La Musée des Beaux Arts and Academic Preparation for Paris

So on Monday, a pretty large group of Sweet Briar people got to go on a guided visit of the art museum in Tours. It's a really great museum for such a small town, and houses artwork from the really old (I'm talking 7th or 8th century) to the modern (1980s and later) The building is very thoughtfully arranged, with the older stuff in the older area of the building where the floors squeak and the doorways/hallways are smaller, while the more modern art is in the area of the museum that was constructed within the last 20-30 years. This is all great, but the best part of our visit was our tour guide. I've christened him "Monsieur Moustache", and he's fabulous. If you want to see him in action, go check out the video on the facebook page. Even if you all don't speak French, you will appreciate how utterly adorable he is!

Les Châteaux de Chenonceau et Clos Lucé

So this Saturday, we visited the Chateau de Chenanceau, which was most famously the home of King Henry III and Queen Catherine di Medici (we're talking French Henrys, not the Tudors, just to clarify). Have you seen Ever After? Portions of the film were filmed with this chateau in mind, as well as Chambourd (see last week's post). What I loved about this chateau was the way it sits on the water.

Food!

I have had some interesting experiences involving food lately. So to start off, I'm mildly lactose intolerant, which can be a bit of a problem here in the cream and cheese capital of the world. Probably not as bad as poor Claire who has Celiac, but still can be difficult to maneuver if I don't have my lactase on me. But the food in general is just so different here that it's worth talking about even without the added complication of the lactose intolerance.

Classes at l'Institute de Touraine and a truly French encounter...

So today marks the half-way point of my time in Tours, France. Tours is a small city about 3 hours outside Paris, on the Loire River. During these first two weeks, I have been attending classes about 3 hours a day at l'Institute de Touraine with the other 78 students in the program. They've divided us up into four classes with 15-20 people in each of them for our grammar classes. The grammar class lasts two hours every day, from 9:45-11:45am. It is taught by a French professor who speaks minimal to no English. Apart from the fact that there is no English spoken in the class, it's your normal French grammar class with written work and some discussion of the proper usage of certain tenses, modes, etc. For example, yesterday we each wrote an exciting

Settling in

So I've been here a week and now have figured a few things out. Not everything, but the super duper important things, like where and how to send a postcard to the States, how to order something at a restaurant/understand what the menu says about the items, and find the nearest bus stop. It's a start, definitely. And I generally understand everything that is said to me, but formulating a response can take me a bit sometimes. So here's a general run-down of what I've been doing this week.

In the program, there are 79 other students from universities all over the country; the biggest groups (I think) are from Northwestern (20), Whittier (about 10), and Amherst (around 7); I am the only one from Agnes Scott.

Utterly exhausted after a really exciting day. Just going to put up some pics for you all to see :D Bonne nuit!

I have arrived! We flew in this morning, arriving in Paris at about 11 am local time. While this was one of the most exhausting trips I have ever taken, it was fabulous nearly every step of the way, if you can get over the whole not sleeping thing. Yep. I haven't slept since Tuesday night, but honestly my adrenaline and all-consuming excitement about everything going on has been helping me function somehow. So here are some highlights: