Leaving France

So I am sitting in Charles de Gaulle Airport right now, preparing to write my very last French blog post. I am not sure if it has hit me yet that I am finished with my study abroad, I think that it will take me a few days, maybe even a few weeks before I realize that I am not in France, and that I can speak English to take care of my daily activities. On the other hand, David and I have our first homework assignment for our online statistics class, along with some readings and a video that we have to have all finished by Wednesday. Plus I have to buy a book for my art class and get reading for that course too. Finally, I have to turn in test application forms and write Gilman Scholar reflection essays, all while processing the transfer credit process with Miami and reintegrating into American society, which I have heard can be more difficult than expected. We'll see.

For now I am off to fill out some of the supplementary pages of my blog so that it can be presented as a study abroad resource for future study abroad students. See you all on the other side...

One last French photo, here David and I are standing in front of the Arc de Triomph on his 22nd birthday.

Au revoir France!

Happy Birthday Dear David...

Well today is David's birthday (actually, technically tomorrow is, but since it is past midnight I feel that I can say that his birthday is today) and we are celebrating Paris-style. We have been in Paris for four days now and we have two more days left before we will be shuffling through the Charles de Gaulle airport and working our way back home. We can't believe that our study abroad and our 5-week vacation are coming to a close, but we are both still quite excited to be back in America. For now, however, we are still in France and we have been thoroughly enjoying ourselves around Paris, especially because we can get into almost every single monument and museum around Paris for FREE because we are considered to be residents of France. Here are some photos from the last few days to tell the story:

David and I went into the Centre Georges Pompidou (Modern Art museum) so that I could show him the famous "Ensemble of 6 Bic Lighters"... I got a second commemorative photo. 

This is David and I at the Palace of Versailles. And even though the clouds in the background look dark enough to house tornadoes, they were actually just regular clouds (no rain even) and my camera just did some sort of weird lighting effect that made them look super profound. On the other hand though, those clouds did block sunlight and kept the temperature at a brisk 60-65 degrees for most of the day, depending on sunlight and wind factors. It has been really cold!!

Not the best quality photo, but here are David and I in front of the Eiffel Tower, in the same garden area where mom and I took our photos about 8 months ago.

David and I went to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower (the price was higher if you went all the way to the top, and we felt the 704 stairs that we had already taken were sufficient enough) and here is one picture that I took that shows the view over the Seine river, as well as much of the city of Paris.

Another photo of David and I at the Eiffel Tower. We figured we needed to stock up because study abroad in France means that you have to return with at least one cliché photo of yourself at the famous Paris icon. 

We have also been into the Louvre museum two times, once during the day for about 3 hours and then again during an evening on one of its special "nocturnal days" until about 9:30pm. We took this photo when we left actually, so it was probably about 9:30-9:45pm. Currently in Paris it doesn't get dark until about 10:45pm, which has made it really difficult for us to see Paris lit up at night.

This is the Chateau de Vincennes, a medieval residence left from the 1300's. It is a national monument so David and I could tour for free. Unfortunately, the best part of this chateau was its external facade, because the inside was not left with any original furnishings (which is understandable) and therefore was mostly filled with modern art "representing theories and abstract ideas of the middle ages" etc. There was also a cathedral though, and that was pretty cool.

David and I saw the Moulin Rouge! Only from the outside though, no worries!

We also climbed up Montmartre, a hill that looks over the city of Paris to get to this famous basilica, known as the Sacré Coeur. There were probably about 400 visitors walking through the what David and I determined to be not-really-different-from-any-other basilica. It was quite crowded and rather unpleasant, but I guess we can say we saw it, just like every other tourist. 

Here are David and I in front of the Notre Dame, which we have toured from the inside, but have yet to explore from the view of the towers, which were supposed to be open yesterday evening and weren't, and were supposed to be open tonight, and weren't. We wanted to do them at night, because normally you are able to do them on Friday and Saturday nights to get a view of a sparkling Paris, but for some unknown reason they are not doing that right now. We will probably go up them during the day at some point before leaving the city.

