5/25 - Day in Nantes!

Hello everybody! This is Erin and Liesel and we are going to tell you about our day in Nantes! We started our day with the latest wakeup yet, some of us (Erin and I), getting up at 10:30 am. Then, after a nice hotel breakfast, headed out to meet some others at the memorial for the abolition of slavery at the water. Nantes was a big port city for France, where many ships set out to collect people from the West coast of Africa mainly and distribute them across Europe, North America, and South America. The memorial was beautiful, it had small glass tiles on the ground, featuring the name of the boat and the year it set out. There was also an underground section of the memorial, with a timeline of the abolition of slavery, and Vermont was first! 

After we roamed the memorial, we split off into a few groups, Erin and I and some others headed over to the Machines de L'île de Nantes, which had many mechanical animals, an amazing carousel, which we rode, and a boutique! 

We then refueled with some food and went to Le Passage Pommeraye, a beautiful mall, much different from ours in America. 

Then, we went to some pop-up markets around the area, May 25 happened to be Nantes à Cœur, which means Nantes at heart, a festival for tradespeople/merchants! They had lovely little shops in a few different locations, one being in front of a beautiful church. Here, we ran into Juliet, and her sister with her family. It was so nice to see them again! We caught the church at the perfect time because the organ inside played a wonderful song.  

After some shopping, we went to the Castle, Chateau Ducs de Bretagne. It was stunning and the views from the walls were great, then we went into the museum, which was inside! The museum was complete with 32 exhibits, ranging from information about the castle, slavery, and the nazis in France. 

After touring the castle, we found our friend Eliot who is also on the trip and happened to get a tattoo! The best souvenir for sure! Many of us also got smaller souvenirs from various places to bring home to our friends and families. 

Next, we met up with the rest of the group for a traditional crepe dinner at "Creperie Sainte Croix" in Nantes. It is the oldest Creperie in the city and has a large menu to choose from, including savory crepes, sweet crepes, and Breton Cider. We finished our meal at about 10pm which was much earlier than our previous dinners. After dinner, we all headed back to the hotel to get some rest. We watched the vlog that Dari created for May 24, as a group and then headed to bed. It was nice to have an "earlier" evening and get rest for the next few days of fun. Thanks for joining us on our adventures of the day! 

-Liesel and Erin <3 

5/24 - school visits and barbecue in Nantes!

For today’s blog, we have something a little bit different — a vlog (video blog) compiled by Dari! She has worked hard and done a great job capturing some memorable moments from our busy day of school visits, followed by a barbecue hosted by Laura and Julien Blanchet. Enjoy!

5/23 - train to Nantes, touring, and dinner

Hello everyone! This is Matt and Maggie – we are so excited to tell you all about our adventures today! We had a lowkey day of traveling and adventuring together. We are looking forward to a busy day tomorrow as we visit a French preschool and elementary school. 

 

We began the day bright and early in Paris. We hopped on the Metro and traveled to the TGV train station. The TGV, which stands for “train a grande vitesse” or high speed train, had two floors and traveled over 290 kilometers per hour. After about two hours, we arrived in Nantes! 

When we got to Nantes, we got onto the tram and traveled to our hotel. After dropping off our bags, we enjoyed a lovely lunch at a local cafe with Juliet’s sister. We ate sandwiches, baguettes, french pastries, and chatted with our friends. Our favorite part was the baguette machine outside of the cafe doors! 

Next, we took a walk over to a local mall. We were blown away by the unique architecture and the many French stores we were able to explore. After shopping for about an hour and collecting a few souvenirs, we got lost in the endless aisles of Ikea!

From there, we went into the downtown city of Nantes. We strolled through the botanical gardens and even got to see some goats, turtles, chickens, ducks, roosters, and hold a pigeon! We especially liked the giant topiary of a bear, though some argued it was a cat! What is your vote?

After wandering the streets, seeing a church, and popping into a few stores, we met a lovely woman named Alixia from the Agence Culturelle Bretonne. We experienced a true French dinner, starting with a glass of wine on the cobblestone streets and ending with a mouthwatering dessert. We enjoyed learning from Alixia about the Bretonne culture and getting to know each other better. Can you guess how many hours we were at dinner? 

