♫ We’re strictly tourist and we couldn’t care less! ♫

Okay, this is the journal I forgot to write a couple weeks ago about our last two days in Paris before the bus trip…

Saturday, May 29

After class I went shopping for a couple things for my roommate, and then we headed to the flea market! It was part of one of the walks, but it was an optional walk, so we didn't formally do it. We just walked around the flea market. Some of the stuff was really cool there! I bought a couple souvenirs at a really good price! We walked around the antiques part of the flea market and saw a couple really insane chandeliers… And that was about it. Oh, the vendors were ridiculous! Especially the ones walking around. They were worse than flies! Never leave you alone. Lol. And the other vendors did anything and everything to get you to come into their store and buy something.

Then Paris and I went to the Musée d'Orsay. I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't really my favorite. I'm just a classical art-lover. But we got in free and didn't have to pay nine euro! That was happy. I love it when they do that. :) In the Musée d'Orsay, I just felt like there was a lot more artwork where they tried to be lewd and disrespectful…. The impressionist paintings were pretty cool, though. And some of the statues (which were more classical style). Although….a lot of the statues showed people lying on the ground dead. I don't really get why they liked sculpting dead people so much. I did like the Jeanne d'Arc statue, though. That one was really pretty (and she wasn't dying, lol.)

Then Paris and I parted ways and I headed back to the Louvre. I saw some sculptures we missed last time and I went through the Italian Painting gallery again. I sat in front of a Raphael Madonna and Child painting and wrote in my journal for a while. I love the Louvre. That's my kind of art. Someday I want to go back and arrive at the Louvre right when it opens and stay until it closes, just walking through the sculpture gardens, sitting in the paintings gallery, going through the Egyptian section. I'd love to walk through and not be worried about seeing as much as possible. I just want to completely enjoy the experience.

Oh, I found out the name of one of my favorite paintings! Le Sommeil de l'Enfant by….somebody whose initials are B.L. I wrote the name down in my little green book. Lol. It's such a beautiful painting….

I was a little surprised that the Louvre closed at 6 p.m. on Saturdays! That seems so early…. No matter. I went back to the Devarennes' and did stuff in my room. They were having a big dinner party that night, which sounded like lots of fun, but I didn't appreciate the added smoke. Lol.

Sunday, May 30

I think this day was supposed to be a stake conference, but it was a strange one! Lol. Because they divided the young single adults from the regular wards. So we had our own Relief Society, Sunday School, and Sacrament Meeting, all the young people. It was funny. Lol. And made for a really long meeting! We were at church for four hours! Plus a long time after, because they had a lunch afterward. We ate sloppy joes. Lol. Which was funny, being in France. That seems like such an American food.

Paris and I left shortly after finishing our meal so we could go pack for the bus trip. It was so weird putting all of my stuff back into the suitcase! And taking a shower in the bathtub for the last time!

Dinner was lamb and fries. The lamb was a little too done because Madam Devarenne got distracted. Lol. That's so her! Afterward we took pictures with the Devarennes and they gave us parting gifts, which was so sweet of them! I'm going to miss them a lot. They were so much fun to be around! I hope the next time I come back to Paris, I can get in touch with them…

♫La mer bergère d’azur infinie♫

Frère Le Bras said today's wind was so strange for Nice, but I've adored it. It's so strong, I almost get blown away standing in it! It does beautiful things to the ocean, though! I may not be a beach person, but I love watching the sea. Today it is so, so blue. Absolutely gorgeous blue. The brightest azure you can imagine. And the waves are huge! Walking on the street, you can feel the sea spray, even if you're not close to the railing. They closed the beach off because the waves were so rough. But white caps on such a blue sea are just so pretty…

After class I hit rue Jean Médicin for some of the best shopping in Nice! I loved walking down the street and seeing all the fancy stores and all the little shops with hand-crafted shoes and jewelry and scarves, freshly made cookies (with free samples!) and smooth, sweet gelato. Despite the cool ocean breeze, the sun was pleasantly warm and beautifully bright. The perfect setting for the perfect day. :)

And it was today I decided that I do like Nice and I am enjoying myself. I loved the history of Paris and all the beauty, but as far as people and atmosphere go, Paris is just a little too high class for me sometimes. I switch back and forth. Lol. This week, Nice is the place for me! People aren't as rushed in Nice. It's just more relaxing. :)

First I went to Nice Etoile, the mall on Jean Médicin. I think it's the only one in Nice, actually. I went to Jennyfer and bought pants I made fun of a couple days ago. Lol. Aladdin pants. Because they looked so comfortable on one of the girls in our group. Mine were shorts, though. They're one of the latest fashion statements in France, so I guess I should feel cool. Lol. I just bought them for around-the-house, lazy day pants. (They were pretty cheap, so I don't feel bad about that.) I was very happy about that purchase.

Then I left the mall and went to H&M, which is so European. Lol. They have those stories EVERYWHERE! But I like them. I've got some cute things there already. ;) I found a button-up shirt there that fits me PERFECTLY!!!! *sigh* That is one of the best feelings ever, finding a shirt like that. And they had tons of different patterns of that shirt, so I bought three of them. Lol. I justified it because I need some nicer shirts for when I intern with BYU Athletic Comms. I also found a cute pink shirt with ruffly sleeves and flowers on it.

Following my big purchase, I headed back out to Jean Médicin and turned on a side street that led to the Boulevard des Anglais. I saw a little shop that sold products from Provence (the region Nice is in). I stepped in for a quick look and saw some of the cutest little girls' dresses ever. Oh my gosh. I almost bought one. They were adorable. When I have daughters, I'll have to find somebody going to Nice to get a couple for me. They were so beautiful. But I refrained. I bought a little bottle of Provence perfume instead. There are a couple of things that you can't leave France without buying, and I decided that perfume was one of them.

Then I walked all the way back down Boulevard des Anglais to our residence. That was a long walk. Lol. But kinda cool, because I had to battle the wind the whole way, and I had a great view of the ocean!

On the way back, I stopped by a boulangerie called La Princesse and bought a baguette and two mini pastries. The baguette was a little piece of heaven! It was straight out of the oven, so it was so crispy on the outside and soft in the middle and warm all the way through. It was definitely one of the happiest moments of my life in France. Although, I was a little disappointed when I got home and found that opera pastries have coffee in them. :P Oh well. I ate my religieux, and that was happy.

And I decided I'm going to be daring this summer! (Or maybe over Christmas break…) I'm going to attempt to make macarons! Not because they're my favorite French dessert, but because I think they look cute and because they're supposed to be really hard to make. I think I could consider myself somewhat accomplished if I figured out how to make macarons. That will be fun. Lol. Yay for experimental cooking!

We went out to dinner as a group tonight. It was the last big group activity. :( Sad! This group has been so much fun! The people are awesome! And the professors have been excellent too! I'm definitely going to miss my time here, even if I am excited to go home. I just realized that today. I will miss it here, sooner than I expected. I love the feel of being in Europe, especially in France.

