Lessons learned:
1. I really can travel alone, and maybe even prefer it! While I did have some lonely moments I learned to savor the freedom in being able to make your own decisions and to truly depend and trust myself. To listen to myself when I feel uncomfortable, to try my best to hold my tongue when my opinion is not needed, and to remember that it is okay to get grouchy but not to wallow. Part of it is accepting how you feel, your frustrations or disappointments and deciding what to do with that. Do I let it ruin my day? Hopefully not. Little reminders like reading the paper help to realize how few people have the opportunities that I am experiencing and how truly lucky I am.
2. I can do some serious hard work! I really surprised myself with how much I “dug in” to the farm work. I really fell in love with raising animals (albeit mine would have a cushy life) and growing your own vegetables. I am yearning for a garden patch back home. There is something to be found in caring for the earth, growing your food, and feeling a connection to it.
3. I can make friends wherever I go. I met some amazing people on this trip who all had something to teach me. From the two women traveling solo from Denmark & Holland who both preferred traveling solo to Sonny the farmer (yes I learned things from him!) to Alex from Germany who had such innocence and joyous love of life. I think of these people often and carry the memories of them with me. When you travel with someone you will meet a couple of people, but nowhere near the amount of people you meet traveling solo. I found much comfort in this.
4. Hostels are not horrible! This was my first hostel experience and overall it was fantastic! Yes I prefer to have my own space, but they are so affordable, you meet amazing people, and the kitchens cannot be beat.
5. In my younger years I always considered myself a city girl, but I think I am quite the opposite. I love the small towns, beautiful countryside, and beautiful outdoors activities way more than a bustling city.
6. I am tired of being single. Yes I said it. I would have preferred to share some of these experiences with a partner. No this does not make me a hypocrite, I really did love traveling alone, but I am looking for a man to shovel poop with, pull weeds with, and laugh with. A kind man who loves the environment, is comfortable in his own skin, is super liberal, and looks at life from a positive viewpoint. Know someone like that? Send him my way please.
7. I brought way too many clothes. I thought France was going to be like an oven so I schlepped warm weather clothes all around Ireland for over a month and wore ¼ of them while in France. I brought too many sandals and should have brought a pair of tennis shoes to go running with instead. I also brought too many farm pants. Hello if you have dirt on your clothes you can still wear the same pants the next day, you are on a farm after all! I also brought one too many bags that I thought would double as a purse but used it once for this purpose. Too much stuff!
8. I like to eat. Every 2 hours to be exact. I need to plan more for this in the future. Like right now. I am on a plane and starving.
9. I like Guinness but I am afraid to drink it in the States because I just don’t know if it will be as good.
10. I like Pastis, it kind of numbs your tongue. Wonder if it does this in the states. This warrants further investigation.
11. I really want to live in Ireland, but I really love my life in LA. Like more than I have loved my life in like ever. Yes I did just make a valley reference for those that missed it. I have fantastic friends, a great job, and belong to a fantastic church. Am I willing to give that up to move to Ireland? Would I like it as much if I lived there? All thoughts to be pondered.
I have had so many wonderful experiences over this summer that I feel so grateful for. I know it is easy to get caught up in the day to day activities of life, but I always want to be able to keep perspective, whether I am stuck in LA traffic or behind someone rude at the grocery store. I want to meet as many people as possible in this life, from all over the globe, and learn as much from them as I can. And maybe inspire one or two of them to pick up a wee bit o trash along the way.
Now time to start planning what I am doing next summer…..
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Provence
After meeting up with Dad and Bonnie we spent one night at a beautiful B & B near the quaint town of Menerbes. This B & B was owned by an older Parisian couple who had lived there for ten years and the wife liked to spend her days topless by the pool perfecting her tan. The grounds, rooms, and pool were jaw droppingly gorgeous. I could definitely spend some time there. There were hammocks under the trees, pastis or wine at your disposal and the sound of cicadas chirping in the background.
The next night it was time to meet up with the other 17 friends and family who had come to Provence to spend the week celebrating Dad & Bonnie’s 25th wedding anniversary. We had two villas, one of which had 15 people and the other housed the rest of our crew (6 people). Our villa (the big villa) was just beautiful and huge! I slept in a dorm room with my cousin Amie and Aunt Pam, and we had quite the good time. The week was spent going to ancient sites, from stone huts to roman ruins. Dad was a great tour guide, and we took our rag tag group of Americans along on many a road trip, with many a car following Dad through the winding streets of medieval towns. Dinners were fantastic, with a few culinary whizzes in the group, we had some amazing meals. The afternoons were punctuated with driving back at the villa and jumping in the pool stat for a cool refresher from the warm Provence touring.
