently they were dragging the canal for a body the day we were walking past, so naturally Dr. Mackaman had us take a picture with the diver once he emerged from the water (sans body, thankfully).

More graffiti!

My new favorite aperitif: Chevre Chaud

If this isn't the most gorgeous thing you've seen, I recommend reevaluating.

Hey, there's a police cruiser (still looking for a body!)

Notre Dame! It was the 850th anniversary, which is why there's that weird structure in the bottom left corner -- I guess it was for crowd control, but it didn't make for the best pictures :P

I think we're good enough to do this professionally, right?

Sacre Coeur!

They even had living statues on the hill at Sacre Coeur, which I found rather amusing.

What visit to Paris would be complete without some creme brulee?

Tours and Chenonceau

Since getting to the Abbey, the concept of "down time" has been nonexistent for me, which I usually love, but it's hard to fight through jet lag and jump into eight hour class days. Surprisingly enough, though, I'm actually liking all of the (shudder) liberal arts classes I'm in this semester, since it seems more "real" when I'm literally not more than half an hour from some major historical landmarks.

The Chateau! It looks like it's straight out of Cinderella.

This weekend we went on an excursion to Chateau Chenonceau, which is an amazing Chateau (mansion) built in the late 1400s spanning the River Cher. This mansion was a gift from King Henry II to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. Apparently, the French have a much more open view towards relationships than most people in the States. Henry II's wife, Catherine de Medici, however, wasn't super thrilled about this, because she'd actually fallen in love with Henry II. After Henry II's sudden death in a jousting match, Catherine kicked Diane out of Chenonceau and redesigned the gardens around the castle to better reflect her personality. We didn't get to see the gardens, but I'm planning to come back in the spring and check them out!

After Catherine died, she passed the mansion to her daughter-in-law, Louise de Lorraine, who was married to Henry III, the third and final king produced by Catherine and Henry II's marriage (they had 11 kids together, three of whom became king). Louise created one of the most interesting rooms in the castle, called the black room. It's exactly as it sounds -- very ornate but at the same time very austere and dark. She created it after her husband's death, and she spent the rest of her life wearing mourning garments and basically sulking in this room. After her death, the Chateau left the hands of the royal family.

After a very rushed tour of Chenonceau, we were off to Tours for the day to shop (finally!) and see the Musee des Beaux Arts.

Only one of those things was actually successful (and it wasn't the shopping). After a good hour of wandering Tours with Dr. Mackaman, we finally asked directions to get to the Musee des Beaux Arts. We spent about an hour at the museum, which had some incredible pieces in it (and an elephant outside that rivals the one at Wayne State's Engineering Library!).

Fritz, the taxidermied elephant outside the Musee des Beaux Arts

Then we explored the cathedral next to the Musee, which was absolutely breathtaking. I'm not usually a sappy art person, but seeing the organ in this cathedral actually took my breath away.

The most amazing organ - I think I was more impressed with this cathedral than I was with Notre Dame, actually.

Stained glass in the chapel - amazing

After another hour of wandering around lost, a few of us got food and asked the man working the sandwich shop for directions. I spent about half an hour speaking only French to figure out how to get back to the main street and our hostel, but now I definitely know how to say "left" (a gauche), "right" (a doit), and "straight" (tout doit)! It was a really stressful day, but we managed to find our way back to the hostel about an hour later, then we went out and got lost... again on our way to the Place de Plumereau, where a lot of university students hang out on the weekend. It was really lively, but I didn't stay too long because I was exhausted (By the end of the day I think we had walked at least 15 miles... ouch). Plus, there's always the option of a return trip now that I know my way around (mostly). And if not, I can ask for directions now!

Place Plumerau!

En Continuation

Done with the first week of classes and I still love the Abbey -- my class schedule is a bit more demanding than I expected, and I'm in class from 8:15 am to 4:00 pm with very few breaks, but I get out with plenty of time to wander around Pontlevoy and the Abbey grounds (photos below!), which is nice -- and it's only a five week session, so it'll fly by. Next session I only have two classes, so I'm hoping to get out and use the bikes they have at Le Commerce to explore a bit further out too.

So far, I feel like a lot has happened in such a short period of time: I met my host family, who is really sweet, and I'm very excited to spend time with them and learn more French! We're having lunch on Sunday, so hopefully I'll pick up some French cooking tips as well :)

I'm also learning a lot about Southern culture since there are so many people on this program from Mississippi and Louisiana! Today I learned that fried alligator is a popular dish, how to eat a craw fish, and that Cajun and Creole are not the same thing. Like I expected, it's a bit of a two-way culture shock, but I'm really enjoying it.

 My French is also a lot better than I thought -- I've been able to hold my own in the supermarket, bakery, pharmacy, and Le Commerce: the four main destinations in Pontlevoy, so I think I'm doing pretty well so far. Hopefully by the end of the trip I'll be able to comprehend a bit more than I do now; I'm at a point where I can mostly read and translate the language, but it's hard to speak and understand what others are saying (mostly I just smile and nod and hope I'm not agreeing to anything illegal :P)

I'm so excited to go to Tours and Chateau Chenonceau tomorrow, but for tonight I'm just going to try to figure out the French washing machines and do some reading for class.

A bientôt!

First Days

I've only been at The Abbey for a few days, but it feels like I've been here for so much longer (in a good way, of course!). The sleepy little town of Pontlevoy still doesn't feel like a "real city" -- in fact, every time I've been outside of the Abbey gates I feel like I'm on a movie set and somebody's going to push down the cardboard pieces. Over the past few days, there have been a lot of orientation sessions, finding our way around the town (even with my painfully bad sense of direction, I think I might have it figured out), and getting set up with classes.

