Last week was really lovely, the weather was amazing! Monday night I had dinner with a friend of mine from UGA. It is so nice to see familiar faces, we went to this delicious French restaurant, and splurged a little. The name of the restaurant is Chez Janou, and it is this little ‘hole in the wall.’ It was so nice because it is entirely French, nothing on the menu was translated into English, so we were not entirely sure on what we were ordering, but when the entrees, plats, and desserts all came, each were delightful.
Tuesday and Wednesday I babysat, and took the kids to the Park. I have such a good time with them! Wednesday night, the Richers (my home-stay family) had a huge dinner party for Claire’s parents and sisters who are in town. It was really great and so funny because no one in Claire’s family speaks any French, and Madame Richers speaks a little French as does Monsieur Richer. At one point Monsieur Richer was talking about their garden in Normandy and he said very proudly, “We are tomatoes!,” it was hilarious because he meant to say we have, he really reminds me of a cartoon character, in a good way. Their youngest daughter Sixtine joined the dinner party as well (they have 4 children and 10 grandchildren). Anyways, Sixtine is what I envision an elegeant, charming Frenchwoman to be like. She was so nice and so poised. Sixtine worked in NYC for a few years so her English is perfect. She works in communications for Fidelity, and I had a great time talking to her about that since I am Speech Communications major.
Thursday, my friends Amy, Amanda and I, we discovered a store/restaurant called La Grande Epicerie! It is so a huge gourmet grocery store, a lot like Fresh Market or Whole Food, and they have an incredible Salad Bar. It honestly was a little taste of heaven! So I will be going there for lunch everyday from now on. Not to complain, but I am kind of over crepes and bread.
Thursday night I went to the Musee D’Orsay with Claire’s family, and also had dinner with them. Claire has two older sisters and one younger brother. Her younger brother could not make it, but it is so fun to see the dynamics between he and her sisters! Also because Claire is the youngest girl and I am the oldest. I really enjoyed being with her family, they were so sweet to me.
Friday night is the Louvre night, because it is ‘til 9:45, and free if you are under 26. I love going to the Louvre at night, it makes the whole building feel more mysterious, and the artwork in it!
Saturday morning, bright and early, and unfortunately in the cold rain, I left for the Loire Valley. Loire Valley is a region jsut a few hours south of Paris, known for its chateaus (mansions) and wine It was a great trip, I visited four the major Chateaus there and also did a tour of a Vineyard. Even though it was raining the whole time, the area was beautiful, lush and very green! My favorite chateau is Chambord. It is this enormous chateau; the roof of the chateau is meant to look like a mini-village, and it really does. In the 16th and 17th centuries they used to have balls and all kinds of parties on top of the chateau! Also the area surrouding the cheateau is a forest as big as Paris. It is one of the best places to hunt in France.
The name of the vineyard we went to is Vouvay. They specialize in white wine, and it is a smaller vineyard, which was really nice. We were given a tour of the caves where the wine is held, and we were talked through the wine making process. In the end we were able to taste many of their wines! And they were so good, I bought three bottles! One of their specialties in semi-sparkling white wine, and it very tasty! Very few vineyards makes semi-sparkling.
So back to Paris, unfortunately is a little wet and cold right now. But oh well, a good opportunity to used my museums passes!
dimanche 18 mars 2007
jeudi 15 mars 2007
Independent in Ireland
Independent in Ireland
I arrived in Dublin Thursday evening with my friend Annie.We arrived just in time to find our hostel and set off on a pub crawl. The pub crawl was really fun, we went to about 8 different pubs with a guide who knew everything about each one. My favorite was the one were Bono had his birthday party. The next day we woke up and decided to discover Dublin the daylight. Well Dublin is nice, but there really is not too much to discover. Dublin has about 2 million people and is the biggest city in Irealnd. Annie and I started our tour 10 and finished everything by 2, the most notable site was probably the Guiness factory. We toured the factory, and it was really awesome, Guinness is so good, I loved the foam on the top, it kind of tasted like a beer milkshake.
Anyways, as we finished our Guinness’ we rushed to the bus station, and caught the 3:00 bus to Cork. Cork is the second largest city in Ireland, and I think it has a population of 200,000. The bus to Cork was great, it was very long though because of some traffic (a.k.a. sheep in the road!). We made it to Cork and met up with Annie’s friend who is studying abroad there. We walked around Cork for a while and there really wasn’t too much to do. So I decided that I wanted to see more, you know everything that you see in the pictures of Ireland. Annie, however,wanted to stay in Cork, which was fine with me. I felt like I could do anything I wanted in Ireland because they speak English!
