Mer. That's how I'm feeling right now. Also, I miss Mont Saint Michel.
We drove to Tours today. Left MSM without a hitch, got on the road and just cruised. Have I mentioned that the countryside is beautiful? Because it is BEAUTIFUL!! Today it was even rainy and cloudy, but it was still gorgeous. I can't even imagine what it must be like in the spring and summer when the weather is nice.....crowded that's what. Mom and I have decided we are happy to trade the warm weather for less people. There are enough people here without the hordes off tourists that come for the summer months. Pass.
So we drive, and we love it. Then we get to Tours, and I don't know why but for some reason I was expecting kind of a smaller, touristy town. WRONG. This is basically like a mini-Paris. Busy, crowded, and even less English. Perfect. Fortunately, we will spend most of the day tomorrow on our guided tour of the castles (Yay!) and then we will just have Saturday to look around and see what we want to see. But yet again, we were both overwhelmed upon arrival, and this time we had a car to find a park for too. Oy.
Fortunately, once we parked the car and got some food in us (awful as the food was, and I'm not being a pansy this time. We both ordered steak, "medium", and it came out almost entirely raw and I think I heard a couple of "moo's" out of mine...it was pretty gross. But our waitress spoke like 3 words of english so I didn't think it was worth trying to send it back...oh well.) we felt a lot better. We walked around a little bit, bought some chocolate, and we're still a little confused about where we are in the grand scheme of this place but we're getting there. Now we're back at our hotel safe and sound. Exhausted, but better.
I think I've realized why the french get the reputation of being rude, because most of the people we have come across have been very nice and willing to work with us even though we speak very little french. I think it's because they are totally and completely unaware of anything that is going on around them. They are just entirely oblivious to anyone or anything outside of themselves. Now this usually isn't in a rude, selfish, or egotistical way (I mean sometimes obviously) but they're just plain oblivious. And when someone is oblivious to you, it is easy to think they're just being rude. Oh and french people are just as loud and noisy as Americans. Done.
Not too many funny stories today, sorry folks. It was a pretty run of the mill day, no hysterics or wreaking havoc amongst the throngs of people. Although we did stop to buy some fruit at a super market on our drive, but we didn't realize that we had to print off the little sticker with the bar code on it whilst we were in the produce section. So we brought our bags of fruit to the counter, hoping to just hand it to the woman, pay, and leave with as little communication as possible since it was a small town and we assumed they spoke zero english. However, since we didn't print off this sticker, she starts talking to us in french at a zillion miles an hour and we just have "deer-in-the-headlights" face on, and my mom is able to sputter out "je ne sais pas francais!"(I don't know french) And then the woman's like "OOOOOH d'accord" (ok) and then runs off to the produce aisle to print the little stickers for us. PHEW! That was a terrifying 5 seconds...so that was a good time. :)
Also, there are cows everywhere here. I mean they're in the pasture, it's not like India where they're all just run amuck around the road and such. But you can't go 10 minutes without seeing another small herd of cattle, and they're HUGE!! I'm convinced that french cows are way bigger than American cows, which I find to be ironic. You'd think that if the American people are generally physically larger than French people, than American cows would be bigger to feed all the big American people. Apparently not. I probably ate one of those fat cows for dinner tonight, maybe they caught one that we saw on the way into town. That explains why they didn't have time to cook it! ZING!
Oh and one little funny moment from last night at dinner. When we asked for water to drink, the waitress asked "Gas or no gas?" In my head I was like "Really? That's how we're gonna do this? Ok then..." "NO GAS!" As soon as she left our table mom and I broke into guffaws. Thus far we've had the epic "bubbles, or no bubbles?" "flat or fizzy?" and now "gas or no gas?" I think the later is now fighting for first place on the leader board of hilarity, but "bubbles or no bubbles" in a french accent still takes the cake. That was amazing..
Ahh well, beaucoup de Chateaux demain! A bientot!
Showing posts with label countryside. Show all posts
Showing posts with label countryside. Show all posts
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Today was a good day...
We have internet! Huzzah! We have to pay for it, but it's like 10 Euros for 24 hours, not a terrible deal...
Today was a good day. Not that the others have been bad days in the slightest, but today was just plain fun.
We packed up our stuff at the apartment. I was a little sad to leave, just because it had been such a lovely oasis for us against the hordes of people outside it's walls. But nonetheless, I was so excited about going to Mont Saint Michel! MSM, as I will now call it, has been on my list of things to see forever. It's my favorite part of the France movie at Epcot, the France movie is one of my favorite attractions at Epcot, Epcot is my favorite Disneyworld park, and Disneyworld is one of my favorite places ever. So there you go, now you understand.
Anyway, we packed up, got a taxi to the rental car place, got in our car, and headed out! Mom was pretty nervous about driving in Paris, and I can't blame her. Paris drivers are out of their flaming minds. Almost as bad as Boston...almost. So I tried to be really patient, nice, and optimistic once we got in the car, trying to avoid anything that could possibly add to her anxiety. I think it worked for the most part.
