This year’s Easter weekend was one of the most memorable in my life so far. I hopped on a TGV train by myself and went to visit my cousin and her husband in the East of France. They live in a very small town called Challex, which is right on the border of France and Switzerland. Challex is absolutely adorable. It is completely surrounded by the Jura mountains and the Alps, so there is never a dull view anywhere you look around. Challex also makes its own wine, so there are also many vineyards surrounding it. Even though the vineyards were bare and I couldn’t see much of the mountains, I really loved the atmosphere Challex gave off. It was so refreshing to be in a small town again, enclosed by complete silence and beautiful landscapes. My cousins moved to the area four years ago and absolutely love it. After spending a few days with them, I can absolutley understand why they don’t want to leave!

Chateau de Chillon

When I arrived on Saturday morning, we left straight from the airport in Geneva, Switzerland to go see a castle in Montreux. I had never visited a castle before, so I was really excited to explore Châteaux de Chillon. The castle was built in the 12th century and is located on an island on Lake Geneva. It was made popular by Lord Byron’s poem The Prisoner of Chillon (1816) about a monk who was imprisoned there. Châteaux de Chillon is quite large, and it took a few hours to see the whole thing. My favorite parts of the castle were the dungeon, the chapel, and the weapons room. This castle is my cousins’ favorite to visit, and I would definitely recommend seeing it to anyone traveling to Switzerland.

I had no idea that I would be touring Switzerland for a whole day, so I was very happy to see Montreux and a completely different traditional Swiss town called Gruyères. This small town is home to the famous Gruyère cheese, which I tried for the first time and loved. My cousins believe that this town is the most beautiful they have ever seen, and I may have to agree with them. The town is situated a little higher into the mountains than Montreux, so I was amazed by how perfect the view of the mountains was. Gruyères is the perfect example of a postcard town. For dinner, we ate fondue and crème brûlée. This was another first for me, and I just fell in love with fondue. I’m already a big lover of cheese, so I’m not surprised that melting it just made me love it more.

Annecy

On Easter Sunday, we drove to a lovely town called Annecy, which is just south of Lake Geneva. Once again, I was shocked by the beautiful view in this town. Annecy is just North of Lake Annecy, and lining the lake are gorgeous mountains. To top it off, there is a castle downtown. What more could you possibly ask for? We spent the day taking in the sights around town and enjoying the little bit of sun while we could. Since it was Easter, I learned a little bit about how the French celebrate this holiday. Instead of the Easter bunny bringing eggs to the children during the night, the bells from Rome fly to France and bring them instead. How this is possible, I don’t know, but I like the creativity! Apparently French children also make nests outside of their homes for the bells to put the eggs in.

Another fun holiday that happened to be the next day was April Fool’s Day, and boy, do the French like celebrating that holiday. Somehow in Annecy, we stumbled upon a Poisson d’Avril festival. Basically on April 1st, the French (mainly children) go around secretly sticking paper fish on the backs of unsuspecting people. When the person finds the fish, they are called the Poisson d’Avril or the April Fish. Legend has it that in the 16th century, King Charles XIV changed the French calendar to the Gregorian calendar. Before this change, New Year’s Eve had been celebrated from March 25th to April 1st according to the Roman calendar. Those who hadn’t heard about the change and continued to celebrate New Year’s on April 1st were made fun of and called April Fish. I think this legend is hilarious, and I wish we celebrated this in the U.S. At the festival, they gave out fish stickers, and we had fun watching children slyly stick them on adults’ backs.

My cousins and I in the Alps

On my final day with my cousins, they took me to a town called Les Houches in the French Alps to see the mountains a little closer. We put on our snow shoes and hiked along the ski trails for hours. It was surprisingly warm up in the Alps because of the direct sunlight and the reflection off of the snow, and I ended up with a sunburn on my hands and the bottom half of my face. One thing that I’ll never forget is how we climbed a summit of a mountain. Although I’m not that great with heights and had to inch my way both up and down, I can proudly say that I’ve climbed a mountain. (Maybe not all the way up by myself, but I still climbed the summit of a mountain!) Before I went to the Alps, I thought that I had already seen some amazing sights that weekend. It wasn’t until I got up the mountain and looked up at Mont Blanc (the highest mountain in Europe and the 11th tallest in the world) that I knew I had seen something extraordinary. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful the view was from the top of that mountain, and I know that I’ll remember that moment for the rest of my life. The mountains have absolutely captured my attention, and I’m already dying to return as soon as possible.

