Today we got up and left Tours (HURRAY! We didn't really like it there..) and got on the road back to Paris. Mom has finally gotten the hang of driving in France, as she now doesn't care if she cuts people off, gets in the way, or basically does whatever she wants. This is how all French drivers drive, so it takes some getting used to. But today, as we were leaving Tours, we realized our turn was on the left and we were on the right side of the road. So we had to make our way across 2 lanes of traffic rather quickly. Fortunately, Mom just went for it and responded to the honks with "EHH we're tourists, leave us alone!!" It was AWESOME. I died laughing naturally...There were also some cuss words strewn in there that I will spare you for the sake of the children. However, we were discussing how we could avoid using cuss words in our email/blog updates, and I told her about how at camp we have a song that goes "Brown squirrel, brown squirrel, shake your bushy tail. Take a peanut in your hands and SHOVE IT UP YOUR NOSE!!" So I told her that some of the counselors at camp would avoid cussing in front of the campers by saying "OH SHOVE IT UP YOUR NOSE!!" So that was the phrase of the day today, and it was HILARious...
Also on the road today we saw SNOW PLOWS. Now if you read my previous post from when we were in Paris last week and my comments on how they don't plow or shovel, this will make more sense. But we saw like 3 or 4 snow plows today plowing the other side of the highway! We both saw them at the same time and were like, "Oh my gosh..PLOWS!!" It was incredible.
So now it's time for some gratitude. The closer we got to Paris today, the more snow we saw. Apparently, the snow up here, and the rest of Northern Europe, as been creating a bit of mayhem for travelers the past couple days. However, we are determined to keep a positive attitude and know that we will have safe and harmonious travels today and tomorrow! So as we got closer to Paris and saw more snow, we started saying out loud that everything was going to work out and that we would be provided with everything we needed. Our plan was to go to our hotel first, check in and drop off our bags, then go fill up the gas tank and take the car back to the rental car place. Now parking in Paris is...interesting. Spots are non-existent and most people just make up their own spot by parking on the sidewalk or just double parking and wreaking havoc. So if necessary, we were prepared to do this just to unload, check in real fast, and then be on our way. So we made our way through the traffic, found our hotel, and there was a parking spot RIGHT IN FRONT of the hotel!! It was PERFECT!! We were super grateful!! So God in action #1. Now to #2. Find a gas station. If you haven't figured out, there is zero extra space in the city, therefore we thought we would have to go out of the city to find a gas station. So we looked on the GPS and there happened to be one less than a Kilometer away! We made it over there, filled up and payed without a hitch! Gratitude moment #2. Then we had to get back to the rental car place, which is in a much more populated part of the city, about 10 minutes from where we were. Also, since there's no space, the rental car office is in a different location than the cars. Now, the GPS knew where the office was, but didn't direct us to the parking garage where the cars were stored, which is where we needed to go. But once we made it to the office, we were able to find the garage without a hitch and returned the car no sweat. Gratitude moment #3. At this point, we were planning to take the metro back to our hotel, and I had been looking ahead of time to find where the closest stops were to where we were, and where out hotel was. But the station we were going to was a big station with lots of different lines all crossing each other, which can be pretty confusing. But in the snowy slush, we made it to the metro and found the right line with ease. We made it back to our hotel without a problem and were dancing in the elevator because we were SO HAPPY about how it all worked out!! It really couldn't have been any more perfect and we are SO GRATEFUL!! What could have been a pretty stressful situation turned out to be such a smooth transition. HURRAY!! So now we are knowing that everything tomorrow with our flight will just be a continuation of the smoothness that we have experienced today! DONE. :)
I also wanted to comment on the car that we rented this past week. It was a Peugeot something-er-other, some kind of station wagon type with a hatch back. Basically it was the smallest thing we could get that had an automatic transmission, and for France it was still a good size car. We definitely wouldn't have wanted anything bigger. But as for this car's transmission, technically mom didn't have to manually shift, but boy oh boy you could feel the car shifting. It was just like mom was actually shifting, the same lull for the clutch and the jolt into the next gear. So when we would be speeding up to merge on the highway, it took WAY longer than a US automatic car because you had to wait for the car to awkwardly shift. Anyway, we started calling it by name saying "C'MON BESSIE!! YOU CAN DO IT!! GO! GO!" Oh man, it was so funny. So the car was officially dubbed "Bessie". We loved that car, but mom was ecstatic to give it back today because that meant no more driving in France! Well, I think she was more grateful to not be driving in Paris more than just France in general.
