Wanderlust and Oysters

This weekend I took another one of those really great, adventure-filled trips - this time to Normandy. We left on Friday morning and the drive was so much fun. There was definitely more to see than on the way to the Loire Valley - it seems as though the North of France has more towns along the freeway. We had a GPS so that we would be able to do some unplanned exploring, and we chose the voice setting whose name was "Jill." Jill had a terrible French accent, and it was hilarious listening to her pronounce names of roads and cities.


It took us about three hours to get to Mont St. Michel, which was the first stop on our trip. As we were driving up to the causeway that leads to the abbey, we could see it in the distance. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. The morning fog hadn't quite lifted, and Mont St. Michel looked like a mirage off in the distance. The abbey at the top was constructed in the 8th century, but before that, the island was called monte tombe. According to legend, the Archangel Michael appeared before a bishop in Avranches (a town in Normandy) in the year 708 and instructed him to build a church on the rocky island. The bishop, St. Aubert, repeatedly ignored the angel's instructions, until Michael burned a hole in his skull with his finger.
I had so much fun exploring the little winding streets that take you up to the abbey at the top. The buildings are so delightful and there are so many cute little restaurants. The view from the top is incredible, and the abbey itself is beautiful. It's no wonder that in the middle ages, this was considered to be the ultimate pilgrimage site in Europe.


After we spent some time walking up to the top, taking pictures, and looking through all the sweet little shops, we decided to unpack our food from the car and have a picnic so that we could enjoy the beautiful weather. The picnic consisted of apples, baguettes, brie, and little chocolate muffins. It was the perfect little lunch, and we had such a wonderful time just sitting in the sun and eating our simple food.
Then we discovered the mud flats. Because the tide comes in fairly regularly, the ground all around the island is made up of black, muddy sand and puddles of water. We had the best time running around in the mud, and the sun was starting to set so everything looked so pretty. Occasionally one of us would slip or fall or sink down into the sand a little too quickly, and then we would scream and laugh about it. I felt like a little kid, and I swear I would have started a mud fight if we hadn't been using a rental car. I also got some really great pictures of the island.


I was sad when we had to leave, but as the sun was setting and people started leaving, I didn't think it was such a great idea to be playing out there in the quick sand in the dark with no one else around. So we decided to drive to our hotel, which was only about 20 minutes away. We were so exhausted from driving and from running around that we ate dinner at the hotel restaurant (which turned out to be delicious!) and then passed out pretty early.
On Saturday we got up and hit the road right away because we wanted to do as much as we could before we had to have the rental car back. Our first stop was Bayeux, an historical town only an hour away from Mont St. Michel where the Bayeux Tapestry (in French, la tapisserie de Bayeux) resides. To get there, we had to drive through the country, using mainly country roads rather than the freeway. We got to see all these charismatic, provincial houses and some truly captivating landscapes. We even stumbled upon a medieval castle that was simply gorgeous. I've never seen so much beauty in one place in my entire life.

The town of Bayeux itself is gorgeous. There is a little house with a waterwheel on the river and there is a beautiful cathedral - you can see the top of it over all the trees and houses. I have always been intrigued by the tapestry - I learned about it in middle school, and even though I saw it in high school, I couldn't wait to see it again. The tapestry depicts the Norman Invasion of 1066 and the events that lead up to it. It's 224 feet long, and you don't realize just how long that is until you see it in person. I can't believe how long it would have taken for someone to make this tapestry, and the scenes are so detailed. Luckily, the price of our admission included a free ear set, which played cute music and described what was happening in each part of the tapestry. I took pictures of a few of my favorite scenes:

Horses and soldiers get stuck in the quick sand around Mont St. Michel

Halley's comet appears - it is taken as a sign that Harold will be punished for breaking his oath, and that William and his troops will soon invade Normandy

Harold dies from an arrow that struck him in the eye

After the tapestry museum, we decided to drive up the coast to see the D-Day beaches and the American Cemetery. These are both things that I had seen on my trip to France in high school. I don't want to say that I wasn't able to fully appreciate it when I was younger, because I remember that it was actually a very profound experience. I think because I'm older and more grown-up than I was the first time around, and simply because I know more than I used to, that it meant more to me somehow to have the opportunity to visit these places again.
There are over 9,000 people buried in the American cemetery. That means that when you look out across the cemetery, all you can see are white headstones for a long time. Walking through the cemetery, I had to constantly remind myself that most of the people buried here were my age or younger. That's something that doesn't leave you untouched.

