Mont Saint-Michel

Bonjour, hardcore blog fans!

Just came back from an amazing Rotary weekend with my district - and 160 other exchangers! I love these weekends. Being with all my friends from all over the world, meeting new ones, being able to talk in whatever language I want (I learnt some Spanish and Malay, and taught one of the two words of Chinese that I know), and seeing incredible monuments like the Mont Saint-Michel makes it all worthwhile.

District 1720!

We left in 3 minibuses from Tours, it took about 3 and a half hours to get to Normandy. We stopped at the beach (the backyard of our youth hostel, actually) for lunch - even though it was a Northern beach and therefore gross, it wasn't so bad! There was a rainbow, but that just meant it rained all day.

The beach in front of our youth hostel - RAINBOW!

After lunch we went visited the museum about the landings beach, where the English made their harbours in Normandy to help the French in WW2.
It would have been more interesting if I wasn't laughing my head off and being completely terrified (at the same time) because of our tour guide - she was French, but she had an English accent (she did the whole tour in English because barely any of the newies speak French) which was so sugary sweet and posh it was even Englisher than the Queen! Scary, actually. I took a video, but I don't know if it'll work...

The landings beach in Normandy - the big black thing in one of the bits
of steel that made up the giant floating jetty back in the day

After the museum, we went to the American Cemetery - it's pretty well-known and it meant a lot to the Americans that were there. They even got to stand to attention in the reserved part of the flag circle to watch the flag-lowering ceremony for the day (conducted by an American). And there was an American veteran of the 2nd world war there!

Bit out of place in the American cemetery...

The flag-lowering cemetery

I'd heard about this cemetery, with all the white crosses - there were SO MANY. It's sad how much people died in WW2, and these were only the Americans, there were many more as well as them.

 After the cemetery we went back to the youth hostel and had dinner and a welcome-to-the-Rotary-weekend dance party!
Saturday morning saw us back on our minibuses to drive 2 hours to Mont Saint-Michel, where we met the other exchangers and started our BILLON HOUR WALK.

Mont Saint-Michel

 The plan was to bypass the entry to the actual Mont Saint-Michel and walk around it, to see a little island/giant rock. It was a 4 or 5 hour walk through mud and knee-deep water with a fairly strong current... I had to take off my ankle brace to do the walk - probably the best physio I could possibly do!

MUD!

Fighting our way through quicksand and waves, we took a billion photos with each other and it was also cool to just walk amongst different groups of peoples and talk. But it was freezing cold and tiring - Rotary does this on purpose so we're too tired to stay up late! But they never succeed, fortunately, we manage to stay awake...

The amazing rock...

The thing about the coast in Brittany/Normandy is that the tide comes in, 6 hours later it comes out, 6 hours later is comes in again. So there wasn't too much water where we walked, but if we'd waited for a few hours we'd have had to SWIM.

All the exchangers walking towards the rock with the Mont Saint-Michel in the background

That night we had a big dinner (all 180 students plus all the Rotarians!) where all the exchangers from each country stood out the front and sang their national anthem. The Australians went first, to set a good example. Even the people who were the only representatives from their country had to sing on their own! I'm REALLY glad I wasn't one of them, but they were all great.

Then we had a dance party and stayed up really late gossiping!

Advance Australia Fair - and then Aussie Aussie Aussie, OY OY OY!

 Sunday morning we got to actually go INTO the Mont Saint-Michel. Everything is a hill and practically every street is covered with tourist shops and little cafes, it's so...QUAINT! So French, actually.

Inside the Mont Saint-Michel

The main castle bit

Looking out from over the top

There were a LOT of stairs, the whole thing is built on a massive hill sticking out of the water.

Front of the church

Inside the church (one of many, but this is the main chapel I think)

Before the bus ride back, had to get a photo with the sign...

Had lunch at the same restaurant as dinner the night before, with all the exchangers and Rotarians. Then it was back in the minibuses to get home!

The drive home (that's a windmill in the distance)

All up, an awesome weekend. I go on Eurotour (the bus trip around Europe) next week for 12 days so that should be even better!

September excitement!

Mid-September, just after holidays finished, and I'm hobbling around on crutches. NOT fun!


But despite my blistered hands and lead foot, I went to see Loudun's bi-annual (does that mean twice a year or once every two years? Am trying to say that it's once every two years) fair - La Foire!

Brasilien marching band

 It's basically the social highlight of every second year in Loudun (it alternates between here and Thouars), where all the people living in the country come out from under their rocks and celebrate all the tractors that have accumulated around the place.

A Ferrari from the "Sport and Collection" stand

 There's exhibition things, a mini farm for the kiddlies (and for me - everyone loves piglets, I think we can agree), restaurants, businesses from Loudun and surrounding towns, plus entertainment like bands and a magician!

A donkey - also the emblem of my region, Poitou-Charentes... REPRESENT!

