On Saturday, Tara and I got to sleep in and then have the biggest brunch of all time: yogurt, toast, tea, juice, cereal, pizza, and pain au chocolat. We didn't quite finish our pain so we decided to take it with us on our group trip to Amboise.
The whole group took a train together, and we were unfortunately the last ones to get on it...oops. The walk that our hostess (who is assez vieille) said would take 10 minutes took us 20....and we were walking at a very brisk pace. Mme V must be a marathoner or something.
Anyway, so we took the train and then walked in the oppressive heat (yes, it was that hot) about 30 minutes to the city's center. There, we visited Le Clos Lucé, where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last 3 years. It was pretty interesting, and they had models of many of his inventions on display with short descriptions of what they were used for. I still left feeling like the da Vinci exposition in Atlanta a few years ago was much more informative and interesting. Oh well.
Then, we walked back to the Chateau and had ice cream before our tour. The Chateau d'Amboise itself was very beautiful, and we took lots of amazing photos (which probably all look the same).
As we were leaving to walk back to the train, one of the directors told me there is another Finnish student in the program. I of course got really excited and decided I had to meet her ASAP. Well, the director introduced us about 5 seconds later, and once we realized that we both speak Finnish, we switched to our native language and talked all the way back to the train station and to Tours. It was really interesting to see someone else who is practically in the same situation as I (speaks Finnish, lives in the US, visits Finland every summer), and we had a great time talking about our favorite things about Finland. I have to say though, it was somewhat confusing to be speaking Finnish in France on an American program. When I was spoken to in French afterwards, I had to think for a while about what language to respond in. Oh the difficulties of multi-lingualism (just kidding, don't hate me). Anyway it was really really cool and basically just a HUGE coincidence that we're both on this program. :)
I love the pictures baby, you are in such a beautiful place. And the food sounds delicious too. I'm savoring just thinking about you with your "pain au chocolat." Do they use nutella over there or is it a different spread? I loved talking to you last night, and I hope you get back on gmail soon ;)
ReplyDeleteP.S. that's crazy that you met a Finnish girl over there. I bet you two will have a blast together.