This past week...

So this past week has probably been the busiest and longest week so far. I barely had time to do my homework and get to bed at a decent time, yet alone sit on the computer and catch up on this blog. I got to go to Paris with Catherine on the weekend of the 17-19th. We had an amazing time and saw about all we could see in the short amount of time we were there. We did a bunch of touristy things on Saturday- saw Sacré Cœur, walked around Montmartre, went over to the Latin Quarter, saw Notre Dame, and took a boat ride up the Seine to Les Invalides and the Eiffel Tower. Had a lovely dinner at a café near the Eiffel Tower and took the boat back up the Seine at night to see all the monuments all lit up. We had a wonderful time and it was so cool to be exploring Paris on our own together. The only problem we ran into was that we were in Paris in the middle of July on a weekend. Thus every tourist attraction was at its most crowded. We decided that with places like Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, it was not necessary to go inside or up them. It did not make sense to wait in line for a few hours when we could see the outside just fine and go see other things instead.

Sunday we went out to Versailles. Once again, we ran into the same problem and it was about a 2 hour wait in line to get tickets to go into the château. We only had about 4 ½ hours so we decided our best bet would be to just spend all our time exploring the gardens surrounding the château. I’ve never been to Versailles, so I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t go inside the château, but now this gives me an excuse to come back and visit it again. The day turned out to be wonderful and we had an excellent time in the gardens. We actually ran into a girl from my CIDEF class, Rachel Leech, so she walked around with us as well. We went out to the domain of Marie-Antoinette and saw the Petit Trianon, her peasant hamlet, and the Grand Trianon. It was incredible.

Catherine left to visit her family in England and I hopped the train back to Angers Sunday night. The school week was so long. We had class until 4 or 5 every day. We had another series of tests- 4 on Thursday. And two presentations. And our enquête, research project, due on Friday which was a 600 word report. So I was quite busy with school work most of this week. Anne-Do was home a lot this week as well so we had dinner together most nights. The food here always amazes me because it is so simple and it puts stuff together that I would never think to do. One night we had a tomato entrée (appetizer), which was actually an Italian dish, but it was just sliced tomatoes (fresh from the garden) with pepper, salt, and olive oil drizzled over it. They don’t use a lot of seasoning either. When Anne-Do cooks meat, it’s just seasoned with a little pepper and salt and sometimes a bit of butter. The side dishes are usually cooked vegetables of some sort- boiled carrots or boiled potatoes, again straight from the garden—you can really taste the freshness of the veggies. And then of course cheese and wonderful bread. Dessert is also simple— sometimes just a thing of yogurt or fruit. But I am always satisfied and feel like I ate something tremendously healthy.

Thursday night, I went out to dinner with Anne-Do and Joelle. We went to this adorable restaurant that had a huge wine selection. We had aperitifs (I’ve grown really accustomed to my before-dinner drinks) and a wonderful formule of a main course and dessert. It was a very enjoyable time. Anne-Do then dropped me off at Abbaye Café, a chic bar where we were having our final CIDEF soirée. All of my friends had come- Rachel, Esthella, Phoebe, Katie, and Marissa (minus Jamie who was leaving for England Friday and didn’t want to stay out too late). I got a cointreaupolitan- one of my new favorite drinks. It was a bit pricey (as all cocktails are here) but it was totally worth it because it came with a mini shaker to make my own cointreaupolitans :-D We split a few pitchers of beer—it was a bit of an expensive bar, but it was very nice. Everyone was dressed up and we voted for Miss and Mister CIDEF, haha. Sometimes this program is a bit like high school! But we had an excellent time and it was a nice evening.

Friday night, a group of us went to dinner at Auberge Angevine, an old cathedral that had been turned into a restaurant. It had a medieval theme and you could dress up in costume…for a cost of 3 euros. I had a very tasty aperitif; it was very sweet and cinnamony—kind of like Christmas. Rachel and I got 2 50cl of a great red wine and we all ordered a good formule that consisted of an entrée, a main dish, and a dessert. Everyone had a very great time and it was a good way to spend our last Friday in Angers.

I have to go get ready now to meet the girls at the château d’Angers- the old château here in the city that we have not had a chance to visit yet. I’ll have to finish up writing about the weekend and the excursion to Normandy later. À bientôt!