Hello Warm Weather: Marseille and Arles

Well I am shamefully behind on my blog entries and it has gotten to that point where it is so embarrassing that I didn’t even want to get around to writing but here I am at it again trying to catch up in my blog entries so that you can know what I have been up.  The last place I left you at was while Maissie was here.  Well the weekend that she was here we went with my program to Marseille and Arles in the south of France.  On Friday, February 24^th we took the TGV (which is a train) down to Marseille.  It was a really nice weekend because it was warm and sunny, which was a major improvement to the cold winter weather in Paris. 

Maissie and I made it to Marseille

Our program stayed in a cute hotel in Marseille where Maissie and I shared a room.  Now unfortunately Marseille is not a beach town, it is a port town.  It was nice but I personally like the beach and so was a bigger fan of Nice.  But we still had a nice weekend.  We dropped off our bags at the hotel and then went on a guided tour of Marseille. 

Marseille

A church

A cool mosaic of the city

Walking through the city

More of the city

A museum of some sort

A cool church, unfortunately we didn’t go in

More of a front view of the church

Looking over the port of Marseille

Maissie and I enjoying the nice weather

The port of Marseille

Another view of the port

A boat getting fixed up

Then later in the day Maissie and I weren’t really sure what to do so we went over to the port for the sunset and it was breathtaking. 

Watching the sun slowly working its way on setting

Maissie and I at the port

The sun setting over the port of Marseille

On Saturday, February 25^th Maissie and I were hoping to go to Château D’If (where the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas takes place) unfortunately we didn’t get up early enough and had just missed it.  We could have made it if we didn’t have breakfast at the hotel but I decided it was best to have breakfast since it is just best if we eat in the morning.  So we had a bunch of time to kill before our train to Arles and so we walked around and did some shopping. 

In the morning it was really cloudy and dreary looking

A few hours later it was clear skies and sunny

We then took a train to Arles which wasn’t far at all.  This was a cute little town where Van Gogh painted the majority of his most famous works of art.  After Maissie and I dropped our stuff of in our hotel room we went out and walked around Arles.

A town square in Arles

A cool gate we came across

There is a river at Arles (I believe it is le Rhône)

Roaming around Arles

The streets of Arles

Exploring Arles

Les arènes

Once it got dark Maissie and I went and found something to eat for dinner since we were both starving and we then hung out in the hotel room and watched the French version of The Voice on tv since we didn’t know what else to do.  On Sunday February 26^th we had some time before our train back to Marseille and then Paris so we went on a guided tour of the city of Arles and then explored around some more before we had to head home.  It was really windy though because of the Mistral (at some points we thought we might blow away lol). 

The view from our balcony

A church in Arles

We then headed over to an abbey in Arles and got a tour of that while on our tour of the city.

The hallway in the abbey

The courtyard

Up on the roof

We then headed over to the amphitheater in Arles, it was a cool place to visit.

The amphitheater in Arles

Sitting and looking onto the stage

Another view of the amphitheater

We then walked over to the arena and got to learn the history of that.

In the hallways of the arena

In the arena (they were doing restoration work)

It was really windy even in the arena

Maissie walking down the streets of Arles

We had a nice weekend exploring the south of France and getting to know some cities that we had never visited before.  We headed back home to Paris and it was cold again but we were very blessed with awesome weather down south.

Maissie in Paris!!

Well from the title of the blog you can assume what this entry is going to be all about.  My sister, Maissie, came to visit me during her two week spring break.  It was amazing having her here and getting to share my experience with her.  I unfortunately started my real classes at the Catho while she was here so I couldn’t hang out with all day every day but we still did a lot of stuff together and had a lot of fun.  She arrived on February 20^th in the morning at CDG and I got there early and let me tell you waiting for someone to show up is one of the hardest things to do because you are excited to see that person and just want to see them.  But she arrived and we went back to my foyer; she was thankfully allowed to stay with me since my roommate was still going to be in California while Maissie was here.  It did make things a lot easier having her stay with me instead of her staying on the other side of the city.  The first day she was here we didn’t do much, I went to school and we had dinner and went to bed at a decent hour.  She also came with a bunch of stuff that I had requested that she bring like deodorant (I don’t like the French options) and other stuff like plastic bowls. 

On the 21^st I had school all day, well from 10am to 5pm with an hour lunch break and afterwards I met up with Maissie near Sainte Chapelle.  We then walked over to Shakespeare & Company which is an English bookstore not too far away.

Maissie and I in front of Shakespeare & Co, (I also really like this picture).

Then on Wednesday the 22^nd of February I didn’t have any classes so we went over to the Rodin Museum but they are unfortunately working on the gardens too so that was a major disappointment. 

Maissie in the Rodin Museum

The Rodin Museum, it was rather sunny and warm out which was nice

We then later headed over to the Eiffel Tower and decided to walk up to the second level since well the line was shorter and it was a lot cheaper.  We climbed up 668 steps and boy was it exhausting!!  But it was a nice time and we had some nice views of the city.

View from the first floor on the Eiffel Tower

Another view of Paris

Yet another view of Paris

Our “cousins” came up with us (from left to right: Sam, AJ, Kathleen, and Katie)

Maissie and I resting

Maissie on the Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower after we walked back down

The paper cousins (Sam, AJ, Kathleen, & Katie) in front of the Eiffel Tower

Maissie and I in front of the Eiffel Tower

Our paper cousins AJ and Katie in front of the Eiffel Tower

Our paper cousins Sam and Kathleen in front of the Eiffel Tower

Me with Uncle Mike, Dad, Mom, Aunt Jo, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Bob & Aunt Karen in front of the Eiffel Tower

Maissie and I then left the Eiffel Tower area and headed over to Place de la Concorde to see the Obélisque and just the views of Paris.

