My Summer of Cheese and Bread

(this post is divided into two - the first part contains my thoughts on the French at Disney and the second is a description of differences because I know some people *cough*Lindsay*cough* would be really interested in it)

I never, ever intended to go to Disneyland Paris when I went to France. I thought that a) since I had already been to Disneyworld several times and Disneyland I had had my fill of Disney for the time being and b) why would I spend money to go to a Disney park in France when I could be seeing other things that I couldn’t see in the US?

My friends Susan, Mary and I had intended on going to Normandy the last weekend, because we wanted to see Mont St. Michel and the D-Day Beaches. But the train ride to Normandy from Dijon is incredibly long and since we have class on Fridays it would take too much time to get there - we would have around six hours in Normandy. Since the train tickets would be around $300, we decided to punt the idea.

This whole time, we had been joking about going to Disneyland Paris, because Susan had never been to any Disney park. Cheap Paris train tickets and relatively inexpensive park tickets sealed the deal. We could do a day trip to Disneyland (train, park tickets, food) for the amount of money that we had spent on just GETTING to Nice.

We got up insanely early last Saturday to catch the 5:45 AM slow train to Paris (thats why it was so cheap) that took us to Gare Bercy. When we got off the train, I was extremely confused because the signs were of course in French but also in Italian, and the train next to us had Italian writing, and then there were more signs in Italian, and then I kept hearing people speaking Italian (and I had just woken up from napping) so I asked Mary and Susan, “Guys, are we in Italy???”.

Of course they laughed at me. Turns out Gare Bercy is where all of the Italian overnight trains come in.

We walked the five minutes to Gare de Lyon, where we would catch the RER (a glorified metro that runs to the suburbs of Paris) to Disneyland. Its a little sketchy - its kind of literally falling apart. We grabbed some breakfast at Brioche D’oree (a company that pretends to be like Paul), waited ten minutes, and then hopped on the fourty minute train to Disney! While all of the other A line stops for the RER looked a little long in the tooth, Marnee-a-la-Vallee seemed to at least add a little Disney flair to theirs:

Hahaha anyways, Disneyland was literally RIGHT THERE when we got out of the train station. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

The park wasn’t horribly busy on Saturday - no more than I would expect. In fact, if we had been able to stay I’d say four more hours (we left at five because we had to catch our train back) we easily could have seen everything. As it was, we definitely saw a lot.

Observations about the French (and other Europeans that were there):

- They do not know how to act in crowds. Honestly. Just as a collective group, they would randomly stop in the middle of walking, stand in really odd places….its a little hard to describe, but they definitely did not understand how to act at an amusement.

- French people will sit anywhere that doesn’t say “interdit” (forbidden). This includes areas of decorative grass that are CLEARLY not for sitting on because they have little fences around them.

- They don’t know how to stand in lines, either. We would be in line for a ride, and people would kind of edge up next to us, trying to kind of sidle past us and cut us in line. We were a little taken aback - just wait your turn!!! Everyone will get to ride!! This is a family place, jeez

- It was difficult for them to step outside of their normal eating habits. You know how at amusement parks there are those eating places with the rows of cash registers and the menus are above them and you read the menu, decided what you want, THEN step up and order? (and then you walk on through to collect your food from someone else). Well, the French had some difficulty with that. They would go up to the cashier and then stand there and deliberate about what they wanted like the cashier was their waiter just patiently standing there to take their order. It really showed that the French have different mindsets when it comes to eating.

- On the plus side, we got a drink, pasta and garlic bread for 10 euros - and it was incredibly filling. That’s so cheap, per unit value, when you think that a French person is only paying 10 euros while in the US at a Disney park an American would pay more than ten dollars for that. Now, with the conversion rate we got a little screwed, but thats to be expected.

Some more pictures (that I stole from Mary haha):

Statue of EVE and WALL-E!!

where we had lunch!

(sorry Nate, you’ve already heard this first one)

1. I’ve been thinking for a long time about the French mentality in regards to time. We were cautioned before we arrived that French people don’t think its weird to show up half an hour late to something, whereas people in the States tend to freak if you don’t arrive within five minutes of the meeting time. I haven’t really run into this that much, except sometimes our teachers are fifteen minutes late or they don’t care if we’re late to class.

But I think at the root of this flexible-time mentality is their heavy reliance on public transportation. In Columbus, most people drive so its really expected that you plan enough time to get from point a to point b. But when most of the people that you know take buses and such, some flexibility is require because the punctuality of their transportation is not in their hands.

I don’t know if its true or not, but thats the conclusion that I drew.

