Budapest

My first stop on the next part of the adventure was Budapest.  We flew from Orly airport in Paris, which has the tightest security I have ever been through.  The flight was uneventful and customs in Budapest was nonexistent.  We had arranged a pick-up service with our hostel and after finding the guy holding a sign with our name on it, we followed him to what turned out to be his car.  Our first sights of Budapest left us with less than good feelings about this supposed great city.  We could never tell whether we were in a good part or bad part of town--everything is in the same dirty broken down state.  The guy finally parked his car, got our bags out, and said "follow me".  We were totally convinced that we were going to be sold into white slavery, when we finally say a sign on the door advertising our hostel.  

Our first night, we wandered into the older part of town, had an underwhelming dinner and walked home.  The next day we got up and walked across the Danube to Buda.  We stopped for coffee at Cafe Piaf (can't escape Paris, apparently...) and had lunch at a vegetarian place (yes!).  We tried to poke our head into a church, but turns out, it was not open.  We went up on castle hill and went to the art museum to look at a bunch of Hungarian art.  We then went to the Hungarian History museum and the best part of that was the children's corner, where we spent an hour sitting on bean bags and coloring.  We checked out the rest of the monuments and ended up sitting in the sun and decided to take the tram home.  We had a really great dinner in an underground wine cellar.

Nest day we explored Pest.  We  visited the great market hall and had some streudel and bought fruit.  We abandoned our free breakfast at the hostel, as it only consists of bad cereal, bad coffee, and white bread.  Luckily, Budapest has a billion and five coffee shops, although we only came across 2 pastry shops, which Rick Steves had assured us "lined every street".  We went to the House of Terror museum, which is housed in the Nazi and Soviet headquarters where they ran their operations and tortured and killed many people. This is one of the creepiest and scariest places I have ever been.  The subject matter is creepy enough and the presentation and building as a whole promote that.  Even the people that work there are creepy.  They all speak in monotones, and the guards tend to hide in dark corners, barely moving.  We made a german friend named Phil, who really wanted to hang out with us, but we finally evaded him by going to shop for english books.  We went for Italian food that night and our waiter really liked to give us high fives.  

All in all, Budapest was not what I expected and wasn't my favorite place.  I'm glad that I don't have to like every place that I visit, but I had hoped it would have been cooler.  Pretty much, it was just a big dirty city where everything is under construction, there is nothing really that cool to see, and the food isn't that good.  The redeeming factors were that the people were really nice and we had great weather!

Goodbye for now...

Les Andelys is a small town not far from Paris that sits on the Seine. It is where Nicolas Poussin was born and there is a ruined castle from Richard the Lionhearted. WE climbed around the castle and then tried to find a hotel. The first one was full, the second one was closed for the day (only in France) and the third one had space, in fact i think we were their only guests. It was a funky old building right on the river, which was cool, and it had a great rose garden. We had crepes for dinner and then got to listen to another incredible thunder storm. Our rooms looked right out at the castle, though, which was awesome.

Next morning we had an awkward breakfast (seeing as how we were the only ones in the hotel) and drove towards Paris. We had trouble figuring out where to drop teh car off adn got a lovely tour of the outlying parts of the Charles de Gaulle airport. A nice American gave us a hint and we finally found the Hertz lot. We said our goodbyes and Mer and I headed back into the city.

We stayed at a hostel on teh edge of the 13th and the 5th, called Oops. (hostels have the weirdest names) It also has some fur walls and light displays. We were able to stash our big suitcases at Merś friendś Saras house, which was actually just a short walk away. We hung out in her apartment for a while and had pizza for dinner.

This morning we got up and had a mediocre free breakfast. Then we headed to the airport to catch our plane to Budapest! Pretty much everything that could go wrong at the airport did, but luckily we had shown up really early. Our flight was unventful after the rowdy soccer team fell asleep. So, that was goodbye to France for a while!

Normandy

Right after Mt St Michel, we crossed into Normandy and stopped ion a town called St Mere Eglise. It is a super touristy stop before the Normandy beaches. The story of this town is that during the Normandy invasion one man who was parachuting with the airborne troops got his parachute stuck on the steeple of the church in this town and just hung there for hours hoping that the germans wouldnt shoot him. They have since put up a parachute and fake person that permanently hangs off the side of this church. The stained glass in the church commemorates that day, as well.

We drove down to the American cemetery and got there just in time to watch the flag get retired for the day. The cemetery is beautiful. It is right on the beach and each grave has a French flag and an American flag. This year is teh 65th anniversary and they are planning a big celebration this June. It will probably be the last year where a lot of veterans who fought in the war will be able to come. We drove down to Omaham beach next and walked around. Being in these places is incredible. The beach now just looks like any other beach in the world with people picnicing and laughing and its lined with beach houses. There is so much history there!

