Day Adventures and Exploration Weekends

Now that I have finally gotten settled into the new year, I have time for one of my favorite things: exploring!  I feel that I have seen a lot of cool cities in France but there is always more to see.  During the Fall, someone recommended that I go see Deauville.  I had not heard of the city but this person told me that it is pretty famous and they have an American film festival here every year.  And it is only about 45 minutes away from Caen.  When Nadege finished her exams last week, she had some time off and suggested that we make a day trip to Deauville.  So on Friday, Nadege, Thinh and I hopped in the car and drove to Deauville for the day.

We got there around 10 in the morning and it was an absolutely beautiful day.  The sun was shining and it was not terribly cold.  We walked through a beautiful public garden to get to the center of town, where there were the most beautiful cobblestone streets and cute, chic shops in every direction.  We found the tourist office to get a map of the city and from there plotted out the route to the ocean.

First impression of Deauville

Middle of the City

City Hall of Deauville

Nadege and me in Deauville

We made our way to the ocean and walked along the promenade walk for awhile.  On the promenade, there are beach closets that you can buy to keep all of you beach gear in for the season.  Each small closet has dividers between them.  On all the dividers are the names of famous people and movie stars who have visited Deauville.  I thought that these people owned these specific spaces but they are just dedicated to them.  It was fun to see who had visited before and we saw some very famous names.  Then we decided to go out on the beach to the water.  It was nice because there were hardly any people out that day. 

Beach closets along the promenade

Promenade next to the beach

Me and the ocean

Horse racing on the beach, this is very common in Deauville

Thinh and me

After the beach, we walked over to the neighboring city of Trouville.  This city is also right on the water and very beautiful as well.  We ate lunch at a creperie here and walked around to see some of the sites of Trouville. 

Trouville sur-la-mer

Trouville and Me

Random Castle thing we found in Trouville, pretty cool

After walking back over to Deauville, it started to rain so we got some eclairs from a bakery and decided we were done for the day.  I am so happy that I visited these amazing cities and would like to see them again before I leave France in June. 

Saturday, Margaux and I wanted to hang out without going shopping and being tempted to buy more at the soldes, or spending more money on a coffee.  So we decided to wander around to see what we could find in Caen and thank goodness we did because we found some treasures.  By my house, there is a huge botanical garden with a green house and many exotic plants.  I had been here once before with Claire and I wanted to show Margaux.  However, on the way we found something that caught our eye: a cemetery.  Now for those of you who read my posts from Edinburgh, you know how much we like cemeteries after our tour through the cemeteries in Edinburgh.  So we went inside to check it out.  Where as the cemetery in Edinburgh was creepy, this cemetery was so beautiful is almost became eerie.  And naturally, Margaux and I have the tendency to play off of each other and totally freak out, so even though it was mid-afternoon, sun shining, we were walking around this graveyard as if anything could pop out at us at any given moment.  I think what is so amazing about this place is the fact it looks like a regular forest.  There are so many trees and coverings that graves are probably lost in the middle and no one knows.  Enough of my descriptions, see for yourself:

Lots of broken headstones 

Cemetery in the middle of a forest?

So beautiful it's eerie

The outer wall of the cemetery

After the cemetery, we went over to the garden and walked around the grounds for awhile.  It was such a gorgeous day, yet no one was around, we suspect because of the soldes.  All of the French are too busy shopping to enjoy the gems of their city.  Well that is just fine with us, we liked having it to ourselves. 

Then, as we walked back into centre-ville we came across a jewel that I must have seen a hundred times before.  The back of a church, that looks as though it used to be the inside.  What we guessed is that, this church partially fell during World War II and after, they just made it smaller instead of building up the entire thing again.  I am awe-struck by this beautiful architecture.  The ivy, the stained glass, the colors, the stairs.  The thought crossed my mind that I might need to get married in France just so I could take pictures here.  Wishful thinking...

Breath-takingly beautiful

The back of the Church, we think all of this used to be the inside... this is where I would want to get married :)

The colors, the stained glass and the ivy...I'm in love with this place

So we were successful in our outing.  We had a great day walking around our city and finding some priceless treasures.  Going to class and teaching English is great, but it's adventures like these around Caen and into other cities that make my time here worthwhile.  And I already have planned adventures for the next two weekends:  Next weekend, the Caen assistants are off to Cherbourg to hang out with the Cherbourg assistants and celebrate some birthdays.  I have wanted to visit Cherbourg since I got here so it should be a fun trip.  Weekend after that, I am going to try to visit Paris for the weekend to spend some time with friends who live there and check out the soldes, Paris style.  The adventure continues!  