So that basically summarizes David and I's time in Paris so far, other than the lack of a photo of our sore feet from all the walking, and you will probably notice at least one thing that is missing: The Arc de Triomph. David and I will be visiting that tomorrow on his birthday (or later today if you prefer) as well as a walk of the Champs Elysées. Besides that we do not have too much planned because we will probably relax a little bit in preparation for our return home and just to catch our breath after all of our crazy tourism. 

Finally, just as a scholastic update, I still have not manages to get any of my transcripts sent to Miami from either of my French universities (which is still normal for Savoie, but is completely ridiculous for Le Havre) and therefore I am impatiently awaiting the arrival of those documents at Miami so that I can eventually work on getting my transfer credit approved. Also, as David and I prepare to return to the US, I will remind you all that we will be taking summer courses to help fill in gaps left from our time abroad, and those classes start this Monday. We will each miss the first class of the session, but after that we will be working, going to class, and integrating back into America all at the same time. I also will have to pass my OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) upon my return to the US to prove my competency in French as a foreign language before I will be approved to do my student teaching. Since it is an expensive test, and since I know certainly that I am qualified, let's all hope I perform to the best of my abilities so that I can be proud of my score, and get that very important and daunting test behind me. Ok, well I think that probably just about sums up what is currently going on in my life/future life. I expect to send maybe just one more blog post before my depart for the US, so I would be interested in answering any questions you, my readers, might have about my experience abroad. If you do have a question that you would like me to answer in my last post (just nothing too deep or philosophical) then please e-mail me as soon as you can with that question and I will try to build in my response to my last French blog post ever!! Until then, bonne nuit!

Some Reflection While Traveling

Tomorrow David and I will do our last bit of biking in the Loire Valley (a day with a mere 45 kilometers of biking, assuming we don't get lost, and one large chateau) and then we will return our tandem and head for Paris, where we will finish our vacation before returning back to the United States. Since our return is approaching so quickly, I took the time this evening to prepare a set of three lists concerning what I expect my feelings to be, which I hope to eventually compare with the reality of my return. Each list has ten items, but is not in any particular order of importance. The first represents the ten things I think I miss the most about the US. The second presents ten things I think I will notice as weird once back in the US that used to seem normal to me. The third shows the ten things I think that I will miss most about France. Here they are:

So those are my officially published predictions for my future reintegration into the US, and I am excited to see how well I predicted, as well as what I forgot or how I was wrong.

Hello La Loire A Vélo, Hello Sore Butts

So far David and I are enjoying our bike rides, though we are really starting to feel the amount of exercise that we have been putting in each day. In fact we are usually impressed with ourselves for making it back to our hotel at the end of each day. The worst part for me personally is the permanent bruising suffered by my bony butt, which has made it unbearable to sit on the darned bike seat. I ride everywhere with a towel planted on the seat for extra padding, and it helps just enough to keep me going. On the brighter side we are really enjoying seeing all the chateaux! And on the literally even brighter side, today was our first sunny day of biking! Unfortunately though it is really late here (already 1am!!) so I will just share a couple of photos with you before going to bed.

David and I with our tandem bike... yay!

This is when our chain fell off as we were shifting down for pedaling up a hill. I am surprised that the loss of the chain did not cause us to completely collide with some nearby object, but as it was I successfully got the chain back on and we continued on our way. Here you can see my blackened fingers before some of the wet grass and a sacrificed David sock (don't worry it had holes) helped me to clean up.

This is the Cathedral in Tours. It had quite an impressive collection of stained glass windows that told historic stories and such. Also, it was impressively large in comparison to most that we see.

This is David and I at the chateau Chenonceau that we saw today. It is one of the most famous chateaux of the Loire Valley because of its unique bridge architecture over the river. It was also quite well decorated on the inside and had very impressive kitchens!

This is another view of the chateau Chenonceau, with a view of a tower and facing back toward the gardens.

To show off how awesome our bike path is, this was our view as we were leaving Chenonceau and heading to the next city on our route, Amboise. The only bummer was that the path here was not paved so it was a bit bumpy for us on tandem, slightly hard to maneuver, but ultimately still nice I would say.

