Thanksgiving, Versailles and STRASBOURG!

I know you probably feel that it’s the same old same old but the past two weeks since I last wrote on here have literally been a whirlwind adventure. And now it’s less than two weeks, (10 days to be exact) until I fly back to the UK for Christmas <3 Now, where to start....

Thanksgiving Dinner:

On Saturday 27th November, 21 of us gathered together for Thanksgiving Dinner at Enar and Liz’s apartment.  Ironically the majority of the people present were not American but none the less everyone was in the festive spirit and took making their dish seriously.  I was assigned mash potatoes with Lisa and Lilly so from midday on Saturday we slaved away in the kitchen peeling 5kg’s worth of potatoes, boiling them and mashing them. In my opinion, we got progressively better and it was the third and final batch of mash which was perfecto! Everyone else’s dishes were just as good too; it was nice to see that everyone had put in a lot of effort. To be honest, it was HEAVEN- great food, great wine and great people! It was that, that I was thankful for that night....

Versailles:

The very next morning (a Sunday and day of rest too I may add), Liz, Louise, Rosalind and I got up early and headed off to Versailles for the day.  After having studied the Palace of Versailles in Geography last year, I was pretty excited to see the beast in real life despite it being so early on a Sunday. And I was right to be excited; the palace was BLOODY MASSIVE, with gold plating everywhere, intricate details inside, paintings on the ceiling, thousands of rooms and even a hall of mirrors... It’s so hard to describe it and I’m not doing it any justice, just go see it for yourself OK?!

So we managed to get in for FREE to this fabby palace (courtesy of our teachers cards) and spent the best part of several hours wandering around with an audio guide. We even got to see Marie Antoinette’s bedroom and where she fled from the people of France. Then we realised that the gardens were triple the size of the palace. So after having a very expensive lunch, we headed out to the gardens and decided to hop aboard the ‘petit train’ which explored Marie Antoinette’s hamlet as well as the Grand Canal and the Grand Triannon. We finished off the day by wondering around Versailles itself a little bit, and realised there was quite a bit to see here too. We went to a pizzeria and had some dinner before heading home. I will definitely return to Versailles at some point, I didn’t get enough of it!

Harry Potter:

Everyone in England was harping on about how good Harry Potter 7 was, so after much debate I decided I’d have to give in and go and watch it here in French. Little did I know that I would actually prefer it in French and would return a second time to watch it.... Okay, okay, it was in French and it was slightly annoying at the start when you’re not accustomed to the lips moving differently to the words but you barely notice it after 10 minutes and it was also pretty amusing to hear the French equivalent for ‘Hogwarts’ ‘Gryffindor’ and mostly ‘wand’. It is no other than BAGUETTE in French so call me immature but for the first ten times it was said I couldn’t help but giggle. Especially when it was a really serious scene with Voldemort and you hear ‘baguette’ which is such a nice friendly word. Also, Hermione’s voice is much better in French as the actress had this real husky tone and she didn’t sound quite as bossy. PLUS, I understood it! I think it’s their greatest film yet, they really did go all out and now I cannot wait to watch the final, final one.  I also invested in two Harry Potter books in French; I really am going Potter mad!

Strasbourg:

On Friday 3^rd December, Lilly, Liz and I boarded the TGV to Strasbourg. The day had finally come, we were going to STRASBOURG for the ‘marché du noel’ J When we finally arrived (we were delayed due to ‘les conditions climatiques’), we were feeling a tad delirious but managed to find the hostel easily enough. My first impressions of the hostel were ‘jeez, why is it so cheap?’ It only cost us €26 for the night for a 3 bedroom, private dorm with our own w/c, shower and sink AND we had free breakfast. Perfect. After checking in and dumping our stuff off, we headed into ‘centre ville’. I must tell you, Strasbourg is a very pretty city. There was a sprinkling of snow and uncountable Christmas Decorations. On Friday night we ended up in the posh area of town but it was worthwhile as the food was just gorgeous. I had ‘Salade landaise’ for starter which consisted of salad with foie gras and ham and then proceed to have the most beautifully cooked salmon with hollandaise sauce, potatoes and fried vegetables. Lilly and Liz opted for the Alsacian dish- Charcutorie Plate (I have never seen so much red meat on one plate!) and after eating a lot, we popped for a drink or two and then wandered back to the hostel. All too quickly the alarm went off at 8.20am, ready for a full day in Strasbourg. The breakfast served by the hostel was SO good considering it was included in the already small price tag.

Upon arriving at the markets (there were several scattered around the city centre), I was just amazed at how pretty everything was. The huts, the shops: everything was decorated to perfection and you could tell they must have put a lot of effort into it. They sold lots of lovely chocolates, Alsacien biscuits, decorations, crepes and vin chaud and the atmosphere was very festive! We wandered through them all, sampled good food including a ‘boules de neiges’- quite literally meaning balls of snow and also bought some rather expensive chocolates. After lunch we visited the cathedral (THE greatest cathedral I’ve ever seen), and inside they were concerts going on which were great and really got me into the Christmas spirit. After this we went up the cathedral tower which was 66m’s tall and therefore gave us a great bird’s eye view over the city. With the snow, it was super duper cute. To finish off our lovely day, we had vin chaud by the ice rink and wandered through the old city of Strasbourg, all the way back to the train station that we arrived at just some 35 hours ago....One word for this trip: WHIRLWIND.

I have only one complaint with Strasbourg, and that is: must the people be SO rude? I mean it’s the first weekend in December, the Christmas markets have only been open a week or so and you’re already this rude to tourists? The thing is, it wasn’t as if we were just speaking English to them! Over the course of the 2 days we had several encounters with rude Frenchies from Strasbourg and so now have the impression that they aren’t too helpful or pleasant to foreigners...