Packing up Paris in Picnics

Wow! I can't believe that this will be my last post written in Paris! These past 5 months have been more amazing than I could even imagine! But now is not the time to reflect on Paris, I'm still here!!!!!

After arriving back from a wonderful weekend in the South of France I had a lot of things in Paris to mark off my "to-do" list! Trying to make the most of our days, Harry and I did a lot of picnicing combined with sight seeing.

#1 Chateau Fountainebleau

Entrance to Fountainebleau

Perfect Picnic

Visiting Fountainebleau was the first destination of the week. After a long train ride we made it to the chateau. Unfortunate the inside was closed for the day, but we made the best of it and looked for a picnic spot. Lucky us we found the best spot in all of France! The spot was on a little peninsula with a small creek, weeping willow tree, and lots of wild flowers! 2 hours of picnic later we explored the beautiful grounds and it's many fountains.


#2 Bois de Boulogne

Hereon

This park has intrigued me before I came to Paris so I had to check it out before I went home! It's by far the largest park in Paris, but is also known for being used by ladies of the night. Unfortunately due to poor signing and the mass of the park, Harry and I walked through the "bad"  part of the park. Coming out unscratched we found the lake we were looking for! Hungry we settled for a less amazing picnic spot, but recovered by going on a lovely boat ride. The highlight being rowing right next to a hereon, after coming out of a weeping willow tree! So cool!!!!! Soaking up as much of the outdoors as possible we headed back to Paris to check out the past. This was my third time going to the Louvre and this time I got to see Napoleon III Louvre apartments. It still amazes me how well everything is preserved and the wealth that these kings had!!!!

#3 No Picnics, but amazing food

Backside

Night at Notre Dame

Loved this sculpture 

Although there were no picnics this day I still had a lot of fun. Harry had a family friend, Paul, visiting for the day so we showed him around the best parts of Paris. Asides seeing Sacre Coeur, Salvador Dali museum, and Notre Dame at night, the best part of the day was dining at Mon Vieil Ami. Brodie works here and serves up some excellent french dishes! I had chilled peas and coriander to start, cod and Paris mushrooms for the main, and the most amazing chocolate tart and chocolate sorbet for dessert! I could eat more like King Napoleon more often! (Sorry felt too touristy to snap any photos)

#4 Stomping Grounds

Living near Jardin des Plantes all semester but never having seen it in full bloom was driving me crazy! So Harry and I had our 3rd official picnic here. After being escorted off of our garden picnic spot to the "picnic" area we made the best of it and enjoyed the green house view. The park was full of kids, picnicers and lots of different flowers! Then we headed to the first place I stepped foot into in Paris, bar Red Balloon. During my first hour lost in Paris I found myself here asking for directions, so I saw it fit to stop by for a goodbye Paris drink. After we headed to the looming single sky scraper in Paris, Tour Montparnsse. 56 floors later we had the most amazing view right during sun set. To end my day with things that I felt I must do, we checked out Cafe Indiana. These are found all over Paris, but I had to stop in to see if they had anything to do with Indiana, nope not really!!!


#5 Best Views in Paris

Our lookout 

Before our climb

Yesterday I found myself in three different amazing places in Paris. The first was back to a spot that Harry and I had discovered before at Parc Butte des Chaumont. It's a little ledge at the top on a hill that looks out onto the back of Sacre Coeur . After a picnic of peanut-butter and banana sandwiches we enjoyed the view. Then we were off to Cafe du Commerce, built in 1921, in a 3 level rectangular shape with an open roof. This restaurant felt so French! To conclude yet another perfect day in Paris, Harry and I checked in out mega tourist tickets and went to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Becoming notorious for being late, we had to race up the stairs to the second level to try and get tickets to the top! Lucky us we have long legs and made it!!!! The view was amazing. My favorite was the Seine which was lined by lights on boats, bridges, and the streets. Such a great way to end my 3rd to last day in Paris!

Midnight!!!

River Seine from the Eiffel Tower

Hi Mom!

 Tonight will mark picnic number six, as my friends Jordi and Sally are back in Paris today!!!!!! I'm excited to have one last picnic at the Eiffel Tower and soak up my last 2 days in Paris! See you in Indiana!!!!!

Lets Gooooo

See you in Indiana!

I spent many of my summer days as a child with Coleman Shipley; making up games, exploring our mothers' gardens,playing outside, or going to pool, but always staying in Indiana. I would have never imagined that'd I'd be spending two whole weeks in Europe with Coleman, exploring places that neither one of us had been to or showing him my new home across the pond!

