On Friday it decided to rain, a lot. It was dreary all morning, and I had to go out to get my French cell phone, and of course as soon as I hit the street it starts to drizzle. By the time I get off the tram where I needed to be, it was absolutely pouring. Part of me thought "Lizzie, you were stupid for not bringing your umbrella" the other part of me thought "isn't Paris pretty when it's raining...the guy from the movie Midnight in Paris was totally right!" and the last part of me thought "now that I have a cell phone, what do I do with it...HEY LOOK! a cafe!!"
After purchasing my cell phone I had a delicious Croque Madame at a small cafe with a glass roof over part of it, so that I could hear and see the rain coming down. It was both delicious and awesome!
Elizabeth (my best friend since second grade and the wonderfully gracious young woman who is sharing her home with me) is currently in school here in France and together we got out of town on Saturday to the city of Reims (that is pronounced [R-e-nasal sounds] for anyone who wondered). It is known for two things specifically (other than it's difficult and kind of bizarre pronunciation) 1) the cathedral, Notre Dame (no not the Quasi Modo one) and 2) its champagneries. Elizabeth and I decided to go to both the cathedral and one of the champagneries, Martel.
Before we made it to either we stopped at a cute little cafe for breakfast and had a huge and delicious breakfast of a baguette with butter and jam and nutella, a croissant, apple sauce, orange juice, and your choice of a hot beverage (she had coffee and I had hot chocolate), all for 7,50 Euros! And it wasn't skimpy either!
There are more words after all of the pictures. I really couldn't figure out how to, with minimal work, move the pictures to be where I wanted them to be so I just left them...don't want you to stop reading because you got bored with the pictures!
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| The place where we ate our breakfast |
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| Me in front of the Sherlock Pub |
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| The Ernest Hemmingway building...I'm not sure what it is |
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| Notre Dame (in Reims) |
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| Jeanne D'Arc |
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| Close up of Joan of Arc statue |
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| Gargoyle |
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| I just took a picture of this angel because I liked the facial expression, I came to learn that this angel is the "mascot" of sorts for Reims |
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| Choir practicing and pretty windows |
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| Chandelier, all of them in the building looked like this, it was magnificent |
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| Ceiling |
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| Smaller of the two organs, though I think this is the only one that it still used today. The choir was using it during practice. |
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| Older and bigger organ |
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| Many of the original stained glass windows was lost during WWII so they have been replacing those windows with more modern interpretations |
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| Joan of Arc statue inside the church |
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| Confessional |
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| These were done by Chagall |
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| New modern windows and a miniature model of the cathedral |
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| St Theresa |
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| If you zoom in there are a bunch of really cool gargoyles on this side of the cathedral |
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| View from our bathroom window |
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| I really like the view from this window |
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| I don't care if it's the bathroom window! |
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| I also don't care that it's weird that I took a camera into the bathroom with me! |
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| It's a nice view, alright?? |
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| Keycard....cool with holes in it |
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| I'm not sure why but there were massive amounts of rollerbladers on one of the streets in Paris on Sunday |
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| Close up of the rollerbladers |
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| All I could buy on Sunday because everywhere else was closed...but cute little strawberries |
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| Sword fight with the baguettes I bought |
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| Elizabeth attacking me with her baguette, which isn't nice because I bought it for her |
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| Look mom! I made my bed all pretty!! |
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| Like SUPER PRETTY! |
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| The Rose champagne that Elizabeth and I tasted at the champagnerie and that I bought and we'll share sometime in the near future |
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| Look at the pretty color of that champagne! The bottle is made of clear glass, so the color is all the champagne! |
As we walked in the direction of the cathedral we couldn't help but take pictures of all the amazing architecture, and also of the amusing Sherlock Pub.
We then proceeded to spend two whole hours in the cathedral. It was both beautiful and awe imspiring. And what made it even better what the fact that the church choir was practicing in there so there was heavenly music playing as you walked through the majestic building and looked up at the beautiful stained glass of the windows.
Then we went to lunch at Les Trois Brasseurs, which was amazing food with a great atmosphere. And there was a really cute French guy who kept making eye contact with me through the meal (though I probably shouldn't put that as part of the review of the restaurant because I can't guarantee that he'll be there). But the food was so good, and it is a brewery so they make all their own beer (though Elizabeth and I didn't partake). And their menus, I wish I had thought to get a picture of them! They were in the style of a newspaper! It was so cool and fun and funny!
Then we went to the Martel champagnerie and for only 9 Euros we got to taste three different champagnes. They were all really good. I ended up buying myself a bottle of the Rose that we had tried and Elizabeth and I are going to share it later in the week. Probably on Wednesday when she doesn't have class or work. And until today (Monday) I was using an empty sprite can as my cup, because Elizabeth only had one for her and a mug for her coffee, so she and I both bought small champagne flutes to use as we drink it and as have as souveniers of the trip to Reims.
Then we stopped at a patisserie and she had a peach eclair and I had a delicious and amazing raspberry tart. And Elizabeth was so excited because she was able to order everything in French, though she still pronounces l'eau (water) as loo. That's gonna cause some trouble in the future.
The we headed back to the trains station, but there was a rugby match on at the time so there were big crowds of really rowdy males and that slowed us down to the point where we actually missed our train back to Paris! Luckily the French are awesome and they were willing to take back out unused tickets and give us new tickets back on another train!
Then yesterday was a slow day, NOBODY does ANYTHING at all on Sunday in France. EVERYTHING is closed. Which I knew it was gonna be, but Elizabeth seemed to forget that it was Sunday because she said that the Monoprix (like a French version of Target) would be open, so I went down there, but it was closed. Luckily there was a very nice friendly woman who showed me to the nearest open produce shop and told me that there was a Boulangerie open right next to the metro station that I needed to use to get back to where I was staying anyway. I got strawberries (not giant ones like in America, but little ones that look like they came from someone's garden, SO CUTE!) and nectarines and apples and two baguettes, and Elizabeth had peanut butter and I had gouda I had gotten earlier in the week, so we didn't starve!
And all night long it rained, and for a while it was actually a little thunder storm (though I couldn't always tell if it was thunder or if it was just the RER train going under our building (which you can both hear and feel but you get used to the first day because it sounds like soft thunder).
Today I bought a towel for myself to use while showering (and the showers here are interesting to say the least, with a push button to get water that you have to push every 30 seconds, what the other students here have come to call the "naked shower dance"), and some dishes for myself to use for as long as I'm here, so I don't have to use my soda can and plastic plate and forks that I'm just waiting to have snap in half.
I think that's all I have to say. Other than, if there's anything that doesn't have pictures and it seems like it should, the pictures are probably on Elizabeth's camera, which I don't yet have access to. When I do, I'll put up a new post of just pictures and captions of them! Actually...I lied...the internet seems to not want me to put up any pictures, so I think I'll try either another day this week, or I'll wait until I'm at my host family's house or at school to try to put up all of my photos with captions...
I have now put in pictures but it is taking too much time and effort to try to put them all where they're supposed to go, so they are in the middle of the post and I put captions on the ones that I felt needed them.
