I s anyone getting exhausted by these France posts?
After the Mister Bed incident, Hannah and I were feeling exhausted and ready to go home. But the trip must go on!
On day five we had to drive even more north to our next destination. After loading our suitcases on the bus, Hannah and I realized that the remaining two seats on the bus were way apart from each other. This kept happening to us during the trip; we could never sit together.
We made a stop in a small town along the way. There were poppies! I love poppies!
Hannah loves poppies, too. We were very excited.
They had a farmers' market going on and it made me happy.
They had chickens roasting over potatoes. I'm fascinated by roasted chicken.
So okay, here's the part where I tell you about how I got into a fight on the bus.
Ready? Okay then. Not a physical fight - I would lose in a physical fight. I know that. If I ever get into a fight I plan on taking off and sprinting away.
Hannah and I were one of the first people to get back on the bus from the little town. We sat in two seats together towards the back of the bus. All of the people got back on the bus and we started driving. The South Dakota group leader (a French teacher whom everyone called Mama T) was sitting in front of us. She was an older, bigger, butch woman who wore the same outfit almost every day. She turns around towards the back of the bus and makes sure all of her group is there. She turns towards us and says,
"EXCUSE ME but you're not to be sitting there! This is (the back of the bus) where all of my South Dakota kids sit. You need to sit somewhere else!And then I was like, Uhh I don't think we do need to sit anywhere else. I think right here is just fine."
Then she said,
"NO! You have to sit somewhere else! You CAN NOT sit there."Me: "I'm pretty sure we don't have assigned seating, so I think we're fine where we are." I think we'll stay, thanks."
This sort of a thing went on for another minute. I started getting angry and having an attitude with her, and yeah, I was being rude, but she was being incredibly rude to us.
She bellowed to us,
"I'M A GROUP LEADER AND I WILL NOT LET YOU TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!"Me: "I'm an adult and I'll talk to you however I want."
And so on and so on.. she backed down, turned around and sat in her seat.
Everyone on the bus was staring at us, but I didn't care. Most of my life I've been submissive and allowed people to speak to me that way. A few years ago I wouldn't have said anything back to her and just went along with what she said. In the last two years, I would say I've grown up and have grown more confident and able to stand up for myself better.
She had no right to speak to us in that way and I'm glad I stuck up for Hannah and me. I felt just like Rosa Parks.
Moving on...
Next we visited the beautiful castle of
Chenonceau, which was my favorite castle we visited. I would say if you're looking to buy a castle, buy this one.
They had an ice cream stand at Chenonceau. They had ice cream or gelato stands all over France. You think I'm exaggerating but I'm not. They were everywhere and it was like a dream come true. Every afternoon I would eat an ice cream snack - that way I wouldn't be that hungry at dinner and wouldn't have to eat canned peas.
Let's go on an ice cream tour of France, shall we?!
Ice cream #1. Tiramisu.
Very good.Ice cream #2. One scoop of salted caramel, one scoop of nougat.
Very, very good.Ice cream #3. Pistachio.
Very tasty.Ice cream #4. Soft serve pistachio and chocolate.
Pretty, pretty good.Ice cream #5. Mint chocolate chip with a puff of whipped cream.
Drool.All of this ice cream was good, but the best ice cream (well, gelato) we found was at this place.
PinocchioI had one scoop of cookies, one scoop of Tahitian vanilla.
Hannah had one scoop of Nutella, one scoop of coconut.
Amazing. I would eat this gelato every day of my life if I could.
Our next castle was
Amboise.
This is where Leonardo Da Vinci is buried.
This is a view looking out at the town. Hannah's thinking about how much she wants to go home, in this picture. :) Just kidding. Or maybe not. Hey, Hannah's 19th birthday is today.
Happy Birthday, Hannah! I'm baking her a red velvet cake. Recipe to come shortly!
After having such a rough morning, I was more than ready to have some wine on our winery tour.
The wine tour went very quickly and I didn't learn very much because the guide had such a thick accent. But here's a picture of some wine bottles.
Barrels o' wine.
Wine gets a thumbs up from me. It tastes like fruit!
Then we had a wine tasting and I drank every drop that I was given. Unfortunately, anyone in our group that was under aged couldn't participate in the wine tasting, even though they would be legal in France.
Look at those legs! Sexxxy!
Wine tasting is serious business.
I smell essences of macerated cherries with a musk of sandalwood and a dash of pink peppercorn. I think I look like
Lady Elaine Fairchilde in this picture.
Ahh, I'm feeling better about the day already.
I still prefer slightly sweet white wines over red wines. I want to be a red wine drinker though. Real wine drinkers drink red wine, and I don't, so I'm not a real wine drinker.
I bought a sparkling white wine for Eric and I also bought a red wine for my parents.
Then we had dinner in a cave! I had a good feeling when we walked into that cave dinner.
The servers brought out hot ciabatta rolls with butter and pate and they were SO good! (I snuck some of the pate on a roll. I was a sneaky vegetarian.) OH man - I think I ate two or three of them. They also brought out green salad for us to eat. I loaded up because I wasn't sure when I'd be able to eat something green again.
Then they brought me this little salad and I thought to myself, well this is an interesting first course. It had tomatoes, corn, and a little bit of brie on the side.
It turns out, this was my meal. Everyone else had sausages and potatoes. It was fine though, because I filled up on bread and salad, and this meal was much better than the other dinners we had before.
Dessert was an apple tart. It was good... nothing special.
The next day, day six, we started off with a visit to
Mont Saint-Michel; a rocky tidal island off the northern coast of France.
It was a pretty little island. Thouch you couldn't walk on the beach because there was quick sand. We toured an abbey at the top of the island, and then were allowed to wander around the town and shop. It was pretty touristy; all of the shops had the same Mont Saint-Michel souvenirs.
Quick sand!
Ahhhhh! You know what else is scary? I woke up today because I was having a nightmare that two grim reapers were chasing me.
Then we drove to a walled port city called
Saint-Malo.
I loved Saint-Malo, and so did Hannah.
It was sooo cold that day - probably in the lower sixties, and some of the kids went swimming. Hannah and I did not. We did some eating and shopping instead.
First we ate. The tour guide said that
Kouign amann was a popular pastry in this region in France and we must try one.
Hannah and I decided to split one because they looked so good.
It tasted like a flaky, deep fried cinnamon roll. We asked for ours to have Nutella on it. It was very tasty... but... almost too easy. Anything deep fried with Nutella on it would be good.
After that, Hannah did some clothes shopping and I did some candy shopping in a cute little store.
Look at all of these macarons! Aren't they pretty? I HAD to buy some.
I chose blueberry, pistachio, chocolate, and raspberry. Truthfully, after having these, plus the ones I tasted in New York, I'm still not a macaron lover. I think they're too sweet. And I love sugar so that's just strange to me.
I also bought some caramels: apple, salted butter, sesame, and chocolate. These were very, very good.
That night we stayed at a monastery that had been renovated into a hotel. ?
It was cozy and fairly nice, and we were all thankful it wasn't Mister Bed. We had dinner there as well. We had some sort of puff pastry appetizer, and Hannah was served beef "stew" with white rice. Ironically enough, I was served canned peas and green beans again on this night. I guess the French love their canned peas and beans.
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