Jour a la plage... les Sables De L'Onnes

(UPDATE) : Okay so here's some pics of the other day. It was absolutely gorgeous out. Chilled on the beach, laughed at the kids flying a kite... or rather, attempting to fly a kite.

Sorry it's been forever Bloggers... but today we went to the beach and it was awesome. Pics to follow... stories to follow... basically I suck at blogging.

meg

Paris in 5 days...

So I've been in Paris since Wednesday and have a lot to catch this blog up on. There's 5 days and loads of pics... so good luck!

Day 5: Paris a la motorvelo!

Before heading back to Challans, Doc took me for a tour of Paris on his motorcycle. If you have ever ridden with this man you know that I was truly taking a risk hopping on this cycle with him. It was AWESOME! The best way to see the city. We saw all the little arrondisments and Doc told me the story of his younger years in Paris... Place des vendomes, where Marie Antoinette lost her head, the famous bridges, the little intricacies... all of it!

I had seen all the sights with the girls, but there's something different about riding along the Seine and then quick turning to fly through the square of the Louvre. --- liberating... vive la france! It is so full of life.---- from then grabbed the TGV and headed out to Challans where I am tonight. Chilling alone in France for the first time. It feels nice and now, I'm going to get some rest. It is 2am after all. Though I'm learning this is a typical bedtime for most Parisians :{ ) That's my best smiley for the french.

Bonuit.
Meg

Day 4: The Louvre and Doc comes in to town!

(pics to come)
This morning I woke up and went to the Lourve on my own. (metro--- check) Missed the long lines by entering through the metro (thank you frommers) and headed in to the museum. 1st stop, of course, the Jaccond... ou la Mona Lisa. Tres bien, oui... mais there are so many beautiful paintings and pieces of art I continued.

The Venus de Milo, a small sphynx... I finally stopped in the lovely, bright room that housed some roman sculptures and sat down with the headphones on and sketched. Before I know it... 2 hours had gone by. Seriously. I could do that 2-3 times a week and not be bored. Loved it there. Walked out through the pyramid and gasped. I had yet to see the building(s) that housed all this lovely art. It, itself, is stunning and VAST!

Met up with Lina and Doc and headed out for dinner altogether with another friend and her dog Macho. Macho is all toughness in about 2 cups full.Tried escargo and foie gras for the first time. Loved them both. Walked around St. Germain and saw one of the oldest restaurants in Paris. Benji Franklin, Robespierre, etc have dined there. Cool little neighborhood. We chatted about the Cuban missile crisis of all topics and then walked along the Seine. --- great evening and such a nice dinner.

Day 3: To the top of the Eiffel Tower and BEYOND!

We decided it was crucial to head to the top of the tower and see Paris from a distance. What we didn't remember was the long line we'd spend 2 hours in waiting. It was well worth it! We took the elevator to the 2nd floor where you have to change to a 2nd elevator. This was when the heights phobia set in for most, as the elevator is primarily glass and the view is INTENSE! Up... up... and still up further. When they finally opened the doors people poured out as if they were afraid to spend one more second in an elevator suspended those tens of stories above the ground. I'll admit I was just a little uneasy :) The view breath-taking... the wind... breath-taking (haha). It was blowing like crazy... can't imagine it on a stormy day.

I just couldn't think of being a worker suspended up this tall, iron structure. I'd vomit.... in fact reflecting on that still makes me a little nauseous. It's sooo high up. Finally had a true idea of the lay out of France and how strategic it was. The larger streets wide enough to send an army down to fight off any little revolts which would be coming from the smaller side streets. (masterful)

Then we walked through the city... checked out some local sites and decided to hit up a local movie theatre. This pretty much did us in for the night and we met up with Abdul for a quick bit, but a thunderstorm struck and rain poured on the Champs... hilarious to watch this place flooded with people become a chaotic mess with rain-soaked tourists running for their lives. The lightning show continued even after we reached the apartments and found the aftershock of us leaving the windows open. Yes... the passport, soaked. Luckily... things dry.

Day 2: more pics

Day 2: Touring Paris

We hit it all. Notre Dame, Jardin du Luxemburg, the Sorbonne, St. Germain, St. Michelle, St. Chappelle. All in one day. Gorgeous weather, gorgeous architecture. Notre Dame is well... breath-taking and the others just seem so ornate and massive. I can't imagine the gardens being my backyard. Then again, I can't imagine being late 1700's french royalty either, so...

Day 1

The girls and I headed in to Paris on Bastille Day (July 14th) which, for us DC-ers, is like maneuvering the city on the 4th; crazy and quite an insane undertaking. Nevertheless, we did it! Stopped by the apartment which is near the Bastille (or rather where the Bastille was... it's now a monument... hence the celebration of the day it was destroyed).

Then headed to the Champs-Elysees. Gorgeous day for walking around Paris.

