À bientôt Paris

OK. First I will say that I am on no one's farm (disappointingly) but Tours is the cutest little medieval French town. Tomorrow I am planning on going to a chateaux/wine tour as long as it is in English. And I make this note because the only person who I head speak English all day is the reception lady that checked me in. In fact very little English has been spoken since my departure from Paris. And I would love to say that just hopped right on the opportunity to practice but when you are trying to get your life together, you do not feel like grappling for words in a second tongue that you do not yet possess. Getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to my last few day in Paris.

June 14:

My last two days in Paris were fairly bland. I had pretty much conquered all the neighborhoods I wanted to. *ode to the forgotten moments* I even explored the Bastille area. It appears that in my rush to tell you about the missed ice cream I forgot to mention my excursion to the site of the commencement of The Revolution. My favorite part of that area of town is actually the old railroad viaduct that they turned into a park and shopping area. Those Parisians, they know how to pretty up a city. *end ode* I couldn't come up with anything grand to do on the 14th so I decided to return to Montmartre and walk up and down the hills and through the little streets. I had petite dejourner, complete with expresso, at this lil cafe by the hostel and then traveled the few metro stops to Anvers at the foot of Sacre Coeur.

I remembered that one of my non-boring girl roommates (there turned out to be a total of 3 who were not lame) told me that she bought a shirt for 2 euro at this store not far from the Anvers metro stop. I saw the shop immediately. Imagine a store like Wet Seal, then take everything off the hangers and stuff it in bins. Voila! I tried to find a good deal but it was a bit too frustrating for me. I did buy a pair of leggings for 3 euro (so I can wear my shorts and not freeze. Had I known it wasn't actually summer in France I would have packed more jeans!) The leggings were actually hanging up on the wall as if they were in a civilized store so it caused me no annoyance. As soon as I walked out of that store, I came across the same store. Same name. Same type of goods. Except some of these clothes were on hangers. And a few steps up, another. I went into the third or fourth of these and actually came out with a rather cute shirt for 3 euro. Nothing else very eventful happened on this journey except that I got a nutella and banana crepe. When I got back to the hostel, I went to the chill room to have a glass of wine and read and I bumped into the fun people from the night before. They were going on the pub crawl and in search of preparty food. I had eaten earlier but decided to go with them because 1. they were looking for rotisserie chicken, the meal I wanted for dinner but could not find, 2. they were trying to convince me to come out with them and while I had already done the pub crawl, I really had nothing else to do, and 3. they were fun people so walking around with them was better than sitting in the chill room with my book. In the end, they didn't find chicken either and I had on my 3 euro shirt and was heading to the pub crawl with them (I doubt anybody will believe it but I did put up a pretty good fight). Of course the pub crawl was fun. No strippers this time but lots of dancing at O'Sullivan's. In fact, I realized that I have been to Paris twice, and to O'Sullivan's at least five times. I think it is safe to say it is my favorite bar in Paris. lol.

June 15:

I love making new hostel friends but they are the most ephemeral relationships ever. You hang out for a day or two max and then...facebook. You have so much fun and then they are gone. It was probably worse in Paris because they were leaving and I was staying. It takes a bit of a toll. But the prospect of new people who are just as much fun is a constant silver lining. I can't say that I did much of anything on the 15th. I did laundry first thing in the morning. Then I went down by the river to walk around. I got my ice cream (it was from the makers of the "best ice cream in Paris" but, in true French fashion, the shop not only closes early but is also closed random days of the week. Tuesday is one.) I wasn't amazed. Probably because I was in the mood for strawberry ice cream but they only had strawberry sorbet. Don't get me wrong though, it was tasty. And so was the dinner I got afterwards. I decided to head to the Latin Quarter to find another cheap menu and there it was, 10 euro menu, right next to a huge rotisserie. SOLD. French onion soup, grilled chicken and frites, and chocolate mousse. Stuffed, I went back to St. Christopher's one more time. I called it an early night and turned in at 10:30.

