Moni's Blog

Weekend

So it's been awhile, I'm sorry. last weekend we were taken away on a lovely trip to the provinces. We had a very comfortable charter bus with a totally awesome bus driver named Hugh. We were fed lots of incredible food and slept in some great hotels. I took some marvelous pictures, and i'll get them up soon, but for now, how bout a day-to-day?
Thursday:
We got up crazy early Thursday morning and took a train to Chartres, where, after getting a cup of coffee to wake us up, we took a tour of the Cathedral, which is magnificent and old, and has a really cool labyrinth in the floor that pilgrims would have to crawl around on their knees. After viewing the Cathedral we went to the first of our wonderful meals, at an adorable french country restaurant all done up in blue and yellow. We then drove to our first hotel - a collection of pretty little cabins in the woods outside the town of Le Mans. After an hour or so of frantic prettifying, we got back on the bus and left for a Medieval Abbey that has since been converted to the seat of government for the department of Sarthe. We had a question-and-answer session and then dinner with a man who is the Director General of the department of Sarthe, and also Vice President of the French Senate. Basically he's like a state governor and a senator at the same time. So as you can imagine, the evening was fascinating and the dinner was REALLY good. How did we get this opportunity, you ask? "Monsieur le President's" son went to the UofC. Undergrad and Masters. Yep. If there was one thing we learned throughout the entire trip, it was that apparently our ridiculously high tuition payments are worth something after all.
Friday:
Friday all day was passed at a Monastery in the town of Sevres, called the Abbaye St. Pierre. They're world-famous as being the preservers of the Gregorian Chants. We went to two religious services - morning mass and vespers, in the afternoon, and had 3 question and answer sessions, two with two different monks and one with a pair of nuns, who had to talk to us from behind a grille because they live a completely cloistered life. I think the day made us all think a lot about religion and about choices that people make. After leaving the monastery we drove through the Loire Valley to our second hotel. This was supposed to be some sort of Youth Hostel, but when we got there it became evident that it was more like a summer camp house, meant for younger children - there were Roald Dahl posters on the walls, and classrooms full of toys and finger paint. The room i shared with 4 other girls wasn't bad, but apparently the rooms our teachers were staying in were terrible, so they decided to find a new hotel for the third night. But that night we still made the best of it, invading one of the classrooms and singing showtunes and pop songs until midnight. (i should point out that we were literally the only people in the building, even the managers weren't there, so we didn't bother anyone.)
Saturday:
We woke up and drove to a medieval town called Loche, which is where Joan of Arc convinced Charles VII to proclaim himself king of France. Loche has both a medieval castle/fortress and an early renaissance royal residence, and we toured both. It was an absolutely beautiful fall day in an absolutely beautiful little town, and it was impossible not to be happy. From Loche we drove to Chinon, which is a wine region and also where Rabelais lived. Leonardo da Vinci, when he lived (and died) in France, had a house near there as well, but according to Sylvie, our head French teacher, "there's nothing to see there." In Chinon we checked into our final hotel, found at the last minute by our inestimable French vamp Program Coordinator Astrid. This was a cute little hotel in the center of the village, built around a courtyard in which the proprietor's adorable small sons were playing. We had 2 free hours to walk around the village, which was nice, especially since by then Malkah and i, in particular, were getting sick of constantly doing things in a huge group. The group reconvened at a cavern for a wine-tasting, which was a lot of fun...i had escargots for the first time - it was good! After we'd enjoyed the wine, a group of us went with our teachers to an "Irish Pub" and sat around talking. It was a lot of fun - our teachers are very cool people.
Sunday:
Sunday we visited Chambourd, one of the most gorgeous castles in the Loire Valley - it was built by Francis I, and may have been partially designed by Leonardo da Vinci. It has this incredibly cool double spiral staircase, among other neat design features. After a VERY special guided tour of the castle (we went into so many rooms with no entrance signs on them!), we had our final lovely meal of the trip, then our final journey with our beloved Hugh, after which Adelle thanked him for his "chauffage" which means heat, (she meant to say "chauffeurage), and finally got on a train and returned to Paris.

And have been here ever since...which has been a long time. I'm a horrible updater. Another weekend has passed since i started this entry. Not that much happened tho...we had a second paper due Friday and have all still been recovering. Celebrated halloween, which was fun. Had today (Monday) off for All Saints Day. But it's a busy week coming up. I'm not sleeping tomorrow night, to watch the elections. Speaking of...VOTE!!!!! (for Kerry, PLEASE!)

Love y'all...i'll try to get more pics up soon.

posted by Monica @ 1:28 PM