Au Revoir!

So the end is near...and by near I mean tomorrow! I cannot believe that almost three months has already gone by since I arrived in France. Today was LDOC (last day of class for you non-college students) and tomorrow I leave for Munich, Germany. Then Monday night I'll travel from Munich to Rome by train to meet Chrissy's parents, then from Rome to Florence that same day. I've never been to Italy so I cannot wait to see it! However, I really do hate that I have to leave France. Luckily I know that I will be coming back. I don't know when, but I know that I have to. In French "au revoir" means goodbye but "revoir" means to see again, so when I say au revoir to my professors, French family, and new friends it doesn't actually mean goodbye forever. It means that I'll see them again! So that's what makes leaving not so sad (except it is still pretty stinking sad).

I realize that I haven't written a post in two weeks. Don't worry, I'll do a wonderful recap now.

Two weeks ago we visited the Musée d'Orsay and it was wonderful! I saw a ton of impressionist work that I loved and discovered some new impressionist artists that I didn't know before (that would be a lot considering I know Dégas and Money and that's about it). It was a great, sunny afternoon in Paris. The weekend after that the Furman group travelled to Strasbourg, the capital city of the Alsace region. Alsace used to belong to German so there was a ton of German influence in the food, the buildings, and the Christmas decorations. YES there were Christmas decorations and it was beautiful, even if it was a little early for me for Christmas. We visited the Museum of Fine Arts, the Alsatian Museum, la Petite France, and just walked around the city. It was such an interesting city because of German influence. We ate a lot of sauerkraut, sausage, and mystery meat and even tried warm wine which tasted like red wine and apple cider mixed together to make a magical drink. It was delicious! I even found some cute sparkly ornaments (one being a sparkly owl!) in a little Christmas store. Unfortunately the Christmas markets hadn't been set up yet because it was still a little too early for them. Fortunately the Christmas markets are up and running in Munich and there's a 90% chance of snow on Saturday so it will be wonderful!

A week ago from Wednesday we had a free afternoon to visit wherever we wanted. I decided to go to the Musée Rodin and the Musée Marmottan Monet and it was spectacular! The Rodin Museum had a special exhibition of Camille Claudel's work and it was beautiful. We even got a picture of the original "Single Ladies" (S/O to Beyonce)! After that we headed over to the Marmottan Monet museum where the whole basement is dedicated entirely to Claude Monet.  After that we made a trip to an all-American product store properly named "Thanksgiving". I got all of the necessary ingredients to make chocolate pie (for the second time), chocolate chip cookies, and pumpkin pie! The chocolate pie was for the Family Party we had on Sunday, the chocolate chip cookies were for my French brother's 10th birthday, and the pumpkin pie was for Thanksgiving, of course!

Since Thanksgiving obviously doesn't exist in France and I can't be home to celebrate Thanksgiving my French family made me "thanksgiving dinner" last night to celebrate. My French mom made chicken with mushrooms and peppers because turkey is almost impossible to find unless it's closer to Christmas. Then for dessert we had the pumpkin pie I made. I'm not so sure if my family liked it because they had never tried pumpkin before (I don't know how anyone can live without having tried pumpkin),  but I know that I sure enjoyed it. It tasted like Thanksgiving on a fork. We had a great time and it really made me realize how much I am going to miss them when I leave to go home. Lucking tomorrow won't be the last time I see them because I'm coming back to Versailles for one night after Italy to say goodbye and have dinner with them. So leaving tomorrow isn't actually too sad! But it is sad that my semester is already over. I can't believe it has gone by so quickly!

It's been such an amazing experience and I cannot wait until I can come back to France to stay for an extended amount of time. I have seen and learned so much during the past three months, but there is still much for me to see and learn here! I'll post an update when I get back to America to let you know how all my travels to Germany and Italy went. I'm sure they're going to be great!

Au revoir!

Tapas, Paella, Sangria, and...Chocolate Pie??

Three of my favorite foods ever came together (kind of) in one weekend. It was wonderful. You might be wondering how and I am about to tell you!