June 16th:

I had a pit in my stomach all day. I had been calling the farm where I was supposed to stay to no avail. I had her confirmation email. Venez! Come! But I never got confirmation that she got my train information. For an hour or so I debated just staying in Paris. I sent her another email (the second that day) to that effect and as my train was leaving in a hour and I made my way to the station, incredibly nervous. I figured at the worse, I would have to get a hotel and she could pick me up in the morning. Turns out she had no intent on picking me up. I get to the train station in rainy, podunk Saumur, France. The guy at the Office of Tourism lets me call the farm. Still no luck. After conveying to him in my broken French that I need to find some wifi (pronounced here wif-fee) he points me to a hotel across the bridge. The lady at the hotel spoke English, but even speaking at my slowest, she could not understand the situation I was explaining to her. She was nice and just let me use the hotel wifi. The first email I see is from the farm lady. "I will not be here on the 19th and 20th. It is better if you can come another time." WHAT?! Not only was this planned for weeks now but last week you said we were still good. Now I am in this small town with no appeal except that it is fairly close to Tours and you cancel?! I still haven't written her back. I don't know how to convey my feelings in French. Plus I only know one French swear. :-p

Running through my possible options I think of Tours. Let's go back to Tours. No hostels available. I know Paris is not an option at this point. Where else would I actually want to stay? Bordeaux? Ok. Found a hostel. Train...Next train is at 6am. I fought it for about another hour until I gave in and realized I would have to stay in Saumur for the night. I ended up in an over priced hotel room with no internet (although it did have a TV and some cop show with Shemar Moore was on. That at least made me laugh). *note* The nice hotel lady tried to get me to rent her 60 euro hotel room! She tried to convince me that everywhere else was booked. How do you know lady? I may be desperate and a bit out of luck, but I'm not a fool. I ended up finding the still over-priced room at 45. *end note* At this point, I had wasted a day and I had no clue what to do with the next five days. After quite a bit of brainstorming, aided by the French dubbed Shemar Moore, I decided I would go to Tour for two days and spend two days in the Alps. This way I still get the Loire Valley and I get a bonus gift. The fifth day? I decided to add an extra day to Strasbourg. They have a chocolate museum.

Once I accepted the fact that I was going to stay the night in the podunk town, I was not going to be working on a farm, and that my plans would have to change, I changed them. I wasn't very happy about this. I was rather looking forward to staying on the farm, mais c'est la vie, n'est pas. Things aren't always delicious, isn't that what I said.

June 17:

First thing in the morning, I called to booked the Tour hostel for two nights. I went to the train station (right across the street from the over-priced hotel) and sorted out my ticket. Turns out you don't need one from Saumur to Tours. Cosmic gift. By 11 I was in Tours, my bag checked. I would not be able to claim my room until 5 but that gave me plenty of time to explore the city. It continually rained all day but having a place to stay and a plan gave me a new lease. I walked around Tours. Very cute. But very small. Not in the least like Paris. When I first left the hostel I thought I would look for a place to have my lunch, maybe a little alcove tucked away from the rain. I started walking. Within an hour, I had made my way through the entire city center. This includes my stops to the grocer and alcove. Filling five hours walking around seemed as if it might be a difficult task. I opened the booklet that I picked up at the Office of Tourism this morning (thank you Rob for showing me the benefits of this office). The "Wandering 'Tours'" section started at the city center, I hoped that winding walking path it described around the city and my inevitable detours would last 5 hours. Four hours later, there was nothing more I wanted to see (if there was actually anything else to see). I returned to my favorite part of town (yes I have one already), Place Plum and had a cup of chocolat. It was delicious. I enjoyed my chocolate for about 5 minutes and my seat for about 60. It wasn't what I had planned but I enjoyed being in that moment. Maybe it was delicious, but it was definitely tasty.