First three weeks in Dijon: Hereee we go.

 HELLO!

So, remember that time when I said I'd be better about posting?
Haha. That was a good one, Alexandra. As if you'd EVER have time.

It is true: the stars just wouldn't align properly if I had a free moment. And I'm perfectly okay with that: yes, at times it could be a bit stressful, but who would want to be bored in France? 'Not I,' said the sailor! (Still don't know where I came up with that phrase, but I like it.)

So where did we leave off?
The train. Right!

Goodbye bed, goodbye window

Goodbye desk...

7amwakinupinthemorningottagetdressedgottagodownstairs
/ashamed to know these lyrics
But this is how my last day in Tours started. Actually, more accurately, it started around 5:30 in the morning, so I could be on time for my 7 am train to Dijon, France!
Had my last breakfast with Aurélie-- baguette bread with plum jam and a bowl of coffee-- and headed downstairs to her little yellow car before the sun even came up. As we drove towards the train station, she made a good point: "I like Tours because there are always people out, even at 6:30 in the morning on a Saturday." And it was true! On our way over we saw people riding bikes, others dressed for work, people going for a run or walk... Tours truly was a friendly little city.
After boarding the train and saying good-bye to my host mother (sad to go but I know I will be keeping in contact with her,) I pretty much slept and listened to music during the five hours to Dijon. The countryside was beautiful, and when I was awake I really enjoyed looking out at it... but the energy was lacking. Here are some pictures to prove that I didn't waste all of my time behind my eyelids:

I'd like to say that I got permission from the owners of these houses to feature them on my blog... but I didn't. Woops. Let's say they're flattered that I find their homes beautifully situated.

About an hour and a half before our arrival time, I got a call from Nanou (our cultural advisor for study abroad at UB (l'université de Bourgogne).) She explained to me that the reason I hadn't heard from my host mother in Dijon (I tried calling her house and cell earlier that day, because I was worried I wouldn't have anyone to meet at the train station,) was because she just received back surgery in Paris. (Not to worry, though, she is doing quite well!) She explained to me that for the next week, I'd be living in Marie-Pierre's apartment with one of her good friends, Laure, who happens to be a high school English teacher pretty close to me in age.

Although the circumstances of meeting Laure were not ideal-- it was unfortunate that Marie-Pierre (my host mother) had to go in for surgery-- I have been truly lucky getting to know her. She was my first friend in Dijon and made me feel at home very quickly-- I already owe a big thanks to her.
After lunch and giving me some time to rest (rest?! what is this? I can't remember the last time somebody gave me time to rest. And that's not a joke.) Laure took me around the city to become familiar with the area. We went inside a beautiful cathedral and got to see "la chouette" (which is explained in the picture below,)

This is what's left of "la chouette" (French for "the owl.") This carving  fit into the side of the Notre Dame Cathedral (Dijon is called "Little Paris" because it has spots like the Notre Dame Cathedral and another Arc de Triomphe,) was partially destroyed by some kid back in the day. There are lots of myths as to why it was put into the building at all, but everyone says that if you rub/touch it with your left hand and make a wish, it will come true. That's why, when the owl was destroyed and shards of it laid on the ground, the people of Dijon refused to have new stone put in for a new Owl statue. They think it's good luck... and who knows, we'll have to wait and see.

You'll see little owl markers all over the city. Big ones like these show different "must-see" sights, and little triangular ones point in direction of different paths you can follow to do a self-guided tour of Dijon.

Here's the side of the Notre Dame cathedral. You'll see rows of "fake" gargoyles (on one of many tours that Lily and I went on, our guide explained that a long time ago there was a gargoyle of a banker on the side of the cathedral. It just so happened that on a certain banker's wedding day, this gargoyle fell onto the groom and killed him.. strange? Perhaps. So they replaced the "real" gargoyles with fake ones.  Fake pretty much means that they don't work as water spouts.) At the very top there's a cute statue I'll explain more about later.