So anyway, we're off to the airport tomorrow to head back to the States! It's been a fantastic 2 weeks and we have had a blast, but we are definitely ready to be home. But everything will work out tomorrow with the weather and the plane! Keep a good thought for us! :)
Showing posts with label driving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label driving. Show all posts
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Bathroom Nemesis
Bonsoir! Today was our second to last day in France! And what a lovely day it was...
Since we were on a schedule yesterday with the tour, we decided to take our time and do whatever we wanted today with no rules. So we woke up late, ate breakfast late, and got going late. *Sigh*...delightful.
So yesterday on our tour we stopped for lunch in the town of Amboise, naturally where the Amboise castle was...the logic is astounding. Whilst stopped for lunch, we discovered an amazing little creperie/restaurant that not only had fantastic food and was inexpensive, but they spoke ENGLISH!! HUZZAH!! So especially after our little dinner fiasco last night, we decided we would make it easy on ourselves and go back to this cute little town and restaurant. However, we had eaten breakfast right before we left, and the only two things on our agenda for the day were lunch at this place and then there was one other castle I wanted to see, but in the opposite direction. So, to kill time before lunch we just started driving down little winding roads outside of Amboise and it was so pretty! Cute little farm houses, vineyards (brown since it's winter, but still cool), pretty farm fields, and all kinds of pretty stuff. Mom and I found out that we both really love just driving around and seeing what's around, so that's what we did and loved it all. Then we headed back to lunch, which was DELICIOUS, and then made our way back towards Tours and then on to the other castle.
This other castle, Usse as they call it, was the inspiration for the story "Sleeping Beauty," and being the Disney connoisseur that I am, I really wanted to see it. So an hour later, after lots of adorable towns and pretty countryside, we made it to the castle only to find out that it was closed!! BUMMER! I mean, I didn't really need to go inside anyway, after yesterday and all the castles I've realized that most of them look pretty much the same on the inside. So I wasn't all that distraught about not getting inside the place, but I would've liked some access to the grounds to get better pictures! But oh well, we could still see it outside the gated area that was closed, so I still got SOME pictures...just not as many as I would've liked. However, there was another problem with the place being closed...
I REALLY needed to go to the bathroom. Great.
Now, the town that Chateau Usse is in is not a bustling metropolis. There was a public bathroom that is probably used quite often in the summer when there are hordes of tourists. However, today I think we saw a total of 10 or 15 people, so when we found the public bathroom is was padlocked shut. Perfect. Then we saw a super market. But alas, the woman wouldn't let me use it. Mom was annoyed, "SHE has to go to the bathroom somewhere! It's not like she doesn't go all day, why won't she just let us use hers for god's sake!" I would've found this a lot funnier if I wasn't about to burst. Then we came upon a church, I figured that at least the people of God would have mercy on a poor, full-bladdered soul and let me use their facilities. But alas again, the doors were locked and God didn't open a window...curses. I even walked to what looked like a port-a-potty, only to find out is a was a recycling collection bin-thingy. FOILED AGAIN! So, I decided that I thought I could make it to the next town, about 10 minutes away. My soul was dying slowly on the inside, but I didn't really see what choice I had unless I wanted to join someone's cow out in the pasture. Pass. So we started driving and in the next town we saw another public bathroom. PRAISE THE HEAVENS!! We stop and walk over and see an open room with urinals, but the two doors apparently holding the toilets were LOCKED!!! At this point I was about to just "go" all over the locked doors and be like "YOU BROUGHT THIS UPON YOURSELVES!!!!" But then we saw a bar across the street and Mom was like, I will buy some tea or something, and they will HAVE to let us use their bathroom. So we went inside and a lovely French gentleman provided us with a bathroom and tea. And it was blissful....
