A French Friendsgiving

Some people get worried about being abroad for holidays. But I think this is one of the most enriching experiences for a traveler. It immediately bonds you with other expats from your country and allows you to really consider why the holiday exists (especially when people outside of your culture start asking questions about it). Plus trying to hunt down traditional dishes in a foreign country, even developed ones, can be full of challenges and surprises. (For example, a small can of Libby's pumpkin puree will run you about 5€ each.) 

Alone in a Castle: Vaux le Vicomte

Last summer I read one of my now favorite books, Before Versailles, which I haphazardly picked up during one of my infamous library novel-runs. (This is an annual summer event where I grab as many fictional bites as I can carry, throwing my usual literary tastes to the wind, in the hopes that the randomness of the odds will present a jewel. And this year, oh how it did!) Karleen Koen artfully unveils the history dripping with scandal behind what inspired that famous chateau called Versailles. I suggest you buy it or drop by your local library for a dip into my new world I'm discovering.

Destination: Chateau de Vaux le Vicomte 

Getting there:

Certainly the least glamourous side of the story. Taking the wrong trains, wondering around enormous stations, and jumping the gate at the end of my journey were only some of the highlights. My arrival in the nearest city, Melun, makes no improvements to the trip. Picking my way out of the ghetto, walking miles in the wrong direction, following outdated roadsigns... yeesh! After zigzagging across several streets and bridges, I have got my 5k in for the day and am now standing in front of what I hope will be my saving grace: the Melun Tourisme Center. Wrong again. I am greeted with a thin smile, promptly handed the telephone number for the local taxi, and all but whisked out the door. Stranded, disoriented, and clutching a scribbled string of numbers, I cringingly, miraculously manage to order a cab (first time ever) in French (also first time ever). 

The arrival:

The tab runs 20€ (ripoff), the driver is silent, and the drive, uneventful. But all this melts away as the car pulled away and I was left standing in front of this:

You know those moments you've waited for your whole life, and when they finally come, they are just watered-down versions of your imagination? Not so here. The morning light moves like a young Grecian nymph in the crisp October air, dancing off the fluttering, crackly leaves and sprawling out across the dewy grass. A happy spattering of tittering birds echoes from within the rigid forest brigade standing guard around the chateau grounds. There is no other sound. It's the hushed quiet of a land brimming with secrets.

A French Wine and Cheese Festival

It's been a little while since my last post. I'm still trying to figure out when to write about all the adventures I'm having in between all the adventures I'm having. This past weekend alone, I meditated on Monet's water lilies, fought for some face-time with Mona Lisa, helped rescue the old man who feeds all the cats of the Montmartre Cemetery, hunted down Vincent Van Gogh's old apartment, and learned how to "really" eat Thai food in Paris. But my favorite experience, perhaps since arriving one month ago, was what I consider to be the quintessential French experience: a wine and cheese festival set to the lovely autumnal scenery of a small French village.

Mont-Saint Michel: A City on a Hill

The sun was still yawning awake as I stepped out onto the quiet streets of Paris shouldering a weekender bag and a pamphlet with directions to a bus stop. I'm off on an adventure! I thought, trying to grasp what exactly I was getting myself into this weekend.