(I’ll be illustrating this post with random pictures that I haven’t posted. This is the Place de la Liberation - aka “Place Lib” to us - at night)

2. Almost all the doctors go on vacation in August, but thats ok because then the ones that are left make house calls.

3. Here’s the thing about Coca Cola in France - they make it with real sugar because the French people won’t buy it if they made it with high fructose corn syrup (what smart people!) Anyways, I’ve been doing a little experimentation, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the coke in bottles (glass or plastic) here taste a little too flat but for some reason the coke in the cans tastes a million times better. I can’t explain it, I’m sure I’m just making this up in my head, but thats what I’ve observed.

4. Something that I’ve heard several times while I’ve been here from French people is that English is just French spoken badly. Most of the time, they’re saying it in a “this-is-meant-to-be-taken-as-a-joke-and-we’re-all-laughing-but-I-actually-think-this-true” way. And I was never offended by it, but I never really understood until about two weeks ago when hit me how true it actually is.

Its a pretty thrown around fact that many English words have French origins - almost 30%. ‘Correct’ English tends to use more of those related words than the ‘American’ English that the rest of the world thinks that we speak. For example, the French word for inside a building is “l’interior”. Most of the people that I know would say “inside”, but it sounds a little more proper to say “the interior of the building”. While I am certainly not going to stop speaking however I wish, its interesting to see that the French actually have a point when they say we just speak poor French.

5. I haven’t missed watching TV at all.

6. France promotes the Arts a lot more than the US. In Dijon many of the museums are either free or they are free to students. Dijon also has incredibly cheap theatrical performances for the public and a free summer concert series where there is a free concert almost every night in the Centre Ville. 

(we sat on the steps of this church while listening to a free concert)

7. Before coming to France, we were told that we would primarily stand out as Americans because we would be louder than everyone around us on public transportation, in restaurants, or even just walking down the street. And while we have fit this  stereotype in many instances, I am pleased to say that recently I have been in situations where my friends and I are being the quiet ones and the French students are being loud and boisterous.

There definitely seems to be an age divide in France - older generations of French people seem to be more dignified and reposed, while our generation can be extremely loud and at times kind of rude. I know that teenagers in the US have this reputation as well, but I was just kind of taken aback to see it here when I had the impression that unilaterally the French were more quiet than us. Susan, Mary and I were sitting on the bus last week and this really loud trio of French teenagers got on and were basically yelling. They then sat down next to us and proceeded to talk about us extremely loudly in French (they could hear we had been talking in English). It was especially funny because we could a) understand them and b) they looked like they were fifteen but they obviously thought they were the shit. Once again, some things never change, no matter what country you’re in.

(waiting for the bus back from the centre-ville one night, I took this picture of Susan, Nicole and Lauren in front of Dijon’s little arc de triomphe. there was a lot of heat lightening that night)

8. Random observation: I have seen an incredible number of French people wearing Dre Beats headphones. I don’t know if they’re cheaper here than in the US or if French people have a huge obsession with Dr. Dre, but it seems like every time I get on public transportation, someone is wearing them.

(photo of the sunset as seen from my dorm window)

9. Last thing: a caution to other travelers to Europe. While clothes shopping may seem tempting while you’re in Europe, keep in mind where you’re shopping. I don’t want to burst your bubble, but if you’re shopping in the same stores here that we have in the US (H&M, Zara, etc) you’re wasting your money. The unit prices are honestly exactly the same but instead of having a dollar sign they have a euro. And the clothes are the same. So you’re paying out the nose for something you can get in the US for a lot cheaper. Obviously stores that are unique to Europe are a different story, or maybe you don’t mind paying the conversion (I have done some shopping at H&M while I’ve been here because there were things I needed), but I just wanted to let you know.

dijonetlauren:

One of the big differences between life in the United States and life in Europe is the train system. The transit system here is like continuous smack in the face, constantly reminding me that an equivalent in efficiency and ease cannot be found in the US. How many times have I thought, “Wow, I would love to go to Cleveland or Cincinnati this weekend, but how would I get there?” How many Facebook statuses have I seen in which people ask their friends for a ride home because they don’t have a car in which they can drive themselves? How much easier would it be to explore our country – to just get on a train on Friday afternoon and find myself states away by the next morning? It really just boggles my mind. Envisioning such a situation is near impossible for me – but for millions of Europeans it’s their constant state. And I am so jealous.

Maybe I kind of romanticize them because they figure so prominently in Harry Potter, but I think I would call them my favorite form of transportation. I don’t think it gets any easier – showing up ten minutes before the train leaves, hopping on, and instantly setting off on a journey.

(minutes before hopping on!!)