I had such a wonderful time with my cousins Easter weekend. I experienced so many new and exciting things, and I’m very grateful that I was able to spend Easter with my family. I can’t wait for my next visit to Challex and the Alps! Maybe next time I’ll have the nerve to try my hand at skiing.

French Alps

Gruyères

The group with our host

France is known for having wonderful food, such as cheese and bread, but it is also known for its amazing wine. This week I had the chance to try a few different types of French wine with my program at a private wine tasting. The event was at a small restaurant called Tours de Cuisine in the eleventh district, where the owner taught us how to taste and examine wine properly. Overall, we tried three white wines and two red.

Each wine was served with a different type of food that was meant to complement the wine perfectly. For instance, with the first white wine called Revilly, we ate chevre (goat) cheese; with a red wine called La Mule, we ate a pâté spread with bread. Our host explained that French wine is always supposed to accompany food. Each region of France is known for one distinct type of wine and cheese, so if you are looking for something to eat with a certain type of wine, your best bet is to go with the type of cheese or other food that that region is known for! When I asked my program director more about this topic, she told me that the French will always serve food with wine, even plain potato chips. The point is that the food is supposed to be tasted directly with wine, giving it a completely different flavor.

The whole gang with our amazing program director, Shelley

Before this wine tasting, I had never realized how many different types of wine were made in France. Each region creates a totally unique flavor of wine by using different kinds of grapes and growing the grapes in a unique climate and soil. And each wine has its own distinct combination of look, smell, and taste! Our host taught us how to evaluate the wine by examining its color, clarity, and smell. He even taught us how to taste wine properly; apparently just drinking the wine isn’t enough! After you take a sip, you slurp the wine carefully in your mouth (while making a funny sound, of course). This creates oxygen in the wine, giving it a different taste than before.

After being exposed to really good French wine, it’ll be hard to go back to drinking cheap wine that you can find at the grocery store! I’m grateful that I was able to learn more about French gastronomy since eating food is France’s favorite passtime.

Last weekend, my program went on a weekend trip to Aix-en-Provence, which is a small town in the southern part of France. We left early Friday morning on a TGV train, which took a little over three hours to get to our destination. I had never taken a train before in my life, so I was pretty excited to see what it was like. The TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse = high-speed train) was just as cool as I’d expected. I was really surprised how fast the train went and how far we went in such a short amount of time. Let me put it this way: the TGV trains regularly reach up to 200 mph, which makes it the world’s fastest train system. I can’t wait until I take the TGV on my next weekend trip. The only downside to the train ride was that my ears kept popping when we went though tunnels, which happened to be pretty often.

When we arrived, I was immediately blown away by the view of the mountains from the train station. Aix-en-Provence is a very beautiful city that is tucked into a plain in a mountain range. The buildings looked pretty ancient, as do most of the buildings in France, and you can really sense the history of the city. One thing I really liked about Aix-en-Provence was the little pedestrian streets lined with shops, which reminded me of Brussels, Belgium. My group took a guided tour through the downtown area, and we saw a lot of old architecture and artwork from the 18th century inside every day buildings such as a bank and a grocery store.

One thing that really made Aix-en-Provence stand out from other European cities I’ve seen so far is its landscape. On Saturday, my group went for a hike up a mountain near the city, and boy, did we choose a beautiful day to be outside. I had been used to wearing a winter jacket, scarf, and hat in Paris since spring has not seemed to sprung yet (it snowed days after my last post about the great weather). On the mountain, the temperature definitely warmed up a little with the bright sun, and I was finally able to take off my jacket for a short time. Something that really surprised me this day was the number of “Bonjour”s that we heard as we were hiking. I just could not get over the fact that more than one stranger said hello to us! This simply isn’t done in Paris, where no one dares to make eye contact in a public area. It felt refreshing to see that the French are more similar to Americans than I thought.

