Tuesday June 9, 2009

The exterior of Notre Dame

at Place Ste. Michel

Michael Papich's reflects on the day

Those of us who did not go on today’s bike ride had the pleasure of visiting two very famous sites in Paris: Le Palais du Justice and the Notre Dame Cathedral. The Palace was not only the former home of royalty, but it was also a prison that even stored Marie Antoinette at one point! The building itself was carved with bold, fluid cuts to form various pillars that all moved together to support the rest of the structure. The Notre Dame Cathedral was much larger than I could have imagined and the outside was covered in highly detailed carvings and in the center was an enormous violet stained glass circular window. The inside had more windows and was really wide. After we walked around the streets of the Latin Quarter, with its authentic French restaurants and old-timey streets and met with the bikers at La Fontane de Saint-Michel, an enormous and detailed fountain in the middle of the street. We then headed for the Eiffel Tower, and after some trouble getting in, we climbed up its many metal stairs and got an impressive view of the city we would be leaving the next morning. All of these impressive sights were an excellent end to a long, thrilling, and historic two weeks and three days in France!

at the top of the world (or the Eiffel Tower)

on the way back down

Yate's thoughts on our last day in Paris

On the last full day in Paris we had a really fun time. My group woke up and did the bike trip around south Paris which was fun and we saw cool Parisian architecture. Unfortunately rain put a little bit of a damper on the biking but overall I enjoyed it. After this, a few of my friends and I ate lunch at a small restaurant called “Le Chat Qui Peche” which oddly means “The Cat Who Fishes.” This was a delicious meal. After this we took a nice long hike to the Eiffel Tower and after a difficult situation, we were able to climb it. This was a icing on the cake to a wonderful Exchange trip.

Monday June 8, 2009

entering Pere Lachaise

Walking through Pere Lachaise

Visiting with Balzac

at Place de la Bastille

Meggie's take on a busy day in Paris
Today was a very wet day in Paris! The morning was pretty clear and comfortable, but by the afternoon, everyone was pretty soaked to the bone. We woke up and ate the hotel’s provided breakfast and then broke into two groups. One group was going on a bike ride tour of the city first and then visiting Le Centre Pompidou. The other, which was the one I was in, was supposed to visit a famous cemetery called Pere Lachaise and then bike ride in the afternoon. Pere Lachaise is an extremely well known cemetery. People who made notable achievements during their lifetime, like Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, and Balzac, are commonly buried here. Pere Lachaise is a big place, so we spent our time looking at a ton of gravesites. After leaving Pere Lachaise, we headed for Place de la Bastille. It was pretty cool to see this since we learned about the French Revolution this year in history class. For lunch, we headed to an area called Le Marais. It has tons of little shops and cafes. By this time, it was raining pretty hard. Sadly, it was hard enough that we had to reschedule our bike ride for the next day. We made the best of it though and had some free time before going to Les Invalides. We saw Napoleon’s tomb and spent a little time in the gift shop. Because of our change in plans, we also visited Notre Dame. The cathedral itself looks pretty impressive from looking at the outside. Inside, it is beautiful. The stain glass windows are amazing. When it was time to meet up with the rest of our classmates, we went to Sacre Coer, another beautiful cathedral. This one was different than Notre Dame, but it was definitely beautiful in its own way. It was also good to get out of the rain for a bit before splitting up to go to dinner at Montmartre which is just beside Sacre Coeur. The rain prevented us from being able to see the Eiffel tower after dinner, so we planned to visit it the next day and headed back to the hotel for the night. Despite the fact that we were all soaked, today proved to be a great day!

waiting to go into Centre Pompidou

favorite parts of Centre Pompidou

Georgia talks about the end of the day

When we decided to not visit the Eiffel Tower tonight because there was a lot of rain, it was kind of disappointing. But, we had time to visit some shops around our hotel. A group of us went to the supermarket and had a lot of fun looking at all the foods there. We bought some chocolate covered waffles to eat back at the hotel. We got in a really long line, but we joked about the waffles, talked about how good the food is here, and made up a song about baguettes.

Sunday June 7, 2009

On the bus to Paris

Maia reflects on her experiences in France

Today was filled with mixed emotions. As we packed our bags, memories, and reflections filled our minds. On one hand, I couldn’t imagine leaving my host family. On the other, I couldn’t believe I was going to Paris. So I tried to focus on the positive. I looked back on this amazing experience and realized the things I’ve done. Two weeks have changed my life. The smells, people, food, music and things I’ve seen are unforgettable. I’m so fortunate to have met all these amazing people who I hope I will see soon again. As we end one chapter of our lives, we begin another. I leave Tours with new friends and memories that will stay with me forever. Love you all! Bisous.

Miriam and Maia show us our hotel in Paris

on the metro to the Louvre

Going to see the Mona Lisa

CA Alums are everwhere!