I travelled to Barcelona, Spain this past weekend to meet up with some of the friends from Furman who are studying abroad in Berlin. I got there Friday night, had tapas, and went to bed early (too early for Barcelona), but I was exhausted and used to going to bed by like 10:30. Saturday was a blast! We went on a free walking tour of Barcelona, got lunch in La Boqueria which is a giant fresh market with fish, seafood, vegetables, fruits, candy, chocolate, and a lot of little restaurants, and then visited the Sagrada Familia, one of Gaudi's most beautiful structures. I was lucky enough to visit Barcelona in high school so I had already seen Sagrada Familia, but in at the time the inside was unfinished. Luckily they had finished the inside sometime after my high school visit. It was amazing getting to see the inside completely finished because before it was mainly scaffolding with a few stained glass windows peeking through, but now it's a massive Roman Catholic cathedral with plenty of space and light. It was a day full of Spanish culture and food.

La Boqueria

Earlier in the day we signed up for a cooking class where we learned how to make the famous Spanish dish paella. We accompanied the chef to La Boqueria where he bought fresh clams, mussels, calamari, prawns, salmon, vegetables, and saffron for our paella. We then went to the restaurant had amazing tapas that featured iberico ham, two types of chorizo, manchego cheese, tomatos, bread, potatoes braves (fried potatoes with a spicy cream sauce on top), and fire roasted green peppers. It was all so fresh and really delicious! I was in heaven. We also got unlimited sangria so you know we all took advantage of that. While snacking (technically devouring) on the tapas, I made four new friends who are awesome! There was a big group of us so the girls I sat with and I sat with people we didn't know. That was one of the best parts of the night: getting to know really interesting new people. Soon after we finished the tapas the chef started cooking the paella and the room immediately filled with the mouth watering smell of onions, garlic, and peppers. Once the chef finished the paella he had to let it sit for about 30 minutes for the rice to soak up all of the flavor and broth from the seafood and spices. During that time he taught us how to make sangria. I'm most definitely going to be taking that recipe back to Furman with me for next semester! Finally the paella was ready to eat and let me tell you, it was one of the best things I have ever eaten. I had had paella before, but nothing as fresh and flavorful as this. It is definitely going down in the books as my favorite meal ever, which is quite an accomplishment because 1) I am terrible at deciding my favorite color, movie, book, etc. and 2) I love almost all food. Overall, this weekend was an amazing one spent with wonderful friends and amazing food in a beautiful country!

You might be thinking to yourself, "How does chocolate pie have anything to do with this?" Just you wait. This weekend was a long weekend for us because we didn't have class on Monday, so last week my "French sister", Béryl, and I decided we would make my mom's chocolate pie on Monday! It was quite an adventure. I slept in that morning and found out that it was Saint Martin's day and since my "French family" has a son named Martin, we were going to have a big lunch for him. It's like a mini birthday celebration. I didn't have much time to make the pie, but luckily I only had to get a few things at the store and my little "French brother", Stan who is 9, accompanied me. It started off smoothly but then we realized that the dough we had was for flaky dough, not the normal pie crust we have at home. Also, they don't have cream of tartar here, which is kind of essential to have a really pretty, big meringue. But we decided to go ahead and do the best we could. There also wasn't a mixer like I'm used to at home so I tried using a food processor that worked well enough, but I unfortunately mixed the eggs whites too much the first time so they were just soupy. Then when I was putting more egg whites into the food processor, they fell through the little hole in the food processor and then proceeded to quickly slide off the counter and into the dishwasher...just my luck. I quickly grabbed a paper towel and cleaned it up, but I knew the meringue just wouldn't be the same. At the end the pie came out tasting fine even if the chocolate filling was kind of runny, the pie crust not completely cooked, and the meringue almost non-existent. But Béryl and I had a great time! Definitely a bonding moment.

