Pockets of Blue

France

Posted by alalonde Fri, 17 Feb 2006 02:46:00 GMT

Last Friday Kevin and I embarked on our long-envisioned trip to France.  Kevin had mentioned wanting to go to Normandy to check out the beaches and museums and whatnot to appease his self-proclaimed "WW2 geek" self; I figured it would be a cool trip, and said "what the hell."  So after not mentioning it for a few months we decided a post-finals trip was in order.  In typical Alec fashion, I organized the logistics for the trip: transportation, accomodation.  We would both use rail passes and stay in cheap hotels/hostels.  After discussing the matter with our French friends, we decided to stay in Caen, probably the largest city in Normandy, and then stay a couple nights in Paris.  After all, you can't go to France without visiting Paris.

Unfortunately we had to take separate trains, since my rail pass didn't include Benelux (Belgium + the Netherlands + Luxembourg). He booked a night train, while I couldn't since I had to go way the hell down to Frankfurt and then cut over so I wouldn't go through Belgium.  This added an extra four hours to the trip, which sucked. Thirteen hours on three separate trains wastes a good chunk of a day.

At around four PM we rendezvoused in our hotel in Caen, then promptly took off to check out this castle in the middle of the city.  It was pretty sweet, and enormous.  The walls were fully intact and the (dry) moat remained.  Soon thereafter it got dark so we started wandering the city scouting out restaurants.  After walking around a corner, we saw this:

Just in case you had any doubt as to the heritage of my name.  Oh, and a Brasserie is a type of Restaurant (actually we never quite figured out what the distinguishment meant).  It even had the space after "La" like I was taught to spell it.  However it was too expensive for our tastes so we ended up having dinner near the castle, an exquisitely delicious three-course meal complete with wine.  I had this potato-ground sausage concoction and Kevin tried the duck.  Both were fantastic.  My escargot and sorbet were equally delicious; in fact, I have never had a finer sorbet in my life.  The hostess even called up a friend who spoke English so we could have the menu translated.  I didn't see this as necessary but Kevin actually wanted to know what he was eating.  I just assumed anything I ordered would be fantastic.  I think I would have been right.

The next day we got up early and headed to the car rental place down the block.  After 20 minutes we were cruising around Caen in a Renault Twingo.  It was a very basic car, but sufficient.  We had a couple pastries at a nearby bakery (you haven't had a real croissant until you've tried a French one, they are amazing).  Afterwards we went to a WW2 museum, and then took to the highway to the beaches.  Unfortunately speed limits exist in France so I only pushed the Twingo up to 160 or so, briefly.  Not driving for four months made me giddy.  It was fun.

So we went beach-hopping for the rest of the afternoon.  It was really interesting; remnants of most parts of D-Day had been preserved, from bombed-out fields to German artillery to the artificial port and bridges constructed by the allies.  Pictures are abound in the photo album at left.

The next day we took off for Paris.  Our amazing streak of good weather came to end that day (I had been 4 for 4 with weather in France) and it ended up being rainy and/or cloudy the entire time we were in Paris. After adeptly navigating the Metro we found our hostel and checked in. The hostel was tiny with about 5 floors of rooms, but only 2-3 rooms per floor.  It was noticeably cramped and our room hadn't even been cleaned before we got it.  Whatever, it was cheap.  So we took off for lunch and to do some sightseeing.  First stop was the Louvre.

The Louvre is one of the, if not the most well-known museum in the world, and for a reason.  The place is absolutely gigantic.  It takes up about five city blocks.  However, I wasn't really that impressed.  I can only see depictions of Jesus so many times before I'm bored to tears.  And there was so much to see it was rather overwhelming.  Somehow I wandered into the Italian wing, which was noticeably more popular.  I didn't even know the Mona Lisa was there until I saw the crowd of people gawking at it.  I was unimpressed: it's about the size of a pillow and I had seen a million prints beforehand. Not sure what the big deal is with that painting. 

Afterwards we checked out the Arc d'Triumphe, this enormous arch built to celebrate the French revolution.  Surrounding it is the largest traffic circle I have even seen, with room for about 15 lanes of cars. Watching the traffic was hilarious since there aren't any lanes for cars and about 10 exits on the outside; we witnessed about five near-accidents in as many minutes.

Next was the Eiffel Tower.  We approached it from the Metro so it really snuck up on us; when turning a corner it just presented itself about 100 yards away.  By this time it was dark and the Tower was lit up spectacularly.  We declined to go up to the top since it costed 11€.  Friggin tourist attractions anyway.  We only basked in the glow of the Tower for a few minutes since it was cold and raining, and subsequently headed back to the hostel to watch the Olympics over a few (overpriced) beers.

Having already seen the main things we wanted to see, we slept in on Monday.  At around 10 we went to a bakery for some breakfast goodies, and in the process of ordering I left my wallet on the counter.  I didn't notice this until we had left, and started freaking out.  After a quick deduction of possibilities as to where the hell I had left it, we went back to the bakery, where the cashier had seen it and graciously placed it behind the counter.  A string of "Merci"s later, we hit the Metro again. First stop: cemetery.  "Why the hell would you go to a cemetery" you ask?  Why, to pay my respects to Jim.  Morrison. And apparently the guy's still quite popular, because there were a couple dozen bouquets of flowers on his grave.  Afterwards we trained over to the Notre Dame.  It was remarkably similar to the other large churches I have visited throughout Westerm Europe: large, ornate, and swarming with tourists.  We didn't stay long, and after lunch, walked about 50 blocks to the Musee d'Orsay.  This was actually the museum I had had in mind when we went to the Louvre, since it has more of the stuff I'm interested in.  Unfortunately it's closed on Mondays.  This pissed me off quite a bit since we had walked for about 40 minutes to get there, and instead resumed wandering the streets of Paris.  I tired of this after a few hours and we headed back to the hostel to shoot the shit with the French bartender and watch more Olypics.  That night Kevin took off on his night train back to Osna and I hung out with a few backpacking Aussies and Canadians down at the bar. 

I wasn't really impressed with Paris; in fact, I enjoyed Caen more. Maybe it was the weather, maybe the fact that I got to drive a car, or maybe because it was cheaper and less touristy.  In a broader sense, though, I really liked France, and solidified my outlook on it's people, cuisine, and appreciation of the finer things in life.  And I can't get enough of that super sexy French accent.  Yum.