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| Paris Metro Map |
Here's a picture for my Mom:
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| Me, Catherine, and Barbara in their Paris hotel |
Click here for pictures from this trip.
-JChamp
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Day Trip to Paris
I only have 1 class on Tuesdays (French at 6:30 PM), so Tuesday is perfect for a day trip. My mom's good friend, Barbara, was in Paris with her niece, Catherine, a few weeks ago and I decided to visit them. I reserved an early TGV (high-speed train) and arrived in Paris around 9 AM on September 14th. Then, I had to buy a metro ticket to get to their hotel. The metro system is really easy to figure out because it's set up with color-coded lines:
I made it to the hotel around 10 AM and met up with Barbara in the lobby. We chatted for a few minutes while waiting for Catherine, but eventually went up to their room to see if she was ready. After everyone was ready to go, we grabbed breakfast at the McDonald's down the street and jumped on the metro again. We got off at the Notre Dame stop and spent 20-30 minutes getting lost before I whipped out my guide book (DK Eyewitness Travel: France) and navigated us to the cathedral. We didn't go inside, but I got lots of pictures of the outside. By the time we had walked around the whole thing, it was lunchtime and we headed back to the hotel. Barbara went to the grocery store to pick up some food while Catherine and I visited the nearby Louvre gardens. I took some more pictures of the entrance to The Louvre and the surrounding areas. We made it back to the hotel and had a delicious lunch of cheese, baguette, veggies from a vegetable platter, hummus, and a few plums. My train back to Metz was at 2 PM, so I said goodbye and thank you after lunch, got back on the metro (where some creepy old Frenchman got a little too close to me), and just barely made my train back to school. I'm excited that I finally got to meet Barbara (my Mom talks about her a lot) and I look forward to seeing her again in the States! I'm also excited to go back to Paris for a weekend to see the rest of the sights!
Here's a picture for my Mom:
Click here for pictures from this trip.
-JChamp
Here's a picture for my Mom:
Click here for pictures from this trip.
-JChamp
Friday, September 24, 2010
LCC Trips
So, I'm in this class called LCC 4813: Gateway to Metz and we basically get to take free trips all over the Lorraine region and some of Germany with the French professor (Madame Serafin, who is VERY similar to Ms. Frizzle) to learn about the history of Europe and how the EU was developed. This post will be dedicated to the first 3 trips we've had.
Robert Schuman House and Museum
Robert Schuman is known as the Father Europe because he basically jump-started the creation of the European Union. We traveled to the nearby village of Scy-Chazelles to his house and the museum dedicated to his life's work next door. We watched a pretty informative presentation about how the EU was started and got to ask questions that probably only Americans would ask. Then we got to go into the house where Robert Schuman lived. The society had added some quintessential Lorraine furniture to his house, but a lot of the things inside were his original belongings. He had a pretty big book collection and a spacious office. We saw the bed where he died and his car (a replica) too. After a tour of the house, we walked around his huge garden. The trees along the main pathway were trimmed so that they were growing out only along 2 sides (so they were flat). They were really interesting and modern looking. We visited the exhibit in the adjacent building before heading back to Metz and GTL.
Click here for pictures of this LCC trip.
European Archaeology Park in Bliesbruck (France) - Reinheim (Germany) and Roman Acqueducts
This trip was over an entire day. A mini bus took us to the Archaeological park which is located right on the French-German border and we began our tour of the ruins of an ancient Roman city. I honestly didn't find this trip very exciting but some of the hi-lights were the following:
-JChamp
Robert Schuman House and Museum
Robert Schuman is known as the Father Europe because he basically jump-started the creation of the European Union. We traveled to the nearby village of Scy-Chazelles to his house and the museum dedicated to his life's work next door. We watched a pretty informative presentation about how the EU was started and got to ask questions that probably only Americans would ask. Then we got to go into the house where Robert Schuman lived. The society had added some quintessential Lorraine furniture to his house, but a lot of the things inside were his original belongings. He had a pretty big book collection and a spacious office. We saw the bed where he died and his car (a replica) too. After a tour of the house, we walked around his huge garden. The trees along the main pathway were trimmed so that they were growing out only along 2 sides (so they were flat). They were really interesting and modern looking. We visited the exhibit in the adjacent building before heading back to Metz and GTL.
