Perpignan and nearby cities.

beach in St. Cyprien

lots of little shells to find

flowers on the coast

castles everywhere near the Spanish border

brocante in Banyuls-sur-Mer

Carcassonne, a beautiful walled medieval city

très cool... This is Dame Carcas, the city's namesake

sunset over Carcassonne. One of the most beautiful moments I've experienced lately.

This is the kind of wind we had here on Tuesday. Umbrella-bending wind.

Records of snow and cold...

I love my door photos.

driving out to Céret. WOW look at all the snow in the mountains!

Céret, home to windy, lazy streets and cherries

Céret. This gentleman was much less creepy than the one-toothed one who approached us on a bridge and started telling stories about people who has jumped off of it--18, apparently. Then told us "Ciao, bambinos!" all friendly. He was strange. But this guy in the picture, he's all good.

oysters at lunch in Perpignan

Goodbye, Nogent.

Well, it’s come to an end!  We cannot believe how fast this time has passed. There were certainly periods of time when we wanted it to go by more quickly, but all in all it’s flown by.  I remember arriving and setting up our room, opening our bank account with the help of one of my colleagues, exploring our town for the first time, and teaching our first classes like it was just a few weeks ago.  This week we tore apart our room and packed it into (too many!) bags, closed our bank account on our own, bid our town farewell, and said tearful goodbyes to our new friends and students.  Life is crazy.  I feel like I am always telling people I love goodbye.  But I know I am very fortunate to have the chance to travel around and meet so many people.  Now we have a “home” in France.  Because, after all, home is where the heart is and we have certainly given parts of our hearts to France and to our French friends.  That, for me, has been the best and also hardest part of the traveling I’ve done.  I go to somewhere new, I meet people, get to know them, feel at home, and then end up leaving.  I leave the new place as sad as I was when I left the old place.  Apparently there is a proverb in northern France that says you cry twice when you leave.  Once when you arrive and once when you leave.  So true!!  We arrived and thought, ahhh….this town isn’t the best. The weather sucks. Crap. But, despite all of that we still fell in love with this country and the people we were surrounded by.  I’ll post a few pictures of people we love here…

my colleagues

my student Thomas, who I sold our guitar to

Laïa, the daughter of Vanessa, one of my colleagues

Phillip's colleagues

Cécile, my colleague

Yannick, a colleague of mine, and his son Loïc, the cutest little boy alive

Vanina, Luli, and May, our Argentine friends!!

Saying goodbye is just no fun.  But, I hope to keep in touch with these people.  I know that without a doubt we’ll return to France in the future and I can’t wait to be reunited with these people (or in Argentina with Vanina and Luli!).  I hope they will also be able to come visit us in the USA at some point!

We are now in Perpignan, France… here’s the drive we made today:

It took about 10 hours and it was beautiful!

beautiful view

We also drove over this crazy huge bridge today near Millau, France.  It’s as tall as the Eiffel Tower!

We are hoping for sun while we’re here (since we came to go to the beach…) but it looks like rain.  Luckily there are plenty of cool villages around here to visit, so we might just be taking advantage of having a car. I think we’ll be going to Barcelona for a day– only a 2 hour drive from here.  Gotta get my Spain fix…and redeem the awful visit I previously had in Barcelona 2 years ago. Keep looking at the blog for photos of our last week! We are headed home May 12. We are certainly going to be very sad to leave France, but we are soo happy to be coming HOME! We miss you all very much!

We love Alsace!

We spent an absolutely wonderful weekend in Strasbourg (and surrounding towns) with Kristen, one of our friends from DePauw, and her friends. We spent Friday shopping for things we wanted to take home since we love this region of France. We had a great lunch at a spätzle restaurant and had dinner with Kristen and Alex.  On Saturday we (and a girl named Vicky) rented bikes and got on a train to Colmar, where we started biking the “route des vins,” a GORGEOUS route through the Alsatian vineyards. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such beautiful countryside. It was a perfect sunny warm day and I just felt like I was biking through a dream.  I didn’t get to stop to take pictures as often as I’d like since we were a bit pressed for time (only so many trains because of a strike).  We were out for about 5 hours and went through gorgeous tiny towns. Ah, I can’t even properly share this experience with you. You should just go do it!! But, take our advice and rent a bike with gears. Enjoy the photos.

