Au Revoir, Paris!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of returning to the city of love once again. If you're confused... I went to Paris.

I unexpectedly got out of class early on Friday so a group of us decided to hop on a bus to get to the train station! We preceded to wait at the train station where we met another student of our school in the 6 month program. Together we sat until we realized that the bus was not coming. So, Anne Marie (our french mom) came to our rescue! But, We had too many people to fit in her car... so our new friend from the other program sat on my lap... and to the train station we went in clown-car style.

After finally arriving at the train station we took a twisted way of getting to Paris but we eventually got there, and ran into a few fellow students in other stations on the way! 

We hopped on a metro once in Paris where I was approached by probably the most insane woman i've ever met. I was genuinely frightened by her... but it probably didn't help that she was speaking gibberish in French. After all that, we got to our hotel! It was super cheap for Paris... but the bathroom was the size of a bus bathroom...

Which we thought was hilarious! So we took pictures in it... 

There was also a DELICIOUS pizza place next door, so the very tired four of us sprawled pizza boxes across the bed and ate until we were in a collective food coma.

The next day everyone got up bright and early to go to the Louvre, then they came to wake me up because I slept through all my alarms... oops!  So, we finally left and went to a local market, and then the Louvre!

 The Mona Lisa!

After the Louvre, we went super shopping in 3 pastry supply shops! It was like a pastry student heaven with all the entremets rings, tart pans, and chocolate molds! I went a little overboard... I am now fully equipped to  bake anything at home!

We continued to wander around and ended up on this long stretch of street with tons of strip clubs and sex stores. Probably more than i've ever seen. There were also prostitutes lined up down the street... which I have never seen before. It was quite eye-opening and slightly disheartening. 

But then I found an AWESOME vintage store and tried on lots of fur coats! I became Macklemore for a hot second.

Finally, I made it to Hard Rock Cafe where I had a peaceful evening filled with BBQ ribs, Rock and Roll, and a large fancy drink. I was one happy American.

 

Fast-forward through a great night sleep and Sunday begins-

We got up early and took a tram to Versailles to see the Palace... but upon arrival realized the palace was quite far into Versailles... so we turned around and went to meet up with two girls (Ashley and Jackie) I was travelling with's Parisian friend, Clermont! He was extremely friendly and a bit overwhelming but we had a blast with him! We went to the Pompidou modern art museum which was awesome!! I met a hilarious man from Denmark who I realized spoke English after he'd been sitting next to me for a while on the metro. He started laughing because I asked my friend if France had a president, He taught me a brief history lesson for the remaining 5 stops and he'd heard of the company my dad works for which is based in Denmark! It was a really neat chance meeting, he was a pretty cool and very smart man. 

We got off the metro and my friends and I headed to Pompidou!

Here are some pictures at Pompidou taken by Clermont. 

We also fit in a brief trip to the Arc de Triumph!

Me under the Arc!

At the Arc we met a VERY American tourist by every since of the word. He was mid-forties in a too small polo shirt with khacki shorts and we had to teach him how to use the metro. It was quite hilarious. I hope no one has seen me how I saw him... but i'm sure they have. Tourists are hilarious. I'd like to think i'm one small step above "tourist" since I have technically been living in France.

Which brings me to the sad part. Saying goodbye to Paris. I ate a delicious crepe, and sipped on a limonade (it is the drink of the gods, I will miss my precious limonades) and I reminisced about France as I had my last Parisian meal. Its so weird that I'm going home soon. One more trip, 2 class days, then graduation. Then back to Charlotte, NC I go. 

Can't wait to fill you all in after my Barcelona trip this weekend! Until Then.

Trainsanity in Switzerfrance

Bonjour!!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit Geneva, Switzerland! I bounced back and forth with the idea because I thought the train tickets would be expensive, but then my train pass covered it! So, to Switzerland I went... FOR FREE! Yay! It was a little chilly when we arrived, but the mountains in the background were capped with snow so it was worth it!

In case you didn't know, Switzerland is famous for some neat things! The 3 biggest are

- Swiss Army Knives

- Swiss Chocolate

- Clock & Watch Making

Followed by some other important ones like cheese, skiing, Mont-Blanc, designer pens, etc

We walked the main shopping area of town all of Saturday to get a feel of the town. Here are a couple representatives: A GIANT me-sized replica of a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife and a bag of yummy truffles from a chocolate shop in town called "Sweetzerland." (Such a cute name!) I will admit one downside to Geneva... It was pretty expensive everywhere we went, but they made sure to make everyone feel better about the price by accepting most types of currency at every store! In my time in Geneva I managed to make purchases with euros, francs, and dollars! Pretty exciting! They also spoke multiple languages everywhere so getting around and talking to people was much easier than I've become accustom to. 