As we were in the towns the family gradually got used to using French and by the end of the trip I was happy to see everyone had mastered the basic greetings. Of course at this point I had mastered the fine art of consuming as many baguettes as possible. Mmm bread. One of my most favorite things!
We also consumed a large amount of wine, but of course! We went to several wineries, including the winery where the film “The Good Year” was filmed. Have not seen it but heard it was nothing to rave about. You will not be surprised to read what my first questions to the wine makers was upon entry to the winery. Is the wine organic? At the aforementioned winery which was a father-daughter operation the daughter told us they had been completely organic for 30 years! So fantastic! Now I know that I am probably getting a lot of eye rolls upon reading this, but organic wine is better for you. In addition to having less sulphites it doesn’t have pesticides. Now who wants to drink pesticides? That’s all I am sayin’.
The party where Dad and Bonnie renewed their vows was fantastic, Bonnie wore her wedding gown and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. I read a little poem I wrote that had people laughing and misty all at the same time. We had it catered, the food was amazing and much laughter was to be had. We ended the night with a rousing game of charades. Dad & Bonnie requested that everyone send them charade suggestions in advance but only a few did, thus Dad entered a bunch of his suggestions. Totally random.
Some examples:
1. Song- Wurly hurly girl
2. Movie- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
3. Some song by a group called “X”
We climbed castles, clambered over ruins, visited the Pope’s Palace, walked on Roman bridges and got a true albeit brief taste of Provence. After Provence it was off to Nice for the night then home to the states. Our drive to Nice was non-eventful, but trying to circumnavigate the one way traffic/people ridden streets of Nice was most certainly not. We had three cars, the only one having a map being Dad’s and three hotels to drop people off at. After spending 90 minutes driving around, getting honked at and having the feeling that our individual blood pressures were above the safe limits we decided to drop off the rental cars at the airport and just take taxi’s to our hotels. Whew! After checking in it was time for a very brief tour of Nice.
Impressions of Nice:
Not so impressed. Really beautiful beaches and buildings, but INSANELY crowded, tons of money flowing through there and not the kind of place I would want to spend a large amount of time. I am told off season it is quite nice, but I have grown to have quite the affinity for small towns and villages and less hustle & bustle. Our small group of 9 found a Thai restaurant to eat dinner at which was off the beaten path and very quiet. After dinner Dad, Grammy and I went out for an evening nightcap. My last drink in Europe! I tried to convince them to go to an Irish pub, but they put the kibosh on that. It was at a bar called the Ritz which of course prompted me to break out into the “Putting on the Ritz” song. (:
My last drink on European soil? Pastis of course! When in France…
It was a really great week and so many rich memories were made with friends and family. The perfect end to a really long but amazing summer. So thankful to have so much love in my life, be it family and friends.
The next night it was time to meet up with the other 17 friends and family who had come to Provence to spend the week celebrating Dad & Bonnie’s 25th wedding anniversary. We had two villas, one of which had 15 people and the other housed the rest of our crew (6 people). Our villa (the big villa) was just beautiful and huge! I slept in a dorm room with my cousin Amie and Aunt Pam, and we had quite the good time. The week was spent going to ancient sites, from stone huts to roman ruins. Dad was a great tour guide, and we took our rag tag group of Americans along on many a road trip, with many a car following Dad through the winding streets of medieval towns. Dinners were fantastic, with a few culinary whizzes in the group, we had some amazing meals. The afternoons were punctuated with driving back at the villa and jumping in the pool stat for a cool refresher from the warm Provence touring.
As we were in the towns the family gradually got used to using French and by the end of the trip I was happy to see everyone had mastered the basic greetings. Of course at this point I had mastered the fine art of consuming as many baguettes as possible. Mmm bread. One of my most favorite things!
We also consumed a large amount of wine, but of course! We went to several wineries, including the winery where the film “The Good Year” was filmed. Have not seen it but heard it was nothing to rave about. You will not be surprised to read what my first questions to the wine makers was upon entry to the winery. Is the wine organic? At the aforementioned winery which was a father-daughter operation the daughter told us they had been completely organic for 30 years! So fantastic! Now I know that I am probably getting a lot of eye rolls upon reading this, but organic wine is better for you. In addition to having less sulphites it doesn’t have pesticides. Now who wants to drink pesticides? That’s all I am sayin’.
