Deauville

I went on a last-minute trip to Deauville the other weekend with Johan and Sabine and Sabine’s friends.  It was really nice out, so we rested on the beach and enjoyed the sun.  Sabine’s friend organized a getaway for her birthday, so we piled into cars, made the 2 hour drive from Paris to Deauville and stayed in a house she had rented.  It was a pretty relaxing weekend – lots of swimming in the pool, walking around the town, and going out.

I had my first McDonald’s in France!  It was pretty good (and better than in the US).  It was also really late and only the drive-through was open, so we got our food and sat outside in the dark at some patio tables.  French food is awesome (I know McDonald’s is not French), but I’m getting very excited to have American food again!

On Saturday night, we tried to go to the casino, but I couldn’t get in because I didn’t have my passport (because I had sent it to the embassy to get more pages).  I tried my best, trying to persuade them that my license or photocopy of my passport should be okay, but it didn’t work.  They needed to scan the passport to make sure I’m not addicted to gambling.  I didn’t even want to gamble!  I just didn’t want the whole group to split up for me.  But a few girls said they didn’t want to gamble either, so we went somewhere else to get drinks.  

The beach was pretty, but it was covered with long thin sharp seashells that are called couteaux (knives) in French or razor shells in English.  They created a very painful environment for a walk along the beach, but I persevered.  There were also lots of other nice shells, and we collected a bunch to put in the apartment!  We have a unique beach / Disney themed living room at the moment.  We’re a creative group. 

Bordeaux and La Rochelle

Mmm wine.  I made my way to southwestern France to visit Bordeaux and La Rochelle with some friends!  Jen visited Arcachon to see the largest sand dune in Europe and then joined me and Sara in Bordeaux. 

Bordeaux is the 9^th largest city in France and the world’s major wine industry capital.  The town seems really fun; it’s easy to walk everywhere, there are a lot of young people and universities there, and lots of wine!  It’s on a river, which is very pretty to walk (or bike) along, and the people seemed friendly.  There are two famous bridges, the Pont de pierre and the Pont Jacques Chaban-Delma (aka the Vertical Lift Bridge).  The Pont de pierre just seems like a normal bridge to me, but I still took photos.  The Vertical Lift Bridge was recently finished, and it’s Europe’s largest lift bridge!  It can be lifted up 53 meters to let tall ships pass through.  Sadly, I didn’t get to see it go up.

In Bordeaux, we biked around the city, visited churches, walked around parks, ate a lot, tasted different wines, and went to the wine museum.  At the end of the museum visit, they talked about different types of wines and gave samples, so that was fun.  We ended up staying a bit too long, so we had to rush to make our train.  It was a poor decision to bike extremely fast to the station and run to pick up our luggage after drinking wine.  I swerved into a bush avoiding a dog in the bike lane, but I recovered quickly.  And we made the train!

We then took the train to La Rochelle to spend a night in a pretty beach town.  La Rochelle is where bike-sharing started!  In 1974, they launched a bike-share program called Velos Jaunes which had bicycles that were free to take and use.  It’s considered one of the first truly successful bike sharing programs.  Sara is doing a project on Velib, the bike-sharing program in France, so she wanted to visit La Rochelle for that reason (and I thought it looked pretty in pictures and wanted to go).  Ironically, we could not rent the bikes.  You need a pass to rent them (and need to live in La Rochelle to get the pass).  They do have a separate system for tourists, but by the time we went to ride them (5:30), the tourist office was closing soon and said we had to come back tomorrow.  So we sat on them and took pictures.  

There are three big towers (the St. Nicolas tower, the Chain tower, and the Lantern tower) in La Rochelle that were built in the 14^th and 15^th centuries.  We went inside two of them and climbed up to the top to have an awesome view of the city.  One was a military building, and the other was a prison for pirates and enemy seamen.  The prison was full of ornate graffiti drawn by the prisoners and was really cool to see.  It’s also the only medieval lighthouse on the Atlantic coast that is still standing!