 plus she showed me where to buy a hair straightener, where the nearest Monoprix and fnac were located... things you need and want to know in a city you'll be living in for nine months.
My first night was great. Laure had a group of her friends over and we had an apéritif dinatoire (a dinner where all you eat is appetizers, and in our case, a very delicious chocolate fondant afterwards.) Of course you all know how much I love food... but I felt awkward taking photos the first night in, so I'll just quickly describe: shish-kebab sticks with french comte cheese and green (pitted) grapes on some, ham and melon on the others; tuna quiche (i LOVED); ham quiche (also quite good,); rounded slices of sausage (ethically-raised animals woo!); white wine (what type I couldn't tell you I am no connoisseur at this point); chocolate fondant.
I wish I could rake through every day but I have done SO much in this past week and a half that it would be difficult to do so without writing a short novel. But quickly, I want to go over the second day:
Woke up and rested (after a bowl of OATMEAL! Gosh it's good to have that again. Laure bought it for me in Monoprix, which was incredibly nice. When she found out that I like putting banana and peanut butter in every morning, she actually picked up bananas and peanut butter (fair trade!!) later that week. I was just blown away by that kind gesture. Do you know how hard it is to find peanut butter in France? It's like a needle in a haystack (for lack of a better simile.) And not to mention it was fair-trade certified... that's just very thoughtful.). Then around lunchtime Laure took me over to one of her favorite restaurants to get sushi (OM) and we had a great conversation. The rest of that day was a lot of walking around the city with her and her best friend Quarentin, and eventually going to their frequented second-hand store. What I loved about that first Sunday in Dijon was that I got to see how lazy Sundays (I always call Sundays lazy) play out in France without the tourist scope. Taking the car out to Emmaus (the second-hand store) just outside of Dijon and listening to American music (because that takes up a LOT of French radio... heard Nicki Minaj that day,) was a great comfort. It's like at home when I spend Sundays driving out east with my parents. After being in cities constantly, it's nice to see open green spaces like the fields that surrounded the store (plus there were TREES!)

It has occured to me that I never mentioned how I fell in love with this apartment. Let me demonstrate.

View from the balcony. I wish I could show pictures of the inside of the apartment besides my room (because it is downright beautiful,) but I don't think that would be polite/appropriate.

Balcony

Balcony

Anyway, like I said, it's impossible to go through everything, mostly because I've been so behind on this.
En somme:
Lily and I met with our cultural coordinator from UB early in the week to find out that we can essentially see ALL of the operas, concerts, ballets, plays, and other spectacles with our "Carte Culture," a 5 euro card that allows students into shows for 1/10 of the price. We had fun going through the pound of pamphlets figuring out what we wanted to do.
The entire week was museum shopping and tour-guide-following. Still have to write that review... our coordinator kind of gave us homework to see four museums and the view from "Tour Philippe le Bon" and then write a reflection.
These museums were stunning.

I am not one for art... I'll say that now. Or, I used to be like that. I still don't get big white boards with a red dot in the center. Sorry, for whomever I'm offending, it just doesn't jive for me.

But these museums... I'm going back. (It's great that all of the public museums in France are free for students.)
I could go on and on... but I'll just show you pictures to see what I mean.

And by that, I mean that I'm going to just make the rest of this a picture blog with footnotes, because I am TOO tired.

But before I start off on just throwing pictures at you, I need to express how grateful I am for the host family I am living with: Marie-Pierre (my host mother) and Vincent (my host brother) are two of the kindest people I have ever met. Laure, though she doesn't live in the apartment and is Marie-Pierre's friend, I also include in my "host family" because of all she has done for me and the friendship we now have. I am truly thankful to be living here this year, and these three have made me feel at home in Dijon and in the apartment so quickly. Though it has only been three weeks I could go on and on about all of their great qualities (which I am sure to do in an actual written blog entry in the near future.) But for now I'm just going to say that I am living with/around extremely good people. For lack of better terms, they are just plain fun and comforting to be around, and I look forward to getting to know them better this year.

First day in Dijon happened to be the debut of the city Tram (which was actually quite a bit deal, considering they've been working on it for about three years.) After our  apéritif dinatoire, we took the tram out to "la fac" (the university) and saw this art display in honor of the tram. The wicker (it's not wicker I don't know how to actually describe the material) changed colors, and they were all over the lawn.

Dinner with Laure was always fun. The girl really knows how to cook. This was the FIRST time I've ever seen somebody cook meat (turkey) in a pan without oil (yes, upon coming to France I went back to eating meat, I knew I was going to do this all summer.) Instead she just used salt! 

Another dinner with Laure. She BOILED the PASTA WITH HERBS IN THE WATER. Usually I put that stuff in after. But it gave the pasta itself SO much flavor. Then she threw in some English cream and cheese (no, this wasn't healthy by any means,) and a small jar of Marinara sauce. This pasta was to die for.

