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Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille September 28th 2007

It’s 9AM. I had to be out of the hostel. It’s raining. My umbrella is in Paris. I came to the huge mall, EuraLille. The shops aren’t open, but the cafés are. I bought a croissant and an orange juice so I could sit down for a bit. I really enjoy a fresh croissant. It’s early enough that they are still warm. The fragile, shiny shell cracks, shatters, then dissolves to nothing, giving way to a warm, light, doughy center. Somehow the French make it possible to give a croissant a rich, buttery flavor without making it seem heavy at all. Mmm. I’m sitting here at this little snack shop/café, which is nothing fancy at all - it’s a little stand in a mall with metal tables and chairs - and yet I’m still amazed by ... read more

Europe » France » Lower Normandy September 28th 2007

On Tuesday 25th September we had a long day of travel to get from Brugges to the town of Bayeux in Normandy France. We left the hotel around 7.30 am and after 3 trains and one 4 hour bus ride we arrived at Bayeux station around 5pm. It was cold and raining lightly when we arrived so we thought we would catch a taxi to our hotel, only to find that there were no taxis and no buses in sight. So with no other option, and no map of the town, we walked for 10 or 15 minutes following the signs to the town centre where we went to the visitor information centre to get directions to the hotel. Luckily the hotel was well located only 5 minutes walk from the centre. We spent a pleasant, ... read more
Arromanches - the remains of a Mulberry Harbour
The remains of the Mulberry Harbour off Arromanches
Longues-sur-Mer

Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille September 28th 2007

It’s 11AM. I’m sitting here at the gare (train station) because they have seating that doesn’t require me to buy anything, and I realized that I forgot to tell you my absolute favorite thing about train stations. Not all gares have them, but some do, including the Paris Gare du Nord (North Station), which happens to be the Paris gare that goes to Lille. The signs!!! Every train station has a huge billboard-sized sign high up in the middle of the gare that posts the scheduled departure times, destinations, numbers, and voies (gates/ways). The ones I love are not the brand new, digital screens with bright orange LED numbers and letters, nor are they the old, funky digital screens with blocky, green, dot matrix-looking text. The signs I love are based on the old-fashioned ones that ... read more

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris September 28th 2007

Oui. Je suis un americain The day we pick up our car and leave the city is always the tensest. We had downloaded a map from Mappy, programmed the GPS, and arranged to pick up our car from an agency outside the Periphique. It was a Saturday so traffic shouldn’t be too bad. We stood in line for about half an hour at the Europcar booth but, when it was our turn everything seemed to go smoothly. I had asked for a diesel powered car but am prepared for the Rolling Stones warning that, “You don’t always get what you want.” The young lady smiled and handed me a key chain with a thin black rectangle, about 1” by 2” attached. It had the usual buttons for lock, unlock and trunk. I flipped it over. ... read more
The key
The key slot
The offending gear shift

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris September 28th 2007

Kaere Danmark. Rejsen er for alvor begyndt og der er positive ting at berette herfra. Jeg har brugt nogle dage sammen med de meget soede folk, Pierre og Cathrine i paris forstaden Fontenay Sous-Bois. Herfra er det lykkedes mig at skaffe et fransk mobil nummer, et arbejde som bartender der begynder paa tirsdag og et vaerelse midt i byen. Et meget maerkvaerdigt vaerelse men udemaerket. Det er en smule haardt at kaste sig ud i et projekt som dette og det hele kan foeles en smule tomt naar man er alene. Men det er vildt spaendende at vaere igang og jeg glaeder mig virkelig til at starte paa det virkelige liv og dets goder og problemer. Nyt vil snart lyde fra Paris. Kaerlige hilsener og foelelser af spaending, savn, udfordringer og lyst til liv fra byernes ... read more

Europe » France September 27th 2007

Well it has almost been a month here in good ol’ France, which I can hardly believe. Things are starting to pick up at little bit more at school, and frankly it is kind of hard to get into the grove of things. But I think I am just going to spend tomorrow at the library studying and catching up on my school work. This weekend we are going to Paris!! Yay, I love Paris, such an amazing city, I am so excited to take lots of pictures of the Eiffel Tower and all the amazing sights that the city has to offer. So far I have planned three trips, Paris, Geneva, and Athens!! I can’t wait for all these dreams to come true. Next I want to plan a trip to Prague, Rome (Hopefully with ... read more
France!!!
France!!!
Monaco

Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille September 27th 2007

This is important. 1. This is not a personal journal - at least, that isn’t my intent. There will most definitely be information about what's happening in my life here, but this blog is primarily for little cultural observations that I make during my time here. I intend to leave most of my personal details out. If you want them, though, you need only ask! 2. Please read this, and please comment! I want your feedback. If you don’t want to comment this way, then copy/paste it with your comments in an email/FB/MySpace message. 3. If you are going to comment on the blog site itself, please refrain from being too inappropriate; this is for friends, parents, grandparents… 4. Please keep in touch with me! I’m doing quite well, but I still get lonely, and I ... read more

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris September 27th 2007

On a completely unrelated note, it just so happens that Paris has (wouldn’t it just, though?) one of the biggest ferris wheels I’ve ever seen right in the centre-ville, which, especially when all lit up at night, just looks like it has been taken directly from the set of a movie. So that was Paris. Then came the TGV (train à grande vitesse / high-speed train). ... read more

Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille September 27th 2007

I’ll write about it tomorrow - it’s still too new for me to even have an impression. But taking the train and arriving here alone really solidified that I really am starting completely over. And it’s sad and it’s exciting and it’s scary and it’s wonderful and it’s exhausting and it’s energizing. I was reminded of L’Auberge espagnole (The Spanish Apartment), another one of my favorite movies. (The movie, briefly, is about Xavier, who decides to spend a year abroad in Spain studying Economics. During this time, he lives in an apartment with about six other people, all of different nationalities.) When Xavier first arrives in Spain, he remarks how strange and foreign all the names and things and people seemed, and how they would, a year later, become as routine and unremarkable to him as ... read more

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris September 27th 2007

The restaurant, specializing in French and Indian cuisines, seats only about 30 people at small, intimate tables covered with white linen tablecloths. On the table are settings complete with two goblets (a smaller one for water and a larger one for wine) and shiny, heavy silverware engraved with an intricate floral design on the end. The lighting is dim and conversations are quiet. The menu is similar to mist in France; selections are more limited than at most American restaurants, though still ample enough, and while you can order whatever you want from the menu, most often you order a menu or formule, which means that you pay a set price for an entrée (not to be confused with the American English word “entrée,” in France, an entrée is, more appropriately, an appetizer), a plat (main ... read more




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