The past couple of weeks have been pretty basic. Laurel came last weekend with her friend Kelly. We met up with them on Saturday night. Kathleen wanted to go inside Notre Dame so we went up a little early, got some cheap postcards, and met up with Laurel and Kelly in the garden outside. Stephanie was with us, but she wanted to go shopping and decided to wait in line to buy clothes rather than come with us. Notre Dame is beautiful, by the way. It was cool because there are little alters to different saints inside and we had learned about a lot of them during our first class. Kathleen and I (mainly Kathleen) were able to give them a little bit of the history going on at the time. Then we met back up with Stephanie and the five of us trekked up to Sacré Coeur. As always, there were tons of people sitting on the stairs and drinking, as well as musicians dancing and singing everywhere. There was also some sketchy guy who kept following me around trying to talk about the music, but Kathleen scared him off. Sacré Coeur is beautiful as well, but they don't allow pictures so I think we only got like one... I took Laurel and Kelly down to Moulin Rouge since we were in the neighborhood, then we headed over to another district a little south to get dinner. We had all heard about this very authentic French restaurant that isn't too expensive, only to find a line half a block long.
Last Friday we went to Poitiers, which is a small town in the south of France. It was adorable! It made me want to retire and open a bed and breakfast. Every street was narrow and winding and every window had flowers hanging over the balcony. We took the train, our ears popped, and it took about an hour and a half. We had an amazing lunch at a local restaurant, I got baked goat cheese toasted with apples and bacon on whole grain bread, teryaki chicken with mashed potatoes, and tarte tartine (which I thought was like apple pie, turns out it isnt) but Steph and I also did a pretty good job taking care of everyone else's food. We got unlimited bottles of wine so most people had filled up before they finished eating. On the train back we didn't get our own car so we subjected all of the French to our rude, loud, Americanness. We also happened to be on the train with an entire platoon from the French Army. They weren't friendly. Pictures to follow when my internet doesnt suck.
This past Friday we went to the Loire Valley and saw some chateaus. First we went to one that was actually three different chateaus in a square. Each segment had been built by a different ruler, in a very different time period, with a very different style (think Victorian house with a Colonial addition and very modern guest house). It was hideous, yet still impressive. The second was Chambourd, which was the King's hunting house used primarily for holding feasts. Apparently the French president still uses it to invite foreign diplomats on hunts. It was beautiful from the outside, tremendously large and cold inside, and sparsely furnished. Our tour took about four hours...
I've decided to go to Morocco for the week long break we have in November. I'm only going for three or four days though, so I should have enough time to hit some beautiful mosques and markets. I might go to Dublin this weekend to see Will. He was in Paris last week and we were able to get together and have dinner. His friend from DePaul is also studying here and knew of a really good restaurant. Anyway, may go to Dublin, Friday is Halloween, but I don't feel like staying here. Everyone is going to get drunk and go see the new James Bond movie, in which I am only mildly interested. We'll see what happens