The next train to Tours was in about two hours. We decided to get the tickets then just lunch somewhere for a while. Kay was the first to get her ticket, but I couldn't hear what the woman told her. Then Dee, and I heard then man say 'seize'. I thought 16€ roundtrip, that's not bad at all. Finally I go up. I had the same woman as Kay, so I used the cop out of 'le meme billet pour moi, s'il voud plait'. She replies with a smile and a little laugh, 'Oui bien sur. Quatre euro.' I fumble. 'Quatre euro?' 'Oui.' 'Uhh...d'accord.' I give her the money, she gives me the change and my ticket. I go over to Kay and Dee thinking, 'I fucked that up'. But no. The 'seize' I had heard was francs. We allpaid 4€ for a roundtrip to Tours. Let's think about this...Amazing! We were psyched. It turns out that during the Journée de Patrimoine you can go anywhere in the same region for only 2€. While practically jumping with joy we thought we'd hit up Quick. It's a fast food place, whose symbol is the same Q as Quizno's. Kay got a 'long chicken', me: chicken dips, and Dee: yoaurt and fries. Apparently even French fast food restaurants are better. I paid; and the woman put my soda on my tray. So I stood there, waiting for my food. After a few moments she must have realized I was not French, so she told le that I could go, and she would be the one to bring me my food when it was ready. Shit, they serve you in fast food restaurants? Sure enough after a few minutes she came over with my chicken dips and fries. The French have it made.
Finally it was time to board our train. And it had compartments like on the Hogwarts Express! That made me quite excited, even though we had to share with a guy who would try to look like he wasn't watching us while listening to something with headphones and occasionally laughing out loud. We taught Dee how to play Go Fish (or 'aller à la peche' as she likes to say). About an hour later we heard 'Tours' and got off. We looked around the station but didn't see a map, so we headed out to find Le Musée Des Beaux Arts. The town was dead. We followed signs for Centre Ville and ended up walking in a huge square. After stopping at a little patisserie, we decided to go back to the train station to see if we might've left on the wrong side. We asked a woman where the Musée was. 'A Tours?' 'Oui.' 'Vous n'etes pas à Tours.' Alrighty then. Dee and I went back to Kay. (We can't find the Musée or any of the streets we're on because we're not in Tours.' Where the hell are we?
As it turns out we had to take a navette (connecting train) from the main (1st) train to the real Tours. We managed to realize this approximately one minute before the next one left, and we ran up to the platform about five seconds before it started moving. So we got to wait another twenty minutes in non-Tours. This is why some of my photos have captions like 'fake Tours' and 'real Tours'.
Soon after getting on the navette three other people came into the car. We looked at eachother, then them, eachother, and said 'Americans!' Well, two of them were, and they were talking to a Brazilian guy. But the Americans were an older couple, grandparents actually, who were doing a bike trip around France. They were from Michigan, just like the guy Lichigan in our residence.
The navette was only twenty minutes or so and this time when we walked out of the gare, it looked like a city, and we could find the streets on Kay's map. Like Orléans, and let's admit it, most of France, Tours is a beautiful city. It was slightly better than Orléans in that you didn't smell piss or shit every ten minutes, and there was less dog shit in the streets. Le Musée de Beaux Arts is inside a lovely building next to a cathedrale. The paintings ranged from long ago, at least 17th century possibly earlier, to the the 20th century. I loved it. I also took over 60 photos, including some nice shots of the cathedrale from inside the musée. Because of the Jounrée de Patrimoine it was only 2€ a person, and it wasn't packed inside either.
After exhausting ourselves we took a little repose in a park and finished off the loaf of chocolate chip bread-type thing we had bought in non-Tours. But not for too long a rest, ever the youthful and adventurous three we said 'on y va!' A quick stop in the cathedrale then on towards the downtown section. We got to walk along Rue Colbert, so of course I took pics of the street sign as well as the 'Grill Colbert' and two other Colbert places. Those of you who know The Colbert Report might be able to guess my intentions.
We walked ourselves into quite a hungry state, but didn't find the stained glass museum we were half looking for. Instead we decided to have a nice dinner in a very busy place (in French a place is like a square, not like...place in English). Unfortunately we experienced one of the most disheartening things for a language student in a foreign country: we spoke to the waiter in French, and he responded in English. We decided we would just continue with French though. Dinner was good and I took my first sip of beer, Stella I believe it was. Although I didn't really like it in the way I like rum and coke I'd drink it over wine. After dinner the reasoning of our tongues overcame the reasoning of our wallets (but it did only cost 4euro to get there!) and we got dessert. Pour moi: a nice big glass of chocolate mousse with real whipped cream on top. Mmm! It's also nice not being rushed out of a restaurant.
Another funny quote came from this day. We heard a baby crying in a very strange way, and a few moments later Kay came out with, "What do they do to their kids here to make it sound like Jurassic Park?" I happened to be chewing at that moment and burst out laughing which prompted the second quote: "You're lucky I have teeth 'cause that peice of chicken almost flew right at you."
