A well-needed update

Sorry to anyone who reads this for the lack of updates...I can't believe how busy I’ve been here doing so much great stuff.

So where to start? First off, I’ve been having an amazing time here in France. I spent just over a week with Matt and then my mom has been here for just about a week and a half. The time has flown by! I can’t believe my mom is leaving already on Saturday. I’ll try to hit the highlights of what I’ve been up to but if I were to get into everything it would take all night! Haha.

So for the first week I enjoyed walking around Paris and getting to know the city pretty well without a map. They were having a special cinema festival where each movie was only 2 euros so I took advantage of that and saw 3 movies. The first was a French movie that I found confusing and long. Then I saw “Maid of Honor” and “Sex in the City” dubbed over in French. There were more on my French-intellectual level. I was able to understand most of the movies..laughed when everyone else laughed..although I’m sure I missed some details. Another day I rented a bike and rode to the Champ de Mars and read under the shade of the Eiffel tower. My siesta was cut short however with a group of about 50 French school children playing football..apparently I was in the middle of their field. Then I rode to the “Bois de Boulogne”. I figured it would be a pleasant park to go for a bike ride in…which is was..until I got lost and ended up on the street where all the hookers wait for their clients. In broad daylight? I was shocked. Needless to say I peddled fast to get out of there.

Then the nights would consist of Matt coming home, us going running in the park across the street, and then going to the grocery store to get bread, cheese and wine for dinner. It was a hard life.

It’s been great having my mom here because now I have someone to walk around with all during the day. We got a museum pass for 4 days in which we saw nearly every museum in Paris. We even went into the Paris sewers. I bet not many tourists take that tour! It was certainly a different view of Paris..a more smelly view. The Musee D’Orsay was also great. The last time I was here it was closed due to strikes and I was really looking forward to seeing all the impressionists. The actual building itself, an old train station, was amazing. There were so many impressionist paintings it was overwhelming. Another highlight was the Organgerie, which is right near the Louvre. This was a small, modest, uncrowded museum which actually turned out to be one of my favorites. It housed numerous Monet paintings of the waterlillys which encircled two large rooms. I had no idea how large they were! The museum was a bit less daunting than the Louvre which was the museum we had just visited prior. Also that week I went to see Jack Johnson with Jon London (a friend from camp who lives here) and Jess Wenig (who is nannying here and I used to work with her at camp). It was a great reunion and neat show.

On our final day with the museum pass we took a day trip to Versaille. The Chateau was once again amazing and the gardens even more beautiful. We rented bikes for an hour and rode through Marie Antoinettes pretend peasant village and up and down the grand canal, which Louis XIV built to mock those in Venice. All of the flowers were in bloom and it was just a beautiful day to spend in a garden. We then met Matt when he got out of work (he works in Versaille) and went out to dinner after exploring the town.

On Saturday, mom and I took our first big excursion to Amboise, which is in the Loire Valley. There we rented bikes and took a picturesque bike ride about 10 miles through the countryside to the Chateau de Chenonceaux. The undulating, green countryside was absolutely charming. And Chenonceaux was even more beautiful. It is a castle which was built above the Cher River. After touring the castle and the gardens surrounding it we biked back to Amboise and visited the Chateau d’Amboise. Not quite as breathtaking as Chenonceau but neat nonetheless.

On Sunday Matt, Mom and I went running in this amazing park right outside Paris. It had a huge grand canal, royal gardens, cascading waterfall, and numerous small areas to explore. It put Stanely park to shame! Then that evening we took a “Bateaux Mouches”. Literally a fly boat. They are these touristy boats that go along the Seine river. I didn’t have high hopes for this but it turned out to be one of my favorite things I’ve done here so far! We waited until it got dark (which here is about 10:30..its very late) and everything was lit up beautifully. The Eiffel Tower is turned blue for the next two weeks and decorated with the EU stars to commemorate France being the head of the EU. It was truly a site to behold. So the boat may have been toursity…I loved it!

Monday here was a holiday. Happy Bastille day! It marks the day the Paris citizens stormed the Bastille prison to set free the revolutionary prisoners. Whatever the reason..it was great. Sort of like a substitution for the 4^th of July, which we missed. At night we went to the Champ de Mars (behind the Eiffel Tower) where they had a huge concert all evening. We had a great picnic of bread, cheese, wine, apples, grapes and chocolate. To top off the evening, there was a 30 minute firework display behind the Eiffel tower. It was so cool! I couldn’t believe how many people were there. The news the next day said 600,000 people were there. You could barely walk anywhere when the show was over. Regardless of the crowd it was well worth it.

Today mom and I went to the Chateau de Fontainebleu. Although it was maybe not my favorite Chateau so far, it was still beautiful and ornately designed. For dinner we checked out this local crepe place which always has a line out the door, no matter what time of day, so we figured it must be good. I got this amazing crepe with feta, grilled eggplant, tomatoes and onions. Now I know why they all wait in line! Tomorrow mom and I are planning on going to Honfleur. It is a city west of Paris, about a 2hr train ride, on the coast. Grandma says that mom loved it when she was a kid. Hopefully the weather stays as nice as its been. Today it was sunny and 75. Just perfect.

That’s all of now..I will update pictures soon and try to keep more updated on this thing. Au revoir!