Unpacking Revelations

 I want to do one more last post about this trip. Then it'll probably be back to normal life again. I have to go in to work early tomorrow for various reasons. And I know myself: it's going to be a long, tiring first week back. 

Looking back at what you packed makes you realize what you didn't need and what you absolutely needed. I think I did pretty good this time around. Mom, however, packed quite a bit that we just didn't need. Yes, I said 'we': she packed extra hand sanitizer and other things we could both use. 

The top thing on my list that I didn't need was my extra pair of shoes. I wish I hadn't brought them. Everything else? I think I used it all at least once.

But what did I need and absolutely not go without? Well, I tell you, but keep in mind some of these are items that I need and maybe you wouldn't. So, here's 6 things Ally needs while traveling in France, not counting a phone, adapters, a converter, passport & other papers, money, and, you know, essentials like toothbrush and toothpaste, etc.

1. Scopolamine: 

The patch that gets me through the airplane flight. For those of you who also get REALLY motion sick, go ask your doctor to give you a prescription too. If you get a bit motion sick, maybe you should try over-the-counter stuff first, like dramamine. From personal experience, the dramamine that makes you sleepy is stronger and works better...but it doesn't work enough for me. 

2. Cough drops: 

Even if you don't have a cold or cough. Airplanes are just so dang dry. My throat hurt so bad and my nose was even dried out to the extent that I was wondering if and when I was going to get a nose bleed. Cough drops were a God-send after both plane rides there and back.

And if you don't like the thought of cough drops, I'd substitute mints. They are pretty good in a pinch too.

3. Wash cloths: 

I know not everyone uses them, some of my family members included, but if you use them, Take Them With You To France! There was only 1 hotel that had them. Repeat: Only ONE hotel had wash cloths. And if you can get a fast-drying kind, even better.

4. Zip-lock/plastic bags:

I am a huge fan of Zip-lock. 2 gallon bags, 1 gallon bags, and quart-sized. So, when you pack your clothes, roll them, don't fold them. Then, I put them 2 gallon bags (or 1 gallon if I run out or based on how I separate the clothes). For instance, I usually put all my socks and underwear in one bag. Then I try to put all my tops in another, etc. 

I also pack empty bags for dirty clothes, labeled of course.

Another bonus item to go with the Zip-lock bags for your clothes: dryer sheets in each bag. It keeps your clothes smelling fresh for a longer time. And you can use them if you need to wash and dry your clothes while your abroad. Or if you aren't gone too long, just use them when you get home.

5. Massage tools

What I mean is a yoga block and a hand massage tool. I'm not sure exactly what the tool is called. At Pilates class here at home, we call it "Antonio". And he is fabulous. Going along with the massage, pack enough lotion. 

And be sure to have someone certified in yoga or Pilates show you how to properly use them!

6. A travel My Pillow:

OMG, my new hero is Mike Lindell from the company My Pillow. Every hotel we stayed at had pillows that were either too flat or too fluffy. Nothing sturdy enough for me. But Mom & I each had a travel pillow from My Pillow and it made sleeping so much easier. The bonus feature of the travel pillows from this company is that they roll up in their pillow cases for easier packing!

That about sums it up. I think that covers the entire trip too. Thanks for reading my blog and keeping up with the adventure Mom & I had in northern France this year.

Next year, hopefully we'll be in Italy!

Home Again, Home Again

Another sporadic post about different things today, but all having to do with being home from France.

 It is a bit weird. We went walking on the trails yesterday and someone passed by and said 'Hello'. My brain panicked and then I laughed at myself after they passed by and I managed to say "Hi" back instead of "Bonjour." It's like, "What the heck???? Why are random strangers talking to me??? Oh, yeah. I'm home." 

And, yes, I did have to fight myself to not say "Bonjour" instead of "Hi." I'm going to blame the French workers at the Paris hotel, because sometimes they'd just automatically speak in English for us, but, being nice, I responded in French when I could.

After walking, we went to get apples at the orchard. Applesauce time!!! I look forward to this all year, as many of you know. When Mom got done paying for apples, she admitted that she had to stop herself from saying "Merci". 

I think being in France for 15 days has messed with us just a little bit. 

Okay, maybe quite a lot. At least, it has for me.

We went out to breakfast this morning...no big surprise if you know my parents. I was craving eggs not cooked in cream and cooked longer the American way. When it came out, I realized that the omelet was huge. I really think portions are smaller in France...well, except at Colette's where she wants you to eat until you're unconscious. I'm blaming her mother, who was the same way because she lived through WWII.

I also found myself getting really sad as I ate my omelet this morning. It finally dawned on me when I had finished: the cheese is different. It is actually disheartening. I miss French cheese. And the extra flavors that I've gotten used to in the meal. It's just different here.