The party where Dad and Bonnie renewed their vows was fantastic, Bonnie wore her wedding gown and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. I read a little poem I wrote that had people laughing and misty all at the same time. We had it catered, the food was amazing and much laughter was to be had. We ended the night with a rousing game of charades. Dad & Bonnie requested that everyone send them charade suggestions in advance but only a few did, thus Dad entered a bunch of his suggestions. Totally random.
Some examples:
1. Song- Wurly hurly girl
2. Movie- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
3. Some song by a group called “X”
We climbed castles, clambered over ruins, visited the Pope’s Palace, walked on Roman bridges and got a true albeit brief taste of Provence. After Provence it was off to Nice for the night then home to the states. Our drive to Nice was non-eventful, but trying to circumnavigate the one way traffic/people ridden streets of Nice was most certainly not. We had three cars, the only one having a map being Dad’s and three hotels to drop people off at. After spending 90 minutes driving around, getting honked at and having the feeling that our individual blood pressures were above the safe limits we decided to drop off the rental cars at the airport and just take taxi’s to our hotels. Whew! After checking in it was time for a very brief tour of Nice.
Impressions of Nice:
Not so impressed. Really beautiful beaches and buildings, but INSANELY crowded, tons of money flowing through there and not the kind of place I would want to spend a large amount of time. I am told off season it is quite nice, but I have grown to have quite the affinity for small towns and villages and less hustle & bustle. Our small group of 9 found a Thai restaurant to eat dinner at which was off the beaten path and very quiet. After dinner Dad, Grammy and I went out for an evening nightcap. My last drink in Europe! I tried to convince them to go to an Irish pub, but they put the kibosh on that. It was at a bar called the Ritz which of course prompted me to break out into the “Putting on the Ritz” song. (:
My last drink on European soil? Pastis of course! When in France…
It was a really great week and so many rich memories were made with friends and family. The perfect end to a really long but amazing summer. So thankful to have so much love in my life, be it family and friends.
Cassis
Grammy and I had a long day of travel to head from Blois to Cassis and we arrived 8 hours later. Cassis was just beautiful. Pebbly beaches, azure colored water, and beautiful limestone mountains in the backdrop. We stayed at a lovely little hotel minutes from the beach and had a really relaxing couple of days.
Our hotel had a friendly woman working at the front desk, (contrary to the reviews online) who was quick to offer assistance and helpful tips. Upon arriving in the town I set off in search of a beauty salon to make an appointment. I found one close by but it was closed. Another young woman walked up and through broken English I deciphered that she had an appointment 5 minutes from then. Through broken French I explained to her that I wanted to make an appointment but my French was so so. The esthetician walked up to the spa 5 minutes later.
Conversation was as follows:
Mean esthetician: Hello do you have the 5 o’clock appointment?
Nice young French woman: Yes I have one right now and she (pointing to me) would like to make one.
Mean esthetician: (Okay so I am guessing she asked what I wanted done but she said it so fast I had no idea what she was saying)
Nice young French woman (to esthetician): She only speaks English.
Mean esthetician (in French to nice young French woman): What is she doing in France if she doesn’t speak French?
Then the nice woman looked at me with a really apologetic look as she knew I knew enough French to comprehend that I had just been insulted.
Thus I did not make an appointment there! This really personifies how easy it is to travel in a country where you can speak the language. Traveling in Ireland was so easy because the people all spoke English and were super helpful, but traveling in France has been a bit of a headache. Maybe I am just tired of traveling, maybe it is that I feel like I left a piece of myself in Ireland, I don’t know but the non-helpful French people have seemed to outweigh the helpful ones. But I digress.
One of the days in Cassis Grammy went on a boat ride to view the calanques and I hiked to them. The calanques are between Cassis and Marseille and are rocky inlets flanked by limestone cliffs that are just beautiful! My hike was lovely and hot as hades. The limestone mountains get really warm from the sun and it reflects right into your face, not to mention slippery! It was a beautiful hike thought and nice to get out of the city for a bit. Interesting fact: The limestone from those cliffs is what was used to form the base of the statue of liberty.
