Just 36 hours ago....

I arrived in Dijon!

(please note that I have been trying to write this blog post for several days now. I started Friday night before going to bed and now it's two days later and it's so hard to contain my excitement about Dijon and saying EVERYTHING that has happened in the past two days, but I want to finish with everything that happened in Tours first.)

So, my month in Tours ended yesterday at 7 am when I boarded the five-hour-long train to Dijon, France. As anyone who has been on this trip will tell you, it is hard to believe; the seven of us came into this introductory month-long-program thinking that it was total BS (sorry, not going to lie about that,) and came out loving the experience. Among other things, one of the biggest parts was getting to know these HC girls I traveled with this past month (featured below.)

From left to right: Lily (who will be travelling to Dijon with me,) and the five girls heading off to Strasbourg: Jess, Barbara, Colleen (who happens to be my Freshman year roommate,) Kristina, and Kelia. They're just standing in front of one of the most beautiful castles we've seen (though let's admit it... they were all pretty stunning in their own way,) the château at Azay le Rideau. Lily called it a "Cinderella Castle," and I have to concur.

Most anything I did this month was alongside these six lovely ladies (as I called them on a regular basis): lunch between classes, excursions (both through the school and on our own,) workshops, exploring the city and going out for the day or night. I was lucky to travel with such a great mix of personalities and assimilate to life in France alongside them.

We had our last lunch together on Friday, finally getting to this Italian restaurant that Lily always wanted to go to ("It was in my tour guide!") called "Leonardo da Vinci." Perfect, since Lily and I visited Clos Lucé last week, the place that da Vinci (pronounced "dah Vahn-see" in French) spent the last 3-4 years of his life. Pictures of the house and garden are further down in this post.

The restaurant even had small models of da Vinci's inventions hanging from the ceiling, such as the "Flying machine." You'll see the Mona Lisa in the background as well.

Lunch was delicious-- we all pretty much got the same type of pasta (I guess we've been missing our red-sauce)-- and we had the whole upstairs to ourselves to sit for two hours. It was no fun saying goodbye to the Strasbourg girls, but we're already looking forward to visiting our respective cities after being well-settled and familiar with the areas. I've made some great friends thanks to this part of the trip.

Speaking of goodbyes... goodbye, Tours? It really is hard to believe that the month is already over, considering I remember sitting at my desk il y a four weeks ago feeling like a lost child.

I have to give a shout-out to my host mother, Aurélie, who has really been beyond incredible this entire month. She has been welcoming, compassionate, funny, attentive, and even a great cook! I have learned so much thanks to her. Breakfast each morning and dinner each night was really an experience for me-- there was always great conversation. We even spent quite a few nights watching TV together (in French, of course!) and she has been such a strong encouragement in my French studies. I'm really going to miss her, I truly lucked out getting to spend my first month in France with such a kind person. Ended my last day in Tours going out for mojitos, then having an awesome pasta dinner chez elle (pasta two times in a day what?? Yup. That happened.) in which she gave me a petit cadeau-- a book by one of her favorite authors!! so excited to read it yaay!-- and watching a little TV before we decided sleep would be necessary... needed to wake up at 5:30 in the morning...

Aurélie elle-même

Before starting my blog posts on Dijon, I cannot simply skip over my last two weeks in Tours. Once again, we did so much in what now appears to be so little time. (Plus, as you should always expect, there was lots of great food... and pictures of it.) So, heeere we go ladies and gents:

Steak (yes, I'm eating meat again because I don't want to be a pain in the rear-end over here... I  cut it in half and ate the rest for lunch the next day. I'll admit it was friggin' awesome) and this great zucchini(courgette)-and-cheese baked... wonderfulness. (The reason I'm calling it this is because I completely forgot the English word for what the dish is called.. and I do not know it in French. Ah shoot.) All made by Aurélie!

Lebanese Food at Byblos' in Vieux Tours on a whim after classes one afternoon-- we ate WELL.

Since there were six of us, we did the six-person-group-sampler.. a little bit of all of these different appetizers and entrees on the menu. OM.

We all finished our plates.

The inside of the restaurant was small but very nicely decorated.