After walking around on the beach for a while, we had worked up an appetite and went in search of a restaurant. Being so close to the coast, I had really worked up an appetite for seafood. Luckily, we were able to find a seafood restaurant in a quaint little fishing village close by. I had two HUGE oysters that were so fresh and so delicious that I think they may have been caught that morning. Then I had a HUGE pot of mussels that made me so happy! I would move to Normandy just so that I would be able to eat their amazing seafood every day of my life.

Our last stop before heading back to Paris was Pointe du Hoc - a clifftop location just west of Omaha beach, where the Germans had set up a battle station. It was one of the first things that the allied soldiers were instructed to take out on D-Day. I couldn't believe how high up the cliffs were - and what was more unbelievable was the fact that soldiers actually had to climb these cliffs to get to the top. It was eerie to see all the craters that had been dug out, and I think it's interesting that all this stuff is still there. Even the barbed wire on the edge of the cliff was in tact from the battle.




When I got back I realized that I only have two more months here, and I got really sad. I feel like there's so much more I want to do, and I just don't have enough time to do it. I guess I'll just have to continue to make every moment count!

Prague - Where Real Women Drink Dark Beer

It's no wonder to me that some of my ancestors are from Prague - the architecture is amazing, the history is rich, and the people really know how to have a good time. I suppose that's why Prague has been my favorite place in Europe thus far. I learned a lot, I ate a lot, and I drank a lot of really great beer.
I went with my friend Keri, and despite almost missing our plane (they had to hold the entire shuttle just for us - talk about embarrassing!) we arrived safely. Since we couldn't check in to our hotel right away, we wound up going to the National Museum. According to several travel websites, this is one of those museums you "can't miss." What we saw was a bunch of old rocks and stuffed animals. Don't get me wrong - I like rocks and stuffed animals - but I think I could probably have missed this museum and not been too torn up about it. At least it was a funny experience, and we got to see some animals that I had never seen before!
After exploring the museum and finally checking in to our hotel, we decided to use our Boat Tour voucher to take a boat ride on the river that runs through Prague (called the Vlatava). The boat ride was fun, and it was nice to be able to see all along the Vlatava. There are so many buildings right along the river, including the National Theatre and the Rudolfinum (a concert hall). We also passed under the Charles Bridge, and got a great view of the Prague Castle, which is the largest medieval fortress in Europe.

The Prague Castle

The Charles Bridge

When the boat tour was over, we explored some of the streets of Prague. The buildings are all so beautiful, and even though the sidewalks and streets are all made out of cobblestone, they have a certain charm that I think you can only find in these old, European cities. We walked down to the Old Town Square where we stumbled upon the "Old Town Fair." There were booths set up everywhere, with people selling cheese, puppets, and any number of sausages. We also saw people making swords, which was fun to watch for a while.

We wanted to get some traditional Czech food, so we ate dinner at a restaurant by our hotel called Legenda. My dinner consisted of roast duck breast with cranberries and bacon mashed potatoes - it was one of the most delicious things I have ever had. I also had two HUGE beers called Staropramen Lager, which is apparently a very traditional Czech beer.

Our real adventure started on Tuesday, when we took a free, three-hour walking tour with a company called Sandeman's New Europe. Anyone traveling to the cities listed on their homepage should definitely set aside some time to do one of these tours!
Our tour guide's name was James and I felt very fortunate to have had him as a guide because I could tell right away that he was very passionate about history, and about Prague in general. I saw several things on the tour, but the following are the things I found the most interesting and the most profound.
We started off the tour in the Old Town Square. I learned that much of Prague survived World War II, which is fortunate because there are many cities around Europe that were completely destroyed. The Old Town Square was created in the 12th century, and has seen many significant events since then. In the middle of the square is the Jon Hus monument, where Jon Hus was burned at the stake because he went against the church for selling papal indulgences. On one side of the square is the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, which is one of the most impressive Gothic cathedral in all of Prague.



In this cathedral is the tomb of the royal astronomer Tycho Brahe. He was a wealthy Dutchman who had been banned from what is now the Netherlands, and was invited by the king of Bohemia to be the official imperial astronomer. He loved to party and he was a rather unusual fellow. When he was a schoolboy, he challenged a classmate to a duel, during which the tip of his nose was cut off with a sword. As a result, he would wear a bronze nose during the day, and he had a silver nose that he would wear when he went to a party. He had a midget named Jepp and a pet moose who he would bring to parties and to whom he would feed beer. I think it's funny to try and picture a guy showing up to a party with a silver nose, a midget, and a drunken moose.
On the other side of the square is the Old Town Hall (in Czech, Staromĕtská Radnice S Orlojem), of which only part of the original building remains. The part that is still standing was built in the 14th century and features the world-famous astronomical clock. The rest of the building was destroyed in the weeks leading up to the end of World War II, when the Nazis bombed Prague.