After dinner, we walked to this little gelato shop and everybody got gelato. I was so full, but I ate three scoops anyway. They were peach, melon, and banana. I decided that I needed a little more tartness, though. The peach was a little tart, but the banana and melon were so sweet! And I finished the peach first, so by the end I was all sweet-ed out.

I walked home with Paris, which was really fun. We walked on the sidewalk by the beach. The water had calmed by then, and there was a little breeze, so it was really nice. This was my second long walk on Boulevard des Anglais today… Oh well. Maybe it will make up for not running. Lol. It was fun talking to Paris. I decided I'd miss our long chats. Lol. Even though most of them were on the same subject and almost always had to do with the men in our lives. :) These will be good times I'll always remember and treasure.

Monte Carlo, Baby!

After class this morning, we all hopped on a bus and left France! No, really! We actually left France! For Monaco! Which is a French speaking country, technically….I think. But still its own country! It's one of the smallest countries in the world, as it's only one city, and you can walk from one end to the other in about an hour. There are about as many people in Monaco as there are at BYU!

Monte Carlo is beautiful! It doesn't really look that different from Nice, but still… And it has beautiful cars! Oh my gosh…. Every tenth car that passes on the street is a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. There are a couple Porshes and Bentleys in there too. (Is that what they're called? The car that Sarah really likes…lol.) We passed a couple dealerships that had awesome Lamborghinis! Everybody in the group stopped to take pictures. Lol. I wouldn't mind a car like that, not gonna lie. Maybe someday we can have a Lamborghini to go with our cute French cottage which would house our four poster, curtained bed. Lol. ;)

The weather was great today, too. It was warm, not too hot, and a cool breeze was blowing in from the ocean. It wasn't chilly at all, though. Maybe a tad bit windy, but I didn't mind. Of course, I didn't have a skirt on like all the other girls in the group, so it wasn't a problem for me. I did feel like a tomboy, though. Lol. All the girls (except Paris) were in cute, little dresses or frilly skirts and flip flops or flats. I was in a plain black capsleeve, jean shorts, and tennis shoes. Lol. With my hair in a quick ponytail. Oh, well. :)

We started off with a stroll along the harbor, which led us past a line of the hugest yachts I've ever seen! They were ridiculously big! And so fancy! My favorite was the Zeus. I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture of it. I could believe how big it was, though. It's like a floating mansion!

Then we went to the Japanese garden. It was kinda pretty. I love the flowers around this area, because they're so colorful. I think I've said that before…but it's still true! And there was a waterfall and bridges that were really cool there, too.

Nearby was the Monte Carlo film festival? Or TV festival? Or something? I dunno. They had a red carpet and were filming something, and there were a bunch of reporters and fans. (And by a bunch, I mean like 20.)

Then we walked toward Monte Carlo, the famous casino in all the movies. It was a really pretty building! I even poked my head inside, so I can say I've been in Monte Carlo. Lol. The lobby was beautiful. Classical style, but made with dark wood and green and red marble. Yay, Monte Carlo! That was exciting…. But that reminds me, the title of this blog is from Audrey Hepburn's first movie, just in case you wanted to know. Except it's "Monte Carlo Baby", not "Monte Carlo, Baby!" I just played with the punctuation. :) It wasn't her very first movie, I guess, but her first movie playing a major role. I haven't actually seen it. I guess I should go see it, now, just to say I have and so I can talk Jeff's ear off about how I've seen all the places in the movie.

After Monte Carlo, the group split. Jessie and Richard went off who knows where, Paris and Ryan went to the aquarium, and I went with the rest of the girls to the palace. Although, we stopped and bought food first. I didn't really like the cheese pastry that I bought… Everybody else got a weird pizza. Lol. With peppers (gross!) But, I also bought Pago, which I'm going to miss when I go home, because it's like drinking fruit. So divine! And I also bought Prince cookies. I've decided they have a really good marketing strategy. Who wouldn't want to buy cookies that have an attractive Prince handing you a cookie on the package? (Who cares if he's a cartoon?) And princes on the cookies themselves! The cookies are pretty good, too.

After eating, we found our way to the palace. We couldn't really find out how to get there on the map, so we started walking toward the castle-looking thing in the distance and found it! Although the stairs to get up there were terrible! :P No me gusta. They were like a ramp and stairs combined! Ew. But we finally made it to the top. And there was a great view of Monaco and the harbor. And the ocean, of course, which is beautiful. We didn't actually go in the palace, because nobody I was with wanted to go to another palace. Lol. They were sick of palaces.

We did go through the souvenir shops on the castle hill, though. That was fun. :) I bought a little green teacup with the castle on it. I fell in love with it, and besides, Jeff said that I should go buy nic nacs today, so okay!

After shopping, we went to the cathedral where Grace Kelly was buried. That was cool, I guess. There were some pretty roses on her grave. But the cooler part was the little shop inside the cathedral! (Why it was inside, I don't know. That was kind of strange.) They had a bunch of regular Catholic things that you can get at every cathedral, but there was also a whole table of those little Russian nesting dolls! And they were gorgeous! And I had to buy one. The one I bought has gold and sparkles on it, and it has pretty exotic flowers on the front. :) I love it.

The nun who sold it to me seemed very impressed when I talked to her in French. I think that's funny.... It seems like Francophones are always impressed when Anglophones speak French in France, but Anglophones (or at least Americans) just expect people to speak English in an English-speaking country. I wonder why that is.....

Then we tried to find our way to the bus by going down the hill through the gardens. We saw a really cool tree there! You'll have to look on Facebook to see my picture, because I don't even know how to explain what it looked like. It's almost like a bunch of different branches twisted together. We also saw a really awkward statue on a dock below the hill. Straaaaaaaaaaaaange.

We tried to find the bus back to Nice, but we couldn't find the right stop. So we asked a couple well-dressed gentlemen how to get back to Nice. Well, Meredith asked them. And the one who answer said that she spoke French very well, and then proceeded to give us instructions in English. Lol. Okay…… He told us to take the train, so we went to the train station. But my credit card wouldn't work on the little machine (because we were going to buy them all together), so we went to the actual caisse and bought the tickets. Well, it was a group ticket. I felt like Professor Erickson. Lol. The funniest part about the train was getting on. Lol. Joy and Meredith and Andrea got on the train (which wasn't supposed to leave for 10 more minutes) and the doors started closing, so Katherine and I panicked. She squeezed between the doors and forced them open a little, and then I barely made it in after her. We went and sat down, and realized upon seeing more passengers get on the train that there was a button to open and close the doors. The doors were just shutting until the next person came on. Lol…….. Oops. That was embarrassing. Freaking out and jumping on for no reason. I was afraid the train would leave and the other girls wouldn't have the ticket! Because I had the only ticket. I definitely didn't take into consideration the fact that the train didn't leave for a while.