Click here for pictures of this LCC trip.
European Archaeology Park in Bliesbruck (France) - Reinheim (Germany) and Roman Acqueducts
This trip was over an entire day. A mini bus took us to the Archaeological park which is located right on the French-German border and we began our tour of the ruins of an ancient Roman city. I honestly didn't find this trip very exciting but some of the hi-lights were the following:
- Seeing the original central heating system remains
- Crossing the French-German border by foot and grabbing a beer (on a school trip!) on the German side from a very friendly vendor
- Seeing the tomb of a Celtic princess
- Doing cartwheels in the field with Siri and Amanda and then getting scolded by Madame Serafin
- Touching the semi-electric fence around the sheep on the German side of the park and then watching others touch the fence without knowing it was electric and laughing at their reactions
- Seeing the bath house and toilets (mostly because it was the most complete exhibit)
After our tour of the ruins, we visited some Roman aqueducts remains around Metz. Aqueducts are how the Romans got water to the big cities from the mountain streams and rivers. The Romans figured out how to calculate the very slight angle to move the water downhill over many miles and they used less material by constructing arches instead of solid walls. Basically, they are incredible achievements in engineering, architecture and math. Read about them here.
Click here for pictures of this LCC trip.
Malbrouck's Castle, Dukes of Lorraine Castle, Flea Tower
Today was labeled as the "Medieval Times" day in our syllabus and it certainly was. The first castle we went to was the Malbrouck's Castle. It has been renovated, repaired, and stabilized with concrete over the years to be safe for visitors of all ages and conditions (aka old people and children). Most of the exhibits had the information listed in French, German, and English so were able to self-guide through the castle. There were some great views once we got to the top turret of the Witch Tower (I have no idea why it's called this, but the other castle we saw had one too). The most interesting thing in this castle was probably the explanations of how they renovated the roof of the turret of the Witch Tower or the photography display of pictures taken of the castle.
The next destination was the Dukes of Lorraine Castle in Sierck right along the Moselle River (which runs through Metz). There was a bicycle race going on through the city, so we had to take a strange route to get to the actual castle. Madame Serafin warned us that this castle was not as safe as the last castle because a volunteer historical society takes care of all the exhibits and they don't have enough money to do renovations. This made the Dukes of Lorraine Castle a lot more interesting, though. We climbed to the top and ate lunch in the picnic area before breaking off in small groups to explore. We had a map, but we didn't use it very much. Some of the walkways were very slippery and steep so I almost fell a few times, but it made the trip more fun. There was a torture chamber, lots of spiral staircases, and many tunnels to get lost in. There was also a beautiful view of the Moselle River from the top.
In the afternoon, the bus drove us to Thionville where we visited the Flea Tower. This is a tower built by Charlemagne in medieval times (obviously). It's basically a museum now, but it was cool to walk through the whole thing. Afterwards, Madame Serafin bought us drinks at a local restaurant and then we headed home.
Click here for pictures of this LCC trip.
-JChamp
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Weekend #3: Nice, Monte Carlo, and St. Paul de Vence
I have a feeling this post will be kind of long, so I'm going to break it up into pieces according to the day of travel.
Thursday - Friday (September 2nd - 3rd)
A few of us traveling have French class until 8 PM on Thursday nights, which doesn't work out well because the buses stop going downtown after a certain time. Our French professor was nice enough to let us out half an hour early and she drove the 3 girls in the class to the train station. We took a couchette (sleeping compartment with 6 beds) from Metz to Nice. We left Metz around 8 PM and arrived in Nice around 8 AM. The beds are fine to sleep on, but it's hard not to think about all the germs that are in the couchettes. We stayed up pretty late chatting with everyone in our couchette plus a few others. The space is pretty small, but we made it work and had some real bonding time.
Once we arrived in Nice, we immediately found our hostel because we could store our luggage there. After leaving our luggage, a few of us set out to find the beach. We were happy to find that the beach was really close to our hostel. After seeing a few topless women, we ventured over to the fruit and flower market. Later on we found Le Chateau Hill and climbed to the top. There were amazing views and A LOT of stairs. Unfortunately, my camera started malfunctioning at the top and I didn't get any pictures (later on I accidentally dropped my camera on the floor and it started working again, haha). There was an awesome playground and a pretty waterfall at the top of the hill. My mom would have loved the climb and views from there.
