What a week it has been! I mentioned last time that I was meeting with the Russians (Kate and Natalie) to plan a trip, and Lizette and I traveled a bit with them this last week. They wanted to go to Bordeaux this week and asked if anyone else was available to go with them. Well, Joe had class Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but Lizette and I didn't and we didn't really want to stay in Poitiers and do nothing for those three days. Alois might have gone with us, but Kate and Natalie wanted it to be an overnight trip, and Alois was afraid he had to much homework to justify going on a two day trip.
Lizette, Kate, Natalie, me
The four of us left early Thursday morning so we could have two full days in Bordeaux. We booked an apartment with Airbnb (something I've always wanted to do), and it was an interesting experience. We found the apartment, and it was in kind of a sketchy neighborhood. We met the girl there and she took us in and told us where the sheets and towels and stuff were, gave us the keys, and left. Lizette and I were a little skeptical when she took us to the front door, because it looked like she was taking us to a warehouse or something. In my mind, I was busy planning an escape route in case something was wrong with the situation. Turns out, there was just a metal door covering a big glass front wall (for privacy, I guess?).
I decided that I felt safe enough here (three locks on the front entrance and a tall, locked gate), so we took a minute to settle in, then set off to find the Tourism Office. On the way we stopped for lunch at an off-brand KFC. (Actually it was FFC-- Fast Fried Chicken.) I had a deee-licious burger, so yummy.
We made it to the Tourism Office in time to book the last four spots on a wine tour. (It was crazy, we got there 30 minutes before it left, it was cheap, and they had the perfect number of spots open.) This tour took us to two vineyards in the Medoc (famous for red wines). The first was Chateau Cap Leon Veyrin. They showed us how the grapes were picked, sorted, and then made into wine. They took us to the cellar where all of the barrels were, then gave us samples of wines from 2008 and 2003. (I thought 2003 was better.)
Natalie, me, and Kate
The second was Chateau Lanessan. They took us on a tour of the grounds and let us taste the grapes that go into the different wines. Our guide here was very knowledgeable about the work that goes into producing wines, so she was fun to listen too. We got to try another two wines from 2003 and 1998 (1998 was better).
Round trip took about 5 hours, but it was fun to leave town and go out to the actual vineyards to see how everything is done. When we got back to Bordeaux, we started walking towards the river and got sidetracked by church towers that we could see above the buildings, so of course, we went that direction, but eventually we made it to the river. It was dusk now and everything was so beautiful. The town lights next to river were magical. There was still so much going on it town, but we went back to apartment because it had been a long day, and we wanted to be ready for the next!
Thursday we checked out of our apartment and started towards our first attraction. Natalie was great and mapped out the whole day for us, so we only had to follow her. (Since Joe and Alois weren't with us, I anticipate we will be back to Bordeaux, so I was content to do whatever Kate and Natalie wanted to do.) She took us to more churches and a few monuments that Bordeaux is fairly famous for. One such monument was the Mirior d'Eau (Water Mirror). I was looking forward to this in particular! It's just a great big slab of concrete that is kept wet and when you look across it, you can see the reflection of the buildings and people. There were so many little kids playing in the water in their swimsuits (or just running around naked). Every so often, a mist comes from the fountain things on the ground. It creates a really neat foggy atmosphere for about 7 minutes. Then the fog dies down and the mirror area floods itself (about an inch of standing water) for about the same amount of time. It's a fun cycle.
We also went to Tour Pey-Berland. It is a bell tower beside the Cathedrale Saint-Andre (kept separate to protect the church from the vibrations from the bells). The tour is the highest point in the south of France, and they were letting people climb to the top! There were 231 stairs to the upper platform-- it was a spiral staircase, barely big enough for one person, but there were people going up and coming down, so it sometimes got a bit cozy. The view from the top was amazing-- on one side was the cathedrale, and on the other three sides we could look out over the city and see the spires from other buildings, and the river in the distance. It was amazing!
