Tours, France

I started the day by buying some more pet fish with the family. They already have a fish named Fierman, but they wanted to add to the collection. I was surprised that the fish/pet stores in France are so much more ethical than the ones in the US. Here they keep all the fish in large and well aired tanks, unlike out pet stores that store them in small cups. The assortment of birds was also surprisingly exotic, there were some I’ve never seen before! Next, we visited Chloé’s grandmother’s house to pick some red currants for a jam. I never knew how much fruit you needed for a jar of jelly. At least there were also cherry trees that were in season, giving us a nice break from the hard work. To finish the day, I ate fish and a great salad! Desert was my favorite though, a raspberry mousse with solid raspberries in it. I can’t remember ever having it before and it was delicious. Chloé’s family gave me two pairs of Charentaises, one for my mom and one for me, as a parting gift. I baked a loaf of bread with Chloé as my last activity of the night. Although I’m excited to go to Paris I know I’ll miss my host family and I’ll forever be grateful for my time in Tours.

Today was a chill, laid back day for me and my host family in France. We had no plans but it turned out to be a fun and quite eventful day. First, it was Mother’s Day in France so we celebrated by gifting my host mom some gifts, including tea we bought on rue nationale. Then, I packed my bag as it is our last day here. We then had sausages for lunch in the grill. There was the saucisse de toulouse and the merguez, two types of local French sausages. After that, I found out that unfortunately, while we ate lunch, the family fish passed away. But the family quickly grieved and decided to get a new one today. We went to the pet store, and they were out of fish. So, we went to another one and we picked out a fish named Samosa. Then we went to a store to buy some party supplies for Manon and came back home to play darts. I got dead last 5 times. After that, we had dinner of chicken and string beans. It was a great last day!

Today, my host family and I woke up early to drive an hour to the Futuroscope theme park. It reminded me of American theme parks, but with significantly less people and much cleaner. The attractions were different too: instead of roller coasters, most things were digital simulations. My favorite attraction was a ride that simulated flying around the world, The Extraordinary Journey. It was similar to the ride Soaring at Disney world, where you have seats that lift up in the air and a screen shows different landmarks. We ate lunch at the park and I ate a pizza that had goat cheese and greens on it. My host family goes to Futuroscope often so they knew which attractions were the best to do. Walking around the park was really cool because of all the huge futuristic structures. We stayed until around 6:00 and then drove home and I slept in the car. Once we got home, I played with their dog Luzy and packed. For dinner we ate tomatoes, salad, and bread.

Today started off rather late with the family sleeping in. It wasn’t until when the doggy started barking as if he saw a squirrel that we woke up and got ready for the day. Around 10:00, Me and Thibs ran some ping pong while we waited as his parents cooked up brunch. As much I’d like to say I sauced Thibaut up, truth is I didn’t win a single match. I’ll get him next time though🤷‍♂️. Brunch was a mix of steak, vegetables, fruits and yogurt, and it smacked so much I wanted thirds. After, we pulled up on one of their family friends to borrow bikes for me and Josh-he’ll crash with us tomorrow since his buddy will be job shadowing- to ride around. Once we got our new whips, we rode around the city till we got to a glasses store and bought a pair of glasses for Thibaut since he lost his yesterday. As we left, I noticed that we took a different path than the way that we came from. I thought I was tripping once I saw us EXIT the city. I’m not going to lie for a good 10 seconds I thought maybe I was going to end up on the News tomorrow, but just then Thibaut turned around and told me that we were headed to a Castle famous for its garden, the Château of Villandry. The bike ride there was astounding, passing through fields and rivers riding at a speed where the breeze was perfect. We rode for about 45 minutes, and when we finally got there, we got some of the best ice cream I have ever had. Being the person I am, I quickly downed a 5 scoop icecream on a waffle cone and was thinking of seconds, but I was too full to even take another bite. Entering the Castle, immediately we see magic like architecture with emerald green water surrounding the castle. Not far off, we could see the bits of the famous garden, and already we were impressed. As we got closer, we were even more amazed. With garden beds full of colorful flowers to bush mazes to shrub fields, our eyes could only stare in awe. After, the ride back was horrendous. With his family riding at like 25 miles an hour somehow and bugs everywhere, I was out of breath and stinging in pain when we finally got back. By that time, It was around 9 o clock so we played poker as we waited for dinner. I am still in shock as there was never a round where Thibaut had a bad hand. Dinner was homemade tacos, and following the same trends, the food was mouth smacking good. We had ice cream right after, and it too was tear worthy good. I guess that is their way of making up for that bike ride back, as my legs are still sore as I’m writing this. Don’t get me wrong, if I was given the choice to do it again, I would accept in a heartbeat. Overall, this Saturday was exciting, and I await in fear for when Josh comes over Tomorrow!

