Victory over St Victoire!

Have I told you how my friends and I have attempted to climb Cezanne's famous mountain? Well, K and I tried again only to miss the bus. So Saturday, L, A and I met up at 10 – too early for everyone else – and headed out. Everyone we know has tried, and failed, to conquer Mount Saint Victoire. Either because they chickened out, or weather thwarted them, or they took the wrong path, or gave up, or never even made it on the bus, or got off at the wrong stop, etc. However, we were determined. Starting at the dam, we spent 2-3 hours climbing to the little chapel and shelter, then we continued to the Croix de Provence, which is at the top. After a makeshift picnic lunch here, we descended by another route and made it to the bottom after a few more hours. We sat in a little restaurant for a rest before returning to Aix. I got strawberry juice, so good! Then we searched for a bus... and hitchhiked instead!! hahah... good story, more on that in person.

The Old House

Several nights ago we were chilling in our room, this is when S
and I were sharing a bedroom, and our host mom called us down to
dinner. During dinner she told us how the big house had a bees nest in
the upper window and thus the President of the Fac was coming
to capture it. Late that evening, he arrived and we all
went over to the big house to watch. However, I have never been in the
big house and neither has S, so this was quite an evenement.
D told us that we could look in any of the rooms that we
liked. This house is a huge 18th Century Bastide house. There are 16
bedrooms, a salon, a kitchen, 6 bathrooms, a library, etc etc etc. I
felt like a child in a book, exploring a mansion that is only
inhabited for two months of the summer by a rich Parisian. The rooms
were old and stale, but oh so intriguing. At any moment something
could have jumped out at me! Haha. And the library was a lovely room
with a fireplace and comfortable chairs. I wanted to explore all
night. But alas, we had to go back to studying. Gosh. It was really
cool though. And I rather liked the old house.

Paris

The next day was spent traveling back to Paris. Since most of the trains were full we had to go through Caen, and arrived in the late afternoon. We came up out of the Metro at the Charles de
Gaule – Etoile stop, aka the l'Arc de Triumph!!! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!! I was standing there in shock and awe completely forgetting how close it was to the last check in at our housing, only to find myself alone a few moments later and having to run to catch up.
All the GC kids, and a jet lagged K, were housed in a catholic house. I am not sure exactly what it was, some sort of a retreat center, that also rents out rooms, and has a permanent community that lives there. But the location was great, right near l'Arc de Triumph et le Champs d'Elseye shoot, I can not spell that. But at least I do not say it with an American accent haha! That is a major joke of all French speakers apparently... pronounced: shamps eelezay.
It rained on and off in Paris. And when it was not raining, it was so lovely that I wore shorts half of the time... oh wait, that was because I ran out of clothing. I want to tell you every thing but I
know that Lydia has long ago given up on reading this email and even the most avid readers are probably done caring so... Paris was awesome!!

But no, I can not leave it at that...
We saw more lifelong dreams : the Opera house... K and I were beyond thrilled and we only had 30 minutes to run around but we were breathless and singing the Phantom of the Opera the entire time... its an incredible place!!! I felt like I had already been, because I did a project on the Opera Garnier in High school for French class. But no... it was better!
Also I spent some time in the Louvre, the building itself is incredible, and then there are the paintings and sculptures as well, it was so overwhelming that LI and I left after an hour and went to the Musee d'Orsay. Yes! LI!! I met up with her and KC, and JY at the Eiffel Tower one night. But we had to go shortly after meeting up with them because we had a play to see that night – Don Quixote, but it was so lovely to see them. LI and the other Scotland girls hung out with S, G, and I then following day (while the GC girls went to Giverny) until their plane
left for Rome.
We passed by l'Arc de Triumph every day, and walked on the Champs de l'Elysees almost every day. We also visited les Invalides – grave of Napolean, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, the Pantheon – closed, le Tour Eiffel, took a boat tour on the Seine, picnicked on the edge of the Seine, ate meals with our hosts, took a day trip to Versailles, saw more graves, chilled the Jardin du Luxembourg – next to the Senat, walked past the Hotel de Ville, et le Centre Pompidou, saw a demonstration and dodged Socialist marches all day on May 1st, went to the Musee Rodin to enjoy the sculpture garden, visited the Place de la Concorde, and stopped at every Starbucks that J saw. ;)
It was a good week in Paris. However, Paris is too full of museums and sites of interest to be seen. Perhaps if we had taken a year there, or if everyone had not insisted on waiting til 10 am every morning to get out of the house, or if we had sky cars and infinite money, we could have... however, none of these happened, so we saw what we could, and it was wonderful.
I am very glad that Krista and I broke off the first day to go to the Opera house while everyone else searched for the grave of Jimmy Hendrix, cause I really wanted to see the Opera house and
would not have otherwise. And we still beat them back to lunch! Haha.
During the majority of the trip we got into museums free of charge as students of the European Union, but at the end we realized that it was students who are citizens of the EU... sigh. But that was not until May 1st which was the Workers day, or something like that. And nearly everything was closed anyway. So we 'walked by' a lot of things... it worked out. And at that point I was down to a handful of Euros after two weeks of traveling.

