Toussaint Travels #2: Bordeaux, France

Part 2 of Toussaint:

The next day I headed off with Amber and Cierra to Bordeaux. Instead of taking the train, I tried a new form of transport: covoiturage. Covoiturage is when someone who is driving a long way offers up spots in their car. The website is really secure (blablacar) and the drivers don't get paid until the complete their trip and you message them the code. It is significantly cheaper and shorter to get to Bordeaux this way. I was nervous (especially since all three of us where in different cars), but I picked a nice, older lady who picked me up from Place Bellecour, and we were off to Bordeaux.

I had a nice conversation with her and the other girl (about my age, studying to be a physical therapist) who was taking the covoiturage. We were joined by her cat Pantoufle, the cutest orange cat ever, who was sitting for most of the ride behind the driver (apart from her attempted escape at our second pit stop). Pantoufle is the French word for slipper, by the way. It was one of those experiences that was really really amusing.

My first glimpse of Bordeaux!

About 5 and a half hours later, I arrived at Gare Saint-Jean in Bordeaux and met Cierra who was waiting there as well. We got picked up by Amber, her boyfriend David, and his friend François and then we headed to their place to get settled. That night David made us dinner and we headed over to Amber's host family's restaurant while they had a murder-mystery party! It was a strange party, everyone was holding fake guns and had crazy fake eyes and such.

Day 2: we woke up and went out to see the town! Bordeaux has a really interesting architecture, everything is only two stories and all looks very similar. There are cool doors randomly throughout the city that remain from when the city was a fort. Rue Saint Cathérine is one of the longest streets in Europe (or France?) and has ton of shopping. We wandered the downtown area and stayed in watching Harry Potter that night.

The streets!

My friendsss…in a cool album artwork-kind-of photo

Cool doors!

Les cannelés- Bordeaux specialty-that I actually did not really like

Shoes and cobblstones

Chéries :) 

The funky bar I talk about in Day 3

Funny passageways

Along La Garonne

La Garonne

Random castle door!

another door!

Taking the tram-reminds me of Lyon

Day 3: I took a bus to Cap Ferret to visit my host mom's family's summer home for the day. Cap Ferret is about 2 hours (in the bus) from Bordeaux and only cost 4 euro round trip. I found my way back to the train station, got on my bus and arrived in Cap Ferret where my host mom and sister picked me up. Cap Ferret exists on a "presqu'île", on a bunch of peninsulas and it is right on the western coast of France.

We went to the bay and took a look around, then had a great lunch at her home. I had oysters for the first time and they tasted like a big gulp of salt water with a squeeze of lemon. I also had a specialty called "les dunes blanches" which are big cream puffs and were delicious! Afterwards, I played some basketball with Marguerite and we all decided to take a bike ride to……the ATLANTIC OCEAN! It took about 20 minutes and the beach was absolutely gorgeous! The sand was so soft, the waves were huge, the water was so blue and it was perfect weather. As we biked home, I felt so very at peace. The sun was setting and the bike path was heavily wooded and it was beautiful. After a quick repas (meal) of crepes, I headed back to the bus stop to take the bus back to Bordeaux. I was very grateful that my host family let me see this beautiful place :)

On the bus

The little inlet with small boats that catch the oysters 

Thanks to Marguerite for some flattering photos-I am going to see the Atlantic people!

The Atlantic Ocean!

Upon arrival back in Bordeaux, I went to find the gang in the downtown area. We went to a cute, relaxed bar called La Comtesse where we had some yummy mojitos. The decor was kind of kitsche-y (is that a word?): we sat on old movie theater chairs and contemplated a strange painting of a man with weird proportions for a while. Then it was time for bed!

Day 4: Time to return to Lyon! Amber was staying the rest of break but Cierra and I were set to return home on Tuesday of Toussaint. We got up early, made our way back to our new best friend, the train station, got some McDonald's muffins and met our Covoiturage driver to head home! The drive seemed long but lasted about 6 hours (with a small break in between). Finally, we had made it back to Lyon!