Grammy and I did a fair amount of lounging on the pebbly beach while enjoying pear sorbet, it was quite relaxing. There I was, slathered in SPF 50, sun hat on while 90 year old leathered tanned topless French woman sunbathed next to me. Oh yeah I stood out! My SPF 50 and I are okay with that. They have a great market that we enjoyed perusing as well. I swam in the Mediterranean which was brrrrr cold! We punctuated our evenings with sipping on aperitifs at the cafes and watching the sun set beyond the mountains.
One evening we chose an out of the way pizza place that was up an alley that made the most fantastic pizza. It was made by a Tunisian man who spoke minimal English but we managed to communicate via my minimal French. Next to us sat two sailors that we enjoying swapping stories with. They both lived on sailboats alone and just sailed to wherever they felt like. One of them had been sailing for 3 years. I asked him about what they do for food and he said he fished. Well you know what my next question is right? Of course I asked him if he found plastic in their stomachs. He said not too much but he did see a lot of dead sea turtles with pieces of plastic in their mouths. He also said a lot of small islands do not have a trash disposal system so they just throw their trash in the ocean. When he returns from the Caribbean on a certain route he stated that there was a lot of trash to be found on this route. I was amazed. I thought it was primarily just in the States but this is happening everywhere.
It was really a rich experience to find out about their lives. I could see how appealing it would be, as well as unbelievably lonely. I guess that appeals to me, stretch yourself to your limit, go so far outside of your comfort zone, and see if you can find comfort there. For when it is just you, a sail boat, and the ocean, you do not have many options.
At the end of the meal the Tunisian pizza maker came up to us and said something in really fast French. I just smiled and nodded which is my usual go to action when I have no idea what is being offered. Next thing I knew I received an after dinner drink of fig liqueur. This was clear, and almost 100 proof. It was quite a shock to the system but an interesting way to end the evening.
It was the perfect break between cities to spend 3 nights in Cassis; very relaxing and enjoyable.
Next it was time to head to Provence!
Our hotel had a friendly woman working at the front desk, (contrary to the reviews online) who was quick to offer assistance and helpful tips. Upon arriving in the town I set off in search of a beauty salon to make an appointment. I found one close by but it was closed. Another young woman walked up and through broken English I deciphered that she had an appointment 5 minutes from then. Through broken French I explained to her that I wanted to make an appointment but my French was so so. The esthetician walked up to the spa 5 minutes later.
Conversation was as follows:
Mean esthetician: Hello do you have the 5 o’clock appointment?
Nice young French woman: Yes I have one right now and she (pointing to me) would like to make one.
Mean esthetician: (Okay so I am guessing she asked what I wanted done but she said it so fast I had no idea what she was saying)
Nice young French woman (to esthetician): She only speaks English.
Mean esthetician (in French to nice young French woman): What is she doing in France if she doesn’t speak French?
Then the nice woman looked at me with a really apologetic look as she knew I knew enough French to comprehend that I had just been insulted.
Thus I did not make an appointment there! This really personifies how easy it is to travel in a country where you can speak the language. Traveling in Ireland was so easy because the people all spoke English and were super helpful, but traveling in France has been a bit of a headache. Maybe I am just tired of traveling, maybe it is that I feel like I left a piece of myself in Ireland, I don’t know but the non-helpful French people have seemed to outweigh the helpful ones. But I digress.
One of the days in Cassis Grammy went on a boat ride to view the calanques and I hiked to them. The calanques are between Cassis and Marseille and are rocky inlets flanked by limestone cliffs that are just beautiful! My hike was lovely and hot as hades. The limestone mountains get really warm from the sun and it reflects right into your face, not to mention slippery! It was a beautiful hike thought and nice to get out of the city for a bit. Interesting fact: The limestone from those cliffs is what was used to form the base of the statue of liberty.
Grammy and I did a fair amount of lounging on the pebbly beach while enjoying pear sorbet, it was quite relaxing. There I was, slathered in SPF 50, sun hat on while 90 year old leathered tanned topless French woman sunbathed next to me. Oh yeah I stood out! My SPF 50 and I are okay with that. They have a great market that we enjoyed perusing as well. I swam in the Mediterranean which was brrrrr cold! We punctuated our evenings with sipping on aperitifs at the cafes and watching the sun set beyond the mountains.