We ended the day with a nap in the Jardin Publique. We laid down in the shade of a tree, but when I woke up I was in the sun and it was gloriously warm. We spent about an hour there-- I never expected that I would consider napping in the park as an acceptable pass-time, but now that I know the pleasure of such a nap, I'm all for it (within reason).
Our train was scheduled to leave at 8:28, so at 7:30 we caught a bus to ensure that we would have plenty of time to get to our platform at the station. When our bus stopped at the end of the line in the opposite direction of the train station, we knew we had made a mistake. Thankfully, this bus stop was next to a tram stop, so we bought tickets and caught the next tram back to were we needed to be. We had to switch trains at one point and the four of us had to make a mad dash across a park to catch the tram before it left. We ended up at the train stain at 8:30. Honestly, we missed our train by 2 minutes.
If I have learned anything at all here, it is that in the future, I will never, ever book the last train out of anywhere. There was absolutely nothing we could take, because there wasn't anything else going anywhere near Poitiers. Fortunately, we were able to exchange our tickets instead of having to buy new ones, so hey, silver linings.
At this point we were faced with deciding what to do until 6:24 the next morning. We checked all of the hostels, but they were full, and the only hotel room we could find was way too expensive. We had all resigned ourselves to the fact that we would be sleeping in the station, but then we learned that the station is closed from 1am to 4am. We were looking for a 24-hr McDonalds, or a bar that stayed open really late (there probably was one). Lizette remembered that some friends of ours from FBS happened to be in Bordeaux too, so she messaged them to see if there was anyway they could take us in for a couple hours. They were amazing and let us stay in their hotel room.
I was praying at this point, mostly for our safety, and that we would figure something out. I know Lizette was too, and I absolutely believe that God was taking care of us that night. The only way we knew that our friends were in Bordeaux was that they had recognized my hair earlier that day and messaged Lizette to say 'hey'. They were riding by on the tram when we were walking down the street when they saw us. There was just so much coincidence about it, that it was anything but coincidence. God knew what he was doing and took care of things for us!
We probably got about 2 hours of sleep on the hotel floor and left at 5:30 to go to the station. We caught the train without a problem and arrived back in Poitiers at 8:15. We were all so exhausted and felt nasty-dirty, but we were happy to be back.
I only slept for a few hours that day because I didn't want to screw up my sleep schedule, so Saturday was a long day for me too. I got a phone, though!! I was so excited to finally have a French phone and number! Unfortunately, I was forced to choose a non-Apple product (actually it's a Wiko-- a brand that doesn't even exist in America), but I think I can deal with it for eight months.
Sunday was spent entirely in my pajamas, but Monday and Tuesday held some nice developments. Even though we have our visas that allow us to be here, we had to get them validated, and since we're here for so long, we had to register with the French Social Security system (OFII, if you're interested). We started filling out this paperwork the first week we got here, and have just now finished the entire process. Monday we had to go to a radiologist (all the way across town) to get a chest x-ray (because I guess our lungs are important?). We had to do that before we went to the actual doctor for a check-up on Tuesday. The doctor was very nice, and thank goodness he spoke english. It was the easiest doctors visit I've ever been to. He asked us all the basic questions about smoking/pregancy/heart problems, etc. and that was all!
From his office, we went to the OFII offices with a long list of documents for them. This was also fairly simple. I guess everything I gave them checked out ok, because they gave me my residence permit within 15 minutes! I'm so happy to have this done. I think it should be the last thing I have to do to live in France. Hallelujah!
Tuesday night, there was a meeting at Hotel de Ville for international students who wanted to meet French families. Lizette and I went and we met this really lovely couple-- Alain and Corina. They gave us their e-mail and phone numbers, so it's nice to have that contact here. I'm hoping we can become good friends with them.
It has rained here the last three days (you may know that rainy weather is my favorite weather) and it has been glorious. As I'm writing, I can see the sky out my window and it's overcast now, so maybe we'll get some more rain today.
Until next week,
Je t'embrasse,
Sarah
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