After we got back to Nice, we walked a ways until we found Boulevard des Anglais, and then we took a bus to our stop and walked home.

Ugh! The mosquitoes are eating me alive! :( Why do they keep the lobby door propped open?

♪La mer au ciel d’été…♪

Tuesday morning I awoke to my entire body protesting every move I made. So what did I do? I went running. Lol. :) And….had a really hard time staying awake in class due to tiredness/soreness. Oh well.

Despite not really liking the beach, I decided to go because everybody else was going and I didn't want to just sit around the hotel by myself. And I really wanted a nap, and I decided I may as well nap at the beach. Although…it wasn't a very restful nap. I was listening to my ipod, so that probably didn't help me fall asleep. And I didn't want to burn, so I had to keep waking up and putting on some more sun screen. I did get slightly burned, but it wasn't bad. I couldn't even feel it. And it was kinda splotchy and really small spots.

The rest of the people in my group weren't so lucky. Lol. Most of them only put on sunscreen once, and really only on their face. Some people *coughPariscough*didn't put sunscreen on at all! They definitely came home looking a little lobster-ish. Or a lot lobster-ish. Lol. They got burned all over! No wonder, because we were out there during the hottest part of the day! I didn't even get a tan line on my legs like I was hoping. :( Oh well. I guess that's better than increasing my risk of skin cancer. Lol. And I don't envy any of them! They all look so sore…

After spending a couple hours doing nothing at the beach, I came home and worked on my journals. I got a lot done, too, in case you haven't noticed! Lol. Happy reading…

♪ La mer qu’on voit danser le long des golfes clairs…♫

My body wasn't too happy with me after my run Monday morning. Lol. Not very happy at all. My stomach was killing me most of the run, and just stopped hurting before I got home. Then I pushed it further with crunches and stuff. Lol. I was so exhausted by the time I got to class, but despite being worn out and sore, I felt wonderful!

And to add to feeling wonderful, after class we walked up two huge hills and walked to a Russian Orthodox Church! (Yeah, after my run this morning, I realized I had no clue what exhaustion was yesterday…) It was a fun day, though. :)

I bought a wheat baguette at the store before walking to Old Nice. It was kinda weird. White baguettes definitely taste better. But it was good enough that I kept eating it as Beth and I searched for the old part of the village.

It was really fun talking to Beth. Lol. We hung out a bit in Paris, but haven't really talked since leaving Paris. We realized we have a common friend, Heidi Olsen, who used to be Beth's roommate. Lol. Everybody else in the group had a funny friend connection to Beth, so I felt privileged to be included. Beth is awesome, because she talks to everybody in the group and is so friendly and fun. She's someone you can be instant friends with.

We found the old city, finally, after a long walk. Lol. But it was an enjoyable long walk. Going into the old village, you were hit by the bright colors all over again. And all the streets in the old village were so steep! Lol. We started the hike up to the "chateau", and my legs started complaining. If they spoke English, they would have said, "Rachel, what are you doing to us? No more, no more!" But I told them to be quiet and toughen up, and luckily they obeyed me.

So, the chateau isn't really a chateau. Lol. It's actually just the ruins of a wall that used to be part of a chateau. Now it's a garden/cemetery. Still beautiful with amazing views of the ocean and the city. But definitely not a chateau. Lol. There was also a cool waterfall on one of the paths. That was fun to take pictures by. This was also a fun little excursion because we met up with other people from the group and took some pictures. On the way back down we stepped into the cemetery. It was pretty cool. We were in the Jewish section of the cemetery. I didn't know this before our class reading last night, but France has the largest Jewish population in Europe. Cool, huh? Although, one thing that I'm still a little confused about. Why do Jewish people put rocks on loved ones' graves? I haven't figured that one out yet. Most things have symbolism in the Jewish religion, so I feel like it should be some sort of symbol. Maybe not, though…

Then we hopped on the tram to go to the Russian Orthodox Church. That was a pretty cool church! Very different from all the other churches I've seen on this trip, because it was Byzantine style, not Gothic or Neo-classic. It was a nice change. The murals on the walls of the church were very beautiful! Like all the other religious stuff we've seen, there was a lot of symbolism. One part of the decoration showed the Russian/French friendship. A lot of the Russian royalty liked to come to Nice, so they built a church there at the end of the 1800s to be able to worship the way they were used to. This was one of the first Russian Orthodox churches built outside of Russia.

I was a little appalled by one woman I saw there, though. She went up to one of the painted panels and rubbed her hands all over it! Hard! Doesn't she know that that thing is an antique? Oil paintings (or tempera, I couldn't tell which it was) do not last if people rub them! It's one thing to take photos when three or four signs at the entrance to the church say "no photos at all", but touching the paintings? Goodness…

Everybody went to the beach after getting back from the church. I didn't, though. Lol. I did laundry (for an arm and a leg! So expensive…) and then dozed by the pool. It was getting a little bit late, though, so I didn't really get any sun. Oh well. Lol.

We ended the night with FHE! Beth gave a lesson about President Monson's message from the Ensign. I loved the talk! And her lesson, too. It was a great reminder that sometimes the poorest and weakest and least pretty among us have the most beautiful souls. We need to remember everyone's potential as sons and daughters of God and treat them with the love and respect they each deserve. That's something I've struggled a little bit with this week in more than one way. It was a good reminder and a good time to reflect on how I've been doing.

We ended with a birthday party, celebrating Paris and Caitlyn's birthdays and all the people whose unbirthdays we didn't catch. (We have a birthday party every Monday and celebrate unbirthdays, as well as any birthdays that happened during the week.) Professor Le Bras bought pastries for everybody! Strawberry tarts and réligieuses and éclairs and a bunch of other things I didn't know the name of. I had a réligeuse. So yummy! It's basically a cream puff sandwich. The bottom layer is a big cream puff filled with chocolate cream, then there's a layer of chocolate ganache on top of that, topped with some sort of cream cheese-tasting icing. On top of that was a mini cream puff with the same chocolate cream and ganache on top of that. YUMMY!!!!!!!! And so fattening. All the good effects of my painful run, out the window! Oh well. Lol. I only have a few more days left of eating real French pastries!

Coming Down the Home Stretch

I just realized that every time I type a smiley face, it shows up as a J on my blog. Oops. Lol. I've been writing these on Word, not my blog, because I can only use the internet in the lobby, and that's a little annoying. So…I'll try to go back and change the J's to :), but we'll see if I get around to that. Just know that J=:).

Talking to Jeff was a great start to Sunday. Lol. After that, everybody was supposed to meet at 8:00 so we could go to church, but Professor Le Bras didn't get there until 8:30. Lol. So, we got to church really late. Lol. Fifteen minutes before Relief Society and Priesthood were over, so we just sat outside until the first meeting was over. It was really hard to focus during Sunday School, though. Lol. I was so tired (as was everybody in the group) so listening and trying to translate things into French was hard. The lady who taught was really interesting. At least, her outfit was. She wore a long, frilly shirt with a flowery pattern, then a pink skirt with big flowers on it, then baggy, Aladdin pants with a different flowery pattern under that. She topped it off with a mustard-colored sweater. SO interesting. Lol. I've never seen anybody dress like that before…even here in France. (Although the Aladdin pants are becoming really popular around here. They seem like they're a new thing, just coming to the scene. That and tube top coveralls which are really strange….)

