France: Part 2

Sorry it's taken a while to get all of this up - for those of you who don't know, Jeff has been working on his CFA competition, which he has made it past the first round and will be heading to Canada for the second of three total rounds.  There have been countless late nights, but he's loving the project and is doing so well with it!  I have so much respect for his dedication to the competition and putting in every effort that he has to get the best result.  But anyway, that's not what this post is about (although I'm EXTREMELY proud of him!) and I finally have a computer to use...briefly. :)

The second part of our trip was up north in Sedan.  We stayed at the Fort de Sedan which is a massive castle (the biggest one in Europe, in fact).  It was in an old city which was so fun to look at... in the car (outside it was drizzling/raining the whole time we were there which isn't too pleasant, but we had to explore so we endured).

Here are a couple pictures of the castle we were in:

 

The pictures don't really capture how big it is, but this thing is seven stories high - built in the mid-1400's with improvements throughout the years.  I love that so much of the history we came across in France existed before America was even discovered by Columbus! It's amazing that they've stood the test of time and that the history has been guarded and preserved like it has!  There apparently was a tour that we missed out on while we were there, but we were too busy exploring the city surrounding.  It was really cool to stay in such an awesome place though.

As mentioned before our beds' walls were always "decorated" with... interesting pieces.  Here, we got a battleground painting:

Nice, huh?  Especially since the fellow by the tree looks like he forgot his pants... I'm just glad it was a painting, because my pillow is the one right below him.... haha

Here are a few pictures from the city.  It was so miserable to be outside that we didn't look too much at what we were taking pictures of, we pointed the camera, clicked, and moved on...

This was their college - I love the look of it!

See how every building is unique, and gorgeous with detail???

This was a river. haha I don't know which river it is, but it was massive, and something cool was that Jeff noticed a pathway that walked across the river when the water level was lower.

I LOVED the old city vibe and the architecture of these buildings. I really wish that the weather wasn't as bad as it was the day we had here.  But, don't worry!  We didn't stay at a castle without doing a little bit of exploring first!!!

You can't see it very well, but there were still cannons lining the walls!

Jeff decided that he wanted to attempt climbing the wall like in the "olden" battle days - Luckily they had a practice area for him.

Haha, off to a great start, right?

And off he goes!

Victorious! (not really though.. haha the wall was built very well, although I'm sure Jeff would say that the rain just made it too slippery...)

This was at the very top, but they wouldn't let us go up and see the view :(

And then I threw him into the pit! haha not that it would be too hard to get out...

Here are a few more pictures from inside the castle - I know that the painting just left you wanting more!

The back wall of the room was the actual castle wall - which was really fun, but then the noise level wasn't too buffered and it got pretty cold.  Still cool though!

The halls had the stone lining as well, and had motion sensor lights, so it was really creepy when the elevator door opens and it's a dark hallway like this:

(We took a picture right as the light was coming on, but you get the point...)

And here's our restaurant, where they finally had good meat at night and fruit and croissants in the morning!!!

It was a really beautiful place, and like I said before, I really wish we had had better weather or more time to  really enjoy it!

Things we learned about France during this segment:

-Wi-Fi is SO much better in America!  (The French call theirs "Wee-Fee", which sounds wimpier, too, but it's fun to say like a French person!)

-The French don't season their meat, but they DO cook it extremely well, I had great turkey, and Jeff had filet mignon, but they put their vegetables in nut sauce... which yes, smells as gross as it sounds! I think the win would have to go to America - where our meat is seasoned and our vegetables are VEGETABLES.

-Subway restaurant - yes, we ate Subway (I needed normal veggies!) France wins! For two foot-long meals we paid 8 bucks. Yep, and because of my deficiency in eating up until this point in the trip, that was the best Subway sandwich I've ever had, but I might be biased...

-Windshield wipers - weird category, I know, but worth noting! - France wins! Their cars have sensors in their windshields so that the wipers aren't going crazy or not fast enough - they move when they need to AUTOMATICALLY! haha some of you are probably thinking... so? But I was AMAZED! I couldn't stop talking about it! haha

-GPS systems - America wins! We had a GPS unit and it required to know the city BEFORE you entered the address (seems simple enough) ONLY NO FRENCH PERSON COULD EVER TELL US WHAT CITY WE WERE GOING TO! We would tell them exactly where we were going, they would look it up, and they still didn't understand the concept of a city, and the directions that they printed out didn't either! Why do the French GPS units require cities, when NO ONE in the country can give you a city (okay, at least the four people we talked to throughout the trip - in the hotels/airport - but you would think that they of all people would be able to know that!)

Next stop: PARIS!!!  And on our way there, we saw this cool windmill on the side of the highway :)

France: Part 1

I don't even know where to begin regarding our recent trip to France.  How about with how amazing my husband is?  I seriously can't get over how he helped my dream of seeing France come to fruition.  As I fell in love with France, I fell in love with him all over again.

I was really scared that going to France would be disappointing to a degree, and not measure up to all that I had dreamed it would be.  I'm so glad to report that it was much more than I could have ever imagined! There was so much to absorb and take in that I feel like I need to make a dozen more trips before I die - at least. haha  If I believed in reincarnation, I would swear that in every lifetime before this one, I lived in France.  Everything was so familiar to me, and the only way to describe it would be to say that it gave me the same feeling as when I go home to Manhattan Beach.  I felt like it was where I belonged and that I had finally come home...

