From Giverny

We went to visit Monet's garden. It was beautiful.

Monet's bridge


This looks just like one of his paintings!


A Tulip


Reflection


More flowers

Finals Week

Yes, we have them here too. I'm supposed to be studying right now, but I am thinking I am going to take a shower and go to bed. Staying up til midnight to watch conference and then getting up early the next two mornings does not make for getting enough sleep (yes, I did watch all the sessions. Two in French, and two only in English, one I did watch twice).
But I just was thinking that I haven't really updated my blog recently. I have at least four entries from things I have done that I have not posted and I'm trying to decide if you really want to see pics of a cemetery (Oscar Wilde, Chopin, Jim Morrison, Moliére, etc), more chateaux and the Comedie Français. I may not get to it, especially with all my studying and after Thursday, I will not post until after I return to the States, seeing that we will be traveling to Geneva and Marseilles. So if I don't get a chance to post again, I'll see you when I get home!!

French Films

I went to see a movie tonight. I choose to see a cartoon because I thought it would be a little safer. I'm not sure it really was. I am starting to think that all French films are bizarre. Maybe it is just because I am from a different culture, but I have seen some strange ones. The cartoon one was a little scary, I jumped several times and it was kind of like watching a sci-fi movie in another language. I couldn't quite figure out the world it was set in. However, Klaus Badelt wrote the music. He did Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. The first movie I went to wasn't too bizarre, but it was kind of like Sliding Doors where you are watching two realities, and figuring that out and following it in another language was a little hard for my roommate; I did a little better. The film I saw inbetween those two was quite bizarre.
Anyway, that's my little tirade on French films. We are thinking about going to see one called Disco next week. I think its about three guys who are still living in the disco era but its really current time. We'll see!

Macaron Day

Thursday was Macaron day at Pierre Hermé. Pierre Hermé, we have decided, has the best macarons in Paris. They cost about 1,5 Euros a piece. Macarons are two little cookies with some kind of creme in the center. A little like Oreos, but with soft cookies instead of hard, and about a hundred times better. You can pick which kind you would like, from simple flavors like chocolate, pistachio, and lemon, to slightly more exotic like rose and olive oil with vanilla to really different like cream cheese, orange and passion-fruit (that one is quite good).


On Macaron Day, Pierre Hermé gave away free macarons!! You could get three free and then if you donated to help the orphans, they gave you a special red one (I think it was mostly red with chocolate on the inside). Considering four macarons would normally cost about six euros, which is nine dollars, we went and got some. It was definitely worth waiting in line for forty minutes.

Second day of Castles

In case one day of chateaux was not enough, we had a second. Considering how many chateaux there are in France, we hardly saw a percentage. This was the last day of our trip to Normandy and Brittany. It was pretty, and even though it was supposed to rain all day, it just barely started when we were leaving our last destination. Maybe someone was watching out for us. . .

They used to carve homes out of the mountainside and people still live in them. Pretty interesting.


Chateau de Clos Lucé - Leonardo da Vinci's house. We weren't allowed to take pictures in his house, so I only have pics from the garden.


Some of Da Vinci's inventions


Chateau Blois


Chambord, from the front


From the back. When I was in high school, this was my favorite French chateau. It is also the largest, so large in fact that no one ever lived in it. It was originally built as a hunting lodge.


Ever After Bridge. They took a lot of locale from this chateau.


Double helix staircase, designed by Leonardo de Vinci


Cathedral at Chartres


By the time we reached Chartes, the clouds were setting in, we didn't see much of the cathedral, especially since we went to look at the stained glass windows and it was hard to see them well enough to understand the stories, let alone get good pictures. We went over the symbolism talked about here. Maybe because one of the directors wrote the article. Funny how things work out.

First Day of Castles

On our trip to the Loire Valley, we visited a lot of castles. They are actually called chateaux. (chateau is singular) There are a lot in the Loire Valley. One map has 38 listed.

Ussé. The original Sleeping Beauty castle. It inspired the story. We didn't actually go into this one, but I'm glad we went to see it.


Soccer player and sign. You'll never guess which chateau we're visiting here.


The 'Love Gardens'. Each section represents a different kind of love: tender love, tragic love, passionate love and fickle love.


Chateau de Villandry


Eating lunch in the square in Tours.


Chenenceau from the entrance.


Some friends in Catherine de Medici's garden



You can see the initials of Henri and Catherine de Medici on one of the many fireplaces.


Chenenceau from upstream


A view from Diane de Poitiers Gardens


Caryatids


The pictures are grouped by chateau, so first I list the castle and then the pictures that happened there.
We spent the night back in Tours, a cute little town. The town square is really beautiful, you can see it in the lunch picture. A few of us went to a little creperie for dinner and had omelettes. They were so good! And then of course crepes for dessert. I went to bed really early this day, I was so exhausted from traveling!

March comes in like a lion

You know that saying? Well, it never made much sense to me, but now it does. In France they call it La Giboulée de Mars. Pretty much, when you get up in the morning, you have no idea what the weather is going to be like. That is because it constantly changes. If there is a twenty percent chance of rain, you will feel rain drops, in between two sections of absolutely beautiful sunshine. Right now, there is sunshine streaming in my window as I get ready to leave for the day. However, there will be at least two or three times today where clouds cover the sun and the rain comes down.
Happened yesterday. We went to the Eiffle Tower because the weather was just gorgeous. By the time we got there, it was cloudy and the wind was blowing. I felt a few little drops on my head before we made it to the entrance. It was a little windy climbing up, but once up, you couldn't stay still for too long, it was too cold. So. Always wear your coat and scarf.

Marais 2

And its back to the swamps!! This was actually one of my favorite sections of town. There were so many cool things!! Here are a couple of highlights.

Jewish Synagogue



Hector Guimard, art nouveau designer. I love his work! He designed the Jewish Synagogue (his wife was Jewish)



Plaque on an elementary school in the Jewish section


Replica of an 18th Century room in the Cognac-Jay museum


The Cognac-Jay museum is totally dedicated to items from the 18th Century. It was really cool. There were several rooms set up to look like they would have at that time period and porcelain miniatures and paintings. It was really cool, and really cheap.

An Unexpected Phenomenon

So I put on my jeans this morning, and realized that I looked like someone on those ads for weight lose. I could pull my pants much further away from my stomach than expected. I had to tighten my belt two extra holes today. With my other pants, its really only been one, which isn't that big, but now its two. I had not planned to lose weight, I didn't feel I really needed to. But apparently I have.

My secret, eat almost nothing because 1) the French apparently only have toast for breakfast, 2) French don't eat unless they are actually sitting down at a restaurant, they never eat while on the go 3) I really can't afford to eat as much as I did in the States. Being, I'm not working/earning any money and basically spending my life savings to be here. Deuxieme part of my secret, walk everywhere. No, I really mean everywhere. Fifteen minutes to the train station, ten minutes from the train station to school, everyday, plus two to three hour walks three to four times a week, not to mention the twenty minute walk to church.

I'm trying to decide if I should buy a pair of pants just so I can say 'look how skinny I once was' or if I should just continue to tighten my belt because I'll gain it all back when I come home.

Napoleon's Tomb

Napoleon's Tomb on the outside



The tomb itself


Which I think is funny because Napoleon was cremated, so why does he need a tomb that big?
I planned on loading more pics from Les Invalides, which houses the military museum, but my computer stopped responding. Seriously though, Napoleon's tomb was really cool. It used to be a chapel, and then they changed it to a monument for Napoleon and several of his relatives and generals. It was very pretty.