London Calling!

Hello Readers,

This past weekend I spent three days in, well as the title says (oh come on, use those detective skills Sherlock), London. No, as I've never read any of the books I didn't visit Sherlock's home, but I hear it's a pretty accurate representation of what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described in his novels. I did however manage to see a lot of other things, even with the little time I had in London. I went with three friends, the same girls who came with me to Strasbourg, but I made sure we were better prepared in terms of planning and time management (that is to say, we all agreed on what we wanted to do before we got to London and when we were going to get up in morning).

We arrived by train Saturday morning, and I had one of those wonderful experiences of making friends with the stranger sitting next to me (I'm being sarcastic of course. The man was a bit of a creeper, but luckily he left me alone as soon as we got off the train). After we checked into our hostel, the sightseeing began with a walk along the Thames. Here, I'll show you:

London Bridge
(did I get the song stuck in your head?)

HMS Belfast
(seeing this felt a little like home)

Tower of London
(for all those Tudors fans, this is where Anne Boleyn was executed)

We took a little break to get some fish and chips!

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

We stopped at the Tate Modern for a bit of art.

Egyptomania
(you can see the London Eye in the background)



Big Ben



Parliament Square
(Abe doesn't get to sit down in London)

Westminster Abbey

The mandatory picture of all my friends in a phonebooth :)

To end the day's tour: Trafalgar Square

Sunday, we were a little less lucky with the weather as it misted most of the day, but I guess that's pretty normal for London? We spent the morning walking through several of London's parks (pop quiz: what style do you think the gardens are in? I'm going to go with English). Then we moved inside for the afternoon, touring the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.  



 

I'll give you three guesses as to the name of this road.
Why do you think those goofy tourists want a picture of themselves
walking across this particular street?

Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum

 

This one's dedicated to Dr. Gatti.



"It is also thanks to Elgin that generations of visitors have been able to see the sculptures at eye level rather than high up on the building."
(The museum as a whole didn't make me feel angry, but this sign made me laugh a little bit.)

















Monday was spent in more museums: Tate Britain, National Gallery, Wallace Collection, etc. Suffice it to say, I think I'm all museumed out for a little while! Anyway, that concludes Caitlin's guide to London. I came back to Paris early Tuesday morning, and immediately had to run through the metro to my first class (no rest for the weary as they say). Even though I loved London, I was excited to return to Paris, which has come to feel like another home to me (or as my mom likes to say "home").

Until next time,
Cheerio!

Fontainebleau & Barbizon

On Saturday morning, my class took a field trip (very elementary school, I know) to Fontainebleau and Barbizon. Considering we all had to be in Paris by 9:00am on a Saturday morning, I was very impressed with our group-- only one person missed the bus. (Don't worry, she managed to catch a train and meet up with us later).   

What's there to see at Fontainbleau you ask? Well a chateau of course! The main structure of the palace that you can see today was built by François I in the 16th century, though like most palaces and churches, there are remnants of older structures on which the palace was built. Since François I's reign, others such as Henri IV and Napoleon Bonaparte (Fontainebleau is where Napoleon attempted to commit suicide) have also added and changed various sections of the palace. 

Like any chateau, Fontainebleau also has several gardens in various styles. I had no idea there were such things as a French garden and an English garden, but I guess it makes sense that the French and the English would have two very different ideas about what a garden should look like.

English style is more 'natural'

French style is very ordered and symmetric

After a break for lunch, we hopped back on the bus and found ourselves in the small town of Barbizon. Barbizon was made famous by a school of artists (suprisingly named the Barbizon school) who gathered there to paint the landscape. Dr. Costello had hoped to take us to the museum in Barbizon to see some of their works, but despite the fact that he called ahead to make sure it was open, the museum was of course closed. Instead, we walked through Jean-François Millet's atelier, where he produced some of his most well-known works. Then we took a little hike through the forest of Fontainebleau which lies on the edge of the village of Barbizon.

Millet's Studio

I know what you're thinking, but it's not bigfoot.
It's just Dr. Costello.

Flammenkueche and Apfelstrudel

Bonjour! or should I say Guten Tag?

Wow, where to begin? There's so much to tell! This weekend I went Strasbourg and if any of you ever find yourselves in France, I highly recommend paying this wonderful city a visit. Located right next to the border between Germany and France, it has a bit of an identity crisis which only makes it that much more unique. Everyone speaks French (with a slightly different accent than the Parisians), but most of the streets and buildings have German names (which are a lot of fun to attempt to pronouce). The Alsace-Lorraine region has long been a disputed territory between France and Germany, so although today Strasbourg is a part of France its German roots are easily apparent. That is also the region where much of my family on my dad's side came from, which probably made the Alsace historical museum a little more exciting for me than for my fellow travellers.

Gutenberg- The guy who invented the printing press.
 He's quite the celebrity in Strasbourg.

We left Paris late Friday night by the TGV (the train of great speed) and began our weekend adventure early Saturday morning. We started with the cathedral, located in the heart of the city. It was actually the world's tallest building for a few centuries and is famous for its astronomical clock which is one of largest in the world (sensing a theme here?) and has apparently proved to be unusually accurate. 

From there we explored La Petite France, a part of the city known for its medievel houses. It's very picturesque, in a sort of Busch Gardens way, but without the cheesy music. Then I managed to convince one of my friends to go to the Alsace and Strasbourg historical museums with me. The Alsace museum was incredible. From the outside, it appeared tiny, but once we were inside it turned out to be a maze of cultural objects from the region-- everything from clothing, to religious objects, to children's games and farm equipment (it felt like Mary Poppin's bag, who knew all that stuff could fit in such a small space?). 

As far as meals went, we tried out the local specialties. Tarte flambée or flammenkueche is very popular in Strasbourg. It's basically a thin crust covered in creme fraiche, onions, bacon and cheese. I also tried a variation of the tarte, but it was more of a potato based dish that still had the creme fraiche, bacon, onions and cheese. To drink, we tried some hot wine which is often sold on carts in the streets during winter. For dessert we shared black forest cake and apfelstrudel (apple strudel).

Tarte Flambee

Apple Strudel (yum!)

Flamingos at the Parc de L'Orangerie

Sunday, I had a lot of difficulty convincing my friends that taking a train to Strasbourg to sleep in was a very expensive way to miss out on a lot of stuff. Consequently I spent a good portion of the day exploring by myself. Strasbourg is the center of several European institutions, so I started the day by walking around the Parliament, Council and Human Rights buildings. Located right next to them is the Parc de l'Orangerie, known for its gardens and small zoo. As I was walking back through the city, past the university (where I spotted Kant on top of one of the buildings- shout out to Dr. Gatti) and a few other cathedrals, the sun finally came out for the first time all weekend (that's what they get for sleeping in). I stopped by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, then managed to coax the sleepy college students from the hotel in time for dinner.

Anyway, that's the basic summary of my trip. I got back yesterday morning (we got up around 4:00am to catch our train, eww) and since then all I've been doing catching up on homework and going to class. Nothing much is new with my host family, except one of the older brothers is home on break from college this week. He gave me quite a scare on Friday before I left for my train. I was eating dinner in the kitchen, and I guess he had forgotten his key, so he hopped the gate and walked right in the door. I of course had no idea who he was or even that he was expected home, but thankfully vaguely recognized him from family pictures around the house.

A la prochaine fois!