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Published: January 6th 2008
La Rue Moncey
The shops around our hotel. For all of you who were worried, all is well in Frenchland! It's 6:45 here now. This first blog is going to be pretty quick because I'm new at this and have limited time... so, it's the nitty gritty for all y'all.
When I first got to the airport in Sioux Falls, the computer told me that my flight to Chicago was delayed which would cause me to miss my connecting flight to Paris...mind you, the only flight to Paris that night. A minor freakout ensued, needless to say, because we were meeting as a group and had a chartered bus to take us from Paris to Besancon, and if I missed that, I would have to travel alone.
Sooo... I sat out in the lobby trying to contact anybody I could think of in our program who would have a cell phone... I even called the study abroad office in Lincoln to see what they could do to help me and emailed our professor who was already in Besancon. When I finally just decided to go through security and wait for the flight... NO ONE was at the gate. I asked the flight attendant what was going
Legal!
My first glass of legal wine. on and she said the flight was cleared for takeoff. Cue freakout number 2! They had canceled the delay without even announcing it! I got on the plane, thankfully, but with only about 3 minutes to spare. Whew.
Our Chicago to Paris flight was delayed about an hour an a half because they were changing a tire, but it was overall a pretty smooth flight. For all of you who knew how much I was looking forward to the airplane food: it was everything I had hoped for and more. Loved it! but I was also starving... I had cheese lasagna, salad, and a brownie. They were also playing Ratatouille in French on the little seat tv things.
We landed, went through customs, and got luggage (none was lost...surprising). And after waiting around for a little bit, we left Paris at noon. Sad day though, the airport is pretty far from the center of the city so we saw no Eiffel tower or arc de triomphe, and it was pretty foggy and ugly looking anyway. But I'll get there eventually.
Then we took our "2 and 1/2 hour" bus trip to Besancon that lasted 5 and a
half hours. I slept the first two hours, then we stopped for food and I ordered my first French meal (she pats herself on back).
At first, France didn't seem all that different... lots of farms except everything is still green! The temperature today was about 44 degrees...not bad at all. Then I couldn't get back to sleep because it was beautifully sunny out and the scenery became absolutely amazing as we approached the hilly/mountanous of the "Franche-comte" region that Besancon is in. I'm talking, MEDIEVAL CASTLES right by the freeway. There are also tons of little towns that you can see the huge churches that used to be the center of town.
(Note, little history session commences during the following paragraph. Skip ahead if you so desire.) Back in the day, each French city was kind of like its own country so they would build huge castles and walls around the city. Some ofthe towns you can see that these are still standing but have just been
renovated to be HUGE mansions!
FINALLY, when we got to Besancon, it was love at first sight. Our hotel is literally smack dab in the
middle of the historic
Centre Ville
The (analog) clock in the center of town. And yep...that's a carousel. downtown, with shops on either side (see posted photos). It's really beautiful. But the rooms in French hotels are pretty small and cramped...and also 4 other girls were assigned to my pepto bismal and lime green room with no closet or floor space and a bathroom that is smaller than the closets at courtyards.
Because the French rarely use "super-marches" or supermarkets, they have separate shops for meat, bread, pasteries, and milk-products. I can't wait to visit my first "patisserie" (pastry shop!)
Whew, how's that for a blog? I'll have to get used to this and hopefully will become more poetic when I have the time... More soon when I have the chance....so much to do!!
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Noel \ /
non-member comment
Glad you enjoyed your first airline meal! I was actually going to ask you about that but you beat me to it. Go have some fun! Post when you can! Don't let it pile up, though! Your friend, Noel. P.S. Justin called me today. He's holding up without you pretty well. I suppose I am also. So don't worry about us!