So once we got out of Paris, we both could relax a little. Fortunately, it only took about 20 minutes or so to get out, and once we did we were both loving the countryside! The farther away from Paris we got, the more beautiful the country seemed to become! It was really amazing because there were a bunch of little villages all over the place, and each consisted of a few buildings, houses, and a church. I loved seeing all the steeples jutting upwards across the landscape, very cool. The buildings were beautiful too! It looked exactly like the houses from Pride & Prejudice or Chocolat, very 1800's-ish. It was super cool.
Funny rest stop story:
So we're driving along and Mom has said she needs to stop for the bathroom, so we keep passing these rest stops that afterwards I'm like, aww we should've stopped there! So finally I see a sign that looks like all the other signs that came right before the rest stops that we should've stopped at, so I'm like "Hey! Let's stop here!" So we pull of the road, park, and walk into the women's side and all we see are partitions between holes in the floor. I kid you not, there were treaded places to put your feet and a drain. That's it. Now, I realize we're kind of arrogant and over the top in the US, I mean I get that whole point of view. But for the love of God, it's almost 2011 people. Can we not put TOILETS in the BATHROOM?!?! I felt like I was in a time warp back to the middle ages, except it was like modern french construction crews came in and were like "Eh that's good enough. Let's just put tiles on the floor and fibreglass walls between the drains! Doors and toilets are for wusses. Ohn Hohn Hohn!" So naturally my first reaction was "You have got to be kidding me..." I'm pretty sure I actually said this out loud, to which Mom responded "Well, I guess we'll be going to the next one!" Ridiculous. Needless to say at the next gas station, we found toilets...Praise the lord.
Ok back to our day. So we drive and drive, and like I said, the countryside was gorgeous. It was so refreshing to be out of the busyness of Paris. So about 4 or 4.5 hours later we spot Mont Saint Michel!! SO. COOL. I encourage all of you to look at pictures on google or something because spotting it in the distance was amazing. The closer we got, the more in awe I became. It was just incredible. The surrounding area is pretty flat, so MSM just looks HUGE. Which it is...but it just makes it stand out even more. The church on top is just awesome too. That's what MSM is by the way, a massive church. For some reason I always thought it was a castle, but I have since found out otherwise. So we got here, still in awe. Made our way into the little village that winds it's way around the base of the mount, and move into our hotel room. As the receptionist shows us to our room, she also shows us this little door that opens to this stone walkway that goes at least halfway around the island. SUPER COOL.
So we immediately venture forth (camera in hand on my end) and just start exploring. This place is seriously one of the most magical places I have ever been in my life. It's so old and so full of history, but it's just really amazing because of all the fun little places to explore. This walkway is way up above the main street, kind of like a parapet or a rampart that was used for watchmen back in the day maybe. It's just like stepping back into a village in the middle ages. Tons of really old stone buildings, old wooden fences, slits in the stone wall probably used by bowmen to guard the place. It's just beautiful. The church isn't too bad to look at either. :) The whole thing is just HUGE!!!!! Anyway, I won't get too carried away with all this, but seriously this is definitely my favorite place so far and probably will be my favorite of the whole trip. Wicked awesome.
Funny story from dinner:
We were just chatting away at dinner and we started talking about how mom always used to make spaghetti for us when I was a kid. She said of the 3 or 4 days I would be at her house, we would probably have spaghetti 2 nights. Awesome! But I thought since I still love spaghetti that it must have been pretty good if I didn't get sick of it! Then I remembered that we also used to eat this delicious meal on TV trays whilst watching Wheel of Fortune! It was awesome! Her response: "Ugh, I was a terrible mother.." HAAAHAHAHA!!!! But then she decided that since we've now had life-changing chocolate mousse four times on this trip that she has officially made up for all her mistakes. Well that was easy...
Also:
On our way home from the restaurant as we walked back to our hotel, I made some smart alleck comment about something she'd said or done earlier, which I usually do because it's so fun, which made me laugh naturally. Then she went to get me a big push as a reprimand and didn't realize that I was about a full step behind her, so she totally just keep going with her arm out across the entire street. It was HILARIOUS!! It was just like her momentum kept her going for a full 3 or 4 steps before she was able to pull hers arm back in and realize that I wasn't there for her to push. We immediately both fell into hysterics in the middle of this quiet street/village, thus creating a huge scene as we so frequently do. It was awesome.
Like I said, today was a good day. :)
Today was a good day. Not that the others have been bad days in the slightest, but today was just plain fun.
We packed up our stuff at the apartment. I was a little sad to leave, just because it had been such a lovely oasis for us against the hordes of people outside it's walls. But nonetheless, I was so excited about going to Mont Saint Michel! MSM, as I will now call it, has been on my list of things to see forever. It's my favorite part of the France movie at Epcot, the France movie is one of my favorite attractions at Epcot, Epcot is my favorite Disneyworld park, and Disneyworld is one of my favorite places ever. So there you go, now you understand.
