Décembre à Tours

Bonjour tout le monde et joyeux décembre! Donnez-moi un moment de me pincer car je ne peux pas crois que c'est déjà le mois de mon départ!! D'accord OWW on continue. La saison de Noël est arrivée à Tours - le marché de Noël a commencé au fin de novembre, les rues sont décorées et le père de Noël est arrivé samedi. Si on marche dans le centre-ville maintenant, c'est presque pas possible de ne pas acheter un vin chaud, des chichis ou quelque chose sucré! Malheureusement, les friandises françaises ne voyagent pas bien alors je devrais juste manger vos cadeaux pour vous! Je visite le  marché environ deux ou trois fois par semaine mais ce n'est pas le seul chose de me garder occupée - depuis ma dernier poste, j'ai visité deux châteaux, suis allée à Bordeaux et j'ai atteint vingts ans! Et malheureusement, j'ai commencé de préparer pour mon départ, mais ne parlons pas de ça...

Translation: Hello everyone and Happy December! Give me a minute to pinch myself since I cannot believe that it is already the month of my departure. Ok ouch (Charlie) that hurt...let's move on. The Christmas season is in full swing in Tours: the Christmas market started at the end of November, the streets are lit up and decorated and Santa Claus arrived on Saturday! If you go downtown right now, it is nearly impossible to not stop and buy a hot wine, churos or something else sweet. Unfortunately, French goodies do not travel well, so I will just have to eat all your goodies for you instead (I'm considerate like that). I visit the market maybe 2 or 3 times a week, but that is not the only thing that has been keeping me busy. Since my last post, I have visited two castles, traveled to Bordeaux and turned 20! Sadly, I have also started preparing for my departure, but let's not talk about that for now.

Alrighty it's been so long that I cannot even remember where I left off in this semester's edition of my adventures but n'inquiétez pas, I've got a lot to say. The weeked after my uncle came to town (aka Paris), I traveled to Bordeaux with fellow exchange students, Sam and Constanze, an ERASMUS student from Konstanz, Germany. Bordeaux is a city on the southwest coast of France, about three hours from Tours by train. Why Bordeaux, you ask? Because the ISU Grand Prix France was being held there! Like me, Sam is a former figure skater and earlier in the semester, we decided it would be fun to watch a Grand Prix event in France! Constanze is a mutual friend of ours who we invited along to "induct" into the world of figure skating. We took the train down on Saturday morning, spent the day shopping and exploring the city (as Bordeaux has the longest shopping street in France) and then watched the Men's and Ice Dance competition that night. The seating in the arena was very poorly organized so we were able to sit beside my friend Tara, who was there with one of her teammates from Lyon. Unfortunately there were no Canadian men there, but we saw two Canadian ice dance teams, one of which finished in second! Fun side note: the top three teams in ice dance were France, Canada and the USA - the 3 countries I have lived in in 2014!

#What'sWrongWithThisPhoto

 

During the following week, I was quite busy with school, which I know may seem surprising. However, Anna and I were invited to my host mom's house for dinner night and now I understand why the French do not need to snack during the day! Our meal was 4 courses, starting with an apperetif (drinks and snacks), followed by a quiche Lourianne and salad (and wine), then dessert, then a cheese platter. I almost had to ask Anna to carry me back to my residence room.

The following night, I went to the French cinema for the first time. Anna and I went to see the newest movie in the Hunger Games series, Mockingjay. Did I mention we watched the FRENCH version? While it was very strange to watch Jennifer Lawrence with a different voice, I really liked the movie and even understood most of it (I think). And the movie theatre here is so cheap - 5 euros for a ticket! On our way home, we walked through the mall with all the Christmas decorations up, and had a little photoshoot (see below):

Dear Santa, I've been good this year...