Sacrament Meeting was a little better. Although it definitely seemed longer than normal. Sunday was the anniversary of D-Day, so a lot of the members talked about that and their gratitude for the Allied Forces and all the French people who died to liberate France.

After church, a bunch of us hit up the two museums we had to visit in Nice. Well, we had a list of museums that we had to go to, and everybody chose the Matisse and Chagall museums because they were within walking distance of the church. Happy day, they were both free! :)

I did not like the Matisse Museum. Lol. He's just not my favorite artist. I think all his stuff looks like kindergarten painting, which is cute when a five-year-old does it, not so much when it's from a grown man. The colors were fun, but other than that… It wasn't very exciting.

The Chagall was a little better. Still not my favorite, though. I prefer more classical art, I guess. Not the modern stuff. Bleh. Lol. Chagall was kind of cool, because he had a lot of religious art. And the color in his paintings was amazing, I'll give him that. I did like how he used different colors to express different emotions. I thought it was funny, because all his angels looked like fairies. Lol.

After that I came back to the residence and worked on journals and stuff like that. It was a pretty relaxing Sunday. :)

But can I just say I hate Kiss FM? Ugh! Stupidest radio station ever. Lol. It plays the same five songs over and over! And they're all English songs. Then they play a couple French songs in between to break it up. I'm so tired of hearing "Blame it on the giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirls. Blame it on the boooooooooooooooooys" and "I gotta help myself…soon!" and something about a shark in the water all day long! They play that radio station at the grocery store and in the lobby all day long! Ew! I hate it. I'm pretty sure they over play songs way more than American radio stations do. And they don't even understand what the songs are saying! I've definitely heard some pretty bad swearing on these radio stations, and it's in English. Or maybe they just don't care about what words are said on the radio.

And speaking of weirdness, I thought of another thing I didn't like about the beaches. Lack of clothing. :P So much of a lack that it makes a bikini look modest and our group of BYU girls look overdressed. It's sooooooo gross! :P I feel bad for the boys in our group. I don't want to see that. I can only imagine how much they don't want to. It just adds to my not wanting to go back to the beach….

There are great things about being here, though! Lol. Sorry. Not all of this visit to Nice is annoying. I love the weather. It's been hot, but not overpoweringly hot. It's been perfect hot. I've loved it. And old Nice is beautiful. I think I might go there Thursday or Friday and just walk around instead of going to the beach. :)

Au revoir, Paris!

Saturday we boarded our last autocar for the airport with all our luggage to start the last leg of our France adventure in Nice. I was so excited! Not because we were going to the beach, but because it meant there was only a week left until I got to see Jeff and my family!

Don't get me wrong. I've loved France. It's been an awesome experience for me and brought me huge blessings I almost didn't think possible. I've enjoyed myself. But sometimes you just miss American home-cooked meals, sleeping in your own bed, seeing the people you love, refrigerated cheese that doesn't make you sick.

On the flip side, there are definitely things that I'm going to miss about France. Bread that is so fresh and so delicious, to-die-for pastries, castles, class with Professor Le Bras and Professor Erickson, apple sauce pouches, the Devarennes, eating lunch in the Champs de Mars by the Eiffel Tower, cookies, Pago.

We got to the airport way early. Lol. So we had a long time to wait before our flight. Going through security was weird though! They didn't have you take off your shoes. Lol. But they went through my stuffed backpack! :P That was so annoying. Lol. Oh well. At least I didn't get the pat-down like Paris. Lol.

Funny thing about the trip, two people from our group lost their passports! The first one dropped his when we were walking to the gate, and there was a huge mess with the airport trying to find it. Luckily they found it before we boarded! Lol. Then a girl left her passport on the plane! And she didn't realize it until we were at the baggage claim waiting for our luggage and talking about Richard losing his passport. Lol. Oh, man.

The residence we're staying at is only 10 minutes from the airport. It's…ok. Lol. You have to pay for every little thing, though! Ugh. You had to pay eight euros for towels! Insanity! It's nice to have our own kitchen, though. And the bathroom isn't too bad. But the carpets are…..non-existent. Lol. It's not a carpet, it's a straw mat! Lol. The entire apartment except for the kitchen is covered with hard, scratchy straw stuff. And it's so dirty! If you walk across it a couple times with bare feet after a shower, your feet get black! The beds are okay….about the same as every other bed. Good thing that I've been exhausted every night, so I fall right asleep. Lol.

Nice is beautiful. J And so colorful! The flowers around the residence are the most brilliant shades of pink and purple. All the houses are yellow and orange with bright window shutters and roofs. The water is so blue, too! The only unfortunate thing is that the beaches are all rocky. Only pebbles, no sand.

Right after settling in at the residence, most of the group headed to the beach. It was fun to just relax, but I realized something after getting back from the beach. I'm not really a beach person. Like…going to the beach is fun one day, but after that I'm good with not going back for a couple months. Lol. I prefer the sight-seeing vacations, especially castles. Lol. I think one of my favorite parts of this trip is going to be the bus tour, definitely not Nice. Besides the castles, I loved seeing the little villages surrounding the castles. J Those are my favorite.

Oh, the other dumb thing about the residence is that internet costs 15 euro! :P For a week. Oh, well. I haven't spent that much this trip, so it wasn't terrible. But I can't even access it in my room. Lol. I have to go down to the lobby to get internet. Lame… (As Paris would say.)

But I'm surviving. J It will be a great last week, and then home! J

♪ The wheels on the bus go round and round ♫

Last day of the bus tour! It was bittersweet for me. Lol. Unlike everybody else in the group, I wasn't sick of castles yet. They weren't all blending together for me, either. Each one looks so different and has such a different history! But not everyone shares that view with me. Lol. And so I just ignored all the complaints from everybody else on the bus. I was lovin' life (so long as we weren't at the nasty hotels). I guess I just need to do the castle tour again with people who like castles or at least like making me happy/humoring me. That would be way more fun. Lol. Although, I've loved being on the bus with the Le Bras. They're so funny, as I've said before. All their jokes are hilarious! J I think they make up for the complaining fellow classmates.

Our first stop was the Blois castle. Each wing of this castle was from a different time period and a different architectural style, and it was fun to compare all the styles. I really liked our tour guide, too. She was really impressed that we wanted her to speak French. Lol. She was pretty interesting to listen to, too. One of the most interesting things about this castle was that the Duke of Guise was murdered here at the foot of the king's bed! On orders of King….Henri? The….III? IV? I can't remember. One of the sons of Catherine de Medicis, so probably the III.