Tomorrow we're heading to Paris to visit the Musée d'Orsay, which is one of my absolute favorite places in Paris. It used to be a train station so the architecture is beautiful. Also, the best collection of impressionist art in the world is at the Musée d"Orsay (impressionism's my fav). I'll be sure to take lots of photos. This weekend we're traveling as a group to Strasbourg and I have my fingers crossed that there will be Christmas markets. Although I do not support celebrating Christmas by listening to Christmas music or decorating before Thanksgiving, I would love to see what little things they have that I can buy because I can't go to a new place without buying something. I can't believe this will be our last weekend traveling together as a group! We have a little less then three weeks until we leave France to travel for 12 days around Europe on our own or with our families. It's unbelievable how quickly time has passed since I arrived at the beginning of September. I guess it's true that time flies when you're having fun, because I know that I've had the time of my life.

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." -Ernest Hemingway

(I just finished The Paris Wife by Paula McLain last night. It's a fabulous book about Hemingway's first wife. If you have the chance, you should read it. It's very easy to read and I learned so much about Ernest and Hadley Hemingway.)

Also, I am unable to add anymore pictures to the post! I don't know why, but blogger won't let me right now. Sorry for the lack of pictures! :(

P.S. I have officially succeeded in asking and receiving sushi without seaweed in France. Therefore I know that I could live here forever.

12 students, 1 professor, 23 cities, 2 weeks

What a crazy two weeks it has been! Starting bright and early October 19th, we set off for our two week "Tour de France". During October the french have a two week vacation called "Toussaint." This means that most of the schools are closed and most of the working people don't have to work. It's a time for rest and relaxation, but I can assure that we got very little rest or relaxation. However, we did get to see 23 amazing cities in just 16 short days. It was a little overwhelming at first waking up at or before 7:00 every morning, but after the third or fourth day, I got used to it (kind of). We are incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity. The cities we visited were:

Orléans
Poitiers
La Rochelle
Bordeaux
Pau
Lourdes
Toulouse
Carcassonne
Durfort
Montpellier
Aigues Mortes
Nimes
Arles
Marseille
Aix en Provence
Pont du Gard
Avignon
Orange
Lyon
Vichy
Beaune
Dijon
Vézelay

         fair in Bordeaux

A few of my absolute favorites were La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Lyon, and Vézelay. From wandering around looking at boats in La Rochelle to going on crazy fair rides in Bordeaux to going to the beach in Marseille to going to Catholic mass with a thousand boy scouts from all over Europe in Vézelay, there was never a dull moment on the trip. Even when I wanted nothing more than to sleep all day because I was so tired, I got up and went on the tours and loved most of it! Lyon was probably my favorite city overall. It's a huge town, but it's not all cramped together like Paris is. The Rhône and Saône rivers both run through Lyon and it's just beautiful. There's also a radio tower that looks exactly like the top of the Eiffel Tower. It looks like the top of the Eiffel Tower was blown off by super strong wind and brought to Lyon. We only spent two nights in Lyon, but I definitely could have stayed much longer.

sunset in Lyon

Now onto the food. I'm kind of a food snob, but I love trying new things. The one thing I tried for the first time on the trip that left a not-so-positive impression on me was stingray. I actually ate a piece of stingray. We were in Pau, which is not known for its stingray (I don't know if any area is known for their stingray). We started off the meal with an awesome onion quiche and I was really excited for the next course! Then the stingray came out and at first I just thought it was some kind of fish so I cut into it and realized it was most definitely not "some kind of fish." I finally realized I was eating stingray and had vivid flashbacks to seeing the back of a truck filled with dead stingray in Africa which then led to me not finishing the meal. Other than that, the food was AWESOME. In Bordeaux Chrissy found the best spaghetti ever. I still think about it all the time because it was so good. For some reason we decided it would be a great idea to go ride rides at a fair after eating a ton of pasta and each of us having dessert. That was not the best idea I've ever had. Fair rides in France are nothing like they are at home. The ride lasted no less than five minutes, which doesn't sound like a long time, but when you're being thrown through the air at an incredible speed after eating enough pasta for two or three people, you feel like you're going to die. At one point about 2.5 minutes into the ride it stopped, so I thought it was over. Little did I know it had just gotten started. We then got thrown backwards and it was no longer enjoyable. Somehow I still managed to have a great time even though I thought I was going to get sick.

I had to throw in a picture of Lauren and I in Marseille!