At the Arc de Triumph

Dinner on Champ d'Ellyse

ending the evening with a boat ride on the Seine

Alex reflects on the day

Everyone on the bus was filled with excitement and anticipation as we approached Paris. The signs grew larger and the distance markers smaller. Finally someone spotted the top of the Eiffel Tower and the excitement started to boil over the brim. Loud voices were filling the small space the bus held for us; this was accompanied by small utterings of excited squealing and cheering. We arrived at the hotel and everybody put their bags in their rooms and we headed out quickly to start our Parisian adventure. We visited the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, Pharaoh Ramses, and the Thinking Man. We then hopped along to the Arc de Triumph and took some sweet pictures. We ended the night with a boat ride on the Seine.

Saturday June 6, 2009

Nous partons à Paris! (we're off to Paris!)

While we are in Paris, we will have limited internet access. I will be posting written and video segments when we get back to North Carolina.

Friday June 5, 209

Introduction to Chambord

Dylan's thoughts on the day

My favorite part of today was the visit to the Chateau Chambord this morning. Even when I could only see it from a distance, it looked very majestic. And when we could finally see it up close and go inside it was truly massive. The first thing you notice as you walk in is the huge spiral staircase; if you and somebody else walk up on opposite sides, you’ll see each other at each window, but you’ll never meet. It was pretty cool. Interestingly enough, almost none of the rooms in the castle were fully furnished. Even though, it was still interesting to look at. It’s a shame the original owner of the castle never got to use it. I know I would have enjoyed as much of it as I could – it looked like something out of a movie! After a walk around the castle, we went out into the gardens for lunch, which was a great place to eat. The castle visit made for a very good morning. It made me wish we could have visited more of them.

Michael L. and Dylan in the spiral staircase

Dylan showing a room at Chambord

Introduction to Chenonceau

Sabrina's takes us through the day

Today we went to two castles: Chateau de Chambord and Chateau de Chenonceau. Chambord was really pretty. It’s a huge castle. There is a set of spiral steps that rotate around each other which is really cool. My favorite part of the castle was a room with 3 beautiful medival dresses. Ellyse, Meggie, Cate, Liz and I took jumping pictures in the middle of the courtyard. It took us a while to get a good picture because Ellyse was never on time, but we finally got a good one. My friends and I are a lovely picnic lunch by a pond and afterwards talked for awhile. The bus ride to the next castle took about an hour. Some people slept, others talked, and Hillary and Alex sang the whole time. We got to Chateau de Chenonceau – this chateau was beautiful from the outside and had really pretty gardens which were a lot different from the gardens of Villandry. Overall the two chateaus were really beautiful and it was a great day!

The gardens at Chenonceau

Thursday June 4, 2009

Miriam shares a little about her mornings...

Today we are going to the zoo, but I thought that it would be sufficiently covered in the videos. So instead, I am going to focus on a typical French breakfast. My family always has around three different types of bread: baguette, mishe (a brown French sourdough) and sliced brioche. To go with all of that bread, you need a lot of spreads. I usually cover the majority of my bread with Nutella (only the best chocolate-hazelnut spread ever) and the rest with butter and raspberry jam. My “brother” and “sister” dunk their Nutella-covered baguette in bowls of milk – one thing I have not tried yet. We also eat little yogurts, nectarines, and kiwis. The best part, for me, is when we have the cake made by my correspondent’s mom - the yogurt cake and raspberry cakes are relatively light, but delicious and perfect for breakfast. The only challenge I encounter during breakfast is keeping up with them – they eat really fast because they’re French and they love food, but I think they’re just really fast!

Everyone on the bus excited to visit the zoo

Visting with the penguins

The white tigers

At the bird show with Ellyse...

Today we all went to the zoo. It was such a fun day! My favorite animals were the gorillas. There were three babies in the cage with the rest of the adult gorillas and it was so much fun to watch them interact. My friends and I spent about 30 minute just watching the gorillas. There was one baby gorilla who was hanging on to his mom’s leg while she was walking/swinging around. It was so cute. When we finished watching the gorillas it was time for us to go see a spectacle. It started out with a bird show. The brids would fly really low, near out heads and we would duck in fear of them accidently colliding with us. My favorite bird in the show was the bald eagle because it reminded me of home and it was the only bird that had its own little solo performance. The next part of the show was the seals and sea lions. I was amazed by all of the tricks they could perform and how well trained they were. The spectacle was definitely one of my favorite parts of the zoo.

at the petting zoo

the end of a long day

Wednesday June 3, 2009

Alex talking about his morning snack

Liz showing us flats of mushrooms

Some toxic mushrooms!

Alisha sharing her thoughts on the day and the view

Today was a tiring but eventful day. My favorite part was stopping at the top of a hill to take pictures of the beautiful view. The slight breeze kept me cool on such a hot day and the scene of the beaches and towns from the top of the hill made it worth the tiring day. I took many pictures with my friends ans stood in the breeze to watch below. At that moment there was no place I would have rather been. The peacefulness made me forget my worries and home was the farthest place I wanted to be. It seemed like everyone else enjoyed being there too. Some people were climbing a rock wall and taking pictures and others were enjoying the view. Some people even attempted to carve their name in the wall. I feel like I could never do something like this in Cary, so I’m glad I had this experience in France.

Emma and Nick with the horses