Let's talk about what I missed here in the US while in France for just a bit:

Cherries. I missed cherries something fierce. Every time I commented about that to Mom, she laughed and reminded me that we were in France, not Michigan. Yep: I missed cherries and peaches. I feel like the French are really big on raspberries, apricots, and, in Normandy, apples.

I also found myself missing my piano a lot. I've recently started playing it often. To enhance my sadness on not having my piano, my hands started hurting a few days after we arrived. It's like training your muscles to work out extensively and then going cold turkey: the muscles don't like that. I just got done playing my piano for an entire hour before sitting down to do this blog.

Of course, we missed our family. We also missed our little princess...our spoiled little dog, Maggie. When I got home late Friday night, I walked in and she started barking until she saw me. Then she ran up to me like I am on her friends list and gave me a few kisses. It was so surprisingly nice. I need to go away for two weeks more often. Usually, I'm not on that friends list.

 Mom missed being able to talk to our family on the phone whenever she wanted to. The whole, "You have to wait until we have wifi or when they would be up."

She also missed not being able to understand the homily at Masses. And not having people speak English as the first language got tiring after a while.

I missed having my own room. Not that there was anything wrong with having to share with Mom. It's the introvert in me. I think the main problem was that we were constantly "Go, go, go!" and I didn't have any down-time and time to myself other than a few hours at night.

As crazy as it sounds, we missed our hairbrushes. We left the ones we normally use at home and took smaller and/or different ones with us. Maybe the men won't get it, but I'm sure some women reading this post do.

Mom also says that it was really hard with transportation when we were on our own: figuring out the buses and not knowing our way around. (We're talking right now, brainstorming what we missed, and I mentioned that curiously I didn't miss my car like I did in 2017. That's how the transportation conversation came up.)

It was also tedious having bathrooms that were the size of a postage stamp, as Candace from "Phineas and Ferb" would say. And Mom had to get used to having the toilet in a separate room from the shower and the sink.

Also strange: Mom says she didn't really miss her knitting needles because we were constantly busy. However, she did miss having the chance to pull out any sweater she wanted to wear every day instead of just the few she packed. (I limited her on the number she was allowed to take. I wasn't going to let her take 200 sweaters for two weeks.)

I feel like there was something else I wanted to talk about, but I don't remember. Oh, I know what it was! Packing essentials! Maybe I'll post about that later.

Until then!

La Norriture = French Food

 Let's talk about food today now that we're back home, shall we? Because I miss it already. Just to warn you, though: this may be a sporadic post as I try to think of all the food we ate.

The first time I went to France, I really didn't care for the food, besides the bread. I'm going to blame it on the 90 degree weather. It's just not fun to eat when you're hot and there isn't air conditioning where you're staying...and you're also not used to walking everywhere...and you aren't used to balsamic vinegar on pretty much everything that you're being fed.

But this time...OMG the food. 

Of course, there was bread at every meal. And not American bread. Baguettes galore! I was in heaven. If you are one of those weird people who think they need to be gluten free, but don't actually have celiac disease, I feel so sorry for you that my sorrow is borderline disgust. And I bet you the French agree with me. If you don't eat gluten, don't you dare go to France. It would be insulting to tell them that you won't or can't eat their bread. And, again, I am 100% on their side.

Oh, I miss French bread so much. Mom & I want to transplant a Boulangerie (French bakery) to here in Fort Wayne so bad. A big reason that it is so good, other than the fact that they make it well, is that it is always fresh. Always. The bakers get up early in the morning to bake bread, and then they bake more for the evening. It is sooo good warm! They do it right.

Another small topic about the bread: the French don't usually put butter on their bread. But they don't need to. I'm telling you: it's that good.

Mom commented the second night in Paris (pretty sure) that the food in France is just so good! Everything is so fresh. I believe and have been told that it is true: they just don't use preservatives. 

We both ate a lot of fish while we were there. If you remember from my post on Amiens, we had a Wok (a chinese dish with noodles) with salmon, shrimp, and carrots. I guess you could say we had Chinese food, but I bet it tastes different in China. The best fish that we had there by far was at a restaurant called De Vinci (yes, after the painter). Oh, that cod was Sooo good. The French even know how to cook international dishes with their own style and still have it come out tasting fabulous.

Let's see...what else did we eat.

We had salmon sandwiches at Sainte Mere Eglise, near the Normandy beaches. The sign said it was salmon on a bagel, but the bagel was more like a croissant texture-wise, but it wasn't as buttery as a croissant.

Mom tried escargot in Bayeaux. That's snails, for those of you that don't know. She said she didn't know if she'd actually like it, but she did. Apparently it had a lot of garlic sauce. I went with the sausage & potatoes that night, and they were wonderful. Bayeaux is known for its sausages. 

For the main course in Bayeaux, Mom had scallops. I don't remember what I ate.

We had duck in Paris at our farewell dinner. 

In Paris, one night Mom & I ordered crème brûlée to share. That was okay. I'd get it again if I was craving dessert.

At De Vinci's in Tours, we had baked Alaska. I didn't entirely care for it because it had alcohol in it. Kerry, our driver, was sad that he didn't get to eat very much of it since he had to drive us back to our hotel that night. As a side-note: in order for the bus to turn on, Kerry had to blow into this device. Very interesting and safe for us.

I have already talked about the strawberries in the Loire Valley: just so sweet and wonderful. Almost tasted like candy. I miss those strawberries.

Mom also got to taste tiramisu, which she really liked. I liked it because it didn't have any alcohol in it, but it wasn't my favorite either. Too much coffee in that one.

I had meringue Flan while in Bayeaux. Nothing I really have to have again. We also had a caramel meringue at Colettes...it was so-so. Remember that I don't care for caramel either. I've found that Flan is very fluffy. I'd just rather have a brownie. I guess I'm too American.

Colette also baked us an apple & raisin crisp. I think that was the best dessert while in France. Of course, I'm not counting the chocolate macron and raspberry macron (macaroons in American english) we bought at a rest stop. Those were wonderful. If you don't know, macrons are like huge, fluffy sandwich cookies, but have more of a cake-like texture. So delicious. 

And we also had ice cream at Sainte Mere Eglise (little town near Normandy beaches) that was really good. And it was especially good because we were both hot from walking everywhere.

So, I'm not a coffee drinker, but Mom is. She says that she was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I'm told that it is much stronger than American coffee. I'm pretty sure someone in France mentioned that they like to drink Italian coffee. Mom also said that even though it is strong it isn't bitter, like how coffee gets bitter when we make it stronger here in the US. 

Tea-wise? Eh. They like their plain black tea and plain green tea a lot (disgusting!). I could usually find Earl Grey tea, but he's not my favorite. I like Lady Grey better. But, c'est la vie (that's life). I enjoyed my ginger peach here at home this morning. And Colette seems to have expanded her tea selection at home, because she had a black tea with fruit flavors in it. Maybe blackberry? I couldn't tell exactly, but it sure tasted good. 

If you go to Normandy and northern France, be warned that they love their dairy products. Cream, butter, cheese. I think that Colette used so much that our stomachs were upset for a few days, if you get my meaning. Laura, our main tour guide in France, also mentioned that in Southern France, they are all about the olive oil. And cheese: the most famous in Normandy being Camembert. When I first tasted it in 2017, I didn't care for it. It is a bit strong, just so you know. I think I'm used to it now. Tastes change.

Back to Bayeux, if you remember we ate together as a group on the tour the first night in a new town/city. Then we were on our own for the second night. We also had to get lunch on our own pretty much everywhere. In Bayeux, I had a Lorraine quiche. OMG. I miss that too. The crust was so flaky and melted right in my mouth. Lorraine quiches are made with cheese and ham. And somehow they get it so that the quiche isn't salty tasting, even with the ham. Teach me your ways, oh France. Teach me how to cook your main dishes.

For you alcohol lovers, Loire Valley is the place to get a really famous raspberry liquor. Everyone seemed to love it. You know, besides me, who hates all alcohol. And, yes, I did try a sip and immediately gave the rest to Mom.

And as for Normandy drinks, go with something made with apples. Apples and dairy products in Normandy all the time. So, if you're going to drink in Normandy, you need to try the hard apple cider and/or calvados. At first, I was confused about calvados, because that is the tram line in Caen. But calvados is really a strong apple whiskey. Holey cow, it's strong! I could even tell by just the smell. And if you aren't convinced, when we were with our Parisian tour guide, Nicolas, he asked us if we tried it while in Normandy and said, "Yeah, oh my gawde. Calvados. Talk about fire in water." But, I guess maybe that isn't good enough to convince you, because he doesn't drink either. Mom and the other tourists said that it is strong and can clear your sinuses right up. I just have a feeling that my brother, Aaron, needs to try it and that he might like it. 

LOL--Mom just laughed when I mentioned calvados and called it "jet fuel". So there you go.

At Amboise, we got chocolate at the chocolate shop Bigot. So so good!

I've mentioned that Colette likes to cook with balsamic vinegar, but really all of France likes it on their salads. I've gotten so used to it that I actually kind of like it now.

Another staple I have to have whenever I'm in France is pain du chocolate: a croissant with chocolate in the middle. Absolutely a necessity in France for me.

