mon voyage + l'école || my trip + school

hi world! i'm currently sitting in my apartment with my roommate olivia. we're supposed to be doing homework...but blogging and talking are much more appealing.

so here's a little bit more detail on my trip last week. get ready for a long one, people. there are a whoooole lot of words in this thing.

sorry for the lack of photos...the wifi isn't the greatest around these parts.

saturday : lyon
we got on the train and went to lyon. once there, we had lunch (alicia and i split our sandwich and dessert - it has become tradition! and nate found a snail in his sandwich, which was weird.), went to some roman ruins, checked out a chouette || cool museum, and walked to an amazing cathedral overlooking all of lyon. it's called la fourviere and was dedicated to the virgin mary after the influenza epidemic of the 1800s passed over lyon. as we walked up the hill on a little cobblestone street to la fourviere, the mass was being played over loudspeakers and we were able to listen to what sounded like angels singing. it was magical. then we went to dinner and later that evening, a group of us walked around lyon a little bit. it was mostly boring because our hotel was in the business district...which meant a train station and a lot of business-y things. so we turned around and went back.

la fourviere - note the guilded mary!

alicia and i overlooking lyon

sunday : lyon to le puy-en-velay
got up, on the metro, and found our way to the little ward in lyon. it was in the upstairs of a warehouse-ish building. we started with relief society, so things were a little backwards, but it was ok. the relief society president (who's name i can't remember and i feel terrible) asked if any of the byu girls would like to say la prière || the prayer. and somehow my hand was in the air? i'm not really sure what happened there. i've never been so terrified haha but i think it went well. i was amazed the entire time by the amount of children there. i felt like it was one huge game of "pass the baby." i loved how close everyone was and how accepting and welcoming these women were of us. for all three meetings, i think i was on the verge of tears. not because i was sad, but because it reminded me so much of home - it was such a family. i wanted to cry in a good way. i could see how happy the deacons and priests were when they had to prepare extra bread and water for the sacrament. i know that feeling. i know how great it feels when you have to prepare more than what you were expecting. i loved absolutely everything about this ward. i left my heart in the upstairs of that warehouse-ish building. after church, we got on our bus and drove for 2 hours to le puy-en-velay. i don't think i can describe just how much i loved that place. there were windy cobblestone streets, flags hanging between buildings, flowers in windowsills, and cathedrals set atop the dormant volcanoes. i LOVED it. we went on what dr hulbut (heretofore referred to as dr h) called "a stroll" but really ended up being a 3 hour long trek up and down mountains. i loved the cathedral saint michel d'aiguilhe. it is a 1,000 year old cathedral set atop this dormant volcano after saint michel completed his pilgrimage to saint jacques de compostella. it was such an amazing little place. after exploring for a while, we headed back into le puy and ate dinner, then sage, annie, alicia, and i had some girl talk. good stuff.

alicia, me, & cori outside the church

silly girls

saint michel d'aiguilhe

fall 2012 group :)

maddie, kayla, kaitlin, alicia, annie, cori, olivia, me, mallory, lucy

monday : le puy-en-velay to rodez
we had to get up at the butt crack of dawn. we weren't super excited...but the day was absolutely amazing. we attended a 7 am mass as the beginning of our pilgrimage (i say pilgrimage...but really we only did 15 miles over two days. so many people do the full thing, which is sometimes 3 to 4 months of hiking!) and it was so interesting to listen and try and understand what was happening. some of it i did understand. my favorite part of the whole thing was when a nun was reading prayers for members of the congregation. before each one, she sang "oh père eternal, attend les prières qui monte de nos coeurs" or something to that effect. (eternal father, hear the prayers that ascend from our hearts.) and then we began our hike. it was through the most beautiful countryside i've ever seen. it was all green and luscious and sometimes there were cows. cows in france are brown with these huuuge eyes. they're much prettier than the cows along the i5 in california. haha. when we ended our hike, we were bussed to a little town where we were served lunch. it was here that i realized i had been wearing my shirt on backwards. all day. oops? after hiking and physical activity, i'm usually not very hungry. food just doesn't really ever sound appealing. but this was a nice restaurant and they had a pre-fixed menu for us, so we had to eat what we were served. our starter course was a puff pastry filled with gravy, escargot, and morel mushrooms. i actually liked it. then we had pork and potatoes, then a cheese course, and then dessert. and then we got back on the bus to rodez. after a few hours on a windy bus...the snail and mushroom pastry wasn't quite as good any more. after showering, i still felt kinda queasy, so alicia scratched my back while i contemplated throwing up. but i finally decided not to, and then we headed to dinner. so much food. at this dinner, i was served fish. and do you know what? i actually ate it. normally i don't like fish. but this stuff was fairly reasonable. yes, this is where you all applaud me. after dinner, some of us went to mcdo's || macdonald's (which is green, not red) for sodas because they just sounded so good after lots of weird food.

