Forward Motion: Do Like The French Do

I apologize in advance for the length of this post. There is so much to say. I spent a long time thinking about what to write and I settled on just writing it all. So i shall start at the very beginning because, well, that is a very good place to start.

I left Salzburg Christmas evening to rendezvous with Georgia, a friend of mine I met in Granada, in Paris at 12 on the 26th of December. To give you a quick summary Georgia knew a few French girls she had met in August in Madrid and they invited her to come visit them over xmas break. Georgia really didn't even know them that well but wanted to visit and I asked if I could come along. I ended up leaving my phone in Madrid on accident and had no idea what time Georgia's flight was landing or even what airport she was flying into. So, once again, I just boarded the train and figured I would come up with a plan the next day. Upon arrival to Paris I procured a map, bought 3euro wireless and proceeded to try to contact Georgia. It was a fail. Greatest part was i didn't even know her cell number. But thankfully, while on Facebook my program director in Granada was online and I asked him to give me her number. And i bought a phone card and gave Georgia a call. She was waiting at the Paris-Beauvais airport which if anybody has every flown in there then you know, it is really not in Paris but an hour and a half outside the city. It is the 'economy' airport. Unfortunately i had no idea where that was so I told her to just meet me under the Eifel Tower. You know, like you do. So cliche but it was the only thing I could think to do. So 3 hours later.....Georgia finally got to the tower. She then told me we had to go to the Notre Dame to meet the girls and their parents. So, we hopped back on the metro and headed to the Notre Dame.

We were 45 minutes late, but thankfully, they were still there. 2 French girls ages 22 and 20 and their parents (who didn't speak much English at all) greeted us with lots of kisses on the cheeks and excited smiles. The mom and daughters knew some spanish so for 2 days we mostly spoke in Spanish. It was so weird but so cool. The parents had rented an apartment in Paris for 2 nights and immediately began touring us around the city in their mini-van. It was amazing. I knew I was going to love the trip from that moment on. We drove around a lot and visited so many famous things. Then went to a mass (they are vey catholic) and saw Paris by night. Then headed back to the tiny and very cute apartment. The next day we tried to go to the Louvre but it was closed so we took lots of pictures and went to the Sainte Chapelle instead. Drove around some more and walked a bunch. In the evening we made it to the Galleries Lafayette, very famous department store mall in Paris. They still had all of the lights and Christmas tree up. Just about the prettiest thing I have ever seen. I couldn't stop smiling and taking pictures. We ended our visit by going up to the roof of the mall and seeing a panoramic view of Paris once again. It was incredible. Then we were informed by the girls that we were going to their friend Claire's house for dinner. We ate dinner with 6 other french people our age in a cute apartment house in Paris. It was indescribably amazing. The next day we drove to their house near Vannes in the Brittany region of France. 5 hour drive. And on the way we casually just stopped at the Palace of Versailles. One great thing about being a student is that I get into almost all museums and major monuments for FREE!!!! and especially so when I am with native french/spanish speakers. So we literally ran through the Palace for an hour. It was unreal. I couldn't stop laughing in disbelief. Then back to the car.

I should say that the whole trip (2 weeks) i never knew what we were going to do until about 5 minutes before we were going to go do it. This was very freeing and a lot of fun.

We arrived at their French country cottage. Georgia and I couldn't believe how french it was. It looked like the house in The Holiday, only cooler and of course, french. And the surprises kept getting better and better. The dad played the accordion, painted, made his own jam and cider and was so excited about the little things in life. Their mom was super hospitable and always wanted to make sure we felt at home. The dad had rigged up a sound system and dance party lights in the small cottage and so everyday when he wasn't playing the accordion for us, we had crazy spontaneous dance parties.

Everyday for the next 5 days we had 2 full course meals including appetizers and post meal wine and cheese. We attended a New Years Eve party with the girls friends, ran in the french countryside, visited many famous places, took pictures on the beach, hunted oysters and ate them raw, saw WW2 remnants, stayed up late giggling and laughing, shopped for New Years apparel, and did so many french things i lost count. The girls had 2 another friend over during New Years. The party we went to was so much fun. I danced real dances with a french boy who lead very well thankfully. Also watched several people jump into the Atlantic Ocean before midnight. It was super fun.

One day they all asked me to teach them a Texas song (sorry NC but nobody really knows where you are) and so of course, I taught them "Deep in the Heart of Texas." Listening to french people sing this song brought a few tears to my eyes. We also taught them the Electric Slide. it was epic.

After about 5 days it was time to say goodbye to the family and head to Rennes where one of the girls goes to college. We stayed in her apartment for the next 4 days. We went to an anatomy class in french (Georgia got in trouble for accidentally yawning), ran along the beautiful river, went out with her friends, went to Mount St. Michel, and cooked a lot of fun meals. It was like a dream, the best I've ever had.

Last friday Georgia and I returned to Paris for the day. We spent the afternoon at the Louvre. I saw the Mona Lisa and many many other famous paintings I thought I would never see. We then spent the night in a hotel that felt like a dirty cruise ship before catching a 9am flight to Madrid the next day.

That is but a short summary of my time in Northern France. It was so amazing. I had a 2 week crash course in french, realized how much I had missed butter, fell in love with all things French, learned a lot about myself and saw things I have only ever dreamed about. It was truly an incredible time that I will not soon forget. An experience like that is hard to match. And I hope very much to see the Robino family again. I am forever thankful for their hospitality to us.

Palace at Versailles

country cottage

super cool beach

double rainbow

Carnac

one of the very beautiful churches we went to. I took so many pictures of stained glass windows on this trip i feel like need to create a photo album of them all.