I should say that the things I don't care for in French cooking is that they don't seem to like to really cook their meats and eggs enough. Like, if you order a hamburger or a slice of ham, expect it to be really pink. I so enjoyed the hamburgers tonight that Dad made for dinner. Finally a decent hamburger. The French must like things almost raw or something. But that wasn't the case with the duck or fish we had everywhere.

The two things that immediately come to mind that I miss when coming back home, aside from heavenly bread, is coke and mayonnaise. I absolutely HATE mayonnaise in the US. But it tastes different in France. They must make it different enough that I like it. One of the other tourists, Anne, laughed at me as we walked up the Mont St. Michel and I was practically purring with delight over the mayonnaise in my sandwhich I was eating. 

And the coke is just so much better. I've mentioned this in a post from 2017, but I can say it again: they don't put hardly any salt in their soft drinks. It just tastes so much better that way.

The upside-down apple tart tatin (an apple pie sort of thing) was hands down the best dessert we had in France. Mom agrees: it was the best by far. And it made me homesick, since we in Indiana are all about the apples. 

I also ate a lot more zucchini while I was over there. I always say that I need to eat more here in Indiana. Resolution: more zucchini. It's just a wonderful vegetable. 

That's all Mom & I can think of right now. I think we pretty much got everything.

Talk to you later, peeps!

Mere/Fille Vacance Day 13 (Sept 22) - Lisieux

 Wow are we both tired.

I'll first start off by talking about what we did today, and then a little story about Covid that made us both laugh. You'll see what I mean.

We got up, had one last huge breakfast with Colette, left her a note and money for the stay (which she messaged me today and said that she wasn't expecting that and was thinking we'd just stay for free...like I said: she wasn't going to accept money, but there you go. I'll reply back later, telling her how we wouldn't feel right at all without giving her a little something. And we didn't leave that much.), and road with her to the train station.

For the record, the train to Lisieux is the only one that had people coming around and scanning tickets...well, the only one so far. We'll see what happens tomorrow evening when we take the train from Lisieux to Paris. It is just interesting to both Mom and me. 

We arrived in Lisieux and took a taxi to our hotel. It 9 euros and about a 3 mile walk up hill. No way were we walking three miles to the hotel with luggage. 

Thankfully, we could check in early and didn't have to wait at all when we got there. We went up to our room and had some water and rested for maybe an hour. Then we set off to find St. Terese. 

We walked all the way from the hotel to the Basilica...well, actually, we walked uphill past the Basilica because we couldn't find how to get in. Mom got all her activity and steps today, though. 

For the record, I looked up on Google Maps how to get to the Basilica and it said "mostly flat" walk. Yeah. Mostly flat, my arse. And I am now mostly dead. Chocolate, please. (no, actually. No chocolate. We ate too much at dinner.)

So, we couldn't find the door or any way onto the property. Up the hill we went. And I should've realized we were going the wrong way because we saw the back of the basilica. So, kilometers later, we found this bureau office where I, in broken & exhausted French, asked a woman how to get to the basilica. She basically told us to go back the way we came and to the left. Makes perfect sense. Go around the other way to get to the front door, you dumb Americans.

When we finally made it to the front door:

Inside the basilica:

 

Saint Pope John Paul II plaque. I'm too tired to translate. Maybe later.

 

Stained glass. Always beautiful

To the right, there is a huge alcove? Section that is dedicated to St. Terese. We bought a candle and lit it and said some prayers.

Each little chapel around the church was dedicated to a country with their patron saint(s). Above the alter is usually two stations of the cross. 

The chapel dedicated to America (Our patron saint is the Immaculate Conception, if you didn't know):

Each chapel also had the country's corresponding flag:

The back of the basilica:

So, we got to the basilica really tired, sore, and sweaty. I took some pictures, sat down and rested, we went and lit our candle, we walked around and I took more pictures, and then we went outside (walking down all those steps again) to go to the gift shop. Really, we weren't that impressed. There were a lot of books, but all in French, some medals, key chains, rosaries, French movies about saints, post cards, and rose candles. It was a decent souvenir shop, but nothing struck our interest or was anything we felt we absolutely needed.

By this time of the day, I realized that it was past 1400 (2pm) and I hadn't eaten or drank anything since breakfast. I had a headache and felt sick. But we wanted to go to Mass, so up we went into the basilica again. And, I have to be honest, I struggled to stay awake the entire time. I haven't a clue what the readings were, let alone what the homily was about. I was only really awake during the Liturgy of the Eucharist, so I guess that's something. 

After Mass, Mom and I decided to walk towards town. She forgot, though, that the French restaurants and cafes close from 1400 or 1430 until dinner, so nothing was open. We followed the blue line on the street to Carmel, though, and went in to see what they had about St. Terese. It was interesting. Then we went into the visitor' chapel and sat down by the statue of St. Terese and her relic. Just so you know, St. Terese is not incorrupt. And I didn't feel that it was approprate to take pictures inside. 