Of course, the mass transit thing is a lot better pollution-wise (think of the mass migration on 71 towards Columbus every fall), but even if you hate the environment you can’t deny that it’s more relaxing. There are places to buy food (which is better than airline food), you can sleep if little kids or loud Spanish speakers aren’t sitting next to you, and it’s a great way to see the countryside. Bottom line - when traveling by train, everyone in the group gets to have fun!!

You can:

Eat

Take up the whole compartment

Sleep

Sleep some more

Viciously Gossip

Make a Detailed Explanation of the Seventh Book For Someone Who Hadn’t Read It (While Also Eating)

Re-enact Harry Potter scenes

(our train from Dijon to Lyon was like the jankier version of the Hogwarts express. It was awesome).

Disclaimer: going to the bathroom on the train is significantly more perilous than on an airplane due to side to side shaking. For some reason the French train company has not found it necessary to install little handrails. I guess French people have extraordinary balance hahaha. It is the only downside that I have found to traveling by train.

Lyon has definitely been the biggest surprise destination-wise on this trip. I was not expecting to love it so much. I travelled there this past Saturday with Mary, Susan, Alley, Marissa, Elizabeth, Jeff, Steve, and Leon. Since we were just going for the day, so we didn’t plan out that much to do. We had all looked up some information about it online, but many of the museums cost money and we really just wanted to get a feel for the city so we decided not to go to them.

The train ride wasn’t that bad - only around two hours - and we got there around 10:30. After a quick trip to Paul for a snack, we set off in the direction of the rivers, because we needed to cross them to get to the two things that we were sure that we wanted to see. For those of you that have never seen a map of Lyon (that would include me up until four days ago), the city is situated at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone rivers. Lyon is located on both riverbanks, as well as on the peninsula that divides that two.

As we walked, we could see one of our destinations - the large Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourviere - crowning the hill on the Saone side of the river. Next to it was something that closely resembled the Eiffel Tower, but was actually just a radio tower. After a half hour hunt for a public bathroom (note: department stores will normally make you pay 50 cents, but its totally worth it because they let anyone use them and they’re normally not totally disgusting) we found ourselves in a little square with a carousel.

I got really, really excited when I saw this. France has carousels EVERYWHERE and most of them are double decker carousels and I still hadn’t ridden on one. Luckily, the group obliged me and about half of us paid the the euro fifty price to ride it (I would like to say that apart from food, this was the only thing we paid money to do while we were in Lyon).

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After the carousel, we walked for around ten more minutes and found the large square that are in many pictures of Lyon. There is this huge sign that says “ONLY LYON” with a lion (“only lyon” is their current tourist campaign, kind of like “cincinnati usa”) and we took a LOT of picutres.

(the two pictures above were from mary)

After the picture taking spree, we went and had some pizza and then started our trek towards the Basilica and some Roman ruins that are near it. It was a pretty steep hill and it was in the middle of the day (planning for the temperature is not our strong suit) so it was a little arduous. But the climb was definitely worth the the view from the top.

Those really tall mountains in the background (very light blue) are the ALPS!!!!

After the ruins and a search for water, we made our way to the Balisica de Notre Dame de la Fourviere. Its was built in the late 1800s (doesn’t it remind you a bit of sacre coeur?) and its so cool! We were calling it a double decker church - it has a really ornate chapel on top, and then a less decorated one underground.

ORNATE.

View from the wall next to the Basilica:

We wandered around Old Lyon for a little bit, baking in the heat. When we finally found this fountain and saw that a bunch of other people had climbed in, how could we resist? It felt amazing!

That evening we sat next to the river for a while, had dinner in Old Lyon, checked out some stores, took some jumping pictures next to the rhone (we’re so american) and then meandered at a very fast pace back to the train station to go back to Dijon!!

If anyone has any insights on some of the things that have been puzzling me, I’d be glad to hear them!

1). France in August is a completely different beast than France in July, in Dijon anyways. So many places are closed because their proprietors are on vacation. And I’m not even talking about museums and the like - those are the places most likely to be open because everyone is travelling. No, its places like our favorite boulangerie and our favorite pub. Things also close really early, or have limited hours, or just don’t open on some days. For example, since skype is blocked in my dorm, I decided to just stay on campus after class to use it. But most of the campus buildings close at five so then I’m a little SOL unless the weather is nice and I can sit outside. 

2). Sometimes when I’m in the Centre Ville on Sundays, the streets are so empty that I feel like I’m in that scene in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when the family arrives in that creepily empty town where all the children have been kidnapped. I don’t know where all the French people go on sundays…yeah, I know a lot of people go to church. But surely not for the ENTIRE day. Its like the town population is halved or something on sundays.

