So last Thursday (January 13th I do believe) we all returned to the IES center to depart for our off-site orientation in Tours. It was a 2 1/2 hour bus ride, which I was not pleased about. I spent most of last week sitting. In Tours I roomed with Sarah who goes to Georgetown. I don't even remember what we had for dinner the first night at the hotel restaurant, but every single meal we had there over the course of the next three and a half days was three courses (soup or salad, entree and dessert plus bread) which all got to be a bit much after awhile. And they decided not to serve red meat or pork to better accommodate everyone, so we ate ALOT of fish.
The first night was a bit of a welcome to the program, and group introductions from all 60 of us. But the main reason we were in Tours was to see the Chateaux de la Loire, all them famous castles of France. The first one we saw on Friday morning was Loche, which was the oldest but also the least impressive probably. The most remarkable part of it was the dungeon, which was used for political prisoners for a very long time. But since it's so old its mostly just ruins at this point. There was a lovely view of the cutesy little town of Loche though.
In the afternoon we went to Chenonceau, which is one of the most famous chateau of France. It's built basically in the Loire, which is pretty ridiculous, and has some very lovely gardens. Chateaus are very cold in winter, because they're basically big uninsulated stone buildings, which I didn't exactly appreciate, but they are also alot less crowded which was cool.
In the evening, after our return to Tours, I walked around the city with three other girls. It's kind of unfortunate that we didn't have a day in Tours, because there's alot of cool stuff to see in Tours itself. It's pretty lively at night, because it's a university town, but we were a little unsure how bars work in France, so we decided to just walk around. When we got back, one of the girls I was with, Dana, was locked out of room so we watched TV, which was horribly depressing. We watched a show about dysfunctional, mildly abusive couples who have relationship interventions. Not any better than trashy American TV.
The next day was chock full of more castles. First we went to Blois, which was cool because it's actually in a fairly decent sized town, which is not all that common for castles, from what I can tell. My favorite part of Blois was the stained glass porcupines (porc-epic!) which were in windows throughout the castle. I also very much liked the fleur-de-lis which were painted in gold all over the ceiling of the big hall ( I can't really think of the appropriate word for it). I think because all of our tours were in French all the historical information hasn't stuck with me super well. I understood the tours just fine, but things are much easier to tune out in French.
Possibly my favorite part of orientation was lunch on Saturday, which was simply epic. We went to this little hotel/restaurant in the countryside right next to the Loire. From where I was sitting at lunch, I could see swans across the river in the Loire. It was just so typically lovely and French. Most remarkably, it was probably the most expensive meal I've ever had, since it was five amazing courses. I had a vegetarian meal (there was a bit of confusion since people with allergies or special diets got blue cards at every meal, to let the servers know, but most people just assumed that I was vegetarian, and didn't ask about allergies, which was fine). First we had a sort of puff pastry egg roll, filled with a mixture of vegetables. Next was one of the prettiest salads I have ever eaten. The non vegetarians got a plate filled with various meat items, and I tried somebody's pate (gross) and foie gras (not as gross) just for funsies. After that was the main course, which for me was mashed potatoes with a little puff pastry boat filled with mushrooms in cream sauce on top. Soooo goooood. Then came the cheese plate (amazing chevre and some sort of muenster) and then dessert. Dessert came on full main-course sized plates because it was HUGE. There was a creme brulee, a fluffy chocolate cake with fruit sauce and a scoop of raspberry sorbet. So basically three desserts. Everything was amazing, and I was obscenely full afterwards. I wish I would have taken pictures of every course because they were all beautiful.
After that we went to Chambord, which is also one of the best known French castles. I was probably the most impressed with Chambord, because it's very striking and HUGE. I got lost multiple times, and separated from the people I was attempting to walk around with. It's got all these awesome towers, and a double helix staircase in the center. It was Francois 1er, who had a huge nose. That was really the most remarkable thing about him to me. And his official crest was a fire-breathing salamander, which I enjoyed. There was an overwhelming amount of stuff to see in Chambord, so after seeing the main rooms and the balcony, I went outside and played frisbee instead. We were there fairly late in the day, so the sun started setting and the castle turned all pink and orange. It was just fantastic.
After our return to Tours, I was too tired to do much of anything, so I just played Set with some people. One of the most exhausting parts of orientation, aside from getting up early every day, was just meeting so many new people. It was like summer camp or freshman orientation. 60 new people is just an awful lot. But after knowing them for about a week now, it's much better. Just keeping track of all those names is overwhelming at first.
Sunday, after three hours of French exams, for placement in our French grammar classes(French grammar?! What?! I haven't thought about grammar in years), we returned to Nantes. After two intense days of tourist-ing, I was fairly glad to be back.
That was alot more in-depth than I intended. So. I guess I'll finish writing about orientation in Nantes later, because it's saturday and I have things to do.
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