After dinner we leisurely amde our way back to the gare. Once there we found out we had about one and a half hours to kill, so we browsed a little in the bookstore, and I actually found a book I needed for one of my classes. Then we spotted them: a group of guys (about 15) break dancing. We found an empty bench right behind them and enjoyed the free entertainment until our navette train arrived. I know some people might not like break dancing, but you have to admit, it takes some strength, if not skill as well. It made for a great end to our visit of Tours.
Finally it was time to board our train. And it had compartments like on the Hogwarts Express! That made me quite excited, even though we had to share with a guy who would try to look like he wasn't watching us while listening to something with headphones and occasionally laughing out loud. We taught Dee how to play Go Fish (or 'aller à la peche' as she likes to say). About an hour later we heard 'Tours' and got off. We looked around the station but didn't see a map, so we headed out to find Le Musée Des Beaux Arts. The town was dead. We followed signs for Centre Ville and ended up walking in a huge square. After stopping at a little patisserie, we decided to go back to the train station to see if we might've left on the wrong side. We asked a woman where the Musée was. 'A Tours?' 'Oui.' 'Vous n'etes pas à Tours.' Alrighty then. Dee and I went back to Kay. (We can't find the Musée or any of the streets we're on because we're not in Tours.' Where the hell are we?
As it turns out we had to take a navette (connecting train) from the main (1st) train to the real Tours. We managed to realize this approximately one minute before the next one left, and we ran up to the platform about five seconds before it started moving. So we got to wait another twenty minutes in non-Tours. This is why some of my photos have captions like 'fake Tours' and 'real Tours'.
Soon after getting on the navette three other people came into the car. We looked at eachother, then them, eachother, and said 'Americans!' Well, two of them were, and they were talking to a Brazilian guy. But the Americans were an older couple, grandparents actually, who were doing a bike trip around France. They were from Michigan, just like the guy Lichigan in our residence.
The navette was only twenty minutes or so and this time when we walked out of the gare, it looked like a city, and we could find the streets on Kay's map. Like Orléans, and let's admit it, most of France, Tours is a beautiful city. It was slightly better than Orléans in that you didn't smell piss or shit every ten minutes, and there was less dog shit in the streets. Le Musée de Beaux Arts is inside a lovely building next to a cathedrale. The paintings ranged from long ago, at least 17th century possibly earlier, to the the 20th century. I loved it. I also took over 60 photos, including some nice shots of the cathedrale from inside the musée. Because of the Jounrée de Patrimoine it was only 2€ a person, and it wasn't packed inside either.
After exhausting ourselves we took a little repose in a park and finished off the loaf of chocolate chip bread-type thing we had bought in non-Tours. But not for too long a rest, ever the youthful and adventurous three we said 'on y va!' A quick stop in the cathedrale then on towards the downtown section. We got to walk along Rue Colbert, so of course I took pics of the street sign as well as the 'Grill Colbert' and two other Colbert places. Those of you who know The Colbert Report might be able to guess my intentions.
We walked ourselves into quite a hungry state, but didn't find the stained glass museum we were half looking for. Instead we decided to have a nice dinner in a very busy place (in French a place is like a square, not like...place in English). Unfortunately we experienced one of the most disheartening things for a language student in a foreign country: we spoke to the waiter in French, and he responded in English. We decided we would just continue with French though. Dinner was good and I took my first sip of beer, Stella I believe it was. Although I didn't really like it in the way I like rum and coke I'd drink it over wine. After dinner the reasoning of our tongues overcame the reasoning of our wallets (but it did only cost 4euro to get there!) and we got dessert. Pour moi: a nice big glass of chocolate mousse with real whipped cream on top. Mmm! It's also nice not being rushed out of a restaurant.
Another funny quote came from this day. We heard a baby crying in a very strange way, and a few moments later Kay came out with, "What do they do to their kids here to make it sound like Jurassic Park?" I happened to be chewing at that moment and burst out laughing which prompted the second quote: "You're lucky I have teeth 'cause that peice of chicken almost flew right at you."
After dinner we leisurely amde our way back to the gare. Once there we found out we had about one and a half hours to kill, so we browsed a little in the bookstore, and I actually found a book I needed for one of my classes. Then we spotted them: a group of guys (about 15) break dancing. We found an empty bench right behind them and enjoyed the free entertainment until our navette train arrived. I know some people might not like break dancing, but you have to admit, it takes some strength, if not skill as well. It made for a great end to our visit of Tours.
Unfortunately, after the navette we had to wait quite a bit because the train was delayed for over half an hour. Once back in Orleans we saved a tram trip and walked home, despite it being around 11pm. The city is gorgeous at night as well. I got a great shot of the Pont George V, the bridge the tram goes over when we go to school. Later I showed it to my French friend who said that after four years of being in Orleans he hadn't realized how beautiful that bridge was. I'll take that as a compliment to my photography skills, thank you.
We made it to our rooms around 11:30pm, just in time to end the great weekend by finishing some homework and not going to bed as early as I wanted to. But who cares? I'm in France!
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