There's no place like home :)

It is morning in America, and I am writing again.

My last week in France was lovely, and E-mama (my grandmother) and I had many adventures.  First, I had to clean out my dorm room, all by myself, and reduce my amount of belongings enough that I could carry everything myself.  That was a challenge, but I finally did it.  Then I had a miserable 5-hour train ride (kind of a round about way) to Paris, where all the toilets on the train were broken.  It smelled awful.  Then when I got to Paris, I had to get myself and all my luggage to the hostel where I was to stay for one night before meeting E-mama.  I took the metro, which ended up being a huge mistake because it was rush hour, very crowded, and I had to lug all my suitcases up and down many flights of stairs.

Finally, though, I made it to the hostel.  It was very nice to get cleaned up, eat a hearty dinner in the restaurant downstairs, and rest.  Then the next morning, I was up early.  I can never really sleep in in a hostel because I'm a light sleeper and wake up when everyone else does, but it didn't really matter because I had to pick E-mama up at the airport anyway.  I took the metro again, and luckily it wasn't quite as crowded as the night before, but it was still a real challenge.  Then, once I got to the airport, I had to figure out where to meet E-mama.  It turned out I had to go to another terminal, but before long I found where I could meet her, and waited.  It was so nice to see her again!

Then we took a TGV train (stands for train grand vitesse, or high speed train) right from the airport to Rennes, in Northern-ish France.  That train was much nicer because the bathrooms worked, and we both slept some.  Then, in Rennes we rented a car: a dark silver Clio, stick shift, so E-mama had to drive because I don't know how to drive stick shift.

We drove straight to Saint James.  It's a little town in Normandie, where we stayed in a cozy little one star hotel, which in France just means it's old, small, and has few aminities (like no room service).  We rather liked it though, because it was very friendly, the kind of place where you would get to know the owners.  Also the kind of place that's really and truly French.  Take this picture for example.

The restaurant had two kitties that were both very fat, probably fed from table scraps.  This one had a favorite spot, this table.  I like to think of him as Phantom of the Opera Kitty, demanding that table 5 be kept empty for his use.  But the owner never bothered to shoo him down.  This is very French, because French people love their pets, take them almost everywhere, and aren't so worried about keeping everything sanitized as we are.

Our first morning in Saint James, we went to the Saint James American Cemetery, where E-mama's cousin is buried, who was killed in WWII.  We went to visit his grave.  It was very nice because the cemetery was very well kept up, and they rubbed sand from Omaha Beach on the engraving in the stone so it would show in the pictures, and put a flag in the ground by it that E-mama got to keep.

The cemetery was kind of heartbreaking to see all those crosses and imagine who they all were.

That afternoon we went to Fougeres, about 20-30 minutes away by car, and toured a medieval castle.  It was very beautiful, and huge.  Probably in the best condition as I've ever seen a medieval castle.

The next morning, we went to Mont Saint Michel.  It was incredibly beautiful, although very touristy: probably one of the most visited places in France, and maybe the world.  But besides the crowds, it was almost magical.

There is a castle on a cloud,
I like to go there in my sleep,
Aren't any floors for me to sweep,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

Sorry about the incorrect date on that one; it was taken on E-mama's camera and for some reason it kept putting the wrong date on her pictures.

This castle was built around a monastery high on an island just off the coast of France.  Back before the causeway was built, the only way to reach it was crossing the sands during low tide, which was very dangerous because of sinkholes, sinking sand, and the ever-present danger of being washed out to sea if you got lost in fog and didn't make it across before the tide came in. 

Inside, there were narrow cobblestone streets that were crowded with tourists.  Also, there were a lot of stairs.  E-mama and I found a very narrow stairway when we were wandering around: it was so narrow one
 person could barely fit through.

Later, we went back to Paris.  Because Paris was so crowded with tourists at the time, we couldn't stay all four nights in one hotel, so we had to split our stay between two hotels.  The first place we stayed was a very small but clean place that catered towards American tourists on a budget, called My Hotel.  The morning after we arrived, we took a bus tour and saw most of the major sights from the street.  That was really nice.  E-mama had wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower, but when she saw how long the line was, she changed her mind, as I had suspected she would.  That was fine with me; I didn't really want to stand in line all afternoon.

Here's the proof that she was there

Later, we went to L'Orangerie, which is the impressionist museum that has the famous Water Lilies.  E-mama was impressed by those, and I loved them even though I had seem them before.  I think the Water Lilies are probably my favorite.  One day, when I'm rich and famous, I'm going to have a house big enough that I can hang a life-size copy of at least one of them on the wall.

Then we spent all day at the Louvre.  That was really nice; even though I had been there before, I only really spent the latter part of an afternoon there, and with a whole day I got to see so much more.  Even so, I don't think we got to see even a fraction of what's there.  Honestly, I think the Louvre is bigger than a museum has any right to be.  A museum should be small enough that people can actually take the time to appreciate everything that's there.

On the 21st we were going to go to D'Orsay, the larger impressionist museum that has many of Van Gogh's works, but it was closed, and had a sign on the door that said "We may or may not be able to open at all today."  So very French.  So we hopped on a train to Versailles.  That was incredibly beautiful, but so crowded I could barely breathe.  After walking through there, though, I now want to re-watch the Doctor Who episode called The Girl in the Fireplace because it was set in Versailles.  The Hall of Mirrors was incredible.

 Also, that day was La Fete de la Musique, where all the musicians go out and play their instruments on the street.  That was a lot of fun to walk around and hear all the different varieties of music.

a Hawaiian guitar

Reggae in front of the cathedral

an American gospel band just down the street

Rock on a balcony (I thought it was funny that they played "I don't wanna be an American Idiot")

guitar player on the Bridge of Love

Then early on the 22nd, we flew home.  E-mama and I were on the same flight to Houston, about 10 hours and 20 something minutes.  Of course it was even longer since we had to go around some storms.  Then E-mama drove on home, and I got on a flight to OKC (which was delayed because they had to change a tire), where Daddy met me and drove me home to Tulsa.

So now I'm home!  It's good to be able to be with my family, speak English, and relax.  I'm still a little jet lagged, but I've already had a good American breakfast of biscuits and eggs.  Now that my adventures in France are over, I'm looking forward to my next adventures.  However, I will have to change the name of my blog, since my France trip is now over.  I haven't decided yet what I will do, but next time you come back, my blog may be completely revamped. :)  I may have to think of a new theme to keep me motivated to write.  As much as I enjoy writing, I tend to be more of a sporadic writer, and writing regularly takes discipline.  But we shall see. :)