Fairytale countryside from the car

Cierra and I had some dinner at Croc N Roll (a croq monsieur place in Lyon) and then I went home to pack for Partie Trois of Toussaint, wherein I visit Addie in Scotland!!!

YAYYY

Toussaint Travels Part 1: Beaune, France

Toussaint Travels #1:

(NOTE: I have not had the chance to add pictures yet, but I will tonight. Praise the Lord that my computer is working!!!)

The first day of my vacation for Toussaint Sara and I took a day-trip to Beaune, a little town about two hours north of Lyon on the way to Dijon. Sara's parents used to stop in for day-trips often and suggested we go, so we decided to just grab a train ticket and go. Here's a map to situate us:

We left Lyon around 9 am from Part-Dieu and arrived around 11 in Beaune. As we walked into the city, we saw the city walls (which are leftover from the Middle Ages when French cities were protected by tall stone walls and fortresses) and lots of ivy. We wandered the outer streets slightly confused to find almost no one and nothing around except the cute old houses and shutters. Eventually, we made our way into the city and realized that everyone was just waking up!

Walking around in the morning

For Bridgét, your twin store :) 

So we decided to have a little petit-déj (the little abbreviated way to say petit-déjeuner which is breakfast in French; yes, the French shorten things just like us Californians do, in fact, they seem to do it much more often) at a café that reminded me of Les Deux Moulins in Amélie, minus the strange lighting and cigarette counter. I ordered le formule ("formula", a meal that has multiple parts, a tyically French breakfast consisting of a baguette, butter, jam, a croissant, orange juice, and a hot drink of choice) and Sara had an omelet. (I realize this piece of info is probably extremely riveting).

The French formule for breakfast

Afterwards, we wandered into what would be our main activity of the day: a tour of l'Hôtel Dieu which was basically a hospital started in the mid-1400s by a man named Nicolas Rolin and his wife Guigone (who was twenty or thirty years his junior, but whom he called his "seule étoile," his only star). Its premise was that it was a place where the "sick" could come and be treated for free and this included  everyone. It was operated as a hospital until the mid-1950s, which is crazy considering the fact that the room with the beds for the sick is this huge, almost cathedral-like chamber and the beds themselves look very old-timey. Nuns ran this hospital and took care of the sick. Some of the nuns even cared for patients of the plague and ended up losing their own lives to the illness. We even heard a story on our audio tour about how a French soldier was being treated in the hospital during the period of Nazi occupation and faked his own death (which was even falsely ordained by a priest) in order that he could avoid capture by the Nazis. We learned a lot on our 2-hour tour and it was super cool to hear so much history behind it and every aspect of it.

The smaller and warmer room that was used to house the sick into the 1960s 

The mural on the ceiling which depicts Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethesda 

The room for the those who were close to death

A picture of a nun and their traditional attire

The oven in the kitchen (at the right is the spit that would cook the meat for the house)

Half of the courtyard

Famously "Flemish" roofs of Hotel-Dieu

Jars for herbs and medicine

Having too much fun with our cameras

Yay :) 

After we turned in our little audio tour headsets, we headed back to the main stretch to take a look around. We ended up having a small "goûter" (snack) at a pastry shop (pastries and coffee!) and we did some Christmas shopping for individuals that remain unnamed  ;)

Notre Dame de Beaune

Tapestries de la Vierge (Virgin Mary)

So you know where you are when you are walking the streets of Beaune.

Yummy….mille feuilles (chocolate pastry) and macarons à la framboise (raspberries and maracons)

Sara and I have a photo shoot. Hi!

Happy picture :) 

Our last stop was dinner at a restaurant in the main area which had a reasonably priced menu. This was a momentous meal for me because I ate my first escargot and boeuf bourgignon! Now I am really French, woooo! The escargot were cooked in a butter, garlic sauce and I have a funny compilation of all the stages of eating them, that I will post on here when I hook up my computer. The boeuf bourgignon was like pot roast!

Bourgogne (the region we were in) is also famous for wine.

The infamous escargot.

(P.S. I have my computer back, it mysteriously works now…..so I went two weeks without it for nothing)

Then, Sara and I headed back to train station and listened to disco music on the way home. The next day, I headed off to Bordeaux……..