à la mode

So I just had a casual Monday afternoon going to a fashion show. I don't really know much about designers other than their names, but experiencing fashion week in Paris was the most fabulous thing I've seen since a Lady Gaga concert.

Examples of fabulousness:

• people with tie dye hair
• people in the audience who could be celebrities and I don't even know it
• paparazzi's cameras flashing every 2 seconds  

• watching people who had invitations enter the venue
• simply being at the Palais des Beaux Arts, along the Seine
• standing in line to get in, as if I belonged
• outfits like this

• getting in free after the huge bouncer winked at us
• bizarre but amazing clothes being modeled
• pale faced models with creepy red eyeliner who all had their hair parted down the middle (It's not the 90s anymore, but apparently that's fashionable)
• live music to accompany the show

I feel like I have truly experienced Paris now. The designer was not someone I have heard of but it didn't even matter, I have never seen anything so completely dazzling. I'm still freaking out and I've been home for a couple hours. This must be what Anne Hathaway felt like working for Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada. 

More fabulousness:

Basically my life is complete, and also I have decided I'm never leaving. Sorry mom! :P 

In other news,

my program had a visit to the national assembly. We learned how the government here is run and how they pass laws, etc. So that was about as interesting as government talk can be. But of course, it was another extremely beautiful building full of painted ceilings and breath-taking architecture.

here is where the entire assembly meets to discuss issues and whatnot

their Beauty and the Beast library

random beautiful room where we took our first group shot! 

Loire Valley

Yesterday was my trip to the Loire Valley where my group visited two castles. They were pretty cool, the first one wasn't as epic as I expected because 80% of it had been destroyed in World War II, so there's just a small part left. It only took 30 min to tour it. But the second was huge and beautiful. We were able to do a self-guided tour, which was a great after a very know-it-all tour guide at the first château. Then we just had some free time where I sat in the gardens by the château and enjoyed the day! I don't really have much to say since the pictures can explain :)

Château d'Ambroise 

Ambroise is the city where Da Vinci died; he is buried in a tiny church next to the castle

view of the cute little town from the castle

awkward square bed

Château de Chenonceau

both castles were FREEZING inside, and almost every room had a fireplace. I can't imagine how these people lived in here without heat!

That 70s Show

     So I had a dream last night that I was back in Wisconsin going about my every day life in Milwaukee when I had a random break down, crying and crying about being back in the states, saying things like "why did I have to leave Paris so soon?" I was so frightened that this was true, that I was actually back home already, until I realized it was just a dream. This nightmare was definitely a wake up call (literally - since I woke up from the dream) that this trip is FLYING by. It has already been about a month. It's so scary to me to think I have only three months left. It seems impossible to do everything I want to do in Europe in this small amount of time! At times, I feel like I know Paris already and I've seen everything there is to see, but then I'll get off the metro somewhere and find something completely new and amazing! I definitely see a very expensive hobby beginning for me..traveling.
     Speaking of traveling, this weekend I'm taking a day trip with my program to the Loire Valley (a region in France known for their wine, of course) which is about two hours directly south of Paris. We'll be visiting two castles, so I'm pretty excited about that. Then next weekend I'll be going to Madrid, Spain for 3 nights with 3 friends! SO EXCITED. Then the next weekend, I'm in the process of planning a trip to Amsterdam! I love how easy it is to get everywhere, but I want to go seriously everywhere that's the problem.

This week was just another school week. It's been pretty easy so far. My french class is way too easy for me but unfortunately, it's too late to switch. In Art History, we have to write about any french painting found in a Parisian art museum. This being said, I went to roam about the Louvre in search of a painting I "connected" with. I was just kinda winging it. As long as I was there, I decided to be touristy and came across Mona

SO COOL! There was a lot of security around and signs everywhere "beware of pickpockets." After this I found a couple other rooms that are just incredible. 

room of Michelangelo 

Yesterday I didn't have any classes so I was wandering the city when I came upon Notre Dame. I walked around the exterior for the first time and was even more amazed than the first time I saw it. 

If you look closely, you can recognize where Quasi Modo leapt across the roof

Upon reaching the back of Notre Dame, I also found one of many Love Lock bridges! This is a famous thing couples do together in Paris, is go to the Love Lock bridge (I'm not sure where the original bridge is, but now almost every bridge has locks on it), but couples can go to this bridge and they basically promise to be together forever blah blah blah, then they put their lock, usually with their initials or something written on it, on the bridge then throw the key into the river. I felt a little awkward being by myself since I was surrounded by a hundred couples making out and taking selfies on the bridge. 

