This past week…

JUNE 8, Monday

Adventures of the Loire Valley begin!!! 🙂

We had to be at school by 7am and that was hard to accomplish, but we did it! (With almost no complaining!)  We were on our bus for a few hours before arriving at the first chateau!  The first chateau was called Cheverny and was smaller than the others that we visited.  Also, this chateau is different because a family still lives in the chateau! haha they had some awkward family photos around.  It was raining so we could not walk through the gardens so we went into this comic museum instead.  There is a comic that uses this chateau in its comics so thats why it was there.  It is very popular in France.  After the comic museum we went to lunch at this restaurant called Saint Hubert.  It was interesting!  They served us traditional paté, which is a bunch of different meats mixed together and then flattened…I am not really sure. haha all i know is that it was cold and kind of disgusting.  They told us to eat it with bread, which didn’t really help. After the paté, they served us some sort of fish, that turned out to be really excellent!  They also gave us pasta with a wine-esque sauce to go with it!  After the fish…(the courses just kept on coming!!) They served us a small taste of several different desserts!  All of which were delicious! 🙂 The dessert was amazing!  After that we even were offered coffee and tea but there was no room for anything else! haha.  We got back on the bus and headed towards Chambord!   Which looks like a Harry Potter castle, i love it!  I went when i was in 5th grade so it was fun to go back! 🙂 Francis I only visited Chambord for 72 days and he never saw the completed chateau.  Henry II and Louis XIV are responsible for finishing the chateau, which was mainly used as a hunting lodge.  There are 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, and 426 rooms  (Which our tour guide  reviewed with us for about 15 minutes.).  It also hold a staircase which was designed or thought to be designed by leonardo da vinci.  Its the staircase where its actually two staircases that wind around each other so if two people started out going up on each one they wouldnt ever cross paths.  It was probably used as security thing or as mistress thing. haha. There are small windows that one could see into the other staircase but thats the only way someone could see the other person on the other stairs.  Hopefully, that makes since! haha.

They kicked us out of the chateau because it was closing time. haha so we were walking down the gravel road back to our hotel, which had a wonderful view of the chateau!! All of the sudden hurricane force winds came out of no where and rain was flying at us sideways that we all started to run and take cover under the forest.  Ever umbrella was suddenly turned inside out, even my specially engineered one, given to me by my father, was struggling to survive!!  We had to stand under the trees while the water was flowing over our shoes and everyone was soaked!  Finally, it toned down and we were able to get to the hotel.  It was sort of a miserable but humorous situation! After everyone got organized we were given our room assignments and they were pretty homey!  We had a great dinner there and some fun conversation.  After dinner we went to sleep because we were all exhausted! 

JUNE 9, Tuesday

We had to wake up early again for a breakfast buffet, which ended up consisting of croissants and hot chocolate, so that didn’t last long.  Lauren and i went back to our room and took a good hour and a half nap!  Then we boarded the bus for the CHOCOLATE MAKER!  Max Vauché is my hero chocolate maker.  The place was so interesting and kind of awkward but thats ok!  I loved it and my dad would have loved it just as much as me!  I bought about 25 euros of chocolate or more! 🙂  haha After the chocolate place, we got back on the bus and drove to a city called Blois.   There is a chateau in the heart of the city, which is also called Blois, and it was optional if we wanted to go inside or not, so we decided not to go.  We walked around the cute city and got lunch at a wonderful place.  After lunch we walked around some more and Lauren and I decided we had to pee super bad, so we hiked back up the 100 or so steps to the chateau.  We walked into the gift shop and said the classic phrase, ” Ou à les toilets?”  Where are the bathrooms? haha which is commonly heard coming out of my mouth.  The woman smiled and pointed out the door that clearly stated “you may not re-enter” so we just pushed the doors open and walked across the courtyard.  That my friends and family, is how one sneaks into a chateau! 🙂  We found the bathroom facilities and then decided to take our own little tour around the chateau!  It ended up being super interesting!  We took a lot of pictures and decided that it had the best inside of all the chateaus.   After Blois, we drove to our next chateau which was called Chenonceau.  This chateau was interesting because its built over water and then is a part of a bridge.  This chateau had beautiful gardens and we bought ice cream while we were there! And we also met a girl who will be going to Baylor! RANDOM! haha 🙂  We got rained on again but we made it back to cover safely and not as soaked as before.   The ride back to Paris was three hours long and i took a nice nap! 🙂  

June 10, Wednesday

Today we went back to school, boooo.   After school we went and got lunch and then went to the Victor Hugo museum! I really liked it and found it interesting! 🙂   He had a very nice apartment in Paris! After visiting his house, we went back home because we don’t like getting stuck in the rush hour on the metro!