Here is a view of what our bike paths might typically look like. Although admittedly we often have a cloud covered sky and rain, there is still usually a river, some nice foliage, and a nearby field that we can admire as we bike along between towns and chateaux.

This is the Chateau La Chatonnière, which is most well known for its impressive gardens. We probably would have enjoyed them more if it hadn't been pouring rain all day yesterday, but oh well. On the other hand, because it had rained we had fun snail hunting all throughout our tour of the gardens. We found maybe 15 in total, most of which were quite large, carrying their little shells. I even picked one up and "glued" it to a post to see if it could adhere and keep climbing, which it did with ease. Very impressive.

This is the chateau d'Ussé, which is incredibly famous because Sleeping Beauty's castle is modeled after this one. Unfortunately without an airplane I cannot show you the better view of this chateau, but if you Google search it you will see why. However, due to the exorbitant entry fee (14E a person) we did not enter into this chateau, but rather admired it from afar. 

This is the chateau de Villandry, which so far is the favorite of David and I. It had phenomenal decorations and rooms on the inside (plus an informative hand-out) and some of the most amazing gardens we have seen yet! This garden is the "potager" or kitchen garden, meaning almost everything you see, all the way to the chateau, is edible. They mostly plant lettuce, for its colors I believe, but still it's very impressive!

Ok, 1:30am and I am off to bed! We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, so I need my rest. Luckily I can tell you that my muscles are adjusting to the work and David and I are starting to be able to move a little easier. Though I do think we are walking a little strangely... haha. Good night!

Loire Valley Biking Adventure

So today was the day... David and I officially rented our tandem bike and began our bike tour of the chateaux of the Loire Valley. Would anyone like to take a stab at how easy it is to ride a tandem bike? It is not easy at all. In fact I am fairly impressed that David and I ever got going to begin with. Luckily, after a bit of practice we now find starting and stopping much easier (I am sure that by the end of this week we will be professionals) but it was extremely difficult the first few times we tried and involved some pretty intense swerving. Actually, for the first hour I think we were so stressed and concentrated that we could barely focus on anything else, especially since we couldn't find our way out of Saumur, the city we started in this morning, and we actually managed to bike the same hill/street three times, somehow always going up but never going down. I'm not even kidding either, that is the sad part. We made three loops of the city, taking various routs looking for the one we needed (though we always biked up that same hill somehow) and needless to say we were not in the best of moods. Though luckily we did finally find our way, and we set off on the bike path. Due to loss of time in the city of Saumur, we had to cut out one of the chateaux that we were planning on visiting today. We chose the one that was out of the way and with a 10E entry fee per person. So we went straight to Chateau du Rivau, and then to Chinon where we are spending the night in a hotel.

There is one funny story that I would like to share with you before showing off my pictures, and it involves our success at tandem biking. So we had decided that for strength reasons we would have David in the front of the tandem to steer, and we would use my awesome balance skills to maintain equilibrium in the back. This worked quite nicely, especially in comparison to the opposite, which we had the idea to try part way through our bike trip. At one point we had just entered one of our bike paths and I asked if we could switch positions. I told David about what I did at take-off to help us keep balanced (it is seriously more complicated than it sounds) and we set off to try it. At this point I should mention that David is wearing a backpack, which impacts our balance quite a great deal. Well he kind of swung a bit as we started moving and therefore we were super off-balance, but still trying to pedal through, as David tried to correct for his off-balance and swung the other way. While this was going on I was constantly trying to maintain a forward direction, but that was impossible due to my own imbalance and lack of control of the steering, so we just kind of swerved all through the path, into grass on both ends of the path, all the while kind of yelling to communicate with each other over the excitement. This lasted maybe 5-10 seconds, and right as we decided we definitely needed to come to a stop we heard this old French couple literally laugh out loud at us and our situation. Not only was the slightly humiliating ,as we had no idea there was anyone watching us up until this point, we thought about it later and that is really not Frenchlike to laugh audibly at a stranger's doings. We must have looked freaking hilarious... They even commented about how we looked like we were having a bit of trouble. I explained that we were trying with me in the front, which was clearly unsuccessful, and that we would go back to normal. They wished us luck, clearly expecting to get another show, but we quickly changed positions and took off, as we were now accustomed to doing. At the time we were still a little embarrassed I think, but now I look back with nothing but laughter because I truly think we must have been quite the sight.

