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Published: November 4th 2008
Chris and Sarah
in alphabetical orderYes finally finally finally, a week later, I am taking time out from my 2,000 word Shakespeare paper to tell you all about my trip to La Rochelle. First of all, the basic outcome of this trip is that I am in love with France. If I spoke better French, that is where I would live. At first, the entire city, well the entire country, made me nervous. I knew that I would have to do all of the communication and that scared me more than you might think. I always freeze up when people speak French to me and my mind races to translate what they said as fast as I can, that it just gets all jumpled and I mix up even the simplist phrases. It would be so much easier if everyone was captioned. Reading is much easier than understanding. But now I get into the plot, I'll start with the Journey:
Our flight wasn't until the afternoon, so we were excited about getting to sleep in and not having a rushed morning. But when we started to map out our journey we realized we would still have to get up at 7! I had brought my
the room
£37 a night! I got a deal. biggest suitcase because I packed for all ten days, including the time I spent at Christopher's house. So packing for France was just pulling out everything I wouldn't need there, essentially, unpacking. And I did that the morning we left. I was trying to get myself in the mood for last minute spontenaity, since we had planned virtually nothing specific for our trip. Our first leg of the journey was a bus, from the top of the road to Reading station. There, we took a train to London's Paddington station. From there we took the tube to Liverpool Street station. This is where we hit our first bump. As I was waiting with the suitcases while Chris was in the loo an alarm started going off. I looked around and no one seemed to be paying attention to it so I didn't think much of it. Then a voice came on the loudspeaker that said everyone had to evacuate, again not many people payed much mind. Then workers started to come out and told everyone to get out of the station, one man came up to me and told me to leave, I told him I was waiting for someone,
and he told me to wait outside. But I knew that if I did that I would never find Chris, I didn't have my mobile. When he finally came I told him we needed to leave, and he said, why?, turns out he didn't even hear the alarm! But regardless we stood outside the station, not recieving any clue on how long we were going to be forced to wait out here. We thought about getting a taxi to the airport but we had already bought the tickets for the train. So I got some starbucks, I've now turned from lattes to cappuccinos in regards to hot drinks, because I was freezing and I had to sneak into a KFC to use their toilets. Restaurants, especially in the city, hate it when you use their toilets and you haven't bought anything. After what felt like forever, but was probably a half an hour they let us back in and we jumped on the first train to Stanstead airport. But of course, this meant that everyone else did too. There were 2 stops before the airport and on the way the conductor anounced that they decided this train was not going
to stanstead, so everyone had to get off at one of the next to stops and wait for another train. I thought this was funny. So we got off at the first stop, along with most of the packed train and waited on the COLD platform forever. When it finally came, everyone got on, and again we were not able to find seats. When we finally got to Stanstead we had to wait for about 20 minutes before we could check in. Checking in was easy, it was then having to queue up for baggage check-in that took forever. Then we tackled security, figuratively, not literally. I took delays into account of our travel time, but after all this, we were still over an hour early. So we sat in the terminal, got some lunch, looked at every duty free, twice!
After flying with Ryan air, I completely understand why their flights are so cheap. But overall I was satisfied, you get what you pay for, and would probably fly with them again. It made me laugh when instead of walking to the plane via the platfor hooked up to the terminal, we went out on the runway and
climbed up the stairs into the plane. Then the song, Chris and I were quite amused with the horrible music that I can only describe super peppy-techno that played during the boarding of the flight, and we found out that they are publishing it as a single! I can't wait to download it as a ring tone. It was a short flight, still long enough to make me pretty antsy, but I wish the flight back to Florida was that long. I still got a nose bleed, something about planes gives me nosebleeds. Then again, the hills in the pan-handle will give me a nose bleed. I guess I am only designed to live at sea level.
Stepping off the plane, my very first taste of France was cold and wet. Cold and wet? Are you sure we left England? Mais bien, C'etait La Rochelle. We walked in the tiniest airport terminal I have ever seen and I proudly got my passport stamped. Then we stood awkwardly as people were greeted by their family members as we tried to figure out where the baggage carousel was. I saw an old man approach the desk and ask where to collect
the baggage, the man at the desk obviously did not understand this man, so he gave up, turned to Chris and I and asked us if we spoke English. We then learned that he was in the same boat as us. Just short of going up to the same guy and putting my French skills to the test we figured out that we had passed it, meaning we were supposed to pick it up before we passed through the gates. We had to get someone to take us back through the gates, this probably would have been a big deal in "the states." But we zipped right on in and out again.