Did somebody say falafel??

This was my favorite dish-- rice with some type of meat sauce, which was the most spectacular meat sauce I've ever tried. It wasn't savory... it was sweet.

Has nothing to do with the Lebanese food place, but I still have that bag of mini Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups, and I'm savoring every last one. Peanut Butter just isn't a thing in France.... so I only dive into it when I need a reminder of home (or when I want to introduce the chocoately-peanut-buttery-goodness to Europeans)

The Town/City of Amboise-- Our first expedition toutes seules (on our own.)

So, the HC girls and I arrived in Tours a week after the four-week-long program started at L'institut de Touraine. So for the final week we had a "speed session" with a girl named Elsa (our teacher), which was classes from 9am-12pm every day. HC only signed us up for excursions through the school during our first three weeks, so at the start of our last real weekend together and for the remainder of our time in Tours, we took advantage of the free time we had to do our own exploring of the Loire Valley. A lot of the ideas were thanks to one Miss Lily, who really loves that guide book...

The Train

I feel like the train ride always needs to be remembered.. different being on a train with the HC girls not freaking out about carrying luggage and being scarednervousandexcited all at once for what was to come.

Getting into town

Train station at Amboise

La ville d'Amboise-- the perfect mix of Country and City.

The Château

Château at Amboise (and the pictures that follow)

View of Amboise from the overlook at the château

Oh hey there Leo! Fancy seeing you around! I had no IDEA that you were buried in the chapel at this château... good things to know, I guess. Makes sense since you spent the last 3 years of your life down the street at Clos Lucé. Still, can't say that none of us weren't surprised to just kind of find you in this tiny chapel... things that happen in France.

View of the château from its yard. BEAUTIFUL day.

Amboise, once more, view from the roof of the château

I loved the color of this room

The Loire doin' its thing.

This little area was behind the gardens at the château

I know I took a lot of pictures of the town from the château.. but really, can you blame me? Be happy I just picked a few of them.

Clos Lucé: The house and gardens where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last 3 years of his life

Things we love about Clos Lucé: Got in for half of the student-reduced price. Somebody just handed a ticket to Kristina (who wasn't going in) and so she gave it to us-- thanks, kind stranger, and Kristina!

While we were walking over to the house/garden, we passed this MAGNIFICENT houses in town that were just built into stone. How cool is that?

Voilà Clos Lucé-- The House

Lily was in her glory that day, and that needed to be noted.

Still haven't entered....

da Vinci actually passed away in this room/bed

The brochure said that da Vinci loved this view from his room because he could see the château from here (it's way off on the left if you can see it)

What I loved most about Clos Lucé was that it was truly a house. We had been spending so much time in châteaux (which I loved) that I forgot that real houses existed "back in the day," if you will, or more accurately, during the Renaissance period. The place was furnished like a home, and walking around you could just feel like somebody had lived there (in fact, many people lived in Clos Lucé over time, before and after da Vinci. In pictures coming up you'll see the expansions that came in after he passed.)

They had quotes hanging EVERYWHERE. Much like the restaurant "Leonardo da Vinci" that we went to on our last day together...

The oratory

Additions later on, a type of living room I believe

I'll take that, thanks.

ALL of my pictures of the kitchen came out terrible. But I'll be darned if I don't put something up attributing to the fact that I was in da Vinci's kitchen. Food, Kitchen, anything Culinary... like I said, it's going up here.

In the basement they had models of models... yup. Models of da Vinci's original models for all sorts of inventions.

"The Tank" (with a little running video at the top showing how it's supposed to work)

A bike, a car...! Yup, da Vinci thought up "la première voiture"

Outside of the house, in the background you see the... gift shop! They're everywhere, fellas, inside and outside of the United States.

The house, viewed from the garden

Because why would I ever try to take an attractive picture? These are more fun.

In the gardens, they have life-sized models of da Vinci's inventions. For example, on your left you have some water device (you crank a knob and get water from the lake,) OR in the middle of the picture you'll see a man in an organe life-vest. He's sitting in one of da Vinci's paddle boats (a model of his model for the paddle boat, rather,) which you can test out for 2 euros. Didn't do that, but it was entertaining to see people going around the lake in the little things. The garden was pretty much an interactive park for geeks, adults, and kids. Like hands-on science, except not really. Except kind of.

