Sorry it has been so long since my last update… I’ll try to give my best run-through of the past few weeks!
La Fête des Vendanges à Lutry (9/25)- Kaity and I went to a festival in Lutry (a little town past Lausanne) celebrating the harvest of the grapes. There were all kinds of tents and vendors set up, and despite the rainy weather we had a wonderful time exploring, trying food from the different vendors, and (of course) drinking wine. We each got a little wine glass to bring home as a souvenir!
Decorations for the wine festival!
Brussels (9/26-9/29)- Sunday Morning (September 26th) we left for Brussels…all 27 of us, 2 program directors, and our luggage. It really was not a bad train ride, especially because we decided to make mimosas on the train. Always a good idea. After changing trains in Paris, we eventually made it to our hotel in Brussels a little after 4 p.m. The hotel was pretty nice, and it was very near the Old Town, so that was convenient. After unpacking, we headed out to explore and find food. Ended up at a really cute, authentic Belgian restaurant that was not too expensive, and of course we all ordered beer, too (when in Belgium). After dinner we got waffles, and they were DELICIOUS! I got mine with chocolate sauce and bananas. I decided to go to bed early so that I would be wide awake for our lectures the next morning (7:00 a.m. wake-up call…ouch). Our lectures Monday were at the European Commission, so naturally they basically just talked about why the EU is so wonderful. At least we got free tote bags! And it was interesting.
La Grande Place in Brussels
Monday night after a delicious dinner of Moules Frites (mussels with French fries, the national dish of Belgium) and beer we headed to Delirium Bar, where you can in fact drink DAS BOOT. All in all it was a great night…first we met some Italians, and I convinced them that I was German and didn’t speak a work of English (they believed me). Then we made friends with three Belgian boys, named Max, Gilles, and Charles (Max was actually from Luxembourg). Gilles was from the Flemish part of Belgium, but he spoke French, too, and Charles and Max were native French speakers. It was fascinating talking to them (mostly in French, a little German and English, too) and I was happy when they told me that I spoke French exceptionally well (especially for an American). We had a great time talking, and as usual I loved hearing about life in Belgium (and Luxembourg).
Gilles and Max, two of our new friends
The next morning we had our lectures at the Center for European Studies and heard all about the international economic crisis as well as defense in the EU. Tuesday afternoon was free, so we walked all around the old part of the city and over to a cool shopping district. All the buildings were really pretty, and I just wish the sun had been out! Wednesday morning I did some souvenir shopping for people before it was time to leave. Getting from Brussels to Paris on Wednesday afternoon was a huge mess. First of all, there were demonstrators from the Communist Parties of various EU countries protesting all around the city and in the train station (still not really sure what they were protesting about…) It was kind of funny to watch until someone saw a flash grenade go off…yikes. Then our train ended up being extremely delayed. I still don’t know if it had to do with the terrorism threats in Paris. We were shuffled from platform to platform about six times (with all of our luggage) before ending up at our original platform and leaving nearly an hour late. In the words of our Swiss academic director, “This would never happen in Switzerland! This is why Belgium is falling apart!” Touchée, Dr. Lambert.
Paris (9/29-10/3)- Finally reached Paris late Wednesday afternoon, and the first thing we saw when we exited the train station in Montmartre was Moulin Rouge. Welcome to Paris. After leaving my luggage at the hotel (which was very nice!), I headed out to explore the neighborhood with some of my friends. We headed up to the Sacré Coeur, and I LOVED the area around there. It was so charming and artsy and just all-around cool. There were lots of people on the steps of the Sacré Coeur, including some really creepy guys (typical) and some people playing music. The views of Paris at dusk were beautiful, and when we walked around to the side of the church we could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. We found a good restaurant in the area and chose the pris-fixe menu option…delicious! I love French food. After dinner we walked back to the Sacré Coeur to see the city all lit up at night, which was even more amazing than during the daytime. We also went inside the Sacré Coeur, which was beautiful. I hadn’t realized before that it was built in the late 1800s; I had thought it was much older.
Sacré Coeur at night!