The last Saturday in November, I went on a school trip to Château de Cheverny. The coolest thing about it is that the castle inspired the comic book and television series Tintin, a show I watched a few times in high school French classes. The castle also had all of its Christmas decorations up, including a life size Nativity scene in front of the castle.  I may or may not have gotten in trouble for sitting in the manger and pretending to be the baby Jesus (may omit that in my letter to Santa). That night, I went out to l'Académie de Bière, a bar with 136 types of beer! Who knew the French drink beverages other than wine?

And then came everyone's favourite day of the year - MY BIRTHDAY! I started the day off with cards from family and friends (a huge shoutout to Hannah and all my friends from Bishop's who sent me a lovely birthday package). I went out for lunch to a tea salon for birthday cake, crepes and tea and then went out for dinner with a different group of friends to the most talked about restaurant in town Mamie Bigoude. And then on Friday I had a group of friends over in my residence to continue the celebrations. Never thought I'd spend a birthday celebrating with people from Germany, Spain, Italy, Czech, Belgium, Korea and various parts of Canada but I can think of no better way to enter a new decade! So thanks to each and every person who made me feel like a real birthday princess this December 3rd!

Saturday, I went on a school trip to Château de Versailles, the most famous castle in France, and maybe all of Europe. To be honest, I did not know much about the castle before going; but thanks to my handy-dandy Rick Steeves guided audio tour, I am now much more educated on the history of this fine building. Three Louis' lived there, Louis XIV, Louis X and Louis XVI but it was Louis XIV, aka the Sun King who kickstarted the process of making Versailles what it is today. It took me over two hours to see everything inside the castle and another 3 to see not even all of the gardens and grounds! The castle itself used to get so busy that the King built two other, more private lodging further back on the grounds. He also built his own canal system! And there was a farm! Talk about never needing to leave your estate! 

Tuesday, I went to the Exchange Student Christmas Party at the official ERASMUS student bar. Everyone had to bring a gift for a gift exchange. When you arrived, you gave your present to the bartender and got a ticket in exchange. As well, if you bought a drink you got an additional ticket. Around midnight, the bartender started drawing tickets and giving out prizes. I ended up winning the present that my friend had bought and wrapped in my room but the cookies were delicious, so no complaints there. Majority of the gifts were food so everyone opened up their presents and shared. 2 bottles of wine and 3 hours later, Anna, me and another German exchange student found our way back home. It was a really great night and I had a lot of fun. And I came home with a free Santa hat - now Christmas can really begin!

Yesterday, Anna, Sam and I went shopping with my host mom and then back to her place for apple pie. We found out yesterday that it was our host mom's birthday on Monday - luckily, Anna and I had chosen yesterday to bring a gift to thank Genevieve for the semester. #GoldenChildren We gave her a framed picture of the three of us at Château Chenonceau, the first castle we went to together and she absolutely loved it. Also last night I went out to an Irish Pub to watch my first football game in France (Paris vs. Barcelona). It was not my preferred activity, but at least now I can say I watched Paris St. Germain play once! 

Looking ahead, I have two exams left, a lunch date with my host mom, a skating date with my French "buddy," Christmas shopping and A TRIP TO DISNEYLAND all to do in the next 9 days! I am so excited for Saturday - I already wrote down the times for the meet-and-greets and the Christmas parade! And then I will be spending some quality time with my broom, mop and suitcases while I prepare for my voyage next Saturday. This semester was an absolute blast and I am having a hard time believing that in just over a week I will finally be chez moi, where I have spent no time this year. So until then, I'll be here, in France, eating macaroons and making the most of my last little bit of time here in the most beautiful country in the world!

PS Good luck to all of my fellow students for the rest of exam season! Hang in there everyone! In two weeks, we will all be celebrating Christmas (unless you don't celebrate Christmas...but you'll still be on vacation)

PPS Happy 171st Birthday to Bishop's University! Can't wait to see you in January! 

PPPS Happy 21st Birthday to my dearest housemate, Hannah McLean! Sending lots of love across the ocean!