We stayed in Bayeux that night, which was the town that was first liberated by the Americans in 1944. We had the worst dinner from the entire trip and we didn sleep that well either, because there was a huge thunder storm! The next morning Mer and I checked out the cathedral and the Bayeux tapestry--which is nearly 1000 years old! We grabbed Dennis and headed out for the day. We went to the German cemetery, which is very different from the American one (for instance it is right off the freeway). We also stopped at Pont du Hoc, where the rangers scaled the cliffs during the invasion.

We drove on to a town called Les Andelys for the night.

Brittany

Nantes is not currently a part of Brittany, but it was in the past, so it is very similar. We left Nantes a day earlier than expected and drove towards St. Malo. When we got to the coast, we stopped and wandered around an adorable fishing town. It felt very much like home to be on the coast! WE spent most of the day driving, through various small towns, trying to figure out where to stay. We ended up in a small town called Dinard, also on the coast.

The first hotel we stopped at was full, but the woman kindly called another and sent us that way. The second one had room for us and when we told her we were American, she threw up her hands and yelled ÿesssssss! She was probably the nicest person I have met in france. She chatted away in french with us, which was very fun. WE had dinner at a creperie and had some more cidre, both traditional foods from Brittany. We stopped for a kir after dinner and watched the people go by,. It was great people watching because there was a motorcycle convention in town, so there were all sorts of characters around!

Next day we drove into St Malo, which is a fortified city on teh coast. We beat the tourist rush and had a fun time wandering the ramparts and the shops. It took all my strength not to buy every anchor I saw, but I did buy a key chain. We drove down the beach a little bit and played in the sand and the sun. I had never seen more people running in my life. People were running on the boardwalk, on the sand, in the water, through the streets, it was incredible, especially for France!

We kept on driving and drove by Mont St Michel, which is a tidal island off the coast that used to be a monastery. IT was super cool to see. We didnt feel much like going inside, so we just kept rolling.

Limousin etc

After leaving the Sarlat area, we drove to a small town called Oradour sur Glane. The entire population of this town was massacred by the Naziś in 1944 and, in memory, the government left the town totally as is. The museum there was really informative and had pretty good english translations. We walked through the town afterwards and it was just eerie. The impact was huge and I am really glad we went there. It is the most visited site in France by the french (or one of them).

We kept driving through the countryside, which, after the Dordogne region, was kind of a let down. Its still quite pretty but, there weren any flowers or castles or ruins anywhere. We ended up staying in a small town called Rochechouart at a great little hotel. The restaurant at the hotel was really tasty and this huge french family was eating next to us and all the kids kept staring. We walked around the town in search of a laundromat, but there wasnt one! This town didn have much going for it except for a chateaux that is now a contemporary art museum and a sports bar that closed by 9pm.

The next day we drove into Nantes, which is the 6th largest town in France. On the way there we discovered that we had left all of our guidebooks in ROchechouart, bummer! Nantes was pretty easy to drive into and we had a lunch on one of the canals/rivers. WE were originally going to stay in Nantes for two days, but as we found out, there isnt very much to do there! We wandered around the city and looked at the cool churches and tried to shop a little. WE had crepes and cidre for dinner (super tasty).

Nantes is a cool city, not only because it is a sister city to Seattle, but because it has a very laid-back northwest kind of feel. It is one of the most livable cities in europe (we read) and I believe it. It seems like a great place to live, but not a great place to visit.

Languedoc / Midi-Pyrenees

After using Arles as a home base for a few days, we decided to make our way north. First, however, we detoured down to Carcassonne to see the fortified city. Mer really wanted to go and it turned out to be kind of a let down. We had built it up to ourselves and it was disappointingly touristy, but the actual structures in the town were really interesting. We didn't spend much time there, but we did have a tasty lunch before heading out!

Our next stop of the day was a town called Albi. This is where Toulouse-Lautrec was born and it is home to the largest collection of his work in the world. The museum is in an old bishop's palace and has a lot of cool art. The cathedral in Albi is also really impressive. I wasn't expecting much, but the interior was ornate and very intricate. Albi looks really interesting because everything is made of red brick. There are no stone quarries nearby, so everything is made of brick, from the streets, to the houses, to the giant cathedral and palace.

