Tours, France

Today we are explored the Musée du Compagnonnage. Compagnons are artisans and craftsmen that dedicate this life to learn and master a craft. Starting as an apprentice, each compagnon learns the traditional techniques of their craft until they are are ready to submit a piece they made to the Compagnons du Devoir. The works of aspiring compagnons surrounded us, each one telling a different story, using different materials, and different techniques. The intricate detail present in each work showed the dedication of each craftsman had to their craft. It was inspiring the amount of time put into one piece. This unique experience taught me about a tradition that has been going on since the middle ages and the dedication still seem toward this tradition today.

Today we went to our student’s morning classes and then walked to tours a table, a French restaurant where cooking students helped us make a mini tomato / goat cheese dish, strawberry shortcake, and chocolate lava cake. After rating our meals, a 10/10, we got free time to shop, eat or relax around tours. Then we headed to a museum where we got to learn about the history of artisans and compagnonnage. We saw a lot of different trades represented and liked being able to walk around freely. After taking a quick detour to see a wall (hotel de beaune-semblancay), we were left to continue the rest of our day with our exchange students and their family’s!

Today, on our 7th day in Tours, we visited Le Chateau de Chenonceau, a castle in Tours, as well as Le Moulin des Aigremonts, a historic windmill. At the castle, we visited the many gardens around the castle as well as the bedrooms, ballrooms, kitchens, and balconies of the castle. Afterwards, we had a nice sunny picnic near the castle, before leaving to visit the windmill. At the window, an amazing guide showed us around the mill, explaining how it worked, and the history of the mill. Our day then came to an end, and we arrived back in downtown Tours to meet our students and go home for the day.

Today we had a picnic lunch right outside of the Château de Chenonceau! Once we were done with our food, we walked to the trash can and realized there were 3 different bins. One was for glass, another for plastic/ metals, and the last one is for cartons/ papers. In the USA, we usually only have one or two, so I thought it was very interesting how in France there is more than 2 trash/ recycling bins. When I was throwing my trash away, I noticed that in every bin, the corresponding trash was in it. This is another thing I found interesting, people actually respect and follow the different trash bins. We were able to throw everything away correctly but we gave the leftover bread to the ducks and birds haha!

My host family took me to visit Chambord, a chateau about an hour away from Tours. It was very beautiful and very impressive. One of the rooms had white walls with intricate gold decorations that were absolutely stunning. I read a sign that talked about the clockmaker to a count or something, and was wondering why he would need his own personal clockmaker, until I noticed that there was an intricately, artistically decorated clock in most of the (many) rooms. The architecture of the castle itself was beautiful too. It was also interesting to learn about court etiquette. The virtual tour talked about the rituals of the king and queen getting out of bed in the morning and going to bed at night, ceremonies that would be attended by certain members of the court, if they ranked high enough.  Overall, it was a very interesting and beautiful view into a totally different time.

Today I woke up at 11am due texting my girlfriend until 2 last night. This must be why long distance relationships are hard. But Valentin was up until pretty late too, so I wasn’t the only one awake at that time.

Anyways, I did all my morning routines, and at 12 we had lunch. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, but we had broiled chicken and broiled small potatoes. To be honest, the potatoes were a bit undercooked in my opinion, but the chicken was wonderful. By now Valentin’s mom realized that despite my seemingly skinny built, I actually ate a lot, so she gave me 2 pieces of chicken while everyone else just wanted 1. For dessert, I had this amazing strawberry cake.

Despite being a French family, Valentin’s family finishes their meals surprisingly quick, usually we get done in 40 minutes. Since we needed to leave for kayaking at 1:30, that left us about 45 minutes of free time. Valentin’s family is setting up their pool for the summer, so valentin decided to change the filters after lunch. I don’t know exactly how to help him because I don’t own a pool, so I just watched him and played with his dogs.

At 1:30, we left for kayaking. The kayaking place was in Vouvray, a quick 15 minutes drive from Valentin’s house. The kayaking place used a bus to transport us and the kayaks to Amboise, and we would kayak from there to Vouvray. Valentin and I were in the same kayak, and his mom had her own separate one. Valentin is way stronger than me though, and despite both of us being good kayakers on our own, both of us combined caused our kayak to keep turning side ways. His mom kept laughing at us, and we were stuck at the end of the group. Despite the difficulties, it was fun as Valentin and I kept chatting about our lives. Eventually, Valentin decided that he would take matter into his own hands, literally, as he told me to stop rowing and he’ll do it himself. And it worked, just at the cost of him being tired. However, due to our slow start, the 2 hour trip turned to a 3.5 hour trip, and we made it home around 5pm.