Catherine and I had a walk around in the arvo looking at everything, then stayed for dinner. Soooo many people there! I had no idea Loudun was so populated - on a Monday, you'd think it was a ghost town...turns out it isn't.

Tractors and farmers - yay the country!

Then I went back to school because having a cast and crutches doesn't make you soft in the head (bugger!) and they even gave me a key to the lift to get to my (upstairs) classroom and the canteen so I didn't have to climb stairs!

One Friday night a few weeks ago, some members of the Loudun club went to Chinon to have dinner with the Rotary Club of Chinon, which they apparently do every year. It was cool, there were heaps of English people so I had dinner at the pommy table. Also, the best part was the BAND they had - a five-piece brass band who played awesome gypsy music. And one guy had a SOUSAPHONE, this incredible wrap-around tuba which I really wanted to try...

The next day, was up at 5am to get to Tours to meet the new exchange students!! Then we took the train to Paris to spend the weekend sightseeing and swapping pins and business cards and trying to remember each other's names. It was good fun, but the most tiring weekend of my entire life. Being on crutches is HARD, especially if you're like me and have no arm muscles. (I do now though!)

The newies!!!!

On the Saturday we just got to the train up, and found our youth hostel and had a big talk about the rules (for the newies) and just generally getting to know each other. In the afternoon we got the metro (NEVER take the metro on crutches, I have learnt. NEVER.) to the Louvre. I'd already seen it - in fact, I'm pretty proud that I can casually say, "Oh, I'm just nipping off to Paris for the weekend" and it's not even a big thing! Which is why I'm not going to put up hundreds of photos and blab on about Paris because I've already been and didn't take that many photos anyway (relatively speaking - not many for ME).

Most embarrassing thing was that they gave me a WHEELCHAIR (ohh the effort it took to get out of it - should've just kept it) to get around the museum! But see photo BELOW:

The advantages of being in a wheelchair in the Louvre

Went to see the Mona Lisa, as you do, but you know what happens when wheelchair people try and see it?The security guards practically run you over the tourists to get to go IN FRONT of the barrier and take your very own photo CLOSER THAN EVERYONE ELSE. I think I can say I've been the closest to the Mona Lisa out of everyone I know. Cool, hey?

Better than the metro!

This was my method of transport for getting from the Louvre to dinner that night - another first! In the 3-wheeled COOL-MOBILE!

No doors, trying not to fall out with me and 2 other Rotarians squished in the back of this car thing

View from the window of the Louvre

Venus di Milo

After a classy dinner at Flunch (a step up from Macca's, let's say), we hobbled to Pont Neuf to get a bateau mouche and see Paris by night. It was REALLY cool (but cold) and the French rebounds (who'd come with us to Paris) made fun of the tour guide so much he was laughing too hard to talk in his serious tour guide voice. Hilarious!

La Tour Eiffel - BY NIGHT

On Sunday everyone went to the Eiffel Tower and Champs Elysees, but because it was too much walking I stayed at the hostel... but I went and had a coffee with one of the Rotarians later and cos the cafe was in front of the metro station, we walked back to the hostel with all the exchangers when they got back. But I didn't REALLY miss anything, I'd already been up the tower when we went on the bus trip and stuff. Either way, I was going to see all the exchangers in a few weeks time when we went to Mont Saint Michel.

Down the road from our youth hostel

So that was a really fun weekend! Really. I'm glad I went, even though I was complaining interally the whole time.
On a postive note: my neighbours adopted a kitten they found in a rubbish bin! Most adorable thing ever.

Watched Jade's team play handball - they won! Watched the men's team after, and it was SUCH an exciting match! They ended up winning, but the entire stadium ganged up on the ref and it literally an abusive shouting match for an hour. I love team sports.

 My Rotary club had been organising for "le Choeur de l'Armee Francaise" (the French Army Choir) to come to Loudun as one of their fundraiser projects, so that happened a couple of weeks ago. They came on Sunday morning, warmed up, had lunch with the rotarians (and me) at a restaurant in Loudun, went back to the events centre where they were singing, did a 2 hour-ish concert, had a glass of champagne for half an hour at the end and then BAM! Back on the bus to get the train to Paris.

Le Choeur de l'Armee Francaise

Some of the singers are in the army, and some are just part of the official choir. I'm not completely sure how it works. But they play at big events like the parade on Bastille Day (14th July) and probably Nicolas Sarkozy's birthday.

They sang mostly choir songs in French, but also some Italian songs and even an American song from a musical! I don't know which musical, but they all (obviously - this is the most prestigious choir in France) sounded really good. It's not style of music but I'm glad I went, and lots of people turned up so I'm pretty sure it made lots of money which is even better. Most funds from the Loudun club go to orphanages in Romania, I'm pretty sure. Will check, but it's always a good cause like that.

Taking a bow