Le Rivière Cher

This morning we got up fairly early for a wonderful breakfast of fresh fruits and pastries. We packed up quickly to start another busy day! I hate leaving the chateau, I wish we could have spent more time enjoying the gardens and house itself. But I was excited for our morning boat tour of the Chateau de Chenonceau. It was absolutely gorgeous! There is a beautiful bridge that the chateau sits on over the river, and you can't see it if you tour the chateau from land. We felt very lucky to get the beautiful view. Then we drove over to the chateau itself for an interior tour. It was a little smaller (like I have any right calling a mansion small) but it made it feel almost like a home. This chateau was built primarily by women (half by the wife and half by the mistress). It still was beautiful! I'm still just amazed by the style and artistry of this time that is so prevalent in France. Again, we could only imaging what it must have been like to live here. I think my favorite room was the chapel with all of the stained glass windows! I kind of went crazy with pictures...

After walking around for a while (and falling down a flight of stairs...seriously there will be a bruise on my butt for a couple days) we got some lunch. Christine and I shared a bottle of wine and chatted with two girls we just met from our program while on this trip. They are so sweet and nice! We were sitting near the gardens of the mistress which were much more beautiful than the wife's (aren't they all?). It was a beautiful spot to enjoy the afternoon.

Today was filled with pictures, good food, and wine so far! I'll post as many pictures as I can, I think they can tell the story of my day much better than I could! We are on the bus right now heading to our next chateau, and between all of the activity of the day in combination with the majority of a bottle of wine, I think I will probably take a nap. Bons rêves :)

Au Chateau

When we were finished with the afternoons activities, we drove over to the chateau we were staying in for the night. It, like many of the other things I saw Saturday, was beautiful! While it wasn't a castle, it was still an old mansion with lots of land around the area. We dropped off our bags in the the rooms and went to another smaller building in the courtyard where we were served dinner. It was alright, but we just wanted to get out and explore the gardens and forest surrounding the area! By the time we finished, the sun was just setting. We found some really neat scenery and beautiful creeks and lakes. It was just so refreshing to breathe the fresh air and see so much green! We wandered around until it was too dark. After going back to our rooms and getting ready for bed, Christine and I popped open a bottle of champagne and just relaxed the evening away! I tried to stay up and do some things in my laptop, but I was out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Les petits chèvres

Out next stop was a little goat farm where the best goat cheese I've ever tasted is made. It's called Moreau, and it's a family business that has been running since the mid 1800s. Everything is done by hand, and they distribute primarily to Paris. We watched a little video about how goat cheese is made. It was in French and a little boring, but I was very excited to taste the cheese and see the goats afterwards! We were given a short tour of their facilities. Then we were led to the barn where the CUTEST goats were housed. They were so friendly, they were practically hopping out of their pen to have us pet them! They were just so curious, we were all falling in love. After getting a cuteness overload, we sampled their cheese with baguette, gingerbread, and another bread that had the cheese baked into it. All the breads came from a local bakery, and the wine we had with it was from a local vineyard. I also saw some really pretty pottery and guess where they came from?....a local potter! Everything has a very small town feel, and each business helps the other out. We were sad we couldn't buy any of the cheese since we can't refrigerate it until tomorrow, but we will look around Paris for this brand. We did however buy out all the wine so we each have a bottle for the night!

This was a very interesting part of the excursion, but I still loved every minute! We are on a great start to this trip so far!

Allons-y au Val de Loire!

Too early. That is the time we woke up this morning to take the metro to get to our meeting point. I was up way too late packing, showering, doing my hair to get ready for the trip. However, we made it in time and all in one price to the bus. I fell asleep as soon as we got rolling. We stopped at a little gas station for a break (they aren't that much different here apparently), and I stayed awake to take in the scenery once we got going again. It was so beautiful. Living in Paris, I forget that most of France is not metropolitan. There are fields and little villages everywhere, I can imagine this would be a great place to escape from the city. P.s., any piano instrumental is the best music to listen to while driving through this area (especially Claire du Lune).

