In the past week, 4 major things have happened.
1. The Jeanne d'Arc festival started
2. I met my parents in Paris
3. My parents came to Orléans and met the "other parents"
4. I went with my parents to Normandy
First, among all the rainy, crappy weather we had last week, we had one shining star of a day (literally--thank you big shining sun). Tuesday was absolutely BEAUTIFUL for the medieval festival at l'Ile Charlemagne to commemorate the start of the 600th anniversary of Jeanne d'Arc. The festival was pretty freaking awesome. There were booths with medieval craftsmen selling their wares, food, and spectacle (not to mention the abundance of warmth and sunshine). It was absolutely fantastic. I wish I could have stayed all day but I had too much preparation left before Paris.
Speaking of Paris, on Wednesday morning, I went and met my parents at Charles de Gaulle airport. To be honest, it was a bit surreal. I waited for about an hour (with a *ahem* VERY professional-looking sign that said "Moore") after their plane landed before they came out of the baggage claim area. After navigating our way to their hotel, we ate the (now slightly warm) picnic lunch I had packed for us in their hotel room before heading over to check into my hostel. It's actually really awesome traveling with my parents because I get to see things through their eyes. My mom gets excited about some of the smallest things (little garden windows, the way a wrought iron gate looks), but it's really refreshing to see these things through her eyes. So it took a while for us to get to my hostel--we got distracted by La Sorbonne and the Panthéon. But then we headed over to Notre Dame. That church never ceases to amaze me.
On Thursday morning, we went to La Sainte Chapelle which was absolutely gorgeous. It's a little bit of a hidden treasure, but definitely well worth it (and I get in for free--thank you French Longstay Visa!). Since it was so sunny, we decided to take a river cruise on the Seine as well before heading over to the Luxembourg gardens. Then I had to leave them in Paris and come back to Orléans.
Enter two full days of theatre with a supremely cute baby. My parents got in to Orléans on Saturday while I was at rehearsal and they came out to the university to see some of the play. Then we came back to my host family's house and my two sets of parents met each other. My host parents reserved this wonderful little French restaurant and we had a nice night out. Luckily my host parents speak English fairly well, so I only had to translate a little bit. I did turn to my parents quite a few times and start speaking in French before realizing that they had no idea what I was saying. All-in all, a spectacular evening. Sunday morning, we went to the cathedral in Orléans and the medieval market (temporary product of the Jeanne d'Arc festival) before catching our train to Caen.
It was late when we got to Caen, so we ordered some pizza. I am pleased to say that I called in the order, in French, which was pretty awesome (I don't even order pizza in English, normally, so in French was impressive). Monday morning we caught a train to Bayeux to get a tour of the D-Day beaches. I'll be honest: Omaha beach was... a beach. I really didn't see anything spectacular about it. I know it was the site of one of the bloodiest battles in yadda-yadda, but *shrug*. What was really impressive was the old German gun battery at Point du Hoc. The land used to be flat. Now it looks a bit like the surface of the moon with tons and tons of craters (products of American bombs). The American cemetery was also pretty interesting.
After the tour, we returned to Caen to find just about everything closed. Luckily, I found the website of a company who takes your order, then goes to whatever restaurant to pick your food up and delivers it. Once again, I ordered food over the phone (in French) as we chilled out in the (really spiffy) hotel room. This morning, we watched a V-Day ceremony from one of our two balconies (yeah, traveling with my parents has its perks), then we headed back to Paris for lunch and our goodbye.
Unfortunately, I let my mom take all the pictures, so I've pretty much got nothing in that respect until she gets home, uploads everything, and then emails me things. I'll have more pictures this weekend, though. I've got unofficial theatre tomorrow, a class trip to Paris on Thursday, rehearsal all day Friday, then a university end-of-the-year party Friday night, rehearsal all day Saturday, performance Saturday night, Jeanne d'Arc fireworks and concert after the performance, and then the closing ceremonies for the Jeanne d'Arc festival on Sunday. What a weekend!
I'm really sad to see my parents go (time just flies by), but I'm happy to be moving on to my next adventures. Besides, I'll be home to see them in less than two months now.
À la prochaine!
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