you may have seen this bridge in the movie Now You See Me

Last night I also had a fondue dinner that I signed up for with my program! It was at a restaurant called Les Assiettes aux Fromages (Plates of Cheese). I had never been to a fondue restaurant so I was pretty excited/hungry. There were about ten of us, and I went with a friend and she was the only person I knew. It was pretty cool, I finally got to meet some of the students who are in the same program as I, but are from different states in the U.S. The other students were mostly from San Diego. I've met so many cool people here in general, but this one lady at the dinner really had my attention. She used to work for customs and immigration but is now retired. During her retirement she decided to go back to school, and obviously now she is studying abroad in Paris! What a way to retire! But I talked with her for most of the dinner getting life advice about governmental careers (since my major is criminal justice) she had so many interesting things to say about federal agencies and just her experience in different places. Other than that the dinner was was cool. The main course was bread, salad, potatoes and steak, along with cheese fondue and various sauces for the steak. Then for dessert we got a huge bowl of cut-up fruit and chocolate fondue. The chocolate was the best part, obviously. Speaking of chocolate…if you thought Americans loved chocolate or needed their chocolate fix, we are NOTHING compared to french people. Chocolate = life. I've gained about 100 pounds purely from chocolate/pastries. Dessert is necessary after every meal. My host mom asked me what (while she was making a grocery list) what I usually like to eat for dessert after dinner, and I said, "I'm not sure, we don't really do that" and her face was hilarious; she was shocked. She honestly didn't understand why we wouldn't eat dessert after every dinner. However, they make sense of it by calling it a "digestif" in order to help you to digest it. So dessert isn't always fattening, it could be fruit or yogurt..but my host mom prefers ice cream or sherbet :) I told her I love chocolate and the next day I found chocolate ice cream and chocolate candy bars.. uh oh. 

That's about all I have to say today. Oh, something I forgot..with Paris being the fashion capitol of the world and everything, FASHION WEEK is here for the next two weeks. I can't even wrap my mind over how big that is and how many celebrities are going to be here. But the fashion shows and everything will be taking place at the Louvre. I saw it being set up the other day..SO COOL. A couple of friends and I are hoping to go on the outskirts and ogle everything, not sure how easy that will be. 

Lastly. You might be wondering why I titled this post "That 70s Show" well ya know how That 70s Show takes place in Wisconsin? If you didn't know this, at the end of the intro for the show they shout "Hello Wisconsin!" and talk about Wisconsin in some episodes. So yeah basically everyone here associates Milwaukee/Wisconsin with That 70s show. I already cause a lot of attention to myself just by speaking English. English speakers here are like super exotic to french people, they get so excited because they like to practice their english. In restaurants with college students or in bars like anyone and everyone will talk to my friends and I just because we speak english. Then we'll say oh yeah we're from wisconsin..and they'll say, "oh just like That 70s Show." 

Fun fact: grocery stores have roasted chicken and also beef flavored Lay's potato chips.

Lyon

This weekend I had a four day weekend, and basically everyone in my program was jetting off to random places in Europe. So I went to Lyon, France with 3 friends! Very last minute planning was a little risky but it was perfect. Lyon is in southwest France, and about 5 hours from Paris. We left Friday night in a "covoiturage" which is a carpool that we found online; our best, cheapest option for planning it the day before. Our very professional french driver, the other two french people in the car with us decided it was a good time to solve all the worlds problems in the five hour trip to Lyon. Me being stuck in the back seat of a mini van with no food, book or phone, listening to very serious conversations in french about presidents, unemployment, taxes and more..safe to say it was the longest car ride of my life. But finally we arrived and the driver was nice enough to drop us at the door of our hotel, when he was originally supposed to drop us off at a Lyon train station which was about 15 miles from our hotel... So nice!!!! We stayed in an apartment style hotel, so it had two bedrooms, a kitchen and living room..very spacious and nice for an extremely cheap price. We were wondering what the catch was, why is this place so nice and so cheap?  We soon figured it out the next morning when we ventured into the city and realized how far we were from the main parts of Lyon. Which is okay, it took about 30-45 minutes to walk to the "action" of Lyon, but I didn't mind because that way we could see more. 

So. Lyon. Prior to arriving, we had researched a ton, so luckily we knew exactly where we were going and what we wanted to accomplish in the short weekend. One of the biggest things we learned is that Lyon has tons of markets! At home, I love farmers markets, so this was definitely my favorite part of the weekend. We basically had breakfast and lunch both Saturday and Sunday at markets throughout the city. 

so much cheese.

dried fruit and olives

BEST FRUIT I'VE EVER EATEN. That's saying a lot because I don't usually willingly eat/enjoy fruit. We bought a package of strawberries on Saturday morning for 1 euro. On sunday to take home, I bought 6 clementines for 1 euro, and 4 avocados for 2 euros. My friends also bought a plastic shopping bag full of apples for 1 euro, and a plastic shopping bag of blood oranges for 1 euro. Such a great place to buy the best fruit ever for super cheap!

Other than fruit, cheese and olives, the markets had tons of pastries, meats, fish, and jewelry. There were a few random stands of ready to eat food, so we also tried various pastries and also falafel at a greek stand. 

After the markets on Saturday morning, we were heading toward this church on a top of a big hill, basically the highest point in Lyon which was supposed to have a great look-out area. Lyon is surrounded by two main rivers: the Saone and the Rhône, so we were constantly walking along the water or seeing blue in the distance which definitely didn't have me complaining. 

View from the river, and also a view of our goal destination. The church in the far background is where we were headed!