The Cathedral Plaza in Strasbourg

Traditional half-timbered buildings of Alsace

Petite France in Strasbourg

Petite France

great spätzle restaurant!!

view from the restaurant

The best bar EVER or at least in France.

haha the Alsatian couple

spring!

me and Kristen

riding out of Turckheim

starting up the hill through the vineyards

great view

just so cute

picturesque

yep, we did that

Ribeauvillé

stork poop

Alsatian wine

yum, munster

Top moments

As we approach the end of our time here in France which has passed oh so quickly, we are reflecting on the best parts of our voyage. We have to do top 5 because it’s too difficult to choose just one thing! These are in no particular order.

top 5 meals:

1. Erfurt, Germany with Matt and Kyle in september. Completely unexpected delicious German food in a square with a massive cathedral. No English spoken.

The cathedral in Erfurt

2. New Year’s Eve in Oberammergau, Germany. We were with our families and just chowed down on the unparalleled German fare.

lots of love at the table

3. Milan, Italy: our first meal in Italy: pizza, wine, lemoncello. Perfect.

Meal #1 in Milan. Perfect.

4. L’Art de l’Oise: a meal with some French teacher friends near our town where we had surprising and inventive dishes, my favorite being the homemade rose sorbet for dessert! Incredible! No photo, sorry.

5. Street pizza in Marseille: In a town that offered us few other things we truly enjoyed, the street vendor pizza was an absolute knockout. I think we paid about 3 euros for both of us for dinner, we ate it as we walked down the main drag towards the sunset over the mediterranean. No photo, sorry.

top 5 cities:

1. Paris. We fall in love with this city over and over again. Multiple times a month. So much to see and appreciate, highlights being: typically Parisian architecture, dogs in raincoats, innumerable parks hidden in corners of the city and crêpes!!

the latin quarter

2. Stockholm: We went on a whim because I found a cheap flight and thought it would be fun to explore my Swedish ancestry a bit. What a stunning city!! It was still frozen in March but so beautiful and had first-rate sunsets.

gorgeous.

3. Prague: We can’t wait to get back here! Gorgeous, cheap and a window into eastern European culture. Giant $1.50 beer, rude waiters, interesting church spires and red rooves.

Prague

4. Segovia, Spain: truly my favorite city I’ve visited. I may be biased for living there, but to me it is perfect.

My city.

5. Anywhere, Germany. We live Germany. Everything about it. Beautiful landscapes, beautiful people, beautiful beer, home to Christmas markets and our favorite food! So really, just put us anywhere and we’ll be happy. Bavaria is our preferred region.

Oberammergau

6. Florence, Italy: Sorry, have to add a number 6 here!! Too many great places. I have never seen a more beautiful view of a city at night than of Florence from Piazza Michelangelo. One of the best nights of our time in Europe. It’s also so cool because the Renaissance started there and the architecture is really beautiful- the dome, for example!!

WOW. That's all I have to say.

top 5 travel moments:

1. When our room was stolen from us in Amiens, France and we ended up staying the night in a picturesque cottage owned by the hilarious family that owned our hotel since the city was full.

2. When we were staying in Mine’s apartment in Paris and got kicked out by the landlord at 9 pm on Dec 23.

3. Driving with our family from Oberammergau to Neuswanstein Castle in crazy amounts of snow despite our poorly equipped car.

4. Being stopped by metro security guards in Munich.

5. The fact that after 8 months in this place we still struggle to flag down a waiter to pay our bill at a bar or restaurant.

top 5 things we love about France:

1. Paris

2. Exploring their love for food– even moldy cheese. I, personally, don’t appreciate the Roquefort very much, but I like pretty much everything else. French pastries are a homerun eveytime. Regional cuisine is really cool and my favorite is Alsatian. Oh yes, and wine. From boxed cheap stuff to fine wine as old as I am, we’ve tried a little of everything.

3. They pay us to hang out with kids and speak our native language, and then give us 7 weeks of “much needed” vacation. Plus, due to the simple fact of being exposed to French, we learn.  Not to mention that the French people adore their language and are all too happy to correct our errors. You really can’t get a better deal than this if you want to explore Europe for a year.

