5 Things

5 Things I Love RIGHT NOW

1. Eating pretzels with dijon mustard

2. Drinking beer at 4 in the afternoon for 'Happy Hours'
3. French pastries

4. Open Mic night at Houses of Parliament
5. Playing Apples to Apples with French boys

Pictures of France

I have three cameras with me in France. And I've taken TONS of pictures so far.

Here are some of my new favorite ones:

The church in Poitiers and the market that is put out in the afternoon

The front of the church in Poitiers

The view outside of Abby's apartment in Bordeaux- look at that blue sky!

A shop in Bordeaux- Black Swan inspired display? (Really just Swan Lake display)

The qualiy of this picture isn't the greatest, but there is a carnival in town in Bordeaux! The juxtaposition of the beautiful architecture and old statues in Bordeaux mixed with the bright colors and ferris wheel- ps can you see the Mickey Mouse?



Trains in France

I had every intention of being in Milan at this very moment.

I went from Poitiers back to Bordeaux this past weekend. I was supposed to go from Bordeaux to Lyon, Lyon to Chambery, Chambery to Milan, Italy on Tuesday. I am still in Bordeaux.

Monday night, Abby and I had a friend over, Guillaume. My train on Tuesday was scheduled to leave at 5:40 am. Naturally, we decided to stay up all night and drive to the train station around 5 am.

I treated myself to some magazines (Heat and Glamour-gotta love British mags) and I brought some applesauce with me. I fell asleep within 5 minutes of being on the train. There were a lot of stops between Bordeaux to Lyon and when the train started in Bordeaux, there were only two people in my car. When I woke up, not only was I drooling on a stranger, but my car was full.

I arrived in Lyon around 11:30 am (yes, 6 hours on a train) and I went to print out my tickets. I brought my e-ticket numbers with me and you can enter them into a machine and print them-easy!

I printed my tickets from Lyon to Chambery no problem, but I wasn't able to print the tickets from Chambery to Milan. After going up and speaking with a very nice woman, I found out that there was no way that I was going to Milan on Tuesday. Apparently, there was a 'greve' (strike) going on with the train company in Italy, and it was not going to be possible to take the train. I spent about an hour trying to find a way to get to Italy, but to no avail. The only solution they gave me was to book a hotel room in Lyon and try again the next day.

I decided to take a train into Paris to see if I could get a cheap flight or train or something to Milan. I hopped on a train around 2 pm, arriving in Paris around 4 pm. Of course there is no such thing as a "last minute cheap flight". The cheapest was 1,000 euro.

At this point, I was beyond fed up. I love France, I love the ability to see the countryside from the train window and I am so blessed to be able to even be in France, but I was exhausted, tired of trying to explain my situation, and to make matters worse, my phone was about to die. I decided to grab a mozzerella/tomato salad (as pictured above) and I ended up just taking a train back to Bordeaux, arriving back at Abby's apartment around 9:30 pm.

Let's do the math: 6 hours (Bordeaux to Lyon) + 2 hours (Lyon to Paris) + 3 hours (Paris to Bordeaux) = 11 hours on a train, to end up in the same place where I started. Oh and the trains from Lyon to Paris to Bordeaux cost an extra 90 euros.

I was stressed during the day, and was on the verge of crying multiple times, it was probably the worst day that I've had since I've been in France, but then I just remind myself that I AM IN FRANCE, and instantly I feel better



Busy Day In Poitiers

Thursday was crazy busy for us here in Poitiers. I had to work on packing (headed back to Bordeaux) and Kate had to work on packing as well (she leaves for Russia for 10 days). So her room was a disaster-mix of dirty/clean clothes and piles of stuff everywhere.

It was a very, very productive day and I'm so proud of all the things that Kate and I accomplished! It wouldn't have been as productive if we hadn't eaten a pochette in the morning though, I'm sure.

Kate needed to go to the doctor to get a little check up before she headed out of the country. And she still hadn't received her passport back from the Russian government, so we were a bit stressed out yesterday.

