Cadet Kelly

chocolate shop on the right

peep the VRC people in the back

After meeting up again, we began our walk to Clos Lucé, the house that some king had built for Da Vinci so he would come live in France. All that effort for Da Vinci to only live there two years and then pass away... whoops. The house was nice and small aka a mansion by today's standards but a cute little country cottage by a king's standards. We walked around, saw a bunch of small-scale versions of his inventions in the basement, didn't even pretend to understand them, and then explored the immense grounds. They also had life-sized replicas of his inventions on the grounds which were fun to play with even if we were too heavy for the tank to move and made all of the little kids annoyed.

quaint, right?

not a bad place to spend the end of your life

the grass is always greener...when you're not allowed to walk on it

The last stop of the day, which was unbeknownst to us, was a glass-blowing factory built into a rock cliff. Although it was approximately 5000 degrees in the cave-thing (the technical term), we got to watch a glass blower make a vase (? unclear) which was really really cool. Afterwards, we explored the showroom but then our VRC friends showed up and took over so we made a run for it. We finally returned home around 6pm only for me to realize I forgot my key. My host parents were out and so I was homeless until a little after 8, but lucky enough to have friends to foster me for those two hours :)

why it's called glass blowing

vase?

Sunday morning, I was up at 6:30 to head down to Bordeaux. My friend Katie and I took a 7:30 train from Tours and arrived in Bordeaux at 10:30. We knew we wanted to do some kind of wine tour because it'd be criminal not to, but that was pretty much all we had planned. So, we got off the train, figured out the tram system and headed to the tourist office for some help. We basically got laughed at for saying we wanted to do a wine tour the day of, so we settled for trying to do a wine tasting in the city. The brochure said you didn't need a reservation but the place closed at 1:30 on Sundays, so we attempted to take the tram back across the city to the wine tasting. Being our tourist selves, we couldn't figure out which tram to take and crossed from one side of the tracks to the other at least three times before some woman took pity on us and helped us out.

We finally got to the wine tasting only for it to be closed with a sign on the door saying to go to another location. We found that place, went inside and literally thought we were in someone's apartment. We asked the guy if we could do a wine tasting and he told us they were doing a brunch at the moment and to come back at 2:00. I looked at him beyond confused and showed him his own brochure that said they closed at 1:30. Casually, he responded that they had changed their hours and just didn't think to change the brochure. Typical Europeans.

We made a reservation for 2:00, and went off to grab a very expensive but nice lunch outside in a large square. We then headed back to the apartment? wine place? don't know what to call it. Turns out, we got a private tasting of 4 wines in wine glasses approximately the size of our heads. We learned a lot, drank a lot, and enjoyed ourselves a lot. But, we didn't pay a lot. All of that for only 12,90 Euro. So, if you're ever in Bordeaux, do a wine tasting at Be The Wine! Your head might regret it, but your wallet won't.

We then booked it to the port where we had a 3:30 boat tour of Bordeaux and its many bridges. Again, we were definitely the youngest people on the boat by 40 years. And the tour guide said everything in French then repeated it in English so it was twice as fun. An hour and a half of this was a little much and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a nice nap on the boat, but it was cool to see Bordeaux from another perspective when I wasn't too busy seeing the back of my eyelids.

they promised the water isn't dirty...

:)

the future "wine city" of Bordeaux...I'll be back for that

miroir d'eau (mirror of water)

We finished the tour at 5:00, and headed back to the tourist office for our bus tour of Bordeaux. While waiting for the bus tour we got lured in by a 40(?) year old guy selling candy (I wish I was joking) on the street. He was so excited to talk to Americans and we proceeded to have an entire conversation about how American girls are "bitchy" and "want to call the police" every time a guy tries to flirt with them. This conversation lasted at least 15 minutes because I felt like if I tried to end the conversation I'd look like the "bitchy American girl" on her way to "call the police". I mean, that's exactly who I wanted to be, but my pride kept me standing there, hiding my RBF as best I could. In the end we got a few free roasted peanuts and didn't get kidnapped so it was a win in my book.

But, our good luck ended there. The bus was supposed to be come at 5:45 but, in typical French fashion, they didn't come out and tell us that it had broken down until 6:00. We were exhausted anyways so we got reimbursed and then headed to dinner. We found another adorable square with some guy singing opera and plenty of restaurants with outdoor seating and treated ourselves to a three course meal and some amazing local wine, all for under 20 Euro per person.

cheers to good wine and a good day

highly necessary

ended the day on a very good note

Then, it was off to the train station for our 8:30 train home. I got home around 11:45 and don't think I'd ever been so happy to see my bed. But, the exhaustion was totally worth the spontaneous Bordeaux trip and I can definitely see why it was voted the best destination in Europe. Every building looked like it belonged at Versailles and it was definitely one of the cleanest cities I've ever been in. Plus, the wine. That's all that really matters.

Cheers!
Joanna

prob only 1/3 of the food we ate...note pitchers of sangria

DAY TWO: Friday morning we hopped on the bus and were off to our first stop before 10am. We went to a medieval city, Les Baux-de-Provence, that was incredibly well preserved. We roamed around, didn't listen to our audio guides, almost killed ourselves on multiple steps of stairs, took too many pictures and way too many panoramas, ate lunch, walked through the village, and got back on the bus for our next stop of the day. 

Thinking we had an hour long ride to relax before our next stop, we all settled in for some much needed naps. But, no. We were woken up less than 15 minutes later to learn we would be going on a walk. Why? Where to? How long? No one told us anything except that it would be 30 minutes tops. Turns out it was a 20 minute hike along a road that the bus could've 100 percent driven on to a weird little abandoned/reconstructed medieval village where everything was built with stones. Again, was about as exciting as it sounds. We were there for maybe 10 minutes before turning around and beginning our 20 minute trek back. I don't know if we were being punished for something, or if they think we're eating too much gelato and need exercise but that was just not necessary. Finally, we returned to the bus much later than promised, sweaty and even more ready for our naps. Luckily we had a half hour ride to our next stop, Sénanque Abbey. But, since our walk took longer than promised, we missed our tour so we had to wait another 40 minutes for the next one. This basically involved me sitting on a bench the entire time debating if I could nap in public. Eventually, it came time for our tour and we went to check-in where I was one of two people in our group given not one, but two cloths with which to cover myself because the monks don't appreciate my sense of fashion. I proceeded to play fashion designer with my cloths and make myself a cute outfit out of them because if I'm going to be forced into wearing something I may as well look as good as possible doing it. (Also because I can't stand still and got kind of bored during the tour...) The tour was in English, though, so that was cool, and I learned some new things about monks, so I'd say it was productive, but I also couldn't wait to get back to my bed. 

That night we had a dinner libre (free dinner) so we did what any students in France would do and got more tapas and sangria... and ice cream. Still exhausted from that walk we were forced to go on, we all went straight to bed afterwards.

DAY FOUR: We were hangin' on, barely breathing, but we got up, we got at 'em, and we headed over to the Papal Palace right down the road. Why there is a huge Roman palace in the middle of a French town is kind of beyond me but we had our trusty audio guides and we were on our way through only 25 rooms (...) of the mansion. This alone took over an hour, but it was definitely cool to see something so impressive that was built so long ago. Afterwards, we grabbed some food, grabbed some taxis, and were off to the train station for our long ride home.

making history fun

1/100 of the castle

casual

peep caro again

Although I was in a constant state of exhaustion throughout the trip I am glad we fit so much in (except that damn walk) to our short four days. Now for a trip to the real Provence...aka the beaches and film festivals. Maybe someday...