It's taken me a lot less time to adapt to French culture than I thought it would. This morning, it was the most surreal experience to wake up, get ready for class, and grab a pan au chocolate at the Boulangerie just across the street before my day started. That being said, my first full day of classes actually went really well -- especially after having not been in school for nearly two months!

The classes I'm taking at the Abbey are not my normal science-heavy curriculum: I'm in two history classes, literature, french, and art history. Normally this schedule would make me cringe (as my liberal arts friends well know), but after meeting the professors, I'm actually excited (!?) about these classes, since I'll literally be living in the middle of everything we're learning about, and I think that accessibility will make it much more tangible as a subject.

In the middle of the day, we headed over to Le Commerce for lunch, where we had a great meal courtesy of Julien, the wonderful owner of this far-too-conveniently located bar/restaurant.

Pork with some kind of curry sauce, rice, and of course bread!

Finally, after I got out of my last class, I explored the village a bit with Michelle, my roommate on this trip, which was great to orient myself a bit. We got to see the inside of a 1000 year old chapel just next to the Abbey, then we wandered a bit farther down to the edge of Pontlevoy and saw several expansive fields and some really cute vineyards that we'll get to see the inside of soon too!

The inside of the chapel, which was freezing but also really goreous!

Outside the chapel - surprisingly warmer than the interior.

The cemetery in Pontlevoy that we stumbled upon during out scavenger hunt on Sunday -- it's surprisingly meticulously maintained and almost vibrant with all of the memorial flowers and photos people have brought for their deceased family members.

I'm pretty sure these are going to be grapes soon :)

Just a small river that runs through the town and into a "pool" at the Abbey.

Tomorrow I meet my host family, who I'm very excited to meet and learn more about French culture and food!

A bientôt!

Paris to Pontlevoy

As of about 4 pm today, I am officially calling Pontlevoy, France my home for the semester. The past few days have been such a whirlwind -- I can't believe that just over two days ago I was sitting at home in Michigan. From encountering a whole new language to lugging 50+ pound suitcases around the metro to the huge culture shock, it's been a fast 48 hours. Since I'm still relatively awake due to the time difference, I might as well record the highlights of the past few days:

1. Layover in Madrid. About ten minutes before I was due to leave for the airport, I got a call saying my flight had been cancelled due to weather, and I had been reassigned to fly Iberia Air's flight to Madrid, Spain, then on to Paris Orly. My first time in Spain was relatively uneventful -- I was surprised at how similar the Spanish I heard was to the Spanish I actually knew from school, but I was glad it was because it was a rough layover due to last-minute gate changes, so knowing the language definitely helped. I also had my first European meal!

Not very exciting, just water and jamon (which was a salted ham very much like proscuitto) on bread.

2. The SIM Card Adventure. The area I stayed in was very non-touristy, which meant very few people spoke English at all. I needed to get a SIM card for my phone to use it in France, so the concierge at the hostel I was in sent me and Anthony a few doors down to a telecommunications store, where neither of the men selling the cards spoke English. After a good 45 minutes of combined pointing, German, Spanish, French, and broken English, I walked out of the store with a new SIM card and a working phone. However, the data plan I bought wasn't activated so I went back to see what was the problem. This time, we were in luck. One of the men who was in the shop happened to speak Spanish and French, so I had him translate my Spanish to French to figure out what the problem was: it was a lot more convoluted than I ever thought was possible, but it worked! My phone, however, still does not have data because I have to wait for it to kick in.

3. Eiffel Tower! This morning, since I had yet to do even one touristy thing in Paris, Anthony and I made it to the Eiffel Tower to at least say we'd been there, although he hasn't yet gone to the top. We did get some good photos out of it though!

Yay we made it there!

The ironwork on the tower was really intricate.

4. Pontlevoy! (last but not least)
After a quick trip to the Eiffel Tower, I had to run back to get my things together to meet the Abbey Program group at the airport to catch a bus to Pontlevoy, where I'm staying for the next three months. I ended up taking a taxi back to the airport -- no way was I about to drag a 50 pound suitcase up and down metro stairs (ironically, as soon as we arrived, we carried our luggage up about three flights of stairs to get to our rooms, so I did end up having to do heavy lifting after all). After we put our things away (kind of), we had a tour of the grounds, which are so much more beautiful than I thought they would be, then a dinner of pizza and crepes, followed by a trip to Le Commerce, the only bar/restaurant in the entire town. It's very different coming from a large city to such a small town because it feels so much quieter, which is both unsettling and peaceful at the same time.

The Abbey, which is so much more beautiful in person!

Hypnose, the resident French Bulldog and (so far) unofficial Abbey mascot. I've felt animal deprived for a while, so I'm beyond thrilled to have him around :)

Very very brief update

I just wanted to post something before I went to sleep, but after 20+ hours of being in airplanes and airports, I finally made it to the City of Lights! It was a short day, but it was great to meet up with Anthony and meet Keenon and Adrien for the first time! I also had a great time meeting up with Anthony's neighbor, Staci, who seems to be insistent on showing me around Paris (not that it's a bad thing at all :P)

Despite the miscommunications caused by not speaking French (and trying to get a phone card from two men who don't speak any English, ultimately using a Spanish-speaking man to translate for me), today's been pretty great. I love it here so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing Pontlevoy in person for the first time!

Now I have to figure out how to repack my luggage to get it back to the Abbey from this hostel, but that's what tomorrow is for :)