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