Winter Break - Paris, Strasbourg, and Aix

We're back from a two-week winter break. I've finished unpacking (meaning I have a large pile of dirty laundry on my floor), I've counted all my travel bruises (one large one from a hostel bed and four that cannot be explained), and I've completed all the very important coming-home tasks (painting my toenails, eating cookies and drinking lots of tea). So now I think it's time to write a little update on our trip!

Hard to believe it's mid-March already. When Jen, Laura, Charlotte and I left, it was still February, and apart from a few sunny days it definitely felt like winter. After a fortnight Laval is finally feeling a bit of a thaw, despite the constant clouds. We headed first to Paris for a few days, including one day spent at Disneyland Paris. We were giddy the entire day at Disney, thanks in part to Laura and Charlotte's mood-enhancing Minnie Mouse ears. I was happy to hear that French Mickey's voice is the same as American Mickey, only in French. A little over half of the day was spent in the actual Disney park, and the other half at Walt Disney Studios park. 

Get it? We're all from different places, so it's a SMALL WORLD?

I'm proud to say we used our time wisely and made it to the majority of the "lands" (Frontierland, Adventureland, etc.) and experienced a lot of rides. Indiana Jones, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, It's a Small World...and more. We had a delicious Mexican meal in Frontierland. I was disappointed not to see characters walking around the park; as a result we have no adorable photos posing with characters. Overall it was a great day, even our ride on the Rock'n'Rollercoaster, which was completely terrifying. But I survived! 

Our next stop was Strasbourg, in the east of France, really close to the German border. In fact, there's a bridge where you can apparently walk to Germany. Laura and I tried to get there one afternoon but it was really cold and we missed our bus so that didn't happen. Oh well. Strasbourg is a beautiful city, with lots of characteristic architecture. My favorite part was the amazing enormous gothic church in the center of town. 

We took a boat tour on the Rhine river and got to see the various parts of the city. We ate at a wonderful cafe/bar called Jeannette et les Cycleux, where we became immediate (imaginary) best friends with the waitress/owner?/bartender. It was such a cool place, and the food and drinks were awesome. I had a heavenly beverage made with hot milk and Speculoos paste (a spread made from Speculoos cookies, which are kind of like gingerbread). It tasted like Christmas! I'll definitely be making it now that I'm back in Laval, if I can find that paste somewhere. Also, if anyone knows how to get a case shipped to the US for when I get home, please let me know! Strasbourg also has a chocolate museum where we learned about the history of chocolate and got lots of free samples at a demonstration--yum! Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

Yes, that's a BOWL of hot chocolate at Jeannette's

After one more day in Paris (during which we mostly shopped at H&M--someone please ban me from that store!!), we met up with Michael and headed to Aix-en-Provence, in the south of France. I was really looking forward to a bit of sun and warmth, which we definitely found! Charlotte's friend Lucy was nice enough to act as a guide, and we were able to see a lot of this adorable city. Aix has tons of beautiful fountains and a lot of hidden little areas with parks and churches. 

We walked to Paul Cezanne's studio, which was this fantastic house nestled in a little forested area. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos inside, but there were a few of his coats and hats, his palettes with dried paint on them, the ladder he used to paint the walls, various vases and pitchers that you can see in his paintings, a chest of drawers containing photos and articles documenting the building's history. It was incredible. It reminded me of Monet's house at Giverny, but honestly it all felt so much more...accessible. Giverny is obviously now a museum. None of it looks the way it did when Monet and his family lived there. But in Aix, the studio was set up as if an artist were still working there, with a still life bowl of fruit on a small table covered in white cloth. After walking through the house, we spent some time lounging in the sunny garden and exploring the woods around the house. Awesome.

Cezanne's garden

We also went to a great little museum that had Cezannes, Picassos, Paul Klees, and lots of stuff by artists I have never heard of. It was pretty quiet in there, which gave us plenty of time to enjoy every part of the museum. There was an interesting interactive exhibit that used electronics, images, pools of water, projectors and cameras. I didn't really understand it but it was very cool, haha. 

And, after an extremely long day of travel on Friday (starting at 4 am), we arrived back in Laval. I've never taken so many trains in 2 weeks in my life! It was a fantastic break and I'm not at all ready to go back to school on Tuesday. I don't even want to say it, but we only have 6 weeks left in Laval. It's bittersweet. And now I have a sink full of dirty dishes to attend to (that didn't take long) as well as a LOT of clothes to wash. 

-Liz