My Visit WIth My Family
Oh how wonderful those 5 days turned out to be. To be honest, I was really nervous the entire week leading up to it. Questions such as what if my host family doesn't like them, what if dinner is really super awkward, how are they going to like french food, and what happens with something goes wrong with our travel plans (and many, many more) all ran through my mind. Were these concerns necessary? Probably not. But I'm sure you can remember back when you were (or are currently) at college and your parents came to visit for the first time... it's a little weird having them enter into the place you called home for the past few months, meeting all your new friends, and showing them all the little things that then looked so much more familiar than your first week in the dorms. Well, imagine that feeling, but times 10. Don't get me wrong, I was incredibly excited (my mom can attest to this based on the number of phone calls she received prior to leaving), but very anxious at the same time.
Needless to say, all my worrying was completely in vain. Funny how it works out like that, right?
Wednesday afternoon my family finally made it into town. Believe you me, those first hugs were hugs from angels. I nearly cried. Unfortunately, they don't really hug in France, so I've been missing out the past few months. After piling into my host mom's van, everyone stayed a little quiet during the ride to the hotel - they were exhausted. They got settled, I left to hang out with my host family, and promised to return in a few short hours. Fast forward. One bus ride later, we were dining at the most famous restaurant in Nantes - La Cigale. Let me tell you about La Cigale. It's been every IES student's dream to eat at this place. Built in 1895, it hosts a number of celebrities and famous Nantais every year. Thus, the entire building is just gorgeous. The food is incredible and the atmosphere even better. Thus, you can picture my excitement at having my family eat with me.... and have my mom pay for the meal ;)
Dinner ended with satisfied stomachs and anticipation for the following days.
I spent Thursday as a tour guide, showing my family around Nantes and my life for the past 3 months. We toured the center of town, the cathedrale, the IES apartment-fabricated-school and my favorite creperie in town. After lunch, we decided to head on over to the Machines de l'ile to see the animals and elephants that you can check out in a previous post. The Gallery of Machines was fun and it helped I knew some history of the inventions, but the best part was riding the elephant. While cold, blustery, and rainy, (and being the troopers that my siblings are) the weather didn't diminish the experience and taking goofy pictures of each other resulted an afternoon well spent. To digress from the topic for a second - I will just say that I had completely forgotten how funny my siblings are. Seriously, they need their own sitcom. Anyway, everyone headed back to their respective rooms (Mags stayed with me in my host fam's house) before dinner to take a quick nap and freshen up before... DUNDUNDUN... the dinner with my host family!! Let's just say it went better than I ever could have expected. My host mother went all out on the appetizers (3 different kinds), the main entree (steak with tomatoes), dessert (classic Nantes tart), and the cheese. Conversation flowed like hot butter, thanks to the enormous amount of English that my host family spoke (I had no idea they knew so much) and both families willingness to ask lots of questions. Afterwards, my brothers won major brownie points with Vianney through a competitive game of Wii bowling. All in all, it was an incredible night. To have people I care a lot about merge together so nicely was a blessing.
My two families all together :)
Friday morning we found ourselves at the train station bright and early. After catching 2 or 3 trains to Normandy (and one mix-up), Carinne from Viator arrived to pick us up from the Bayeux station for our tour around the beaches. What an incredible day! The history behind the place is absolutely incredible - I had never really appreciated the significance of DDay until our tour, and seeing everything live made it that much more real. My favorite part of the tour was learning about the American rangers who climbed the cliffs of Pointe du Huc the morning of June 6th, 1944 to storm the Germany artillery and prevent fire onto American boats. The landscape was also really cool - the Americans had spent the night before bombing the area, and after all these years the French haven't filled in the craters made from the bombs, so giant holes are everywhere.
The bomb craters
We also took the opportunity to visit the DDay museum (be sure you have lots of time to walk around that place if you ever go - it's completely enthralling) and the American soldier cemetery. Later that night, we boarded the train and off we went to Paris!
Saturday morning - again, another bright and early day. Well, bright is a stretch. It rains a lot here, and Paris was no exception. Regardless, it was a day well spent. We packed in as many things as we could. Seeing the Code of Hammerabi at he the Louvre (thank you Benet history classes) was a highlight of the morning, but by far my favorite moment of the day occurred at the top of the Arc de Triomphe. I HIGHLY recommend taking advantage of the spiral staircase that leads to the top - the view was incredible and seeing all 12 streets spread out underneath it like a star was something I could only imagine in the movies.
The view of the Champs d'Elysee from the top of the Arc
The final highlight of the day was visiting the Eiffel Tower via the night cruise. At the end of the evening, the Eiffel Tower not only flashes its lights for 10 minutes, but changes color. How freaking COOL!
We had previously decided to spend all of Sunday at Versailles, checking out the chateau/palace there. Unfortunately, it wasn't the season for the gardens, being that all the flowers weren't in bloom, but the chateau was great. The Hall of Mirrors made it all worth it. We spent almost the entire day there, getting back to Paris just in time to see the lights on the Eiffel Tower once again.
Monday morning I was out the door by 6:30am to catch my train back to Nantes.
What an incredible weekend. There are so many great stories from this trip, more notably being the mouse in our room at the hotel (Stewart the mouse decided to eat Mike's nuts), the goofy pictures we took, and the concierge who was more than unhelpful but made for some great laughs. Like I said, I had forgotten how funny my siblings are - we could be sitting in a hotel room on a random Saturday night in Paris, not doing anything, and be laughing so hard our stomachs hurt. They were absolutely great :)
Anyway, I should get to preparing for my final exams next week. I love you all and can't wait to see you SOON!
Bisous,
Molly
1 comment:
Your blog is neat and peachy keen. Also, puppies, hot cocoa, and Psalms.
That better?
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