But here's the outside of the chapel at Carmel:

Then we decided to go find out how to get on the bus back to the hotel. There's another failure with Google: Google claims that there are not any buses in Lisieux. Lies. We asked the lady at the hotel and she told us to take Line 1 back from the town center. But...she didn't say whether we could pay on the bus or what stop we should get off at. We had to go to the Tourist Office to find out where to buy a bus ticket. Finding the bus ticket office, I then found out that a ticket at that office would be for 10 trips. Ahhh...no. I don't feel like paying for 10 trips when I only need one. Fortunately, in Lisieux, you can actually pay for the bus right when you get on it. So: not in Paris, but in Lisieux. Good to know. And it's only 1 euro for one trip. And the girl at the bus office was helpful enough to tell me which stop we needed to get off at. The French have been so helpful and real troopers after I ask them in French to please speak in English if I can't keep up with them.

Back at the hotel, we had some much needed water and some downtime before the hotel restaurant would open for dinner. 

And then I checked my email...

Oh My Gosh Why?

Let's talk about Covid. 

Backstory time!

Okay, so before we even left the States to get over here, I found several articles claiming that we needed the European Health Pass to get into restaurants, hotels, museums, public transportation...basically anywhere except the grocery store, pharmacy, and maybe bakeries. So, I got the official site and had to give them a picture of my Covid CDC card showing that I had two vaccine shots, a picture of my passport, and a pdf showing my plane tickets to and from France. Fine. Whatever. (And I did it for Mom too, just so you know). The system emailed me back saying that they would automatically send me the QR code to put in my phone app to be the Health Pass in 7 business days. 

Ahhhh frick. 7 business days meant that we wouldn't have a pass until Sunday or Monday after we arrived. So, in my mind, we had to go to the pharmacy right when we arrived in Paris to get a Covid test and a QR code (which would only last us 3 days), which would cost money. 

And then 7 days turned into 11 really fast.

And then when we got to France, we met a tour guide with the same tour company we were using and she told us that we only needed our CDC cards. Thank goodness.

And then, when we met the other tourists on our tour, we found that they also couldn't get their cards. Our tour guide then told us that the system handing out QR codes for the health pass to tourists broke. Fabulous.

So, tonight, at 6pm, I got two emails...I got our Health QR passes. In Lisieux. Three days before we are leaving. 

Ha ha ha ha ha. 

Thank you, Health Officals of France. So helpful.

Again, thank Goodness that we really didn't need them. There was only one restaurant in Paris that insisted we have them, so we just left and didn't eat there. 

What a frustrating experience.

Pray that nothing goes wrong and we can be home soon.

By the way, we are both getting really tired of traveling and living out of a suitcase. I think we are both getting homesick. We're really glad we came, but when it's time to go home it's time to go home.

Missing all of you!

A plus tard, mes amis. 

Talk to y'all again in Paris tomorrow night.

Mere/Fille Vacance Day 12 (Sept 21) - Caen/Ouistrreham

Today we decided to get out of Colette's hair and go to the beach. She, being the best hostess in the world...or at least in all of France...helped us get to the correct bus stop and bought us a bus pass for the day. 

On a side note: I am seriously dreading having to fight with her to pay her for our visit. This woman is kind enough to open her home to us, to feed us, to drive us around, to help us get bus passes for our trip to the beach today, to help us get our Covid tests to come back home...she's just done so much for all of us. And Marie and Emmeline, her nieces, have been angels too: both coming the first night we arrived, Marie last night, and Emmeline tonight to help translate and to visit with Mom and me. 

So, back to our day:

We went to  the small village of Ouistrreham and its beach today, taking with us some sandwiches from Colette. It is a nice little town. Mom and I just went to the beach and sat on the benches, read a little, then walked down the boardwalk, and repeat.

 

When we first sat down on a bench, many seagulls introduced themselves by being noisy. One in particular stayed near us, most likely to wait for a handout or something. People say that birds are stupid, but seagulls certainly aren't when it comes to tourists and food. Mom named that seagull Gertrude. Gertie was with us for several hours, interrupting our reading every once and a while when she hopped up from lying in the sand to yell at us or other seagulls, but then we decided to get up and stretch our legs.

After stretching our legs a bit, we sat down again and had another seagull companion, this one noisier than Gertie. Mom dubbed this one Betty Lou. Betty Lou has a big mouth. I got so annoyed with her that I told her to "Keep your feathers on!" This amused Mom so much that she just kept laughing for quite a while. Well, it's not like I could tell her to "Keep your hair on," like Fred and George Weasley...she has feathers, not hair.

