Walking Through Monet's Gardens

(Millie, this post is for you. I thought about you often as I walked around and told Mom, "She would LOVE it here!")

One of the days I was in Paris with my mom and sister, we took a little trip northwest of Paris to a town called Giverny where impressionist painter Claude Monet lived and worked. Monet has always been one of my all-time favorite painters and I was excited to walk through his famous gardens. 

We had a "picnic" on the bus on the way over. (Sophie, Jérémie, don't those piggies look good?!) Thanks, Mom, for the quality picture! :)

The first thing we did when we arrived in Giverny was to visit Claude Monet himself. Handsome guy, eh?

The second thing we did was celebrate Monet's talent by eating some delicious French chocolate!

That's my I-love-chocolate-and-am-so-hungry-please-hurry-up-and-take-the-picture face!

But look! We're able to take normal pictures, too!

After saying hello to Monet, and having a little dessert, it was off to see his house and gardens. I had accidently changed my camera setting to fish bowl (when would anyone ever use that feature on purpose?) and so the first few pictures I took look rather interesting!

There were so many flowers!

In the background of this picture is Monet's house.

The lily pond/water garden was my favorite part.

I love it when the line of reflection is blurred!

It was so easy to see where Monet got his inspiration. The place was magical!

By the end of our visit, we were so thankful we hadn't worn shoes like this:

Mom, Melissa, and I all thought that if you're ever in the area, a visit to Monet's house and gardens is totally worth it!

Tour de France and St. Malo

Tuesday morning Melissa and I set off for St. Malo to spend the day at the beach. We were looking forward to a day of sunshine and relaxation. St. Malo is a famous, old, walled port city on the English Channel. It is at St. Malo that famous explorer Jacques Cartier was born and set sail for Canada.

When Melissa and I arrived near the old walled-in part of the city, we saw a sign for le Tour de France! Sure enough, shortly after we started noticing policeman blocking off roads. I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of any biker-looking person I saw! They were everywhere! 

Some were walking their bikes.

Some were at cafés.

 Some were strolling with no bike at all.

 Some were getting in some extra seaside biking practice!

So, I actually don't know/think any of the above were related to le Tour de France, but the atmosphere was still so very exciting. Leaving the city later that afternoon, we saw a lot of advertisements for the race.

 Do you see the Tour de France written on the side of the glasses?

 This was advertising a kind of drink.

 Again, proof we were in close proximity to the famous race.

I found out later that the bikers weren't reaching St. Malo (the 10th stage of the race) until later in the evening.

St. Malo is beautiful. 

We had a little beach-side picnic.Yes, I put chips in my sandwich. Very un-French.

These birds were terrifying. While we were having our picnic lunch they keep swooping down trying to get food. I felt like I was in a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Birds. One actually came down and grabbed onto the baguette I was eating, but was unable to fly off with it.

The weather was perfect--mid 80's with a breeze. After getting nice and warm, Melissa said we had to get in the water. It took A LOT of coaxing from Melissa for me to get all the way submerged. The water was freezing. Eventually your body goes numb and then you no longer mind the arctic temperature! Dad, you would have loved it. 

This swimming pool is built on the edge of the beach so when it's high tide, the pool fills up with seawater. Rather nifty, huh? 

Do you see the two diving boards? One is a high dive the other one, a little bit more to the right, is a really really high dive. Since Melissa made me get in the water, I made her go off the "low" dive while I went off the high dive. Erika, you would have HATED it. The steps were slippery with moss growing on the stones and when I walked off (my legs were too weak to jump) I thought I was never going to hit the water. I had to go a second time, just to prove that I could. It was just as frightening as the first! 

Here's a close-up of the diving boards. From here it does not look very high at all, but take my word for it, it is.

After spending some quality time in the sun, we wandered along the top of the wall, and then through town.

 Jacques Cartier, himself.

 I think I'm going to go through flower withdrawal in Emporia.

I had the best ice-cream in the world at this place. I'm not exaggerating. 

It was such a fun day. Stéphanie, I think it's so cool that you are from St. Malo! 

Let Freedom Ring!

The 4th of July and Memorial Day are my favorite secular holidays. They scream summer, sunshine, and patriotism! This year Melissa and I decided to host an Independence Day Party. It was the first time I've ever celebrated the 4th of July in France and I was super excited! Melissa and I spent all day baking, cleaning, planning games, and singing along to loud patriotic music! We told our guests to come wearing either red, white, or blue, which I didn't think would be too big of a problem considering the French colors are blue, white, and red. 

We put balloons on our apartment door! 

The evening started with typical American games. 

We had a 3-legged race and a wheelbarrow race. 

The guys were so fast I couldn't get a good picture in time!

Back inside, we divided into teams of girls v guys and played a game of American trivia. The questions/challenges ranged from "What is the capital of the United States?" (worth 100 pts) to "Who were the first 5 presidents and in order?" (worth 300 pts) to "Sing God Bless America karaoke-style." (worth 500 pts). 

They had to say the Pledge of Allegiance with their hand over their heart! 

I was really impressed with our guests' knowledge of American history and trivia. I think they know more than my students. 

The bonus question, worth 1000 points, was the hardest question for both teams: "Name the city where every member of the Dorsch family lives and who lives there." 

The ladies triumphed and won pretty American flag pencils.

The food was good, the company even better, and Melissa and I had a wonderful evening laughing and sharing American joy and tradition. 

If you look closely at the blue cupcake on the bottom left, you can see that it's winking at you. Thank-you Jérémie for making a winking flag!

To end the evening, a couple of us went to see Man of Steel. We may not have had fireworks at our 4th of July party, but we had Superman! A French-speaking Superman! :)  Melissa and I were so proud of his Kansas roots and cheered when our state was mentioned in the movie! 

Do you like our earrings?

Basketball, Exercise, and a New Roommate!!!

One of the evenings while Melissa was gone, Joel invited me to come watch him and his buddies play basketball. Since I had just been working on a unit for school called "French sports and past-times," I thought it would be fitting to witness some first-hand.

In between taking pictures of the guys shooting hoops, I just had to steal over to the football field to see what was going on.

Right next to where the guys were playing, there were these strange playground objects. I had no idea what they were for until I saw a guy and girl doing exercise moves (muscle toning, to be exact) on this one.

I'm assuming this one is for working out as well. Any suggestions on how to use it? I was rather perplexed, myself.

There are some things in life I just don't understand. For instance--why place a bench facing the fence 3 feet away? 

Thanks, Joel, for bringing me along to witness your mad basketball skills! 

On a completely different note... 

Tonight I get my very first roommate since being an independent dweller here in the country of the French! WOOHOO!!!!! I am so excited for MELISSA to come stay with me in my apartment here in France! I have a whole list of things I'm going to show her around Rennes!  :)