Valentin quickly hopped in the shower, and after he finished, I did too. After showering, I immediately collapsed on my bed and fell asleep. At 8pm, I was woken up and they told me we were getting ready for dinner, and I quickly got up and went downstairs for dinner. We had nearly the same thing as lunch, except for the addition of mashed celery, a dish that tastes a lot better than it sounds. For dessert, we all had different things, and I chose a raspberry cake that was delicious.

Honestly yesterday was a more eventful day than today, but today was still fun regardless

We started our day at Île d’Oléron, waking up late due to a dinner with my exchange parents’ friends ending close to 1 in the morning. We walked through the main road of the small town on the island to gather some groceries that we hadn’t brought with us. Afterwards, we started a bike ride to the lighthouse at the northernmost point of the island near noon, and 21 km/13 miles later, we arrived and had a late seafood lunch at a local restaurant. I tried langoustine, or a lobster/shrimp of a size in between the two. We then made the long and arduous climb to the top of the lighthouse, which is around 300 steps. From the top you could see nearly a third of island, which was already the second largest in France. Following this, we strolled along the rocky beaches during a surprisingly low tide peering into tidal pools and watching the crabs and shrimp scuttle out of sight. After we got some crêpes at the aforementioned restaurant, we began our return to where we were staying, this time an alternate route down the other side of the island. Although we may have gotten lost on the way, listening to the family’s arguments about which way to go helped me to solidify my understanding of which French word is “right” or “left”. We passed by the grass airfield on the island and many cows. The bike ride left me quite tired, and excited to bike to the other end of the island to see the castle.

This weekend my host family took me to Mont-Saint-Michel, a four-hour drive from Tours. In the morning we visited a mill and took a tour around explaining how the mill worked. Did you know the whole roof of a mill could be turned based on the direction the wind was blowing? With a bag of flour in hand, a quick change of clothes and some rest, we went to Mont-Saint-Michel. It was beautiful! It looks like it was straight out of a Disney movie, and it had an interesting story to match. After touring around the abbey, my host student and I met up with another pair of students and we had lunch together. After Saint-Michel my host family showed me what the beach was like in France. While very different from the ones I’m used to, being around the calm water was very peaceful. My day was extremely busy, but I am glad to have experienced something I never had before.

My host family and i went to Paris for the weekend and visited versailles today. One thing that stood out that is less prominent in tours is how important nature and aesthetic are to French people. All throughout the day I saw details in our travels that differed from day to day life in America- there was a chandelier in the train station, but in America there would probably be a dingy, boring and old light. Also, the insides of their trams/busses were orange and yellow, which was really bright and cheery compared to the public transit system of America. When we were taking the trams I had a chance to see a lot of Parisian roads and blocks, and I noticed a multitude of nature in such a busy and populous city. Wherever there was space there was green- and it wasn’t the uniform and tidy cut grass of typical American lawns. There was biodiversity everywhere, from uncut grasses of varying types to wildflowers growing in the medians of the roads and under the tram tracks. It was really unusual to see so much nature and so much diverse nature so seamlessly integrated into a busy and fast paced city. It brought some calmness to the busy atmosphere and probably helped the air quality too! All in all, i really appreciated the artistic and natural elements of Paris that aren’t present in most large American cities. 

Today the Americans enjoyed our first day of the long weekend with our host families. My host family and I are currently staying near a resort/campground-type place called “Le Parc de Fierbois.” There is so much to do, and we were outside all day. We are staying in my exchange partner’s grandmothers house with  her cousin who is our age. First, we slept in a bit after a tiring first week, had some cereal for breakfast, and found her brothers and other cousins fishing at the lake.

Then we kept walking along the lake until we came across an inflatable playground, where we swam and sunbathed. Afterwards, we swam some more in the pool and headed back to the house for lunch- sausages, a rice/cucumber/corn salad, chocolate cake, and baguette with camembert! Then, we headed to archery, where I got a bullseye on my first shot. If you zoom in you can see it! After I was promised a free coca cola by the archery supervisor, we headed back to the lake with all the kids and swam again, played tag, and got sunburnt. We also got some ice cream! Then we rented these go karts and had a race around the resort.