After a while, I took a little cat nap my leaning my head on Mom's shoulder. I really have the best mom ever. But then we got a bit cold. It is so weird: we were cold because of the wind off the English Channel, but we were hot because of the sun. And, by the way, I did have to put on sunblock, but I didn't put any on the back of my neck. Stupid Allyson. Yep: I got burnt. 

Since we were cold, we decided to walk a little more and then head back to the bus to take to Caen.

By the way...want to talk public restrooms a little? If not, skip a paragraph. If yes: these were the first that didn't have any toilet paper in them. Talk about horrible! Good thing I had tissues in my purse!

After getting off the bus in Caen, I had to tell a Frenchman who was lost that I couldn't help him because I am American. So, just so you know: I have officially tricked three French people into believing that I am French: the first on the train to Caen, the second was in the boutique in the Caen museum, and the third was today at the bus station. 

Then Colette took us to the pharmacy to get our Covid tests to come home. We're both negative! So, we'll be home at 10pm ish on Friday.

After another wonderful, but very large dinner with Colette and Emmeline, we are getting ready for bed. So, I really need to get going. Have to sleep so we can catch a train to Lisieux tomorrow.

A plus tard, mes amis!

Mere/Fille Vacance - Day 10 & 11 (Sept 19 & 20): Caen

As a pre-note: sorry, no pictures tonight. Just trying to post very quickly.

We made it to Caen yesterday! Mom was very impressed with Colette's house and really liked her garden and staircase. Of course, different flowers and plants are blooming now in September versus late June/early July when I was here in 2017.

Colette is the best host ever. She's been feeding us and driving us everywhere we want to go so we don't have to take the tram. Tomorrow, we will take a bus to the beach in the afternoon, though, so that we can come back any time we want. She also made sure we can get our Covid test to come back home tomorrow night. 

Marie and Emmeline have also been coming to eat with us in the evening: both yesterday, Marie tonight, and Emmeline tomorrow night. It helps me take a break from having to translate from French to English and vice versa for Colette and Mom in the evenings. 

Yesterday, we went to Les Abbye aux Hommes (men's), the courthouse (which used to be part of the men's abbey, William the Conqueror's castle, and St. Pierre. Colette left us while we visited the castle and St. Pierre for a while, and we got a little nervous because she was late picking us up. So I had to turn my cellular data back on and leave her a voicemail. Some of her friends had visited her and they were talking and she lost track of time. She made it back and picked us up, though. And I feel much safer in Caen...like I won't get robbed and I don't see a lot of homeless people. But, I feel like people are more on edge in Caen right now...maybe they had terrorist attacks more recently? Because some security guards in front of the castle were checking people's cars as they drove into the parking lot for the castle. It's so sad, but what can you do?

After picking us up, Colette also took us to see the Women's Abbey, which I had never been to before. We could only take a peek in because they were saying Mass. It was really beautiful, but I also didn't feel comfortable taking pictures because of the service. It isn't as ornate as the Ment's Abbey, though.

Oh, I wanted to mention again (from my posts back in 2017) that you will not go hungry under Colette's roof. There are always 3 courses. Don't eat thinking you are only having one course. And she'll make you eat something from all three courses.

Today, Mom and I spent the entire day at the museum of Caen. It is a really large museum that has a lot about WWI and WWII, but it also has a section about the Cold War. We were there for about two hours in the morning, Colette came and picked us up for lunch, and then we went back to the museum from 3pm until 6pm. A 24 hour pass to the museum costs a little less than 20 euro per person (foreigners, anyway), which I didn't think was too bad. I am always impressed with that museum, so I was happy to go back a second time after four years. 

The one thing Mom & I couldn't understand was that they had an exposition on 9/11 in the museum for an additional cost, but everything was in French. Why have an exposition about an American event in only French??? Ummm...the US speaks English. So weird.

That pretty much sums up our two days here. If I don't get to post tommorrow, just know that we are planning on sleeping in, going to the beach, maybe a little shopping, and getting our Covid tests in the evening to come home on Friday (as long as we get the test late in the evening tommorow, we should be fine to get on the plane in France around 11:30). 

So, talk to y'all later.

A plus tard.

Mere/Fille Vacances Day 9 (Sept 18) - Paris & Versailles

 Our last night in Paris is coming to an end. Our tour guide, Laura, was the best. The other people on the tour were so wonderful. It was actually hard to say goodbye. 

But...let's talk about the day staring from the very beginning: a very good place to start. (I haven't watched a movie in over a week, can you tell? The quotes are running ramped.)

So, after I got done posting yesterday, we went with our group to Montmarte for dinner. If you remember, Mom & I went there last Sunday to Sacre-Coeur for Mass. So many steps. This time, we got to take the cable car up all those steps. 