La Rochelle is a very fun town to explore and walk around.  We ended up getting sandwiches (and dessert of course) from one of the many bakeries to have a picnic at the harbor.  The beach was also pretty, but the water was cold!  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26879303@N03/

Strike at the Louvre

I was wondering why there have been a lot of police cars outside the Louvre the past few days.  Museum workers went on strike on Wednesday in protest over pickpockets.  The thieves have become more aggressive recently...spitting, threatening, and kicking staff. 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/10/louvre-closed-pickpockets

The other week, I saw a couple of kids at the Louvre running and then walking fast and looking over their shoulder.  I was trailing a little bit behind them on my usual walk home from school (it's a pretty sweet walk - I see the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Palais Royal and Opera House).  When I reached the crosswalk, I heard a siren and saw a man jump out of a car and try to grab the boy, causing the kid to fall to the ground.  Then the man picked him up, shoved him in the car with several other men, and drove off.  It happened extremely fast.  Everyone around stared at the scene, and I was pretty confused and surprised no one (including me) did anything.  I justified not doing anything because I figured he was probably a pickpocket, and an undercover police officer picked him up.  This article makes me feel more justified...but I guess I still feel guilty for not questioning it.

I feel pretty safe in Paris, but I went to an English class (I don't need help with English, I was helping them) at a senior club the other day, and they were telling me how dangerous Paris is.  They don't go on certain metro lines at night, never switch trains at Chatelet, don't go out past 10pm (they're probably also sleepy by then), and they told me how they've been pickpocketed and grabbed by people demanding money.  I'm very glad I haven't experienced that and will cross my fingers for the next couple of months.  (Disclaimer: I was nearly pickpocketed, but I felt someone going for my iphone in my coat pocket, so I put my hand over it and turned around to glare at him, effectively scaring him away.)

Krysten!

She gets her own blog title.  My sister came to visit, and it was lots of fun!  We had some good adventures.  The first night she was here, we went to a bar with my roommates and had some Belgian beers and croque madames.  When we were heading home, we were stopped in Gare de Lyon by a man who flashed opened his wallet and touched Krysten on the arm, and she swatted him away and walked quickly.  Then he started yelling at her (in French), and another man came up to her, and my roommate and I slowed down to hear what they were saying.  It turned out they were plainclothes train control people who wanted to check our tickets to make sure that we had paid.  They were pretty mad that Krysten brushed them off, but Sabine and I tried to calm everyone down, explaining that we were tourists, didn’t know what they were saying, they weren’t in uniform, etc.  I totally understand Krysten’s reaction; it’s not smart to just stop for a group of guys in an empty train station at midnight.  Sabine and I had never seen people checking who aren’t in uniform, so everyone was wary and confused.  It turned out fine though!  
 

On Thursday, we went to Versailles to walk around the gardens and the castle.  I think Krysten and Jennifer enjoyed the trip, but it tainted my image of Versailles a little.  I visited Versailles in late summer, and it was sunny and the gardens were beautiful.  This time, there was a lot of construction, no flowers, and bare trees.  I guess that’s to be expected in winter, but I hadn’t really thought about it. 

On Friday, we went to Laduree (she is obsessed) and bought macarons to eat on top of the terrace at Printemps.  It was a warm day, so we spent a while just sitting on a bench and looking at the city.  We also walked around Montmartre, ate some croissants, took pictures and hung out.  It was nice that she had already seen a lot of the tourist sites so that we could just have a low key time hanging out with each other.   Come back!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26879303@N03/

Brussels

Jennifer visited me last week!  She came to spend some time in Paris, and then we also went to Brussels for the weekend to visit Camille.  We drank some delicious Belgian beers and ate a lot of waffles, fries, and chocolate (I ate my 200 gram box in 24 hours).  We also visited the tourist sites and saw the main square, the pissing boy, the squatting girl (I missed her the last time I visited!), and went to the top of the music museum to have hot chocolate and enjoy a nice view of the city. 