This was another one of Francois 1er's castles, so there were salamanders everywhere in the decoration. I think the salamander is kind of a weird animal to pick for your symbol. (You can totally see one above the thrones in Ever After, though! That was cool.) It's little and not very powerful. Lol.

Catherine de Medicis had secret cupboards in her study, and I thought that was awesome. Lol. And you opened them with a little lever kind of like a trash can. That sort of thing would be so nifty! I kind of feel bad for Catherine de Medicis. I think she had it rough with the whole Diane de Poitier thing.

Then we saw the huge hall where the balls and big feasts took place. J As I said before, I love ballrooms. This one was cool, because there was a throne that tourists could sit on and take pictures! Lol. Our group had so much fun with that. Lol. Listening to Dr. Le Bras was the funniest part. He made a comment about every photo taken in that throne. Lol. On of my favorites, "Is it proper to show your legs at the court?" and his comments about Ryan "l'abeille" and "ses fleurs".

The last stop on our bus tour was to one of the biggest castles we've seen- Chambord! That thing is a beast! And it was supposed to be a hunting castle. Lol. The funny thing is, Francois 1er only stayed there 75 days in his life. The chateau was surrounded by woods and fields, much more natural than most castle gardens. The grounds were just as beautiful as any other castle's, though. I loved standing on top of the castle and watching the breeze ripple through the green and gold and orange grass.

Chambord also had so many towers! The huge towers were the coolest, though, because inside were the great staircases. These staircases were unique, because they were two staircases intertwined! Apparently the king wanted to be able to sneak down one staircase "unseen", so he'd have one of the intertwining staircases blocked off for his personal use. I don't know how you'd be unseen when you're the king, especially because people would know you were doing something if you had one of the staircases blocked…. But whatever.

This was the home of some of my favorite beds. J The queen's bed was so beautiful! It was blue with white designs. And of course, it perfectly matched the walls and had curtains. Another cool thing was the children's study! It was so cute. J The room was little, and there were two tiny chairs and a tiny desk. J Precious!

After touring the castle, Paris and I stopped for lunch. She got a sandwich (which I'm sick of. Lol. No more sandwiches!) and I got a crepe. Then we both got ice cream. J I definitely didn't need it, but the day was so warm and it tasted so good…. Mint chocolate chip. Mmmmm. J

The rest of the day was spent driving back to Paris and packing. That was stressful! Ah! We had to be under 20 kilos, so we had to leave as much behind as we could. I actually didn't end up leaving that much behind. But the other thing was, we could only have one carry on! Not a carry on and a personal item. One carry on period! I kinda cheated though…lol. I stuffed all the stuff from the bag I was originally going to have as my personal item into my backpack, and then I carried my raincoat and hid my purse, which wasn't fitting in my suitcase or my backpack, under my jacket. Haha, you Easyjet people! I fooled you! J

That was our last night in an Etap hotel… Which didn't even have that great a view of Paris, sadly. But we were too tired to go anywhere. And had too much to do as far as packing went. And we would have had to buy more metro tickets, and that would have been annoying. Lol. I know it sounds lame for my last night in Paris. Lol. But everybody in the group did that. Except Ryan, because he finished one of his walks that night. lol. But he didn't see any of the museums or go inside anything, so it wasn't much of a walk. Lol.

The night was interesting, though, because Paris and I were staying on a floor with all French high school students. A kid without a shirt on knocked on our door a couple times before he finally realized that we weren't anyone he knew. That kid should not go shirtless…. Just saying. And Paris said that while I was in the shower, there was this ear-piercing scream from somewhere down the hall. Weird… Why we got separated from the group and put with a bunch of teenagers, I don't know. Lol.

♪ And I slept in castles and fell in love because I was taught to dream… ♫

We continued our quest to plow through some of the Loire Valley's most famous castles Thursday, starting at the fairytale palace of Chénencaux. This was the home of Henri II's favorite mistress, Diane de Poitier, but was taken away from her by Henri's wife Catherine after his death. Despite some scandal in its past, the castle is absolutely gorgeous. It's built on top of a river, which I think is so cool! The French Resistance used the castle to carry information and people out of occupied France into the free zone during World War II.

The gardens around the castle were so beautiful! I love the castles that have beautiful flowers. J I think it makes them even lovelier.

One of my favorite parts of the castle was the ballroom! Or gallery…but I think they said in the brochure that it was used for balls sometimes. It's the section on the ground floor than spans the river, so you can look out the windows and see water right in front of you on both sides! Too bad there was no one to dance with. L The room was pretty empty when I went in. Even though it would be totally American-tourist to start dancing in a historical monument, I totally would have done it! I want a ballroom when I grow up. Lol. I think I'm just dancing-deprived, probably.

Another cool part of this castle was that they had the kitchens open! In most castles you don't really see the behind-the-scenes stuff. Just the king's bedroom and the council rooms and ballrooms and stuff. These kitchens were so big! I'd love to have a kitchen that big. Maybe. Lol. Actually, it's probably a little too big for me, now that I think about it. They had a room for preparing the dishes, a room for cooking the dishes, a room for washing, a room for the servants to eat, a room for storing everything. And each could fit at least 10 busy cooks!

And I always love the beds…. I don't know what it is about a four poster bed with cool curtains, but I'm just fascinated with them! This castle had a couple really cool ones, too. (Although I think my favorite bed was either at Versailles or at Chambord, which is coming soon!) There was one room that was completely black, which was really interesting. I guess some queen or noble woman lived at the castle after her husband died, and she painted the whole room black with white designs. She made the castle into a convent, actually. I liked the room because the bed and the walls matched so well. Lol.

The only disappointing part about this castle was that they were doing work on the façade, so the whole thing was covered! :P The covering had a picture of what the façade looks like, but still. It's not as cool to take pictures of a picture of a castle, especially when you're actually there! :P Oh, well. I guess that's what the return trip is for, right? ;)

Also, I totally found my dream house! Just in case anybody is interested. I found what I want my little French cottage to look like that I'm going to have when I'm old. J I just wanted to let you know, in case anybody reading this really should know about what my dream house is. The only thing it's missing is shutters, but those can easily be added. J This little cottage is part of the farm that sits just outside the castle grounds and is right next to a flower garden! J Me gusta!

The next castle we went to was Amboise, where Francois 1er lived. He's the king in Ever After! So, technically that whole movie would take place in this castle, because this is where Leonardo Da Vinci was invited to live, and actually where he's buried. But in the movie, they totally use a different castle. It doesn't look anything like Amboise. Sad day.

The other sad thing about this castle is that most of it was destroyed because some architect didn't think it was stable…or something like that. L So there's only a small portion left. It's definitely a cool portion, though. On the back side of the castle was a huge circular porch where you could look out over the river and the rest of the city. Also, there was this huge ramp at one end of the castle so you could ride a horse all the way to the top of the tower! How cool is that? I want to ride a horse to the top of a castle. Lol.

