Monday, May 10, 2004
Cannes, Dijon, & Beaune, France – April 16-18
The above listing of cities is a pretty random variety to have visited in a couple of days, but that’s how our weekend turned out. I left Friday morning to take a long train down to Cannes, in the south of France on the coast, with Kristin and her brother Matt who was visiting. I was looking forward to being on the beach and seeing the south for the first time, but unfortunately it rained the whole time we were there. Luckily, we were staying a the very nice and expensive Hilton right on the beach, thanks to Matt’s business travel points. We saw the auditorium for the famous Cannes Film Festival, but it didn’t seem that special. The city was very ritzy with designer stores everywhere along the beach. It poured the whole afternoon, so we had an early dinner at a good Provencal restaurant and went to bed. It was still raining the next day, so we took a train north to Dijon, in the Burgundy region. It was a horrible train ride because we tried to get on the faster train, for which we didn’t have reservations, and we ended up sitting/standing in the luggage area for 5 hours. On top of that, we each were fined 20 euro when the controler checked tickets because we didn’t have reservations; sometimes I just don’t understand the French train system. We got to Dijon, which was a really pretty city with lots of interesting architecture. We walked around for a while and stopped in the famous mustard shop to try authenthic “Dijon mustard.” Dijon is considered the capital of Burgundy, and the area is surrounded by lots of great wineries and vineyards. We were recommended to go to the town of Beaune for winetasting and visiting the cellars, which we did Sunday. Beaune was a really nice-looking, very old town that’s home to many wine caves. First we went to Patriarche Père et Fils, which had a great self-guided tour through the caves. The winetasting began at the end of the tour, and we were all given “taste-vins” instead of glasses (silver, flat cup to drink out of). We walked through about 8 more rooms in the cellars, and in each room there were a couple of barrels on top of which sat the bottles to taste. The tasting was actually self-guided, and there were 13 different wines to try, so we left a little tipsy. It was a very fun and enjoyable way to taste. We went to one other winery that afternoon – Bouchard Ainé et Fils, whose cave tour was based on experiencing the “5 senses” of wine. It wasn’t as fun as the first, but very informative and their wines were really good. We finished in Beaune and went back to Dijon to catch our train home. Although our selection of cities for the weekend was quite random, it was a great introduction to two new regions in France.
Versailles – April 24th
I took a day trip to Versailles, a suburb outside of Paris and the home of the old palace of Louis XIV, with my friend Adam. The town of Versailles itself looked to be interesting, but we walked straight to the palace to begin the day. Versailles is absolutely huge and is divided up into several sections. We only paid to see the king’s apartments and famous Galerie des Glaces – a long hall of mirrors. The rooms were all very ornate, grand, and filled with artwork. The inside was definitely something to see, but the part I enjoyed the most was the gardens behind the palace. The gardens are enormous – lots of tree-lined paths coming out of the central area that’s filled with a huge canal down the middle. There were flowers, statues, and fountains everywhere, as well as several restaurants and cafés. The weather was warm, sunny, and perfect so we packed a small lunch and ate sitting by the canal. I fell asleep in the sun for a little while and actually ended up getting sunburned – the first time I’ve gotten sun in France, actually! Maybe I will start to get rid of the gross winter paleness soon! Then we rented bikes to further explore the gardens and realized the area was even bigger than we had thought. There was even a rowing competition with several teams going on in the biggest canal, which was fun to watch. I think we ended up spending about 4 hours at the gardens – a fun and relaxing afternoon.
Parc Astérix - April 27th
Since it was the week before exams and we didn’t have classes, I went to Parc Astérix, an amusement park based on the popular French cartoon characters Astérix and Obelix. Kristin has been quite the fan of Astérix for several years, so she convinced me to go. We had a huge problem getting to the park and actually took a train in the completely wrong direction. But we figured out our mistake and backtracked a little. The park was a pretty good size, with several different little villages and lots of rides, all based on the Gauls vs. Romans theme. To take a break we went to one of the shows, which had trapeze artists, synchronized swimmers, lots of weird dancers – it was a little strange, actually. We spent the whole day at the parc and came home that night. I hadn’t been to an amusement park for a long time, and it was fun to act like a total kid for the day.