We slept in a town called Ambialet, which is about 30 km outside of Albi. The town sits on the Tarn river and is about the size of my thumb. Come to think of it, I don't remember ever even seeing a town. Needless to say, it was very rural. The road to the hotel was treacherous because you had to go through these tunnels, which are about a lane and a half wide, but are supposed to accommodate two lanes of traffic. After we survived the tunnels, we crossed a great old stone bridge and our hotel was right next to it on the river. We could see an old church on top of a hill and a ruined castle across the river--very idyllic. We had a tasty dinner and a good breakfast the next morning, too.

We kept on trucking the next morning and decided to take our chances driving on the country roads. I have really enjoyed the countryside here. Provence is all its cracked up to be and more. There are fields of red poppies, olive trees, and grapes. Everything is green and there is white stone scattered as well. Anyway, we spent the morning winding around on these country roads, through farms full of cows and sheep. We stopped and bought lunch in a small town and ate it along the road in a field. We were aiming to get near Sarlat by the end of the day, and we did! We drove through a bunch of the small towns on the Dordogne river and ended up staying outside of La Roque. This place was a little too formal for our tastes, but the beds were really cushy. There was a crazy storm that night with lots of thunder, lightening, and wind, but no rain.

The next morning we got up and drove into Sarlat. We followed Rick Steve's walking tour and had a lot of fun at the market. The specialties of the region are foie gras and walnuts and all the vendors wanted to give us free samples! Next we went and rented kayaks to float down the Dordogne. We started in a town called Vitrac and paddled to a town called Castelnaud. It was a gorgeous day and the towns were so cute! There are castles scattered everywhere around this region! We stopped in La Roque for lunch and paddled on. A crazy whistling french man picked us up in a hundred year old van to drive us back to our car--he was pretty fun. After all that, we jumped in the car and headed out of Languedoc and the Dordogne towards Limousin.

Provence

We left the rain in Paris and hopped on the train to Avignon.  We took the TGV, which is the high speed train, so it only took about 3 hours to get from one end of the country to the other.  The weather was amazing when we stepped off the train.  It was 80 degrees, clear blue skies, and super dry.  

Dennis rented our car--an adorable black Opel Zafira (hahaha) and we drove to our hotel in Arles.  Arles sits on the Rhone river and our hotel was just across the street from it.  The town is old, but small.  There is a Roman arena that is in remarkably good shape, and they still have bullfights there (there is a lot of Spanish influence in this region).  There is also and old roman amphitheater and some great old buildings.  The town felt very much like Italy, with big squares where people were always sitting and smoking and talking.  The first night we were there was a free museum night so we went to the Folk Heritage museum and there was some really weird performance art happening in addition to an underwhelming museum.  

We went to Avignon the next day, which also sits on the Rhone and is home to the Palace of Popes and a very old bridge.  The town was really touristy and has a pretty large student population, but it was fun to see the walled city and, of course, it was gorgeous.  After that we went to Pont de Gard, which is a Roman aqueduct.  This was very cool.  It was another 80-some degree day, so there were people swimming and picnicing along the banks of the river, and even some jumping off the cliffs into the water.  The aqueduct was very impressive, and it is hard to believe that the Romans could build such a perfect structure.  

After that we went to Nîmes to see the arena there.  This arena is the best intact and largest arena in the world excluding the coliseum in Rome.  The exhibit and museum contained within the arena were really informative and had some fun features.  I was totally hot and tired and hungry by this point in the day, so I wasn't a very happy camper, but Mer was totally hopped up on all the history.  We had drinks on the square by the arena before heading back to Arles.

Our next excursion in Provence was to Les Baux, which is a hilltop fortress and surrounding village.  The view point is amazing from the castle--you can see the entire valley and almost all the way to Marseille.  We also got to watch a medieval weapon demonstration (Mer loved this).  We climbed all over the castle and took far too many pictures.  Then we ditched all the tourists and went to St. Rémy, which is a small town nearby.  We took Rick's advice and had lunch at a small cafe on a small square in the middle of the town.  We sat next to a really cute couple from Denver, who had driven over to France from southern Spain.  They were very impressed with our French skills.  The town is really quant.  We walked around the whole thing and it had some great shops and tasty looking restaurants.   

Post-program!

I know its been a while, but I have lots to report on! 

Our program is over, Mer and I moved out of our apartment and kissed Boulevard Brune goodbye!  We moved in with Mer's dad, Dennis, at a hotel near the Eiffel Tower in the Rue Cler neighborhood.  

We went to Giverny on a lovely day before we left Paris.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and we were some of the first people through the gates at Monet's house.  We cruised through the garden and the house, before heading over to the lily pond and the Japanese bridge.  Then we took our time walking back through everything.  The flowers had just exploded so everything was in bloom.  I have never seen so many different kinds and colors of iris.  I have also never seen so many sweat suits and people with canes. 