I have just a little bit of time this week to rest and then Friday afternoon I'm off to Barcelona to meet up with some friends who are studying abroad in Berlin and Spain! I got to visit Barcelona for a few days in high school and had a blast. I'm so excited to go back and hopefully get some paella and sangria! When I get back I'll have just three short weeks until it's time to start the travel at the end of the program. I'm lucky enough to get to travel with Chrissy (the spaghetti finder) and her family! Chrissy and I are first going to Munich for four days and then meeting her parents in Rome. We'll then travel around Italy until the 10th of December and then we'll leave for the U.S. the next day! I'm excited to go home but I know I'm going to miss everything about France so much.

sunset in Marseille

'Ello Guvnah

Welllll cheers! Once again it's been a crazy two weeks. Let me start with the weekend trip the Furman group took to the Loire Valley. We had a very interesting (and testing) bike tour of the Loire Valley for a whole weekend. We first stopped in Blois to pick up our bikes and quickly set off, sans guide, on our three day tour of multiple chateaus and the French countryside. We got lost countless times, but the scenery was so beautiful. We were able to see amazing vineyards that ordinarily we wouldn't have seen had we taken a bus to each chateau. We hit a bit of a speed bump Friday afternoon when Victoria's bike got a flat tire, which turned out to be much more difficult to repair than we thought. We had been stopped for about an hour when it started pouring rain, so we went to the nearest house we saw to see if they could help. The nicest French man did the best he could to help, but we ended up having to call a car from the hotel to pick up the bike and one person while the rest of us road the rest of the way on our bikes in the pouring rain. It might sound miserable but it was actually a really fun time. It seems like nothing can make France ugly (except for the crazy thieves in Paris), especially the rain. During our weekend in the Loire Valley we saw Chambord, Amboise, Beauregard, and Chaumont-sur-Loire. They were all beautiful chateaus and it was great getting to see Chambord for a second time.

Last weekend was out first free weekend to travel wherever we wanted. I travelled to London, with five other girls from Furman, and it was a blast. I had never been to London before, but I absolutely loved it and can't wait to go back hopefully soon. Friday night we saw Wicked and it was AMAZING. It was my third time seeing it and I guess third time's the charm because it was the best performance I've seen. The British accents definitely helped because they make everything sound way cooler than it is. Saturday was a busy day that started with visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum. We spent about an hour and a half there, but unfortunately I stayed in one exhibit the whole time. They had a special exhibit dedicated to London fashion from the 17th century to modern day. It was incredibly interesting and it was so easy to spend all of my time there that I wasn't able to see the other exhibits. After that we had lunch and then visited Kensington Palace (nothing compared to Versailles :)), walked past Buckingham, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and got beer in a little pub. We then set off to find a supposedly delicious fish and chips place, got very lost, and just went into the first restaurant we saw because we were all starving and exhausted. We spent Sunday morning in Richmond, right outside of London, and walked around and did some shopping (but not too much, father :)). Overall it was a great weekend, although not very restful, but we're young and can rally pretty well!

Yesterday we started our two week tour of France at 7 in the morning (yikes) and driving to Orléans, which is the town that Jean d'Arc from the English. It was great getting to see a town that's so different from Versailles. We ate lunch in Orléans and then drove to Poitiers to spend the night. This morning we woke up bright and early to tour Poitiers a little bit. Now we are in La Rochelle for the rest of today and tonight and tomorrow we head to Bordeaux. I'm so excited for Bordeaux because they have some of the best wine in France! If the rest of Toussaint continues like this, I'll be a happy camper because we're eating delicious food and seeing a lot of really historic and interesting places. Until next time!