Pull a rope (off to the left) and it turns this huge wheel to lift.. that tiny block of stone (attached to a rope  in front of the wheel, a little off-centered in the picture.) I don't know who that person is on the left, they got in the shot. Ah well. Every wonder how many times you've been in other peoples' pictures? I do.

All this did was pull water up from the lake. but hey, I had fun doing it.

Look like a boneyard? Yeah. Well, it's really just large boards with pictures of the anatomy of different animals, compared to the human skeleton. If I remember correctly, the info panel said that da Vinci thought that by studying animals, you could better understand the human body (which, after dissecting a fetal pig in ninth grade with Julie, I have learned can be quite true)!

The flying machine :)

Little did he know... one day...

I loved this image. Huge panels with images just hanging from trees like bulbs or earrings. It's definitely a creative garden.

On our way back from Close Lucé, we passed an accordion player... can't get more French than that! (Says the stereotype. It's actually the first one I've seen here, though I remember four years ago when I was in Paris with my parents we'd see accordion players in the métro all the time.)

More Pictures of Amboise, because I couldn't help myself. Don't worry, I took the time to appreciate the city too, not just take photos! I'm learning to be better about that.

For those who are interested (nobody, Alexandra,) this is where you have to stamp your train ticket ("composter"). You do it yourself before getting on the train. Woo!

Train ride back, beautiful countryside as usual.

More about Food

Found this wonderful take-out place that sells naan for pretty much nothing. Got it with tuna, lettuce, tomato, and in this picture, yogurt sauce. But I learned better the second time and got mayonnaise on it, which made the sandwich INCREDIBLE. I never used mayonnaise before France, but I'm learning to dress up things over here... hopefully I don't use too much mayonnaise this year, or we know what's gonna happen... jk I'm still eating healthy like a boss, if you know me you know that's kind of a big deal. Just making sure I try new things too and don't keep myself from being exposed because of butter or whatever.

I LOVE RICE. Got this with my naan sandwich. The red sauce on top was kind of bland but the rice itself was incredible.

One day, Kelia really wanted moules frites (mussels and fries,) so we went to a brasserie  where I, being who I am, got PASTA. It was actually "Fisherman's pasta" ("Le Pêcheur") so there were mussles in it, and some other fish that I don't remember, plus some champignons... it was awesome.
AHG. I CAN'T REMEMBER THE WORD IN ENGLISH.
MUSHROOM. A CHAMPIGNON IS A MUSHROOM.

Le château de Villandry et ses jardins-- My favorite château we visited, I think

View of the countryside on our bus ride over...

Entering the gates to the château...

Mmmmmhm. There's a moat.

AND FISH! IN THE MOAT!

Warning: there are. SO. Many pictures of the town of Villandry, and the gardens at the château. 

All of the girls and I fell in love with Villandry, immediately. Why? We figured out it just as quickly-- this château is livable. It's furnished like somebody is living there (there is, in fact, an owner, it's not run by the government if I remember correctly.) But you really can picture what it was like living in the château, and for me that has always been a little difficult to imagine. Seeing any château furnished like this definitely sparked my interest in the actual history behind the place (and when I say history I don't mean dates and when it was constructed and what have you, I mean the story behind the house, the story behind the kings, queens, servants, and people who lived there.) This was a truly amazing château.

I mean, they even had plastic food on the table.

My kitchen could look like this, I'd have zero complaints.

View from a window...

Look at me being all artsy (/notartsy) and stuff

My best friend in the whole world, Kyrsten, has always said that she wanted to have a library with bookshelves from floor to ceiling. This made me think of you, Kyr!

Lots of pictures of desks. I like writing, therefore I like desks.

The next picture is a painting called "Les chats musiciens." It's very interesting and caught my attention, but what I  liked most about it was that it reminded me of the song "Alley Cat" that my grandpa used to play on his keyboard in Florida. It's nice when he comes up every now and then to say hello!

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, anyone?