To start off our first week, Nanou (our cultural advisor overseas) signed us up for four walking tours. The first one was hôtels particuliers, which pretty much means "mansions" (there's no real direct translation for English.) These are pretty much mini châteaux strewn throughout the city, just chilling between shops and apartments. In fact, all of these  hôtels particuliers have been converted to other uses: apartment buildings, stores (I mean it... you'll just see some technology store sitting under or inside one of these  hôtels particuliers, it's rather amusing,) museums (such as Musée Magnin,) offices, etc. I have tons of pictures of these "mansions" from the outside (we weren't permitted to go inside... though our tour guide (who seemed a little confused and unprepared the whole times) brought us inside one anyway.) It

The French poet Jacques Bénigne Bousset lived in the house with the green mesh awning.

It's just a beautiful city.

The market! Open every week, all year round, Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays (I think those are the days at least.) Went here on a tour but ALSO went with my host family to do some shopping, which was very fun.

Les Halles, the building on the left, is where you'll find fresh meat (I mean the-head-is-still-on-the-chicken-fresh), delicious cheeses, vegetables from the countryside, etc. My host mother actually knew some of the vendors there, which I absolutely loved. There's a sense of community in going to the market.

Inside Les Halles...

It was good!!

Mustard, all of the colors.

Lily and I tried crepes at "Bar a Crepe" our first week. In honor of the event, we ordered a small pitcher of cider. Cider that was apparently much stronger than ciders we drank in Tours.
Lesson learned: only order a cup, not a pitcher, of cider (cidre) at this cafe.

Had a galette with escargot inside! IT WAS REALLY GOOD. I was proud of myself.

Gotta admit, though I never watched the show, I miss Monday nights when my roommate and my three other honorary roommates would glue themselves to this show and pour over it during the commercials. 

Cathedrale de Notre Dame (Dijon)

Walking on our way up Tour Philippe le Bon (one of our cultural immersion destinations,) which is a tower on top of the Palais de Ducs de Bourgogne. At first I thought it wouldn't be much... but wait until you see the view.

You can't deny that that is incredible. You can even see past the city and into the countryside. This kind of reminded me of home, strangely enough.

Ate sushi here my second day in Dijon with Laure! 

La Porte Guiliamme, Dijon's version of "L'arc de Triomphe." Dijon is known as "Little Paris" because it has sights like this and the Notre Dame Cathedral who have more celebrated counterparts in France. L'arc de Triomphe in Paris happens to have my favorite view of the city, but the view of Dijon from Tour Philippe le Bon had the same effect on me.

Was home alone one night and made myself this awesome-looking (not awesome looking but certainly awesome tasting) pasta. Boiled the pasta with the herbs like Laure had done a few nights beforehand, and added some Dijon mustard, a slice of ham, some goat cheese, salt, and a tomato.

Steps in Palais de Ducs de Bourgogne leading up to a room closed until the Journee de Patrimoine... (see further down in the blog post)

Another view from Tour Philippe le Bon, ended up out of order, but I'm too lazy to change it at the moment.

Place Francois Rude, with the famous wine-maker stomping on his raisins like a boss.

Where's Waldo exists in France, too!

Our wonderful tour guide for the last tour we took through the Office of Tourism, all about mustard and pain d'epices (two specialties of Dijon)

When I have tea in my room, my host mother has me use this tray. It's really cute and I just wanted to point that out.

Hôtel particulier

"I love you"

In the garden of another hôtel particulier

Oh, let me just park my car in front of this beautiful mansion like place. No big deal. I just live here.
STORY OF DIJON.

Palais des ducs de Bourgogne-- also home to Town Hall and the Office of Tourism. Located at Place de la Libération, about fifteen minutes straight down the road from my house and five from Lily.

Place de la Libération. For the LONGEST time I thought this was called Place de la République (which is actually another town square.) Did I get lost once or twice? No... I may have had to backtrack a few times though...

On the left is the old bank. It is actually beautiful, the courtyard has stunning, detailed architecture (see the three photos below)

Hamburgers with Laure. I think this was the third night. Before getting the food, she asked me if it would be okay if we made the hamburgers at home instead of getting them at McDonald's. Which made me laugh, because I always prefer a home-made hamburger to McDonald's  (but All American Burgers in Massapequa will always be the best... and probably the only fast-food burger joint to hold a place in my heart.) Anyway, this dinner just made me feel at home. Over the summer my dad had been trying forever to get me to eat one of his burgers and break my vegetarian rule. But right before leaving I let him BBQ for me and, of course, it was delicious. Likewise was this (on whole-wheat buns! Like I said, Laure is extremely thoughtful.) Great reminder of home my first week in Dijon.