After all that climbing and sweating, we all decided to go back and change into our bathing suits and hit the beach. We immediately picked an area on the (rock) beach and struggled down to the water (the rocks really hurt your bare feet). The water was pretty cool, but not uncomfortably so. It was also very clean and pretty easy to see down to the bottom. The boys had a lot of fun swimming out to the buoys because there was little to no riptide.
After showers, we went to dinner at an Italian place very close to our hostel. I had an amazing pizza that I couldn't finish. It is almost considered rude to not finish your plate at restaurants in Europe, so the rest of the table helped me out. We decided we wanted to go back to Le Chateau Hill to see Nice at night and ran into the other group from GTL that was in Nice that weekend as well. They joined us on our walk back to the beach. Amanda, a BME/ME from Duke, and I walked much farther ahead of the group in order to update each other on the activities and drama from the day. Le Chateau Hill ended up being closed, so we settled for sitting on the beach and chatting. A lot of young locals and tourists were chilling on the beach too, so we felt like we were getting the true Nice experience. We headed back early-ish because a lot of us were going scuba diving early the next morning.
Saturday (September 4th)
11 of us woke up early and made our way to the docks. We had trouble finding the scuba diving company and were worried because the hostel front desk told us that the boats left at 9 AM sharp and they would leave us if we were late. I think it was a few minutes after 9 when we found the scuba shop and saw the scuba divers unlocking the door. I guess they aren't as punctual as the hostel thought. We got suited up in our wet suits and set out into the ocean on a pontoon-like boat. Our boat docked pretty close to the shore near a private swimming area (where there were at least 5 fully naked men sunbathing). The French scuba system allows beginner scuba divers to dive while tethered to an instructor. There were only 3 or 4 instructors, though, so we had to take turns diving. I got to go down near the end of the morning. My instructor was really nice and made me feel very comfortable. He made me practice breathing with the air mouthpiece on while just floating on my stomach, which was a great way to get used to breathing only through the mouthpiece. It is a very strange feeling to only be able to breathe through the mouthpiece. Once he felt like I was ready to go down, he deflated my life jacket and we started to sink into the water. I started to breathe through the mouthpiece, but kind of hyperventilated a bit and had to put my mouth above the surface for a second to calm down. I stopped freaking out and went down with my instructor. We saw lots of coral, interesting fish, and other scuba divers. Scuba diving was an amazing experience and I would definitely suggest it to anyone brave enough!
After a long morning, we grabbed some lunch at a restaurant near our hostel and made plans to go to Monte Carlo, Monaco for the afternoon and early evening. We caught a train (3 euros each way without a EurRail pass) to Monte Carlo which only took a half hour. It was pretty simple to find the Monte Carlo casino and we spent at least 45 minutes taking pictures of crazy expensive cars. Some of the boys wanted to go in the casino, but I went exploring with the other half of or group. We walked to the other side of the port and climbed up the mountain/hill overlooking the city. I have some amazing pictures from the fort/castle and surrounding areas up there. By the time we climbed down, it was time to grab our train back to Nice. We got into Nice just in time to catch a fireworks show and festival at the port. The fireworks in Nice were not as good as the ones in Metz, but still enjoyable. We met up with the others from GTL and tried to find a discotheque, but failed and went to bed instead.
Sunday (September 5th)
Sunday was museum and art day. We visited the Marc Chagall museum and the modern art museum. I really enjoyed the modern museum and I can't wait to visit the Centre Pompidou here in Metz with my LCC class. I really enjoyed Niki de Saint Phalle's works. There is a sculpture of hers at the train station in Metz. My camera died before we got out onto the roof of the modern art museum, but there are some great views of Nice from there. After a quick lunch, we hopped on a bus to St. Paul de Vence (an hour away from Nice) to see the artist commune. The little shopping and art gallery area reminded me of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter, but I don't have any pictures to illustrate that.