Today I woke up at 8 am and had pain au chocolat from the local bakery for breakfast. At around 10 am my exchange student Léo and I went to a basketball court nearby and played basketball for about an hour. Despite beating him by 15, he still said that I was terrible for an American and that I should be much better. After that, we rested at his house for 2 hours preparing for a big afternoon.

At 1 pm we ate lunch which was burgers and they all ate them with forks and knives which shocked me. From 3-6 pm we were at the gardens in le Domaine de Chaumont sur Loire. There were some really cool ones and it was a great way to spend the afternoon. Lastly, we ate sausages for dinner and played ping pong.

I started my day off waking up at 9:00 and eating a banana for breakfast. Then, me and my host family went shopping for Mothers Day tomorrow. We went to the big center street of Tours, and we first stopped at a flower store with a lot of beautiful flowers, and they carefully picked out flowers for their mothers. Then, we stopped at a shoe store, and they collectively chose out shoes for each of their mothers. Finally, we stopped at Louis Vuitton and Adrien’s parents each bought their mom’s a fancy purse. After that, we went to the market that we went to on our first day visiting in Tours to pick up some groceries. We got a lot of things, like veggies, fruits, cheese, cake, bread, meat, fish, and spices. They said they were preparing for a big feast for tomorrow’s Mothers Day. After that, we went home and I played some video games with Adrien and got destroyed. We then had lunch, and started off with a dish of melon and prosciutto and a bowl of radishes. I loved the melon and prosciutto combonation which I had also previously tried in Italy, but the raw radishes with butter and salt were not the best. It was just a weird flavor, not bad, but also not good. After that, we had the main course of veal cooked in a mushroom cream sauce, which was amazing. For dessert, we had watermelon and strawberries. The watermelon was not very juicy but the strawberries were very good. After lunch, I watched Roland Garros for 2 hours and then we went to play tennis. It was the first time that I have played on red clay, and it was a really funky service; very slow and heavy, nothing like I am used to in the US. However, it was very cool to be able to play on red clay. After that, we played some foosball and had a cold coke in the clubhouse, and I got destroyed by Adrien’s dad at foosball. Overall, it was a very fun and relaxing day.

I woke up this morning with my left arm sore from churning butter yesterday. I told my host family that I’m “très fort,” so it would be “très facile” for me, but I don’t think I’m très fort anymore tbh. Anyway, I pretty much just slept for the whole morning and then ate lunch LOL. My French twin (Adélaïde) told me last night that I would be home alone for like 2 hours, so I figured I could just sleep for that time. After that, my French twin’s dad had to drive us and Kainda and her exchange student to Gadawi. The car ride only took like 15 minutes. While my morning may have been oh so boring, the afternoon was oh so fun! C’était cool ça!!!!!!!! Gadawi was more fun than I expected it to be! The last course I went on took like 40 minutes, but it was kind of worth it because the zip lines were fun. In the evening, I went bowling with some of the other Americans and their exchange students (i won in my lane btw). Jyothi and I shared absolutely thirst quenching glasses of water at the bowling alley. After we bowled, a group of us went shopping at L’heure Tranquille, which is like an outdoor mall. After waiting like 20 minutes for our food, we sat outside to eat and had very meaningful conversations.