Express Pass Paris

Coleman at the Eiffel Tower

Coleman and I had so many things to do in so little time! After picking him up from the airport (after a 5 hour flight delay) it was time for Coleman to see some of Paris and meet my new friends. With a successful french dinner in our bellies we headed out for the night in the Montmartre area of Paris. Aaron, Jordi, Harry and I showed Coleman a little spot behind the Moulin Rough, where you can watch the back of the windmill turn. We picked up some crepes and enjoyed the alternative view of the famous building. Ready to stretch his legs we climbed the many steps to  Sacre Coeur for a great view of Paris at night. To end the evening we watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle one last time and shut off it's lights (and picked up a second crepe!).

Making sure that I showed Coleman all my favorite things in two days we did a lot of walking! We walked around the central part of Paris passing Sciences Po, the Louvre, Hotel de Ville, peeking in Notre Dame, and stopping to get falafals of course! To say goodbye to Paris we had a night picnic at the Eiffel Tower with some friends and good food.

Berlin>Munich>Prague>Kunta Hora

Beers on the River

YAAM beach bar

East side Gallery

Saying goodbye to Paris wasn't too hard because we were off on a big adventure, first stop Berlin. Due to our 6 am flight Coleman and I decided to skip sleep that night. Arriving in Berlin hungry and sleepy we set off to find some good food and a place to take a nap! On day one we learned that potato pancakes are yummy and that beer in Germany is crazy cheap! With only one full day in Berlin we decided; why not walk across the center of the city? This little walk ended up lasting 6 hours but we had a lot of fun! Had a great beer on the river, walked by a lot of famous looking buildings, found a "beach bar", and concluded the trek at the East side Wall Gallery of the Berlin wall. Although our legs were tired I couldn't pass up meeting up with my friend Lauren from Sciences Po that night. We went to this funky bar called White Trash Fast Food; ordered giant beers, listened to a live "Glam Punk" show, and danced to awful music.

Garden #1

Radlar; don't be fooled

One 8 hour bus ride later we arrived in Munich. Unfortunately Cole and I struck bad luck here. Our last night ended up being fun though, We went two of Munich's indoor beer gardens to get out of the rain. At the last garden we made friends with two Americans from New Jersey. We ate giant pretzels and I learned that the yummy beer I ordered was so yummy because it was mixed with soda!






Lets Czech this out

Prague at night from mini Eiffel Tower

Typical Buildings

Before we knew it was were off to our final destination; Prague, and reunited with Aaron. This was my favorite place that we visited on the trip. I felt like I had walked into a fairy tail book! The buildings were painted in pastel colors with beautiful stone work, there were lots of bridges, and cute town squares. We spent four full days in Prague but the first and last were the most memorable. Day 1 we decided to go on the free city tour advertised by our hostel. When we approached the meeting point we noticed another tour guide off to the side with a much smaller crowd. We thought smaller group less fuss so we went with the women decked out in lime green and white eyeliner...... Within 5 minutes of the tour the three of us were exchanging looks of hesitation. Our tour guide was very upbeat and had some fun facts, but we were also having flash backs of first grade school field trips with the overly eager museum tour guide. Her words were drawn out with facial expression to followed suite, But the best part was her catch phrase; "lets goooooo". Long story short we should have ditched the knock off brand tour for the name brand hostel recommended tour. Our free tour ended with us being scolded for not giving a big enough tip.  We laughed it off and had great quotes for the rest of the trip! Day 4 we caught a train to a town called Kunta Hora about an hour away from Prague. Here we visited 3 churches, one famous for its use of human bones! The bone chapel used 40,000 skeletons to create art? for the church. Pretty creepy but also cool. After visiting the last church, St. Barabra Church which sat on cliff,  we took a hike down to the river. The three of us enjoyed being in a wooded area away from the city. The best part of the day was our walk back, where we discovered an old abandoned house. After an easy hop over the fence (sorry mom) we explored the property, also on a cliff, with a great view of the church.

Bone Chapel

Aaron, Coleman& St.Barabra

House& St. Barabra Church

Anyone home?

Back home in Paris

After saying "see you back in Indiana" to Coleman, I thought I was off to Venice. But sadly I  missed my big girl flight to Venice I was on my way back to Paris. Sad to miss my flight but happy to be back in Paris! The weather is great here and there is plenty of sunshine. I've been exploring the still widely unknown Paris with Harry, trying to check off all my my "must see places". And in a week I'll be on my way back to the South of France to meet Harry's mom! Getting excited, but savoring my last month here in France!                                                                                                                                                  

Harry rowing me at Bois Vincennes

Ninou our trusty boat

Travel Bug

Well let me start off by saying that a lot has happened in this past month! I've traveled to new places with my Mom, finished studying at Sciences Po, had to say goodbye to some amazing new friends, and today I packed up my little apartment room in Paris.