Bringing the South to France, y'all

First of all, I never say y'all (it's always you all), but I deemed it appropriate for this post. Last night I decided to finally make cornbread for my French family! I figured even if they didn't enjoy it, I could eat all of it myself and feel kind of like I was home. Before leaving home for Versailles I bought a packaged cornbread mix from Completely Kentucky so I could easily bring the south to France. Unfortunately easy is definitely not always better; my mom's homemade (gluten-free) cornbread is soooo much better than the packaged kind (shout out to Pam!). However, my French family seemed to enjoy it considering they ate all of it! Unfortunately I ended up leaving the oven on (a thing I do even when I'm home in Kentucky) so my French dad was not too pleased with that. At least I tried! The next item on my list of delicious things to make is my mom's chocolate pie. You could say I'm pretty nervous about 1. ruining the pie and 2. burning the house down in the process, but fingers crossed everything runs smoothly.

apple cider from Normandy-DELISH

The past two weeks have been crazy! We've been super busy and time is seriously flying by. Within the past two weeks we have visited the château and gardens of Versailles, gone to the Louvre, visited many WWII monuments and special places in Normandy, visited Mont Saint Michel, we saw the Bayeux Tapestry, visited Claude Monet's house and gardens in Giverny, visited l'Hôtel des Invalides, and had classes and homework to fit in there as well. Plus, we have to do all of this while speaking French.

Honestly it can become quite frustrating and it's definitely tiring, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's still hard to me to believe that I'm in France, let alone that I have been here for a month. Since coming to France in high school, I couldn't wait to come back. The places we visit are amazing and they are places that many people won't have to opportunity to see. It's incredible how many sites we'll see in the course of three months.

This past weekend was full of beautiful sites. First thing Saturday morning we visited Pointe du Hoc-the area where the Germans prepared an "Atlantic Wall" of defenses against Allied invasion. The cliffs and beaches were beautiful. We visited Omaha Beach-one of the beaches of the landings of the Allied invasion-after Pointe du Hoc and before the American Cemetery of WWII soldiers. The cemetery was one of the most breathtaking places I've ever been. If anyone reading this ever comes to France, they must visit the American Cemetery. It was a pretty heavy morning, considering American soldiers had fought and lost their lives exactly where we had stood. Fortunately, Sunday we visited Claude Monet's house and gardens which made for a much lighter mood!

the view from Pointe du Hoc

Omaha Beach

American Cemetery

Monet's house and gardens come in a close second to the various WWII sites in Normandy in terms of beauty. The flowers were absolutely beautiful, and we even saw the bridge and water lilies that were the centerpieces for many of Monet's paintings. His house was actually pretty normal, but the kitchen was amazing. It was a blue and yellow theme, which sounds kind of overwhelming, but it was awesome. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside of his house, so you'll just have to trust me how cool his kitchen was.

THE BRIDGE

ooooh ahhhhh

I've had my fill of really embarrassing and awkward moments since I arrived a month ago, but after encountering a woman at l'Hôtel des Invalides, I feel a little more comfortable about my awkward moments. We were following our tour guide around Napoleon's tomb and a woman walks up to our guide and asks him where Napoleon is. The tour guide stops for a moment and in broken English tells her that it's the red tomb to her right. The woman then continues to ask how she can see Napoleon and the guide responds (again in broken English) that he is inside of the red rock. Then the woman asks where the stairs are to go see Napoleon and finally another student and I explain that Napoleon is inside of the tomb and there is no way to get inside with him. It was quite an amusing situation.

This weekend we're heading off to Loire for a grand tour on bikes! We go from hotel to hotel on our bikes all day. We get to have another wine tasting as well as a cookie/biscuit tasting (good thing we'll be forced to do physical activity all weekend). The countryside should be really beautiful and the weather looks like it's going to cooperate as well! Until next week, y'all.

"People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it's necessary simply to love." -Claude Monet

flowers from Monet's garden

Just Call Me Heidi

Heather. It seems like an easy enough name in English. It rhymes with many things: weather, feather, leather. But unfortunately for me, it is incredibly difficult for the French to pronounce. One reason is because they don't pronounce H's at the beginning of words and the second reason is that they don't have words with the "th" sound in them. So far I've gotten Ezzer, Heda, Edder, Eezer, and finally Heidi. My French family finally decided within the past few days that they were just going to call me Heidi since it's 1) easier for them to pronounce and 2) it's a Polish name and they're apparently part Polish. So from now on in my house, my name is Heidi (but without pronouncing the H).

It seems like the time is flying by here, which is good because it means we're busy and that I'm very much enjoying the experience, but it is also unfortunate because I don't want this semester to be over. Of course I miss my family and my friends at Furman, but I'd be perfectly fine if they could all just move over here with me.

