Mont St. Michel

I think I've lost interest in having a blog, but that does not mean I am not doing things of interest.  Recently I took a trip to Lille in northern France, and then Rennes in western France.  These pictures are from Mont St. Michel outside of Rennes, which is one of the 100 wonders of the world.  I guess I am starting to work on that list... 

  

Le Puy

Daytrip to Le Puy-en-Velay: a small city described by Frommer’s guidebook as "one of the most extraordinary sights in France."  Le Puy, originally founded by a cult of the Virgin Mary, is one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in France.  When we first arrived, it seemed as though the whole city was gathered around the morning market, with gaggles of children running amuck and parents drinking wine on the sunny morning terraces.  The city was lively and filled with the sound of market hagglers and street musicians.  It was around noon when the market was packed up and the city transformed into an eerie ghost town.  I have no idea where everyone went (maybe there was a cult gathering) but in the span of about 10 minutes the streets became silent and empty.  Empty except for us, the American tourists of course.

crazy French man drinking on the steps

a new take on yard sales

These musicians were being tipped with apples from the market

and then the people disappeared

outside of The Cathedral Notre Dame du Puy

Bronze statue, the Notre-Dame de France, made out of 213 Russian Cannons 

I don't think this is quite how the statue was intended to be appreciated.  That is my head sticking out behind the Virgin Mary's knee

Cathedral of Notre-Dame

Saint Michel d'Aiguilhe Chapel

view of the city as seen from the Sanctuary of Saint Joseph d'Espaly

un peu de vin, un peu de musique

This weekend I went to a wine festival where I was able to sample wine, cheese, sausage, and foie gras.  I didn't learn until after my feasting was complete that foie gras is actually liver of duck, but it was still delicious.  The wine was excellent as well, although anything is going to be good when you are used to drinking the one euro wine from the grocery store.  I tried to appear as experienced a wine drinker as possible, but unfortunately i don't think i was blessed with a fine pallet.  I didn't bring my camera so these pictures are courtesy of Miss Christie George.  

smelling the wine like a professional

The next night I went to Les Festival Des Chants De Mars, or "The festival of songs of march," which is a music festival featuring different French artists in different venues throughout the city.  The opening act was Atch, comprised of two local singer/guitarists from Lyon, and the main artist was some weird guy named K.  I really liked Atch because they had the type of quiet humor only seen in bands that are still working on their sound and trying to make themsevles known.  I thought K was a bit strange, but thats probably because by the time he took the stage I was already exhausted from tying to understand the french songs.  K was really into audience participation, and he sang one song I could only assume was about the hazards of transportation because he had one side of the theatre make car noises and the other side make bike noises.  He also sang a song where he put on a pair of really dark sunglasses and then ripped off his jacket to reveal a tight black t-shirt.  The french audience seemed to love it, but i still have no idea what the song was about. 

Atch

un jour au parc or A Day At The Park

Lyon is finally showing signs of spring

This is a video I took of the crazy roller bladers and their impressive moves

Switzerland

The last day of our trip Monica and I visited Geneva and then stayed the night with Anais, a French girl who did an exchange at Mizzou last year.  While Geneva was cold it was still beautiful and this was my first glimpse of the French and Swiss Alps.  Geneva uses the Swiss Francs because it is not part of the EU, so now I have an abundance of useless silver coins that would only amount to a couple euros.   Staying with Anais in her house on the French side of Geneva was a lot of fun and made me realize how similar France is to the U.S, although the French make much better hosts are always offering tea, coffee, and chocolate.  We ate some Crepes, watched Anais's favorite french television show, and watched a french documentary.

Lake Geneva

There is a clock at the end of each street.  The Swiss like to be very punctual

"To change the world, start by changing yourself"

The Bell Tower

The Alps

The broken chair outside of the UN

Brussels

I really liked Brussels and it was an easy city to explore.  I learned a lot about the European Union and stopped by the EU for some free maps and reading.  Brussels was an interesting city because Belgium has many official languages (every advertisements was written in at least three), but everyone I encountered seemed to settle on English as the common ground.  Monica and I walked around almost the entire city, making sure to stop for frites, Belgian waffels, and more beer!

photos from Brussels

 

the wall of beer

frites and beer

the famous peeing boy statue

the girl peeing statue (not quite so famous)

Les gaufres, or waffles!

At night we went to a morgue themed bar called Le Cercuiel, or "The Coffin."  Reyn told us about this delightfully dark bar months ago after reading about it in one of her books, and it was a little gimmicky but still fun to drink out of skull cups and sit around coffins.  We also went to a famous bar called Delirium, which has over 2000 different types of beer.