Besides exploring Paris, mom and I had a wonderful time in both Amsterdam and London, but both decided that we liked Amsterdam a lot more. I won't go into the full details of all of our adventures but will highlight a few of my favorite parts.

Lets make a run for it!

Mother's Day at Monet's Gardens

To start off our trip on the right foot mom and I had to run to board our plane to Amsterdam. You might be scratching your heads.. Teresa and Lily are such worry worts when it comes to time! Well the internet got in our way and made us print our boarding tickets before departure. Long story short we got kindly escorted to the front of the ticket line to get our passes, but then had to run to the gate. We got on the plane with 5 minutes to spare! Sorry mom!!!!!!!

Flowers Flowers Flowers

My hands down favorite day of the trip was going to the Keukenhof Gardens, the largest flower garden in the world! Not only did it smell good, every where you looked was beautiful.

My Paris

Seeing new places was a lot of fun, but I really enjoyed taking my mom to a few of my favorite spots around Paris. We window shopped (in the rain) in the fancy district of my school, went on a picnic at the Eiffel Tower, and went to my favorite museum Muse d'Orsay.

Summer Awaits

Although I'm packing up my small room in Paris, I'm not leaving Europe yet! Tomorrow morning I will go back to the airport once again, but this time to pick up Coleman!!!! I'm beyond excited to see my little bro. Then we're off to Berlin, Munich, and Prague. Once Coleman leaves I'm putting my big girl pants on and am spending two full days in Venice, by myself! Really looking forward to the rest of my stay here, and of course unknown adventures!

Never Say Never

I've got the Bieber fever now!!!!! Just Kidding

These past few weeks have been full of unexpected events that I thought would never happen!

Violin Metro Serenation

Last week I got onto the metro during its rush hour, 6 o'clock , to find myself surrounded by fellow metorers and a busker. Cool I thought, free show for the ride, little did I know that I would soon be part of the act! I was standing pretty close to the busker and when he started to play I smiled: bad move and number 1 rule on the metro; no smiling! Welp he figured he had a target and turned to me to start playing. Thankfully? Harry was there to record the whole event. As you can see I didn't know what to do with myself and was terribly embarrassed. Never did I ever think that I would be serenaded in Paris, let alone on the metro! He was good too!!! (Note everyone on the metro abides by the no smiling rule....) Sorry if it's upside down!

76 and humid

Before I left for Paris I prepared myself for the gloom and doom of grey skies and rain. Sunday was an exception to the rule. It was a beautiful day of 76 degrees full of sunshine and humidity, it was like I was back home in the Midwest, minus the mosquitoes. I ditched my homework and my lingering spring time cold for a tulip festival outside of Paris, and fully enjoyed being hot and sticky!

Facial Tattoos

Little did I know that Parisians experimented with body art, but I never expected to see facial tattoos. But also I never ever expected to see two individuals sporting them in the same week! The first one I spotted was on the metro and it was of a soaring eagle. The second was on my way to class and it was to elaborate for my to decipher! It covered most of the women's  face...

Rando French Friends

This past weekend I had the chance to hang out with more French people! But they just happened to be randos hanging out at Sacre Coeur at 1 am like my friends and me. I got to speak some french and enjoy a beautiful view with Parisians.

Class PARTY!!!!

Lastly, today my french teacher announced that we would be having a party for our last class on Thursday! Never did I ever think I'd get to have a class party in college, but at Sciences Po?!?! Crazzzzy this is clearly only happening because my French prof is the most amazing women in Paris.

Having Problems with the Smartboard as usual  

Spring Fever

It's hard to believe that today marks my halfway point in Paris! I have exactly three months left abroad and so much to do in those 90 days!

Top 5 Things I'm Looking Forward To:
1. Seeing my Mom! She's spending two weeks with me; going to flower gardens in the Netherlands, Big Ben in London, and much much more in Paris
2. My Coleslaw (Coleman) is coming to visit! No final plans but Germany and Czech Republic are in the works
3.Finishing Sciences Po: 3 more weeks of French style lectures!!!!
4.Weekend in Amsterdam with my favorite guy pals
5. The many unknown to me adventures I'm sure to have!

Well it's been almost a month since my last post so some of you might be wondering what I've been up to.

Oh so I am going to School?

Aix-en-Provence

The last weeks were an overload of school work! French test and 6000 words written over 3 papers. I had been coasting by all semester on a pretty easy street so school work shocked my system a bit! I had to write one essay in complete French format, so Welcome Week did prove to come in handy. Once I was done with my tests and essays it was time to have some fun!