After receiving our luggage we looked around a bit for a map of some sort. For some reason, don't ask me why, Chris was under the impression that the hotel was in walking distance of l'aeroport (the airport). Finally we just gave up and got a Taxi. Boy, am I glad we didn't walk! Although, I think the driver may have taken advantage of us and taken us a bit of the long way, because he did make a point of asking us if we had ever
been to La Rochelle before. But he did give us a map that proved to be very helpful and pointed out some places of note along the way. In the beginning the car ride was very awkward, it was my first interaction with a local and I wanted to say something, make some sort of small talk. I made a comment about the weather, something like "looks like rain." meaning for him to come back with, "oh, but it will be gone by tomorrow" or " I know, it came out of no where!" or even "yes, we get that sometimes." But all I got was a "ehhhh..... yes" and his tone definately meant, "of course it looks like rain, it is raining dumb!" In the end we (by we I mean Chris, because he is a gentleman) payed 20 euro for the taxi, more than I would have liked, but the euro is worse than the pound, so that is better for us!
The hotel room was called an 'apartment-style suite' which meant it had a little tiny kitchen. It proved handy even if there was absolutely no dishes or cutlery, apart from two tea cups and a
kettle... again, I thought I hadn't left England. If I may digress for a moment... I am in love with the invention of an electric tea kettle. I have never used one before so I was hesitant on trying to work the one out in our flat, but it is so simple! Water boils in seconds! No more microwaved water! I don't know how I am going to go back to living without one of these..... now back to our regularly scheduled program. After we got everything settled we were starving, well at least I was, Chris is never hungry at the same time as me. We went out to get our first glimpse of the town and our first taste of the food. I'm glad that our first exploration was at night. As you will be able to tell from our pictures, La Rochelle has a certain magical quality after dusk. After reading what seemed like dozens of menus, we settled on a restaurant behind the old port and more toward the centre of town. It was down one of those roads that are too small for cars, and motorbikes take advantage of this, they are everywhere! When we
Rupert
is my best friend went in, I was very nervous, do we just sit or wait to be seated? Some of the cute little two seater tables were filled with couples drinking wine and having what I am sure was intelligent conversation, because everything said in French is intellegent. Pourquoi tu n'as pas l'air d'aller? When we walked in a woman came right up to us and sat us. After trying to translate the menu, I ordered for both Chris and I, food and drinks, and then asked for the check and rejected any puddings or coffee. That first night was probably the time that French and I got along best.
A lot of the events over the next few days become jumbled, so I may skip around a bit now and not do this in order. Regardless, one of the first events was the visitation of the Aquarium, that is apparently the largest in Europe! After successfully purchasing our tickets in French (which I got at a very discounted rate for being a student) We proceeded into this submarine-tank-like room. It was only Chris and I inside, There was a sign on the next set of doors that said to wait for
Rupert
followed me them to open. Suddenly, the doors behind us closed and the sound of a little kid came on loudly over the intercom, shouting something in French that I couldn't understand. Then the lights went out and we were left in darkness for a few seconds. Honestly, I was quite scared by the fact I had no idea what was going on. I half expected our little tank to fall out of the sky like the tower of terror, but only in Orlando I guess, because then the doors in front of us slowly opened. I was hit first by a wave of ambiance music, as it took my eyes a bit to adjust to the strange bluish-green light that fills the aquarium. The first bit we walked through was a tunnel filled with hundreds of Jelly Fish. They were all around, and seemed to be swimming in the same direction. So much so that the tunnel almost appeared to be spinning. We spent most of the day here, as there was much to see. I was disappointed by the fact that there were no dolphins or whales. Although, they did have sharks and saw-fish that looked really freaky. I made
a friend, Rupert, the little squidy fish thing that followed me around the tank. One of the best parts was not only 'fish-watching' but 'people-watching.' Although there weren't many there, it being the middle of the day on Wednesday during the off-season, I loved eaves-dropping on the French families and picking out what bits and pieces I could. For some reason, little kids that speak French are the cutest things I have ever seen! Cuter than munchkin kittens!
The main attraction of La Rochelle are the three 14th century towers that are at the entrance of the harbour, along the coast. It took us two days to tackle all three, and we didn't accomplish this in the most frugal of manners. I had read in the pamphlet that there was a ticket for entrance to the smallest tower and then another of your choice, so naturally we bought this, it being the better deal, and then we planned on buying the third separately if we decided to go. Keep those details in mind I will get back to it.
The first tower we explored was the smallest, and definitely my least favourite. It was 'La tour du Chaine.'
They had set up an exhibit inside about French immigrants that moved to Quebec in the 1600's. We got audio guides that the woman put in English for us, but they were quite absurd. It seemed as if it had been translated almost to literally, as some things sounded silly. It was a man and a woman speaking, telling the story as if they were travellers on the ships to Quebec. It was very uninteresting but at least the views were nice. Not as nice as the other two towers though, since they were much taller.