Apparently France is my arch nemesis when it comes to bathrooms. Now I know.
So after our bathroom debacle, we kept driving and saw some more countryside and some more castles along the side of the road (yes, really. Castles just spring up on the side of the road, pretty awesome) and then decided to head back to Tours. We've been jones-ing for some Italian food so earlier today we made a mental note of where the Italian restaurants were so we could drive there, and then drive back to our hotel to park for the night. However, we needed to stop by the hotel first for some reason that I can't actually remember. But upon our arrival in town, we discovered that the traffic was HORRENDOUS. And traffic in French towns/cities isn't like traffic in the States. It's like cramming an interstate during rush hour into the tiny confines of a back alleyway, and then throwing in every pedestrian in Manhattan with a dash of mystery since we still don't know the town all that well. Basically I think mom would have curled up into the fetal position, started rocking back and forth and muttering to herself had the steering wheel not been in the way. So it was a little stressful. Although her cussing was hilarious. Anyway, so we decided to go straight to the parking garage and not venture forth to the Italian restaurant. Instead we went and got some sandwich stuff from the grocery store and retreated to our hotel room for a movie on my computer. It was kind of like when a woodland animal gets freaked out and retreats into it's cave never to be seen again..only the cave has wifi. Pretty sweet.
So that was our day, we both highly enjoyed it. Tomorrow we head back to Paris for one night and then Monday we head home! So tomorrow will probably be my last France blog post, but don't worry I will keep blogging even AFTER I get back from France! I know, I know, it's almost too much. Don't hyperventilate or anything from the excitement, just STAY CALM!
Ok, now to end on a quick funny story that I forgot to tell about last night's "dinner in english" hunt. So hopefully you read last night's blog post about our meal issues, if not I encourage you to go read it before reading this one. It will make more sense. So anyway, we're tired, hungry, frustrated beyond all reason, and ready to kill some french people if we see one more menu with no english descriptions. Did I mention we're frustrated? Because we were really frustrated. So anyway, as I said last night, there were only two restaurants we found that DID have english "subtitles" if you will, and one just had some really weird food on the menu, and the other was a Lebanese restaurant. Now, I don't really know Lebanese food very well and I've never been to a Lebanese restaurant before, so we kind of ruled that one out at the beginning. Then we found this other place that had the really weird food that didn't sound appetizing at all. So we were stuck between something that just sounded terrible and something that I wasn't all that familiar with. So we were standing outside the Lebanese place re-looking at the menu and the owner opens the door and goes "Bonsoir!" We look at this man, with all of the previously mentioned emotions written all over our faces. I can't manage any response right away, and all Mom can say is "Does anyone speak english in there?????" To which the man replies, "Yes, with pleasure!" then my mom goes "PRAISE GOD!!!!" and we walk right in. I found this HILARious... Because 1. if you don't know my mom, that's a really weird reaction to the answer to that question, plus it's just so American of her. 2. My mom is just weird, so it was funny. Anyway, we had a good laugh about that at dinner, which was DELICIOUS, and carried on our merry way. So that's my funny story du jour, I hope you all enjoyed it. Stay tuned for tomorrow's final France post!!
Since we were on a schedule yesterday with the tour, we decided to take our time and do whatever we wanted today with no rules. So we woke up late, ate breakfast late, and got going late. *Sigh*...delightful.
So yesterday on our tour we stopped for lunch in the town of Amboise, naturally where the Amboise castle was...the logic is astounding. Whilst stopped for lunch, we discovered an amazing little creperie/restaurant that not only had fantastic food and was inexpensive, but they spoke ENGLISH!! HUZZAH!! So especially after our little dinner fiasco last night, we decided we would make it easy on ourselves and go back to this cute little town and restaurant. However, we had eaten breakfast right before we left, and the only two things on our agenda for the day were lunch at this place and then there was one other castle I wanted to see, but in the opposite direction. So, to kill time before lunch we just started driving down little winding roads outside of Amboise and it was so pretty! Cute little farm houses, vineyards (brown since it's winter, but still cool), pretty farm fields, and all kinds of pretty stuff. Mom and I found out that we both really love just driving around and seeing what's around, so that's what we did and loved it all. Then we headed back to lunch, which was DELICIOUS, and then made our way back towards Tours and then on to the other castle.