Place de la République at night (a great area to go out dancing at night)

Lily drinking her first Kir on our first night out dancing! Kir is a specialty of Dijon: White wine and Cassis Liquer.

Inside Musée Magnin, an exposition on Portraits/Faces. Thought it was going to be boring but it was actually VERY good and organized very well. One of my top two favorite museums we visited that first week.

Musée Magnin is situated inside of a hotel particulier, so it was pretty damn beautiful.

A view of the Consortium of contemporary art from the outside. Why the outside, do you ask? WELL. It was completely empty: sans personnes, sans oeuvres. I guess they were closed until the next exhibit came in. So we couldn't check that off our list of museums required to see for cultural advising. Zut.

Vélo-Tour!!! During our first week in Dijon, there were all of these advertisements for a bike tour around Dijon the upcoming Sunday. Since it had been a month since I'd been on a bike (which is very sad :( ) I decided to sign up. Laure was kind enough to lend me her bike (so was my host mother, actually! But her bike tires didn't have air, so I used Laure's instead.) For three and a half hours I biked around the city with a large group of Dijonnaises. It was actually a great use of time for my first weekend because I got to see a whole bunch of places in Dijon that otherwise I probably wouldn't have seen, such as this park above or the skae park a couple of pictures below. At the park here there were stands for different companies and even some entertainment (two pictures below)

Music and dancing, I couldn't tell you what genre but it was nice to take a rest and see something like this.

My shadow! And Laure's red bike

One of the gardens we got to bike around, extremely beautiful, in the middle of residential Dijon.

Did I ask a kind French couple to take my picture? Yes. I did. We ended up talking later and I even got acquainted with their daughter who happens to be around my age. People are so friendly here. I'm quickly learning that all you have to do is put yourself out there and talk, and people will be willing to help or have a conversation with you.

Lunchtime! Free bananas, oranges, pain d'épices (it's like a soft gingerbread), hot dog rolls, and juice.Took a break to take advantage of these.

Vélo-Tour is really cool because it opens up places to the public that are generally closed. For example, it's not every day that you get to bike through a parking garage... the winding circle down was fun but I must say a little dangerous and disconcerting...

Jardin Darcy, one of the gardens we biked through, happens to be around the corner from my apartment. Small but quite beautiful. there's a polar bear in front of it too!

Jardin Darcy again. In the background you can see some buildings from Place Darcy.

Jardin de l'Arquebuse, which is a botanical/Science garden. There are vegetables and exhibitions on fair trade and food production ethics!! There's also a planetarium.

Another site to see during the bike tour was small performances at the courtyard in Palais de Ducs de Bourgogne. Here you have some rumba dancers, so you can see why I was partial to this event :)

Place de la République in the daytime, also biked past!

Another stop, honestly don't remember the name, but I believe it is operated by a group of nuns.

Parc du Sport-- Another stop!

Skate Park we got to ride around at Parc du Sport. The nine-year-old tombboy who played as Elissa Steamer on Tony Hawk 2 for N64 was very happy to finally see something like this.

An indoor skate park (not at Parc du Sport) where there were like... eight year olds doing tricks. The music was typical of a skatepark.

Musée de la vie Bourguignonne, housed in a former monastery. One of the things I LOVE about France is that they don't get rid of old buildings, they convert them into something new. Later you'll see a picture of a church-converted-theatre that is absolutely beautiful.

This particular museum had many wax figures standing around to show what life was like back in the day. It was actually really cute. I liked this scene in particular because, well, you guessed it... it was in the kitchen, my favorite part of the house. How cool would it be to cook here?!

Old school clocks on the second floor

Lily and I were very entertained by this gawdy clock in the museum.

My school! It is RATHER large. I can't get pictures of everywhere, that would be an entire entry. So here's some of the very large field that students like to sit on. I took these pictures when I was waiting with Rihab (our French FLA from Freshman year that goes to UB and is teaching our conversation course! She has been EXTREMELY helpful the entire time we tried to sort out our schedules, which was... very hectic, very difficult. I should write actual posts instead of just posting pictures so I don't leave out stories like that... a reminder for later, then!)