JUNE 11, Thursday

Today, we had school again and after school we got some lunch!  Then decided to go to some thrift stores that Claude, who is our teachers wife, told us about!   They took some searching to find and when we finally found them we were excited!  It was mostly antique Channel but it was just fun to get to see!  After going to three stores we decided to get ice cream! haha we cannot ever pass up the chance for dessert! 🙂  There is this WONDERFUL italian gelato place called “Amorino” and there just so happens to be one right next to CUPA! How exciting! 🙂  So, we got some ice cream and walked to the river.   Once at the river we rummaged through the street sellers books and paintings looking for good finds. We took the metro home just in time for dinner and we had rice with chicken and mushroom sauce.  It was amazing!  After dinner, we went to sacre coeur for the sunset.  Bad idea. Don’t go there at night time unless your with men that you know. hahaha.  We went and people were grabbing our arms trying to get us to buy stuff and i yelled at them to not touch me and then they would question us and we had to run up like 100 steps to reach the top. hahaha.  But it was a wonderful view once we got up there! 🙂  We left super fast and headed home because we had a test.

JUNE 12, Friday 

Testing day, after only three days of class. woooo.  After class, we got lunch as usual, but this time we went to this wonderful place next to CUPA.  It was thai/italian food. YUM! Then we went to the louvre! I really like the louvre because it really has something from every time period and place in the world! Its so much fun to just walk through and look at everything! It truly is fascinating!  We spent about an hour and a half touring two parts of the museum.  

The mona lisa..

The winged statue..

The crown jewels…

The biggest frame in the world, i think.  It was massive.  After the louvre we walked to the place de la concorde and it was fun! 🙂Then we took the metro home! 🙂  We ate dinner and then i had the opportunity to meet up with the McDonald family!! It was so much fun to get to see them because its been like three years!  I met them at their amazing hotel and then we got dessert at a nearby cafe.  They invited me back to their room to check out their balcony, which had magnificent views of the city! I had an adventure taking the metro home because the stop i usually get on at this location was closed so i had to take a round-a-bout way.  Then my room mate had our key so i had to knock on the door and hoped someone was awake! Luckily, Timothe, my french brother was awake and he laughed at me before opening the door.  Then i met up with a group of girls at a local cafe for drinks and good conversation! 🙂

JUNE 13, Saturday

Today, Lauren and I met up and went to the center de pompidou, which is a modern art museum!  I really liked it because it had a diverse range of art! 🙂  Lauren and i then went to the Monoprix, our local target-esque store, and bought some supplies for a picnic! So we sat on the ground just like all the parisians and watched the street performers. It was quite entertaining!  After lunch, we walked around the area a bit and decided to go back to her house since we both had to pee and were like two stops from her house.   Brittany met up with us there and we went to Cafe Martini, which is this super cute little cafe by Lauren’s house.  We went back to her house to SKYPE with all of the girls here in Paris and we all decided to have a dessert and wine picnic on this fun bridge by the Louvre and be super Parisian! So we went out and bought our wine and desserts and met at the louvre metro stop and headed out to the bridge! It was a beautiful night and the air was cool. 🙂  We put down our blankets and exchanged desserts, which consisted of nutella and baguettes, a strawberry dessert, an apple tart, and another berry tart.  It was such a fun evening and then the police kicked us off the bridge, just like all the parisians. hahaha And then we all parted ways while taking the metro back home 🙂 J’aime Paris!

JUNE 14, Sunday 

Today, we woke up at noon! haha we really needed sleep.  Brittany and I got ready for the day and walked down to the metro stop to meet our friend Kevin, from the Baylor in Paris program, because he came over for lunch!  It was so fun for him to come hang out with our family.  He is in the USA air force and our french brother is in the French air force so we really wanted them to meet!  Lunch lasted until 4 pm. haha it was full of different conversations and tons of food!  We had salad, rice, roast beef, a veggie patty for Brittany :), cauliflower, melon, ice cream, and coffee!  It was sooo wonderful and I was so stuffed I had to pass on dinner!  I spent most of the night catching up on our Journals for school and this blog. 🙂  

Two weeks down, two weeks to go! 

Sending you love from paris! 🙂 Thanks for reading!