A Weekend of Pause

This weekend I'm staying in Tours, but Monday is when I'm going out to Carnac, for the second part of my vacation.

On Saturday, I got up and showered, and then hung out until brunch, enjoying the quiet house. I found out at brunch that Anika had planned to take Mathias to the swimming pool that day just as a fun outing, and he asked if maybe someone would want to go with him. I figured it might be fun, and although Tess didn't seem at all interested (I get the feeling she doesn't interact with the family much, although a lot of that is because she doesn't really speak French) I volunteered to go. I had to find my swimming suit, which I had fortunately brought, and set off with the other two.

We ended up taking the bus, which was a first for me. When we finally got there they hadn't yet opened for the afternoon. We only waited for about five minutes before they opened; unfortunately we then had to wait in line for a really long time before we finally got through into the swimming center. One thing I thought was interesting was that they have no kind of gender-based different changing rooms. Instead they just have a big hallway with dressing-room style "cabanes" that you go into to change, and then you go out the other side to where they have machine-controlled storage lockers. We left our stuff, rinsed briefly, and went into the pool area. It was actually fairly large and complex; I was impressed. There's a large pool outside, plus another regular 4-10-foot-style pool, a children's pool that wasn't more than three or so feet deep, a bi-level waterslide (the top level goes outside, then dumps into the pool that feeds into the lower level), and a big warm pool that had a fun sort of strong current path you could follow as well as several different areas with different massaging jets. Mathias and Anika and I played around for an hour or two, and then went to change and leave.

We took the bus back, stopping at one point when Anika bought us pastries to eat on our way. Mathias and I both got these sort of sandwich-shaped ones made of pastry with a layer of melted chocolate chips in the center. When we got back, I rinsed out my suit and hung it up, then collapsed on my bed and took a nap for about an hour. I actually overslept; I had made plans to meet up with Giovanni to go to some concert he had mentioned, and had to rush to get myself ready. When I met him at his house, we still had time to talk a little and have something to drink (I've discovered I actually really like water with mint syrup; it's very fresh) before heading over to the bar where they were playing. The group was put together by a friend of his who is also from Réunion, and they apparently play typical music from the island (there's a word for the musical style, but I can never remember what it is). After a little bit, though, I decided that I would just go back; the music was good, but the whole bar thing wasn't too appealing.

That night, we had rice with shrimp (heads and all, on some of them :P) for dinner, which was really good. Grant came back later in the evening, and he and I had a fun time just talking about our trips and what we'd done and seen. I also got to call Gramma and talk a bit, and tried to call Aunt Roxy, but she was apparently out clearing brush or something, and not available.

This morning I didn't have anything planned, so I slept in a bit, and then we had brunch. Grant and I looked over our stuff for Italian a little, and I now have a sheet of most of the grammar and notes that I need to have down. There's another girl here for a couple weeks, as well. Her name is Ladina, and she's from the German-speaking part of Switzerland. We had a fun time at dinner, joking around and talking. It was fun to have Grant back. Tonight I need to pack, since I'm leaving for Carnac tomorrow! I also need to try again to get a hold of Aunt Roxy, and hopefully I'll have more luck.

Once Again Out and About

So, I haven't updated in ages, mostly because I haven't been doing too much that's obviously exciting. I don't really go out much anymore (with just the girls and their boyfriends, it's started to pall...), but I have been hanging out with Giovanni, the guy from my Greek class, and his friends. It's fun, and he's starting to teach me some guitar! I've learned the chords C, D, E, F, G, A, A minor, and B7, and I can do a simple chord progression. It's really not much, but I've never really worked on learning, so it's fun. I got sick, I've been getting better, and I've had classes, obviously. This week was the last week of class, and then we have two weeks of break before Finals, and then my family is coming to visit me here and we're going to have a blast before I go home! It's approaching incredibly quickly; I'm excited to go back, but I'm really feeling good about being here too.

Anyway, for our two weeks of vacation I'm going to Chartres, Bruges, and eventually Carnac. It's not overly adventurous, but I ended up doing it all myself, so I feel like it's very much *my* trip. This morning, I didn't go to our last Écrit/Orale class because I had to catch the train to bring me here to Chartres. Chartres is famous for having one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in existence, and not much else. It's a really small town, with a couple other sites peppered around to make staying here for a day or three more feasible. The Chartres cathedral is also well-known for having a huge stone labyrinth paved into the floor of the nave, which was my personal reason for coming. They clear the chairs away on Fridays so that people can walk the labyrinth, so I was hoping it would work out. Unfortunately it's also Good Friday this weekend, which I hadn't thought about, but I'll get to that.

I took the train from Tours to Le Mans this morning and transferred trains there to come to Chartres. I had bought a sandwich and had some juice for my lunch while I was on the train; it ended up actually being surprisingly crowded. I also had my ticket checked on both trains, which almost never happens usually. When I got to Chartres, the first thing was to find my hotel. I'd specifically picked one that was close to the train station, and also not far from the cathedral. So close, in fact, that I walked out of the station and barely started down the road in front of it when I saw the hotel on my right. It's called the Hôtel Jehan de Beauce, which is the name of the street. Their main attribute is their location. I checked in and everything (my first time doing all this on my own! I was excited!) and went up to my room. It's really small, but that fits me pretty perfectly. I dropped off my luggage and took my purse and my camera and went to find the cathedral. The hotel gave me a guidebook/map, so I had some idea of where I was going.

Which turned out to be a moot point anyway, since I walked down the street and saw the cathedral instantly. It really dominates the town; you can see it from everywhere. I easily made my way over there; like I said, Chartres is *really* small. When I went in the cathedral itself, they were in the middle of Good Friday services. This was less intimidating than it could've been; they were walking around the nave, stopping at various points and praying. One woman gave me a paper that had the various stopping points and the basic prayer for each one, so I ended up just following and watching the procession. It was interesting in that I was probably the youngest person there by a couple decades; there were maybe four or five kids in the whole group, but I didn't see them until later. Each time they stopped represented a specific part of the crucifixion of Jesus; the three times he fell on his way to the mountain, the time a woman wiped the sweat away from his face, when he actually died, when they took his body down from the cross, those kinds of things. I did surprise myself with how much I was able to follow what the priests were saying; and I did pick out the Lord's Prayer (obviously it was all in French). After the procession, they gathered around the altar for more prayer, and I walked around to see the church itself. I took a lot of pictures of the choir screen, which was incredibly beautifully carved. It was also interesting because the carvings in the shrines were all covered with purple cloths, presumably out of reverence for the day. I was very disappointed in my timing, however; because it's Good Friday, they had all of the chairs out in the nave, covering the labyrinth, so I didn't get to walk it. I still took a few pictures, but I was sad.

I went outside again, and walked around the cathedral, taking pictures of the architecture and the area. It was already late enough that everything would've been closed, so I just wandered around the town and looked at things. It was sunny and beautiful, and just a really pleasant walk. When I headed back towards the hotel, it was getting cloudy and started to rain, so I was glad I'd brought my umbrella. I spent a while relaxing and settling into the hotel room a bit, while I was waiting for the restaurants to open for dinner (most places in France don't serve dinner until 7:30pm at the absolute earliest).

There's a restaurant literally just next door to my hotel that a lot of people recommended when I was looking into visiting Chartres, so I figured I'd try it. It's called "017," and while it's not exactly formal or über-fancy, it is definitely a more upscale place. I went in about 8:20, and was only the second person there. I got a glass of rosé wine and a carafe of water to make it last, and then they gave me ample time to look over the menu. The thing about French waiters is that they expect you to take your time, and to relax and converse with people when you go out to eat. The fact that I was by myself made that a little superfluous, but I went ahead and glanced through my little map guide and started planning what I'm going to do tomorrow. Eventually a different waiter came over. He turned out to be fun; when he caught my accent, he said "Oh, you speak English!" and went to go and get the other waiter (who, I found out when she was talking to a British couple that came in later, does speak limited English). I quickly assured him that no, I spoke French too! It was funny.

I got seafood in a curry sauce for my entrée; it was really good, flavourful but not too spicy, with mussels and calamari and all the kinds of ocean creatures I love to eat. For the main dish I basically just picked something that had a Provençal sauce, and it turned out to be a white fish with pasta. It was pretty good; not heart-stopping, but decent. I did decide over the course of my meal that I wouldn't mind making a habit of having a glass of wine with dinner; it was a really good rosé (and this is coming from me, whose palate is so untrained that almost all wine tastes too strong). The fantastic thing, however, was the dessert. Everything was plated very prettily (with random pine sprigs in, for some reason), but my fondant au chocolat was beautiful. I posted a picture on facebook, but it was basically a little chocolate cake with a gooey chocolate center and a little ball of ice cream on top, and there was a little pitcher dish full of cream to pour over it. I practically swooned, it was so delicious. It pretty much wouldn't have mattered at that point if the rest of the dinner had been gross, I was so enamoured with the fondant. When I'd finished, the waiter came to take the plate and caught me nabbing one last taste with my finger, and I assured him that it was perfect. When I had gotten the check and was about to leave, he shook my hand and welcomed me back again.

Then I came back to my room and stretched out on the bed, contentedly full, fat, and purring. I uploaded pics to facebook and wanted to write this before I forgot, but now I'm going to go to bed. I'm getting up early to see things tomorrow! :)