I woke up early Saturday morning and caught a bus to Killarney National Park. The bus ride was so beautiful, everything is so green, there are sheep everywhere. Killarney National Park is the most well-known Irish landscape in the world, it has huge lakes, rocks, mountains and castles. The mountains looked kind of like the appalachians, all covered in forests. There were big oak trees everywhere, and lots of streams. The town of Killarney was so cute too, much better than Cork or Dublin. So I checked myself into a hotel, well that was after I went to a hostel and thought it was sketchy, so I decided I would
splurge on a hotel room, which was so wonderful! It was the first time I have had my own room in a very long time.
Sunday I woke up and went for a walk in the park up to Ross Castle, which is just a really cool old castle. I also went horseback riding for 2 1/2 hours later that morning around the park! It was so fun, it was just me and the guide, who is also 20 yrs old. She was really great, I told her that I had some riding experience and she flipped out! She was so excited that we would be able to canter, and canter we did for almost half of the tour. I also have not ridden English in a very long time so it took some getting used too. We cantered through this awesome trail in the woods for about 10 minutes, which is a really really long time for a canter. And my horse jumped over a stream, which was kind of scary but really fun, I am normally not a fan of jumping at all. But I saw Anna's horse jump it and I was just like well here we go! It was so awesome, I love to ride, and just the fact that I got to ride through Killarney was seriously like a dream come true.
Everyone in Ireland is so nice too. Killarney was great because everyone there is so active, there are tons of people out in the park running or walking the trails (it is a huge park, I mean like hundreds of square miles). I met this man on my walk Sunday morning named Patrick, I asked him for directions and he was like you know I don't have much to do today I will just walk with you to the stables. And he walked the two miles with me to the stables. Same with some other boys when I couldn’t find the bus station, and everyone at the hotel was so helpful.
I sadly left Killarney on Sunday evening and flew out of Cork Monday morning. Just in time to make it to my 12:00 cass. So that is my independent Ireland story!
I arrived in Dublin Thursday evening with my friend Annie.We arrived just in time to find our hostel and set off on a pub crawl. The pub crawl was really fun, we went to about 8 different pubs with a guide who knew everything about each one. My favorite was the one were Bono had his birthday party. The next day we woke up and decided to discover Dublin the daylight. Well Dublin is nice, but there really is not too much to discover. Dublin has about 2 million people and is the biggest city in Irealnd. Annie and I started our tour 10 and finished everything by 2, the most notable site was probably the Guiness factory. We toured the factory, and it was really awesome, Guinness is so good, I loved the foam on the top, it kind of tasted like a beer milkshake.
Anyways, as we finished our Guinness’ we rushed to the bus station, and caught the 3:00 bus to Cork. Cork is the second largest city in Ireland, and I think it has a population of 200,000. The bus to Cork was great, it was very long though because of some traffic (a.k.a. sheep in the road!). We made it to Cork and met up with Annie’s friend who is studying abroad there. We walked around Cork for a while and there really wasn’t too much to do. So I decided that I wanted to see more, you know everything that you see in the pictures of Ireland. Annie, however,wanted to stay in Cork, which was fine with me. I felt like I could do anything I wanted in Ireland because they speak English!
I woke up early Saturday morning and caught a bus to Killarney National Park. The bus ride was so beautiful, everything is so green, there are sheep everywhere. Killarney National Park is the most well-known Irish landscape in the world, it has huge lakes, rocks, mountains and castles. The mountains looked kind of like the appalachians, all covered in forests. There were big oak trees everywhere, and lots of streams. The town of Killarney was so cute too, much better than Cork or Dublin. So I checked myself into a hotel, well that was after I went to a hostel and thought it was sketchy, so I decided I would
splurge on a hotel room, which was so wonderful! It was the first time I have had my own room in a very long time.