After figuring how to get to top of the hill, we took our time in town, stopping in various shops and boutiques. Also, we unintentionally found one of our desired destinations, Vieux Lyon, (old Lyon) which was an adorable little village within the city filled with tiny shops, narrow cobblestone roads, and tons of wandering people.   

One of the many adorable streets in Vieux Lyon 

One of my favorite shops we found! Any kids dream. I filled a pretty big bag of candy and it only cost 1 euro. The tradeoff was feeling sick from all the sugar..

as you can see, I was enjoying myself

Once we got outside of Vieux Lyon, we found ourselves in the heart of Lyon, called Place Bellecour, which was basically just a big square with lots of benches, a playground, a ferries wheel, a couple places to get food, many statues, tourists and even a protest was happening as we entered. Having walked all morning, at this point we just took a second to take in the beauty of it all!

such a beautiful day

 Finally, after about another hour of walking and 20 flights of stairs, we were at the church at the top of the hill. I was literally panting and out of breath. But wow was it so worth it..

amazing views from up there

inside the church

view from the top of the one hundred trillion stairs we had to climb

After hanging out here for a while and enjoying the view, we were on our way to the next place: Amithéatre des Trois Gaules, an old roman amphitheater which was dedicated to cult of Rome and Augustus. 

This was incredible to see and experience. The history of this place was so moving and unlike anything I'd ever see. Especially for how different this was from what I had seen in Paris. Definitely a must-see and a favorite of mine. 

Next, was the most famous chocolate shop in Lyon, and a couple miles more up! Of course. Everything was up hills and stairs here. So once back in town, we of course had to do the french thing and take a much needed coffee break to reenergize. Finally getting the energy to continue upward, we left. And it really was a lot more stairs and hills. We had read that this chocolate shop was "worth the hike" so our fingers were crossed..and oh my god. It was. An hour later we were stuffing our faces with chocolate mousse, macaroons, caramel cream and more. 

yum. 

At this point, we had pretty much done everything we wanted to get done in the day and it was only about 4:30, so had lots of time until it was an acceptable time to eat dinner (for the french). Alors, (so) more wandering and exploring. I was so taken aback by the beauty of simple places like bus stops, banks and pharmacies. The architecture, detail and color of everything was amazing. So quaint and cute, and very different from Paris. Random thought, very few people spoke English here so that was an awesome change to speak french to someone and not have them respond in English.

After a couple more hours, we were literally defeated from all the walking, and it was time to choose a restaurant for dinner. We wanted to treat ourselves to something nice since we had been so money-conscious all weekend and had basically just snacked for breakfast and lunch. We went back to Vieux Lyon for dinner, because we had seen so many adorable, nice restaurants. Every place has their menu posted outside so that was nice, however finding the right place was very difficult. Cuisine Lyonnaise is very unique, but we were determined to try it! Most of the menus included entrees with stomach, liver, or guts. And I'm not adventurous enough for that…but finally we found a safe place!

A square in Vieux Lyon…it's hard to see but we ate dinner at the restaurant on the direct left of the tree. 

Dinner was amazing, and actually huge, so that was a really nice change to be full! We all chose to do a "formule" which is something almost every french restaurant offers..you choose an appetizer, an entree and a dessert for a fixed price. Two of my friends chose a more expensive one, so they had better options and huge salad at the start of their meal. 

My dinner: basically a whole french bread covered in cheese, ham, bacon, pesto and tomato

On Sunday, we were exhausted, so we had a slower day and it was perfect. It was about 58 degrees and sunny! Can you believe it! So many people were out, relaxing and doing nothing, I loved it. 

For breakfast, we took a risk and went into a Tunisian patisserie (pastry shop); by far the best pastries I've had! I had something that looked like a Fig Newton and was told it was filled with berries and dates, and I also had Turkish almond baklava. It was delicious, and I was stuffed.

baklava and an espresso

 After breakfast, we walked through a market again to buy some fruit to take home and for lunch, this was when I got the super cheap avocados and clementines. Unfortunately, they were too juicy and delicious to wait to bring them home, and I ended up eating all six in the day. After the market, we headed to our final destination. 

The book, Le Petit Prince, (in case you don't know, it's a very famous french children's book that philosophically teaches valuable lessons about friendship, loyalty and staying true to yourself) was written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and he was born in Lyon! So there is a statue of him and the little prince in Lyon! I was so excited!!! I read this book in high school and I also have a quote from it tattooed on my body, so it's safe to say it means a lot to me! 

the statue!

The quote I have as a tattoo!! I can't believe it was actually engraved here. Definitely a sentimental moment 

Having accomplished everything we wanted to see and do, we were feeling pretty good, and very exhausted. We sat in this square by the Saint-Exupéry statue for a good two hours, eating our fruit from the market and soaking up the sun. Guess what, my face got sun burn. 

It's definitely safe to say Lyon is amazing, and I couldn't have chosen a better weekend to go. It feels awesome to see more of France and simply be living my dream! I think the best part of it all was going back to Paris, and feeling like that was home <3