Maissie and I at Place de la Concorde

The Obélisque at Place de la Concorde

The view of the Arc de Triomphe from Place de la Concorde

We then went home and had some dinner which consisted of PB&Js and some fruit and for dessert we had Girl Scout Cookies.

Maissie making “dinner”

After eating dinner and relaxing for a little bit we headed over to the Louvre because it is open late on Wednesday evenings and so we decided we had to go since we would be out of town that weekend.  So we hopped on the metro and headed on over to the Louvre for an evening of exploring the halls and getting cultured in art.

Maissie and I in the Louvre

They also had an exhibition of American art at the Louvre

I really like this painting by Sir Henry Raeburn, it is called Innocence

This is when we got lost in the Louvre trying to find the French art and Maissie was tired from climbing all those stairs

We came upon Impressionism art like that of Alfred Sisley (one of my favorites)

Maissie and I in front of the Pyramid at the Louvre

The Louvre at night is beautiful

We then went home and were tired from all the walking and stair climbing that we had done that we went to bed so we could get up and be ready for another day, which would consist of school for me from 10am to 5pm.  On Thursday the 24^th of February I went to school all day and that wasn’t very exciting.  I don’t remember what Maissie did but she did something, if you see her she can ask you because she kept a better record of our time together than I did.  Well anyways that evening we went to the Musée D’Orsay and were thankful that Maissie had a special pass for the museums because we got to skip the long line to get in!  We walked around and just checked out the museum, my favorite section was the whole top floor that was dedicated to Impressionism art.  It had all my favorites like Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Degas, and so much more.  It was splendid!  Unfortunately they do not allow picture taking in the Musée D’Orsay so sadly no pictures.  We then were really tired and went home to go to bed so that we could get up early the next morning to go to Marseille and Arles for the weekend with my program.

Highlights from February

Well the month of February has come and gone and we are now into March and I have yet to put up a blog entry about all my adventures during those 29 days.  I am sure you are probably wondering what I did and why it has taken me so long to put up a blog entry for February.  Well in short here is what the month of February was for me: Busy.  I was busy mostly with visiting people back from the States, I also had school and whatnot but I had 3 straight weeks of people staying with me.  But before that a girl from Central, Justine, who is studying in Spain this semester came to Paris for a weekend and I got to hang out with her on Saturday before she went back to Spain.  We visited the lovely Sacré-Coeur and stopped over by the Luxembourg Gardens.  It was freezing but we had a nice time.

Justine and me at Sacré-Coeur

I had school and whatnot and it did snow at one point in Paris which was exciting but it quickly melted.  However, on the 13^th of February my friend Katie, whom I roomed with my spring semester of freshman year, came to visit me for a week before heading off to Germany for the semester.  It was thankfully warmer and we had a nice time walking around and visiting different monuments.  It was also nice getting to catch up since I hadn’t seen her in a year and a half seeing as after our freshman year she transferred to a school in Minnesota.  Katie got to stay with me in my foyer which was a miracle in and of itself because my foyer is very strict on visiting policies but since my roommate was in California they didn’t mind.

Katie and I at the Louvre, it was closed so we couldn’t go in that day but took some pictures

I unfortunately did have school during this time but it was only during the morning so we got to hang out in the afternoon.  We did visit Père Lachaise which is a huge cemetery and has some famous people in it like Edith Piaf.

We did also make it over to Sacré-Coeur

A dreary day in Paris

Walking around Père Lachaise

On Katie’s second to last day we went over to les Jardins de Tuileries

Katie and I enjoying the sun at les Jardins de Tuileries

Katie then left on Monday the 20^th of February to start her adventure in Germany.  It was fun having her around and getting to explore the city some more with a friend.  Hopefully I’ll be able to go out to Berlin and she’ll be able to show me around.  In the next blog entry you’ll get to hear about all my adventures with my sister when she came out to visit me over her spring break!!

The End of January

Well I finished up my classes at the Catho and took some finals, it all went well.  The newbies for my program came at the end of January and it was nice meeting them but I don’t really see them very much.  I also started up my intensive language classes at Ecole Etoile and those went fine.  They lasted for about 3 weeks so it also went into February.  It went fine though and I learned a lot of grammar that is always helpful.  Nothing too exciting happened in the end of January it was just the regular stuff but here are some pictures from when I was wandering around the city just exploring.

A lovely little park/monument that I go past on the bus everyday so I decided to one day go and check it out

After visiting that park I walked over to Place de la Concorde and this is what I saw.  It was just breathtaking

L’Obélisk (center) and Eiffel Tower (to the right), it was just amazing

La Seine et La Tour Eiffel while the sun was slowly setting

Dusk in Paris

On the 28^th of January I went to Sainte Chapelle which is a beautiful church that is tiny and all the walls are covered in stained glass windows.  Three Canadian girls from my foyer went with me and we had a lovely time.  So here are a few pictures from our visit to Sainte Chapelle.

Sainte Chapelle, unfortunately pictures can’t give it justice

The beautiful windows

Some of the stained glass windows

A close up of some of the windows

The next day I decided to go to Place des Vosges but didn’t stay very long because it was freezing out!  I literally only stayed for about 10 minutes.  But I will definitely go back in the spring when it is warmer and flowers are blooming, I am sure it will just be splendid.

Place des Vosges

Place des Vosges, I’m looking forward to visiting it when the weather is nicer

Well the month of January has come to an end and that means that February has begun.  I was super busy in the month of February and it is currently now March!  It is amazing how quickly time flies!  In the next blog entry I will give you the highlights and don’t worry there will be lots of pictures too.