Versailles was closed

Peur du jour- 16 Avril 2012: Being flexible

On Monday, Elyse and I had planned to spend a wonderful day at Versailles. We stopped by the boulangerie (bakery) on the way to the metro to get breakfast (pastries and baguettes... being poor sure is delicious!) and a picnic lunch (sandwhiches! yum!) to enjoy in the beautiful gardens of Versailles. When we got to Versailles, we quickly found the chateau and excitedly made our way to the tourist office to buy tickets. But when I asked for our free student tickets, the woman behind the counter gave me a blank stare and said "you know that the castle is closed today, right?"

D'oh.

So Elyse and I wandered into a Starbucks in search of free wifi so we could salvage our day and get on with the adventuring! It always throws me through a loop when plans fall through because I plan EVERYTHING, so then I have to change all of the plans that were around the original plans. But one of my goals in coming to France was to become a little more go-with-the-flow, so that's what Elyse and I did! We took the train back to Paris and shuffled a few items in the week around and this is what my day ended up looking like:

While waiting to meet up with Lauren, we ate our sandwiches on the steps of Montmartre with a spectacular view of Paris, sunshine on our faces, and the melodies of quintessentially French songs being played by a harpist in our ears.

Sacre-Coeur

 We wandered from Sacre-Coeur to les jardins de Tuileries where we stopped by Angelina's for the best cup of hot chocolate in Paris.

Angelina's hot chocolate = like drinking brownies straight from the oven

We walked les jardins de Tuileries from start to finish

Lauren and Me; Le musée du Louvre- one end of les tuileries

 We walked to the place where the guillotine sat during the French revolution.

La place de la concorde

 We took a stroll down Paris's most famous street.

Il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux champs-elysées

 We marveled at one of Paris's most iconic monuments

L'arc de triomphe

 And then we marveled at another one.

Elyse and me; La tour Eiffel

Basically, Paris wooed me with its history and charm and nice weather (even if it was only for that day!). Which I had really been needing. Paris, je t'aime.

The Paris Metro

Peur du jour- 15 Avril 2012: (Successfully) Navigating the Paris Metro on my lonesome

It's always a little unnerving when you are navigating a new area on your own. It's a little more unnerving when this area is congested and complex. It's even more unnerving when you've heard about everything that could go wrong (in this case: pick pockets and not going the wrong direction and getting horribly lost).

But I am here to tell you that the Paris metro is not so scary. After my six hour train ride from Nice to Paris, I groggily entered the bowels of the city (the metro, not the sewers). I even figured out how to buy tickets in one try! Nothing was stolen from me. I was not attacked. I didn't miss my stop. I didn't get lost. All in all a very boring story.

And sometimes it's better that way.

St. Jean Cap Ferrat: Where dreams come true

Peur du jour- 14 Avril 2012: Jumpin' on the back of a moped

So it was definitely on my unofficial bucket list to ride on a moped while in France. I guess it's kind of silly, but, like snails and frogs legs and accordion music and berets and baguettes, it's just something I associate with France. And I want to do everything French (even the things that are quasi-french).

So when Marc and Tammy found this out, they wanted to make sure I got to do it! It rained a lot of the week, so we kept putting it off for Saturday when the weather was supposed to be nice.

It rained all day Saturday.

I was trying to be cheerful, but I just knew I wasn't going to get to do my moped ride (I'm so silly, I know!). But finally, as the day was drawing to a close, I asked if it would still be possible despite the rain. And Marc was kind enough to humor me and take me for my ride. We rode around St.Jean Cap Ferrat looking at the beaches and all of the fancy houses (Paul Allen has a house there!).

And even though my face was being pelted with rain, it was still really fun to buzz around the winding mountain roads with an unobstructed view of the sea. And I looked pretty cute in the helmet.

When in Italy...

Peur du jour- 13 Avril 2012: Crossing the border

So this is another one of those peur du jours that isn't actually a fear I had to overcome. What anxieties could I possibly have about going to a huge market in Italy? Niente. Italian markets are just as wonderful as French markets

These strawberries smelled out of this world!

Well hello there, gorgeous

It's funny how you can take a thirty minute train ride and actually feel like you are in a different country. Tammy told me that since they have opened the borders, the contrasts are not as stark, but the signs and announcements are still in Italian, the market is full of pasta and parmasean cheese and foccacia, and the third color on the flag is green.

Scrumptious

Parmesan and Sausages 

Desserts, Italian Style

We also had a wonderful Italian lunch: pizza, wine, profiteroles, and a complimentary limoncello.

Italian Wine- I prefer French!