3). So many people pay for their groceries with checks. I don’t understand. It just boggles my mind. WHY would you pay for just a loaf of bread, some juice, and a sack of potatoes with a check. It can’t be more than six euros. Do you not have a debit card? Do you not have cash? The check process takes freaking forever as well at Carrefour - especially when the check processor breaks, which seems to happen frequently  - so I really really don’t understand why they wouldn’t just try to be quicker and pay with cash. Or something else. Anything else.

4). I saw a real French man wearing flip flops at Carrefour on Wednesday. I felt vindicated.

5). That brings me to my next point - if you ever study abroad, don’t be afraid to be American. This doesn’t mean that you should expect everything in the new country to be like America, or that you should go against strong cultural norms just because you feel like it, but don’t be afraid to be yourself. I’m American - I can’t help it, its a part of me. I’m not going to change myself so completely so as to become lost in another culture. There are positives and negatives to every culture, so while you absorb good things of your new habitat make sure that you keep with you what you like about the US.

With that in mind, maybe leave your “I’m With Stupid” shirt in the US, but definitely bring your flip flops, your North Face, and your Snuggie. I have been so glad that I brought these things; they made me feel like I had a little bit of home with me. In regards to my snuggie in particular, it came in handy more than I thought it would and it also was completely new to many of my classmates and teachers - they were fascinated by it. People love learning about cultures that are foreign to them, and a great way to strike up a rapport with someone is to talk about the differences between your two countries (and you get to learn new things!)

6). Bus drivers in Dijon are a lot nicer than the COTA drivers. The buses are also a lot cleaner and nicer.

7). For every rude French person (looking at you, Dijon women at the market) or incredibly creep-tastic French youth that I’ve encountered, I’ve met several amazing, warm, and friendly people. People have been incredibly patient with me as I as I stumble through a sentence, and I’ve encountered so many people that have gone out their way to help me or my friends. The French people are amazing.

8). French people really don’t understand when you when you say an English word without a French accent. For example, when I tried to buy my ticket to Disneyland, I just said “Disneyland Paris” and the cashier did not understand me at all. However, when I tried again with “Deezneelahnd Paree” he got it right away. It seems like such a little thing to us, but I guess it makes a huge difference to them.

9). Its hilarious when non-native English speakers try to swear in English. Especially when they say “fucking” or “fuck”. First off, its really amusing because they normally pronounce it “fooking”, but then half the time they put it in the wrong place in the sentence, like “we had such a fun travel fooking”. And they use it at times when they really don’t - probably because we all start laughing. Another favorite of mine is “this is so fooking cute. So fooking cute”.

10). This is kind of similar to what I said earlier, but studying abroad has really made me more proud to be an American.

11). Even the most mundane, ordinary alleys in Dijon are prettier than streets in Columbus. Flower boxes really do wonders for decor.

12). The French kind of are luddites. And obviously, there’s more to life than technology and its been really refreshing to have to carry a phone around all the time, but sometimes I just don’t get it. Why do you only have wifi on one eighth of a floor - would it really be that much more expensive to buy another router?  Why can I not text to twitter from my phone in France, but it would be possible if I lived in Fiji, Kazakhstan, or the Isle of Man? Its less the fact that France doesn’t have certain technology and more the issue that its weird that less developed nations do, if that makes sense.

This past weekend we went to the Loire Valley, which was such a blast. As many of you know, I love creeping on houses, especially houses of the rich and historically famous. I had been to two of the chateaux before, but it was March when I went so the gardens weren’t in bloom and those are really the crown jewels of the chateaux.

On Saturday morning, we went to Fountainebleu, which isn’t exactly in the Loire Valley - its pretty close to Paris. Fountainebleau was my second favorite out of all the places that we saw. I just loved the style of the building, the gardens, and especially the color of the stone that was used on the interior.

Later that day, we arrived in the town of Blois, and saw the Chateau de Blois. Even though Blois saw many historical events, I think this would be my least favorite of the chateaux that we saw. Like Fontainebleu, Blois experienced several additions, but unlike Fontainebleu, I think that the additions made it feel disconnected and more haphazard. It was at Blois that I made the connection between Francois I (a king that left his mark on many of the chateaux that we saw) and Ever After, the Drew Barrymore Cinderella movie. Francois I is the king in that movie, but instead of his son marrying Drew Barrymore, his son married a noblewoman from Italy that came from a family of poisoners. 

Our hotel (an incredibly nice Holiday Inn) was in Blois, so that night I went the centre ville with Mary, Susan, Brendon and Jeff and got Italian.

On Sunday, we started the morning at Chenanceau, which I think is tied with Chambord (seen on Monday) in my preferences. I’d been there before, but seeing the gardens in bloom just made it seem even more incredible.