The city we are staying in is Amboise, and it's a quaint little town with a huge chateau overlooking the city from a hill. We toured it and it was incredibly beautiful. The chateau was built in the 1400s, and the entire French royalty vacationed there. I couldn't help but imagine what it must have been like walking through the halls as a resident during those times! This was also the place where Leonardo Da Vinci died with the Mona Lisa and two other paintings. His house was just down the road, and his grave was in the chateau's abbey. He gave the Mona Lisa to his assistant here before his death, and that is why the French have possession of the painting!

We had an opportunity after the tour to get lunch. We found a little cafe just along the chateau's walls and had the cheapest lunch since arriving in Europe! It was very good (I had wine and pizza!), but we were a little rushed to catch the bus for the next destination!

Friday Funday

The week is finally over! Between writing essays all week and the seemingly endless hours in the class room, I was excited for my day off. And did make use of it!

Emily and I ventured around the city to try and check some things off my list. We went to the Seine near the Notre Dame to look at the dozens of little book stands perched along the bridge. They had very old and very cool posters, books, postcards, and trinkets. It was too much to take in all at once, so I'll be back to buy something another time. Then we walked over to look at the Notre Dame. The line was way too long to go in, but it was absolutely breathtaking just looking at the big stained glass and the sculptures all around the church. After looking around for about 15 minutes, we moved onto an area she goes to a lot between her classes. It was across the Seine from the Notre Dame, and it was just so quiet. It was definitely much less touristy with little streets, boutiques, and shops. She took me to Berthillon which is the most AMAZING ice cream I've ever had! I got a scoop of the dark chocolate and strawberry sorbet. The chocolate was the richest I've ever tasted, and it was perfect with the light strawberry. I loved it and want to go back very soon! As we finished that we did a little shopping of course. And to all of my lady readers, if you come to Paris, just don't bother packing clothes. You will end up buying a whole new wardrobe anyways and want to trash whatever you brought. Thankfully I got lucky with my timing of the month-long sales and I don't feel bad about the shopping! After spending a decent amount of time in a scarf shop, we made a pilgrimage to a very special spot. Emily had discovered the street that transported Gil Pender to the 1920s in the movie Midnight In Paris. I've been dying to go, and once we got there it was impossible not to feel giddy! We sat on the steps and talked about what we would most want to see if we could go back during that time of prolific art and writing. We decided we will definitely go back some time next week right before midnight just to see if maybe Hemmingway would come pick us up.

So that was our adventure around the city. We started walking over to the Louvre to meet Christine to take advantage of the late hours of the museum. The Louvre is everything I ever imagined. The art was of course beautiful, but I just couldn't get over how much history was contained within these walls. Thousands of years worth of art had somehow survived and were displayed beautifully for all to see. It was incredible. I saw all the main attractions; Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus di Milo, and so many other important paintings. I hope this collection can stay just as well preserved for the next thousand years. While this was all extremely beautiful, I couldn't help but have a
little fun with the statues :)

We ended the night at a cafe down our street which was excellent! We all split a bottle of wine and swooned over the presentation and taste of our meals. Finally, we went back home to pack for our weekend trip to the Loire Valley!

It was such an amazing day and I'm so happy I was able to cross some things off my list. Dont worry, I took pictures of everything! We have a week left now, and we made an agreement to spend every moment taking the last of Paris in! Thank you all so much for reading and supporting me while I've been abroad. I can't believe it's almost done. I'll report about the Loire Valley soon. Au revoir :)

All caught up

And onto today!

I started off a little later because I once again had to go print out pictures for our second evaluation. I felt better about this time since I knew what I was doing, but of course, there still had to be complications. The man who helped me last week immediately recognized me and laughed. I have the worst luck at this place. Their photo technician apparently went on vacation and wouldn’t be back until next week. Thankfully, they did have a little instant booth that wasn’t as good of quality, but would work just fine for a desperate girl. After I printed them, I asked him when I could come back next week for my next set of prints and promised I wouldn’t do it last minute!

With just a little more shopping before hand, I got to CEA and hung around before class. I chatted with one of the advisors who was working in the office, and she gave me some great tips for souvenirs. Look out y’all…Finally my classmates started trickling in and we hit the ground running with our evaluations. Again, she loved mine! I was so happy and was really proud of them myself. After hearing the way she critiques other artists, any good word from her is much appreciated. I’m glad I’ll have some great prints to show off when I come home.