One evening we chose an out of the way pizza place that was up an alley that made the most fantastic pizza. It was made by a Tunisian man who spoke minimal English but we managed to communicate via my minimal French. Next to us sat two sailors that we enjoying swapping stories with. They both lived on sailboats alone and just sailed to wherever they felt like. One of them had been sailing for 3 years. I asked him about what they do for food and he said he fished. Well you know what my next question is right? Of course I asked him if he found plastic in their stomachs. He said not too much but he did see a lot of dead sea turtles with pieces of plastic in their mouths. He also said a lot of small islands do not have a trash disposal system so they just throw their trash in the ocean. When he returns from the Caribbean on a certain route he stated that there was a lot of trash to be found on this route. I was amazed. I thought it was primarily just in the States but this is happening everywhere.
It was really a rich experience to find out about their lives. I could see how appealing it would be, as well as unbelievably lonely. I guess that appeals to me, stretch yourself to your limit, go so far outside of your comfort zone, and see if you can find comfort there. For when it is just you, a sail boat, and the ocean, you do not have many options.
At the end of the meal the Tunisian pizza maker came up to us and said something in really fast French. I just smiled and nodded which is my usual go to action when I have no idea what is being offered. Next thing I knew I received an after dinner drink of fig liqueur. This was clear, and almost 100 proof. It was quite a shock to the system but an interesting way to end the evening.
It was the perfect break between cities to spend 3 nights in Cassis; very relaxing and enjoyable.
Next it was time to head to Provence!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Bye Bye Blois
Grammy and I had a lovely 9 days spent in Blois. It is such a quaint picturesque town, curving streets, medieval buildings, a chateau looming over it all with three magnificent cathedrals set alongside the banks of the Loire.
On Saturday we went to the public market. Wow was that a sight to behold. Of course there was the expected fruit and vegetable stands, boulangerie stands with their wide array of baked goods, and cheese stands with more goat cheese than I could eat in a year. What we didn’t expect was the mattress stand, the lingerie stands, and the “sell whatever you have lying around your house” stands. It was quite the interesting experience. We purchased wonderful food for dinner that evening and lunch for the next couple of days.
On Sunday we had tickets for a chateau excursion that left from the town of Tours. We had to take a train from Blois to Tours, as we had for our previous two excursions out of Tours. I did not check the train schedule until mid morning and lo and behold they have limited trains on Sundays! Uh oh. Thus I had to call the tourist office who we booked through to see if we could reschedule the excursion to Monday as we would not be able to make it. The woman informed me that the tour guide stated he had to turn people away for our seats so we may have to eat the money. These excursions are not cheap and thus enter me freaking out. The woman at the tourist office instructed me to call back at 12:30 to check if we could get on the tour tomorrow.
Grammy and I decided to travel in the opposite direction to the city of Orleans to see what Orleans had going on. Well they have a massive cathedral. And when I say massive, whoa do I mean massive. This is the kind of cathedral that could really scare you into believing in something! Very gothic, very beautiful, very imposing.
My telephone call to the tourist office occurred at 12:40 after we departed the train when I listened to a message stating they were closed between 12:30-2:30 for lunch. Seriously. I called back at 2:30, was told we would not be able to get on the tour, and then I pulled out a wee bit of complaining, she called the tour operator back and instructed us to show up on Monday at the instructed time and “hopefully” we would get on the bus.
Aside from the cathedral we didn’t find much to Orleans and headed back to Blois as there was a free renaissance music that evening in front of the castle. Our trip back to the train station was eventful in that we decided to shorten our walking time by hopping on the light rail. While waiting for the light rail I met an Irish woman who had just moved to France. Ahhh Ireland! It made me quite wistful upon hearing her accent. After we boarded the light rail it took me approximately 5 seconds to realize it was going the wrong way. Oops! Grammy and I lengthened our walking time by a bit but we had a laugh about it later. Always something to laugh about after the fact!
Blois is a lovely town and during the summer they have a large amount of free summer concerts and festivities that we enjoyed partaking in. The renaissance music was beautiful, but a bit sleep inducing. Post music it was back to the apartment to make dinner and pack up our belongings as we would not have time on Monday.
Monday morning we got up early to do some last minute shopping in Blois, until we realized that everything except the post office and mobile phone store are closed in Blois on Monday. Literally everything. Thus we decided to head to Tours early, and we did indeed make it onto the excursion. We were able to see the most visited chateau in the Loire valley (of which there are 1,000 chateaus) Chenonceau. This chateau is quite beautiful. And completely overrun with tourists! Approximately 6,000 tourist go through that chateau per day in the height of the summer season. Wowza. Grammy and I up until this point hadn’t seen barely any Americans, well we saw and heard them here. Sigh.