One of MANY pictures of program lists that I took at the university. Registration and organizing a course plan was EXTREMELY difficult and stressful. More on that in a post with actual paragraphs/words.

First Kebab in France (it's very popular here, pretty much fast food though.) Had this when Lily and I met up with Rihab to discuss course selection.

Extension for Lettres et Philosophie at the university

Library in the background off to the right

That's my "fac," Lettres et Philosophie.

Library is off to the right, and if you look at the background a squint a little you'll see the Tram.

"Art."

Maison de l'étudiant, which is sadly nothing like Hogan. Well, there's no place like Holy Cross.

At what is our favorite café in town, Lily's preferred order: Chocolate Chantilly (hot cocoa with whipped cream.) It pretty much looks like a work of art.

This was our first time at Café Theatre (that would be the name of the place,) so I tried something new... Mint Water, which is really just mint water with syrup. They gave me a whole pitcher of water (which was good, because otherwise that would be STRONG.) But the stuff is actually delicious and one of the cheapest things on the menu. I was quite surprised that I liked it, but I will certainly be ordering it again.

Journées de Patrimoine (direct translation: Heritage Days) at Dijon was our second weekend (I'm not counting our arrival on Saturday as a "Weekend" for the sake of order.) All of the museums and cultural spots in the city open their doors free to the citizens to see things that aren't open throughout the year (almost like the bike tour, but not.) Palais de Ducs de Bourgogne had their offices open, where an art exhibit was displayed (see below) and all of the beautifully structured and deocrated rooms that are still used today. Like I said... no building goes to waste here.

This particular sculpture was the cover on all of the brochures/advertisements for the weekend.

Climbed up the stairs into the Palais and the first room was filled with all of these sketches, a different perspective on the city of Dijon. I found them very cool, though I may not have quite understood the purpose of the fantasy element. Slowly but surely trying to appreciate/understand art.

UM.

Oh yeah. In my office, I'm going to have a fireplace like that too.
Except, false, because all writers are poor and I have no future.
:(

Rights of Man and Citizen

Imagine working here with these beautiful portraits just hanging by your side like it's nothing?

The mayor and his crew have it good in Dijon is all I'll say.

So, from the first week Lily and I have been wanting to go to this boulangerie. The Saturday of Journées de Patrimoine seemed like a good time to "expose ourself to more French culture" imeanfood. See the picture below to understand why.

These gigantic cookies... "Sables," or in other words, butter cookies. There are SO many flavors to choose from and let's face it... can you really go wrong?

I got hazelnut coffee flavor (does that surprise ANYONE?)

As we nommed on our respective cookies, Lily and I made our way over to one of the Dijon Theatres. Except this one is rather exceptional because it is INSIDE of a former church. The structure is perfect and the atmosphere is exactly what I like to see in a theatre.

Listened to a band in the theatre's bar while drinking one-euro tea (which is incredibly hard to find because beer costs less than tea here) and waiting for the presentation to begin!

It would be so cool to have a gig here.. in my opinoin at least

Inside the auditorium where the presenation of stage effects and lighting was given. Also so a drum performance, which was very impressive.

COME ON. THIS WAS SUCH A GOOD IDEA. Bravo to the French on recyling their buildings!

The Sunday of that weekend my host brother (Vincent, driving on the left,) invited Laure and me to go out to the family's house in the countryside. The drive alone was positively breathtaking-- it was nice to be in a car again and just look out the window at nature. And then I saw the "house."

Or chateau. Whatever you prefer to call it.

Though this is the front courtyard, there was an entire FOREST in the back.  Took a really nice walk all around, and even passed a cornfield where we may or may not have pilfered a few ears of corn. Asked Laure and Vincent if corn mazes exist in France.
They do not.

Probably my favorite part of the walk happened at this moment.  During our walk, Laure mentioned that she wanted a walking stick.
So what does my host brother do? Finds this skinny twig of a tree and attacks it with a knife. Laure and I join in.
20 MINUTES LATER after quite a bit of twisting, pulling, and cutting into the (extremely healthy and unwilling to budge) 3 or 4 inch diameter of a tree, a walking stick was finally acquired.
And she used it the whole rest of the trip! Well worth the effort.
The whole fiasco was ridiculous and extremely entertaining. I can't imagine what someone would think if they walked past the twisted flower-shaped "trunk" that's left over...
it was a sanglier, we'll say.