We had to catch our couchette back to Metz around 8 PM that night and by that time my allergies were crazy horrible and I took a Benadryl and slept all the way back home.
Click here for pictures from this weekend.
-JChamp
Thursday - Friday (September 2nd - 3rd)
A few of us traveling have French class until 8 PM on Thursday nights, which doesn't work out well because the buses stop going downtown after a certain time. Our French professor was nice enough to let us out half an hour early and she drove the 3 girls in the class to the train station. We took a couchette (sleeping compartment with 6 beds) from Metz to Nice. We left Metz around 8 PM and arrived in Nice around 8 AM. The beds are fine to sleep on, but it's hard not to think about all the germs that are in the couchettes. We stayed up pretty late chatting with everyone in our couchette plus a few others. The space is pretty small, but we made it work and had some real bonding time.
Once we arrived in Nice, we immediately found our hostel because we could store our luggage there. After leaving our luggage, a few of us set out to find the beach. We were happy to find that the beach was really close to our hostel. After seeing a few topless women, we ventured over to the fruit and flower market. Later on we found Le Chateau Hill and climbed to the top. There were amazing views and A LOT of stairs. Unfortunately, my camera started malfunctioning at the top and I didn't get any pictures (later on I accidentally dropped my camera on the floor and it started working again, haha). There was an awesome playground and a pretty waterfall at the top of the hill. My mom would have loved the climb and views from there.
After all that climbing and sweating, we all decided to go back and change into our bathing suits and hit the beach. We immediately picked an area on the (rock) beach and struggled down to the water (the rocks really hurt your bare feet). The water was pretty cool, but not uncomfortably so. It was also very clean and pretty easy to see down to the bottom. The boys had a lot of fun swimming out to the buoys because there was little to no riptide.
After showers, we went to dinner at an Italian place very close to our hostel. I had an amazing pizza that I couldn't finish. It is almost considered rude to not finish your plate at restaurants in Europe, so the rest of the table helped me out. We decided we wanted to go back to Le Chateau Hill to see Nice at night and ran into the other group from GTL that was in Nice that weekend as well. They joined us on our walk back to the beach. Amanda, a BME/ME from Duke, and I walked much farther ahead of the group in order to update each other on the activities and drama from the day. Le Chateau Hill ended up being closed, so we settled for sitting on the beach and chatting. A lot of young locals and tourists were chilling on the beach too, so we felt like we were getting the true Nice experience. We headed back early-ish because a lot of us were going scuba diving early the next morning.
Saturday (September 4th)
11 of us woke up early and made our way to the docks. We had trouble finding the scuba diving company and were worried because the hostel front desk told us that the boats left at 9 AM sharp and they would leave us if we were late. I think it was a few minutes after 9 when we found the scuba shop and saw the scuba divers unlocking the door. I guess they aren't as punctual as the hostel thought. We got suited up in our wet suits and set out into the ocean on a pontoon-like boat. Our boat docked pretty close to the shore near a private swimming area (where there were at least 5 fully naked men sunbathing). The French scuba system allows beginner scuba divers to dive while tethered to an instructor. There were only 3 or 4 instructors, though, so we had to take turns diving. I got to go down near the end of the morning. My instructor was really nice and made me feel very comfortable. He made me practice breathing with the air mouthpiece on while just floating on my stomach, which was a great way to get used to breathing only through the mouthpiece. It is a very strange feeling to only be able to breathe through the mouthpiece. Once he felt like I was ready to go down, he deflated my life jacket and we started to sink into the water. I started to breathe through the mouthpiece, but kind of hyperventilated a bit and had to put my mouth above the surface for a second to calm down. I stopped freaking out and went down with my instructor. We saw lots of coral, interesting fish, and other scuba divers. Scuba diving was an amazing experience and I would definitely suggest it to anyone brave enough!
