Well, I've been here for a little over a week now, and things have been going great. I'm going to post my pictures from the first week in a couple of separate posts. It's taken me a few days to get all my pictures loaded and sorted, and I've had a few technical problems with chargers, voltage converters, European outlets, etc!)

This is the hotel where I stayed in Tours before I met my host family on Sunday.

I really don't understand this typical practice in hotels here:
when you leave your hotel room, you're supposed to put your key on the bulletin board... hmmm...

On Wednesday, we arrived in Tours around 5:00 after our bus ride from Paris. We met for dinner at 7:30; we had pre-arranged dinners as a group with a set menu at area restaurants for the first four days. Our first dinner was at Au Singe Vert (“At the Green Monkey!”). We had a beautiful salad, roasted duck, and crème caramel, which was the equivalent of flan. The duck was fabulous!

We visited our first château on Thursday, Château de Chambord, and here I am in front of it -- it's huge!

This is a room in Chambord called “la théâtre.” Our tour guide told us this is the room in which Molière wrote Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. You can see the bust of him in the background of the photo.

We also got to see some really old grafitti inside -- hard to see in the picture, but the first one is 1655, and the other looks like it says 1614.

These photos were taken at the top of Château de Chambord .

We went to the town of Blois for lunch before we visited the Château de Blois. This château is right in the middle of the town of Blois – in fact, you can see it in this picture that I took from the café while having lunch.

This was my first Orangina of the trip during this lunch in Blois – definitely picture-worthy since it’s my favorite drink (next to coffee, of course)!

When I went to the château entrance after eating lunch, I took this photo looking down the hill. You can see the café where I ate lunch at the bottom of the hill with the yellow canopies.

Château de Blois was built in 4 separate periods (ranging from 13^th Century to 17^th century), so the architecture reflects different time periods. This picture is of a staircase that was built from 1515-1524 during the Renaissance.

Here I am in front of another wing of the château, built during 1635-1638, so it’s considered “classical.”

This is an epitaph for the French Renaissance poet Ronsard, which was interesting to me since I've studied his poetry. The inscription says that he met his famous muse, Cassandre, at a ball in this room.

This is the official monogram of the French king Henri II, which was seen in many of the châteaux that we’ve visited. I’ve read 3 different explanations for the monogram:

H for Henri with back-to-back Cs for Catherine de Medici, his wife
H for Henri with back-to-back Ds for Deuxième (Henri le deuxième, “the second”)
H for Henri with back-to-back Ds for Diane de Poitiers, his famous mistress

The pamphlet distributed by the château gave the first two explanations, but the biography of Catherine de Medici that I’m reading right now gives the third explanation throughout the book. It was interesting to hear a French tour guide in the château very insistently telling a group of young French children about the monogram: “Il n’y a pas de D!” (“There is not a D!”)

These pictures were taken in the royal bedchamber of Catherine de Medici; she died in this room in 1589.

This is the city of Blois -- I liked Blois a lot.

This post ends here because there are too many people using the Wifi, so the connection is too S-L-O-W! I hope everything is going great for all of you! I'll try to post more pictures tomorrow.

I'm here!

just a quick note to say that I've made it to France! I'm in an internet cafe, so I can't post pictures yet, but I'll have wireless internet once I start classes next week.

Everything has been great so far -- the flight was fine (thanks to those who advised Benadryl -- it worked!), and the food on the flight was surprisingly good... maybe that's because it was AirFrance! We're staying in the hotel in Tours until Sunday, and the town of Tours is, from what I've seen so far, great. The meals have been very French and fantastic, and the tours have been interesting. We visited two chateaux yesterday (Chambord and Blois), and we'll see a 3rd today (Amboise). We also visited the wine caves this morning, which was interesting but rather chilly inside.

I'm off now to find lunch. Hope everything is going great for you!

I'm in the process of unpacking things in the new house in Jackson and packing things for France -- interesting work to pack and unpack at the same time! I'm anxious to begin the adventure of studying abroad but also nervous & sad to leave Jacob and Christian for so long -- they assure me that they'll miss me but that they'll be fine!


Here's a picture of Christian riding his bike in front of the new house while I'm working inside (packing & unpacking) ... he's LOVING having a backyard and plenty of room to ride his bike.





Since I may not have internet access to post any updates for the first week that I'm in France, here's what I'll be doing:

Tuesday, May 22 -- I fly out of Memphis to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Paris. We arrive in Paris at 11:50 am on Wednesday, May 23.

From Paris, I'll take a bus to Tours, the town where I'll be studying. This is a photo of Tours.

I'll be staying at Hôtel Rabelais in Tours for the 4 days before I meet my host family.


Tours is in the Loire Valley, an area of France known for its castles and "pure" French. I'll visit several area châteaux before my classes begin on May 28.

Thursday, May 24 -- I'll visit Château de Chambord and Château de Blois.

This is Château de Chambord, the largest castle of the Loire Valley, It was built from 1519-1547 as a hunting lodge (!) for King François I. Click here to read more about Château de Chambord.




This is Château de Blois, a château built in the middle of the town of Blois. Wikipedia says that Joan of Arc went to this château in 1429 to be blessed before leaving with her army to drive the English out of Orléans. Click here to read more about Château de Blois.





Friday, May 25 -- I'll visit Château d'Amboise and the Vouvray wine caves.

This is Château d'Amboise. Leonardo da Vinci came to this château as a guest of the King in 1515. He stayed in a nearby manor house that was connected by an underground passage to the château. Click here to read more about Château d'Amboise on Wikipedia.





Wine has been made in the area of Vouvray since the 5th century A.D. Click here to read more about Vouvray wines on Wikipedia.






Saturday, May 26 -- I'll visit Château de Chenonceau.


Both of these photos are of the Château de Chenonceau, second to the Palace of Versailles for most visited château in France.
King Henry II (who was married to Catherine de Medici) gave this château to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers in 1547. After Henry's death, his widow Catherine de Medici had Diane expelled from the château. As regent of France, Catherine made Chenonceau her favorite residence and hosted elaborate parties here. During her son Francois II's ascension to the throne, the first fireworks display in France was held here. Click here to read more on Wikipedia.

Sunday, May 27 -- I'll meet my host family. All I know so far is that their last name is Bel. I'm looking forward to meeting them and am really excited about staying with a French family.

Monday, May 28 -- I'll begin classes at the Institut de Touraine. My study program is organized by the University of West Georgia, so I'm enrolled there as a transient student. I'll earn 6 hours of graduate credit that will transfer to the University of Memphis for my degree.

This is what the Institut's website says:
"The simple holiday course, which started in 1897 and became the Institut d’Etudes Françaises de Touraine (Touraine Institute of French Studies) in 1912, has acquired a sound basis for its teaching over the years. At Tours, in the Loire Valley where, as the famous French historian Michelet said «our language is spoken with the most beautiful and purest accent of all», the Institut de Touraine has become a teaching center of international repute."


That's all for now -- I'll post more when I'm in France and have internet access!