Anyways, I am super excited because FRANCE. We picked a tour that was mainly limited to France, so yeah--I won't be going through all those other places I've been curious about, like Prague (Daughter of Smoke and Bone!), Athens (Greek mythology!), or anywhere in Italy (Food!). I'm not too bummed though, because although my French (4 years of high school, woot) is essentially nonfunctional these days, time has not gotten rid of my interest in France one bit. So to dial up my anticipation even further, I've decided to look up photos of all the places I shall be seeing and post them here.
First Stop: Amsterdam
I'm not familiar with Amsterdam, except maybe Gus and Hazel's little excursion in The Fault in Our Stars, but I love flower gardens and Keukenhof Gardens looks like MY KIND OF PARADISE.
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| Keukenhof Gardens |
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| National Museum Rijksmuseum |
We studied Belgium briefly in my high school French class, but really the only thing that comes to mind nowadays is the fact that one of my childhood favorite tennis players, Kim Clijsters, is from Belgium. And Belgian chocolate, obviously.
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| I dunno which landmarks we'll be seeing in Brussels, but this place looks awesome. |
Third Stop: Paris
Out of all the stops, this is probably the one I am the most thoroughly familiar with. In fact, I recall having to plan a Paris itinerary for one of my homework assignments in French class. I distinctly remember splurging a bunch of my "allotted money" by staying in a suite at the Ritz and skimping on transportation money (i.e. walk everywhere).
Also, I was a big fan of the film Paris Je T'aime back in high school, so my memory's still pretty good in regards to a number of Parisian landmarks.
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| Way too many places to pick in Paris! Here's a nice collage though. |
Fourth Stop: Versailles
Okay, I am REALLY excited about this one, and I'm not even really sure why. Maybe I really enjoy looking at nice, expensive things? I've always wondered what it's like to live in these fancy royal palaces.
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| Hall of Mirrors, Château de Versailles |
I'm sure my mother will be flipping out over this one: Monet's garden and home. I'm curious how the place stacks up in reality versus all of the Impressionist paintings I've seen, having grown up with an artist mother who's dragged me to art museums all throughout my childhood.
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| Familiar bridge? Claude Monet's garden in Giverny |
In Mme. M's class my junior year, we split into groups and were each assigned to do a presentation on a city/region in France. I think someone was assigned to do Normandy, but honestly I remember nothing about Rouen. Apparently it's where Joan d'Arc was executed.
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| Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen |
Okay, someone definitely did a presentation on Normandy, because I distinctly remembering seeing photos of Mont Saint-Michel on a powerpoint slide and thinking, "SOMEONE TAKE ME THERE."
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| Mont Saint-Michel |
Anyways. My dream is to experience Tangled's sky-lantern scene in real life, and I have no problem with doing the boat, lantern, and castle parts separately if that's what it takes.
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| Like twinsies, RIGHT?? |
Eighth Stop: Loire Valley
I also don't remember much about the Loire Valley region, but DID SOMEONE SAY CASTLES?
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Château de Chambord
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| Château de Chenonceau |
Not sure exactly which landmarks we'll be seeing in Tours, but it sounds like we'll be staying in a chateau there overnight.
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| Place Plumereau |
And now, we commence the portion of our tour where for once, I am finally of legal age to partake in the consumption of alcohol. I couldn't find much info about Cognac online (besides the drink itself), but apparently we'll be touring a distillery.
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| Taken directly from the Wikipedia entry for Cognac, France |
Eleventh Stop: Bordeaux
Wine! Admittedly I'm the farthest from a wine connoisseur as you can get; I attended a Senior Etiquette class at Duke last year, and when we got to the wine-tasting portion and people were saying all sorts of things about tasting "a hint of watermelon" and "rich smokiness," I was just like uhhhhh OKAY. However, I still have yet to go wine-tasting--an experience I am very curious about.
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| Wine village St. Émilion |
Unfortunately, everything I learned about Lourdes has been transplanted by images of Madonna's daughter and budding fashionista who said something about how gladiator sandals were tacky the summer I was parading around Taiwan in knee-high gladiator sandals. (People complimented my badassness, so whatever you say, Lourdes...)
A quick Google search tells me Lourdes is home to one of the Roman Catholic pilgrimage sites and one of the approved Marian apparition sites. (Apparently the one I visited at La Vang in Vietnam was not officially approved? I wonder how the approval process for these things work.)
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| The Grotto of Massabielle |
Oh, Andorra. I remember taking a geography quiz where we each received a blank map and had to label all of the countries around France. And Andorra, you were the only country that stopped me from getting 100%. Why? I didn't even realize I'd forgotten about you--because you're so tiny that you weren't even marked on the map! Andorra is right in the Pyrenees, so hopefully it won't be freezing cold when I go...
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| Andorra |
This is one of the places I actually remember learning about in class, ha-ha. The word "carcass" in there might give you an idea of the medieval history behind this walled city. Also, it's the namesake for that board game. (I played it for the first time last year and won with major beginner's luck because I somehow managed to get all of the church tiles.)
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| Carcassonne |
My mother is probably also gonna go crazy over this place, as this is where Van Gogh lived for a while. I believe he painted over 300 paintings during that time.
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| Café Terrace at Night |
I recall Avignon being most famous for the Palais des Papes (or maybe Picasso's "Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon.... hahahaa just kidding), but what I really want to see are the lavender fields.
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| Palais des Papes |
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| Lavender field |
I don't even remember learning about Nîmes, but apparently it's famous for the heavy Roman Empire influence that can still be seen today.
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| Arènes de Nîmes |
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| Pont du Gard |
And now, we arrive at the Côte d'Azur, or French Riviera. Tbh, the only thing I remember about Cannes is the film festival, but this place totally screams beach-vacation-hotspot. And some of the photos of the place look very familiar---was To Catch a Thief filmed in Cannes?
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| Cannes |
My friend S's favorite city in the world. I remember a classmate did a presentation on Nice, and Mme. M was telling us that the nude beaches really aren't that exciting because most people just don't look good in their birthday suits... well, not like I was planning to go those places anyway LOL.
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| Nice |
FINALLY, we get to the place that I actually researched for my class project! Monte Carlo is obviously most famous for its casinos, though personally I was more smitten by the fact that Grace Kelly was the princess of Monaco. Also, Wikipedia has answered my question, and apparently To Catch a Thief was filmed in Monte Carlo, not Cannes.
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| Monte Carlo Casino |
omg... I literally just spent like the last three hours looking at photos...
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