C'est la belle vie! :)

The New Year is here

Well here we are in a New Year and I am back in France where I will be for the next 5 months.  I didn't get a chance to update while I was in Sacramento because I was having too much fun spending time with my family and friends.  So for my first post of the New Year, here is an update of my amazing Christmas break!

My Christmas started in a truly wonderful, beautiful city: Paris!  Because my flight left so early in the morning on Saturday, I went to Paris on Friday and stayed with my friend Cory, who I have know since elementary school.  Cory is an au pair in Paris and her parents and brother were visiting for Christmas already so I hung out with them on Friday.  We went to the Champs-Elysees Christmas market which was absolutely amazing. We even went on the huge ferris wheel!  It was a lot of fun and a perfect way to start my break!

Cory and I at the Christmas Market

Eiffel Tower in the City of Lights

I was very nervous about the snow causing big delays for my flight but fortunately, I got out of there just in time.  My flight was only delayed about a half hour and soon I was on my way to Houston.  The flight was actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be for an 11 hour flight.  Once I got to Houston, I had a long layover.  I was just getting dinner when I heard someone call my name and I saw Elle, another friend I have known since elementary school.  She was flying to Sacramento on an earlier flight and told me that I should try to fly stand-by so I could get home earlier.  Luckily, I was able to get on the plane and made it home 2 hours earlier than I would have.

From the very second I got home to when I left, I was so incredibly happy.  It was so nice to be around my family and my cats.  I was happy to be able to wear sweats and t-shirts and not have to get into jeans every single day.  I made sure to get all of the food I have missed and craved so much in France. And being able to hop in my car and drive was amazing!

The first week I was back, I had two very special visitors: Christy and Jessica.  They drove from San Francisco to hang out with me! It was so sweet of them to come.  We went to dinner as soon as they got here and watched the finale of the Sing-Off.  It was so nice to talk and catch up with them, especially since I haven't seen them since I left Eugene in August.  The next morning, we went out for breakfast at Sharis with two other mutual friends of ours. It was great seeing everyone!

Breakfast at Sharis crew

Christmas Eve day we went to the Cowards' for Christmas brunch like we have for the past couple of years.  This is one of my favorite parts about Christmas.  We always have a great meal and we get to spend time with some of our closest family friends.

Sibling picture with Justine and Zac

All of our wonderful parents

Besties

That afternoon, we went to Mass at Holy Spirit with Grannie and Aunt Mary Ann.  After, we went back to Grannie's for Christmas Eve dinner.  There were a lot of us this year!  I couldn't be happier being around my family!  Christmas Day was at our house and just as much fun as Christmas Eve.  The best part was definitely the entire family glued to the TV when we watched Elf and Despicable Me.

The Ostapecks

Cousin picture, love this

Stephen and I with Grannie

Grannie and her kids

Aunt Steph and me

The day after Christmas we had a 5 year anniversary of when we won State.  So the whole volleyball team and our parents gathered at St. Francis where we played volleyball for about an hour and a half. It was probably the sloppiest volleyball we have ever played but we got out there and had fun!  After that, we went to one of our coach's houses for dinner.  We couldn't believe it had been five years since we had all been together.  It was great to see all of these girls and remember all of the good times we had together!

Volleyball State Champs 5 years later

The rest of break went by really fast.  I went out to a few dinners with my group of friends from high school and spent a lot of time with my family.  I didn't do much but that is exactly what I wanted from my vacation.  It was nice to just sit and watch TV with Stephen and the cats or just go out to coffee and talk for awhile.

I was supposed to leave for France on New Year's Day but after some flight delays in Sacramento that would make me miss my flight from Houston to Paris, I just decided to move everything back a day.  Luckily, this was not a problem.  So 4 hours after my parents dropped me off, they came back to get me and the four of us went out to a wonderful breakfast.  Then the rest of the day we watched football and sat around the house.  It was only one more day with them but it was one of the best days.  I started off the  New Year with my family and football, what more could I want?

And finally, I made it back to France and to my home in Caen.  I am still getting over the jetlag and have been sleeping a lot.  I have a feeling it will be a very low-key weekend for me.  Classes have just started up but so far they have been going well.  Next on my list will be to decide where to go for the next holiday.  I am also hoping to make some weekend trips to Paris in the near future.  Life is good.  Which coincidentally is the name of this blog!

Happy New Year everyone! :)

oh, and GO DUCKS!