After the chaos that was touring Chenonceau we were able to tour Leonardo da Vinci’s house, Clos De Luce. He lived in a mansion with a secret tunnel to the castle Amboise for the last two years of his life. He was a favorite of several French kings, lastly being Francois I. Francois I used to use the tunnel to visit Da Vinci almost daily. It was a lovely mansion, beautiful gardens, and not crowded at all. Grammy and I were able to take a brief tea & crepe break there which was much needed.
It was then on to our last castle of the trip, Amboise. Amboise was heavily destroyed during Napoleons reign and now what stands is just 1/5 of the former size. It was very pretty, but I think Grammy and I had our fill of castles. 9 castles in all!
We then returned to the apartment and met the owner to see if he could fix the socket and if we would be getting our deposit back. What happened to the socket you may be wondering. Well Grammy did not check to see if her 10 lb (exaggerating) battery charger was dual voltage. Thus when I plugged it into the socket for her, I almost died. Okay exaggerating a bit there. How about a spark and some smoke. I promptly pulled it out and from then on 4 sockets in her room and the bathroom refused to work. We thought it might be the spark plugs so we bought new ones, flipped a bunch of switches, to no avail. Nicolas, the gentleman whose apartment it was did not seem to worried about it although he did mention having to take the socket out and check the wiring… oops. He did give us our deposit back though!
We had a late dinner at a restaurant just down the street from our apartment. We had walked by this restaurant many times during the week and always said that we should go there, well our last night was it! There was a 30 minute wait so we decided to meander down the road to see if we could get a drink first. We entered a brasserie and asked if we could take a seat. We were instructed to enter the back room and take a seat there. I asked the waitress if it was okay to sit there (after we sat down) as we were just having drinks. She said no, but to go to the front room and we could have a drink there. We went to the front room, and took a seat. And were promptly told to move again. Apparently we were at a table with a tablecloth. The table directly next to us did not have a tablecloth; thus apparently no tablecloth equals drinks? After sitting at our third table we were really ready for a drink then!
At the appointed time we made our way back to the restaurant and were seated in the verrrryyyy quiet back room. We did sound a bit like a herd of American elephants entering, scraping chairs on the floor and such. Grammy said “Well we have made our entrance!” Upon perusing the menu how excited was I when I realized they had a prix fix menu for vegetarians! Quel surprise! Complete with a cereal steak! (This means a steak made of grains) My opening course was a goat cheese and tomato dish that was lovely.
Me: How is your duck pate Gram?
Gram: It is wonderful. This fresh bread they brought us goes wonderful with it. How is your dish?
Me: Fantastic but I think they have added some cream to it.
Gram: (Very loudly) Uh ohh you better take an immodium.
Ah Gram. After the cereal steak it was time to order dessert. I ordered an apple tart and was trying to explain to the waitress that I wanted sorbet with it instead of ice cream. I was then telling her that I was allergic to cow milk. The waitress kept repeating “Caww meelk?” as she didn’t understand what I was saying, so Gram pipes in with a very large MOOOOO. I then instructed Gram she is not allowed to moo in restaurants. She thought it was hilarious.
All in all it was a fantastic meal and a perfect way to end our 9 days in Blois, of which I have many fond memories.
The next morning it was time for a day of traveling. With 100+ lbs of baggage.
Grammy and I first took the train from Blois to Paris; while on the train the officers checked our tickets. The officer who entered our compartment entered into a long discussion with the gentlemen next to us en francais of course. The gentle men next to us were in the military and thusly had received a military discount but had to show their military id’s. One of them forgot his, and had to pay an extra 90 euros!
When Grammy and I exited the train I asked her if she had understood what was going on and she guessed correctly. Good job Grammy interpreting the French! Her response? “I don’t read mystery books for nothin’ you know.” (:
The train was late arriving in Paris giving us 15 minutes to catch the next one to Marseille. After I carried beaucoup des baggages off the train I stood under the train schedule not understanding why our train was not on there. After consulting the tickets it stated that we were leaving out of a different station! Qeuel horreur! Upon exiting the 1st train station we saw a sign for the other which said 1 minute. Hah! Two people with a combined age of 107 + over 100 lbs of baggage does not mean we were moving at our top speed! We walked as fast as we could and made it to the station, after I realized which track it was on and that it was departing in less than one minute it was time for panic mode. I started running towards the train with the conductor blowing his whistle and me waving franticly with Grammy trailing me. He was waving me in the door, I turned around and told Grammy to run like she has never ran. Okay maybe I just said “Grammy run!” Boy Grammy can run for a 75 year old! As soon as she entered the door it closed behind her and we were off! Whew!