After a long morning, we grabbed some lunch at a restaurant near our hostel and made plans to go to Monte Carlo, Monaco for the afternoon and early evening. We caught a train (3 euros each way without a EurRail pass) to Monte Carlo which only took a half hour. It was pretty simple to find the Monte Carlo casino and we spent at least 45 minutes taking pictures of crazy expensive cars. Some of the boys wanted to go in the casino, but I went exploring with the other half of or group. We walked to the other side of the port and climbed up the mountain/hill overlooking the city. I have some amazing pictures from the fort/castle and surrounding areas up there. By the time we climbed down, it was time to grab our train back to Nice. We got into Nice just in time to catch a fireworks show and festival at the port. The fireworks in Nice were not as good as the ones in Metz, but still enjoyable. We met up with the others from GTL and tried to find a discotheque, but failed and went to bed instead.
Sunday (September 5th)
Sunday was museum and art day. We visited the Marc Chagall museum and the modern art museum. I really enjoyed the modern museum and I can't wait to visit the Centre Pompidou here in Metz with my LCC class. I really enjoyed Niki de Saint Phalle's works. There is a sculpture of hers at the train station in Metz. My camera died before we got out onto the roof of the modern art museum, but there are some great views of Nice from there. After a quick lunch, we hopped on a bus to St. Paul de Vence (an hour away from Nice) to see the artist commune. The little shopping and art gallery area reminded me of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter, but I don't have any pictures to illustrate that.
We had to catch our couchette back to Metz around 8 PM that night and by that time my allergies were crazy horrible and I took a Benadryl and slept all the way back home.
Click here for pictures from this weekend.
-JChamp
Monday, September 6, 2010
Weekend #2: Les Fetes de la Mirabelle
I'm a little behind on blog posts (my apologies).
2 weekends ago (August 27th-29th) was the Mirabelle Festival in Metz. The festival celebrates the mirabelle which is a small plum/grape-like fruit. One of the professors here brought some mirabelles in for us to try. They reminded me of muscadines because of the pit, but they were more grape-like in texture.
I had French class until 8 PM on Friday, so I was a bit later getting downtown for the beginning of the festival. We ran into most of the other GTL students in Place St. Jacques (the main square in downtown Metz where many a beer is had). All of them had crazy clothes on and they took us to a tent near the cathedral to partake in the crazy clothing extravaganza. Basically, you could buy a toke for 2 euro and "shop" in the tent of used clothing. The point was to create the most ridiculous outfit that you could come up with and then the attendants would take a picture so you could be included in the competition for the best dressed. I came out looking kind of like Janis Joplin. The boys kept joking about me having illegal drugs in the folds of my many skirts and dresses. It was GREAT fun and probably a great way to fundraise (which I assume was what was going on). It would be a great idea for a Pride or OPA event next semester! Here are some of the costumes:
After our shopping spree, we danced to the music of some bands in the same square before heading to a bar. We went to Comedie Club and did a shot and had a beer or two. Afterwards, we decided that we wanted to find a club (or discotheque) so we could go dancing. We ventured out again and ended up running into our dorm manager, Benoit. We asked him if he knew of a club we could go to and he said he did and offered to pay for our taxis to get there. Benoit and his friends got in the taxis with us and we made our way to La Rouge. There were about 8-10 of us (2 girls and 6-8 boys) plus Benoit and his two friends. We made it to the club and Benoit bribed the bouncer to let us in without paying cover. We had a lot of fun dancing on the main dance floor for an hour or two despite a few awkward instances when Benoit danced with me. Benoit led us off the dance floor after awhile and we thought we were leaving, but we were actually going to the VIP lounge. He bribed the second bouncer and we went upstairs to the much smaller VIP dance floor. We danced for several more hours and both Benoit and his friend, Hugo, danced with me and Siri several times. I was still having fun, but it just seemed like a strange situation since I have to pay my rent to Benoit. I guess it could be considered a conflict of interest....oh well. I had fun and so did everyone else despite those weird moments. We got home around 5 or 6 in the morning...crazy night.
The next day I slept in for a long time to catch up on the lack of sleep from the night before. After I woke up, I went downtown with some people and had a kebab and a beer in Place St. Jacques. We wanted to make it to the Celtic concert and fireworks display, so we hoofed it over to the field near the Centre Pompidou. There was a bagpipe choir already playing on one of the smaller stages and we watched them for a little while before the real concert began. A famous musician played the penny whistle with a band and I really enjoyed listening to it...reminded of my Celtic Women CD (ha, embarrassing). Once the concert finished up, the fireworks show started. It was probably in the top 5 best fireworks shows I've ever seen. There were crazy fireworks that looked exactly like a flame and a sheet of fireworks that burned for several minutes. I loved it! Right before and right after the fireworks show, some of the spectators broke out into some Celtic dances. Siri, Guillaume (one of the French graduate students that we've befriended), and I joined one of the dances and acted like we knew what we were supposed to be doing.