And Laura was explaining that Montmarte is the section of Paris where all the artists and...how should I put this...people who "like to have a good time"? Sketchy people? Thieves? Etc? Hang out. So, I guess I've survived that part of Paris, without a tour guide no less. I'm a total champ when it comes to Paris. Well, maybe not totally, but I feel just a little bit more comfortable. 

Anyway, we all went to a restaurant together again. Just so you know, we always had dinner together as a group the first night we were in a new town, with the exception of the first night the tour started (last Sunday). It was our farewell dinner last night. And Dawn and Paul, a part of our group, celebrated their 39th wedding anniversairy with us. That was so fun, toasting both of them.

Now, on to today.

Mom and I must have been so tired, because her alarm went off and she turned it off. Then, before we knew it, the phone rang for the wake-up call and we weren't out of bed yet. That was a first for us. It's okay; we made it downstairs for breakfast.

For our last day in Paris, we had a tour of the city with a personal tour guide, Nicolas. He was born and raised in Paris, but he has a good ear for accents and has visited the US many times, since some of his family lives in Arizona. At first, we thought for sure that he was American. That is how good his accent was!

So, we'll go by some of my bus pictures. Sorry in advance for the horrible nature of them: again, I was on a bus most of the time. And hopefully I can remember what all these buildings were.

So, I'm pretty sure this is the Russian Orthodox church. It was the first one in Paris. Now there is another one, but we didn't see it, as it was on the other side of the Seine (I hope you didn't just pronounce that as "seen". Shame on you if you did! "Sss--eh--nnn"!)

This is a public park. Maybe the Luxembourg park? Can't remember exactly.

This is a Chinese restaurant. It was so out of place with the other architecture. It is still owned by the same family.

This is the oldest monument in Paris, given to France by the Egyptians. They had to actually create a boat just for the monument to get from Egypt to Paris on the Seine.

A fountain. Can't remember the building at the fountain, but it's cool, no?

L'Arc de Triomphe. And it is covered in a blue/silver cloth for a few weeks. Nicolas (tour guide) hates it. I hate it. We all hate it. Uncover that monument so we can see it in all its glory! Good thing they are only covering it for a few weeks.

This is a museum. Don't remember what it is called. But it now houses Monet's lily painting(s). Before it was a museum, it was a greenhouse for orange trees and the like, hence the glass roof.

I don't think I have to tell you what this is a picture of...

On the left is part of the Louvre.

 

The Louvre (the castle part, of course). We didn't see the pyramid.

Pont Neuf (a bridge). In English, it means "New Bridge"; however, it is the oldest bridge in Paris.

Notre Dame de Paris:

They're working on it!

This is a high school. There were bars on most of the windows. Have to keep them in. Or maybe out. Nicolas wasn't sure (lol).

The Pantheon, where many celebrities are buried including Victor Hugo (author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

The path leading to the Luxembourg palace (we got off the bus at this point and got to walk to these sites):

The Luxembourg palace:

A copy of the prototype of the Statue of Liberty. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi used this mother as the model for the Statue of Liberty. Interestingly, France also Statue of Liberty in Paris on the Seine (we didn't see it, though), and it is facing west. This way, both Statues are facing each other as a sign of friendship between the two nations.

This is the bee house from all the bees of Luxembourg gardens

The bee hives:

And then I got some pretty good shots of Le Tour Eiffel, if I do say so myself. If you notice a glare at the bottom of the picture, don't think that was my camera being stupid. There is an actual glass wall around the tower now. They put it up two years ago to try to help with security because of all the terrorists and bombings that keep happening in the country.

But please don't freak out. We've been totally safe this whole time.

There are names of famous people actually on the Eiffel Tower.

A statue of the

In the afternoon, we went to Versailles. Before going into the chateau (castle) we all went to lunch. Some of us went to a Creperie (restaurant that makes crepes). We were going to get a main course crepe and a dessert crepe (dessert crepes being the sweet ones that you think of). But...we didn't have time to get our dessert crepes.

I had a chicken crepe and Mom had scallops. Both were excellent, by the way. But, again, I'll do a post on all our food some other time.

Okay, on to Le Chateau de Versailles.

The original gold gate at the entrance of the castle...or palace if you want to call it that...was actually destroyed during the French Revolution. The French people put it back up a few years ago so that it would be exactly like how it was when it was built. The gate is actual gold, paid for by a private company.

The ceilings in all the rooms are absolutely stunning. This is the first room we went to was the Hercules Room. 

The Hercules room is the second biggest room in The Palace of Versailles. It was often used for balls and large dinners.

The two 'L's above most of the doors is an emblem of King Louis XIV (14 for those of you who don't do well with Roman numerals).

