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! :)