Une Journée à Giverny

A few weekends ago my friends and I took a trip to Giverny to visit Monet's house and gardens. Meeting up with friends here is quite the experience every time. None of us have French phones, and I don't have an international plan, so unless we have wi-fi it's impossible to communicate. It's funny how reliable we all are on technology and it's kind of like a game to not have access to it. We learned pretty quickly that if we haven't been somewhere before, we meet at a place we all know and then travel together. Much easier that way. We are slowly getting the hang of this! It's funny to think that our parents, grandparents, etc. didn't have cell phones and they did just fine. Pathetic.

Anyways, we found each other, got to the train station, barely made our train and ended up standing the whole time (insiders tip: get there early!!) but made it to Vernon in one piece. From Vernon we took the bus to Giverny and spent a lot of time walking around the little town. It's so nice to get out of Paris on the weekends. I never thought I would say that but it's true!

 I am obsessed with these Dahlia's. They sell them in the flower markets here in Paris too and there is nothing like them. 

 Don't I look French?? Oh the joys of not having your luggage.

Monet's house and gardens were stunning. These pictures don't even do it justice. If you are in Paris: GO! The pond was my favorite part. I felt like I was in one of his paintings and I think I could sit there for hours and never get sick of it. Giverny is truly beautiful. 

Three Weeks in Paris

I cannot believe it's been almost three weeks since I got here! I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off but let me catch you up..

Of course on this trip I had to have flight and luggage drama. I wasn't going to make my connection in Chicago so the airline tried to put me on an earlier flight. Long story short, I didn't make the flight but my luggage did. Luckily, I had time to run home and pack a few extra things since it took them more than a week to get my bags to me. It was a total joke. But, I made it to Paris in one piece and my luggage came shortly after its' rendezvous in Chicago.

 Luxembourg Palace 

 Notre Dame // The leaves changing at the Tuileries 

 The Tuileries - the French sure know how to landscape!

The first day we had orientation with my program. They went over all the little things that go on in Paris and just gave us a general overview. The most popular topics were pick pockets and female harassment. Oh, and we were told multiple times how expensive it is to replace keys (hundreds of euros!). I spent most of the week just wandering around Paris with other people from my program and getting to know the city a little bit.

Palace Garnier

On Friday we went to Fontainebleau, a Palace a little outside of Paris. It was so beautiful and such a nice break from the city.

One of the chapels in the Palace - it never ceases to amaze me the amount of detail that was put into these places

On Monday, classes started and I think everyone in my program was in denial. French is not an easy language to learn. I am determined to soak up as much as I can while I am here, no matter how hard it is.

I always heard how hard it was to adjust to living in another country but you are never really prepared for it. Being in Paris for vacation and being here for three months are two completely different things. I was kind of waiting to write this post until things settled down for me because I did not want to seem bitter or ungrateful to be here. There are some days where I hate the metro, I am sick of the people coming up and trying to scam me, and I just really want to be back in the states. Then nostalgia sets back in. Paris really is so beautiful. There are interesting places with loads of history around every corner, you can go buy a bottle of wine and sit on the Champs de Mars and gape at the glittering Eiffel Tower or spend the day getting lost in one of the Arondissements. I guess wherever you are there are always going to be those little things that are annoying or inconvenient but Paris isn't such a bad place to be.


(So sorry for the crappy photo quality on most of these - I have not been toting my DSLR around with me but I am getting better!)

à Bientôt!
-Amy