A Tour of Tours

What a crazy, crazy week! I meant to update on Sunday, but time got away from me and OH MY look at the time! It's Thursday night already!!

Here are the highlights:

Friday night I had dinner with my host parents and a couple of their friends--one of whom happens to be an English professor (I think) at a local school. So that was actually really cool. I actually understood about 95% of what was going on. However, I stayed up MUCH too late, and had to get up SUPER early on Saturday morning because....

WE WENT TO TOURS! ...It was actually not all that exciting. For those of you who maybe aren't familiar with the area, Tours is a slightly larger city about an hour away by train. It's actually quite similar to Orléans, is situated on the Loire, and has a chateau.

So Saturday morning, when we arrived in Tours, Angie called her friend Emmanuelle who lives in Tours and was going to show us around. We went to the tourism office and putted around a bit waiting for Emmanuelle. I got some shopping done (woo, shopping!)

Eventually Emmanuelle met us and she had her brother with her. So the 5 of us walked around town. First we went to the cathedral. I don't know why, but I love cathedrals. Maybe because we really don't have churches like that in the States. Partially I'm overwhelmed at the work that people put into them. I don't know. Anyway, pictures!!

The cathedral of Tours

Angie with Emmanuelle

Angie, Maddie, and I

After the Cathedral, we went and saw the chateau. It was actually not terribly impressive, and we didn't go inside. It was still blisteringly cold out, so we probably should have gone inside, but we just moved on pretty quickly.

Yeah... this was pretty much it.

Then, after a detour into a gaming store (Maddie, Angie, and I geeked out over Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings replicas), we walked around the old part of town. Maybe it's just me, but I absolutely ADORE these old buildings, they're so cute!

Absolutely adorable!

Emmanuelle and her brother went off to spend some time together, and so cue our three hour lunch break at a crêperie (yum!) to avoid going back out in the cold. Then we walked down to the Loire and ran into a bunch of Anonymous protesters (I was pretty psyched). Then we took gratuitous pictures of all the ice on the Loire before heading to the wine museum. The museum was pretty tiny, but I thought it was actually pretty interesting. Maddie and Angie got bored. lol

Maddie failing at eating salad. We were cracking up.

Anonymous! Why hello there!!

On the riverfront (those are Angie's and Maddie's shadows, too).

The Loire hasn't been this frozen in almost 20 years.

After stopping in a bookstore (I stocked up on French reading material), we headed to Emmanuelle's apartment for tea. This was absolutely splendid. We spent most of the time talking in French (her brother, François spoke very little English). This was very agreeable. Finally, we had to leave to get dinner before our train. We wanted to go to this restaurant called La Souris Gourmande (roughly: the mouse chef) whose dishes are based entirely on cheese.

Next time, little mousie, next time!

Unfortunately for us, it's a very popular restaurant, and there was no room without a reservation. So we went to McDonald's (naturally) and chilled until our train came. By the time I got home, it was 11:30. Quite the long day.

Sunday was a study day as Ethan and I had to prepare our presentation on Mardi Gras for Thursday (today!). Then I met Angie and Maddie and we got all our tickets for our big vacation coming up!! We're heading off to London, Edinburgh, and Dublin next week!

Tuesday was Valentine's Day, so the girls and I headed out for a drink in celebration at a little pub called the Hendrix on the Rue de Bourgogne. I had this sweet concoction called The Doors in which I got a glow stick (woo). Then I tried absinthe. It tasted like licorice. I ended up a little tipsy. Nothing seriously major.

The Doors. Pinapple-y and delicious.

Yesterday we went to see The Iron Lady (with Meryl Streep!). It was absolutely fabulous. However, I was expecting it to be in French, so when it started, it took me several minutes to realize it was in English. It was very confusing.

That's pretty much all for now! Not sure what we'll be up to this weekend, but I'm sure we'll do something.