Okay, so real quick before we go on: the Palace of Versailles is associated with 3 French kings and they are all called Louis ("Loo-ee" like Meet Me in St. Louis): Louis the XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI (14, 15, and 16). Louis XIV was the "Sun King" that we all have heard of (if not, you didn't pay much attention in history class, did you?). Louis XIV built the palace, Louis XV enjoyed the palace, and Louis XVI paid for it.

Louis XIV, the Sun King (called that because one of his emblems was the sun), was very much loved...at least by the nobles. He was a short man, which is why he was often wearing heels. He also suffered typhus when he was young. Before suffering this disease, he had beautiful, long curly hair. After getting sick, however, it all fell out. This is why he started wearing wigs (which, by the way, were made from human hair). So, Louis XIV was the one that got all the nobles to start wearing wigs.

More on him later.

This is the doors into the chapel in the palace:

The chapel:

A bust of Louis XIV:

Another ceiling:

 

A royal emblem of France. It is blue for the patronage of Mary, the Mother of God:

This room is where Louis the XIV died. He died of gangrene. 

It's actually really horrible how the royal family had to be put on display for the public all the time. So, the king would die and everyone would come watch. His family would be beind the small gate (made of gold), and everyone else would be in front of the gate.

Also, an explanation on why the beds were so high: to keep them warm and to keep the rodents out of the bed. Oh, to live in the palace is a great life for a cat.

 

This is a portrait of Louis XV, pretty sure...

And this is the famous portrait of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Notice his high heels and wig.

The War Room, before the Hall of Mirrors...which is ironic to me. I'll get to the irony in a second, though. 

In the War Room, there is decorations symbolizing all the seasons.

So we have a young lady for spring: 

A middle-aged woman for summer:

An older woman for fall: 

And an old man for winter:

The chandelier in the War Room:

The view from outside the War Room: the formal gardens. This part is actually what they modeled for the Washington Gardens in DC:

Are we in America? Nope! Versailles!

The Hall of Mirrors. Okay, why do I find this ironic that the War Room is right beside it? Because the Hall of Mirrors is where the Treaty of Versailles was signed, which ended WWI...but also was the reason that WWII started.

Nicolas must have liked us, because he mentioned that the kings' personal rooms were not part of the tour, but he took us in there anyway. I'm wondering if he really liked Mom because she asked so many questions and got him talking...and he seemed to really like me too because he only spoke French with me. He was just a very personable guy, who obviously loves his job. And I say that he really liked me and Mom because he actually asked us our names and remembered them throughout the day.

This room is where the king would meet with his advisors and make decisions for the country:

 

And here is the king's actual bedroom. Remember: the one we saw before was just the room where he died.

In the next room was a family portrait. King Louis XIV is on the right.

The Queen's Music Room:

The Queen's bedroom:

This is really awful (in my opinion): whenever the queen was giving birth, the public had to be present. This was because they had to make sure that the princes were actual heirs, and when there were twins, they had to see which one was older so that there were no disputes between the princes. Talk about no personal privacy at all. You can see in my pictures of the Queen's rooms the golden gates to separate the nobles from the commoners.

In the queen's bedroom is a portrait of Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI. This portrait was painted a few weeks before the Revolution. It is interesting because she is protrayed as a mother and not a queen. The empty crib next to her, that her eldest son is pointing to, is also showing the death of her youngest child, who didn't make it past a few days of its life. 

Also, it's interesting to know, that her daughter (on the left) was the only one of her children that survived to become an adult. The boys were killed during the Revolution with their parents, the eldest actually starved to death in prison.

So, yes, back to the story with the kings: Louis XIV lived into his 80s, actually outliving his son and grandchild. His great-grandchild became king after he died, Louis XV. Louis the XV lived lavishly in the palace. 

Louis XVI, with his wife Marie Antoinette, paid for Versailles because they were killed during the French Revolution. Interestingly, it was a group of angry mothers who stormed the castle to capture the king, queen, and their children. The mothers were so sick of watching their own children die of starvation because the royalty kept stealing their money and didn't take care of the common people. 

Back to the palace, in the next room we visited, there was a replica of a painting of the crowning of Napoleon. You can tell it is a replica because one of his sisters (on the left) is in a pink dress instead of blue like the rest of her sisters. The painter had fallen in love with that particular sister and wanted her to stand out. The original painting is in the Orsy Museum in Paris. 

 

And we are outside again. Here is a picture of the original building before the palace was finished. Before the Palace of Versailles was a palace, it was a hunting lodge for the royal family. The rest of the palace was built around it.

 

And then we got to walk around the gardens:

And I saw a raven!

 And that is pretty much it for the day. 

So, we are finishing up our last night in Paris, and on to Caen in the morning to spend a few days with my host mother from 2017, Colette. 

Talk to you later. A plus tard, mes amis!