We saw Wenceslas square, where there is a monument marking the spot where three young Czech men took their lives by lighting themselves on fire, in the hopes that it would spread the message to the rest of the world about the oppressive communist regime that was in power during the 1960s. This took place in 1968, and it wouldn't be until 1989 that the communist regime actually ended and the Czech Republic would be formed. It was actually a very chilling thought, that all of this gruesome and violent history is actually very recent.


Next, the tour took us to the Jewish Quarter. Before 1890, the Jewish Quarter actually used to be a ghetto, where there were walls in place to keep the Jews in, and the street levels were about three meters lower than the rest of the city. Because the river used to flood very often and because the ground level was so low, the Jewish ghetto was basically a swamp, and it was a terrible place to live. When it was decided that the walls would be torn down and the Jews would be free to leave, most of the buildings were torn down because they were in such a bad state, and 80 percent of the Jewish population living there left. During World War II, most places in Europe that were predominantly Jewish were completely destroyed by Nazi soldiers, however the Jewish Quarter in Prague was left alone because it was Hitler's plan to retire to Prague after the war and put all his efforts into opening the Jewish Quarter to the public as a museum of an extinct race. It's such a horrible thought, and I actually got goosebumps and felt a bit ill as James was explaining this.
After the tour was over, we had some time to explore Lesser Town, which is across the river from the Old Town Square and where our hotel was. First, we went to the Prague Castle. To get there, we had to climb up hundreds of steps. It was definitely worth it, though, because the view from the top was absolutely stunning. There was also a very beautiful Gothic cathedral, and the sun was shining so brightly that the stained glass windows made it look all pink inside.


When we had finished exploring the castle, we walked through the winding streets of Lesser Town to get to the John Lennon wall. This wall, which is filled with graffiti, started as a spray-painted picture of John Lennon after he was murdered. As time went by, the citizens of Prague continued to add messages of peace, and some say that it actually contributed to the peaceful end of the communist regime.

That evening, we had signed up for a pub crawl with New Europe, and so we met back with James in the Old Town Square. There were a few more people who had signed up for the pub crawl, and I remember thinking that we were such a motley crew - an Irish tour guide, two Czech girls, a couple from Germany, a college guy from Connecticut, a funny little guy from Chile, and two American girls. We learned a lot about beer - in Prague they are very proud of their beer, because most pubs brew their own and it is unpasteurized. There are also fewer chemicals, and you can drink a lot of it without getting a hangover! It is also customary for the women to drink dark beer, as it is sweeter than light beer and it goes down more easily.


The Czechs have very a very specific custom when it comes to drinking beer. First, you look everyone at the table in the eye, one by one and say, " Na zdraví!" Then you pound your beer on the table and only then are you allowed to drink it. If you don't do that, the punishment is seven years bad sex. If your arm crosses someone else's arm while you're doing it, the punishment is worse - you get married.
We got to try lots of different beer at several different pubs, and eventually we wound up at a communist bar called Propaganda. The owner of the communist museum in Prague took some of the communist memorabilia and used it to make a communist bar. It was so much fun, and it was one of the best nights I've had. I really enjoyed being able to converse with people from different countries.
We wound up staying out pretty late for a Tuesday night, drinking great Czech beer and talking about the things we were most passionate about. It was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had - to be able to share the old and universal tradition of good beer and good conversation with people who, in the end, really weren't so different from me.

"I want adventure in the great wide somewhere..."

I had the most wonderful day yesterday - I think it was my favorite day I've had in France thus far. On Thursday, Anna, Meredith, and I decided on a whim that we were going to rent a car and drive to the Loire Valley to find the Sleeping Beauty castle.
The "adventure" part of our day started almost immediately, when we picked up our rental car (we got a cute little blue Peugeot) and almost got lost trying to get out of Paris. There are several problems with driving in Paris: (1) there are hardly any street signs, so you have no indication of what street you're on, and you don't know where to turn; (2) it's tricky trying to figure out where to stop for the street lights; and (3) there are roundabouts EVERYWHERE, which would be okay except for people don't actually follow the rules of the roundabouts and they just kind of drive wherever they want to. Eventually, we made it to the freeway (l'autoroute in French) and after that, it was basically a straight shot from there.


The Château d’Ussé is kind of off the beaten path - that is to say that once we got off of the freeway, we had to drive down some really small, winding country roads for a while to get to it. It was really amazing to be able to explore the French countryside that way. The architecture in the Loire Valley is, as I've said before, so beautiful. Some of the houses look like little hobbit holes, and it's actually difficult for me to imagine real people living in them. A lot of the towns we passed were built into the side of a hill, and there were little rivers and lakes all over over the place.