The flights were brutal: Las Vegas to New York - 6 hrs. New York to Iceland another 6 hrs. Iceland to Paris 3.5 hrs.  All of the taking off and landing and turbulence in between definitely took its toll on us by the time we got to Paris.  We were pretty sick for the next couple days...

On a side note, our first hotel was so beautiful! It was in the middle of the countryside, about an hour south of Paris in a small cluster of towns and tons of fields.  When people talk about the charm of the French countryside, they're not lying - I'm a city girl, but I swear I would gladly take the dirt and the trees if it meant living there!  So this is a glimpse of the Chateau:

Not too shabby, eh?

After ordering some vegetable soup (and what turned out to be green gruel - we'll talk about this later) the night before, I still wasn't feeling well, so instead of driving up to Paris as planned we decided to stick around the small towns for the day and do some exploring.  The first stop was a market (which smelled really bad) where we bought 7-up, Ritz crackers and pretzels, because we KNEW what we were getting. Then we went around the town and found a small shopping strip (where the stores also smelled) and a pizzeria - which was actually very good!

We then decided to look at the town that our hotel was located in and take some pictures - I want to say that our pictures don't do our trip justice... this town was so quaint and charming:

You can see that I'm still feeling under the weather...

We loved their church! so cool!

Their walls were essentially condemned because you can see that they were crumbling (the other side had caution tape all over it), but I loved that they had walls like this!

Apparently, this is the "Place of Parties"... and there are at least five more somewhere!

Their streets are very narrow... maybe this is why it reminds me of Manhattan Beach?

The next day we decided to explore another town, since it was Sunday.  It turned out to be an AMAZING choice!  We stumbled across a small town called Gallardon, and we saw this huge cathedral and half of a tower...

This thing was overpowering - up close, it felt like you were next to a skyscraper or something.

 See how we can't even get the whole thing in a picture????

Gargoyles!!! Jeff thought that the second one was extra creepy...

 And then there was the mysterious half-tower....

We later decided to do some research, and apparently, the tower is named "L'epaule de Gallardon" or the shoulder of Gallardon because it looks like a shoulder of mutton. It was originally a 12^th century circular keep - the tower dominated in its height over the valley and so it was a coveted spot by both the English and the French during the Hundred Years War: it was beseiged in 1358, 1417, 1421, 1422, 1424, 1425, 1442, and once again in 1443 when it was then ordered to be demolished.  The king ordered the tower to be destroyed because the French feared that the English might recapture the town and did not want the menacing tower to be in enemy hands. The shoulder remained as a symbolic promise that war would not come again to Gallardon. We also found out that the cathedral is the Church Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul... I know that there is so much more to find about this town, and I love that it was just a random thing that we came across - France is full of this! How could you NOT love it?

This is the earliest engraving of the town, and the tower is already demolished.

Other pictures of Gallardon:

 All of the stores were closed, by the way. (at least it was Sunday, but we did find that a lot of French stores are closed at random points in the day.  We'd walk by at 3 and no one was home...)

 Someone short must live here

I absolutely love that every building is different, and is made of stone, versus the stucco houses you see everywhere in Vegas...

We then took a few more pictures around the chateau:

In every hotel, the bed's wall had something... un-romantic. haha here, it's a random French dude.

Things that we learned about France vs. United States in this segment of the trip:

Vegetable soup: America wins!

         What we thought we were ordering:                      What we got:

                 vs.      

Not exactly what you want to see when you're having stomach issues from flying... But apparently, this is French vegetable soup, and no, it did not taste better than it looked.  haha Jeff took one bite and ran off to the room, so there I am, with two bowls in front of me, and I was not going to be categorized as the "rude American couple" our first night.  It was one of my proudest moments: I got through about two thirds of it! :)

Sodas - America wins (even the French versions of American brands were less sweet)

Buildings with character: France wins

Roads: America wins - the French roads are pretty narrow...

Cars: ummm... our experience there had no difference, really... haha

Jeff's Car:                                                            French Car:

   vs.    ....right???

Overall though, the French all have cars like this, so I would think that America wins strictly on variety.

Drivers: America wins! I thought Americans were bad drivers... oh gosh! Moving from the left lane to make a right hand turn across four "lanes" (lanes were more suggested than visible) was not a multi-step process - nope, just one swift and DANGEROUS movement.  Jeff tried to teach me how to drive a manual shift car, and I was doing really well until a car zoomed up behind me from nowhere within two seconds. haha then I feared for my life.

Pricing in menus: France wins - they include the tax and tips in their prices, so you know exactly what you owe.  I thought at first that this could get you rude waiters because they know they've been paid just by you ordering, but that wasn't the case because they were happy they weren't being shortchanged for their work!

Showers: America wins!!! Not only are French showers TINY, but our hotel had a huge window directly across from the shower's clear glass door... ZERO privacy. haha luckily, it was cold enough outside that we didn't have to worry about public viewings.

Pastries: France wins!!! The croissants were AMAZING - although, I do have to give credit to Costco, because theirs come pretty close to the real thing. Jeff loved their chocolate chip croissants... :)

Smells of public areas: America wins... I don't know how the French would be able to shop if all of their markets smelled like the one that we went to - definitely not somewhere you want your food coming from...

Historical presence: France - it's everywhere vs. just the east coast here... and while I appreciate that America hasn't been around as long as France, it's pretty awesome to come across places like Gallardon and know that history like that is ALL OVER. You know that even the houses and buildings have a history just by looking at them.

Random countryside: France wins!!! (Just because it's FRANCE!)