Jennifer and I also visited a lot of sites in Paris since it was her first time in France!  We went to the top of the Eiffel tower (which I hadn’t done yet this year), and it was freezing.  We got some good photos though!  We also walked along the Champs Elysees, saw the Arc de Triomphe, Trocadero, Palais Royal, Notre Dame, etc.  I’m a good tourist guide.  She liked France so much that she decided to stay a bit longer and travel around!  She took a trip on her own to Arcachon, which has the biggest sand dune in Europe, and then we went to Bordeaux and La Rochelle together.  Pictures coming soon!

Nice

I went to Nice the other weekend, and it was…nice.  Ha!  I know.  I’m sorry.  I went with two friends, Emily and Aaron, and it was great to escape the rainy Parisian weather to stroll along the beach and sit under the sun.  

We had a packed weekend and spent one day exploring Nice and the other hiking in Eze and walking around Monaco.  When we mentioned that we were taking a trip to Monaco, someone suggested stopping in Eze, a medieval village on top of a hill.  There was a path leading down to the ocean (called the Chemin de Nietzsche) that had really pretty views.  It was only an hour walk down a very rocky path, but the next day(s), we were so sore.  Hiking down can be pretty strenuous too.

We also walked around for half a day in Monaco, making sure to hit up the casino.  There were lots of tourists there, and we tried to get a drink on the terrace, but it was only available for the high rollers.   It wasn’t quite as opulent as I was expecting, and I didn’t see James Bond.  Oh well.  Monaco also had a pretty garden, a church where Grace Kelly is buried, and delicious Italian food.   And it had an ice skating rink near the port with lots of fancy boats.

In Nice, the highlight was the carnival parade.  I have always wanted to go to a carnival (Brazil has been on my list ever since my grandmother told me her wild stories), so I thought Nice would be a great idea since it has one of the largest carnivals in the world and the biggest in France.  We booked a Saturday night parade, and the lights and colors and floats were impressive.  There were also tons of people shooting silly string and throwing confetti, which made for an amusing atmosphere (except when a woman got string in her face and she freaked out at a kid and shit went down).

The floats were…interesting.  Perhaps a bit racist?  Not politically correct?  The theme was “around the world,” so lots of different countries and regions had floats.  The American float had an obese woman in a skimpy bikini as the Statue of Liberty, and she was standing on a giant hamburger, holding a scale in one arm and a diet coke in the other, and a crown of ice cream cones melting on her face.  Yay America!  There were also other ones like one with Middle Eastern people with gold teeth and turbans dangling oil over desperate people in cars and one with New Zealand tribal people riding turtles.  I didn’t understand why there was a Hawaiian hula woman on a float with aliens and a black kid on a volcano.  I also didn’t get the float with a giant red bird in a black and red striped jersey and a crown.  Points if you can explain them to me!

It was weird to see floats like that because it’s not something that would be okay in the US.  Obviously stereotypes exist, and Americans do poke fun at them, but it’s important to do so in a non-offensive manner.

Overall, I really liked Nice!  We also took the elevator up a giant hill and saw a park that had some awesome views of the city.  And we ate a lot of delicious food and wandered around the old city.  The Marc Chagall museum was also very cool (Chagall is the artist who created the stained glass windows in the cathedral in Reims and part of the ceiling of the Paris Opera).  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26879303@N03/

Turkish Toilets

I went to Turkey last year with my mom and sister, but I never encountered a Turkish toilet.  But last night, I went to a bar in Montmartre, and there it was!  After a couple of beers, one naturally has to go to the bathroom (I have proudly taught my French roommates the common phrase “break the seal”).  So I went into the bathroom, and there was a tile floor with two raised porcelain footprints and a hole in the ground.  And an empty role of toilet paper.  So I walked back out and sat at the table, and my friend asked “Back already?”  I explained that there wasn't any toilet paper and that I was a bit overwhelmed by the squat toilet.  And it’d be especially hard for someone clumsy who doesn't balance very well.  I’m sure my camping friends or people who have been to more exotic places aren't particularly surprised, but I wasn't expecting it in a bar.  Anyway, long story short, I used it successfully!  Supposedly in Asia they have these types of toilets on the trains, and I imagine that would be very challenging.