Anyway, we packed up, got a taxi to the rental car place, got in our car, and headed out! Mom was pretty nervous about driving in Paris, and I can't blame her. Paris drivers are out of their flaming minds. Almost as bad as Boston...almost. So I tried to be really patient, nice, and optimistic once we got in the car, trying to avoid anything that could possibly add to her anxiety. I think it worked for the most part.
So once we got out of Paris, we both could relax a little. Fortunately, it only took about 20 minutes or so to get out, and once we did we were both loving the countryside! The farther away from Paris we got, the more beautiful the country seemed to become! It was really amazing because there were a bunch of little villages all over the place, and each consisted of a few buildings, houses, and a church. I loved seeing all the steeples jutting upwards across the landscape, very cool. The buildings were beautiful too! It looked exactly like the houses from Pride & Prejudice or Chocolat, very 1800's-ish. It was super cool.
Funny rest stop story:
So we're driving along and Mom has said she needs to stop for the bathroom, so we keep passing these rest stops that afterwards I'm like, aww we should've stopped there! So finally I see a sign that looks like all the other signs that came right before the rest stops that we should've stopped at, so I'm like "Hey! Let's stop here!" So we pull of the road, park, and walk into the women's side and all we see are partitions between holes in the floor. I kid you not, there were treaded places to put your feet and a drain. That's it. Now, I realize we're kind of arrogant and over the top in the US, I mean I get that whole point of view. But for the love of God, it's almost 2011 people. Can we not put TOILETS in the BATHROOM?!?! I felt like I was in a time warp back to the middle ages, except it was like modern french construction crews came in and were like "Eh that's good enough. Let's just put tiles on the floor and fibreglass walls between the drains! Doors and toilets are for wusses. Ohn Hohn Hohn!" So naturally my first reaction was "You have got to be kidding me..." I'm pretty sure I actually said this out loud, to which Mom responded "Well, I guess we'll be going to the next one!" Ridiculous. Needless to say at the next gas station, we found toilets...Praise the lord.
Ok back to our day. So we drive and drive, and like I said, the countryside was gorgeous. It was so refreshing to be out of the busyness of Paris. So about 4 or 4.5 hours later we spot Mont Saint Michel!! SO. COOL. I encourage all of you to look at pictures on google or something because spotting it in the distance was amazing. The closer we got, the more in awe I became. It was just incredible. The surrounding area is pretty flat, so MSM just looks HUGE. Which it is...but it just makes it stand out even more. The church on top is just awesome too. That's what MSM is by the way, a massive church. For some reason I always thought it was a castle, but I have since found out otherwise. So we got here, still in awe. Made our way into the little village that winds it's way around the base of the mount, and move into our hotel room. As the receptionist shows us to our room, she also shows us this little door that opens to this stone walkway that goes at least halfway around the island. SUPER COOL.
So we immediately venture forth (camera in hand on my end) and just start exploring. This place is seriously one of the most magical places I have ever been in my life. It's so old and so full of history, but it's just really amazing because of all the fun little places to explore. This walkway is way up above the main street, kind of like a parapet or a rampart that was used for watchmen back in the day maybe. It's just like stepping back into a village in the middle ages. Tons of really old stone buildings, old wooden fences, slits in the stone wall probably used by bowmen to guard the place. It's just beautiful. The church isn't too bad to look at either. :) The whole thing is just HUGE!!!!! Anyway, I won't get too carried away with all this, but seriously this is definitely my favorite place so far and probably will be my favorite of the whole trip. Wicked awesome.
Funny story from dinner:
We were just chatting away at dinner and we started talking about how mom always used to make spaghetti for us when I was a kid. She said of the 3 or 4 days I would be at her house, we would probably have spaghetti 2 nights. Awesome! But I thought since I still love spaghetti that it must have been pretty good if I didn't get sick of it! Then I remembered that we also used to eat this delicious meal on TV trays whilst watching Wheel of Fortune! It was awesome! Her response: "Ugh, I was a terrible mother.." HAAAHAHAHA!!!! But then she decided that since we've now had life-changing chocolate mousse four times on this trip that she has officially made up for all her mistakes. Well that was easy...
Also:
On our way home from the restaurant as we walked back to our hotel, I made some smart alleck comment about something she'd said or done earlier, which I usually do because it's so fun, which made me laugh naturally. Then she went to get me a big push as a reprimand and didn't realize that I was about a full step behind her, so she totally just keep going with her arm out across the entire street. It was HILARIOUS!! It was just like her momentum kept her going for a full 3 or 4 steps before she was able to pull hers arm back in and realize that I wasn't there for her to push. We immediately both fell into hysterics in the middle of this quiet street/village, thus creating a huge scene as we so frequently do. It was awesome.
Like I said, today was a good day. :)
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