Sunday was dedicated to a market and the parade, which featured the 2010 Mirabelle Queen. The parade was only okay to me because it seemed poorly organized and only featured bagpipes and floats. I liked bagpipes a lot, but I think I've had my bagpipe fix for awhile.
Click here to see pictures from this weekend.
-JChamp
2 weekends ago (August 27th-29th) was the Mirabelle Festival in Metz. The festival celebrates the mirabelle which is a small plum/grape-like fruit. One of the professors here brought some mirabelles in for us to try. They reminded me of muscadines because of the pit, but they were more grape-like in texture.
I had French class until 8 PM on Friday, so I was a bit later getting downtown for the beginning of the festival. We ran into most of the other GTL students in Place St. Jacques (the main square in downtown Metz where many a beer is had). All of them had crazy clothes on and they took us to a tent near the cathedral to partake in the crazy clothing extravaganza. Basically, you could buy a toke for 2 euro and "shop" in the tent of used clothing. The point was to create the most ridiculous outfit that you could come up with and then the attendants would take a picture so you could be included in the competition for the best dressed. I came out looking kind of like Janis Joplin. The boys kept joking about me having illegal drugs in the folds of my many skirts and dresses. It was GREAT fun and probably a great way to fundraise (which I assume was what was going on). It would be a great idea for a Pride or OPA event next semester! Here are some of the costumes:
After our shopping spree, we danced to the music of some bands in the same square before heading to a bar. We went to Comedie Club and did a shot and had a beer or two. Afterwards, we decided that we wanted to find a club (or discotheque) so we could go dancing. We ventured out again and ended up running into our dorm manager, Benoit. We asked him if he knew of a club we could go to and he said he did and offered to pay for our taxis to get there. Benoit and his friends got in the taxis with us and we made our way to La Rouge. There were about 8-10 of us (2 girls and 6-8 boys) plus Benoit and his two friends. We made it to the club and Benoit bribed the bouncer to let us in without paying cover. We had a lot of fun dancing on the main dance floor for an hour or two despite a few awkward instances when Benoit danced with me. Benoit led us off the dance floor after awhile and we thought we were leaving, but we were actually going to the VIP lounge. He bribed the second bouncer and we went upstairs to the much smaller VIP dance floor. We danced for several more hours and both Benoit and his friend, Hugo, danced with me and Siri several times. I was still having fun, but it just seemed like a strange situation since I have to pay my rent to Benoit. I guess it could be considered a conflict of interest....oh well. I had fun and so did everyone else despite those weird moments. We got home around 5 or 6 in the morning...crazy night.
The next day I slept in for a long time to catch up on the lack of sleep from the night before. After I woke up, I went downtown with some people and had a kebab and a beer in Place St. Jacques. We wanted to make it to the Celtic concert and fireworks display, so we hoofed it over to the field near the Centre Pompidou. There was a bagpipe choir already playing on one of the smaller stages and we watched them for a little while before the real concert began. A famous musician played the penny whistle with a band and I really enjoyed listening to it...reminded of my Celtic Women CD (ha, embarrassing). Once the concert finished up, the fireworks show started. It was probably in the top 5 best fireworks shows I've ever seen. There were crazy fireworks that looked exactly like a flame and a sheet of fireworks that burned for several minutes. I loved it! Right before and right after the fireworks show, some of the spectators broke out into some Celtic dances. Siri, Guillaume (one of the French graduate students that we've befriended), and I joined one of the dances and acted like we knew what we were supposed to be doing.
Sunday was dedicated to a market and the parade, which featured the 2010 Mirabelle Queen. The parade was only okay to me because it seemed poorly organized and only featured bagpipes and floats. I liked bagpipes a lot, but I think I've had my bagpipe fix for awhile.
Click here to see pictures from this weekend.
-JChamp
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