Within the past week we have been to Paris twice, Chartres once, had a wine tasting, and learned about French geography, theatre, and grammar. Last week on our free Friday afternoon a group of the students went into Paris to visit Cimitière Père-Lachaise where Gertrude Stein, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, and Oscar Wilde are buried. It was a very beautiful and peaceful cemetery. After that we did a little shopping in the biggest and most crowded department store ever and took the train back to Versailles. Saturday was our day trip to Chartres, an exquisite cathedral with amazing stained glass windows. We had a tour in French of the cathedral, and although I had already seen it in high school, it was wonderful getting to see it again. After lunch we had another tour that was only focused on the stained glass, which was fortunately in English. It was fascinating hearing about the stories the windows tell, plus the tour guide was amazing. He had even been to Furman! Plus he had a British accent. Precious.

Sunday was the first sunny day we had in a while. It was in the mid 60s and really nice outside so I decided to go on a run that was off my normal path. I decided to run around the château and ended up getting super turned around and lost. My 30 minute run turned into an hour trek around Versailles trying to find the right street because every avenue and boulevard looks the same. I was exhausted and starving (but when am I not hungry?). Luckily we had a lunch planned and it was buffet style. Oh yes. We had salad, tomatoes and mozzarella, roast beef, sausage, ceviche, cheese, fish, pork, mystery meat, and plenty of desserts. Good thing I had to run for like an hour that morning. Anyway, the mystery meat turned out to be tête de veau...I had no idea what this was so I ate it. It ended up not being favorite and no one could really tell me what it was. So yesterday during our conversation group I asked Madame Chauchat what it was. It turns out it was the intestines/head of a baby calf. Yikes. Thankfully after that we had a wine tasting where we tasted nine different wines: four white, four red, and one that was aged since 1998 and was super sweet. I liked most of them and was able to learn a lot about wine. We had to spit out the wine between bottles or else we probably wouldn't have been able to walk afterward. Such a waste of good wine.

Our second week of classes started on Monday at 8:30am and it was rough, but knowing that I'm in France made waking up early a little better. This coming weekend we stay in Versailles again and tour the château and the gardens. We had the opportunity to this when I came with Mr. Johnson in high school and I'm really looking forward to seeing everything again (especially the gardens because they make me think of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire during their final task). 

"Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages."

-Louis Pasteur

Excuse My French but I'm in France

Well I have been in France now for a week and it has become significantly less frightening, although I still get super nervous speaking French to my family (even though I shouldn't because they're very helpful).

I can't believe all that we've done in one short week. Last Thursday we went to Paris for 4 nights and did more walking than I've done in my whole life combined and saw some incredible places and monuments, did some shopping (unfortunate for Joseph since he's the only guy on the trip), and ate some amazing food (who knew foie gras sauce could be so amazing??). However, I am very happy to be back in Versailles with my French family. I am not so happy about having to start classes, but our professors seem really interesting and are kind enough to speak slowly!

Today was a really busy and exciting day because after our civilization class we had lunch at the house of one of our professor's, Madame Chauchat. She is actually from America but married a French man and has lived here ever since (my dream...). We then went to la maison de parfums and got to smell a TON of French perfume, which  kind of gave me a headache but also made me want to buy some perfume called "La petite robe noire" or little black dress in English. Honestly, what girl doesn't want perfume called little black dress? After that we went to a restaurant called Monument Cafe and tried almost all of the desserts France is known for including les macarons, les choquettes, les petites madeleines, les beignets, and a lot of French candy. This was seriously any girl's perfect afternoon and I loved it.

Unfortunately and fortunately (but mostly fortunately) all of the food here is amazing and I eat all of it all of the time, which means I have to do some sort of physical activity. Today's physical activity including going for my first run in Versailles and it just happened to be next to a field of sheep and goats. I almost felt like I was back in Kentucky. Then I got home and my little French brother, Stan, gave me a cookie so that kind of canceled out my run, but at least I tried.

So far my time in France has been so amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better trip. I'm sure it will continue to get better!

"Voice mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le couer. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yuex."
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince