I had two weeks of vacation for spring break, from April 9-26, and ended up spending the bulk of it with my mom. I was up at 5:30 the Saturday after classes let out, and on my way to Paris by 6:45. Her plane from Atlanta was a couple of ours late, but that was fine because I actually love hanging out in airports. So I had some breakfast--an espresso (they grow on you) and a croissant--and I read my new edition of Better Homes and Gardens from cover to cover. All in all, a good morning. When she finally exited the terminal, it wasn't a huge hysterical crying affair, luckily. I think that if we haden't been skyping each other religiously since February, it would have been worse. But we got our museum passes (which I highly recommend) and took the RER into Paris, which cost 9 euros for each of us! Ridiculous.
Our hotel was in the Latin Quarter, the oldest area of Paris after the little islands, and just a few blocks from the Sorbonne, only of the oldest colleges/universities in France. The rooms were soundproofed, which was great because Paris in general is very loud. I had a great time showing mom the typical Parisian vacation: the Louvre, the Orsay museum, and all of the other typical stuff. I have to say that anything less than five days in Paris is not enough if you want to see everything. At the end of each day, we curled up and watched International CNN and BBC World.
We spent an entire day at Versailles. The chateau itself is overwhelmingly and obscenely decorated and packed with rude tourists and tour guides. But afterward, we wandered in the gardents and ate lunch there, too. We both had the bruschetta at one of the little restaurants located on the grounds, and it was absolutely delicious. The bread wasn't too dry or hard, the cheese was only slightly melted, the halved cherry tomatoes were so sweet and warm, and the surprise of the spinach, pesto, and balsamic vinaigrette really made it perfect. I'm pretty sure they made my pear crumble from scratch, too. Yummy. It was one of the best meals I've had in France. Next, we headed to Marie Antoinette's getaways: the Petit Trianon and her hamlet all the way at the edge of the property. The Trianon was much more of my style--it had more of a Regency English feel, and unlike Versailles, they actually followed the caveat of "less is more." The hamlet was stunning. It was really interesting, coming from the tightly controlled and immaculately trimmed gardens of Versailles, to wander around rolling hills filled with winding paths, creeks, wild flowers, a grotto, and an open-air music room. The hamlet was a little farm where Marie Antoinette and her close friends dressed in simpler clothes, raises animals, and kept vegetable gardens. There are still sheep, goats, rabbits, cows, and even a few peacocks. I seriously wish I could impart how beautiful and serene it was. I wanted to just lay on a hillside and watch the swans in the lake and take a nap.
A few other things I would recommend to anyone thinking about taking a vacation to Paris: a boat tour of the Seine; a visit to the archeological crypt below Notre Dame; attending a Sunday afternoon organ concert at Notre Dame (free); and spending an afternoon at the Luxembourg Garden, making sure to take a little tour of the statues of the various women of French history that are in a semi-circle around the fountain.
During this whole time, the train conductors were on strike. This meant massive delays and cancellations. Mom and I found out that our train to Aix-en-Provence was cancelled, and that morning when we got up, I just happened to check online and saw that a train was scheduled to depart that morning...in half an hour. We were very lucky that it was still early morning, that the train station was close by, and that we had a wonderful taxi driver. We got there with 5 minutes to spare, and off we went! The Lyon train station is much bigger than I had thought, and I almost killed mom running to catch the train (sorry!), but we made it! After a quick conversation with an employee on the platform ("Our train was cancelled. We're getting on this one." "Okay."), we were good to go! The train was blissfuly empty and mom was able to nap a bit but also be awake enough to appreciate the scenery. The South is so beautiful and diverse. Cezanne lived in Aix and his Mont St. Victoire paintings do more than enough justice to the landscape. I spent a week with Emilie Dayan and her grandparents in Fos-sur-mer a few years ago and we covered a lot of ground in her car--mountains, islands, marshes, and the seaside! As breathtaking as the green hills of the Loire Valley are, they all look the same after a while.
Our time in Aix was nice and relaxing. We mostely ate, wandered, and did some shopping. Unfortunately, our hotel was further out this time around, and we had to take the bus to get into centre ville. But there was a market that first day where I bought my first real souvenir from France! (Sidenote: "souvenir" is a French verb that means "to remember." The more you know!) Mom and I went halfsies on four placemates and four napkins in a traditional Provençal print. The colors match my plates, so I'm really excited, and they weren't even horribly expensive! This is a photo from the internet, but it's the same colors and pattern:
We also went to the Cathedrale St. Sauver, which is famous for its cloister which was constructed in the first century using stones from the Roman forum that used to stand in Aix. We went on a little tour of the cloister that was all in French and explained the engravings on the columns, so I got to impress mom with my French --> English translation skillz. There were two Australians there though that got their noses out of joint that the tour guide couldn't do it in English, too. Aix is not Paris! Anyway, it was really nice to just wander around in a different, slower city, and to sleep in and read. This hotel didn't have English TV channels, so I think it got on Mom's nerves a bit, but it was good for me to listen to French while on break and to keep up with world events too. (Like volcanoes.)
We thought our train back to Paris had been cancelled, but there was just an error on the website. So, luckily, Mom and I had seats! The hallways between the cars and the stairwells between the two levels were full of people. Other than that, though, the train ride was fairly uneventful. Unfortunately, amidst my discussion (in French!) about the nuclear summit in DC with our taxi driver on the way to the hotel, we discovered that Charles de Gaulle Airport was closed, so both of our flights for the next day were cancelled...
Cliffhanger! And my fingers are hurting and I have class soon.
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