France: Southside

I spent last weekend exploring the South of France, and falling in love with the area! Over all I was excited to see mass amounts of natural tree growth and grass!!!! Two things that you don't see often in Paris. I spent

Castle walls

View from the Castle

one day in Aix-en-Provence and had the chance to visit with a Grace Reynolds a fellow Bloomingtoner! It was nice to chat about home and hear about her experience aboard. Then I was off to Cadenet, a cute little town about 45 minutes away from Aix-en-Provence. The highlight here was climbing to an old castle! The view from the top was amazing and it was a perfectly sunny day. The next day was spent in the town next Cadenet, Lourmarin. It was very small town, but that made it even cuter! Lots of little boutique shops and nice restaurants. Everyone seemed to own a dog and not have anything else to do but sit in the sun and enjoy a nice meal. I hope that some day I can live like that! My last day in Cadenet was spent in the sunshine missing my flight home! All in all that was okay, because I was able to take the train back to Paris. The view was amazing and the train went so fast!

                            

                                 Street in Lourmarin 

Last day's view 

Now I'm back in Paris enjoying its beauty. Spring time is upon me, and I've got the fever!

Toto I don't think we're in Florida anymore: SB13 abroad

When I normally think of Spring Break I picture myself getting in the car for a long car ride down to some beach in Florida or shopping in the windy city of Chicago. But this spring break was totally different!

I spent 10 wonderful days and 4 plane rides split between Marrakech, Morocco and Madrid, Spain!

MOROCCO:

Place ben Youssef

Souks

How can I even begin?!?! I love love love love Marrakech! Such a beautiful city with the most friendly people (even if they are trying to buy you for camels!). The first day in the city was spent doing the major tourist things; tanneries(worst smell of my life), Place ben Youssef, and an old Royal Placace whom's name escapes me. Place ben Youssef was very lovely, it is an old school that is the closest looking thing to a mosque that tourist are allowed into. Our group of 9 girls also hit up the souks and the food stalls later that night. The souks are a spirit of their own! You get to haggle with the vendors for the best prices and everyone is trying to get to you go in their stalls; "nice girls, nice price", "student discount", but my all time favorite was, "everything's free!". You have to walk threw these windy paths that are packed full of different items for sale. The next day was spent getting a sun burn visiting some gardens. Day three and four were probably the most exciting though; I got to ride a camel!!! But before I got to ride a camel I had to take a 10 hour car ride to the desert. All the other travelers I talked to complained about this car ride but I loved it for two reasons; it was absolutely beautiful and I had an awesome driver Abdul. Abdul had been doing the tours for about 15 years and he knew so many cool things. He also knew all of the shop owners that we stopped at, and even called a police officer so he could speed back to Marrakech to get us back sooner! Once we got to the desert we rode camels for about an hour and arrived at our camp site. Our host was also an amazing man! He spoke; English  French, Spanish  and Bebber, but couldn't write his own name! He had learned all of this just from listening! He made us a delicious tagine and then sang us songs around a campfire. To end the night he gave us a blanket to watch "desert television" aka the stars! But the most exciting/scary part of this trip was waking up at 3 am thinking I was being attacked by desert thieves! There was an awful wind/rain storm that shook our tent violently  My New Zeland friend thought it was an earthquake! Although we ended up getting rained in on we had a mostly restful night! Days five and six were spent doing some shopping and hanging with new hostel friends! I already know that I  want to go back to Morocco!

Dining area

Driving view

Nadja, Bre, and I 

SPAIN:

Arriving in Spain was like going threw time travel! For starters we had to take a metro to get to the city. Once we arrived there were tall buildings, neon lights, and cross walks; things we hadn't seen for 6 days. I must admit that Madrid didn't thrill me as much as Marrakech, but it was still a fun city. Our first full day was spent on a walking tour put on by our hostel. Our guide was a lot of fun and knew a ton about the city. Although it was raining he knew how to keep us entertained and took us to a friend of his restaurant after the tour for some authentic Spain food; paella: cheesy rice with meat or seafood served in a deep dish pan. Very yummy! One cool thing about our hostel in Madrid was that they put on a happy hour from 9-10 every night that served free sangria and beer! Bre and I got to meet a lot of really awesome people there. On our final day in the city, and the nicest day in the city, we went to a really beautiful garden that was massive! We spent almost 2 hours walking around, but probably only covered a little more than half of it!

Our last ours in Spain were spent a small bar drinking cheap beer and playing truth or dare! Then it was off to the airport to catch our 6 am flight! 

I had so much fun this spring break! I didn't know what to expect out of my super spontaneous location selection, but I couldn't have asked for a better time!!!! Now I'm back in Paris where it's snowing :[ but hey....I'm still in Paris!