On the TGV there is assigned seating and we have been lucky enough to get the seats downwind of the broken toilet. Gross. Train officer is cute though and as he walked by he smiled at me which prompted Grammy to go into multiple eyebrow lifting mode.
After we arrive in Marseille it is then on to Cassis which is our final destination. I was reading the reviews of our hotel online last night and a lot of them mention a rather unfriendly woman at the desk. Something to look forward to!
On Saturday we went to the public market. Wow was that a sight to behold. Of course there was the expected fruit and vegetable stands, boulangerie stands with their wide array of baked goods, and cheese stands with more goat cheese than I could eat in a year. What we didn’t expect was the mattress stand, the lingerie stands, and the “sell whatever you have lying around your house” stands. It was quite the interesting experience. We purchased wonderful food for dinner that evening and lunch for the next couple of days.
On Sunday we had tickets for a chateau excursion that left from the town of Tours. We had to take a train from Blois to Tours, as we had for our previous two excursions out of Tours. I did not check the train schedule until mid morning and lo and behold they have limited trains on Sundays! Uh oh. Thus I had to call the tourist office who we booked through to see if we could reschedule the excursion to Monday as we would not be able to make it. The woman informed me that the tour guide stated he had to turn people away for our seats so we may have to eat the money. These excursions are not cheap and thus enter me freaking out. The woman at the tourist office instructed me to call back at 12:30 to check if we could get on the tour tomorrow.
Grammy and I decided to travel in the opposite direction to the city of Orleans to see what Orleans had going on. Well they have a massive cathedral. And when I say massive, whoa do I mean massive. This is the kind of cathedral that could really scare you into believing in something! Very gothic, very beautiful, very imposing.
My telephone call to the tourist office occurred at 12:40 after we departed the train when I listened to a message stating they were closed between 12:30-2:30 for lunch. Seriously. I called back at 2:30, was told we would not be able to get on the tour, and then I pulled out a wee bit of complaining, she called the tour operator back and instructed us to show up on Monday at the instructed time and “hopefully” we would get on the bus.
Aside from the cathedral we didn’t find much to Orleans and headed back to Blois as there was a free renaissance music that evening in front of the castle. Our trip back to the train station was eventful in that we decided to shorten our walking time by hopping on the light rail. While waiting for the light rail I met an Irish woman who had just moved to France. Ahhh Ireland! It made me quite wistful upon hearing her accent. After we boarded the light rail it took me approximately 5 seconds to realize it was going the wrong way. Oops! Grammy and I lengthened our walking time by a bit but we had a laugh about it later. Always something to laugh about after the fact!
Blois is a lovely town and during the summer they have a large amount of free summer concerts and festivities that we enjoyed partaking in. The renaissance music was beautiful, but a bit sleep inducing. Post music it was back to the apartment to make dinner and pack up our belongings as we would not have time on Monday.
Monday morning we got up early to do some last minute shopping in Blois, until we realized that everything except the post office and mobile phone store are closed in Blois on Monday. Literally everything. Thus we decided to head to Tours early, and we did indeed make it onto the excursion. We were able to see the most visited chateau in the Loire valley (of which there are 1,000 chateaus) Chenonceau. This chateau is quite beautiful. And completely overrun with tourists! Approximately 6,000 tourist go through that chateau per day in the height of the summer season. Wowza. Grammy and I up until this point hadn’t seen barely any Americans, well we saw and heard them here. Sigh.
After the chaos that was touring Chenonceau we were able to tour Leonardo da Vinci’s house, Clos De Luce. He lived in a mansion with a secret tunnel to the castle Amboise for the last two years of his life. He was a favorite of several French kings, lastly being Francois I. Francois I used to use the tunnel to visit Da Vinci almost daily. It was a lovely mansion, beautiful gardens, and not crowded at all. Grammy and I were able to take a brief tea & crepe break there which was much needed.
It was then on to our last castle of the trip, Amboise. Amboise was heavily destroyed during Napoleons reign and now what stands is just 1/5 of the former size. It was very pretty, but I think Grammy and I had our fill of castles. 9 castles in all!