The next tower we tackled on the same day was La tour de Lanterne. It is the gothic looking one in the pictures. This had many amazing scetches, poems, and signatures carved into the walls because it was mainly used as a prison. Some of the rooms were kind of scary, but my favourite part was the beautiful stained glass spire at the top. I think this tower was the tallest all though the next one comes close.
The third tower we didn't get to until our last day. We had already checked out of the hotel, which kindly kept our bags,
and we had some time to kill so we thought we would give the third one a shot. Thinking back on it, this was probably the best one. But we had some confusion when purchasing the tickets. The man asked if we wanted two or three towers, and I explained we had already been to the other two and only wanted this one. After much confusion he finally gave up and started speaking to us in English. And it turns out that he was British! We ended up having to get a ticket for two again but it was only €4 so we weren't that fussed. This tower was mostly used as living quarters for officers and their families, and had tonnes of rooms and passageways to explore. They gave us a little book (in English!) explaining the significance of each room and a suitable order to explore them in, I am sure we would have gotten lost without it. So, I was the tour guide and took Chris 'round the tower, whether he wanted me to or not.
With our tickets for the towers you got a trip on a small boat that went from one side of
the harbour to the other. We did it twice, it was cute but I wish it could have been longer. I love boats and I was reminded about all the trips I used to take the Spencer and the gang. The driver was very talented and could just whip in and out of the platform like it was nothing.
We visited a museum that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of now. (That I got in for free for being a student) It was in an old mansion house in the middle of the town, away from the harbour. The collections were sort of random and peculiar. One room filled with medicine jars, another with tonnes of porcelain, and another with a bunch of oriental memorabilia. I thought the house itself was more interesting than the collections, in fact I quite fell in love with it. Would it were mine. It took us forever to find this museum by the way! The map didn't prove to be all that much help in this instance. What is very inconvenient about all of these attractions is that they all close for one or two hours right in
the middle of the day. The time, of course, that you want to go. I guess this is similar to the Spanish siesta only it is more for lunch than for napping.
Another museum we visited was the Musee des automates. It was a museum of models of everything you can imagine. We watched one of the shows in the museum where a historic battle was recreated, but it was quite silly and absurd, which I think made the show all the better. But we spent alot of time in the room with a giant model of a city with trains running all around it. I found the button that you could control the cranes with so that amused me for a bit. However, if you stay in there too long, everything stops running, but Chris figured out that you just have to walk through the entrance way and everything starts back up again. They are very energy conscious here. The lights in the hotel were motion detectors so only turned on when you came, and then turned off again behind you. And at grocery stores, or any store, they always ask if you want a bag, or sometimes
Hugs
for all the fishes they don't give you any, unless you specifically ask.
When it came to food I took advantage of trying many classic French cuisine. Although, La Rochelle have a different local menu than that of Paris and with what most people associate with as French. I was however able to get a croque monsieur, avec la chevre (a toasted ham sandwich with goat cheese), pate, creme caramel, une tartine (this is like a mini pizza on French bread, mine had prawns, cheese, tomato, and whole wedges of lemon?) I also tried an espresso, some type of local fish, and a couple of pastries including pain au chocolat. Chris and I bought a few on the first day and kept them in the 'kitchen' for us to eat for breakfast in the mornings.
We did a lot of walking, as we used no other mode of transport. I was quite disappointed by the fact that I couldn't really find the yellow bikes that I thought you could rent and ride for a euro an hour. I found one outside the hotel but I think someone was currently using it. In our walks we explored all the little streets of La
Rochelle, did some window shopping because I didn't buy a thing except for a few post cards. I also saw a man filming the homeless people for what I assume was a documentary, either that or they were famous French actors that were playing homeless people. Let's got with the latter.
On our very last day we ate lunch at this little out door cafe before we went back to the hotel to collect our things. It was in the same square as the post office and the town hall. The crazy man standing outside the hall was trying to put posters up and a police man came to stop him. Before long there were a dozen police men, most of them chatting and laughing to each other while this man yelled and screamed at them at the top of his lungs. People in the street were stopping to watch and it was quite a show. The waiter was very amused and turned to us and said, 'ah and so is France.' In French of course.
And so was my trip to France, short, but very relaxing. I can't wait to go back. But next time, I will
cute car
outside the musee des automates brush up a little more on my French. Though, not bad for not having done any in over two years.
oberservation: Madame would have been proud.
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Mama
non-member comment
Hi Sarah, Loved seeing the pictures and reading all about your adventures in France! Tried to call you today, but no one was home. Love you, Mama