Spring Break in France: Mega Post

Typically, I do not go anywhere on Spring Break-- except back to Chicago to just relax for a week. This year, I got to have a two week Spring Break and celebrate my 22nd in France! Amazing. The only other time I've gone away for break was my senior year of high school, where I was lucky enough to spend a week in London (with Lana and Christina) and a week with family in Germany (Hi, Uncle Rich and Aunt Susan!). At this rate, maybe I can expect a trip abroad every four years or so? Haha! After my time spent here I hope it's even more frequent than that!

Normally, ISU gives us a week break-- this time I got two! I had so much time to play with and was excited when I figured out I just really, really, wanted to stay in France and explore it a bit more. For the first week my friend Sydney and I decided to go to Toulouse and Bordeaux and spend a couple days in both city. Although we hadn't experienced much rain in Montpellier, we ran into quite a bit of it in both Toulouse and Bordeaux. We made the best of it though: got a bit soaked a few times running for food, made sure to go out when it WAS nice, and had one wonderfully lazy day in Bordeaux.


I have been told by numerous people that they liked Toulouse better than Bordeaux-- and I am not sure if it was the weather or where we stayed, but I walked away absolutely loving Bordeaux and only liking Toulouse. I have learned quite a bit about myself and my traveling preferences over the months, and our trip to Toulouse made me really realize that I'd rather spend a bit more to stay in the downtown, or closer to the center, than to be on the outskirts where it's much more difficult to explore. We had a good day of walking around, despite the fact that I had lost my voice that morning and had a bad cold, and I feel like there is definitely more left to see. I am definitely glad I was able to visit Toulouse and I think I would love to visit again with some better weather and a better of idea of where to stay and what to visit to make me love it as much as the rest of my friends!

There was an open square that had all the astrology signs in the center-- I found mine! (At least I think so. Nothing else resembled Aries)

Really interesting church-- couldn't decide what style to make it, I guess.

The inside of the church!

After Toulouse we made our way to Bordeaux just a couple more hours West. Like I said, I really loved Bordeaux and was impressed from the moment we got in the (huge) train station and walked outside. This part of our trip we just decided to be full on American tourists and enjoy every second of it. To follow this mindset we stayed in a Best Western near the train station. This may sound silly to all of you back home, but after being in a small dorm room with a closet shower for a semester being in an "American" hotel was amazing. Huge comfy bed, huge tv (with lots of French shows), and best yet? A big (by our new standards) bathroom with... a full sized bath tub AND shower. It was like Christmas for both Sydney and I, so excuse the next few photos...

View from our room! Train station is off to the left. I've decided I like being near train stations.

Shower in my dorm VS...

Shower in hotel... no contest!

Like I said, I loved Bordeaux. It actually kind of reminded me of Montpellier in some ways, so maybe that's why. Either way, I was really pleased with what we were able to see-- despite the rainy weather. We spent one full day touring around and seeing what we could find. I was really impressed with the layout of the city and how it was really well kept and clean. They also had a nice tram system which we were already familiar with thanks to our time in Montpellier!

One of the first things that caught our eye as we got into our downtown tram stop was this Disney-like gateway. Our stop was a little bit away, but we backtracked just to go see this and I am really glad we did.

 

 And we also found one of the city's fountains and of course, a carousel! It seems like all French cities have plenty of fountains and carousels to offer.

 

There were also quite a few churches to see, but I'll keep it to two of them.

 Here is the gorgeous city theater which they clearly put a lot of effort and detail into.

Both cities are definitely ones I would be interested in visiting again. It really is hard to fit everything in with only a few days! After our 6 day trip we returned to Montpellier, both really glad to have a few days before our next trips to just relax.

For the second week I went with my friends Adrienne and Vivienne to visit Nice where we were also able to spend a day in Monaco! Our first day in Nice also happened to be my 22nd birthday, so after climbing a steep hill to our hostel we headed downtown in search of a meal. We ended up walking around for a bit and finally found a restaurant called Hippopotamus and decided that it was decently priced and sounded delicious. I had been telling Adrienne earlier that all I really wanted was a really good steak and luckily this restaurant provided one of the best steaks I've had in months. To finish up, I also treated myself to an amazing little chocolate cake!

They even had Heinz! Rare in France.

Delicious and sooo chocolate-y

 That night we went back to our hostel and ended up meeting some very nice Australians who we ended up hanging out with the rest of our few days there. When people say they have incredible hostel experiences, I have to imagine they have stayed at a place with a similar atmosphere to our hostel in Nice. The best word I have for it is: fun. The people who work there are young, and have had incredible adventures. They offer cheap meals where you can meet new people, as well as a "Happy Hour" so great that people don't even bother going to other bars once it's over!

Enjoying Happy Hour at our wonderful hostel!

The next day we were tourists and made our way around Nice! My favorite part? The beach! The water was this stunning turquoise-aqua-blue and very, very bright. I was amazed because I hadn't expected the colors to be THAT vibrant, but it turns out photos of Nice's beaches don't need to be Photoshopped because they are already pretty perfect. I took about a hundred photos of the beach, but ended up sifting through them. Here's what I mean by perfect...

The only thing I think we didn't like about the beaches? The ROCKS that were there instead of sand. Really the biggest issue with the rocks was the walking. Sitting, or even laying down, was not uncomfortable, but the walking was excruciating! Maybe the French have tougher feet? Either way we made it down to the water and sat for a long time just taking it all in.

I'll start to wrap this super long post up with a few more pictures of our time in Nice, but needless to say it was a city I adored and would love to visit many, many more times.

I also have some quick thoughts on our day trip to Monaco. I am definitely glad I went and there were parts that were pretty incredible, but overall I wasn't super impressed. It's true that the city and the people are insanely wealthy and it definitely shows, but at the same time we all felt like parts of it just felt out of place. I say this because they have been setting up for the Grand Prix that starts in May, but they had really high fences  along many, many of the streets and they DID NOT look temporary. If they were I can only imagine the set up/take down time it would take. It left parts of the city feeling very bizarre, and there was even a sidewalk that was basically not walkable because they had put the fencing up right against some benches surrounding the permanent trees-- we had to hop from bench to bench, along with many others to get around. The highlight of the day trip to Monaco was definitely near the end. We decided we wanted to visit the Prince's palace which  was at the top of this very steep hill. When we reached the top, we were greeted with some of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. This definitely ended our trip on a high note and we felt good about having visited!

 Things I have learned:

• Monaco is built upon many different levels of a huge hill. For this reason they have stairs everywhere and even public elevator access to get you to certain areas.
• Mussels look gross, but actually aren't that bad tasting. Not ordering my own any time soon, though!
• Apparently it is acceptable to advertise that your 12 million euro plane is for sale... on a piece of paper in a window of a traveling agency in Monaco. 
• Having a shuttle service from a hostel that is on top of a hill is really nice-- especially when you have luggage.
• When visiting Monaco, go to the nearest grocery store for lunch. 3 euros for a huge slice of pizza/sandwich/salad VS 40 euros for lunch at a restaurant.
• Rain really is not frequent or long lasting in the South. Rain was forecasted every day for our trip to Nice and there were even some menacing looking clouds, but it only sprinkled during our last afternoon. Now off to the West? Springtime brings only rain.
• Cities like Bordeaux, Nice, or Paris I would have never studied abroad in. Why not? Though I love the cities, I would have never been able to practice French. In these particular cities, people don't hesitate to speak in English if they have the chance and sometimes seem to prefer it. Montpellier has definitely allowed me to practice all the time.