This other castle, Usse as they call it, was the inspiration for the story "Sleeping Beauty," and being the Disney connoisseur that I am, I really wanted to see it. So an hour later, after lots of adorable towns and pretty countryside, we made it to the castle only to find out that it was closed!! BUMMER! I mean, I didn't really need to go inside anyway, after yesterday and all the castles I've realized that most of them look pretty much the same on the inside. So I wasn't all that distraught about not getting inside the place, but I would've liked some access to the grounds to get better pictures! But oh well, we could still see it outside the gated area that was closed, so I still got SOME pictures...just not as many as I would've liked. However, there was another problem with the place being closed...
I REALLY needed to go to the bathroom. Great.
Now, the town that Chateau Usse is in is not a bustling metropolis. There was a public bathroom that is probably used quite often in the summer when there are hordes of tourists. However, today I think we saw a total of 10 or 15 people, so when we found the public bathroom is was padlocked shut. Perfect. Then we saw a super market. But alas, the woman wouldn't let me use it. Mom was annoyed, "SHE has to go to the bathroom somewhere! It's not like she doesn't go all day, why won't she just let us use hers for god's sake!" I would've found this a lot funnier if I wasn't about to burst. Then we came upon a church, I figured that at least the people of God would have mercy on a poor, full-bladdered soul and let me use their facilities. But alas again, the doors were locked and God didn't open a window...curses. I even walked to what looked like a port-a-potty, only to find out is a was a recycling collection bin-thingy. FOILED AGAIN! So, I decided that I thought I could make it to the next town, about 10 minutes away. My soul was dying slowly on the inside, but I didn't really see what choice I had unless I wanted to join someone's cow out in the pasture. Pass. So we started driving and in the next town we saw another public bathroom. PRAISE THE HEAVENS!! We stop and walk over and see an open room with urinals, but the two doors apparently holding the toilets were LOCKED!!! At this point I was about to just "go" all over the locked doors and be like "YOU BROUGHT THIS UPON YOURSELVES!!!!" But then we saw a bar across the street and Mom was like, I will buy some tea or something, and they will HAVE to let us use their bathroom. So we went inside and a lovely French gentleman provided us with a bathroom and tea. And it was blissful....
Apparently France is my arch nemesis when it comes to bathrooms. Now I know.
So after our bathroom debacle, we kept driving and saw some more countryside and some more castles along the side of the road (yes, really. Castles just spring up on the side of the road, pretty awesome) and then decided to head back to Tours. We've been jones-ing for some Italian food so earlier today we made a mental note of where the Italian restaurants were so we could drive there, and then drive back to our hotel to park for the night. However, we needed to stop by the hotel first for some reason that I can't actually remember. But upon our arrival in town, we discovered that the traffic was HORRENDOUS. And traffic in French towns/cities isn't like traffic in the States. It's like cramming an interstate during rush hour into the tiny confines of a back alleyway, and then throwing in every pedestrian in Manhattan with a dash of mystery since we still don't know the town all that well. Basically I think mom would have curled up into the fetal position, started rocking back and forth and muttering to herself had the steering wheel not been in the way. So it was a little stressful. Although her cussing was hilarious. Anyway, so we decided to go straight to the parking garage and not venture forth to the Italian restaurant. Instead we went and got some sandwich stuff from the grocery store and retreated to our hotel room for a movie on my computer. It was kind of like when a woodland animal gets freaked out and retreats into it's cave never to be seen again..only the cave has wifi. Pretty sweet.
So that was our day, we both highly enjoyed it. Tomorrow we head back to Paris for one night and then Monday we head home! So tomorrow will probably be my last France blog post, but don't worry I will keep blogging even AFTER I get back from France! I know, I know, it's almost too much. Don't hyperventilate or anything from the excitement, just STAY CALM!