We then returned to the apartment and met the owner to see if he could fix the socket and if we would be getting our deposit back. What happened to the socket you may be wondering. Well Grammy did not check to see if her 10 lb (exaggerating) battery charger was dual voltage. Thus when I plugged it into the socket for her, I almost died. Okay exaggerating a bit there. How about a spark and some smoke. I promptly pulled it out and from then on 4 sockets in her room and the bathroom refused to work. We thought it might be the spark plugs so we bought new ones, flipped a bunch of switches, to no avail. Nicolas, the gentleman whose apartment it was did not seem to worried about it although he did mention having to take the socket out and check the wiring… oops. He did give us our deposit back though!
We had a late dinner at a restaurant just down the street from our apartment. We had walked by this restaurant many times during the week and always said that we should go there, well our last night was it! There was a 30 minute wait so we decided to meander down the road to see if we could get a drink first. We entered a brasserie and asked if we could take a seat. We were instructed to enter the back room and take a seat there. I asked the waitress if it was okay to sit there (after we sat down) as we were just having drinks. She said no, but to go to the front room and we could have a drink there. We went to the front room, and took a seat. And were promptly told to move again. Apparently we were at a table with a tablecloth. The table directly next to us did not have a tablecloth; thus apparently no tablecloth equals drinks? After sitting at our third table we were really ready for a drink then!
At the appointed time we made our way back to the restaurant and were seated in the verrrryyyy quiet back room. We did sound a bit like a herd of American elephants entering, scraping chairs on the floor and such. Grammy said “Well we have made our entrance!” Upon perusing the menu how excited was I when I realized they had a prix fix menu for vegetarians! Quel surprise! Complete with a cereal steak! (This means a steak made of grains) My opening course was a goat cheese and tomato dish that was lovely.
Me: How is your duck pate Gram?
Gram: It is wonderful. This fresh bread they brought us goes wonderful with it. How is your dish?
Me: Fantastic but I think they have added some cream to it.
Gram: (Very loudly) Uh ohh you better take an immodium.
Ah Gram. After the cereal steak it was time to order dessert. I ordered an apple tart and was trying to explain to the waitress that I wanted sorbet with it instead of ice cream. I was then telling her that I was allergic to cow milk. The waitress kept repeating “Caww meelk?” as she didn’t understand what I was saying, so Gram pipes in with a very large MOOOOO. I then instructed Gram she is not allowed to moo in restaurants. She thought it was hilarious.
All in all it was a fantastic meal and a perfect way to end our 9 days in Blois, of which I have many fond memories.
The next morning it was time for a day of traveling. With 100+ lbs of baggage.
Grammy and I first took the train from Blois to Paris; while on the train the officers checked our tickets. The officer who entered our compartment entered into a long discussion with the gentlemen next to us en francais of course. The gentle men next to us were in the military and thusly had received a military discount but had to show their military id’s. One of them forgot his, and had to pay an extra 90 euros!
When Grammy and I exited the train I asked her if she had understood what was going on and she guessed correctly. Good job Grammy interpreting the French! Her response? “I don’t read mystery books for nothin’ you know.” (:
The train was late arriving in Paris giving us 15 minutes to catch the next one to Marseille. After I carried beaucoup des baggages off the train I stood under the train schedule not understanding why our train was not on there. After consulting the tickets it stated that we were leaving out of a different station! Qeuel horreur! Upon exiting the 1st train station we saw a sign for the other which said 1 minute. Hah! Two people with a combined age of 107 + over 100 lbs of baggage does not mean we were moving at our top speed! We walked as fast as we could and made it to the station, after I realized which track it was on and that it was departing in less than one minute it was time for panic mode. I started running towards the train with the conductor blowing his whistle and me waving franticly with Grammy trailing me. He was waving me in the door, I turned around and told Grammy to run like she has never ran. Okay maybe I just said “Grammy run!” Boy Grammy can run for a 75 year old! As soon as she entered the door it closed behind her and we were off! Whew!
On the TGV there is assigned seating and we have been lucky enough to get the seats downwind of the broken toilet. Gross. Train officer is cute though and as he walked by he smiled at me which prompted Grammy to go into multiple eyebrow lifting mode.
After we arrive in Marseille it is then on to Cassis which is our final destination. I was reading the reviews of our hotel online last night and a lot of them mention a rather unfriendly woman at the desk. Something to look forward to!
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