We had a take home exam for Culture, so we didn’t have class. During that time, a group of us went over to the Pompidu Center where the Museum of Modern Art is. It is so close to our campus that we’ve been really interested in seeing the exhibits. Plus, our ID gets us free admission to the museums around Paris. Let me say, I like to think of myself as a pretty cultured woman, but in my apparently simpleton opinion, modern art is extremely over rated. We found some interesting paintings or sculptures, but mainly I just got a headache walking around the exhibit. We all tried our best to appreciate the series of photos of the naked man who had someone walk him around a city like a dog with a huge chain and leash, but really he just looked silly. We also tried to find the deeper meaning of one of the murals, but it looked like an enlarged finger painting done by a 2 year old. No matter how hard I tried, I just was not impressed. So went home to look at my own photos that I thought had more merit.

I ended up lying down to take a short nap before doing laundry. Two hours later…we headed off to the Laundromat near our house and here we are! We were a little hopeless since none of us had been to one even in the US, and trying to figure out how to turn the machines on in a foreign language was pretty difficult. But we succeeded! My clothes are just finishing up in the dryer, and we’ll go grab some dinner for a low-key night at the apartment.

I can’t believe I only have a week and a half left. As much as I want to see my family, this hasn’t seemed like nearly enough time to fit in everything I’ve wanted to do and see. This week I will be trying my best to check everything off my list! Wish me luck J

Tuesday Cruise Day

Finally, I have a moment to sit down and type a post out! The past two days have almost blended together, but I will do my best to recall everything!

Tuesday started out pretty early for us. Christine and I took Emily to her class and had lots of free time to walk around the city. We wandered over the Musee d’Orsay (the big impressionist museum), but the line was far too long for us to go in before class. So we walked around the really pretty facades and saw the Louvre was near by. We crossed over there just to look around the area since we hadn’t been yet. It was so beautiful! The building itself is just an incredible piece of architecture, and the glass pyramids just kind of tie the old and the modern together. We were standing in front of the big pyramid when I turned around and noticed that from the very point we were standing, we could see the Louvre, Tuilerie Gardens, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and the Obliesk. It was really impressive to see all the amazing sights just in one spot! It was about time for us to head over to campus, so we got on the metro and left. With our remaining time before class, we went and shopped at the little boutique just right around the corner. We pass by it every day and they have the cutest things, I was dying to go in. Thank God I did! The lady who runs it is so sweet and she helped us look around and try things on. Every piece in there was absolutely beautiful. The clothes were so well made, so intricate, and a lot of things had a very vintage-y feel to them. I had great luck there and found 4 pieces for a very good price thanks to the huge discounts going on this month. I can’t wait to come home and show them off!

Class started up and for the first time I was a little depressed in Photography. We watched a great, but very emotionally heavy film. It was a documentary about a famous war photographer. He has traveled all over the world and captured moments of just absolute sadness and distress to try to help people all around the world see what is going on. It’s hard to describe, it was so moving but at the same time just absolutely disgusting that this level of inhumanity and injustice still goes on today. It was a lot to think about.

In my culture class, things were a little bit lighter. I decided that for my final project I am going to analyze The Moose Bar. He wants us to pick a space around Paris to examine and discuss what it is, what the space is used for, and basically how it fits into Paris as a whole. I am really interested to talk about how it is a haven for ex-pat Americans in Paris and compare it to the American writers and artists of the 1920s. I also really want to interview Eric, the owner, to find out if that is even what he intended his place to be. I think I can come up with something interesting, besides, there are far worse places to spend your time researching.

At night, we went to as a group on a boat tour through the Seine. We really wanted to go when it was dark to see the whole city lit up.  I smuggled on my wine in a water bottle and throughly enjoyed the sights. Of course we saw the Notre Dame, Eiffle Tower, Louvre, etc all from the water, but the most interesting part was watching the people who were sitting along the banks. It was so crowded! Everyone was out having picnics and wine or just hanging out by the river. And they loved seeing the tourists pass by on the boats! They were all yelling 'bonjours' and waving and smiling and some even started dancing. It was the most welcoming feeling ever as an outsider haha. 

It was a very fun day overall but I was exhausted by the time we got home and fell asleep very easily. For some reason my pictures aren't uploading on here, but I'll try to get some soon!