Y1-20: Week 36, visiting France!

Bonjour à tous! Here is my blog post about the few days I spent in France with Amélie before returning home from Bath (weird, right? Flying home from Orly rather than Bristol Airport). Hope you enjoy!

Sunday the 31^st was the last day I woke up in my Brendon room (feel the nostalgia, huh?). I had to wake up pretty early despite the late night we’d had before with the Summer Ball, but I didn’t really mind. I took a shower, got ready, packed the few things I had left and cleaned up a bit, to then bring my stuff down and into the car, and finally close and lock my room …forever…nah, just kiddin’. I did go up again a few more times. Anyway, Amélie and I went to Sports Café, the only place open on that day, and had a nice big breakfast and bought some water and sandwiches for the trip and to spend the last pounds of our catering credit (mission accomplished!). We then returned to Brendon and, in record time, cleaned Amélie’s room, went to Fresh and handed in our keys, while dodging the random people literally sleeping on the floor in the second floor corridors… Weird. Then we finally got in the car and left Brendon, the campus and the University of Bath until next September. Amélie’s dad drove to Dover, where we were to take the ferry to Calais and finally be in French soil. We were so tired we basically spent the whole trip dozing off in the back seats and listening to music. The ferry itself was alright. I was worried it would move a lot and I would get sick but I had nothing to worry about. It did swing a bit but not enough to make me feel unwell. We had lunch in the boat and then we again got in the car and drove to Saint Pathus, a small village where Amélie lives near Paris. It was pouring in France, which was contradictory because you’d expect the weather to be horrible in the UK, not France. But whatever, we kept sleeping and then picked up some Chinese takeaway in Meaux to eat once we arrived at the house. It was a bit weird to be in the car with her parents, because I’d just met them, but they were really nice and made me feel comfortable, despite me having donné ma langue au chat… Nearly twelve hours after we had left Bath, there we were, finally in Amélie’s house, having dinner to then shower and go to bed (where we ended up falling asleep at 3am because we had slept so much in the car we didn’t feel sleepy anymore). Pretty long trip to get to France.

On Monday we got up at nine and were super tired, but a proper French breakfast with coffee, orange juice and actual baguette, pain au chocolat and croissants was enough to wake us up and put us in a good mood. Amélie drove us first to pick up her friend Valérie who was going to join us for the day. It was pretty cool to have a personal chauffeuse since the distances between the towns are incredibly long compared to what I’m used to. We spent a lot of time commuting and driving but it was fine because the fields were really pretty and the weather was lovely. That day we drove to Reims while dancing to French music in the car (can’t get those jams out of my head now, thanks A). In Reims, where Valérie had studied, we first stopped to have lunch: salad and the best ice-cream I’d eaten in a long time. We then visited the cathedral, which was very pretty despite part of its façade being in renovation. I can’t believe that building is eight centuries old! Then we walked through the gardens and tried to find the Basilique de Saint-Rémi. We confused it with a school in the first place, and then we messed up the GPS’ directions until we finally found it. It was also pretty amazing and I loved the light coming in through the stained glass windows and projecting colourfully on the paved floor. On the way back, we decided to avoid toll roads and ended up on a three-hour ride that led us on a detour that took us even through Château-Thierry! The fields are very pretty and even more under the sun, but three hours of the same view… a little bit too much. Once we got back, we dropped Valérie off and drove back to Saint-Pathus. Amélie’s mum had prepared blanquette de veau with rice for dinner which was so yummy! And then shower and off to bed.

On Tuesday we had… Disneyland! *excited squeak* The morning started a bit cold but the day soon picked up and the sun started shining. I was so excited. The last time I’d been to Disneyland I was seven and I was so looking forward to returning and trying out all the rides again. We basically arrived as the park was opening, so we had a whole day to spend there. We first went into the Walt Disney Studios, which was new to me and closed at six (the other park closed at 11pm). Our first ride was the Tower of Terror… it was so good! Then the Rock’n’Roll Coaster with awesome music and high speed, Crush Coaster, later on Ratatouille,… We had quite a lot of luck with the queues, the longest we waited was over an hour for Crush Coaster because there was a technical problem which they had to fix, but it was definitely worth it and nothing like Modern Family to get you through the queue. I must say I was a lot more excited for the other park, because it was my childhood and what I remembered.  We tried everything (except the Space Mountain which was closed for works – gutted): Sleeping Beauty’s castle, Snow White, Pinocchio, It’s a Small World, Conte de Fées,… Peter Pan, of course, which had been my favourite ride when I was a kid :’) Also Alice in Wonderland’s maze, which took us a while to figure out. Indiana Jones, the Robinson Family tree house, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain, Star Wars,… Nearly everything, considering the park was open till late. 

We geeked with some baby princess dolls at the store, and stopped to rest and have a Starbucks mid-afternoon. We also saw the Frozen parade, with Anna and Elsa on a carriage, being the mass of kids dressed up following them the best of it (and maybe singing Let It Go out loud too…), and, probably my favourite thing of the day, the Disney Magic show, with the most famous Disney songs projected on the castle with cartoons and fireworks and it was just MINDBLOWING! I loved it so much, and it was worth staying until the end to watch it even though we had to run back to the car to avoid the queues and went to sleep really late.

On Wednesday we went to Paris. After having a stack of yummy crêpes for breakfast, we got ready and drove to Mitry-Claye, where we got the train to Gare du Nord (without paying due to an electricity cut at the station). First, we took the metro to Notre-Dame. I was really happy to visit it and go inside since I got a chance to actually focus on its architecture, which I studied last year. It was a really hot day though, and the sun shone so bright! We went around its back gardens, the bridge with locks right next to it and the few artist and book stands along the Seine opposite the cathedral, before getting on the metro again to go to Place de la Bastille, where we had lunch at Indiana. 

We then headed to Montmartre and climbed the hundreds of stairs up to Sacré-Coeur, to enjoy the amazing views of Paris while a lovely retro music group played. We roamed the artist streets of Montmartre and then walked to Moulin Rouge, which I had never seen. We then went to Omaya Vintage for some thrifting in Paris (although I did not find anything, but the shop was amazing! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Omaya-Vintage/289202147281). Afterwards, we headed to the Eiffel Tower and chilled on the grass of the Jardins du Trocadéro under the sun, enjoying the views. Definitely the best part of the day! After the long commute home we treated ourselves to some McFlurries as a prize. And that night we watched Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au bon dieu? I honestly enjoyed the day a lot. I have been to Paris a couple of times already so I didn’t really want to do all the touristy stuff – it was great to just go there for a day and roam around.

Thursday was pretty chill because Amélie was going to a recruitment session, so instead of going to Provin we slept in, had brioches au pain perdu aka French toasts for breakfast (let’s get fat, why not?) and went to Mer de Sable. However, when we got there we had problems because the session had been brought forward and nobody had let Amélie know. It was really frustrating. We then decided to go to the Château de Pierrefonds instead of wasting the day. The castle was amazing; it was a 19^th century reconstruction of a medieval castle on top of a hill in a little village in the middle of the countryside. The day was really hot so we had a picnic under the shade of the trees surrounding the castle and then went inside and explored its halls, catacombs, chapels,… It was amazing and definitely recommendable. It basically felt like going back in time, a feeling enhanced by the opera medieval costume exhibition in its halls. In the midst of our visit, Amélie got a call from Mer de Sable and explained what had happened, and got offered a last opportunity the next day in the morning! That made her day. We then left the castle as it was being closed and walked into the village, where we found some “Italian” ice-cream and then some paddle boats on a lake. We got a boat and had so much fun paddling around (and nearly dropping my iPod in the lake oops!). We did some test-drives in case the water lilies were going to trap the boat, and then literally went all around the lake, under the sun, having an awesome time! On our way back we listened to Disney songs and at the dinner table we had a debate about immigration and rape and the voile, all very serious but interesting. It makes me realize how much my French comprehension skills have improved.

Friday was my last day in France before coming back home. In the morning, while Amélie went to the recruitment session, I stayed in the house sleeping and packing. The day was scorching hot, literally 35 degrees. Even though it was so hot, we decided we would go ahead and visit Versailles because I had never been there. So there we went. It took us three frickin’ hours to get there, because somebody had got hurt in a train and we ended up dumped in Saint Michel when our connecting train got cancelled with no new or alternative options. We ended up taking the metro to Montparnasse where we got handed a ticket to get another train to Versailles, as they were aware of the Saint Michel problem. The day was definitely jinxed and the afternoon had not started great. It was really, really hot, and the commute was horrible, but we finally got to the palace. I found an abandoned selfie stick which still worked, so we made use of that while we explored the palace using our audio-guides (the Spanish one useless because it did not work properly). Versailles is huge and so opulent! Too much gold for my liking but it was great to visit: the Galerie des Glaces, the bedrooms, the paintings,… I did not enjoy the masses of Asian tourists taking pictures of absolutely everything but oh well. Because we had arrived so late though, we did not have time to properly visit the gardens, which was a pity, but we did see the part closer to the palace. Then it was time to go back, and our bad luck attacked again when we were fined at Montparnasse for not validating our tickets. Honestly, just why?! Anyway, we stopped at MacDonald’s before driving to Saint-Pathus and had a little treat to cheer us up and fight the heat, avoiding the storms just in time.

My flight home was on Saturday morning. We got up pretty early, had breakfast and got ready. I finished packing and Amélie’s mum drove us to Orly. It was a Saturday morning and the Périphérique was a little crowded, but we avoided really bad traffic jams and arrived at the airport on time. I had been to Orly before and sort of remembered it, but they both helped me get to the bag drop-off and then accompanied me to the security check. We said good-bye (again, thanks a lot for hosting me and you are invited to Tenerife whenever you want!) and I went through security (quite fast to be honest, the airport was fairly empty). I bought some water inside (nearly four euros for a litre bottle - such a theft!) and waited for my flight. Everything ran smoothly; the plane was half empty, me being alone in my three-seat row, and then the rest of the flight composed of primary school students on their “sexto” trip and elderly people on another trip. I watched Game of Thrones and three episodes of Glee and was in Tenerife soon enough. Mum picked me up at the airport.

Home at last and ready to enjoy the Summer!