Also included in today's picture collection are the chateaux that we saw yesterday in Angers and Brissac.

This is the medieval fortress which is also called the Chateau d'Angers. Because it is a National Monument David and I got in free and really enjoyed our tour around the ramparts. 

This is the Chateau Brissac which we got to by bus. We arrived an unfortunate 2 hours before the next guided tour, and the chateau can only be visited with a guide, so we got a wonderfully long time to relax in part of its nearly 3500 acres of gardens. We found a bench by part of the river and enjoyed frog-spotting and playing some cards. 

This is the two of us by the font of the chateau. It also had a fabulous interior and our guide was quite interesting, though he was a fast speaker. It made me really proud of my French because I really understood almost every single thing, except some of the dates because after the thousand and the hundred I usually got behind at the pace he was speaking. So I know the century for most everything, but not the year.

This is the Chateau de Saumur, the city that we slept in last night. The chateau overlooked the Loire river and presented a very magnificent facade dominating the city. We didn't got in though because it wasn't free and we had a schedule to keep to get to the other chateaux on today's agenda. Of course trying to leave the city we ended up going in the three infamous loops I described above so we ended up having to skip a chateau anyway, but we didn't know that yet when we made the decision.

One advantage of the bike route for the Loire Valley tour is it can lead to some pretty cool things, including this Troglodyte village which is built into a cliff/ cave face. It was pretty fun to see. 

This is the chateau Montsoreau, which overlooked the city where we had lunch today. A fantastic crepe lunch in fact. Again we didn't go into this chateau, but it is always fun to see them from the outside.

This is the Chateau du Rivau, which is known for having fairy tale gardens. It also had quite a nice interior, though not as impressive as some that we have seen. This was the last chateau on the agenda for today and I would just like to say that the bike from it to the hotel was one of the longest of my life. And oh by the way, my butt hurts so badly that I had to sit on David's sweater to even be capable of pedaling on the way back. There are disadvantages to having such a bony butt, and this is one of them. Though I might add that David also has a very sore butt, so neither of us is quite sure how we are going to get back on a bike tomorrow. I'll let you know how everything turns out.

This is David and I posing with a statue of boots that we in the "fairy tale gardens" of the chateau. I particularly like how the camera over-exposed the sunlight and we got this sort of magical effect. Overall though, I'd summarize the day as successful, and I think this picture says it well.

David and I are off to bed!!

L'Aventure Normand

Hello everyone! Unfortunately I was unable to update you because we have had some internet problems and I was not able to do a blog post prior to tonight =(  The good news is that David and I are arrived safely and efficiently in Saumur (tomorrow will mark the second day of our Loire Valley tour) and we have internet. Today we started in Angers and saw a total of two chateaux before arriving in Saumur, where we will start tomorrow with our tandem bike rental and our bike tour of the Loire. However, I figured I would use today's blog to summarize our travels in Normandy.

We arrived in Paris on-time from Barcelona, and we were rushed to get on a bus that would take us to the nearby train station which was schedules to leave 15 minutes after we landed. And here is why we love Ryan Air, the airline company that we have been flying with: David and I were standing at the bus stop with all our bags 7 minutes after landing... I am talking 7 minutes after the wheels of the plane touched the ground. It was seriously incredible. That means that David and I had no problems getting to Caen, the first city of our Normandy voyage. There we spent our half-day visiting the city cathedrals and the medieval fortress. The next morning we woke up early and set off to see the beaches of Normandy. Unfortunately for us, without a car it is very difficult to get to all of the beaches of Normandy in a single day unless you pay for a private guided tour. Now there are loads of companies that offer these services, the problem is most of them cost around 60E a person to spend most of your day in a car driving between the 5 landing sites. Therefore we decided that we would use public transportation and visit the site most important to us: Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery Memorial which overlooks the beach. Other than the weather which was windy and rainy and maybe 40 degrees, I would say that this part of our journey was a success. Here are those pictures:

This is the Chateau of Caen, an old military fortress. It is mostly in ruins and today just consists of its exterior walls and a chapel within which was under restoration. It was really fun to see though, and we were particularly happy because the rain clouds cleared about 10 minutes before I took this photo and we got to enjoy a little bit of sun. 