Today, we had free time for the entire morning, so Hermance and I took advantage and went shopping, along with her boyfriend and Emma. One thing that I have noticed is different in France from the US is that niche stores seem much more common here. There are individual stores dedicated uniquely to just about anything, from bars of soap to bathing suits to flowers and plants. We have some stores like this in the US obviously, but here, I have noticed they are more common. We then had lunch at a burger place where I ate chicken nuggets, fries, and a milkshake with a cardboard straw. I think the cardboard straws that they have here are really cool, they are much better than those paper straws we have in the US that dissolve immediately in your drink, and are still better for the environment than plastic. After having lunch, we took the bus to meet the rest of the students at the ropes course. It was pretty similar to ropes courses I have experienced in the US, though there was less supervision on each course. Overall it was a fun and busy day!

Today on the bus ride to Amboise, Hailey and I saw a garbage truck and she was amazed with how skinny and cute it was. Once we got to Amboise, we walked to a bridge over the Loire and took some pictures. During our tour, we learned that instead of water, the castle moats had two lions. We also learned that they built a tower with a ramp for carriages to go up and down so that guests didn’t have to walk up a bunch of stairs. 

After lunch we walked around to shop. We went into many interesting stores, and I bought quite a few things. I negotiated the prices of a bracelet with a shop keeper and then that bracelet broke an hour later… It was also interesting to see all the French books and French manga. Afterwards we learned about chocolate and got to try many different versions. My favorite was the raspberry one that was made of cocoa butter and not chocolate itself. It’s most like white chocolate but has a very strong raspberry taste. We learned that the chemical formula of chocolate is similar to that of dopamine and that if you eat enough, you can feel the same feeling as being in love. 

Once we got back, I met up with Emma and we headed to the cat café, I looked it up and we learned that it closes on Thursdays so instead we went to Starbucks. There were many different food options including pancakes and donuts. I got a Frappuccino and a pain au chocolat. Emma got three pancakes and they gave us a plate and tray for our snack. With her pancakes, she got maple syrup which was packaged in a metal container instead of plastic. With all of the sugars and sweeteners, there was also salt and pepper. We both got cold drinks but neither of them was in clear plastic cups. Afterwards, we went back and ordered Bchef burgers. They messed up our order, but the meal was still good. Again, there was no plastic. Her drink came in a completely paper cup, with only a piece of tape over it to stop it from spilling. I didn’t finish my burger, but I’d definitely get food from there again.

After a chilly Tours morning, a herd of students began their migration from the school to the bus station. During their treacherous trek, several students stopped at a nearby cafe to quench their dreadful thirst for caffeine. Once the students regrouped with the other half of their herd, they hopped on the bus and cautiously drove to the land where they would spend the rest of their day: Amboise. Students first thoughtfully split their free 20 minutes into some efficient and rushed shopping among gift shops, ice cream parlors, and chocolate factories. Then, students squished through a guided tour with a lovely and sweet guide! Students learned about historic buildings including a chapel, a castle, and a mansion. After this thorough tour, students migrated to the grassy banks of the Loire where they settled for a quick meal. The students then continued fueling their shopping obsessions by spending the next couple of hours traversing through valleys of little shops. Some students bought sweaters in preparation for the next deadly winter frost while others bought beautiful jewelry because why not. Finally, the mass of students gathered in front of their final battle: a chocolate factory called Bigot. They spent the next hour learning about the history of the cacao bean and how it transforms into different kinds of chocolates. While the students and one of their leaders struggled a little bit to maintain their full patience, many got to feast on delectable chocolates! As a final treat, students enjoyed some pastries with apple juice! A brief visit from their Bigot guide ended their day with silence!