The château was built in 1004 by a fierce Viking called Gelduin I. Over the years, is has been passed down through many wealthy families and it has always remained a private residence. The current owner is the Duke de Balcas. Charles Perrault, the author of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, was a guest there for a while and during his stay we was inspired by all of the winding staircases and narrow passageways to write "Sleeping Beauty."


When we got there, I could immediately tell why. The château is built on the edge of a huge forest and it sits on top of a hill. It actually looks like a castle, not just a huge, ornate building where a royal family lived. One of my favorite things about Europe is that people live in their history every day. If you take a walk down any street in Paris, you can tell that the buildings are old and that so many different generations of people have lived there. In the United States, we don't have many places like that. Since I've been in Europe, one of my favorite things to do has been to try and imagine what a building or a place was actually like when it was built (most of the time in the middle ages). There were hardly any people at the château, which made it really easy for me to do this. It also made me feel that I was really exploring something, not just that I was walking through a tourist attraction.


The first part of the château we went to was entirely dedicated to the Sleeping Beauty story. We had to climb several floors up a winding staircase, and when we got to the top they actually had different rooms with mannequins depicting different scenes of the tale. I wasn't expecting to see people, so I actually screamed when I saw the first room! One room was the scene where Aurora was born, another was a scene with Malificent and some subjects of her kingdom. The scariest room was at the top of a very small tower that we didn't find right away - it was depicting the scene where Malificent actually casts the spell on Aurora.

It was so much fun to be able to explore this gigantic château. The air was so fresh, and they had fires burning in most of the rooms, so it smelled a little like a bonfire. It made me feel very nostalgic, but in a good way. Here are some other pictures from Ussé:


After we were done looking around the château, we decided that since we had the car, we wanted to do some more exploring. We drove a couple kilometers to a medieval town called Chinon. Apprently Joan of Arc passed through this town and actually spent a couple nights. The old cathedral that was there during that time is still standing. We ate lunch at a bar called Le Jeanne d'Arc, where I had a croque monsieur and a Belgian beer called Leffe. It was such a cute bar - they had a Foosball table and a ping pong machine - and the owner had a dog who kept coming out from behind the bar to look at us, but who was too shy to actually come over and say hi. It was so cute.
When we were done eating, we wanted to see another château. I was surprised at how many signs we saw pointing toward various châteaux here and there. I knew there were a lot of châteaux in the Loire Valley, but I really had no idea that there were so many. We wound up driving to a town called Langeais, where the houses and shops were actually built right up around the château. It was so old and so beautiful, and it actually had a drawbridge. You could see where there used to be a moat around it, because it was all covered with moss and vines. We walked around the town for a little while, and then it started getting dark so we decided to head back.

It was truly a magical day, and I was so sad when it actually came to an end. It just goes to show, though, that the most thrilling adventures are sometimes the whimsical and spontaneous ones.

I Have Decided to Take Up Residence in a Château

On Friday we took a day trip to the Loire Valley - a region in France known for its goat cheeses, its wines, its châteaux, and its quaint architecture. The ride there took about three hours, but I could tell it was worth it once we got to the first château.
The Château d'Amboise was one of the first châteaux to be built as a royal residence. When I went to France in high school I visited a couple châteaux, and Amboise was definitely not what I expected. Because it was built in the middle ages, it was far less ornate than any château I had seen before. I actually preferred it in a way, I think because it made it easier for me to imagine people living there. The chapel is beautiful and has many brightly colored stained glass windows that were typical of the middle ages. It is also home to Leonardo da Vinci's grave (he was invited by François I to live at Amboise as an advisor and as someone to converse with).
The view from the top of the château was stunning - I could see for miles and I got a great view of the Loire River. After the guided part of the visit was over, we had the chance to explore the grounds of the castle, which I was excited about because it was such a beautiful day and it was so nice to be in the French countryside!

The second château we went to was Château de Chenonceau, which was about a half an hour drive from Amboise. It is also called the "Château des Dames" because of the love affair that occurred there among Henri II, Catherine de Medicis (his wife), and Diane de Poitiers (his mistress). Henri II had given the Château de Chenonceau to Diane de Poitiers, and the Château de Chambord to Catherine de Medicis. When Catherine de Medicis discovered that Chenonceau was far more beautiful than Chambord, she moved in and took over. I'm not sure of the complete history, but I would like to do some more reading on the subject.
Chenonceau is so beautiful. plus it was sunny and warm and I had such a fun time exploring the gardens. There is even a labyrinth! I was upset when the trip was over and we had to return back to the bus.