fontainebleau.

A trip with CEA brought us to Fontainebleau - basically an old hunting town for royalty outside of Paris. After a couple hour hike in the woods, we had a really excellent lunch then explored the Château de Fontainebleau, which is actually the castle & lands the Château de Versailles was created to out-do. And compared to Versailles, Château de Fontainebleau is almost understated. 

de Croatie

So yes, I went to Croatia literally a month ago but I finally got around to editing all of the pictures and, due to the desire to procrastinate on finals work, totally want to write a blog about them! Long story short, Julia and I went to spend the weekend with Caitlin in Dubrovnik, and thus the roommates are back together again. Unfortunately, I never wrote a post about meeting up in Barcelona in early October so I can't put a link in to that... but here's Caitlin's!

Caitlin and me on Lokrum Island

I left Paris on Thursday evening with a layover in Zagreb (Croatia's capital). I'm just chilling, standing in line at security to get into my terminal, when I hear somebody shout my name and Julia is standing on the second level yelling down to me - pretty wonderful to see this lady's face smiling down at you.

Getting safe passage back to Dubrovnik someday!

Julia and me at Lokrum Island

We get to Croatia, meet Caitlin at the bus stop from the airport, climb about a million stairs (to be repeated many times), arrive at her apartment, and crash - though I will literally never get over how beautifully wonderful her apartment is. Ever. If you don't study abroad in a tiny studio shared by 2 people in France, you cannot understand. On Friday we go to Lokrum Island and hang out with lots of peacocks, then check out the pretty chill Dubrovnik bar scene.

versailles.

So last Saturday we decided to take a day trip to Versailles. It happens to be the last stop on RER (aka train) C, which is basically like a commuter train to the suburbs of Paris. What that means is with our navigo passes (public transportation passes) we can go to Versailles for free on weekends, even though it's in a zone that isn't covered by our everyday passes. Anyway, so yeah: transportation to Versailles was free which was pretty sweet, and only about an hour commute.

When we arrived Jordan and I decided not to go into the castle - she had already been and I plan on returning with the CEA program later in the semester. Jamie and Jordan's friend from home Madelyn took a tour of the castle and met us in the gardens.

Before catching up with them, we went through a small labyrinth, almost rented boats to chill on the water, and hung out in the forest alongside the gardens, which for a Vermonter and Washingtonian, was pretty essential to our well-being. I actually cannot express how comforting the smell of trees is after a month in the city!

les villes de deauville et trouville

So last Saturday, CEA students awoke at 6:45am to make it to a train station by 8:20 to be lead off on a mystery adventure we knew nothing about. We arrive to learn that we were taking a train to northern France in the Normandie region to the coastal towns of Deauville & Trouville. A 2 hour train ride later, we arrive in Deauville with 20 euros to spend and about 7 hours to enjoy the area - which we absolutely did!

After a walk through the Deauville market, we got lunch (crepes, of course, because they're known for their savory crepes) and brought a bottle of hard cider we got from a nice man at the market (which they are also known for) to the beach and chilled for a while next to the ocean. 

CD& TD Reunion!

So Caitlin, aka college roomie bff is studying in Croatia this semester in the beautiful city of Dubrovnik. Before going there; however, she decided to visit her good friend Ségolène from Belgium who lived with the Douglass family for a year during a foreign exchange program. As I am in Paris, they obviously had to come to visit me! (& the city and sites I suppose, but mostly me.) It was actually even nicer than I expected to have them visit - I think the hardest part about studying abroad has nothing to do with "studying" or "abroad," it's really just being away from the people you love at home.



Unfortunately, while their trip was plagued with some awful pests, (find out more on Caitlin's blog here) we did see some of the classic Parisian sights, and I took my first trip up la tour eiffel!