The chapel that held Leonardo Da Vinci's grave was cool. The architecture was really pretty. And seeing his grave! It was so weird to think that one of the greatest minds in history was buried right there. From the wall you could see the house he lived in while he was in France. That was also pretty cool. I wish I could have gone to it, but there definitely wasn't enough time.

We ended the day's journey in Blois, where we ate dinner at a café right next to the Blois castle. The dinner was okay. Lol. I swear, I've had more fries in the month and a half I've been in France than I have in three months at home. Gross! :P Although, they definitely don't put as much salt on them here. Which is good, I guess. I'm so sick of fries, though! We also had chicken, which was okay. Nothing really special. The dessert was good, though. Lava cake. Yum! But I feel like that's kind of American too, because my mom's made it several times. Nothing really French that meal. Lol. Paris liked it, though. J And I had fun, because we sat at a table with all girls and we had the girliest conversation ever. J And that's always enjoyable. Girly talks are essential, whether you're single, dating, engaged, or married.

And we stayed at an Etap!!! YAY!!!! And this Etap had the shower and toilet together! *sigh* It was amazing. I loved it. J After dinner we watched Ever After with Beth, which was really fun. J I'd wanted to watch that movie the whole time I was in France. Well, at least after going to the Louvre. And then I really wanted to watch it after visiting Amboise. And we did! J That movie's awesome. I might make Jeff watch it with me when I get home. Even though I'll probably talk his ear off the entire time. Lol. Oops. J Apologies in advance….

“She has a tower?”

No, not exactly, but she'd like one! J Maybe someday… But Angers certainly had plenty of towers to spare!

Angers, or at least the Angers Chateau, has something like 17 towers! It's crazy! But so cool, because you can walk around the entire wall and can walk on top of all the towers. Granted, the towers aren't that high, but the walls are so thick that this would have been one of the hardest fortresses to break into! Should you and your army be in the neighborhood and looking for a fortress to capture, this would not be the one at which to try your luck! Despite its great military reputation, the fortress is a gorgeous safe haven for legendary gardens and tapestries.

Angers is home to an old chapel from the 11^th or 12^th century. The wall has a couple painted sections, but other than that it's pretty bare. I liked it, but I liked the outside of the castle more.

Walking along the wall was amazing! You could see the whole city, including the river. I love views from castle walls. The city surrounding a castle usually as so many old houses and shops, with tiny, winding streets paved in cobblestone. Each house is different and they all look hundreds and hundreds of years old. It would be like stepping back into the Middle Ages, were it not for the cars careening around corners and honking wildly. (Ok, that's an overstatement. Sometimes. But a lot of people drive crazy around here!)

My favorite part was the flowers. Flowers and bushes grew everywhere! All over the rock walls, in the garden, in the courtyard. The garden of the castle has been there since medieval times, and people still tend it today. It was in these gardens that one of the kings of France (I think) wooed a girl named Fleurte (or something similar to that) with "flowery" language, according to our audio guide. The French named this flowery language after the girl it was directed to, which came down through the years as the verb "flirter" which I assume is where we got the word "flirt". If the audio guide is to be believed… It may or may not be an accurate source, you can never tell. But anyway, bottom line is I was in the place where flirting started. Lol. Or at least was named.

Another amazing part of the castle was the bathrooms!!! Maybe I was just a little nice-bathroom deprived, but I thoroughly enjoyed the restrooms at Angers. They were very clean for being castle restrooms. (Restrooms I saw in Paris were gross!!! Even in museums!) And the sinks were a work of genius! Instead of having to touch a disgusting faucet to turn the water on and off, thus getting your hand all dirty again right after washing, you worked the sink with a little lever by your knee! The downside was you couldn't really adjust the temperature, but the water wasn't very cold! I loved it. Sigh. J And the soap smelled so good, too!

The other cool part of Angers was the tapestry that outlined the Book of Revelation from the Bible. There were so many tapestries! And each was so detailed! I loved seeing all the symbolism they used. And I thought it was funny, because these tapestries were made during the 100 Years War, and in a lot of the devils scenes or wicked scenes, they had English kings or English soldiers. Lol. The tapestries were so well-preserved, it was hard to believe some of them were made several hundred years ago.

The next stop was Langais, a cute little chateau where Anne of Bretagne married…Charles something, king of France to unite Bretagne with France. It wasn't a splendid castle, but it was definitely one that felt more like a home than a fortress. You wouldn't actually get lost in that place. Lol. Unlike so many castles… I liked it because it showed a lot of the everyday life at that time. There was a room with a bunch of children's stuff in it that I thought was so interesting! They had a medieval highchair and a medieval walker! Lol. Along with a cradle and things like that. Who knew they had walkers in the Middle Ages? That tour was also fun because we all went around together as a group and somebody from the group read a card about each room we went to. Following the tour, we took group pictures and walked around the ruins behind the castle.

Dinner was so fancy that night! We had at least four courses. Appetizers, which were a bunch of little quiches and toasts with chicken or tuna (we couldn't tell which) and cream puffs with some sort of fish and little pieces of bread with some sort of meat and tomato on it. And the bread they gave us for in between was fresh! Usually restaurants, even nice restaurants, give you bread that isn't so out-of-the-oven fresh that it crinkles when you squeeze it. The juice was really good to, even though I would have liked it a little sweeter. I didn't love the salad course, but I ate it all. Lol. It was a sandwich made of thin, cracker-like things (more like wafers with a bunch of seeds and stuff in them) with shrimp and a salad stuff in between. It wasn't nasty, but it definitely didn't make my list of stuff to try recreating. The salad part was good, though. They had chips made from some sort of squash and sweet potato? I'm not exactly sure. They were purple and orange. For the main course, we had veal (adding to my list of unusual meats, at least for Americans) and potato pancakes and a dumpling and a squash puree. It was ok… A little strange, because it was all in a cinnamon sauce. (At least, I think it was cinnamon. Maybe brown sugar, I can't remember.) I ate everything except the puree. I ate a couple bites of that, but….it tastes kinda like sweet potatoes, and those make me gag. Lol. Like, I can't make myself eat them. Not just I really don't like to eat them, I can't eat them. They don't go down my throat. Lol.

Then dessert was awesome! It was really thin pistachio cookies with orange crème and strawberries in the middle and a scoop of raspberry basil ice cream. The basil was kinda weird, but I liked it.

We stayed at a Premiere Classe hotel, which wasn't so premiere classe, but hey, we had our own bathrooms and the shower was even in the same room as the toilet, which made the bathroom really tiny, but that's ok. Lol. I enjoyed it. And we had internet! Another huge plus…7

Fortress in the Clouds

Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. :P We left the comforts of the Etap Hotel (with its stand-up showers, close bathroom area, and windows in the shower door) to face the elements as we trekked to the second most-visited sight in France (after the Eiffel Tower)—Mont Saint Michel.