Part of the shopping journey included this awesome GIANT toystore that was 4 stories tall. FOUR! Why didn't I grow up in Geneva?!

At the toystore I was quite tempted to purchase Qui Est-ce? ("Guess who?" in French) But I decided a picture would suffice since I already had no space left in my suitcase.

After going back to memories of childhood, we continued our adventure and found a FANTASTIC playground! We had a little too much fun...

As night approached we made our way back to the hotel and realized how tired we were! We stayed in a hotel just on the border of France and Switzerland... I tend to get a little odd when I am tired so on the bus ride I coined the term SWITZERFRANCE... which I continued to use for the remainder of the trip. After vegging out at the hotel a bit, we took a risk and went to get sushi which seemed very questionable to do in France to me... but YOSO, you only Switzerfrance once... so I went for it, and I didn't get any rare foodborne illnesses! Hooray!

The next day was Sunday, and I got up early with a plan to be extreme tourists and see every well-known landmark in Geneva! I circled points of interest on the map I had of Geneva and dragged everyone along on my crazy journey to:

1. The Broken Chair

 2. The United Nations Building

 3. The Botanical Garden-

(Going here started a debate of the pronunciation of "Botanical" I think it is pronounced bow-tanical, while Francesca argued it is buh-tanical

4. A beautiful local park FILLED with flowers

5. The Jet D'eau

                                             ^^ I am hardcore cheesin'

I look like a mermaid... lol

6. The Flower Clock

After we saw all of this, Chelsea and Kayla decided to take an earlier train home, so Francesca, Mary, Mallory and I  continued to adventure on to the art district! While there we saw fantastic grafitti and street art, went to a great market, walked past a circus big top (complete with a "little person" selling tickets) and found a replica of the Central Perks coffee shop from Friends!

We had a great time, then headed towards the train station to begin our short 2 hour train home! 

and that's when the TRAINSANITY IN SWITZERFRANCE began...

First, we were riding along and an announcement came over the speaker laughing about animals being on the tracks so we had to wait 15 min for them to move. We all laughed at the delay and the train eventually moved on. After that, everything on the train was going well until we reached the stop before our first train connection in Lyon. Right before we left the preceding station the loudspeaker came on saying something about Lyon, we used our basic French skills and assumed the conductor said we were going to Lyon, I mean we translated the animal announcement correctly so this time we had to be right, right? WRONG. The train started moving backwards. Looking around in a panic, we observed that no French people were freaking out... so we remained calm and waited... 20 minutes passed and announcement after announcement came on and the train started going forward... then backward... then forward. Finally I decided to "parlez vous anglais?" a woman sitting near us who explained there was a fire near the station in Lyon and we had to remain on the train until the fire and other delayed trains had passed which would take an extra hour. So, we rolled back and forth in the train and goofed off for an hour or two playing cards and acting quite slap happy:

"This could be so much worse!" someone said as we laughed and shared stories of our past adventures and funny highschool and college memories. 

Little did we know, it was about to get MUCH worse.

I'm going to spare you some time and skip the minor details... but the one hour train from Geneva to Lyon ended up taking SIX hours. We finally arrived in Lyon to realize that we had of course missed our connection. We hopped on the closest equivalent train which we sat on at the station for 2 hours because it was also delayed. That train took us to a town called St. Etienne a 1.5 hours drive from where we live. 

 

We were all hanging by a thread, we should've arrived home at 10pm and it was 3am. 

When we arrived at St. Etienne we had no way of getting home and there were people everywhere, we were directed into a full room where we sat very confused for a while until I literally shouted "parlez vous anglais!!!!???" and a man that spoke decent english informed me that the train station would call us all taxis and pay for them because of the delay. We got one of the first taxis because I think the train workers felt bad for us, which made some of the other people waiting scowl at us, but I didn't care because we lived far away. I had to sit in a fold out car seat in the trunk as the four of us plus another random train-goer packed into the cab with a driver that spoke not even a tiny bit of English. I would tell you how fast the car was going, but i'll leave it at: we made a 1.5 hour train ride in 30 minutes. It was the scariest car ride of my entire life.