the scenery

me, heather, mallory, caitlyn

backwards shirt

puff pastry with escargot and mushrooms

tuesday : conques to figeac
got up, were bussed to our starting point, and hiked 5 miles through the countryside to conques, the most quaint little medieval village built into the side of a hill. the cathedral there is the best preserved example of romanesque architecture in france. it was beautiful. i loved this day. when we were leaving the treasury of the cathedral, it started raining, so alicia, caitlyn, kaitlin, and i danced in it and jumped and loved it. then we were bussed to figeac, which was another amazingly charming little town. i explored with cori and alicia. after a while, i wanted to go see a cathedral so i went on my own and it was great. i ran into dr. and sister h up there, and i got to talk to dr. h about my pilgrimage experience. the entire time it had been bugging me - why do these people backpack for 4 months to a cathedral where there are only possible relics of saint john? here are some of my conclusions : it is an act of faith. their faith is so strong that it doesn't matter if the relics are real or not. they are willing to endure extreme physical hardship to show their complete dedication and devotion. sitting in the cathedrals with soaring ceilings, my place in the universe and in history was put into perspective. one of my favorite parts of the cathedrals are how worn down the stone floors and steps are. so many people have walked there over hundreds of years, and who am i? just another number? but somehow i matter, too. somehow god cares about me, even though millions and billions have come before me. it also helped me appreciate the lds church settings more. it was neat to compare these cathedrals to the ward in lyon. in lyon, i immediately felt at home. it was so personal and close and warm. i never felt lost. our dinner was amazing in figeac. we had sweet and sour quail and a carrot and honey mousse, to name a few of the things on our plates! it was deeeelish.

alicia, nate, me, olivia, maddie

conques! kayla, kaitlin, maddie, alicia, nate, cori, me, annie, olivia

sharing an éclair with leash

caitlyn, kaitlin, alicia, me. we love rain.

figeac

wednesday : figeac to sarlat
got up, were bussed to pech-merle. it was way cold, but we got to explore the caves of pech-merle and see 24,600 year old cave paintings. it blows my mind that there are things that old that are still in amazing condition. and that people are allowed to go into the actual caves to see them! they have millions of visitors each year, and still the paintings are in great condition. after that, we went to bénac, where we started our 15 km (9 mile) canoeing adventure! alicia and i shared a canoe and had our fair share of struggles. it was highly amusing. at one point, we were already behind the rest of the group when we accidentally t-boned a canoe of french people. we apologized and tried to paddle away, but the man in the boat kept grabbing our canoe and yelling, "attaque! attaque! pirates!" ("attack! attack! pirates!") oh, it was so delightfully hilarious. it was so awesome to be canoeing along the dordogne, looking at the beautiful scenery, when suddenly up would pop a castle. no big deal or anything, though. then we went to sarlat where we got to eat foie gras with our dinner. then we explored sarlat. i may or may not have gotten us lost. oops. and i may or may not have slipped down a hill and gotten covered in white dirt. oops. and we may or may not have been hit on by drunk frenchmen (don't worry dad, nate and noah were with us). i joked that they felt bad for me being covered in dirt and thought it would boost my confidence. i still think it's hilarious. then we went back to our hotel and decided we needed a movie night. caitlin and i watched "while you were sleeping" and fell asleep. ironic? perhaps a little.

alicia and i ready to canoe

noah, lucy, mallory, cori, nate, alicia, me

just a castle, nbd

unreal.

thursday : sarlat to angers
got up and explored sarlat a little bit more with mallory and annie in the rain. it was so pretty, even though everything was gray. we got on our bus and drove to lascaux ii, where we saw 15,000 year old cave paintings. holy cow. mind still blown. then we spent 5 hours on the bus driving to angers. i took photos of people sleeping because that's what i do and titled them, "the sleepers." we had a lovely dinner all to ourselves in a restaurant where we all gasped when our dessert came out, then we explored the town a little bit with dr and sister h, and then we had story time with nate. it was entertaining.

annie, alicia, sage, me at lascaux ii

the sleepers || nate and alicia

the sleepers || me looking rather dead

the sleepers || cori, how do you do that??

