The journey began with planes, trains, and automobiles. We took off in the afternoon and watched the sun set and rise from the plane. I don't sleep well while traveling, so I kept myself busy by watching 12 Years a Slave and reading erotica. That flight was an emotional roller coaster! (on the flight back Phil and I played Pokémon for literally 10 hours straight. It was glorious). After a long train ride to the town of Angers we were exhausted.
Unfortunately, the hardest stretch was still ahead of us. We had to cover about 70km (that's about 44 miles for us yankees) to reach our destination. Luckily Felicia still remembered how to drive stick, and she maneuvered our rental car out of an impossible parking garage and through some confusing roundabouts while I struggled to navigate.
Eventually wound up in the French village of Cholet. Never heard of it? Me either. It's a small town in the Pays de la Loire region. Phil's Papi lives in the countryside there and he's a real OG, so he let all seven of us stay there for a few days while we worked off the jetlag. He was an amazing host too, introducing us to some French customs and language, and providing us with delicious regional cuisine.I woke up in the middle of our first night there. I felt very well rested so I figured it was mid-morning. I was impressed with the silence of the countryside, and the darkness provided by the shutters. Then I looked at the clock... it was just after midnight. I lay awake for about six hours that night, upset with the stubbornness of my internal clock. Eventually the sun rose, just like always, and the party began!
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| I'm gonna be late. Yup, Apocalypse again. |
After a few days we headed off to Andernos Les Bains, a small beach town just off the Atlantic. We spent an amazing week in Phil's family beach house. It was the most relaxing stretch of our trip. We were still culturally
immersed because nobody there spoke English, but we didn't take a lot
of time to do sightseeing or other touristy things.
Every day there we rode bikes on the boardwalk and through the cycling paths in town. We ate more amazing food, we swam, we caught some sun, and we tried our best to speak French. On my favorite day there we got lost biking to the ocean. A one hour ride turned into three, but it was all good because the cycling path through the forest was amazing, and the weather was beautiful. When we finally arrived we devoured our baguette sandwiches and spent the rest of the day beaching it up. Of course the beaches in France are topless, so you have a great view of the mountains as well :)
One night in Andernos has stuck with me particularly well. A thunderstorm rolled in
and everyone was already asleep, but I stayed up playing Majora's Mask
on the 3DS and listening to Outkast. Between songs I caught myself
listening to the rain and thunder and I reflected on how awesome my life
was at that moment - surrounded by awesome people in an awesome place under shelter from awesome weather listening to awesome music and playing an awesome video game with a belly full of awesome food. I'm not usually one for contentment, but that night it was hard not to feel like I "made it."
Nobody was sadder to leave Andernos than Felicia. She wanted to say goodbye to her new friends (the baker and the lifeguard), but the sophisticated French language escaped her tongue. With a heavy heart we headed for Bordeaux for a day. We ate lunch at McDonald's, which was actually pretty good (I had curry sauce with my nuggets. Felicia had a "Croque McDoo".) We spent some time checking out the city before hopping our train to Paris.
This was the day after three American soldiers stopped an armed terrorist on a train bound for Paris. Somehow the proximity of that event didn't really affect our trip. Maybe we were just too busy to really let it soak in. The more that I think about it, the more humbled I am by their heroism. I'm glad that wasn't my train instead. I'm not sure if I could be so brave in that situation, and hopefully I'll never have to find out.
Paris was the opposite of Andernos - noisy, crowded, and smoky. The streets form a narrow disorienting labyrinth interlaced with brick and cobblestone plazas, but every time we got to look at the city from above was breathtaking. There's a bakery or a church on every corner.
Our airbnb apartment was cozy and comfortable. It felt perfect for a couple wanting to get the real Parisian experience. We were on the 7th floor of the building, with a beautiful view of the Sacré Cœur Catherdral.
We did most of the typical touristy stuff while we were there. We ascended the Eiffel Tower, The Arc de Triomphe, and the towers of Notre Dame. We admired the stained glass windows of San Chappelle, and the splendor of the palaces and the opera house. We spent days perusing artwork in the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay. We visited the Pantheon and learned a thing or two about democracy. We even went deep underground and toured centuries of human remains buried beneath the city.
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| The Gates of Hell from Dante's Inferno |
At first the historical significance was overwhelming. As you walk around the Louvre, it's amazing to recognize how saturated you become with artwork. At first you want to walk slowly and inspect every piece with the same focus that it was crafted with. After a whole day, however, you catch yourself strolling down a hallway filled with statues that took generations to carve, but you can only afford a casual glance at each one before moving on. That's especially true for artwork of Christian subjects. You can only handle so many Virgin Marys in a single day.
I'm not really a history buff, but it was very cool to experience hundreds of years of developments firsthand throughout the course of a week. At first you admire the glamour of the grand cathedrals and palaces - San Chappelle and Versailles in particular. Then you learn to place them in context; commoners are working and starving while the royal family builds another private garden and a summer
Of course, the catacombs offered the greatest sense of perspective. Deep under the city you can walk through an ossuary where the walls are made from millions of human bones. Seeing the remains of so many nameless, faceless people is a stark reminder of how temporary life is. All those people were just like me once. Many of them probably didn't live to be my age. Sometimes I struggle with counting what's on my bucket list instead of my blessings, but in the catacombs I gained a gratitude for my life that I won't soon forget.
The weather was a mixed bag. Unfortunately our day inside the Louvre was warm and sunny while the day we spent at the gardens of Versailles was raining les chats et les chiennes. C'est la vie. Our last day in town was sunny, so we grabbed some sandwiches with our last euros and headed to the park. I was proud of myself for knowing how to say the French word for every animal there! Later that night the cultural fusion was reciprocated, as I noticed some French kids copying my top-knot haircut.
So that was our trip to France! All things considered it was an amazing, fun, humbling experience. I had a great vacation with my friends, and I learned a lot about the world. It was exhausting as far as vacations go, but I can't wait to get the same kind of immersion in other parts of the world.
Dieu merci, c'est Briday!
P.S. I want to give some special shout-outs to things that were great throughout the whole trip.
So that was our trip to France! All things considered it was an amazing, fun, humbling experience. I had a great vacation with my friends, and I learned a lot about the world. It was exhausting as far as vacations go, but I can't wait to get the same kind of immersion in other parts of the world.
Dieu merci, c'est Briday!
P.S. I want to give some special shout-outs to things that were great throughout the whole trip.
- croissants - especially almond
- fresh bakes baguettes (they don't need to add yeast there, it's just in the air)
- Crepes
- chorizo
- local tomatoes
- three course meals
- French mountain food. Their lumberjacks must be enormous.
- T-mobile's plans that just work internationally
- Duolingo and Google Translate apps
- The kindness of Phil's family
- Rick Steve's audio guides
- Felicia and Kelsey itinerary planning
- Nintendo 3DS, LoZ: Majora's Mask, Super Smash Bro's, and Mario Kart
- Felicia's fitbit and her 40k steps
- being friends with proactive photographers
- And, of course, Phil speaks French!