In the words of Barbara, "The wow moment." Some of the HC girls were waiting in this room for me to enter, because they knew I (like they all did) would have this reaction when I saw the ceiling (picture below) in the "Oriental Room"

Little kids had it MADE at Villandry

Lily and Barbara. Barbara had a great dress that day... it matched the garden pretty darn well.

From the roof...

One thing I loved about Villandry... possibly my favorite part... was that the view of the countryside reminded me so much of home, when we drive out east on LI. 

THERE WERE SWANS IN THE MOAT FOR GOODNESS SAKE.

In the forest (on the left) there were trails!!

Château, town. Right on top of each other. That's actually very common of these châteaux as you may have noticed... with the exception of a few, which didn't make the citizens very happy. They preferred when the king was close to his people (I think it's about being on the same level as the people instead of separated because you're "better.")

It's hard to tell, but in the very center of the photo you'll see three tiny  people... that's Kelia, Jess, and Kristina, waving from afar!

Went off and explored some of the paths on my own, though I didn't get too far in the forest. Had jeans on so it was darn hot. Plus, it's not the best idea to go off into paths by yourself without a map or trail markers.. especially since I inherently lack the ability to direct myself to where I need to go on a regular basis.

In the center you can see that the garden path leads straight to the town... I thought that was cool.

Saw the word "tilleuls" (limetree) and had to laugh... this was a vocabulary word we had second semester Freshman year in French class. Never thought I'd be using this again. WELL. Proved myself wrong. Thanks, Professor Enjolras!

Facts on how the garden is environmentally friendly!

PURPLE = HOLY CROSS!!

Grapes, just growing on the wooden overhang. Definitely squeezed one to see if it was real... yup. They were real alright. Had grape juice on my fingers to prove it. /Reasons I shouldn't be left alone.

Did I almost fall asleep in one of these little alcoves? Maybe... could you blame me? I was so relaxed here.

"On the road again..."

Botanical Garden in Tours-- How I spent my afternoon toute seule!

One afternoon, the HC girls and I split up right after class. I brought my Carrefour lunch (a medium-sized chicken taboulé, which is pretty much couscous, and an apple, all for just over 2 euro,) to the Loire river and ate there by myself, enjoying my what I did not realize would be my last time there. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed the peacefulness, sat on a ledge in the sun. THEN I proceeded to walk over 3 hours that day getting back to my apartment, going to the park around the corner to read for a bit, running back to the apartment, and then walking the 45 min - 1 hour it took to get to the Botanical Garden, where I continued to read. On my way there, I stopped by the flower market on Bd. Béranger, where there are also food trucks and what have you (for crêpes, viennoiserie, glace, etc.) and picked up something I'd always wanted to try... Pain aux Raisins. Enjoyed the pastry as I read my book in the Botanical Garden.

The entrance, which I had no trouble finding. My way back home though... I was headed in the right direction, but I wasn't sure, so I asked a man for directions. He seemed unhappy that I was asking something that was so obvious to him. Woops! C'est la vie.

The bag containing the delicious goodness of my Pain aux Raisins.

Voilà!

The man at the pastry truck was nice enough to give me two  choquettes for free! It's pretty much a light, crunchy, sugary ball. Very good! Saved one and gave it to my host mom, who explained the name to me.

The tree I sat under as I read (had my purple towel with me to lay on... can't just sit on the grass, I fear bugs)

The yard in which I spent my afternoon. The garden is very big, so I had plenty of options...

The backpack my parents sent me (very nice of them to do so,) plus my nook.

There are animals at the Botanical Garden in Tours! Here's an ostrich...  took this picture because I happen to be very frightened of ostriches. At least this one was behind bars... but he was definitely looking at me funny... and when I moved, he moved. GAH.

Wallaby! The other day, Kristina ran into a little girl that was pushing a stroller with a wallaby inside, just walking on the street with her parents. No, it's not particularly normal for a French child to have a small kangaroo as a pet... I don't know how that occurred, to be honest. Either way, here was one at the garden.

Flamingos! Wrote a story about them in sixth or seventh grade, I think. Project on saying how certain animals came to be the way they were, so I did it on how flamingos got so tall... it was an awful story.