In order to enter Russia, you need to know someone that lives there and be invited by them. Kate has a friend living there who's French, and since the assistants have a two week break, he invited her to come visit. Last time I was in Poitiers, we worked on her Russian visa the whole time. American girls, writing in French, applying for a Russian visa. Awesome.

We made sure we were in the apartment when they were supposed to deliver the package that had her passport. 11h30 came and went and we went down to check her mail box and sure enough, there was a slip there saying they had tried to deliver her passport at 11h13! Strange enough, NO ONE came to knock on her door or anything. So we headed into town to go pick it up from the post office.

We also went into Zara to pick up some clothing essentials-black pants and a t-shirt. We were on the hunt for scarves or gloves because it's freezing in Russia right now but since it's so warm in Poitiers, no one is stocking them anymore!

Before we knew it, it was 8 o'clock and almost all of our errands were finished. We decided to hit up Jardin d'Asie for some Chinese food for dinner. And Kate introduced me to Croquettes Vietnamienne (Nems). So good! They were kind of like eggrolls but smaller. And you take a mint leaf and a piece of lettuce to wrap around them, dip them in a little sauce and delicious!

The rest of Thursday night consisted of saying goodbyes to the other assistants who are traveling and packing up some more! I made an AWESOME playlist for the train ride back to Bordeaux!

Pochette

Thursday was a day that required pastries, simply put. Well, pastries and chocolate. Thank goodness we're in France, where almost every pastry has a 'chocolate' option! Enter 'pain au chocolat' and 'pochette'.

Kate picked them up for Rachel and I on her way home from the doctor's office, along with some Minute Maid orange juice. Perfect breakfast combination!

Rachel and Kate had been saying good things about 'pochettes'. Kate said they were worth running up the street, yelling 'pochette' (you would be ostracized in France if you did this), so I was pretty excited to try one.

The outside was just like a crosissant, or pain au chocolat-golden and flaky. But unlike pain au chocolat, the inside was creamy chocolate! So good. It was the perfect start to my Thursday!

I don't know how good 'pochettes' are in other bakeries, but we have found a woman here in Poitiers and we refuse to buy bread anywhere else (we just refer to her as 'the old lady'). She is not nice at all but her bread is good, so it's worth it!

Recipe for the Perfect Tuesday Night

Good food and good company make for the perfect Tuesday night!

Both Kate and Rachel had to work today, so in the interest of being productive, I thought I would make them dinner! Ratatouille-yum! I have the best recipe for it, that I've kind of modified, but it only takes about 30 mins to make. I almost burned down Kate's apartment, but I fixed it, no worries!

We also have bread and maybe some fondue for an appetizer, oh, and the Bachelor online!

PS Sorry for the awkward lighting, it's nighttime...

Valentine's Day!

Above: my new favorite door in France-I love the knocker on it!

Valentine's day was pretty low key. I spent the day cleaning and doing laundry and shopping a little bit with Rachel. It was really nice to be able to call both Mama and Daddio to check in with them!

Basically everyone in Poitiers has a significant other, except for Kate and I, so we made plans to order pizza. The bus Kate needed to take home never came, so she had to wait at her school for an extra two hours and didn't even make it home until 8:30. And she had to work extra early this morning (leave at 6:30 am) so we were verrry low key. But Valentine's Day in France is different than in the states, it's for lovers only.

Bordeaux to Poitiers

Saturday started out in Bordeaux and ended in Poitiers

While I was sad to be leaving Abby and Bordeaux, I was so happy to get back to Poitiers to see Kate and everyone there!

The above two pictures are Bordeaux, nice, warm, sunny at the train station

It was only about an hour and a half long train and I read the whole time.

Poitiers was rainy, cold and windy. Kate came and picked me up and we got a ride back to her apartment. In the afternoon, I went with some people to Casino (grocery store)and we got some groceries for the rest of the week



The above two pictures are the view from Kate's room in Poitiers. Please note the overcast, grey sky. BLAH

Adventure to the Vineyards Part 4

On our way home, we decided to stop at a random Castle we found (only in France)

Dakota and I tried to sneak up to the building to peek in the windows, but Abby wanted to get on the road

We all agreed that it would make the perfect location for a scary movie...or a movie about my life (should I ever live in a castle)

Our adventure home was a bit stressful though. We took this opportunity for Abby to learn how to drive stick shift. She did an amazing job! It was a bit much, as we stalled in a lot of roundabouts but the point is, Abby drove a manual car in France!