Ok, now to end on a quick funny story that I forgot to tell about last night's "dinner in english" hunt. So hopefully you read last night's blog post about our meal issues, if not I encourage you to go read it before reading this one. It will make more sense. So anyway, we're tired, hungry, frustrated beyond all reason, and ready to kill some french people if we see one more menu with no english descriptions. Did I mention we're frustrated? Because we were really frustrated. So anyway, as I said last night, there were only two restaurants we found that DID have english "subtitles" if you will, and one just had some really weird food on the menu, and the other was a Lebanese restaurant. Now, I don't really know Lebanese food very well and I've never been to a Lebanese restaurant before, so we kind of ruled that one out at the beginning. Then we found this other place that had the really weird food that didn't sound appetizing at all. So we were stuck between something that just sounded terrible and something that I wasn't all that familiar with. So we were standing outside the Lebanese place re-looking at the menu and the owner opens the door and goes "Bonsoir!" We look at this man, with all of the previously mentioned emotions written all over our faces. I can't manage any response right away, and all Mom can say is "Does anyone speak english in there?????" To which the man replies, "Yes, with pleasure!" then my mom goes "PRAISE GOD!!!!" and we walk right in. I found this HILARious... Because 1. if you don't know my mom, that's a really weird reaction to the answer to that question, plus it's just so American of her. 2. My mom is just weird, so it was funny. Anyway, we had a good laugh about that at dinner, which was DELICIOUS, and carried on our merry way. So that's my funny story du jour, I hope you all enjoyed it. Stay tuned for tomorrow's final France post!!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Je ne sais pas francais!
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!
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!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
All for the sake of adventure...
MONT SAINT MICHEL IS AWESOME!!!!
Seriously. If you can go to France and only see one thing, come HERE!!! Although definitely stay the night because during the day, everywhere is full of tourists. But once the tour buses leave, PEACE!! It's lovely.
So we went on an ENGLISH guided tour today! It was delightful. AND we were the only people that came so it was basically a private tour! We felt so special. So I know that yesterday I said this place is huge. But this place is flaming HUGE!!!! The little nooks and alleys and passageways go all over the place, and the rooms themselves are just enormous! Did you know it took 1300 years to finish the whole church and abbey? 1300 YEARS!!! As in ONE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED. Good sweet honey mustard....mind blowing you might say. So we went through with the guide, which was great. But then I wanted to go through again and just meander on our own so I could take pictures and not feel rushed. Unfortunately, the lady taking tickets wasn't too keen on letting us through a second time. "Your ticket is only good for one! ONE!" Yes, I understand that. BUT I WANT TO GO AGAIN! I think I pulled the "ugly American tourist" card and she finally let us through, it was awesome :) So we went through again and I got TONS of pictures. Since it was built over such a long period of time, the architectural styles vary from section to section. Like at one point, part of the apse collapsed and had to be rebuilt. So instead of rebuilding it in the original style, they rebuilt it in the modern style of the time, which was Gothic. So the Apse of the main sanctuary area is Gothic, and the rest of it is Romanesque or something. That kind of stuff can be seen all over the place. Pretty cool.
Also, the abbey is still a working abbey! There are 14 religious men and women living there, but since the tourists make it such a loud and crazy place, they don't last very long. So they are replaced on a regular basis. Still, what a cool place to live as a nun or monk! On our second time around the church, we heard them singing during Mass through one of the wooden doors, talk about a time warp. To be standing in a building that was majorly built during the middle ages, and then hearing monks and nuns singing/chanting a mass, WOW. It was pretty mind boggling.
So that was cool. :)
After lunch, which was abysmal and RIDICULOUSLY expensive, more to come on that later, we decided we would take the afternoon to look through the shops on the main street. WRONG. What a load of garbage. They all sold the same CRAP, and it was cheap and dumb. NEXT. We then decided to go for a drive. I wanted some pictures of MSM from far away so I could get the whole island in, and we also wanted to get a few groceries. So off we went.