During my stay in Aix-en-Provence, my group also got the chance to hear a reading called “L’Art et la Révolte by French rapper Abd al Malik. The show was essentially a poetry reading based on the work of Albert Camus (a French philosopher) accompanied by hip-hop/jazz music. I did enjoy listening to the music, but the reading was extremely hard to follow. Malik spoke French very quickly, and I could only catch a few words here and there. Overall, I’m glad that I was able to see his performance and do not regret attending the show.

Although the weather did not stay nice the entire weekend, I had a great time in the South of France. I especially loved bonding with my group and being surrounded by nature, which is pretty hard to find in Paris besides in a park.

The Pantheon

So much time has passed since I first stepped off a plane and into Paris, but sadly, for most of that time Paris has been covered with gloomy, grey skies combined with a somewhat nice day here and there. Miraculously, last Saturday the clouds parted and let the sun shine throughout the entire day! I couldn’t wait to shed my winter coat, run into the sunlight, and feel its warmth for the first time in months. I absolutely love spring. Not only is my birthday during this season, but it’s also because I enjoy watching nature come back to life after a seemingly endless winter.

To take advantage such nice weather, my friend and I decided to take a long walk around Paris. We had heard of a demonstration going on all around the city and thought it might be cool to participate. One thing that the French are known for is their demonstrations. Almost every week, you can find a huge crowd causing a scene on the streets with their slogans and picketing; Parisian’s always seem to find something to protest about. In January, a demonstration made headlines around the world due to the thousands of people protesting gay marriage. Just after I arrived in Paris, there was even a counter-rally in favor of gay marriage. (This was days before the government voted on legalizing gay marriage, which passed.)

The Seine River

The demonstration that I went to was called the Chaine Humaine (Human Chain in English) thats purpose was to protest the use of nuclear energy. From a nuclear power plant just to the West of Paris all the way to the East side of the city, there were people holding hands to form a human chain. We didn’t stay for long, but it was really cool to see so many people fighting for the same cause.

After grabbing a Nutella crepe, we left the Pantheon and headed West to stroll along the Seine. As we were walking, I couldn’t help but notice how familiar the scene before me seemed. I kicked the thought around for a minute and suddenly realized that that same moment had been shown in so many films before: the perfect sunny day in Paris along the river. Before I knew it, I heard an accordion in the distance. I smiled and thought, “So this is Paris.” I had finally stumbled upon that perfect day in Paris that everyone dreams about. A day that captures all every good stereotype about a place, and you just feel so happy to be in that spot at that very moment. Perfect weather, a warm crepe, the sounds of an accordion as you look over the Seine. How could it possibly get better than that?

Of course I do not live in a perfect world, and this did not turn out to be a perfect day. My friend and I ended up walking 4 1/2 hours around Paris, and by the time the sun set, my feet were killing me. We walked all the way to the Eiffel Tower to climb it for the first time, but of course the line was incredibly long since it was a Saturday. So while that perfect day in Paris may not be realistic, there are those special moments that I find myself pausing and realizing how lucky I am to be living here in one of the greatest cities in the world. Hopefully I’ll be able to find more of these moments as spring starts to head our way 🙂

Pont Alexandre III

Palais Royal

Lately I’ve been feeling a little couped up in Paris. While that may sound strange since I am, afterall, living in an amazing city, I know that I am only a short (and cheap!) train ride away from visiting another country. The itch to travel has definitely found its way under my skin, and the only thing that would satisfy it was a weekend trip to Brussels, Belgium. I left with two of my friends in my program bright and early Saturday morning on a four hour bus ride to Brussels. We slept most of the way there, so the early departure wasn’t too bad. One thing that surprised me on the ride there was how much France’s Northern countryside looks like the Midwest back in the U.S. All I could see were flat plains, highways, and a few small towns. It made me a little nostalgic for home, but that feeling was immediately dismissed when we arrived in Brussels.