Here are David and I in front of the memorial cemetery at Omaha Beach. It was pouring and extremely windy, but nothing could really damper our awe at the sight of this patriotic monument. 

Due to the bad weather there were relatively few visitors to the memorial so I was able to get a pretty empty picture of the crosses. There are 9,387 burials at the site.

We also hiked all the way down to the beach, which you can see past the forest that we were about to hike through. Honestly it looked quite a lot like a normal deserted beach, but knowing the history behind it did make it interesting. due to weather constraints we only had time to walk to one of the "items" that they had scattered along the 5-mile stretch of beach, which was a piece of German anti-aircraft artillery, located maybe only a mile away from our starting location. Then we returned and went through the museum on the site which was not only free but very informative. 

The next day we headed to the all-famous Mont Saint Michel, one of the most visited abbeys in the world. We got there about an hour before the grounds opened which we spent walking around the premises (there is a wall that surrounds the area which is open to the public) and taking pictures. We also found a somewhat large snail which was a highlight for our morning, though after seeing the abbey of course. Here are some pictures of that excursion:

This is the all-impressive facade of the abbey Mont Saint Michel, which sits on what is an island during high tide and a kind of hill in the middle of a sandy landscape during low-tide, when we saw it.

Here is a view from the inside of the abbey grounds out past the houses of the "island" and toward the sandy stretches of beach which lay beyond.

This is David and I pictured by the cloister within the abbey.

I just loved how ornate the column architecture was! Plus, this is one of the few sites that I have been too that hasn't had an enormous amount of construction and restoration going on, so I found the site especially pretty. 

This is David and I on the paved road that leads to the Mont Saint Michel. That was definitely one of the most impressive buildings that we have seen thus far in our lives! We really enjoyed our day of touring there. Also, since it is a national monument of France, we get in FREE! Woohoo!

Ok, well I think that I have brought this blog mostly up to date, and hopefully tomorrow David and I will again have internet so that I can share with you some of our pictures of the Loire Valley. PS we will be biking about 70 kilometers tomorrow (that is about 44 miles) and we have a schedule to keep and three chateaux to see. Wish us luck! We are off to bed to get ready for our big day. Oh, and let's pray that we don't get any more rain!!

Bye Bye Barcelona, Re-Bonjour France!!

David and I are both excited to be going back to France tomorrow, it is amazing how nice it is to be going back into a familiar country with a familiar language. The only downside is that our flight is at 6:20 in the morning so we will be out and about quite early tomorrow, around 4am it looks like. Unfortunately for us, it is also looking like it might rain almost every day while we are going to be biking in the Loire Valley. Yippee! We have decided that we will just buy some ponchos if necessary because we really have no other option at this point. Currently we are packed so that for our week in Normandie and the Loire we will both be living out of one backpack, which will certainly be a challenge but well worth the saved weight and bulkiness of another bag. But I'll keep you updated as the trip draws nearer. Tomorrow we might go see some of the beaches of Normandie, depending on if we have enough time, otherwise we will do that the morning after tomorrow before we head to Pontorson, where we will sleep before seeing the Mont Saint Michel.

To finish off our time in Barcelona David and I mostly just relaxed on the beach... (so yes, we are very, very tan) and also did some excursions to check out the touristic sights of the town. Here are some pictures to help tell the story:

This is a really fantastic Gothic cathedral that dominates the historic part of Barcelona. It is enormous! This is a view of the outside of the cathedral. Interesting fact: if you visit between 9am and 12:45pm or after 5:15pm, you get in free, but if you visit between 1pm and 5pm you have to pay 6E a person. Needless to say we chose to go in during the free times.