We grabbed lunch to eat on the train ride home and it started to pour down rain right when we got on the train.  It didn't stop raining until after we left Paris.   

Versailles!!!!!!!!!

Last Friday, my friend Katie and I went to Versialles for the day.  We left Paris at 9:30 AM and got back at 8:30 that night.  The train takes about 45 minutes and is entirely full of tourists going to the Palace.  There is a Starbucks literally just outside the train station in the town of Versailles, so Katie and I treated ourselves.  The walk to the Palace is about 5 minutes from the Starbucks (and 6 from the train station).  We stood in line to figure out if we could get in free with our IES student cards and then stood in line for about 45 minutes to get into the castle.  

There was an exhibition of clothing and jewels that we went to, and of course, the royal apartments, etc.  The Hall of Mirrors was absolutely amazing.  Beyond it just being a gorgeous space, there is so much history in that room (all of which I have been learning about in my french history class).  Katie and I had a fun time taking pictures and reading aloud from Rick Steves.  By the time we got outside the sun had come out, so we sat on a bench in the gardens and had a snack.  We just kept wandering to different parts of the gardens and sitting in the sun--it was so nice.  On our way to Marie Antoinette's Hamlet, we spent about an hour frolicking in a field and taking pictures.  I think the french picnic-ers thought we were really entertaining.  

The hamlet was so adorable!  It was like the village in the Beauty and the Beast.  Again, we took a bunch of pictures, frolicked in some fields, and sat in the sun.  We made the trek all the way back to the palace and, I will admit, we stopped at the Starbucks one more time before getting back on the train to Paris.  My feet were so tired!  I can't believe that I almost didn't go to Versailles, but I am so glad my mom told me I had to go.  Luckily, Katie's mom had done the same thing, so we had a good time.  Plus, it is always nice to be in the country and get away from hectic Paris.  It was so nice to run around barefoot in the grass and to hear birds singing.  Katie and I kept saying that it felt like a different world.  All in all, Versailles was a great day trip.

NO MORE CLASS

Today was my last day of class at IES!  I only have 5 tests between me and a month of travel!  It was a stereotypical "last day of school"--the sun was out, it was 70 degrees, and no one could pay attention.  

My french grammar class, which was probably my favorite class, had a picnic this morning instead of class.  We went to the park near IES, where you can actually sit on the grass (gasp!).  We had mimosas, strawberries, bread, cheese, jam, pain au chocolat, fruit salad, and some other lovely pastries.  It was fun to sit around and chat in french and reminisce about the last four months.  An adorable old man took our picture, and we had a lot of fun! 

Mer and I took ourselves out for dinner in order to celebrate.  We went to Italian in the Marais and it was so cute!  One wall was exposed stone and brick, and everything was red, black, and white.  It was really lively and all the waiters were speaking italian.  There was also a huge poster of the Sopranos on the wall, and the chef actually looked like he should be on the show.  The food was really tasty, we split a bruschetta and I had great seafood risotto.  We opted out of dessert because we had a bottle of wine, but the women next to us said the chocolate tart was great.  These women were so chatty!  We spoke french to the waiter, but once we started speaking english to each other, these women got super excited and were like "are you american!?!"  They are in the film business and were heading to Cannes for the film festival, but they were soooooooo chatty.  They were nice, but chatty.  I'm just so used to having everyone mind their own business, that it was weird to have people soliciting information about their lives.  

Going for walks

Going for walks is a legitimate activity over here.  It is totally normal  to have spent your day 'walking around'.  "oh i took the metro to this neighborhood and walked around" is a legit way to spend your day.  Its nice, because its free, and because you can do it anytime.  

May Day is a huge deal here.  Everything was closed on May 1st.  They take it seriously.  There were also Lilly of the Valley all over the place!  It is the traditional gift to give, so people were selling them on every street corner.  

Its been cloudy here recently.  Its also been warm, as a consequence, but a little muggy.  The kind of day where you never quite know if its going to rain or not, but it never does.  I walked around the opera quarter the other day.  Its a really cool spot--very touristy, but also full of life and fun stuff to look at.  I walked from the Madeleine to the Opera and then down to the Palais Royal.  I picked up a snack on the way and got made fun of for my french.   It was in good humor, but I'm kind of over getting teased about not saying everything correctly.  I ate my snack in the Palais Royal gardens while I watched about 8 couples making out.  They never even came up for air!  Its incredible how people can do that in public.  Sometimes its nice to see people so in love, but eventually it gets a little sickening.  

Paris is still as lovely as ever.  I'm gearing up for my last week of class.  I only have one paper to write this week, and then I have 5 tests the week after that, so next weekend will be full of study time!