It started with doing a lot of nothing. I was so happy to be off my feet about my big trip that I sat in bed and caught up on a lot of my TV shows which was awesome. This was the point where I thought, hmm, maybe I should start packing...ehh, no I have time.
Last Saturday, Claire, one of the teachers I worked with, had a concert on a boat by the port. I was very excited to watch her play because I knew she was in a band but they didn't have a lot of gigs this year (Claire had a baby in January). It was a gorgeous night, great venue, and her band was awesome!
Cornflakes Heroes (click here for their website)
beautiful night after a rainy day
Tuesday, I decided that I needed to spend one last day in Paris. I was debating whether or not I should go, but in the end I thought, are you going to regret not going when you are sitting at a desk in the next 7 months, thinking, gosh I wish I was in Paris right now? The answer: yes. So I hopped on the train with nothing but my purse to go say goodbye to possibly my favorite city in the world. I met up with Cory and Jaimie for a picnic in the Tuilieres. Then we took an afternoon stroll along the Seine towards the Eiffel Tower. At that point, they had to go pick up the kids that Cory nannies, and I had the rest of the afternoon to myself. I walked all the way along the Seine toward Notre Dame. Stopped by my favorite bridge (Passerelle Leopold-Sedar-Senghor, what a name for a bridge, right?), made my way into the Marais, thought about dinner, but in the end a nutella-banana crepe won. After that, it was time to head back to the train station to catch my train home to Caen. Till we meet again Paris!
picnic in Tuilieres
eiffel tower
jaimie and cory
cory and me
pont alexandre
last view of the paris skyline
Yesterday, Nadege and I did something that I have been meaning to do the entire time I have been here: go see the Bayeux Tapestries and go to the American Cemetery. Both place are within an hour of Caen and I wait until the very last minute to go see them. Well, I can finally say that I have been there now.
Bayeux is a wonderfully cute little Medieval city, that houses the Tapestries. I should really say tapestry, because it is a single peice of embroidered cloth that is 224 ft long! It shows the events of the Norman conquest of England. I probably would not even know about the tapestry but I studied it in one of my English courses during my junior year at UO. It is housed in a museum and naturally, we couldn't take pictures. I am glad that I saw it but I don't think I would need to go back and see it again. We walked around Bayeux for a little bit before heading on to find the American Cemetery.
bayeux
streets in bayeux
bayeux cathedral
nadege and me
lovely restaurant on the creek
We found the American cemetery and I am so happy that I finally made it here. It was breathtaking. It is set on a cliff above Omaha beach, one of the American Landing beaches, and looks out over the ocean. The memorial and the cemetery were beautifully done and I think it is a really wonderful way to honor the American soldiers who died in Europe in World War II. There are stairs from the top of the cliff down to the beach. It was a little cloudy earlier in the day but when we got there, it was gorgeous.
american cemetery
view of the ocean in the background
each grave has a french and american flag
the american flag, a french one is on the other side
nadege, on the way to omaha beach
me and the english channel
view from omaha beach
d-day landing beach
view of the other side
And then today, I visited the Sunday market for the last time. The weather has been awful the last couple of weeks but today the sun was shining and it was really warm. Perfect day for the market. I had a ham and cheese crepe for lunch and a nutella crepe for dessert, naturally.
this was hilarious, this lady obviously had a palm tree in her cart
i'm going to miss the market so much
with my nutella crepe
nadege took another one when i was waving at the cute little kid
louise and nadege
And then it was back to my room to do more packing. For the last couple of weeks my room looked like a bomb exploded. My clothes were everywhere nothing fit anywhere. After I packed my big suitcase, Nadege came in and said it looked exactly the same. Great. It's starting to look a little better now but this is what it was.
disaster zone
Now, it's time for dinner. No more packing today, I don't think I can handle it. I have a lot to do in the next few days. I am going back to my middle school one last time to say goodbye to some students, I am having dinner with Claire, and my friends at the Aumonerie are having a party for me Tuesday night. Here's hoping I can finish everything and that everything goes smoothly on Wednesday!
C'est la belle vie!
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