Here is a picture of the inside of the cathedral. Typical Gothic architecture, but by far one of the largest Gothic-style cathedrals that we have seen. 

David and I on the beach. It was actually very sunny but I think my camera over-compensated and so the sky looks a little overcast and the sand a little shadowy. I assure you it was not, as various patches of not-sun-screened skin (such as David's nose) can testify.

This is David and I in the Park Guell, names for a famous architect of Barcelona, so the park has many architectural wonders in it, such as this very long and wavy mosaic bench overlooking the city. You can also start to see that David and I are no longer white and could probably start applying for minority-requirement scholarships from Miami. 

This is also in the Park Guell and shows a cool cave/column/walkway thing. 

This is in another one of Barcelona's parks, one which is famous for this mammoth statue. I guess it was pretty cool. You could sit in his curled trunk to get your picture taken if you wanted.

This is a fountain in the same park as the mammoth. It was super ornate so we decided to get a picture with it. This park is also home to Barcelona's zoo, which we considered visiting, but when we learned that entrance to the zoo cost 17E each we decided that probably it was not worth it. 

Well I think that pretty much sums up our trip to Barcelona... we are off to vacation 4 of 5!! (I can't believe it!) Only 16 days until we leave for the good old U. S. of A. Woohoo!

(Way too much) Fun in the Sun!

David and I had a splendid day in Barcelona yesterday. We found the beach and enjoyed almost 4 hours of relaxation and tanning. The weather was perfect; sunny, but quite breezy so you were kept cool, and best of all neither of us got sunburned thanks to our sunscreen! After our beach time we walked for a while through the Park of Montjuic wherein is located an old fort which was used not only historically but even in WWII. That was really fun to see, the only problem was that it is situated on top of a big hill overlooking the city so we were kind of tired by the time we had reached the fort. Today we think we will do less walking and give ourselves a break from touring... so we're just going to spend more time on the beach!

Here are some pictures of Barcelona for your viewing pleasure:

View of Spain and it's northern beaches from the airplane. This made David and I really excited to arrive and get to the beach!

This magnificent monument is unfortunately an art museum, which does not interest neither David not I. However, I like taking pictures of it and its impressive facade from the outside. This is about a 16-20 minute walk from where we are staying in the city.

This is a sand sculpture (actually it is an advertisement promotional thing for the Vienna orchestra) but we found it quite amazing. This is at the entrance to our beach.

David and I on the beach. We'll get some pictures with our whole bodies at a later date.

This is our arrival at the fortress on the hill. This is not the best picture, but I think you probably get the idea. It was an impressive area to explore, and it's really enormous! It is called the Castell de Montjuic and entrance is free because it is considered to belong to the people of Barcelona. Quite cool.

This is the view over the city from the fort. You can see the art museum at the bottom left. 

Here is David firing the inert WWII "Naval gun" as David just informed me this should be called. Of course he found the weaponry of the fort to be quite exciting. 

David and I up one of the walls of the fort. Don't worry about us falling off though, those walls are about 6 feet thick!! Overall, it was a successful day of tourism in Barcelona.

On a different topic, before I end my blog post for today, I wanted to let you all know that my Analyse de Données professor got back to me yesterday and my make-up assignment was a success! I got a 12.5 meaning that I more than passed the class and I will now be able to use it as transfer credit back at Miami. I am very, very excited that all my effort paid off, writing that 15 page paper in 3 days. Now I just have to see how long it actually takes Miami to get my final grades from Le Havre. At this rate I think possible Miami will receive my grades from both semesters at the same time. Way to go France.

Finally, I do not know if you, my avid readers, have noticed, but David and I would like to inform you that we have a little under three weeks left until we are back in the United States!!! Wow! We can't believe it! Of course we are excited, I can't wait to see my family (which includes my cats) again, eat like an American, and stop living out of my suitcase, but I can already feel that the reverse culture shock is going to be difficult to deal with. A lot changes when you live abroad for such an extended period of time. y'a But for now, I am still mostly excited, though also sad, that my time in Europe is almost over, and yet that I am almost HOME!

See y'all in 19 days.