Impressionisme

We’ve been working our way towards Paris, and now we’re so close, I could practically touch it.  Can. Not. Wait.

We finished our châteaux tour yesterday with Fontainebleau, which was basically a country house for the French royal family and the king would go there to hunt.  It is ridiculously big and incredibly impressive on the inside.  Fontainebleau was also used more recently than some of the other châteaux we’ve seen, so there was more furniture and it was much more ornately decorated.  It was a precursor to the grandeur of Versailles.

I wish I would’ve had time to walk around the surrounding park, but we had to regroup and go to lunch. 

Fontainebleau

Napoleon I's Throne Room

After lunch, we headed to the little town of Barbizon to visit the Musée Départementale de l’École de Barbizon, Auberge Ganne to start our little tour focused on impressionism.  Auberge Ganne is a former inn that now serves as a little museum of the beginnings of impressionist art.  Many artists who kind of started the impressionism movement would go to Barbizon to paint in plein air (outside) and paint the Fontainebleau forest.  The museum was super small, but I loved it the fact that it wasn’t overwhelming.  There were paintings by artists like Théodore Rousseau and Jean-François Millet, but the number of paintings was limited because most of these artists’ work is in the Louvre or Musée D’Orsay in Paris.  It was cool, too, because there were little paintings and sketches on the walls from when the artists stayed in the inn.  These artists came before Monet and Renoir’s generation, and their color palette was a little darker, but I really liked their work.

Auberge Ganne

After Barbizon, we took our bus to Bougival to check into our hotel and eat dinner.  Our hotel is even called Villa des Impressionistes because this area is so well known for being frequented by impressionist artists.

Today we started at La Maison Fournaise in the town of Chatou.  La Maison is located on L’île des Impressionistes, a little island in the middle of the Seine.  La Maison Fournaise was a restaurant that Monet and Renoir and their peers were known to hang out in, and there are several impressionist paintings of it as well.  There’s a little museum on the island, but it doesn’t have any original paintings, just replicas, so I wasn’t super impressed.  There are originals by lesser known artists, and there was an exhibit about the evolution of paint and how industrialism led to paint that came in tubes, which facilitated the impressionists painting outside.  Superrr exciting.  I’m no art historian, so I was not that enthused about the museum.

Chateau d'Auvers sur Oise

This afternoon, we went to Château d’Auvers sur Oise which is now a museum dedicated to impressionism.  There’s no actual art inside, but it has exhibits devoted to the time period and the inspirations behind impressionist art.  It was basically preparation for when we visit the bigger museums in Paris with the real artwork.  Even though it was kind of a tedious museum, it was helpful for me since I always feel so ignorant when I look at art.  I now have some background for impressionist art, which might be some of my favorite.

Since this post was basically a game to see how many times I could use the word impressionist or any variation, I’m going to stop here, but I’ll have more impressionist related things to report on tomorrow before I’m in PARIS tomorrow night!

P.S.  Sorry for the barrage of posts.  We've had internet issues at the hotels, so I've been stockpiling entries.  Bisous!

Beaucoup de Chateaux

Today was another day of beautiful châteaux, but these were the first two that were completely new to me, so I was excited to see something different.

We started our day at Azay-le-Rideau with intentions of having a guided tour.  I guess I had been living under a rock because today (the 23^rd) was the day planned for a huge grève (strike) throughout France.  [Strikes are super popular in France and happen all the time.  One day in Dijon the buses weren’t running due to a strike, and when we were driving through Bourgogne we ran into a parade of carnival workers on strike.] No one was working at the national monuments today because of issues with pensions, so we didn’t have a guide.  We were at least able to go in and walk around the grounds, but we weren’t able to go inside the château.  Azay-le-Rideau was a beautiful and surrounded by a nice park, but it definitely won’t go down as one of my favorites.  We did about two circles around the grounds and then stopped at the little café for a Perrier.

Azay-le-Rideau

The group stayed in the same town for lunch, and we headed to Villandry next.  Fortunately, Villandry is privately owned, so we were able to go inside and get views of the GORGEOUS gardens from up above.  The château has always been a residence, so it was interesting to think about people actually living there.  Since it’s still privately owned there were some family photos, which made it more personal and also a little more creepy at the same time.