We ran out of time to see any other vineyards because the car was due by 8 but there was tons of traffic getting back into the city.

Next came our horrendous attempt to return the car. The man at Hertz assured us that the return address was entered into the GPS. Nope, it wasn't. So we drove around the train station for about an hour, trying to find a place to return the car. Eventually, Abby ran in to talk to the man and he handed her a map and basically said "figure it out". After TWO hours, we parked the car, unpacked and boarded the tram to head home. We were exhausted. So naturally, we picked up three bottles of wine on our way home!

Adventure to the Vineyards Part 3

Dakota insisted that we stop at Chateau Pichon Longueville

They were in the process of trimming the vines, so we weren't able to visit but we walked around the Chateau a bit and Abby and I envisioned our weddings here. It was the epitome of a vineyard in Bordeaux and it was beyond amazing.

The Chateau was front and center and in front of it was a pool of water. On either side of the water were two, more modern buildings. Abby informed us that the tasting room is underneath the water!

Dakota and I (I may or may not have had a bit of an Evita moment)

I love, love, LOVE architecture in France!



Abby at the Chateau! I don't know why we both insisted on putting our legs up...

When the Chateau hosts a wedding, it's at the top of these stairs

I love having friends who take as many (if not more) pictures as me!

Time to get back on the road!

Adventure to the Vineyards Part Two

Our first Chateaux appointment was for Chateau Chasse Spleen

One of our friend's moms works at the Chateau and she said she would give us a private tour

The history of the Chateau was really interesting. It was called Chasse Spleen because that means "chasing the blues away". And the owner of it right now is a woman, so the sign was pink and all of the walls had some pink painted on them.

The tour started outside, looking at the vines a bit and she told us about how they harvest the grapes and everything. They have 150 workers come in and everything is picked by hand.

The picture above looks kind of sparse but I really liked this vineyard because of how much greenery there was.

We next went to go look at how they make the wine. They use both stainless steel containers and also cement containers to ferment the wine

From the stainless steel containers, they go to the barrels. So that was our next stop. Their tasting room and where they store the barrels was actually underneath the vineyard

Next, time for tasting! The tasting room at Chasse Spleen was a bit modern but the lights in the ceiling was really cool- they were in the form of constellations!

We tasted a 2009 that will debut in April. Abby was very official with her tasting-swirling, smelling, swishing, tasting, spitting. Dakota and I swirled and then drank. It was awesome.

We said our goodbyes and decided what other vineyards we wanted to see.

Adventure to the Vineyards Part One

We had big plans for Friday. Since Abby's mom was still visiting, we decided to rent a car and go see some Vineyards!

We walked from Abby's apartment to the tram. To the train station. Where we met up with our other companion, Dakota. Dakota is dating one of Abby's friends and he was so much fun to spend the day with!

It was almost impossible to find the Hertz location at the Bordeaux train station. Turns out, you have to go INSIDE the train station, UNDER the tracks and then BACK OUT of the train station. And then it took another 20 minutes to actually find the car

Enter our car. Stick shift, not even made in France, and it hailed from Spain. AKA the Owner's Manual was in Spanish. Awesome.

We packed up the car with our picnic lunch and got the party started! Abby's mom was voted first to drive, and the first thing she said when she started the car was "So this is either the reverse or..."

It ended up being okay, we drove about 45 minutes outside of Bordeaux and we first stopped at a vineyard that was closed for lunch time but it made the perfect spot for our picnic!

We brought tons of fun stuff. Sandwich stuff, pretzels, fruit, yogurt and most importantly, wine!

Sandwhiches made of gouda, boursin, dijon mustard and salami. Yum!

And wine in plastic cups

We have officially entered the world of the vineyards! Across the street, and surrounding our entire picnic area were lines of grape vines. So beautiful!