Didn't have the laptop so I'll reflect what I wrote in my journal:Paris... reminds me of NYC only with better architecture (remember this is day one). The metro system... totally easy to navigate. Doc's apartment is extremely small. Probably the size of my dining room and kitchen. The bathroom is literally a closet, but who cares? It's Paris. Grabbed lunch @ a local restaurant ... oh man trying to read the menu was hilarious. I got through. Remembered that Jambon meant ham... which is a no for me. :)

The skylight was beautiful for pictures along the Champs-Elysees... the trees are all so perfectly rectangularly cut. Hard to imagine Hitler and his army marching down something so beautiful in the name of something so awful. Met up with the cousin Abdul and checked out the Grande and Petite Palais then walked across Alexander III's bridge to the Place des Invalides. (this is the first chance I had to see the Eiffel Tower and the sun was perfect!)We walked down to the Tour d'Eiffel and saw the massive 600,000 + crowd that had gathered for the free concert and fireworks show.

We lasted all of about 20 mins there and headed back to the Place to grab some green space for the fireworks. The fireworks were nice, but the US definitely puts on a better show ;)Bought some wine from a local shop (great syrah) and asked for some spare cups at Starbucks (yes Starbucks) and had some wine while watching. Grabbed some tea @ Abdul's apt right on the Champs (boy that kid has it made) and then called it a night.

Holy Stars and Moon Batman!

The night sky here is amazing. I can see ANY constellation I want. I was chatting on the phone with my mom earlier (cracking me up btw), sitting at my open 2nd story french window (no screen) looking out into the green garden underneath with all these stars and staring @ the moon. I mean seriously. It doesn't get more rustically poetic than that.

We bought our tickets to head in to Paris for Bastille Day Tuesday... the apartment in the city is near the bastille so we're thinking of chilling there for the fireworks.

Today we scoped out music we all loved and had ourselves a little dance party complete with Abba, Beegees, The Beatles, and Dionne Warwick. (crazy) Great dinner... and we made a homeade apple tarte.. actually fantastic. I'm serious friends I am going to be busting these recipes out when I return!

OH btw... I don't know if you noticed in the pics, but at the beach... speedos... everywhere. Children, adults, waaaaay too old for them men... wearing them. Not a pretty site, but what can this american do? haha... Beautiful day today. Hoping for the gorgeous weather to stick around.


Love and hugs to family and friends.

Bonsoir mes amies,
--- Meg

Beach and Mussels!

Today I took my first jog in France. Gorgeous bike path that lead to a park with 2 ponds, all sorts of wildlife, and a few kids avec parents. Great weather. Slightly cloudy with a nice breeze. Perfect for running if you ask me. Came back and had coffee and chatted about Obama with Doc. He LOVES Obama. Called him a phenomina... not just a man. Had many ideas about where America is headed and has no doubt that our country will rise to greater heights than before our highest before this decline.













We went to La Plage de St. Jean du Monts today. Beautiful beach town. Chatted about how Challans was one of the last areas in France to stay loyal to the crown during the revolution. Speaking of revolution... Bastille Day is July 14th and we're headed in to Paris to celebrate. It's supposed to get crazy.. so watch out for that blog.

Tonight I learned how to make mussels... they were amazing. I meant to take a picture but forgot. (typ) Anyways... we went to the groccery and it was quite the shock. No oatmeal? Everything... I mean everything is french (obviously). Sarah and I tried to buy milk this morning and found out once we got home that it was liquid yogurt (fermented milk). Not quite what we thought we had poured on our cereal.

So, great day at the beach. Great dinner. Lina is planning to study the defense mechanisms of cockroaches. Well... we think she should.

bonsoir-

--- Meg

St. Jean et St. Guilles

Tonight we headed to St. Jean and St. Gilles. The town is adorable. There's a port whose water level drops so low that the boats actually lay sideways on the rocks (b/c the water's gone). Hilarious. It happens twice everyday. So if you don't leave port in time, you're not going anywhere. :)

These are shots of the beach looking through our two different sunglasses. Pretty cool.

Sarah and Lina

--- Meg

First few days...

Hey all,
Made it safetly into Paris. Getting to Challans was another task completely! First off, I tried to speak french to purchase my ticket and the woman said, "thank you for trying to speak French, but I speak English. Let's go with that" HA!

Anyways... so exhausted, hopped on the train. I sat down next to this elderly woman that I assumed was American (naive, yes). I said bonjour and she started rambling in French. I just looked at her and shook my head saying je parle en francais un petite peux. (I only speak french a little bit) To my amazement... she continued to speak french. Hilarious. We were having this dialogue back and forth in a sort of hybrid language that actually worked.

So, I'm exhausted meeting people left and right when all I really need is sleep. I tried, only to hear babies crying and then dogs barking. I thought to myself A) There are babies EVERYWHERE! and B) There's dogs on this train???

Made it to Nantes where I grabbed the bus out to Challans (the beach, I'm so happy). French people smoke ALL the time and EVERYWHERE! Wasn't quite ready for that (neither were my lungs!)

Sarah picked me up. She's so grown up. So good to see her and then Lina at the house. Doc looks good as well and we all had dinner and caught up last night. Today we've been exploring the area and working on Lina's classes.

Will post pics when I can.

--- Meg