When we woke up on Friday morning, the staff drove us, caravan style, to Montrichard which is a town about 10 miles away. This is where the train station is that we will use to go to our various destinations throughout the semester. The first caravan got to Montrichard about an hour before the train was leaving, so we went to the cathedral and the local bakery.
Madame Faur, my French professor, told us all about the cathedral. What she told us was not necessarily special for that one cathedral, but more general information about the history of cathedrals in France. For instance, she told us about the structure and why the heads were cut off of the gargoyles, angels, and animal statues on the church. During the French Revolution, the people were so upset with the church, that they cut all the heads off. The bakery was good. I had a pain au chocolat. The first of many on this weekend trip!
The train took us to the Château de Chenonceau which is where King Henry II of France's mistress, Diane de Poitiers lived. After the King died, his wife, Catherine de Medici, kicked her out of the château and into a different one. There are a lot of pictures and history of this in my Facebook album.
After the Château de Chenonceau, the group got back on the train and rode to Tours. From here, we went to the Musee des Beaux. I have been to art museums before, some small, some huge, but this experience was different. I have always wondered what to look at or appreciate when I looked at pieces of art, but Dr. Mackaman helped us. He explained to think about the time in which the piece was created and about what the piece is trying to tell us, if anything at all. Going through with the professors, especially Prof. Netter, was very cool because they would say one small thing and all of the students following them would eat it up.
After this, we went to the cathedral in Tours. The stained glass windows inside where very intricate. Each window was a different snapshot of the Bible or of a Catholic saint. There were poster boards set up around the cathedral telling what that specific window's story was.
The last stop for the group was a gallery that was displaying three pieces of Prof. Netter's artwork. The walk over there took us through a lot of Tours, which was good for the group I was staying the night with and me to see.
After seeing Prof. Netter's work, the group was told to go explore Tours. Most of the group met back up at the train station later, but since we were staying, we went to the hotel and took a long awaited nap. We went to supper at a restaurant called the Hippopotamus. It's not a French restaurant, but can cook hamburgers like no other. We have had fries a few times here which to me seems weird, but they are not greasy like they often are in America. They are not seasoned either which I've come to find out is how I like them. For dessert, four of us got chocolate mousse which is by far the best thing I have ever eaten. I highly recommend trying chocolate mousse to anyone who ever comes to France, and if you make it to Tours, go to the Hippopotamus.
The next day, we spent around eight hours shopping on La Rue Nationale, which is the main strip in Tours. We stopped at cafes a few times to rest our feet and our backs because we had to carry our backpacks around with us because we were leaving that night and had to check out of the hotel before we left. If you ever want people to know you are from out of town, carry a backpack while shopping.
Getting back to Montrichard for us to be picked up and taken back to the Abbey was crazy. We got to the train station almost two hours early and noticed that our departure time nor our train number was on the board. We thought nothing of it at first, but then someone went and asked. He was told that the train was leaving now and to run. It was the last train leaving for Montrichard that night. So Casey ran over to us and told us to run and get on the train now. We had one ticket for six people, but had seven in our group. Amanda, the girl who needed the other ticket stopped and told us to wait because she couldn't get on. Casey yelled and told her that he bought her a ticket. We asked the train guys standing outside the doors if this was the train to Montrichard and they said yes. One blew his whistle, we jumped on, and the doors closed behind us. I'm not sure how trains work in America, but the ones here do not wait on you to get on. They'll close on your foot if it's in the way. We laughed at the craziness of the last two minutes as we found our seats and safely made it back to Montrichard where Jessica picked us up. We talked her ear off about the weekend that we had and all we had learned. When we arrived at the Abbey, we were glad to be back!
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