After photo ops and shopping, we decided to keep driving and we found this really cute little windmill just hanging out on top of this hill!! So pretty! So of course I got out and took some pics, then we kept going and found this little town. PROBLEM: They were doing construction on the road to get into the town. My first inclination: Well that was a good try, let's turn around and go find another town that looks just like this one (like sand on the beach in these parts). Mom's reaction: Let's keep going and potentially end all international peace between the US and France by driving through their construction site. PERFECT! So since mom was driving we kept going (argh) and then this HUGE machine CARRYING A TREE starts driving towards us! Mom stops, but the machine just keeps going and I start having a small seizure in the passenger seat as I see my life flash before my eyes. It was terrifying!! No I didn't actually have a seizure, and yes after we started backing up, the tree-carrying machine finally pulled over and we passed him. Ay chi chi. After driving around the cute little town we realized we had to go out the same way we came in. Awesome. So then, the big machine is now facing away from us so it has no idea we're there, but there's a construction worker working behind it, so he motions for us to pass it. So we start moving and the machine starts BACKING UP TOWARDS US!! AAAAAAHHHH!!! I'm pretty sure I started to go "oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh" and Mom just guns it and we get around the machine before being turned into human pate. Needless to say I'm pretty sure I shaved a few years off my life. But hey, all for the sake of adventure!!!! Oy.
Ok, food time:
So I have made it clear that I have been unimpressed with French food. The only exception to this has been the chocolate mousse (which I have also made quite clear), the bread (phenomenal), and last night's dinner. It was a restaurant here on the mount and I had roasted chicken, potatoes, salad, and you guessed it, chocolate mousse. It was DELICIOUS!!! The chicken just fell off the bone, and I have never been a huge potato person but I gobbled these up. They were SO GOOD!! Besides this meal and the aforementioned foods, I fail to see what all the hype is about. Most of the food I have had the opportunity to partake of has been decent at the beginning, and then it just starts to get boring the more I eat of it. Now maybe I just don't have an advanced palate or something. I pretty much just like the basics, so all this fancy stuff is wasted on me. I'm sure that for some people, prawns and mayonnaise with duck's foot pate is just life changing, but it kinda makes me want to gag.. and while yes I over dramatized duck's foot pate, prawns with mayonnaise was ACTUALLY on the menu last night. Barf. So if anyone has suggestions on what I SHOULD be ordering, please fill me in because I would love to know why everyone is so pumped about French food. Now one thing I will say is that the quality of the food here does seem to be much better. Sure it doesn't taste all that special, but the ingredients have been of excellent quality. Good salad fixings, bread, meat, cheese, all that stuff. So good ingredients, just the combination skills seem to be lacking in my opinion. Think what you will.
So we're off to Tours tomorrow in the Loire valley! Castle tour on Friday, and then back to Paris on Sunday and home on Monday. This will be the last leg of our trip! I can't believe we're starting to wind down, it's gone by fast! Although I won't lie, I'm looking forward to things being in English again...
Au Revoir!
Seriously. If you can go to France and only see one thing, come HERE!!! Although definitely stay the night because during the day, everywhere is full of tourists. But once the tour buses leave, PEACE!! It's lovely.
So we went on an ENGLISH guided tour today! It was delightful. AND we were the only people that came so it was basically a private tour! We felt so special. So I know that yesterday I said this place is huge. But this place is flaming HUGE!!!! The little nooks and alleys and passageways go all over the place, and the rooms themselves are just enormous! Did you know it took 1300 years to finish the whole church and abbey? 1300 YEARS!!! As in ONE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED. Good sweet honey mustard....mind blowing you might say. So we went through with the guide, which was great. But then I wanted to go through again and just meander on our own so I could take pictures and not feel rushed. Unfortunately, the lady taking tickets wasn't too keen on letting us through a second time. "Your ticket is only good for one! ONE!" Yes, I understand that. BUT I WANT TO GO AGAIN! I think I pulled the "ugly American tourist" card and she finally let us through, it was awesome :) So we went through again and I got TONS of pictures. Since it was built over such a long period of time, the architectural styles vary from section to section. Like at one point, part of the apse collapsed and had to be rebuilt. So instead of rebuilding it in the original style, they rebuilt it in the modern style of the time, which was Gothic. So the Apse of the main sanctuary area is Gothic, and the rest of it is Romanesque or something. That kind of stuff can be seen all over the place. Pretty cool.