Has rien à voir with the Botanical Garden, but that night my host mother made homemade CRÊPES. The first one was savory, with cheese, ham, and an egg over easy. Then she had a whole bunch extra for dessert, and had condiments out to put what you wanted on them. Sugar with lemon was my favorite, but maple syrup was also really good.

Azay-le-Rideau, and its Château (what a poet I am.)-- Our last big adventure while staying in Tours

In town

Château looks like Cinderalla's castle, as Lily duly noted. Once more, like Villandry, this castle was Lily's idea... what a great travel partner I have!
And yes, there was a moat.

Those French spiral staircases. My friends were not fans walking down. Or up, for that matter. I enjoy them though.

Always wanted a canopy like this when I was little.

That's Jess!

I love how the faces project out of this cabinet, it makes them appear almost alive.

The reflection pool, Azay-le-Rideau is famous for that.

There you go, reflection of the castle in the water

The button holding a fork and knife was for a restaurant, but it reminded me of Coraline (which no, is not for little kids.)

Wen to a bakery to get 0.70 euro macaroons that tasted like heaven. For some of the girls it was a first-time experience, but I knew what I was getting myself into. Framboise (raspberry, my dad's favorite) flavor.

Ride back, as per usual. I like to show that real houses, not just city and countryside, do exist in France.

Wrapping up things in Tours-- my last night out, and our last full day

City hall, with the moon hanging high up there. The steps of l'hôtel de ville was often our meeting place when we went out for the night, right in Place Jean Jaurès.

Place Jean Jaurès, with the water fountain lit up

Kelia got a gauffe chocolat (chocolate-covered waffle.) "And in the morning, I'm making GAUFFES" Donkey did not say in Shrek....

We went to the brasserie where we had moules-frites and pasta the other day just to sit outside. Barbara had a French Coffee, shown above. It was excellent, I got to taste some of it.

I decided to order something warm because it was pretty cold outside. A Chocolat Grand Marnier (hot chocolate with orange flavored liqueur.) 

Last day, deserved to take pictures of the courtyard at l'Institut de Touraine, where we spent many lunches and breaks between classes.

Courtyard right outside of the school.

All of the HC girls in our final good-bye photo

A macaroon place in Tours we stopped by on our walk after lunch. Didn't get anything, but the colors are stunning and the variety (from Rose to Salmon) was plentiful. The girls got some beautifully decorated ones, with sparkles and the whole she-bang.

Lily and I stopped inside town hall (finally saw the inside of our meeting place)-- the ceiling was impressive.

Leaving l'Hôtel de Ville... and soon enough, Tours!

Well, that's everything on Tours. Sorry again for posting the longest post in the world, instead of doing this systematically. I'm just very busy here and don't get the time to upload all of my pictures and organize them with coherent thought/reflection every day. I'd rather be super busy though, because I'm seeing and doing so much here already (that was the case in Tours and now in Dijon.) I'll try to post more often, but at the very least I promise that everything will eventually get up. The plan is to do more journal-type posts whenever possible, because as much as I love photos I want to spend more time reflecting on the experience and enjoying it while I'm there, rather than just continuously documenting it. But I know wordswordswords can get boring, so there of course will be pictures of Dijon in the future.
I'd like to write more and say everything that's happened in the less-than-two-days I've been here, but I think I'll space it out a little (by that I mean I'm going to try and post tomorrow,) so this post stays fresh for a while... there's a lot to see so I don't want to be overwhelming.

Anyway, just know that I am SO happy in Dijon and that although I really, really miss my friends and family (looking at picture of people back in school makes me jealous in my own way,) I know that I've made the right decision in coming here this year. I promise I have so much to tell and I will get to it soon.
Don't forget that I'm always just a fb message, email or skype/google hangout session away (six hour difference between me and the US) and I love keeping in contact. I'm even doing letters. So, I'm loving my life here but I still want to be connected with the US... ! Please, I may not be the first person to send a message or something, but I want to know what's going on in your life too, not just my own little world over here in France. Keep me posted, reach out to me if I haven't contacted you in a while, and I promise that I'll always get back (even if it takes a little time.)

From across the pond,

Alexandra :)