Mont Saint Michel is actually not a castle, even though it looks like one. It started as a church dedicated to Saint Michael and built on a huge rock in the shallow water near the coast of Normandy. (Well, it used to be Brittany, but then a river changed course and now it's in Normandy.) Some monk or abbot or somebody had a dream that the rock was the place where Saint Michael defeated a dragon (like in the Book of Revelation), so he built a church there. Then it was expanded and a huge wall was built around the rock to enclose all the houses and shops that had been built around the church. Apparently it's the only stronghold that the British couldn't break through.

I loved walking through the city! All the little houses are so close together and the streets are tiny. It looks like you stepped into a city that's entirely stuck in the Middle Ages. There aren't even any cars! It was a little bit of a hike up to the top, but I enjoyed it despite the cold. I loved the fog that was everywhere. It made it so romantic. J So many things in France are vachement romantique! No wonder it's the most-visited country as far as tourism goes.

Mont Saint Michel served as a monastery for a long time. It is still home to monks and nuns, because it continues to be a huge pilgrimage place. It's supposed to be a sort of modern-day Jerusalem. (At least that's what it was in medieval times.) People still trek barefoot through the water to get to the fortress to go to the church. Standing atop the huge courtyard at the top of the monastery, you can see lush fields and tons of water. The mist just added to the beauty, I thought, rather than detracted from it. But I guess I'm just a romantic like that, as I said before.

The church and buildings surrounding it were beautiful too. A lot of them had moss and ivy growing over the stones, which is disgusting to some people but I think adds to the effect. I love the contrast between the stone and the greenery. There were so many different styles of architecture, too! This is why I love castles and other places like Mont Saint Michel. They take so long to build, that a single building can have three or four different styles of architecture. You see a union between Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance architecture. It's so crazy to me to think that these structures have lasted through so much. They were around for both world wars, the French Revolution, all the political unrest France has endured, so many kings. Many bear marks from the passing times, like all the heads of sculptures of Christ being broken off during the Revolution, but the buildings still stand, monuments to the faith and strength of those who built them.

Something interesting I learned from our cool tour guide at Mont Saint Michel, all the workers laying stones carved a number or letter into the stones they put in, because they were paid by the number of stones. You don't usually hear a lot about the actual workers who built the fortresses. Usually you hear about the architects or the nobles who commissioned the building.

We stopped by a tiny sandwich shop after the tour to get lunch and escape the rain and cold. Paris and I huddled with a couple other girls from the group eating delicious sandwiches (the most like an American sub I've tasted in France!) when the shop owner's good friend sauntered in for some wine and a chat. We were huddled by the window in the back, which was right where the friend positioned himself. He started talking to us, asking us where we were from and what we were up to. Then he started making fun of his friend, who took it good-naturedly while helping more customers. Lol. The friend was so funny! I think he made a couple of crude jokes, but I didn't catch the meaning, which was good. He talked to us about so many different things! Everything from the weather to the oil spill to Robert Redford. Just the way he spoke was so animated! Lol. He moved around a ton too. And probably down at least three glasses of whatever wine he was mooching off his shop keeper friend. So funny! He had to go after a little while, because I guess he owned a restaurant nearby too, and so ended our enjoyable lunch. I was so surprised, because I actually understood a lot of what he was saying, and he was speaking really fast! J

While we waited for everyone to go down to the bus, Paris and I stopped in some of the souvenir shops and I bought a box of cookies, which apparently are a specialty of that area. They were so yummy!!! Oh, man… And then we stopped on the way to our next stop at a little shop where they actually make the cookies. So we got free samples and bought huge bags of cookies. Sigh. So delicious.

Our next stop was St. Malo, where we almost lost Paris for good. Lol. Not really, but she fell in love and we almost couldn't get her back on the bus. St. Malo is a town that used to be a fortress, but got destroyed during World War II. After the war, they rebuilt the city almost exactly the way it had been before. It looks like a really old city, but a lot of the stuff isn't really that old. A wonderful beach was right next to the fortress, and that is where we almost lost Paris. Lol. Bio majors. ;) This place was cool, because there was a little fortress on a pile of rocks a little ways out from shore. You could get there just walking on low tide. Beth and I walked around a bit and took a bunch of pictures while we waited for Paris, who was exploring all the rocks. Then we wrote some stuff in the sand before going up to the city wall and walking along that for a while. Paris went out to investigate a 1930s swimming pool built of stone and sitting in the middle of the water.

That night, we checked into the worst hotel I have ever, ever stayed at. It made me realize more perks to traveling with my dad. :P We didn't even have our own bathrooms! Ugh. And bathrooms are so important to me… L I can't tell you the importance of having a nice bathroom! Or at least a decent one. Or even just having one at all. The entire floor shared the showers and the toilets, and there were no sinks near the toilets! You had to go back to your room if you wanted to wash your hands! AND there wasn't even any soap in the bedrooms! Ugh! No te amo, Formule 1 Hotel! And there wasn't any internet, either. Wasn't too happy about that one, although I think the bathroom thing was more important to me. It made me grateful for Etap hotels… And I never thought I'd say that. Ever.

Although, the dinner almost made up for it. It was sooooooo good! First off, the restaurant looked so cool inside. The plates were cool blends of red and clear glass, and the whole room had a cool Asian/modern Euro feel. The bread was pretty good, but the dishes! Oh, man. The first course was a thin layer of tender salmon on top of the flakiest pastry I've ever tasted. TO DIE FOR! Then we had chicken that practically fell apart when you touched it with a fork and boiled potatoes in a mouth-watering sauce that was kind of sweet, but I couldn't tell what was in it. There was also a baked apple with the main course. For dessert, crème brulée! And the most delicious crème brulée I've ever tasted. The top was perfectly crisp, not burnt, and the crème below was so sweet and smooth. I really want to learn how to make that stuff. Sigh. Project for the summer! J (As if I don't have enough already, lol.) The dessert also came with little Madeleine-like cookies shaped like seashells.

I started a list of all the foods I want to try to recreate. Lol. Lucky Jeff! He gets to be the guinea pig for my cooking. ;)

Memorial Day at Normandy

Five AM is just too early to get up… But we did it, because we had to finish packing and drag all of our luggage, every possession we had in this country, from Boulogne, on the Metro, to the professor's apartment at Ecole Militaire. Ugh. Lol.

So we said goodbye to the Devarennes, which was actually pretty sad, because they were so nice and so friendly to us, and embarked on our trek across the city with way too much to carry. Luckily, Mr Devarenne gave us a ride to the Metro station. (Which was so nice, because he usually doesn't get up until about 7.) That saved us so much time, but also meant that we got to Ecole Militaire really early! Lol. Which I guess was okay. The Metro wasn't too bad either. I thought that it was going to be packed, because usually the roads in the US are really busy at that time of day. It was pretty empty, though. That was happy. It would have been so hard to cram our suitcases on the train if there were a lot of people. And we got off at Motte Picquet station instead of switching trains and riding to Ecole Militaire, because dragging our bags up and down more flights of stairs didn't sound that appealing… We just walked from Motte Picquet, which is only about a 15 minute walk, and it goes right past the Eiffel Tower, so it was enjoyable.