Sunday I woke up and went for a walk in the park up to Ross Castle, which is just a really cool old castle. I also went horseback riding for 2 1/2 hours later that morning around the park! It was so fun, it was just me and the guide, who is also 20 yrs old. She was really great, I told her that I had some riding experience and she flipped out! She was so excited that we would be able to canter, and canter we did for almost half of the tour. I also have not ridden English in a very long time so it took some getting used too. We cantered through this awesome trail in the woods for about 10 minutes, which is a really really long time for a canter. And my horse jumped over a stream, which was kind of scary but really fun, I am normally not a fan of jumping at all. But I saw Anna's horse jump it and I was just like well here we go! It was so awesome, I love to ride, and just the fact that I got to ride through Killarney was seriously like a dream come true.
Everyone in Ireland is so nice too. Killarney was great because everyone there is so active, there are tons of people out in the park running or walking the trails (it is a huge park, I mean like hundreds of square miles). I met this man on my walk Sunday morning named Patrick, I asked him for directions and he was like you know I don't have much to do today I will just walk with you to the stables. And he walked the two miles with me to the stables. Same with some other boys when I couldn’t find the bus station, and everyone at the hotel was so helpful.
I sadly left Killarney on Sunday evening and flew out of Cork Monday morning. Just in time to make it to my 12:00 cass. So that is my independent Ireland story!
samedi 3 mars 2007
Le début de mars
The beginning of March has been wonderful...so far. The weather here right now is lovely, and keeps getting better. It rains off and on somedays, but when it clears up it is so beautiful. There is a word for this kind of weather here, I think it is jubilee, but I am not positive. I think I got sick at the best time, because now I am fully recoverd, rested, and ready for spring!
For the past two weeks, all the children in France have been out of school on "holiday." So all the parks have been filled with kids. It is so cute to see them play. My favorite thing to watch, in Luxembourg Gardens, there is a little stand where you can rent little sail boats and put them in the fountain. Yesterday, the fountain was filled with all these little boats, and the kids think they are the greatest things ever invented. Also, I have found that contrary to popular belief, the French are very into exercising. The parks are always filled with joggers, and there are rollerbladers everywhere and bikers too. I went running around the park near my appartment, Monceau Park, this morning, and I felt like I was running around a track because there were so many people.
Last night I went to a very interesting restaurant. It was this fondue place near the Moulin Rouge and Montmartre area (kind of a sketchy area at night). Anyways, this restaurant was recommended by one of my travel guide books, and it is widely known because they serve wine in baby bottles! Yes, welcome to France, wine in baby bottles! The restuarant is actually supposed to resemble an insane asylum, so there is writing all over the walls and you have to climb over the tables to get to your seat, well some people do. Nonetheless, the fondue was pretty good and so was the wine.
Last week, there was a 6 nation Rugby tournament, and we went on kind of a pub crawl to watch the games. Sports here are so great! We got seats to watch the England vs. Ireland rugby match last weekend, it was awesome, and the pub was filled with people from each opposing team. It was so fun to watch!
I am headed to Ireland on Thursday for a few days. I cannot wait!
Oh, and my good friend Billy is here this week, so Claire and I have our first shot at being tour guides! This should be interesting.
For the past two weeks, all the children in France have been out of school on "holiday." So all the parks have been filled with kids. It is so cute to see them play. My favorite thing to watch, in Luxembourg Gardens, there is a little stand where you can rent little sail boats and put them in the fountain. Yesterday, the fountain was filled with all these little boats, and the kids think they are the greatest things ever invented. Also, I have found that contrary to popular belief, the French are very into exercising. The parks are always filled with joggers, and there are rollerbladers everywhere and bikers too. I went running around the park near my appartment, Monceau Park, this morning, and I felt like I was running around a track because there were so many people.
Last night I went to a very interesting restaurant. It was this fondue place near the Moulin Rouge and Montmartre area (kind of a sketchy area at night). Anyways, this restaurant was recommended by one of my travel guide books, and it is widely known because they serve wine in baby bottles! Yes, welcome to France, wine in baby bottles! The restuarant is actually supposed to resemble an insane asylum, so there is writing all over the walls and you have to climb over the tables to get to your seat, well some people do. Nonetheless, the fondue was pretty good and so was the wine.
Last week, there was a 6 nation Rugby tournament, and we went on kind of a pub crawl to watch the games. Sports here are so great! We got seats to watch the England vs. Ireland rugby match last weekend, it was awesome, and the pub was filled with people from each opposing team. It was so fun to watch!
I am headed to Ireland on Thursday for a few days. I cannot wait!
Oh, and my good friend Billy is here this week, so Claire and I have our first shot at being tour guides! This should be interesting.
Inscription à :
Commentaires (Atom)