Now, remember how I mentioned the cab driver spoke only French? Yeah... we got to the center of our town and he told us through hand gestures that he wasn't paid by the train station to take us home. Only to Yssingeaux. Thank God Yssingeaux is a small town. We began the trek home with our tired bodies and heavy backpacks. It took 15 minutes.

We also walked past a dead cat. I wanted to leave that part out of this post, but it just helps portray how BAD our evening turned. It was a purrfect ending to our night from hell. (That pun is so morbid, but I had to do it.)

I got home and curled up in bed and slept right up until it was time to leave for class the next day.

My opinion of transportation here changed a lot that day.

Fin.

 

Ananas translates to Pineapple?

Hello world!

Life has been pretty busy! I finished Ice-Cream class last week! We made some pretty fun and tasty treats! Here's our buffet!

I also reached my goal of meeting French friends! They are so nice! I was visiting my friend down the street and when I passed them they STRONGLY insisted I join their barbecue. So, I went over and through my broken French and their jumbled English (much better than my French) we managed to have a great time! We sang a mixture of American and French classic songs on karaoke and they made me the typical "French" cocktails which were quite interesting... especially this odd anise-flavored liquor. There were at least 10 French students hanging out with me, and they told me they all go to optometry school together! They tried to guess my glasses prescription. It was hilarious. They also frequently would pour me a drink then take it from me and yell "You not 21! You can't drink!" then they'd give it back and laugh hysterically. According to them, they started drinking between the age of 12 and 14! That's my baby sister's age... i'd kill her! What crazy differences culture can make!  The next day we hung out again and they ordered pizza and Alex invited us all to his house to hangout. It was TOO fun and we all spent hours talking about differences in France v. America. It was cool that they thought America is just as cool as I think France is! We laughed at how banana translates to banane yet pineapple translates to ananas. The translations were fun to share. I learned more French that night than i've learned since arriving! They all really want to visit and know the sports team for every big US city. It was impressive! They also knew all of our popular music artists and they WORSHIP David Guetta. 

Just before a week of making friends and ice-cream, I went on a weekend excursion to Le Puy! I took a bus with three other students from my campus: Caroline, Hattie, and Julian- and my friend Mallory from the Providence Campus. It was nice to have a relaxing one day trip instead of the usual crazy jam-packed weekend. Le Puy is just a 45min bus ride from Yssingeaux, so we got to sleep in until 9am then head over for the day! 

It was a beautiful, blue-skied day! Here is the town from above in the famous Mary statue that I climbed! (there's pretty much some sort of scenic view or climb-able landmark in every city here!)

The town was busy and friendly! It was very "French" and we got to enjoy multiple markets all over town!

They also had a very nice cathedral that I visited. Here is a picture from its steps overlooking the town.

Here is the statue of Mary I climbed. I went all the way up to her crown!

Here I am joining a life-size painting on the side of a building in town!

As you can see, Le Puy was quite enjoyable! It was a perfect day mixed with culture, shopping, and excursions. It was nice to travel with the same group as my first trip since we hadn't traveled together in four weeks. It was great to see how everyone has adjusted to the French culture. We all had clearly mellowed out a lot since day one. We ended the day with crepes and stories and then returned to Yssingeaux. It was a very successful excursion! I even met a man from America who moved to France at my age. He came for a "visit" and has now lived in France for 32 years. We spoke of cultural differences and he said the people of France are somehow more "human." I totally understood what he meant by that. Sometimes I worry I'll suddenly decide not to come back and end up like that super cool man... in France... for 32 years. It sounds awesome to me! I'm loving how even the smallest moments make for such an awesome experience here!

"In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language." Mark Twain

This past weekend I went where everyone automatically assumes I am when I say I'm in France: Paris! Although my initial impression of Paris was disappointment, It definitely got better as the weekend went on. The reason I was not initially taken-aback by the awesomeness that everyone builds Paris up to be is because all of the famous landmarks are in a two-mile radius that is not near the train station. So, when I expected to hop off the train and be in the Louvre sipping Champagne and gazing at the Eiffel Tower like tourist pamphlets make seem possible... I was suddenly hit by the reality that like in any major city, the ENTIRE city is not famous. I suppose it is comparable to getting off of a bus in New Jersey and thinking its a 5 minute walk to the Empire State Building...

But, have no fear everyone!! I did end up LOVING Paris!!

So, let me walk you through my adventures!