Le Jardin d'Ornement

Le Potager

Le Jardin d'Eau

Le Jardin de Soleil

Villandry

The best part of Villandry, though, is the gardens.  It starts with Le Jardin d’Ornement (Ornamental Garden) that has sections designed with the themes of “tender love,” “passionate love,” “fickle love,” and “tragic love.” Next is Le Jardin d’Eau (Water Garden) with a large pond and fountains, followed by Le Jardin de Soleil (Sun Garden) made up of the “cloud room” with blue and white shrubs and the “sun room” with orange and yellow plants.  There’s a labyrinth and finally Le Potager (Vegetable Garden).  Each garden is laid out in a very precise pattern, and I can’t imagine how much work it takes to keep up the entire grounds.  It was sooo pretty.

We came back to Tours for our last night in the hotel here (thank goodness), and we’re getting ready to head out to a group dinner (not very excited about the restaurant since it’s a repeat).  Tomorrow we continue on to our next château, Fontainebleau!

À bientôt!     

Val de Loire

Since I last wrote, a lot has happened.  I’ve experienced a gay club, visited three châteaux, and explored the city of Tours.

I spent the weekend in Dijon for a bit of a break from traveling, and we decided to try out the nightlife there, thus my experience at a gay club called Wooz.  A couple others in our group had been there before, so we decided why not.  Pourquoi pas, eh? (another favorite French phrase)  It was definitely an experience, and my host siblings found it hilarious that we went there.  My host brother’s girlfriend said to me, you knew it was a gay club right?  If the rainbow flag was any indication, then yes.

Sunday was a chill day hanging out at my house.  I ate lunch (which is the main meal on Sundays) with my host sister and brother, did some homework, and wrote some postcards by the pool while my siblings did some med school homework.

Monday (Sept. 20), we left Dijon for the Loire Valley.  We’re staying in Tours, but we stopped at the château Chambord on the way.  François I ordered Chambord to be built (hence the numerous F’s and salamanders [his sign] everywhere), and the architect was Leonardo da Vinci, but he didn’t live to see the beginning of construction.  Some things were changed, but the famous double helix staircase inside was da Vinci’s design.  It was my second time there, and I was impressed again by the grandeur of the place.  It’s no Versailles, but it’s still pretty cool.

Chambord

Francois I

Double-rotation staircase

Chambord

We continued on to Tours, where we checked into our hotel and walked to dinner.  Tuesday morning, we had a walking tour of Tours.  It’s a beautiful city right on the Loire River, and its history dates back to the Gauls and the Gallo-Roman Empire.

Vitrail in the Cathedral Saint Gatien in Tours

Hotel de Ville in Tours

Tuesday afternoon was totally free, which was awesome.  I went back to the hotel after the walking tour for a quick nap and to refresh after walking a lot and taking notes from the guide.  I headed out to walk and shop with a few other girls, and after a little while, we found the indoor market where I bought the most delicious apple for a snack.  We also went to the riverbank to walk along the water and just hang out.  Brittany and I were craving some physical activity, so we ran to the next bridge and back (not really that far).  My exercise regimen has basically fallen to pieces in France (not that I really had one before), but I live with a family of runners, so I’m hoping to get into more of a routine when I’m actually in Dijon. 

Loire River

We went out to dinner as a group that night, and afterwards, Stephanie and I walked around some more.  I was in search of an ice cream cone, but apparently the French don’t believe in glace à porter (ice cream to go) after dark.  We did end up Place Plumereau, which was really lively at night, and there were tons of university students since Tours is also a university town.  I settled for Oreos from a candy/convenience store, and we walked back to the hotel.

Wednesday, we toured the châteaux de Blois and Chenonceau.  Blois is well known for the number of kings that lived there and for its four distinct types of architecture.  It started out as a château fort (a medieval castle) then Louis XII added the gothic part, François I added the Renaissance part, and Gaston d’Orléans added the Classic part.

Renaissance portion of Blois

View of the Loire from Blois

After Blois, we stopped in the town of Amboise for lunch.  There’s a château in Amboise too, but it’s not as well known and we didn’t have time to walk around there.  We spent the afternoon at Chenonceau and were free to look through at our own pace and explore the grounds.  I’d been to Chenonceau before and loved it, so I was excited to go back.  It’s known as the château des femmes because Henri II gave it to his mistress Diane de Poitiers, and his wife Catherine de Medicis also lived there at one point (not at the same time).  I was a little disappointed in this visit just because there were so many people there (including a lot of obnoxious American tourists).  The gardens were beautiful though, and we walked through the 16^th century farm and flower/vegetable garden and walked through the labyrinth on the grounds.  Chenonceau is still one of my favorites because it’s so manageable and seems so much more livable.