Also, the abbey is still a working abbey! There are 14 religious men and women living there, but since the tourists make it such a loud and crazy place, they don't last very long. So they are replaced on a regular basis. Still, what a cool place to live as a nun or monk! On our second time around the church, we heard them singing during Mass through one of the wooden doors, talk about a time warp. To be standing in a building that was majorly built during the middle ages, and then hearing monks and nuns singing/chanting a mass, WOW. It was pretty mind boggling.
So that was cool. :)
After lunch, which was abysmal and RIDICULOUSLY expensive, more to come on that later, we decided we would take the afternoon to look through the shops on the main street. WRONG. What a load of garbage. They all sold the same CRAP, and it was cheap and dumb. NEXT. We then decided to go for a drive. I wanted some pictures of MSM from far away so I could get the whole island in, and we also wanted to get a few groceries. So off we went.
After photo ops and shopping, we decided to keep driving and we found this really cute little windmill just hanging out on top of this hill!! So pretty! So of course I got out and took some pics, then we kept going and found this little town. PROBLEM: They were doing construction on the road to get into the town. My first inclination: Well that was a good try, let's turn around and go find another town that looks just like this one (like sand on the beach in these parts). Mom's reaction: Let's keep going and potentially end all international peace between the US and France by driving through their construction site. PERFECT! So since mom was driving we kept going (argh) and then this HUGE machine CARRYING A TREE starts driving towards us! Mom stops, but the machine just keeps going and I start having a small seizure in the passenger seat as I see my life flash before my eyes. It was terrifying!! No I didn't actually have a seizure, and yes after we started backing up, the tree-carrying machine finally pulled over and we passed him. Ay chi chi. After driving around the cute little town we realized we had to go out the same way we came in. Awesome. So then, the big machine is now facing away from us so it has no idea we're there, but there's a construction worker working behind it, so he motions for us to pass it. So we start moving and the machine starts BACKING UP TOWARDS US!! AAAAAAHHHH!!! I'm pretty sure I started to go "oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh" and Mom just guns it and we get around the machine before being turned into human pate. Needless to say I'm pretty sure I shaved a few years off my life. But hey, all for the sake of adventure!!!! Oy.
Ok, food time:
So I have made it clear that I have been unimpressed with French food. The only exception to this has been the chocolate mousse (which I have also made quite clear), the bread (phenomenal), and last night's dinner. It was a restaurant here on the mount and I had roasted chicken, potatoes, salad, and you guessed it, chocolate mousse. It was DELICIOUS!!! The chicken just fell off the bone, and I have never been a huge potato person but I gobbled these up. They were SO GOOD!! Besides this meal and the aforementioned foods, I fail to see what all the hype is about. Most of the food I have had the opportunity to partake of has been decent at the beginning, and then it just starts to get boring the more I eat of it. Now maybe I just don't have an advanced palate or something. I pretty much just like the basics, so all this fancy stuff is wasted on me. I'm sure that for some people, prawns and mayonnaise with duck's foot pate is just life changing, but it kinda makes me want to gag.. and while yes I over dramatized duck's foot pate, prawns with mayonnaise was ACTUALLY on the menu last night. Barf. So if anyone has suggestions on what I SHOULD be ordering, please fill me in because I would love to know why everyone is so pumped about French food. Now one thing I will say is that the quality of the food here does seem to be much better. Sure it doesn't taste all that special, but the ingredients have been of excellent quality. Good salad fixings, bread, meat, cheese, all that stuff. So good ingredients, just the combination skills seem to be lacking in my opinion. Think what you will.
So we're off to Tours tomorrow in the Loire valley! Castle tour on Friday, and then back to Paris on Sunday and home on Monday. This will be the last leg of our trip! I can't believe we're starting to wind down, it's gone by fast! Although I won't lie, I'm looking forward to things being in English again...
Au Revoir!
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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