Mont St Michel

Pontorson, is a tiny little village known only because of its proximity to Mont St. Michel. This world renown abbey dates from the middle ages when thousands would flock to the site either on
pilgrimages, or for safety from invaders. When the tide comes in, it covers all of the space between the Mont and the mainland. However, because they put in a permanent causeway a few years back, the tides and ecosystem there have changed.
Walking from the train station to the youth hostel was a little odd, the town was mostly empty. The town had a very different feel than Reims, a distant and bustling suburb of Paris. Finally, as the hostel came into view, a huge tour bus pulled up and started to unload.
NO!!!! Having flash backs of Strasbourg, we ran to the hostel. Luckily, the group was a bunch of students who filled all but 5 beds in the entire hostel, and they offered beds in their rooms to us. That night we went to a neat little crepe restaurant... best crepe meal ever! And I had buttermilk cause I always wanted to know what it was... yogurt that is not set, not sweet or buttery, or anything interesting like that... I felt like a cat, drinking milk with a spoon out of a bowl.
Mont St Michel was only 9km away. So we walked. Along the Cousnon river(?) Past horse farms, across from an old wind mill, near fields of yellow flowers, and past a sewage treatment plant... uhk. Anyway, it was incredible!! I have been wanting to go there for the past four years, and now I finally have. The Mont looms up in an eerie way as you approach, getting larger and larger until you arrive at the gate.
The city itself is one of winding medieval streets and tourist shops, but the abbey is beautiful. The abbey was very plain, but spacious and awe inspiring. This is another thing I need to show you pictures of, because if I tried to explain everything in detail... no one would want to read my blog.

Travel day #2 and Bayeaux

We attempted to do another travel day... It was going to be Nancy, Reims (pronounced: rahnse) and Amiens, but instead, we took trains all day ending up in all the places we did not need to be and finally ended in Reims. After visiting the cathedral, and walking through the central area we found a hostel and planned out the next few days. We would not be going to Luxembourg, or Brussels, or Amiens... instead we decided to go through Paris and spend the remaining days in Normandy. This night I paid for sluggish internet access on computers with sticky unmarked-French keyboards in an attempt to figure out my life. It did not work, but it did lessen my stress one degree. And everyone that received an email from me that day, including potential employers, received odd unpunctuated messages, with double letters, and random French symbols.
I am not sure what day it was, but the next day we left in the early AM to go under Paris (it was painful, watching the metro stops of several famous and beautiful places that I wanted to see, pass above me), and ultimately to Caen – oops we meant to go to Bayeaux, and thus missed the only bus of the day to the Dday beaches... sigh.
Disappointed, we visited the cathedral before wandering the lovely little town. I had some more quiet and thoughtful time while G visited a famous tapestry, and then we went to the British burial ground. I had wanted to see the American cemetery, but since they stop all touristy things on weekends (brilliant!) that was not possible... this one worked quite well, actually.
I was struck by the lines of white tomb stones, and silent inscriptions on the graves...
“My only child...”
“Age 19”
“Known unto God”
“greater love hath no man than this that he laid down his life for his friends”
“at the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember him,
RIP” etc.
As heavy clouds approached, several groups of what seemed to be teens from a British Military academy, swarmed the cemetery and laid flowers on the memorial. It hurt, in a beautiful way. While I hope that nothing happens, these young adults may someday be called to give their lives in the same way. As the rain fell, we ran to the train station to catch the next train.

Strasbourg

Strasbourg was in quite a bustle because of parliament. But we were able to explore the city and its gardens. The cathedral was lovely, and we found several buildings, streets, etc named after Rohan... haha. There was a lovely little section called “Petite France” and I spent a good deal of my visit there. It was on the water and straight out of a fairy tale... it just was not real! We spent several days in Strasbourg, one day I just wandered the city alone and sat by the water for a few hours to do devos. After more wanderings along the canal, a found myself in a lovely Parisian styled park on the opposite side of town.
It was good to slow down and just relax for a little bit. But I became very stressed about this summer because I had all day to think about all the things I should be getting done, but without internet access, my world unfortunately stops turning.
There is a lot more to say about Strasbourg, which is a lovely and enjoyable town, but I will leave you with this. I am already uploading several weeks of my life to blogger, and if you are bothering to read, you are surely overwhelmed already.

Travel day #1

The following day was a little on the crazy side. Three cities and three countries in one day, all while carrying one HUGE backpack!
First, we went to Basel, it is between France, Switzerland, and Germany. We explored the neat little city and checked out its cathedral (in order to see the grave of Erasmus), before taking a boat across the Rhine from the medieval wall in Switzerland to a random playplace in Germany. Germany was short lived, and we were soon on our way to Colmar.
Colmar is a picture perfect Alsacian town. If you do not know what that means, try to imagine a little fairy tale town stuck between centuries. The buildings were story book with dark beams and white/colored walls. We went here because G had a lifelong dream of seeing a certain triptych that is housed in the museum in central Colmar. But just our luck, on Tuesdays, this museum is closed. It was also G's 21st birthday so he decided that it was just to spite him
that it had closed. Slightly disappointed, we went to a park to have a picnic lunch before heading to Strasbourg.
Strasbourg, just happened to be hosting the European Parliament when we arrived, so every thing was booked. We were able to find hostels to stay in, but this evening was more stressful than necessary and I called it a night pretty early. Without dinner and completely exhausted, I found myself in a room with a French woman and a Russian woman. Conversations with the French girl, were in French, and the Russian woman: in English, Spanish and French. It was quite a mix. And I often found myself translating between the two of them.