Chenonceau

View from the Gallery in Chenonceau

Chenonceau

Jardin de Diane de Poitiers at Chenonceau

After the castle, we headed back to Tours for dinner.  We went to a restaurant that specialized in tartines, which is basically a piece of toast with toppings.  I had a tartine basquaise that had chorizo and cheese on top, and they gave us a little salad to go with it.  For dessert, I had maybe the best apple tart I’ve ever eaten, so all in all it was a great meal.  Some of us walked back to Place Plumereau, and the ice cream place was open, so I felt compelled to get an ice cream cone, and I had Nutella ice cream, which isn’t quite as good as actual Nutella but still delicious.  There were more people out than last night, and it would’ve been fun to hang out for awhile at a table outside if we didn’t have to get up early for more touring tomorrow.

That being said, I’m going to bed!  À demain!

C'est ma mere!

Salut from Dijon!  This is the first entire weekend that I'll be spending in my home base.  Seems weird that I've been in France for a month and have hardly gotten to know Dijon, but that's my project for the weekend.
Last night we had a little cocktail party for all the host parents and students and teachers, and I think I had a bonding moment with my French host mom (not that we haven't been getting along great).  I went to introduce her to my professor, and I said, "C'est ma mere!"  Apparently, it's not normal in French to talk about your host family as your "mom" and "dad" and "sister" or "brother," so she and the others standing around thought it was hilarious that I said that, in an endearing way, of course.  Unfortunately we couldn't continue bonding since my host parents headed off to the Alps this weekend, but I'm really enjoying my family here.
After the cocktail, a group of us headed to an Irish pub for a couple of drinks.  We were starving since the unidentifiable French hor d'oeuvres didn't really qualify as dinner, but the bar didn't have food, so Caroline and Stephanie went to McDonald's (aka McDo).  We ate American food in an Irish pub in France, it was great.
Today was a day off from class, so I met some of the other girls in town for lunch at this little cafe.  It was a total gem (or bijou, our favorite French word).  They had great bread, and I had a really good tomato tarte and salad.  I caught up on some errands this afternoon, and now I'm home to shower before going over to Caroline's place for an aperitif and some frat beatz before going out to dinner.
Bon week-end!

Normandie, Part Cinq

Monday was a rather leisurely day spent on the bus to Chartres.  We got there in the afternoon, so we had plenty of time to walk around before dinner at 8.  Unfortunately, being that it was Monday, not too many of the stores were open, so a few of us ended up finding a café where we ordered drinks and chatted for a bit.  We had a delicious dinner at a restaurant near our hotel, which was conveniently across from a ferris wheel or grande roue, so the whole group took a ride after dinner.  It was so much fun, and we got a great view of the famous Chartres cathedral from above.

Random light show in Chartres

This morning (Tuesday), we got up for our guided tour of the cathedral.  I had been there before, so it was interesting to go back and have it explained more in depth, but the tour was excruciatingly long.  The main rose window at the front was covered in scaffolding and the entire cathedral is undergoing a huge cleaning process, so it was a little disappointing that we couldn’t quite see everything.  I guess I’ll just have to go back in 2015 to see the final restoration. 

Chartres Cathedral

I got back to Dijon around 6:30 tonight, and I’m back with my host family.  I love the group and our little trips, but it’s nice to be able to decompress a little and have a home cooked meal.  We have an intense couple days of class coming up, but we have Friday off, and an entire weekend with no travel.  At one point a couple of the girls and I were planning on going back to Nîmes or going to Paris, but we just decided a chill weekend in Dijon might be better and would save us some money for future travel in October and November.  Some of my host family is heading to their house in Chamonix for the weekend, so I could potentially go with them, too.  For now, I have to get through a lot of reading and a test on Thursday.  Sometimes I forget this is school.

Bonne nuit!  

Normandie, Part Quatre

Mont St. Michel

Day 5 of the Normandy excursion was devoted to Mont St. Michel.  We got to sleep in a little, which was great since all the touring can be exhausting, and then we drove the 15 kilometers to the little island.  The island itself is strange because it’s not exactly surrounded by water.  When the tide goes out, it’s just sand all around it, so it’s kind of an interesting phenomenon to see how different it looks at various points in the day.  When we got there we had some time to browse through all the touristy shops before lunch.  Mont St. Michel is a huge tourist destination since it’s so unique, so there were tons of people there, making it difficult to walk through the narrow sidewalks.  I have a minor obsession with nautical stripes, and that seemed to be a theme since the island is in the Bay of St. Michel, so I had a great time shopping around.  I bought a sweater with, what else, stripes.  My love of stripes has also become kind of a running joke among the group.