We got to Ecole Militaire, and nobody was there. No surprise, seeing as it was 6:35 and we weren't meeting until 7:15. Lol. Oops. Carre Four wasn't even open yet, so we couldn't get breakfast. We sat outside waiting for everybody for at least half an hour before anyone showed up. It wasn't very cold, and we were pretty tired, so it wasn't too big of a deal. I think we should get points for being the first ones there.

After everyone who lived in the city got to the apartment, we left on a huge, hot pink bus to pick up the group members who lived in the suburbs. I was planning on at least trying to sleep on the bus. That didn't happen. :P This bus is worse than a plane or a car. Lol. It's comfortable for just sitting, but even if you have a whole row to yourself, you can't sleep. Or at least I can't. So uncomfortable.

With the suburb students on board, we headed for Normandy on the northern coast of France, bidding goodbye to the city of Paris until Friday.

We stopped in Bayeux first to see the legendary Bayeux tapestry which recount the conquest of England by Guillame le Conquerant, who happens to be an ancestor of mine, so that was cool. The tapestry is actually more of an embroidery…it's not a real tapestry. It was used as a tarp to put over weapons being shipped to Paris during the Revolution, but somebody saved it and it's still all the way intact.

After the tapestry, Paris and I ate at the cutest little crêperie. We sat outside next to a little stream lined with willows. J Loved it! And the path leading up to it was cobblestone and windy. *sigh* So romantic.

So…at the restaurant they had an offer which let you get one crêpe salée and one crêpe sucrée and a drink. The first crêpe had ham and cheese and eggs on it and was wheat, and the other had chocolate and powdered sugar on it. For the drink, the only two options you had were café or cidre. We weren't really sure what cidre was, so we asked the waiter if there was alcohol in it. He assured us that there wasn't, that it was "just like apple juice" (only he said it in French), except he added at the end the word "legere" or something like that, which means "very little". Well, we didn't catch that, so we ordered cidre and were really excited for some nice apple juice. Then the waiter brought it out…and there were lots of little bubbles and it smelled funny. And we were so disappointed. Because obviously there was alcohol in it. L And the cups were so cold. And it was a little warm that afternoon. *sigh* So I just asked for a carafe d'eau so we could at least have something to drink with our meal, even if the water wasn't that cold. The crêpes were delicious though! I'm totally making some when I get home. The waiter was a little disappointed when we didn't drink the cidre. He didn't quite get it when we said we didn't drink alcohol at all.

It wasn't until we were on the bus that we realized that it was Memorial Day. We'd been talking about how it was a pity we weren't going to Normandy a week later so we could be there on the anniversary of D-Day. I think it was just as cool that we were there on Memorial Day, though. What better way to honor the men who died for our freedom than to visit their cemetery in France?

We made it to the memorial, and for the first time in a month, stepped onto U.S. soil. Cool, huh? France gave that land to the States for the memorial, which means that everything is in English first, and then French, there are free bathrooms that are nice, and drinking fountains! Drinking fountains in France! I wasn't thirsty, but I had to get a drink, because there's no such thing as a drinking fountain in France.

We watched a couple cool movies about some of the soldiers who died at Normandy. I think sometimes people forget that these soldiers were people just like us. They had families and jobs. They were students who left college because they wanted to serve their country. Many had young wives and young children. Some had children they never lived to meet. So many of them were about the age of my friends—early- to mid-twenties. I thought about what it would be like if all the guys around my age left to go fight in Europe. Only a few of them would be professional soldiers. How many would return? There were stories about families who received multiple telegrams announcing the death of loved ones at Normandy. It would be hard losing one family member, but losing two in the same week? Maybe the same day? I can't even imagine.

We walked out of the visitors center onto the path that led to the cemetery. From the path we could see the beach stretched out in front of us. The water was so blue and the sand so smooth. Not very many people walked on the beach, despite the wonderful weather and the beauty of the beach, probably out of respect for what took place there almost 75 years ago.

Before going down to the beach, we walked to the memorial. Standing on the steps of the monument, a vast field of white crosses lay in front of us. Each had an American and French flag, and some had little flowers. We walked through the rows and rows of grave markers. Some had names and states. Others just stated that a fallen comrade lay there. There were so many. The rows of crosses just kept going and going. There were several Jewish markers, as well. That was cool to see.

We walked down to the beach before leaving. It was so quiet and so peaceful. I think it's one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been to. It was hard to imagine one of the greatest battles of World War II happened right where I was standing. What happened on that beach changed history, restoring freedom to the French people and protecting the liberty of the rest of the world.

The next stop was at Pointe de Hoc, (le nom m'a fait sourire…je ne suis pas sûre pourquoi…. Peut-être parce-que j'ai ajuté un 's' au fin Lol) where Allied forces attacked another German stronghold. The site has been mostly untouched since the battle, and enormous craters still gauge the landscape. Each is at least 10 feet across and at least that much deep. (I'm not exactly sure, I'm not great with estimating distance.) Foundations of cement buildings can still be seen and barbed wire and iron lace through the gaping holes. It's all been covered with grass now, but the marks of war are still vivid.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about Sister Le Bras! She joined us Monday. I've loved having her along! She and Professor Le Bras are so funny together. Sister Le Bras is from Vietnam, and speaks both English and French very well. (Dr. Le Bras, of course, is French.) I wonder what they speak at home. I know their kids don't speak Vietnamese, but I wonder if they spoke English or French more when they were growing up.

That night, we ate at a restaurant in St…..something. I can't remember. (It was a place attacked by Allied Forces during World War II about the same time as the Normandy invasion. And it's in Normandy, too.) Dinner was a little interesting. Lol. We had an appetizer of pastry filled with asparagus, shrimp, and cheese. I was so full by the end of it! And everybody thought that was the main course. Lol. So we were prepared for dessert when they brought out huge plates of pork leg and fries. It was…interesting. Lol. The pork was still on the bone and still had skin around it…which was kinda gross. And there was tons of fat, which I hate eating. It was cooked in a honey and cidre sauce…which I still can't decide if I liked. It was okay, I guess. But weird. And then we had something like flan for dessert. That was okay, too. Not my favorite.

On the way to the restaurant, we realized our bus driver had no clue what he's doing sometimes. He couldn't find the entrance to the hotel parking lot, even though we were all telling him which way to go, and we had to turn around twice before we finally got to the hotel. We kept going around the roundabouts twice before actually making a decision about which way to go. :P Then when we were trying to find the restaurant, we went around one roundabout twice and parking right in the middle of the roundabout! We blocked the entire thing! And we sat there for like five minutes. Lol. Of all the places to park, the middle of a roundabout!

Well, that was about it for the Monday adventures. Lol.