I arrived in Paris around 3pm with a plan to go straight to the hotel we'd reserved, drop off our backpacks, and go to the one and only Eiffel Tower!! But, our hotel was not as close as expected so we cancelled it on a whim and began a solid 10 mile hike through Paris. Over the next 6 and a half hours I:

-Ran into a Pro-Life March

I have accidentally run into 6 parades/marches since coming to France. I usually never know what is being celebrated or protested. haha.

 -I crossed the Seine River

 -I crossed a lock bridge

In Paris, many of the bridges are covered in locks. The idea is you go to the bridge with your love and together lock a lock onto the bridge and throw the key into the river. Pretty precious.

 -I ATE SNAILS.

Well, Escargot.

It felt like snail murder you guys... It was so delicious yet so scary at the same time. Definitely worth it though.

-I saw Notre Dame

-I went inside Notre Dame!

I may also add that I was wearing a backpack so I was momentarily the hunchback of Notre Dame.

- I walked along the Seine! 

This made my friend Mallory really nervous to walk on because it was so narrow and the wall preventing us from falling in the water was not tall at all. I thought it was AWESOME! haha

- I crossed another Lock bridge! They really are everywhere!

It's pretty much the coolest vandalism I've ever seen. I really wanted to put a lock on for Craig and I... but it seemed taboo if he wasn't there to throw the key with me. Guess it will have to wait for now.

- I went to the Louvre! Well, outside of it anyways... I'm hoping to go back to Paris again before I leave so I can actually go inside.

- I saw a bird chilling on a naked dude in the Gardens by the Louvre! 

I suppose this isn't all that significant, but I thought it was hilarious.

Following all of this, we met some nice gentlemen who offered to show us the city! I thought it seemed like a fun offer... but It made Caroline and Mallory a little nervous so we continued on and then started to realize everything we'd done in only a few hours and we got a wave of crankiness from sore feet... so we set out to find a hotel. Turns out hotels in Paris are really expensive. We searched for at least an hour until we finally found a place that lowered the hotel price by 50 Euro for us because we said we couldn't stay there for the original cost! We danced around over that once getting into our room! Especially because our hotel room was a 5min walk to the Eiffel Tower! We went to a very French restaurant for dinner where I tried Foie Gras and Boef Bourguignon!! I felt pretty fancy and was quite happy to be fed and have found a hotel. Following dinner, we went on a walk to....

THE EIFFEL TOWER!!

At the beginning of each dark hour, the tower sparkles! And we caught it just in time! It was fantastic. So fantastic that we got up early the next day to beat the lines and go right up to the top!

Here's the center of the tower-

 Here I am up top! It was VERY sunny!

 The view from the top! See the shadow of the tower on the city?

Here's a shot of the top of the tower from the 2nd floor! I was all the way up at the tippy top!

Another view from above!

As you can tell... I decided Paris was pretty cool!

(Prior to this picture I may have been pushed by about 15 marathon runners for cutting across their race... I may have also been called "asshole tourist"... I am not exactly proud of the fact that I had to run through a marathon in the middle of Paris... but we really wanted to get to this plaza!)

After the tower it was about noon so we went to the Arc de Triomphe and to the Champs Elysee to get the most out of being tourists!

The Arc de Triomphe

 

This building with giant golden gates is... Abercrombie & Fitch. Not even kidding. I practically died laughing when I saw this. French people love their Abercrombie. lol

Went to Laduree for macarons! It was not at all what I expected to see in a Macaron shop, but it was really cool! Luckily we hopped in when the line wasn't too ridiculous.

Here I am outside Laduree eating a macaron! I bought 3 but the guy behind the counter winked at me and snuck a 4th one in the bag which is NOT typical for such a high-class area in Paris! I was pretty happy! That one free macaron made me feel so much more accepted. haha. It was also delicious.

After this, we wandered around Paris a bit more and headed home on a long train where we met a friendly old couple and a few other students that studied nearby but didn't speak enough English to carry a long conversation. We finally arrived back at the nearest train station where a guy about our age with dreads AND an afro came up to us welcoming us to the station and offered to drive us home. Good thing we already had a ride! He wasn't creepy or anything, so it became a funny story to tell everyone at school when we got back. I crawled into bed right when I got home because the next day I got to tour the Valrhona Chocolate factory and the Sicoly Fruit Puree Factory as a school field trip!

It was definitely a full weekend! So full that it took me a week to get enough computer time to write about it!  

Loving my time here! Only a few weeks left! 

Until my next adventure, 

au revoir!