bridge in angers

friday : puy du fou
puy du fou is a french medieval amusement park. it was super cool. there were lots of shows that had these sets that really were so well done. we went to shows about joan of arc, the vikings, gladiators, crazy birds, and the final spectacle was the night show that acted out the history of france in the region where we were. it started at the renaissance and continued to present day. there was a water show, a light show, fireworks, music, singing, dancing, and all things wonderful. it was so full of french pride! i really liked getting to experience that part, too.

noah, alicia, annie, nate, heather, lucy, sage, olivia, mallory, me, cori, caitlyn at puy du fou!

sage, lucy, annie, me, and alicia at the coloseum!

sharing yet another sammie

saturday : angers to paris
saturday morning we were able to explore a little bit more of angers. we got to go to angers castle and see the apocalypse tapestry. it was so so so cool. we had worksheets with scriptures from revelations and we had to fine the corresponding pieces. i loved looking for all the little details. the light was really dark because the tapestries had faded a little, but you could see the details if you looked hard enough. dr h pointed out that because of separation of church and state, there were no corresponding scriptures for the panels. i thought it was interesting that the separation is so severe that you can't even have any verses to describe what is happening in each of the panels. we also got to explore the castle a bit. it was such a nice day out that i didn't want it to end. i wanted to sit on the castle wall in the sunshine for the rest of forever. then we got on a train back to paris. we had dinner and then had to navigate our way through metros and trams at 11 pm to dr h's apartment to drop off our luggage before church on sunday. it was a little bit of a mess, but our boyfriend (nate) did an excellent job getting us all there in one piece. alicia and i were roommates and it was such the funniest night. we stayed up until 2:30 am...oops. but it was great. love that girl.

me, carine, olivia, kaitlin, annie on the castle wall at angers

kaitlin, carine, me

kaitlin, alicia, me

sunday : church and host mom
on sunday we went to church in the paris ward. it was just like i remember it. well, not that i saw a whole lot of it when i was here 5 years ago, but the building looks like what i remember it looking like. then we had lunch at dr and sister h's apartment. sister h made some amazing quiche, let me tell you what. then we all got shipped out to our host families. it was really sad. i will be completely honest, i did not want to come back. i'm still not sure i want to be in paris. don't get me wrong - paris is amazing. i just had one of the best weeks of my life and i wasn't quite ready for it to end. anyway, our host mom lives right by la défense, the business district. olivia (my roommate) and i each have our own rooms in a 7th floor penthouse. it is so ritzy. and our mom is really nice! her name is madame dard. the only real downside is that she has un chat || a cat that loves my room a little too much. would it be bad if it "went missing?" haha. but seriously.

view from my window

"le petit chat" || "little cat" he has no name.

monday : first day of school
we had our first day of school. at 10 we had our intro class. it was good! we got lunch at this bakery right by the institute building. alicia and i lovingly nicknamed it "the gay-kery" because it is run by a group of gay men who are hilarious and so nice! we ate lunch outside the pompidou centre and then headed back for our institute class. i have a 20 minute presentation that i have to give on monday...wah. but at least i get it done with first! then we did a little exploring of the city and came home to do some homework.

tuesday : art history
I LOVE MY ART HISTORY CLASS. emphasis on LOVE and ART HISTORY CLASS. just in case you didn't catch that the first time you read it. our professor is super cool and we're going to be having classes in the different museums and walking around paris. i'm so excited. i didn't have any art history courses my sophomore year and sitting in the classroom discussing art was making me so excited. and happy. and smiley. after class alicia and i split another sandwich (like always) and then kaitlin, carine, and i explored a little. then annie, sage, olivia, alicia and i explored the metro stop châtlet. it's the biggest metro stop in the entire world. it's a mall, a metro and train stop, and all sorts of other things. so crazy. now olivia and i are supposed to be doing homework...but it's not going super well. hahaha. tomorrow i have my first french class! i'm excited. our class is 202 and we only have 3 people total. dit quoi? || say what? it's me, annie, and kaitlin. after that, alicia and i are going on a walking tour from our little book of paris walks. i'm super excited.

sharing yet another sandwich.

me, heather, and corine at the institute! it was the second day of school photo...but we pretended like it was the first.

sunset from my window this evening

well world, i'm off to explore some more! or maybe just do some homework. either way, a bientôt! || see you soon!

and if you made it to the end of this post, you get four sparkle points. because that, my friends, is impressive.