4. Trains (when not on strike!): an incredibly efficient, comfortable and budget-friendly way to travel.

5. The French kissing. Hold on, get your mind out of the gutter. I’m talking about greeting kisses. Once, this creepy guy at my school asked if I would “miss the French kissing” when I get back to the USA. haha. Well, yes, I will, but I will welcome silly numbers of hugs when I am home!!

top 5 museums/visits:

1.Vassamusset, Stockholm. Impeccably reconstructed 17th century warship that sunk on it’s maiden voyage (20 mins after departure).

the sunken ship

2. The Louvre. You just can’t get more impressive, really. And, sorry, but Mona is a bit over-rated. I prefered Liberty Leading the People and the Egyptian stuff.

Liberty Leading the People

3. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Best for Impressionism, which I love. The van Gogh, Degas, and various pointalist paintings are my favorites.

Degas's Blue Dancers

4. St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. At the point when we reached Rome I was pretty cathedraled-out. I knew we had to go into this one, though! Wow, I am still blown away thinking about the size and marbled-surface beauty of it. My jaw kept dropping. Beautiful mosaic around the top of the nave. Michalangelo’s Pieta was breathtaking.  And on a cool (yet sad) historical note, all of the marble that covers the enormous church was taken from the Ancient Roman ruins. That means that Ancient Rome had a similar splendor to this place. I can’t imagine! But, I like to try.

Michelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica

5. Towers of Notre Dame, Paris. For the best view of Paris!

get the gargoyle view

top 5 French words/phrases:

1. “Normalement”: This is the one we hear when things aren’t going quite right with transport or class. ex: “Is the bus running today?” “Normalement, oui i.e. “well, it should be.”

2. “Vachement”: This basically means “really” e.g. “Tes chaussures sont vachement mingons!” “your shoes are really cute!” Funny thing is that “vache” means “cow” so it’s like saying “cow-ly.”

3. “Ça y était?” We might hear this after a class or a meal. “How was it?” but it doesn’t mean that literally so it took awhile to figure it out.

4. “Putain”: Well, it means “whore” literally, but you could equate it to the F word in English. The kids say it all the time.

5. “Oh la la la la la”: This is not actually said to complement someone’s looks. Rather, it’s said kind of like “oh my god” in that same tone. People say it when they are annoyed or shocked. You can add as many “las” as you wish.

I love Paris in the springtime…

the latin quarter

A little photographic summary of our great weekend in Paris. I really do love Paris in the springtime. It’s incredible! Warm. Green. People everywhere. People on rollerblades. People in tank tops rather than rain coats. People  laying in the grass. People drinking coffee. Great city. The greatest. AHHH I don’t want to leave it!!

nice little cafe in the marais

Place des Voges

great Jewish band in the marais

along the Seine

at the Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Gardens

i decided to take some out of focus photos... i like the color

another out of focus color-splash

mmmm tulips

i thank You God for most this amazing day
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;
and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of allnothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

~ e.e. cummings

Italy

We’re back in France now. It’s kind of nice. Our trip to Italy was exhausting!! But so wonderful.  Here are some of our favorite memories from the trip:

1. Pizza and Wine:  I really think that we had this meal on average once a day.  We would each eat a whole pizza.  It didn’t even get old.  I still think the first meal of Pizza and Wine in Milan was the best one.

2. The Hair Police: This is the nickname we gave to one branch of the Italian police force. First of all, they don’t look at all threatening or like they are going to enforce any sort of law.  They just prance around in navy uniforms and funny white helmets laughing with their Hair Police buddies. Why do we call them the hair police? Because they all have beautiful hair under their silly white helmets.  We think that the first requirement to become one of these officers is to have perfect hair. They also wear their guns slung across their bodies in funny white patent leather cases. And they have white patent leather purses. I didn’t take a picture, but here’s an example. You can’t see the hair, but you get the idea.

the hair police

3. Gelato: Ice cream, but better. Made with milk rather than cream. Unfortunately once, in Florence, we went to a gelateria to get some and didn’t really look at the price. The cones were 9 EUROS each. Terrible. But, it was very good gelato. It really was overshadowed by the price, though!!  Here’s how they put the gelato on display in Florence:

delicious.

