Chaumont Excursion

Today I went on an excursion to the Chateau de Chaumont. It's a pretty cool castle with a super big, really awesome, artsy garden. Please enjoy a few of the many, many pictures I took! Just so you know, it rained a lot while we were there. A lot. No hail, though!

Drawbridges... Maybe I should get one of those for my dorm.

Awww, who put the blogger in a cage? Come on, now.

I'm siiiiingin' in the rain! On some art!

All of a sudden, this creepy fog rolled in it. We didn't know what to make of it, but we blamed it on the wet, rainy weather.

And then we discovered that the source of the fog was actually this exhibit with a bunch of trees.

A pic from inside the fog exhibit. Spoookyyyyy.

"Blue lightning in my eyes"

So, yep. That was my trip to the Chateau de Chaumont.

And then, after dinner, I found a snail in the backyard.

Bonjour, Monsieur l'Escargot.

Weekend Excursion (For Real This Time)

Last Saturday I went on an all-day excursion to Mont Saint-Michel and Saint-Malo.

Here's a map of my travels so far in France:

As you can see, I started out in Paris and then took a bus to Tours, where I'll be living for a while. This weekend I went to the locations marked in green and blue (markings are approximate, not exact).

Mont Saint-Michel is a huge bump out in the middle of nowhere.

The main feature is a monastery, but there are other people who work and live there, too. There's one road and only one road, and there are no cars. 

The monastery is really pretty.

You can see pretty far from up on the top of the mountain. Watch out for the quicksand. No, really. There's quicksand. 

Of course the inside is pretty as well.

We saw a man propose to his fiancee in here:

And there were plenty of opportunities for artistic photos.

I look adventurous in this photo.

Sometimes the French are not creative...

...but if the boot fits...

Don't look down!

This angel is kicking butt.

It was extremely windy and I couldn't keep my hair out of my face. I got creative with my scarf.

And now off to Saint-Malo, which is a walled city on the coast. You know that saying-- some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue?

A view of the city's walls and ramparts:

The beach! It was nowhere near warm enough to swim, but we could walk barefoot on the beach without freezing to death.

The fort.

There's me without my shoes.

And there's me being adventurous again.

Gotta represent.

A view from up on the walls.

Some people going out to the island. I hope they got back before the tide came in...

This statue was kinda cool.

And there's my weekend excursion in a nutshell!