Thank you for following along our adventures in France! See you tomorrow! 

5/22 - Mundolingua Museum of Languages + Eiffel Tower

 Hi everyone! This is Graecia and Eliot to tell you about a fun second day in Paris!

We began our second day in France with a quick breakfast at the hotel and then we were off to Mundolingua, a museum all about language. We got to see a display of the phonetic alphabet with a cross section model of the human head showing where each of the sounds were made. Our kiwi tour guide told us about how languages evolve as well as the speed at which we are losing languages. Later this week we’ll get the opportunity to witness one of France's efforts to prevent the loss of the Breton language, as they teach it in schools. One of my favorite displays in Mundolingua was about the way language has been used in espionage and during war times to determine where someone was from. It was interesting to hear about what constitutes as language, how culture and language intersect, and the differences in teaching a second language to students in France compared to the U.S and the rest of the world!

After the museum of language, we were off to the Jardin du Luxembourg. I spent some time people watching on a bench while it drizzled before heading over to the fountain to meet the rest of the group. The Jardin du Luxembourg was beautiful (not unlike most of everything else we’ve seen in France). There was tons of space to walk around and view nature, take pictures of the beautiful architecture, and you could even see the top of the Eiffel Tower from afar!

Before leaving the garden we stopped by a sculpture commemorating the abolition of slavery and the end of the slave trade. This sculpture, Le Cri, L’écrit, pays hommage to the slaves of the French colonies battles for human rights. 

For lunch, we got to walk along a street where there were a lot of boulangeries and fruit stands to buy food from! Some of us got fresh strawberries and raspberries (which tasted so sweet and delicious!), baguettes, cheese, and sandwiches.

While it was raining by the time we got to the Eiffel Tower, it fortunately cleared up by the time we finished eating our lunch. We all got tickets to climb up the stairs on the Eiffel Tower and the views definitely made up for the effort to reach the top. There were gift shops, bars, and even a place to sit down and eat in! A must-do experience when in Paris!

Here are some views from the second level of the Eiffel Tower!

At this point it had been a long day of walking, exploring, and sightseeing so we headed back to the hotel to rest up for a little bit. For dinner we planned to go to Ground Control that was very reminiscent of The High Line and Chelsea Market in Manhattan! There were a ton of vendors selling all kinds of cuisine, including Greek, Mexican, and Taiwanese food. Other than food, there were also some stores selling clothes and books.

The beauty of Ground Control was that there were food options for everyone in the group! While it was crowded, we got a good glimpse into the Parisian nightlife and it was so heartwarming seeing groups chatting, drinking, and eating yummy food. It was also a great change of pace after being out and about for the whole day, getting to continue getting to know one another as nighttime progressed.

side note: this picture was taken at 9:48pm!! Crazy how the sun doesn't set until well into 10pm!

While today was not as jam packed as yesterday, it was just as exciting! Getting to dig deep into language and learn more about the French education system, having the opportunity to go up the Eiffel Tower, and experience Parisian night life, it was a wonderful way to spend a second day in Paris!

Tomorrow, we will be heading to Nantes to do some informal touring of the area and begin visiting schools in France. It will be a slightly more relaxed day as we have travel to do, so hopefully we can catch up on sleep and rest our legs! 

5/21 - Introduction to Paris!

Hi everyone! Hally and Elizabeth here, to tell you about our first day in France! 

The first group of students arrived in Paris between 5-7 am. We all met at the CDG airport where Patrick rode on the train with us into the city where we were smoothly handed off to Juliet and she guided us in using the metro to get to our lovely hotel! To our surprise all of our rooms were ready so we were able to freshen up before leaving to explore! Many of our rooms overlook a little courtyard and we can open our windows and chat across the way! 

Juliet's brother Joe, who lived in Paris for many years, met up with us at the hotel and we all got back on the metro to ride to the city center to begin exploring!! We walked along the Seine River and ate some lovely sandwiches from a patisserie and brought them to eat in front of Notre Dame! 

