I have so much to tell you I don't even know how to begin! I just finished my busiest week on exchange. I have to take six courses but one of my classes is a week long 8 hours a day intensive course and it just happened to fall on the week where I had a midterm, and two other presentations, plus the assignments and presentations from this intensive Sustainable Business class. Oh boy, I tell you I 'm so happy that the week's over and I can laze around ALL weekend, and drink hot chocolate, cruise the J. Crew website, and watch videos on broadway.com. My biggest concern now is whether I should make french toast, or write this blog post!
I obvs chose the latter, so let's go!! During the last week of October I had my reading week. My sister, Steffi, and my mom came to visit and we embarked on an adventure that I can only title "The Week We Had the Most 'laugh until you almost pee your pants' Moments". There were so many hashtags thrown around, I can't even count! I had the most amazing time and it reminded me how well I travel with my family.
I'll give you a little timeline of what we did and then we can jump into highlights and pictures!
[Friday] The girls arrived in Rouen. [Saturday] We left for our Normandy/Brittany road trip. We travelled to Étretat, Bayeux, and Juno Beach. [Sunday] Then we visited Mont St Michel and St Malo. [Monday] London! [Friday] We got our little hint of English countryside in Eastbourne, England. [Sunday] I headed home and Steffi and my mom went on to Amsterdam, then Paris.
Normandy Road Trip
Rouen, where I go to school, is situated in Upper Normandy France, so we figured that we should get to know the area while I'm here. The easiest and cheapest way to see Normandy is by car, so we rented a car, picked up a few maps and made our way! Now in hindsight we probably should have google mapped maybe a route or two, considering we had so many little towns to check off in two days, but we got everywhere safe and sound. If anything we got to take a few "scenic routes"...ÉTRETAT
The cliffs in Étretat are really breathtaking and I don't know why it took a dozen people telling me it was a must-see for me to finally go there! Since it's only about an hour and a quarter away from Rouen, it's the perfect little day trip on its own too. Watch out though because the parking in the little town is insane! Just follow the signs that say "falaise" up a steep (I mean really steep- we didn't stall the car or anything...) and you'll get to a great lookout.
This crazy little mount in the middle of a bay houses a massive abbey and monastery. You can hike up to the top, do a pulse check, then admire the stunning views of the coastline. It also lights up beautifully at night and the usually bustling street filled with shops and tourists really quiet down. I went once before on a school trip but we didn't get to see much because there was a torrential downpour and we ended up taking cover in a gift shop. So I was totally game to go back a second time! My mom, Steffi, and I stayed in this cute B&B that I would definitely recommend. At breakfast, our host made us each a WHOLE BOWL of hot chocolate. We were like whaaaat? I wasn't complaining ;)
ST MALO
One of my mom's patients highly recommended that we go to St Malo, which actually isn't in Normandy but in Brittany (Bretagne). So we did! What we weren't expecting was a once-every-four-years sailing festival that had the streets packed with people! Apparently, according to the people we chatted up in the shuttle to the harbour, the sail boats had just come back from a sail to Guatemala and everyone was celebrating. We were a bit overwhelmed but the town was really cute and exactly what you would imagine for a little french town. By that I mean there were crepes EVERYWHERE!!! Again, not complaining.
I had so much fun navigating around France with my mom, while Steffi slept through 97.7% of the car rides. At one part we realized we driving on a one way road... the wrong way!! Another time we went around a traffic circle three times because we kept missing our turn off. It was hilarious! I wouldn't have wanted to be lost in French countryside with anyone but these lovely ladies.
Map of our "route"... we took a few detours along the way!
Post about London and Eastbourne coming soon...
All my love. xoxox
Gaby
Editor's note: I totally made and then ate some french toast part way through this post...
