Home, Sweet, Paris?

Hello again!

Sorry for the long delay in the newest blog post. The past two weekends have been quite eventful and hectic over here in France. Two weekends ago, I traveled to Bordeaux, the wine capital of the world, and I stayed for two full days and one night. If you ever plan on visiting a small city outside of Paris, you really only need a short amount of time.

My TGV (the fastest train rail in Europe) left at 6:40am on Friday morning. Because I inherited my dad's genes of arriving just in time, I made it to the voie (the train location) with two minutes to spare! I hopped on with my friend and it started to move--man, I was lucky...The TGV was incredible. The last time I had been on a train was when I was 6 years old in Austria so it was a whole different experience for me. We arrived in Bordeaux at 10am, so I didn't get a chance to check out the "accompagne" (countryside) of France. Here we are, two American blondes in Bordeaux--so we had to figure out the public transportation system and where our hotel was, etc. After about an hour and a half we reached our hotel that was not in the pretty part of Bordeaux, but that's what we get for a 40 euro hotel stay!!

My first impressions of the town--a mini-Paris. Everything pretty much looked like Paris except two things: 1. tons and tons of younger people around my age. They have about 5 0r 6 colleges in Bordeaux so it is filled with students. 2. SUN SUN SUN and blue skies! So all my pictures from the trip look amazing with a blue sky background!

Also, Bordeaux is not that cheap. There were a few places to eat that didn't eat my wallet, but I think the big difference is that it's smaller than Paris so less variety in cheap places! The whole main road had restaurants dedicated to their Bordeaux wine. There were a million little wine stores/wine tastings/wine bars galore. Caroline and I ate a cheap meal in a brasserie and we were happy with the prices. After, we trekked to the Office of Tourism and picked out a few things to do. First, we checked out the "Maison du Vin"-"House of Wine"-they had a wine tasting class in English every Saturday from 10-12 but they had it canceled for the Saturday we were there! If any of you plan to go to Bordeaux, make sure you get in that class!

Because it was Friday afternoon, students were all over the place getting out of class. We walked down the Bordeaux version of the "Champs-Elysees" and there were tons and tons of stores suited for students. We reached the Pey-Berland Bell Tower. It is a huge tower that you are able to climb up 50 meters high and see the best view of the town from the top. The narrow stairs, dim lighting, and stone walls made me feel like I was in a medieval era. We reached the top and the door to walk through was 2 inches shorter than me (I'm 5'4") and about the width of my body! Some people had to turn to the side to squeeze through. I wonder how someone like Kobe would fit through--he would probably be rejected.

Next to the Pey-Berland Tower rests the Bordeaux Cathedral. It looks like a mini Chartres but much, much dirtier and not as restored. The stained glass windows from the outside really made me appreciate the Chartres stained glass windows and I could understand how incredible Chartres actually is. However, on the inside of the church, the stained glass windows looked beautiful with all the light shining through!! I couldn't believe how something so dirty on the outside could look so beautiful on the inside!

Finally, we headed back to the main road and we walked to the Bordeaux river. Because the sun was out and it wasn't too cold, there were hundreds of people there. It looked like Venice Beach with all the rollerbladers, bikers, walkers, runners, except there weren't any random drum circles or musicians that might pick-pocket you.

We then had a nice Italian dinner and headed back to our hotel. The next morning we woke up and headed to Bordeaux with our belongings. Our train wasn't until 7pm so we had no idea what we would do with our bags. The Office of Tourism set us up with a wine tasting at one of the Chateaus in St. Emilion --about 40 minutes outside of Bordeaux--we took the train there and hopped off at our exit. It was like a ghost town. Nobody was there but Caroline and me. But it was beautiful, even though it was raining. There were hundreds of chateaus with vinyards everywhere. The rolling green hills and cobble roads made me feel like I was finally in a French countryside town. We found Chateau Fontainplague and the house looked like a huge, nice house you would find in Highland Park, Dallas, TX. There was an American flag waving on the outside! Very excited, we asked our tour guide and she said the owners are from Connecticut and they also own a vineyard in Napa Valley, CA.

We had an hour tour of the Chateau and learned all about the process of making wine. We had a wine tasting of 4 wines. It was interesting because we got to taste the same flavor but from different years and notice the difference. If you are interested in the process of wine making--just privately message me because I don't want to bore you on the blog!! Haha

Moving on, we had another hour, so we explored the little village of St. Emilion. Again, a ghost town but there were a few stores open and they were all wine stores. It is a medieval town and the cobble stone is crazy to walk on. There was another tower to go up and see the town. I would have no idea what you would do in this town other than just wonder why you are there! Unless you own a vineyard, I don't see the point of living there.

Finally, we got back to Bordeaux and took our train back to Paris on Saturday night. By the way, wondering about our bags? You can leave your bags in lockers at the train station! How convenient! So we left them there before we went to St. Emilion.

Coming back to Paris was nice. I felt like I was coming back home...

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My entire school group went on a trip sponsored by Accent this past weekend to the South of France (Aix-en-provence, Provence, Arles, Avignon)

It was an incredible experience. I got closer with my school group while not having to worry about expenses since it was already paid for. Our tour guide, Mirek, was wonderful and Sylvie, our teacher, made us feel very comfortable. We arrived in Aix-en-provence around 12pm on Friday and we went to our awesome hotel that was located in the heart of the city. Then we all had free time for lunch, so we found a pizza place to grab some cheap food. Then we met with our group and had a walking tour of the city. The city was again filled with sunlight and blue sky and I think the term "Southern Hospitality" can apply in any part of the world because it definitely applied in the south of France! Everyone had a smile on their face and had a different attitude. It wasn't too crowded or busy but it was my favorite city of the trip. We got to have dinner as a group at a nice restaurant that served us pate, lamb, and chocolate cake! It was soooo good. After, we went to a bar that had flags from all over the world. There was a California flag AND an Indiana University flag! How crazy!!

The next morning we woke up around 7:30am (groan) and ate breakfast in the hotel. If the French could not eat bread anymore, they would all starve. Baguettes, croissants, bread pastry, cereal, toast everywhere. I don't understand why they are all so skinny!! We took our bus to the first destination--Chateaux Baux. It is a medieval castle that was probably the coolest thing I have seen in France. I felt like I was on a playground. There were beautiful, beautiful views all over the place. Catapults, gallows, and dungeons were accessible. You could climb through the entire castle without any uptight museum security guard getting mad at you. My pictures speak for themselves...

Arles was our next stop. A very run-down town, it was home to a Roman arena where they still have bull fights today. Also, Van Gogh painted a famous painting at one of the spots in the city (another claim to their fame). We ate lunch at a good, cheap place and headed back on the bus towards Pont-de-Gard. The famous Roman Aqueduct in the south of France. It was so amazingly inspiring!! I learned how they built it, walked through the top of the bridge where the water used to flow, and got to see one of the coolest sights!! The Pont-de-gard is on the 5 euro, fyi.

After, we headed to Avignon where we had free time for dinner and the rest of the night. We ate dinner at another Italian place (Italian places seem to be the cheapest!) and then went to sleep since we were all exhausted. The next morning we got to see the Palais de Popes. It was the place where the popes fled to in the Roman empire sometime-I'm bad with history on this one. I was exhausted from the weekend, but it was still an amazing experience.

That concludes my two packed weekends! Thank you for reading!