I continued to our group’s penchant for taking stalker pictures of French kids (they’re just so adorable!!)

For lunch we stopped in Amboise and went to a very famous pastry shop:

And then that afternoon we went to Villandry, which ended up being my favorite of all the chateaux. I was a little confused about why we were going because I had never heard of it before, but Stephane said that that was on of the reasons why he chose it - because the gardens were beautiful and it wouldn’t be as crowded.

From the outside its pretty, but I LOVE the inside. It actually feels like a home, probably because it was lived in pretty recently - up until the sixties. I loved the intricate wooden floor, the furnishings….just everything. Except this one weird room that had paintings of people in pain and weird dwarves and things. That one would have to be redecorated for sure.

The real selling point of Villandry, however, are the extensive gardens. There’s an Ornamental Garden, a Water Garden, a Sun Garden, a Kitchen Garden, a Labyrinthe, and then some woods too. And of all them are gorgeous.

That night, I had dinner with Mary, Julia, Susan, Heidi, Stephane, and Patrick, our bus driver. It was really interesting because we spoke in French for the most part and I got to ask Stephane and Patrick lots of cultural questions. For example, I was asking Stephane if French youth are taught that smoking is bad, and he said yes. He told me that in France, less and less young people are smoking cigarettes, but more are smoking pot (which I think is pretty similar to the US). But whats really bad is that apparently more youth are starting to smoke cocaine because a lot of russians are coming to France and undercutting the cocaine prices so cocaine is now cheaper than pot.

I felt so French having dinner with them because it honestly took us over three hours for the whole meal (which was subsidized by OSU because they felt bad for making us move).

On Monday, the last day, we went to Chambord in the morning. It was a lot like I remembered, but this time the sun was out so the pictures looked less dreary :)

OK, so last week being the final week of our first class, everything was really busy and I just didn’t have time to blog. Well, I probably did, but I just didn’t really budget in time too. And I was going through severe Nice/sun/warmth withdrawl that I really didn’t feel like rubbing salt in the wound too haha.

Anyhow, I went to Nice the weekend of July 22 with Susan, Mary, Stacy, Nicole, Kayla, Katelyn, Sara, and Beau. Susan, Mary and I left in the afternoon after class, and since the train ride is really long we didn’t get there til around 10:30 at night. Luckily, the six and a half hour trip really didn’t seem that long - for the first half we had an adorable old French couple and their grandchildren sitting next to us, and then we spent the next couple of hours chatting and staring at the sea.

Since we knew we were going to see Harry Potter 7 pt 2 for the first time (in English!!) we basically had Harry Potter on our minds continuously. We took turns reading french Harry Potter out loud to each other and then I drew a story map of the first HP7 movie for Mary because she hadn’t seen it.

Our hostel was incredibly close to the train station - the taxis wouldn’t even take us because it was so close. After we moved in, we just spent the first night walking around and taking everything in. To be honest, the main street seemed a little sketch at night, with all the shops closed, but once we got to the beach there was a carnival thing happening , which was pretty cool.

The next day, Mary, Susan and I decided to window shop and walk around in the morning. We worked our way down the main street (which was much more lively) until we ended up at the beach once again. The sun was AMAZING. I had honestly almost forgotten that it was summer.

We went to a perfume museum and then climbed Castle Hill, which gave us a great view of Nice.

Great might be an understatement.

We explored Old Nice on our way back to the hostel, and then met up with everyone else for some beach time!!

On the way back, Mary, Susan and I walked into this really ritzy hotel, Hotel Negresco, to look around. It totally paled in comparison to our hostel, hahaha.

Saturday night we saw Harry Potter in English (with French subtitles) and it was AWESOME. I cried so much. It was really odd though, because we were the only group in the theater that had people who were crying. Everyone else was completely dry eyed. I was a little surprised - I figured that Harry Potter probably hadn’t effected the French as much as us, but I thought they would have had more of a reaction.

(Susan and I crying after Harry Potter)

That night we hung out at our hostel and talked to the other people our age who were also staying there. I talked to some Mexican guys for a couple of minutes in Spanish and they told me I spoke very well, so I was extremely flattered. We also talked to a Finnish guy whom Stacy had convinced that we were from the southern part of Canada called “Ohio”. We ended the night at a salsa bar, where Katelyn, Kayla and I attempted to do this line dance that all the French people knew. It seemed a lot like the Electric Slide, but somehow it was a lot more difficult.

Sunday, we relaxed and did more window shopping. We were so tired - Susan and I had to take a break in one of the department stores. 

It was the perfect end to a great weekend.