Mussels and Biking the Loire Trails

The only night I went out for dinner I ordered "moules" and got more than I have ever seen before.

Obviously they were good.

BIKE TRIP

I spent the weekend biking through a portion of the Loire Valley. We left on Friday right after class and returned Saturday around midnight. All in all we did over 130km...whew.

We rented our bikes from a local shop in Tours. It took about a half hour for everyone to get there gear settled. Of course, as soon as we got going the sky completely opened up and POURED on us! But we perservered and finally the sun showed back up :)

Our first stop.




Pirate/Gypsy ship on the Loire.

After the rain it turned into a BEAUTIFUL day.

There were fields of wildflowers everywhere!

Cafe creme, biscuit and Gauloises.

We stumbled upon a street festival in one of the many towns we passed through. They put on the festival every Friday to showcase their local art and food.

More of the street festival.

Saeid spotted a bud on the chair and was trying to translate what it is called in English through gestures. A "Pantis" he kept saying :)

The yard of the bed and breakfast we stayed in was full of flowers and vegetables. It was a welcome paradise after a day of biking.

Our Bed and Breakfast

Plenty of scenery.

Sorry so short but I'm in a rush to consume as much more of this city as I can before I have to leave.

So I leave you now.

Fireworks on the river for Bastille day! This is actually the beginning of the fireworks display. There were TONS of people down on the riverfront.

After the fireworks there was a huge concert and dance party down at the river. I didn't catch the name of the band but they were composed of several talented transvestites playing lots of funky old soul. LOVED IT! As you can see the crowd was extremely diverse, it was about midnight and there were old women, young children, university students, and that weird middle aged man behind me who kept grabbing my butt until I politely explained that if he did it again I was going to burn him with my cigarette. He stopped. And I continued dancing until some ridiculous hour of the morning.

One night we were walking down the street looking for something to do and we came upon these local kids who were playing music and dancing outside this church. This is their local perfomance of the French national anthem.

Happy is a condition of the soul

I need more time to do everything that I want
and more drive to do everything that I need

I cleaned my room again today! AND washed clothes!
Productivity=Positivity
Tonight we are having a wine party in the study room of the residence ;)
Actually, I just told everyone here that I know to bring two bottles of wine to the study room around ten...except the Persians, I told them eight o'clock because they're ALWAYS late.

My french is not improving as fast as my spirits...but that's okay.

I want to do some dancing tonight.
Hot day turns into hot night where new friends consume french spirits that encourage free dancing next to la Loire until the wee hours.
Yay.

I am also planning a bicycling trip through the Loire Valley this weekend. Probably two nights and almost three days of biking through French countryside, exploring preserved chateaus and sleeping in random B&Bs.

More smiles

sigh

I spent the first week of the trip getting lost in London, fighting off sickness, trying desperately to catch up on sleep, familiarizing myself with this city and getting to know the two hundred or so other students that were going through the exact same transitions...well, I'm guessing none of them were filed as a missing person in downtown London...but the other transitions were probabley pretty identical.
Not that the first week was BAD, just rough. Last week however...
:)
I celebrated Bastille day down at the Loire (that's the river that runs through Tours), took my first test, had lunch with a friend's mother from Franklin, went on a date with a french guy, visited Le Clos Luce, comitted a felony and spent every evening drinking cheap wine on the sidewalks of the town square.
It's been a good week.
However, I now have no visible floor space in my room or any clean clothes or any sanity left to speak of.
Still, it was worth it.

Monday night Sarah, myself, Paula and Pam went out with some other friends for Indian food. It probably took us around an hour to make the ten minute walk to the restaurant because we kept getting "shoe distracted". The Europeans know their footware! You can spot an American so easily by their shoes. I have two new pair...thank you kindly.

I walk by these everyday and comtemplate not eating anything the rest of the trip so that I can buy them. If anyone wants to contribute to my European shoe fund, feel free.

Indian food in France...???


Charles (American) and Francesca (Italian)

At the Gingette, the beach bar down by the Loire. Everynight there is music and dancing and they don't seem to mind that we bring our own wine which saves TONS of money.

We joked that we have almost every major region of the world represented. Five people from five different areas with different religious beliefs and histories who can all bond over music and wine.

The evening of Bastille day. Celebrations at the Gingette again. The three of us in the front attend L'institut, the others are local.

Wednesday, I went to the train station to meet my friend Logan's mom. Our families have lived only a few miles from each other my whole life and yet I had never met Mrs. Bedford. She happened to be in Tours for two days last week and was SO GENEROUS to treat me to lunch. It was the first hot, heavy, quality meal I had since leaving the states. It was ironic to meet someone from Franklin for the first time in France, but I had a great time and it was nice to see a face from home.

A family of five was traveling through France for the summer on these three bikes!

City hall...beautiful day or night.

Remember the Basilica tower I had pictures of in a past entry? Thursday night we hopped the fence and went down underneath the tower. It was REALLY creepy at first but once I got used to it it was fascinating. We hung out down there for an hour or so...I can't help but cause trouble everywhere.

These Persian women are going to kill me. We spent most of Saturday night hanging out with some local kids, playing music in front of a cathedral. I like getting to know the local scene more than just doing all the touristy things. I feel like I am getting more out of this experience when I do that.

We played spin the bottle ;)

Sunday, my friend Fabrice, who lives in Tours took another student, Dane, and I took the neighboring town of Amboise. There is a chateau there that used to house kings but we went instead to La Clos Luce. This picture is taken from the garden of la Clos and you can see the chateau in the backround on the hillside.