After lunch we headed up to the top to tour the abbey.  It’s really an amazing technological feat that they were able to build this abbey on top of an island early in the 11^th century, and it only took 60 years, which is apparently fast for buildings like this.  The view from the top is also cool because you can see Normandy and Bretagne (Brittany).  It was definitely one of the better tours I’ve had since the guide was animated and interesting, and she compared us with the people of the era that built the abbey.  She said that we’re no less intelligent, things are just different now, and back then they were building things to last for eternity.

We went back to our hotel for dinner again, and I sat at a table with a couple other girls and our bus driver Stephan and had so much fun.  We capped off the night with an episode of Jersey Shore (aka Les américains sur la plage) for a little reminder of home.

Normandie, Part Trois

Saturday (day 4 of our excursion) was spent in the town of Bayeux.  We started the day with a visit to a museum that houses La Tapisserie de Bayeux, aka the tapestry of Bayeux.  It’s a long tapestry (68.3 meters long, 50 centimeters high) that recounts the story of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the victory of William the Conqueror, the duke of Normandy who then became the king of England. It’s amazing that the tapestry has survived as long as it has and has stayed in relatively good condition.  I’m also continually amazed at what people were able to construct in the Middle Ages, including cathedrals and other works of art.

Bayeux

After the museum, we had time to walk around the city before a group lunch, so a few of us found the Saturday morning market where there were vendors selling all sorts of produce and meats and clothes.  We wandered around some shops for a little while and then sat on the lawn of the cathedral until we met up with everyone else for lunch. 

Brittany, me, and Jeff in front of the antique store

After a delicious lunch of pizza covered in camembert and goat cheese and ham, we had more free time in Bayeux.  I walked around with our professor and a couple of other girls in search of a lace museum one of them had read about in a guide.  We happened upon to an antique store that sold dentelles (lace) dating from the 19^th century and the Napoleon III era.  I found these really cool little posters with drawings of Paris fashion that I found out also dated from the middle of the 19^th century.  The woman that owned the shop explained that women would receive these papers in the mail and they would then take them to their dressmaker to have fashionable dresses made.  They were almost the equivalent of today’s fashion magazines.  I decided I had to have three of them to hang on my wall at home, but they were a little overpriced.  With a little bartering and help from my professor, I was able to talk the woman down to half of what three would have originally cost.  The shop owner could tell I was torn over the papers, and she loved meeting American students that understood French well, so she let me have them for cheaper.  Success.

The lace shop was right across from the cathedral entrance, and when we walked out, a bride was arriving for her wedding.  In France, couples are officially married before, and then they do the whole white dress and tux thing for a mass that they invite their family and friends to.  The bride arrived and there were tons of family members and friends waiting outside for her, and they stood in front of the church chatting and waiting for the groom to show up so they could start the mass.

Wedding!

The place we thought was a lace museum was right in the same area, so we walked there next, but it was really just a tiny shop where they sold some antique lace and there were two places for someone to sit and make lace.  Unfortunately, no one was actually working, so we just glanced around and left.

I wasn’t expecting much out of Bayeux, but once I got to see the whole town, find some cool antiques, and see the wedding, I was a little bit in love with it.  We left that afternoon to go to Mont St. Michel, a breathtaking abbey built on an island.  We got to our hotel in time for dinner, where I had tartiflette to eat, which was basically cheesy potatoes, but the cheese was camembert and there were pieces of ham, too.  It was so cheesy and melty and delicious and comforting.  It was nice after the shock of getting an entire crawfish, pinchers and all, with my appetizer (I was brave and took it apart and ate the meat).  Then, our bus driver, Stephan (who was so much fun), took us over to Mont St. Michel to see it at night.  Our official guided tour would be the next day, so stay tuned for the next post!     

Mont St. Michel

Normandie, Part Deux

Jeff (one of the other kids on my program) said today that it seems ridiculous that we have to go to another country to appreciate our own, but today was basically appreciate America day in France.  We spent the entire day seeing World War II related sites in Normandy, and it was such a moving day.