Walking down a forest path. Laure was particularly afraid that a sanglier (wild boar) was going to jump out at her. HOWEVER. For some reason, she was able to frighten me multiple times by looking in the other direction and saying "Oh my god..." It's like everyone knows that I'm that easy to scare.
But I got her back when we drove the golf cart! (Sort of.)

I'll take this moment to explain the golf cart situation. (My mother is going to be extremely jealous about this because she has always wanted to drive and own a golf car herself. No, she doesn't play golf. But after driving this, I can't blame her. They're fun.) So we took it out to go pick blackberries back in the forest. Vincent was kind enough to let us try out driving... which was a bit petrifying at times with the trees (by that I mean I was a bit petrified when I almost hit a tree or something, I don't remember exactly what..) But driving the cart was extremely fun if a little nerve-wracking... I think I laughed the entire time driving.
Never realized how fast those things can go, by the way.

Whatever you're imagining for the inside of the house, you're probably somewhat right. There were Renaissance-looking rooms with the ornate wallpaper and portraits hanging in the dining room; trophies of hunted animals lining a room; long wooden corridors and stone stairs; a fireplace in the kitchen. The place was out of another time.

And now... I'm going to talk about this past weekend in ANNECY!!!!!!!!!!!

(In other words, our weekend trip to the French Alps/Rhône Alpes)

Look like a simple city? Check out the background if you think that's the case...

So, we decided to go to Annecy because of a recommendation made my our friend Rihab. Freshman year, Rihab was our Foreign Language Assistant (FLA) at Holy Cross. She studies at l'universite de Bourgogne, and when she heard that we would be coming to study abroad in her home city, she immediately applied for the job of teaching our "Conversation" course. A quick shout-out to Rihab: she is positively wonderful. I remember the first day we ran into her in Dijon, actually by accident at the university. The entire process of signing up at UB was extremely difficult because the French university system is structured completely different than that in the US. But Rihab was always there to help us figure out exactly what courses we could take and to help us gather the information we needed. She is a GREAT help and a great friend.
So we told Rihab that we wanted to travel for the weekend, and she mentioned in passing that she has a friend that lives in a really nice town called Annecy. Lily, being the think-ahead-immediately person that she is (what can I say, I'm very lucky to be travelling with this girl,) looked up the town that night. Got me on the phone and said "Alexandra you need to look up pictures of this town, now."
Needless to say, we followed through.

Hello, mountain.

Hey Lily! Enjoying the French alps? I think so.

You can imagine I was slightly proud (or should I be ashamed? Let's go with proud) to see "Long Island ice tea" on the menu at a bar in town. Well, at least we're known overseas. Even if it's just for the Great Gatsby and LI Ice Tea...

My first hostel stay, took us a while to find it. Actually ended up in the parking lot of some apartment complex and ran into this nice couple who spoke English. "Looking for a hotel?" They asked (meaning hostel.) "Yeah..." So at least we weren't the first...

The mountains are just CHILLING behind the supermarket. By the way, about to climb the green mountain (closer in view but still in the background) a couple of photos down...

Chateau d'Annnecy

Chateau...

Chateau. I think Lily and I had done quite enough of them in the Loire Valley to skip this one out and really enjoy nature. Very nice from afar, though!

Before reaching the mountain (which took us a while to get to because, although we had multiple maps, it was difficult to find a walking path to the mountain,) we went to the basilica (which I kept calling a basilisk, which is a snake damnit.) Ended up talking with this extremely friendly elderly couple who came from Germany (the woman) and Mexico (the man.) It's always a good feeling after walking away from a conversation completely in French and knowing you communicated well and  understood every word the other person said (or 99% at least.)

I learned something! This is neo-gothic architecture. I love how geometrical and even the entire structure is designed.
I wonder if they used the Gold Ratio.....? Oh no, 8th grade math fair project.

View from the hill where the basilica stood 

So, we were in the alps. Hiking wasn't an option, but a necessary part of the trip. I am proud to say that Lily accompanied me along the way!

View from the trail. Just beautiful.

I'm proud of her!

View from one of the overlooks I came upon when I walked off a little by myself. Absolutely beautiful.

This rock was at the overlook, and just happened to be shaped like a chair. Coincidence? Potentially, I'm not sure to be  honest. Maybe it was carved out that way. I'd like to think that it's nature's way of saying "Sit and appreciate this." Either way, that's exactly what I did.