My friend Fabrice who grew up in and around the Tours area was kind enough to drive us to Amboise and show us around the town.

La Clos Luce is the house that Leonardo da Vinci inhabited during the last years of his life. He died in the upstairs master bedroom. We wandered around all afternoon in his gardens behind the house.

Playing in a model of one of his inventions.

I had never seen one of these before but it was SO FUN! You grab onto the handle and run as fast as you can until you just pick up your feet and SOAR!

The house from the outside.

And again.

The castle. After we walked around town we stopped in a historic bakery/coffee shop and I had the BEST cafe au lait of MY LIFE!

Statue of da Vinci.

:)

Dane and I on da Vinci's shoulders.

Beer with grenadine...so gross but we were told we had to try it. The tap is called "a giraffe" and its 25 euros!

I ended the perfect week by hopping the fence (once again) and walking down to the Loire to put my feet in. The weather was clear and I lay down by the water just thinking about where I had gone and where I wanted to go until the wine had gone and the sun was arriving.

Human trafficking hasn't gotten me yet!

I haven't written as much as I would like so far
I can't tell if it's because I am having too much fun to sit still...or if I really don't have anything to say?
Actually, I think it has more to do with trying to figure out how to put this experience into words. It's like taking a picture of the grand canyon with a disposable camera and trying to explain to everyone how powerful that crack in the earth is.
I spend everyday in a sort of neverending awe that is begining to get on my own nerves. I am not this sensitive human being who stands grinning stupidly in front of churches and city halls. Yet, I find myself repeating phrases like "That is breathtaking" and "Look at how beautiful that is" or the constant, drawn out "Wowwwwwwwwwwww".
Ew.
This trip has turned me into a corny old woman who oohs and ahhs at every detail.
I guess there are worse things.

Okay, I am going to try and sum up what I have been doing, because everything else I attempt to type seems cynical and that is not what I am going for here.
I have class Monday through Friday for at least three hours a day...sometimes six, like tomorrow (sigh). Then I usually go home and take a good two to three hour nap under my GINORMOUS window with the constant 75 degree Tours breeze blowing through. I wake up around seven with plenty of daylight left since the sun doesn't go down until...oh...TEN THIRTY! Then I usually wander around exploring the city and talking to different locals in the market or the shops or just on the street. Around ten I come back, change and go out for drinks at the Place Plume which is the huge town square about a five minute walk from where I am staying. The Place is about the size of any southern town square but the center is empty and no cars drive through so every night it is FULL of students and tourists and every space on the first floor is either a bar or a restaurant or both.
If we don't go to the Place then we go down to the river where they have a beach style bar with a dance floor that is always packed. I usually bring two bottles of wine everywhere we go and sip on the way, sip when I get there and sip on the way back. (I'm on a budget remember).
Wherever it is that I end up is always a great time. The locals are becoming more and more friendly and I am finding a niche within the community that I enjoy. I usually head home sometime around three or four am (thus the nap every afternoon) to smoke a french cigarette out of my window while going over the days activities before crawling back into bed.
Needless to say, I'm a pretty happy girl.

In other news, I am doing well in class...more or less sticking to my budget...didn't get to see Harry Potter today because it was sold out...have a date with a hott French MAN tomorrow night...headed to Belfast on the 1st of August...and haven't been raped, assaulted, robbed or sold into human trafficking yet...Sucess So Far!

L'Institut de Touraine, where I go to school everyday. It's directly across the street from my housing. SO convenient and GORGEOUS! The front part you see is a public park. There is a playground off to the right.
Side view from the street.
Vive la France!

This is an average home in tours. Every building is unique in itself but they all are extremely detailed and ANCIENT.

This is Saint Martin's Cathedral. He was the bishop of Tours from 371-397. When he died they buried him in a stone sarcophagus and built a small chapel to honor him. Overtime, the chapel grew until it became a Basilica (a giant church basically) which was eventually sacked by the Huguenots in the sixteenth century. There are two GIANT towers that still stand today. They are ancient looking an SO big. You can see them from where I am staying. It is fascinating to see something so old, that so many people have gone in and out of still standing. The towers are blocked off now but I want to try to sneak in and explore one night. I just don't have the guts to do it by myself so I will have to find someone as dumb as me to come with!

This is Saint Martin's tomb. I only took one picture (this one) while I was inside because it was creepy and I didn't want all those religious people to get mad and chase me with torches.

That is one of the remaining towers of the Basilica straight ahead in the back. The cathedral is on the right. I was on my way to the Tabac (cigarette store) and I noticed that this church was open so I just walked on it. It's crazy how much history is literally right outside my door.

Well this is an abrupt change of pace! The university held a wine and cheese party and what you see is the result. I was on my way to my room when I ran into this. I like them :)

Most of the kids in the program are all from University of Toronto and the ethnic diversity is amazing. There are people from every walk of life. I met up with these guys and we walked down to the Loire the other night and shared a bottle of wine and stared at all the hobos.

We sat by the river drinking French wine and smoking French cigarettes. The cheese was supposed to be a bribe if any hobos bothered us.

Acting like and idiot. Notice how I have a wine pocket in my purse, the purse that says "Tennessee Rehabilitation Center" on the side :)

New friends.

They have spiders in France too, unfortunately.

My first night out. The girls are from Iran but they all go to school in Toronto.

A little bit of the old city. It's beautiful over there. I will take more pictures later but people kept giving me weird looks so I stopped.