We then ventured more into the city center, crossing over the river where we enjoyed a cafe and played some cards and people-watched. This was a great introduction to slow Parisian life after the busy rush of public transport that morning. We then walked past city hall, which was decorated for the Olympics! We then went into Les Halles which is a sprawling partially underground shopping center; some shopped while others explored the streets nearby. We met up again and stumbled upon the beautiful cathedral église Saint-Eustache built in the 1400s with towering ceilings, intricate stonework, stained glass, and beautiful murals. At the end of the night at dinner, many people said that this cathedral was their favorite part of the day! 

We proceeded to the Old Palaces of the French royal family before the revolution. Domaine National du Palais- Royal has beautiful gardens, trees, and flowers in the courtyard to relax and take in! The stunning architecture of this Palace was just a taste of what we would see when we walked across the street to the Louvre! As we walked through the archway into the main courtyard of the Louvre, the Cour Napoleon, audible gasps were heard as the group took in just how large and spectacular the Louvre is! We will be going inside the Louvre on 6/1 and seeing the outside just built excitement and anticipation. 

We walked down into the Jardin des Tuileries, and we ran into the rest of our group! Patrick had gone back to the airport to pick up the 4 remaining students whose planes landed later in the morning. They also went to drop off their luggage and grabbed a bite before heading to the Louvre to explore with us! We all roamed around the beautiful gardens admiring the statues, fountains, and florals. Easily the most beautiful gardens we have ever been to!

Next some students who had arrived later went out to explore Paris even more with Patrick while the rest of the group, who were starting to really feel the jet lag, went back to the hotel for a much-needed break! We rested for about an hour before heading back out to climb the many stairs to reach the Montmartre neighborhood for dinner! We wandered around the romantic streets coming to the Sacre Coeur Basilica which overlooks most of Paris and had our first real sighting of the Eiffel Tower We will be coming back to the Sacre Coeur Basilica steps later in the trip to have a picnic dinner as the Montmartre neighborhood is very lively at night! 

At 7:30 we arrived at a wonderful Italian Restaurant. The restaurant was quite empty as 7:30 is considered early for dinner time in France! However, we were very hungry and eagerly dug into Bruschetta, and Burrata appetizers before our wine and delicious pasta dishes were served! While we ate we recapped the day each saying a rose (favorite moment of the day) bud (something we were looking forward to) and thorn (a challenge we encountered that day). 

In discussing the day we concluded that our main noticing were: 

• Patrick, Juliet, and Joe are the best tour guides ever! They are so patient and knowledgeable! We would have been completely lost without them 
• The history and age behind all of the buildings and architecture 
• The size of the Louvre! 
• The diversity of local Parisians
• The subtle differences in fashion and style compared to America. (no athleisure?!)
• That Public transit is much more maintained and available. 
• The city itself is not very accessible to persons with physical impediments. (i.e., no ramps, lots of stairs, no audible signals for street crossing) 
• The language is beautiful but so hard to read and pronounce to our English trained tongues. 
• The different areas of Paris all have their own unique qualities.
• When riding the train from the airport in pairs we noticed that the quality of the suburbs vs the city was the opposite of the United States where it is typically nicer and wealthier in the suburbs. 
• We noticed the care and pride that Parisians have for the culture which is deeply integrated with their many historic landmarks. We reflected that the US does not really have the same emotional ties to places and buildings that seem to help unite and create a clear national identity among Parisians. 

After dinner, we did a little more exploring of lively Montmartre, saw the Eiffel tower sparkle from afar, and got some gelato for our walk back to the hotel! 

Tomorrow we will be going on a guided visit to the Mundolingua Museum of Languages before we have a picnic lunch under the Eiffel Tower. We will explore the gardens of Luxembourg before returning to the Eiffel Tower for our tour. We will then have dinner at an outdoor food hall and shops called Ground Control. 

Today felt like the longest day ever but it was so fun to get to know Paris and each other better!

Elizabeth and Hally out!