Delicious Pizza

Profiteroles (Cream puffs, normally in France they aren't slathered with chocolate mousse, but these were delicious!)

On the contrary, I prefer Italian coffee to French coffee!

Limoncello

But at the end of the day, it's nice to come back to a country where I speak the language. I could tell my "grazi"s and "bonjourno"s wouldn't get me much farther than the few hours I spent there.

Wandering in Cannes and Antibes

Peur du jour- 12 Avril 2012: Not planning ahead

Normally, I am the type of person who loves to have a map. And addresses to put on the map. And the best route between the addresses I'm going to put on the map. And approximate times that I would like to be at these addresses and taking these routes on the map. Basically, I like to plan.

So today, when I went to Cannes and Antibes with no plan (other than remembering the directions and sites that Tammy had told me at the breakfast table), you would imagine that I had a terrible time. Quite the contrary. In my quest for a free/clean bathroom in Cannes, I found this:

Musée de la castre - a tower I got to climb!

A view towards the West

A view towards the East- the port and downtown Cannes

After seeing this from afar in Antibes:

Something intriguing from the port of Antibes

I decided to pull a Julius Cesear and conquer it.

Fort Carré- Antibes, France

Mission accomplished.

And everything's a little more fun when you're not stressed about fitting in everything you planned.

Déjà-Vu in Eze

Peur du jour: 11 Avril 2012- Climbing from sea to sky a second time around

Starting from Eze-sur-mer

So last time when I was in Nice, my favorite thing I did was a trail called le chemin de Nitsche (Nitsche's Path) from Eze-Village to Eze-sur-mer. Elyse, Lauren, and I hiked for maybe 45 minutes down and an hour back up from the old medieval fortress city perched in the cliffs to the edge of the Mediterranean sea. We got so many great pictures of le paysage (the countryside/landscape) and of us enjoying the sea and the trail. Of course, I lost all of my pictures from this, my favorite day, of travel.

The very beginning of the path, starting from the sea side.

So I was determined to do it again! This time, Marc drove me to Eze-Sur-Mer and I just did the hike up. And it was kind of a trip, because how often do you get to relive your favorite day of vacation? The weather was about the same (it was unseasonably warm in February, and it has been unseasonably cool this week in Nice) and the trail was the same and the beautiful view was the same, but the similarities stopped there. This time I was much more prepared for the hike (I had a water bottle, short sleeved-shirt, and a hair tie), and I was voyaging toute seule (though I kept imagining Elyse's laughter as we talked about how incredible Lauren was for bolting to the top).

Flowers in bloom along the winding path

And maybe I'm just being overly sentimental, but I couldn't stop thinking about how much had changed since the last time I'd walked the trail. How much my French has improved, how much more I feel at home in Montpellier, how much more I feel attached and tethered to France, how many great friendships I've made and strengthened, how much I've grown as a person, how much happier I've become. It's amazing how much can change in two months.

The rocky cliffs that overlook the wonderfully blue sea

And I was just so darn happy to be walking that path again. I think I had a big goofy grin on my face the whole time. Like a big goofy golden retreiver, bounding up the mountain side.

What it looks like from the top!- My view from Eze Village

Monaco, Au pif!

Peur du jour - 10 Avril 2012: Wandering in Monaco

Today, I took a solo-adventure to the principality of Monaco. Monaco is home to the Monte-Carol, the royal family of Monaco, and enough beautiful cars to give you a sore neck (from the head-turning, obviously). I went in the casino, walked through many beautiful gardens, saw the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace, counted dozens of sleek yachts, and even saw the beginning of the Grand Prix race track. Monaco is where you go when you want to show off how rich you are.

Now, since public displays of wealth are for me what public displays of affection are for others, Monaco wasn't exactly  my favorite cup of tea (spearmint, if you were wondering). But I definitely could appreciate the beauty and history behind it. And it was hard to not imagine yourself as a Bond Girl while walking the gardens of the casino. But I found my favorite spot in Monaco by just wandering around while searching for the Exotic Garden. I saw a trail that intrigued me, but I wasn't really sure where it led or if I should even be there.

And all of a sudden, I found myself in a grove of olive trees overlooking the city. In the country rated the most expensive place to live in the world, I was most content sitting in a bed of grass overlooking the sea.

There's something for everyone!

The Royal Palace- My view from the trail

PS) "Au pif" is a french phrase which translates to "by nose" and roughly translates to "off the cuff" especially when referring to cooking (as in, cooking without a recipe). I used it in this sense to describe my process of choosing roads/paths to walk down.