The above listing of cities is a pretty random variety to have visited in a couple of days, but that’s how our weekend turned out. I left Friday morning to take a long train down to Cannes, in the south of France on the coast, with Kristin and her brother Matt who was visiting. I was looking forward to being on the beach and seeing the south for the first time, but unfortunately it rained the whole time we were there. Luckily, we were staying a the very nice and expensive Hilton right on the beach, thanks to Matt’s business travel points. We saw the auditorium for the famous Cannes Film Festival, but it didn’t seem that special. The city was very ritzy with designer stores everywhere along the beach. It poured the whole afternoon, so we had an early dinner at a good Provencal restaurant and went to bed. It was still raining the next day, so we took a train north to Dijon, in the Burgundy region. It was a horrible train ride because we tried to get on the faster train, for which we didn’t have reservations, and we ended up sitting/standing in the luggage area for 5 hours. On top of that, we each were fined 20 euro when the controler checked tickets because we didn’t have reservations; sometimes I just don’t understand the French train system. We got to Dijon, which was a really pretty city with lots of interesting architecture. We walked around for a while and stopped in the famous mustard shop to try authenthic “Dijon mustard.” Dijon is considered the capital of Burgundy, and the area is surrounded by lots of great wineries and vineyards. We were recommended to go to the town of Beaune for winetasting and visiting the cellars, which we did Sunday. Beaune was a really nice-looking, very old town that’s home to many wine caves. First we went to Patriarche Père et Fils, which had a great self-guided tour through the caves. The winetasting began at the end of the tour, and we were all given “taste-vins” instead of glasses (silver, flat cup to drink out of). We walked through about 8 more rooms in the cellars, and in each room there were a couple of barrels on top of which sat the bottles to taste. The tasting was actually self-guided, and there were 13 different wines to try, so we left a little tipsy. It was a very fun and enjoyable way to taste. We went to one other winery that afternoon – Bouchard Ainé et Fils, whose cave tour was based on experiencing the “5 senses” of wine. It wasn’t as fun as the first, but very informative and their wines were really good. We finished in Beaune and went back to Dijon to catch our train home. Although our selection of cities for the weekend was quite random, it was a great introduction to two new regions in France.
Versailles – April 24th
I took a day trip to Versailles, a suburb outside of Paris and the home of the old palace of Louis XIV, with my friend Adam. The town of Versailles itself looked to be interesting, but we walked straight to the palace to begin the day. Versailles is absolutely huge and is divided up into several sections. We only paid to see the king’s apartments and famous Galerie des Glaces – a long hall of mirrors. The rooms were all very ornate, grand, and filled with artwork. The inside was definitely something to see, but the part I enjoyed the most was the gardens behind the palace. The gardens are enormous – lots of tree-lined paths coming out of the central area that’s filled with a huge canal down the middle. There were flowers, statues, and fountains everywhere, as well as several restaurants and cafés. The weather was warm, sunny, and perfect so we packed a small lunch and ate sitting by the canal. I fell asleep in the sun for a little while and actually ended up getting sunburned – the first time I’ve gotten sun in France, actually! Maybe I will start to get rid of the gross winter paleness soon! Then we rented bikes to further explore the gardens and realized the area was even bigger than we had thought. There was even a rowing competition with several teams going on in the biggest canal, which was fun to watch. I think we ended up spending about 4 hours at the gardens – a fun and relaxing afternoon.
Parc Astérix - April 27th
Since it was the week before exams and we didn’t have classes, I went to Parc Astérix, an amusement park based on the popular French cartoon characters Astérix and Obelix. Kristin has been quite the fan of Astérix for several years, so she convinced me to go. We had a huge problem getting to the park and actually took a train in the completely wrong direction. But we figured out our mistake and backtracked a little. The park was a pretty good size, with several different little villages and lots of rides, all based on the Gauls vs. Romans theme. To take a break we went to one of the shows, which had trapeze artists, synchronized swimmers, lots of weird dancers – it was a little strange, actually. We spent the whole day at the parc and came home that night. I hadn’t been to an amusement park for a long time, and it was fun to act like a total kid for the day.