4.  Art: Italy is overwhelming when it comes to art. We just couldn’t do it all!!  In Florence we went to the Uffizi Gallery, where there is a stunning collection of Renaissance art. Of course, the Renaissance started in Florence.  It was cool to be there and think about how much influence that city has had on the world!  Here is our favorite painting in the Uffizi:

The Birth of Venus

Then, there’s Rome. We went to the Vatican museum which was really a pretty unpleasant visit because of the crowd of people who pushed through the museum to see this, which was a very pleasant experience:

Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling

Also in the Vatican Museum was Rafael’s The School of Athens:

The School of Athens

After painting, you have sculpture, the highlight being Michelangelo’s David of course. We honestly didn’t have the energy to go through another musuem in Florence, so we settled for the exact replica that sits outside where the original stood when it was created. It is huge–way bigger than I expected!!

David

And of course, the city is full of little Davids for you to take home:

hehe

After sculpture, there is architecture, of course. Wow…so many increidible buildings!! The Cathedral in Florence has the most beautiful and enormous dome (see previous post for a photo).  Rome is so cool. Walking through the ancient center was an incredible feeling because so much is preserved and you can really picture it still being Ancient Rome.  We took a tour of the grand Colloseum, which was fun.

outside

inside

wowww!

gladiators

it’s nice with the sunset.

I think the tour was more entertaining than informative, but I did get a fair amount of historical fact mixed in with the sexual jokes our tour guide made.  He was actually hilarious and I enjoyed the tour a lot.  It was the last tour of the day and he seemed exhausted, but loved giving tours and making jokes about how the Ancient Romans put women at the bottom of the societal ladder. I laughed. I decided though, if I were a Roman woman, I’d probably try to be one of the “vestal virgins” who guarded the flame that symbolized Rome’s prosperity. That way I would have my freedom and be able to own horses and land. And I could live in a palace with other vestal virgins. And, I would be stunningly beautiful because that’s how they were. Doesn’t sound too bad, right?

We also toured the Palatine Hill, where Rome got it’s start, and  the forum and all that other fun stuff. Here are some photos:

a private “circus” for the emperor

The forum

a nice little road through ancient Rome

lots of ruins

I love this one.

What else…. Well, the food was perfect.  Enough said about that. I loved the pesto in Cinque Terre and the pizza everywhere. We had a really nice meal in Perugia where I had duck. Yummy. And Phillip had bull, also yummy!

Well, I am going to just post some other photos…enjoy!  We are coming home so soon. We can’t wait!!!!

poppies!

Pantheon

the pantheon dome. AWESOME!

Trevi Fountain

Swiss Guard at the Vatican

Michelangelo’s Pieta in St. Peter’s Basilica

Ponte Vecchio in Florence

Street art…quite high quality!!

wow. Florence

Perugia’s Etruscan Arch

writing postcards

train window pic

a beautiful hilltop Tuscan town

Italy so far!

So, we arrived in Italy on Friday morning and have just been loving every minute. The weather is beautiful, the food is to die for, and the sights are well worth the trip.  I’ll post a few pics for you to enjoy!

Meal #1 in Milan. Perfect.

Lemoncello. Yumm.

Relaxing in a park in Milan

Giant Milan Duomo

Vernazza, Cinque Terre

Vernazza, Cinque Terre

Vernazza at night

Enjoying sunset and wine in Vernazza

Vernazza from above

Phillip and Vernazza!

Italian guys enjoying the sunshine

Stunning Vernazza from the other side

Corniglia, Cinque Terre

They grow some beautiful lemons around Cinque Terre

Campari and snacks.

Sunset in Riomaggiore

Cinque Terre collage

Pizza in Pisa! Hehe.

It's leaning.

Yup, I'm a tourist. So what?

Baptistry in Pisa

Little Phillip reading in the grass. See him?

THE dome in Florence

Heavenly sunset in Florence

hubby and wife

WOW. That's all I have to say.

SO beautiful.

Florence is like a fairy tale.