Grand Palace

At first, I thought downtown Brussels looked a heck of a lot like Paris. After taking a closer look, I started noticing the differences between the two cities. While French is the official language of France, Belgium has three official langauges: French, German, and Dutch. The difference was mostly notable on the store and street signs around the city, as most of them had a French and Dutch translation. Another major difference between Paris and Brussels is the architecture. The buildings in Brussels have an altogether distinct look; many are tall, narrow, and have certain rustic look that is very different from French architecture. The Grand Palace and the Palais Royal were particularly breathtaking, as they are both absolutely huge!

Besides beautiful buildings, another thing Brussels has plenty of is museums. I arrived on a particularly great day to see them; that night there was an event called Museum Night Fever where you could hop on a shuttle bus and go to 23 museums around the city just for 12 euros. The museums were open from 7:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m., and there was even an after party from 1:00 to 6:00 a.m. While my friends and I planned on going to a few museums, we ended up only going to the Museum of Natural Sciences and then straight to our hostel where I practically collapsed from exhaustion. Sight seeing can really take a toll on your body!

Eating waffles in Brussels

The one thing that I absolutely loved about Brussels was the food. Belgium is known for being the birth place of waffles, fries, and Godiva chocolate, and you can definitely tell this from the amount of food vendors in the touristy areas. Everywhere you turn, there is another waffle vendor or a chocolate shop. I personally love waffles and chocolate, so I knew that I would have a great time in Brussels as soon as I arrived. The waffles tasted like pure heaven. While I love a good Belgian waffle in the U.S., nothing could compare to the freshly made waffles that I ate here. One was stuffed with choclate, and the other was piled high with strawberries, bananas, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce. Needless to say, that last waffle held my appetite over for a good amount of the day.

Overall, I had a great time in Brussels. It was nice being able to speak French in another country and not worrying about how I was going to communicate with people. We’ll see how that goes when I travel to Italy during spring break! At the end of the weekend, I was grateful to come back to Paris, to not have to look a map 24/7 to know where I am, and to see a few familiar faces. After being outside of France for the first time, I think Paris is really starting to grow on me.

Manneken Pis, the famous little peeing boy

Tunnel leading to the cemetery

Last weekend I visited a unique cemetery in the 14th district called the catacombs. Like the name suggests, the cemetery is in a system of underground tunnels, but what makes it truly bizarre is the way the bodies are arranged. The bones of about six million people are neatly arranged along the walls for all to see.

At the end of the eighteenth century, cemeteries in Paris were becoming overcrowded and a serious health problem for the city. From April 7th, 1786 until 1788, the bones from every cemetery in Paris were transfered to the underground quarries, always accompanied with a blessing from a priest. In 1810, the catacombs were renovated, and the bones were then neatly arranged with a few tombstones and decorations. The cemetery eventually became a tourist attraction in 1874. Fun fact: Victor Hugo used the catacombs in his 1862 novel Les Miserables, and you can see the tunnels (minus the bones for some reason) in the new film, as well.

Inside the catacombs

While I have seen my share of horror films, being in these tunnels with the bones of six million people was a little unsettling. At the time, I had no idea just how many bodies were down there, and when I think about it, six million sounds about right. Like any other great attraction in Paris, you have to walk up and down many stairs to get to your destination. The tunnels themselves were very small; the ceilings must be less than seven feet high, and the walls are only a few feet apart. I would not recommend veturing down there if you are afraid of small spaces! Or skeletons, for that matter.

Being in the presence of so many bodies was a rather creepy but humbling experience. I was reminded that someday I will be put into the ground just like the millions of bodies in the catacombs. While many who visit this cemetery are respectful of the dead, many others are not: there is a good amount of graffiti on the tombstones and even on a number of skulls. It made me very sad to see how others want to right their initials on a person’s final resting place and even on the person’s own skull. The cemetery was also closed for four months in 2009 due to vandalism, which shows how little respect some people have for the dead.

If you ever visit Paris and want to see something different, I would definitely recommend visiting the catacombs. The line was a little long since my friends and I went on a Satuday, but I’m sure the lines are shorter on weekdays. Just make sure you’re ready to climb a lot of stairs and to whisper for a while, and you’ll be prepared to visit the strangest cemetery in Paris!