I decided to go to bed at a decent hour Wednesday night so that I would be rested for our lectures the next day. Our first one was at the OECD and the second was not too far from the Bastille and was about French foreign policy. At lunch I had my first macaroon ever for dessert, and it was delicious! Thursday night was our group dinner at a really cute restaurant in Montmartre. It was a much nicer restaurant than I had expected, and all-in-all the dinner took more than two hours. It was great to have some delicious food and be with everyone. I had pumpkin soup, a lamb curry dish, and flan for dessert. After dinner some of my friends and I got ready at the hotel and headed out to a Club for international student night. The line was ridiculously long, but by some miracle we eventually made it inside and had SO MUCH FUN. The club was packed with students from all over the world, the music was good, and all of us had a great time. It was definitely a typical European club experience, and I was not disappointed! We came back really late, so I was pretty tired the next morning.
Allison, Helen, and me at ClubMix
After packing up, checking out, and leaving our luggage at the hotel, we went down to the Seine to see Notre Dame, the Louvre, etc. Notre Dame was amazing, and I wish I’d had more time to spend there. Unfortunately it started raining a little bit, so our walk along the Seine was cut short when we stopped for lunch at a café by the Pont Neuf. I had a crôque-monsieur sandwich, which is sort of like grilled cheese with ham but better! After lunch I was able to meet up with Charlie for coffee near the Louvre. He is doing the Duke in Paris program this semester, and it was so nice to see an old friend from home. We didn’t have much time because he had to be at a mandatory group dinner that evening, but we spent the entire hour and a half talking and catching up. When Charlie had to leave, I headed back to the hotel (still raining!) to meet up with my friends so that we could move our luggage to our hostel. We had to do the whole luggage transfer/take the metro in the rain, which was less than idea, but we finally made it to the Montclair Montmartre hostel. It was not a bad hostel, but our room was on the 6th floor and there were no elevators. So as you can imagine it was a nightmare lugging all of our bags up so many flights of stairs. Our room itself was really cool though! I could see the Sacré Coeur from my window. Because it was STILL raining, we had dinner, got coffee, and then came back to the hostel because it was so nasty outside. I enjoyed getting a good night’s sleep after our late night at ClubMix. Saturday was devoted to being a tourist! Kaity and I got up and headed to the huge flea market at Porte Clignancourt. It’s the most famous one in Paris, and we had a lot of fun wandering around for several hours. I bought a scarf for myself and some gifts for other people. Then we decided to head to the Champs Elysées, get lunch, and be tourists! We saw the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Musée des Beaux Arts, etc. With the leaves changing for fall it was absolutely gorgeous! There is just something about Paris that is so magical. I wish I had taken more pictures of the leaves. Saturday night I went out to dinner with a bunch of friends and then had a few drinks before bed. Sunday we went to the Louvre and were able to get in for free! We only had a couple hours but managed to see lots of classical Greek and Roman statues, ancient Egyptian mummies and art, Napoleon III’s apartments, some 17th-century French and Flemish paintings, and of course the Mona Lisa! It was a good mix of different things.
Kaity and me at the Eiffel Tower
Getting home to Geneva was a little tricky. First, all four of us were absolutely sure that our train home left from Gare du Nord, so we headed there with all of our luggage. Our first problem was that we were unable to print our tickets from the kiosks in the station, because even though we had already paid online we had to use our credit cards to print the actual ticket...but what no one told is that the machine didn't read American cards. Of course the line at the ticket window was ridiculously long, but we got in line anyway because we didn't really have a choice. I happened to leave the line at one point to check the departures board, and for some reason I didn't see our train anywhere on the board. With a sinking feeling, I quickly realized that we were at the WRONG train station. Our train actually left from Gare de Lyon. In a panic we rushed to the RER and hopped on the local train to Gare de Lyon. By some miracle we made it there 25 minutes before our train was scheduled to leave, but there was no time to deal with printing tickets. The security guard let us through to the track without paper tickets after we explained the situation and showed her our confirmation emails on my phone, so we figured it would be okay. Our train ended up being more than 30 minutes late, probably because of the heightened security measures in response to terrorism threats (and also because French trains are ALWAYS late). When the man came by to check my ticket on the train, I explained the situation to him and showed him my confirmation and debit card, and luckily he understood. We finally reached Geneva after midnight, and I headed straight home to bed!