I just can't get over the trails and the view.

Hair flying everywhere, but worth it.

Always need a picture of where you're going.

Lily looking like a badass with the water fountain (?)

Annecy Lake

They have lunches and dinners (for VERY high prices) on this boat. One day when I'm old and rich.

There were swans. They always seem to exist in the best places here.

Again, the swan thing.

I don't know who this couple is, but they make for quite a nice picture, don't they?
(Does this constitute as bad behavior, or am I allowed to have pictures of strangers on my blog...?)

Oh look, that's my house on the mountain. I bought it.
Lies.
One day when I'm old.
JK.
Dad'll have one though.
And Murphy. He's gonna be a lumberjack. With a beard. In a log cabin. Or a businessman.
(Sorry for everyone in the world except Murphy who didn't understand that reference.)

It's like a MOVIE SET.

I just... can't. Do you see this? DO YOU SEE THIS.

The park on the water.

Art exhibit of skis. So my question is: where are the snowboards?

Palais de l'Isle

We had a really nice dinner at an Italian place after stopping for an aperitif at a nearby cafe. Had PIZZA! Though it wasn't the same as home, it had been a long time since I'd eaten pizza. Happy to say we ran back to the hostel after dinner and went out to a very cool bar (called "River's Cafe) with a dance floor that night. It was in an old house and had a very chill atmosphere, which was perfect considering the day of walking we had (we walked EVERYWHERE.) I am mentioning this place mainly because we got to DANCE. If it's not evident, I love to dance, and I'm glad we got to fit that into our schedule this past weekend.

My first hostel bed! (Actually, second. The first one, where I had my stuff, was kind of taken over by one of our roommates who thought she absolutely had to follow the rule that you use the bed number that's on your card, even though Lily and I were told that it doesn't matter at all. BUT that's okay, she was very nice about it!)

So, I have to say... I was worried. I'd never been in a youth hostel before, and though we had read good reviews about Annecy Hostel, I was still a bit afraid. But the place was clean. Everyone there was very friendly. The beds were comfortable, there were blankets, we had our own shower, and it was overall just a really nice place. Great first-time hostel experience! Will it be the same way in two weekends when we go to Paris for La Nuit Blanche...? I have my doubts, but that's okay! We'll be up and out most of the night anyway.

Morning in Annecy, fog over the mountains and town. Was on my way to buy some breakfast (there was a kitchen at the hostel and lots of food but the boxes were open and all of the bread was stale. Picked up a quiche lorraine and a pain au chocolat for Lily and I to split just down the street instead! Still took advantage of free tea.)

11 am boat tour on Lake Annecy on day two! The following pictures are from that boat tour.

Lily and I had been sitting on the bottom floor (I'm always cold,) but the experienced boat-rider quickly showed me the incredible view from the back of the boat (such as in this picture,) and from the top deck of the boat. Ended up staying up there the entire ride after the first ten minutes, and it was worth the wind.

Pardon my eyes popping out of my head in this picture.

Reminds me of Dracula.

Coming back into the port!

After lunch, Lily and I went to the "beach." I use quotation marks because well... I guess I'm an arrogant Long Islander. It's just not the same as the beaches at home. But, for a lake, this was very nice. Fell asleep for quite some time, and then we decided to do the worst... go IN the water.

Actually, the water wasn't that bad. It was crystal clear, and as Lily put it, "It's cold but it's not numbing cold." The girl loves to swim but wouldn't go underwater. Though I never have the intention to go under water (anyone who goes to the beach with me knows that I make this promise to myself every time I arrive and by the time I leave I've gotten myself drenched from head to toe because let's face it, what's a trip to the beach without going in the water?) I decided I needed to force Lily to do what she wanted.
So, I went underwater. And it wasn't that bad! Actually, I'm so happy I did it. "Profitez bien."

Last thing we did? Paddle boats for the win. A great, relaxing way to spend our last half hour before hopping on the train for a four hour trip back home.

Hi Lily! Thanks for being determined to go to Annecy. It was an absolutely fantastic weekend and a great start to many more adventures we'll be having this year. I am SO excited.

That would be me! Juuust paddleboating next to the mountain. Just in my glory.
This is going to be already a great year.

This particular blog entry was not reflective, by any means, but it was very much overdue and I didn't want to wait much longer. Now that I've finally settled in with a solid class schedule, I am glad to say that I will have time to write. More good news on that coming up...