We started at the Cité de l’Histoire, a museum devoted to World War II and D-Day in Caen.  The museum went through the lead-up to and each stage of the war.  It was so interesting because it was presented from the French perspective.  We, obviously, learn history from the American perspective, so it was different to see more details about the German occupation of France and the French Resistance.

For lunch, we went to Saint Laurent-sur-Mer to a restaurant in D-Day House Hotel, which is right on Omaha Beach.  Afterwards, we had some time to walk on the beach a little.   We went to Pointe au Hoc next, which is a point set up on a cliff between Utah and Omaha Beaches.  The point was a must capture for the Americans and they did, and it’s now technically American soil, so we’re responsible for maintaining the site.

Omaha Beach.  The monument reads (in French and English) "The Allied Forces landing on this shore which they call Omaha Beach liberate Europe June 6th, 1944"

Omaha Beach

Pointe du Hoc

We went to the Normandy American Cemetery after that, and it was incredible.  All the headstones are white crosses or Jewish stars, and the sheer numbers are so moving.  The cemetery has views of Omaha Beach and is so beautiful.  We were all on an Amurrrica high afterwards.

Normandy American Cemetery

Our last stop of the day was the Musée de la Débarquement in Arromanches-les-Bains on Gold Beach.  The museum had models of the contraptions the British used to disembark from their ships.  It was a so-so museum, but we got ice cream and walked on the beach, so that made the town infinitely better.

Gold Beach

We came back to our hotel in Bayeux tonight and went to the same restaurant as last night, where I had tartine de chèvre (bread with goat cheese and salad) and profiteroles for dessert…sooo good.  Now I think we might watch some Jersey Shore to continue our America is Awesome Day.

Bonne Nuit!


P.S.  I'll update with pictures when I have more time to upload.

Normandie, Part Un

I'm currently sitting in my hotel room in Bayeux waiting to meet up with the rest of the group for dinner.  Our trip through Normandy is seven days, so I decided I couldn't do without my computer for that long.  I also thought I'd spare myself and everyone who reads this blog the misery of writing and reading seven days' worth of activities in one post.  I added ten pounds to my luggage all for you :)

We left Dijon yesterday morning at 7:00 a.m., and my host mom was nice enough to give me a ride to the bus.  I live in the suburbs, so I've had to rely on them a little more, but they've been great about taking me to school or into Centre Ville for dinner.  Our first stop was Épernay, the capital of Champagne (the region), for a tour of the Mercier caves.  Mercier is a champagne company (what else), so we got to see thousands of bottles of champagne in various stages of production down in the caves.  Afterwards, we got to taste a glass of champagne (don’t worry, it was noon by then).

Cathedral in Reims

From there, we went to Reims for a guided tour of its famous cathedral.  All of the French kings were sacré or coronated there (except Henri IV who was Protestant), so it’s a pretty important site in French history.  The fact that the kings were thought to have divine right or be chosen by God would prove to be very influential in the direction of France.  Unfortunately, it was raining in Reims, so the rest of our tour of the city was done on the bus.

We then left Reims for Rouen, where we would have dinner and stay the night.  Dinner last night was maybe one of the best meals we’ve had so far.  I started with mussels cooked in saffron and probably butter, then had a piece of beef covered in melted camembert, plain green salad, and chocolate ice cream.  The restaurant was so cute and French and delicious, and I felt like I was going to explode afterward, but it was so worth it.

Cathedral in Rouen

Rouen

Today we had a guided tour of the cathedral in Rouen, and then walked around the city.  I was totally unimpressed by the city, judging by where our hotel was, but once we got into the Centre Ville, it was so pretty.  It’s a lot bigger than Dijon, so there was some great shopping (although we didn’t have time to partake) and cool architecture.  Rouen is famous because Joan of Arc was burned at the stake there, and it suffered a lot of damage during World War II, but it’s (obviously) all been reconstructed.  We also went to the Musee de Beaux-Arts to see an exhibit full of impressionist work, including stuff by Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Gauguin.  I really like impressionist art, but I feel so ignorant when I go to art museums, so I'm excited for my art history class that starts in October.

Stephanie and me in Honfleur

Honfleur

From Rouen, we drove to Honfleur, and we got off the bus to walk around for about an hour.  Honfleur was a beautiful port city, and I would looovvve to go back.  There are tons of cool looking restaurants next to the water, and I wish we could’ve stayed there for a little longer.

Now we’re in Bayeux for a couple of nights, and I’ll update you soon on what we do!

Bisous