Paris and Provence Cont

6 min read

Deviation Actions

shirosynth's avatar
By
Published:
1.3K Views
THIRD DAY

On our third day we had a trip planned to go to see Chartres Cathedral.  Ive always wanted to go see a cathedral since we study them so much because of their amazing art in all respects as well as architecture.

heres a pic of it if youre interested

stevefazzio.com/images/chartre…

It was awesome.  Its just really HUGE.  Youre so used to seeing pictures of them in books, and they just dont nearly seem as big as they truly are.  Its just amazing to think it was built by tons of people over the centuries.  Often having to be rebuilt because of fires or destruction.  Chartres was one of the lucky cathedrals because of the "fire" that included a "miracle" in terms of the shroud of mary being saved.  So of course, funds poured in to repair it at the time.

Inside its really dark, just the way I figured it would be.  Its really hard to take pictures inside it too, and barely any of mine came out when i took pictures.  I was getting like 1-2 second exposures and just hoped they would come out.  Id say 1/3 of them came out inside.  I wish i had a tripod quite frankly.

Our tour guide was rather snobish and quite frankly really into himself.  He kept referring to his book (so youd buy it of course).  Im not saying he didnt know what he was talking about, but we were on a rush 1 hour tour since our bus was late arriving.  From what we saw and learned, he pretty much just told us what the windows and rose windows meant in sequence.  We also saw the left entrance and he talked about the statues there.  We didnt get a full tour, but it wasnt ab ig deal since we walked around ourselves and looked at stuff on our own.

When i get all of my picutres developed, ill be sure to upload some shots I made (as well as photos i made during the trip, considering i took 19 rolls while i was in france)

That night we traveled to the latin quarter (we actually jumped off the bus on its way to the hotel to save time) and I was with the original group I was with in paris the second night.  We went and eat at a great restaurant in front of some of the university buildings.  The waiters always hit ont he girls I was with though.  Apparently theres one rule in paris: If you dont have your arm around her, shes fair game.

Most of the girls were engaged and stuff, but it was still kinda funny.
I think that night some of us traveled to the eiffel tower again just to see it again, and took some more pictures of course.

Also to let you know, most people speak english in Paris.  NOT EVERYONE DOES THOUGH.  Its a very good idea to brush yourself up on common things to say, like how to order, say thank you, and other common things you say in english.  Do not automatically assume they speak english, they kinda almost see it as a bother to speak it sometimes.  But it just depends on the waiter.  Some waiters outright spoke english to us (mostly in the latin quarter since most students speak english) and some on the right bank were a little less willing.

FOURTH DAY

This day was pretty much traveling.  The tour plan was to stay in paris a few nights, then travel to southern france to get a different experience of the country.  We packed our stuff and traveled to Marseille which is in souther france.  You can see it on the map here.

www.hotels-europe.com/info-cou…

The tgv was really fast, and can clock up well over 500 miles an hour without any passengers.  I think we only went from 250-300 mph.  The trip only took like 3 hours just to get to Marseille.

Just to let you know, this area of france is called Provence and was the first Roman settled area of France.  Another interesting thing is that they plant their trees in rows often around houses or farms.  This is meant to protect their homes and property from the Mistral, a terrible and violent wind that blows from the north east.

Since marseille is a beach town, it is absolutely stunning against the water.  We really didnt see the best part of Marseille since we really didnt stay there in a hotel, but from the side we saw, paris was a lil cleaner.

We stayed outside of Marseille in a town called AIX (pronounced axe) which is a beautiful town full of fountains and artistic history.

The same day we grabbed dinner, and had a chicken sandwhich where they press it in a heating thing.  Its like a toasted on-the-go sandwhich.  Rather basic, but it really tastes good and is a common snack.

I ended up walking around AIX with 2 other friends of mine and we just kinda explored the city on our own.  Again, Ill upload some pictures when they all come in.
But to say the leat, the town is beautiful and just old.  It has beautiful restaurants and beautiful buildings that just scream history.  Since there wasnt really anything to do in the town at night, we just decided to hang out in our rooms and just drink some and pass the time.  The people I was with decided that we should go to a bar (after they were drunk of coures) and that was rather fun.

Although people get weird when they drink, or silly, it seems to increase my satirical humor and I just get funnier (no joke im not the one just saying this) and we just had a fun time.  We got some looks from other people in the bar (trying to enjoy a nice meal at 2 am no less) but it was still fun.

In provence people do NOT speak english.  If you plan on going anywhere outside a big city, I seriously suggest learning the language some more before.  

Like, in AIX a friend of mine was trying to buy a bottle of champagne just because the bottle was pretty.  But the 2 older owners (wife and husband) wouldnt sell it to us cause they couldnt understand why we wanted a crap bottle of champagne.  (well from what I could tell, i dont know french, but from what I could pick up on, that seemed to be the case).  They kept pointing at other bottles of a much finer wine and trying to sell that instead.  We looked so stupid trying to say "bon" bottle and things like that.  It was really humorous actually.  On our way out (failed attempt at buying the bottle btw) they said we should try and learn more french, and they should learn more english (i can decipher some french).

It was all in good fun though, they werent offended, and were laughing with us.

Anyway Ill write about the next few days later
© 2003 - 2024 shirosynth
Comments1
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
l-courni's avatar
very glad you enjoyed your trip :)