Apologies for the extended delay in my posts, but as promised, my first post about my weekend in France is here!
It was a pretty short night before I left; there was still a lot of packing to do, so I did not manage getting to sleep until around midnight. Then, I had to get right back up around 4:00 AM in order to catch my 4:30AM taxi to get to my flight. By some weird luck, my good friend Nikol was also on my flight to Charles de Gaulle, so we would be splitting the cab ride over.
It was an incredibly bittersweet moment, watching the sun rise over the mountains of Málaga for the last time as we waited in line to board our plane. There was always the comfort of promising myself I’d be back – in the short itme that I had been there, Málaga had grown to be so much more than the city I studied abroad in. I feel like it has become my Spanish home city, and a piece of me will always be there to walk through the Plaza del Torros, along the port, and lay on the beach to be bothered by the pesky seagulls and pigeons.
Once we were on the plane, I immediately stuck my earbuds in and opened up my French instructional videos. I only had a couple of hours to memorize the basics of another language, so concentration was crucial! Unfortunately, less than 4 hours of sleep does a toll on you, so my eyelids were feeling a little heavy after just 20 minutes. Hey, I was going to have to navigate the 7th biggest airport in the world in just a couple of hours all by myself, (and keep in mind I had never navigated ANY airport 100% by myself before…) I needed some rest! I got in some important things… Bonjour, bonsoir, je ne sais pa, au revoir, oú est…, parlez-vous anglais? That would be all I’d need, right?
I woke up to a relatively smooth landing as far as planes go, but the tension was just about to begin. After a quick final good-bye to Nikol, (she had to get to a connecting flight in less than 30 minutes!) I was on my own. With a deep breath, I tugged my suitcase along to the luggage section with so many questions in mind. I was meeting Shannon’s grandmother at Terminal 1, and I was in Terminal 2F. After a quick glance at the map, apparently I was at one complete end of the airport and Terminal 1 was literally on the other complete opposite end. Would I be allowed to take the CDGVAL train between terminals even if I had already gotten luggage and didn’t have another ticket? Would I have to go through security again? What if they didn’t let me through? What if my luggage was lost?! Feeling a little panicked, I reminded myself the biggest thing I’d learned so far on the trip: I needed to trust myself and quit second-guessing everything, because I was better at most things than I gave myself credit. Things will work themselves out, and all I needed to do was take my time and find someone who spoke English to ask.
After picking up my luggage, (it was one of the first ones on the belt, thank goodness!) I asked someone about the CDGVAL who reassured me that I could take the train to whatever terminal I pleased and each terminal had a section outside of security. The restaurant where I was meeting Shannon’s grandmother was in that section. Now, just to get there…
I looked around for signs pointing to the train. Yet, I didn’t see any in the luggage area – only a little exit sign. Stressing a bit and thinking I needed to go find someone again, I started to search but then thought again. I had plenty of time, maybe for once I should just trust my instincts. Following the little exit sign out a door and into a large corridor, I immediately saw a huge sign pointing down a long hallway that said ‘CDGVAL’ in bright lights. A huge smile on my face and a little bit of self esteem boosted, I dragged my luggage along the short journey to the train and crammed myself into a corner with the dozens of other passengers.
This was the easy part of navigating the airport – I’d just wait until we got to the end of the line, and I’d be there. It was about a 15 minute ride and I was there! With my boosted confidence, it only took about a half hour to navigate the terminal to find where I needed to go – a little restaurant called the Hippopotamus. It was a strange set-up – there was an outter wall to several restaurants and the sign to the restaurant was hanging there, but you had to go down another corridor to actually get in. The restaurant was closed for another hour or so, so I settled in and began typing my blog. Shannon’s grandmother would be awhile, I imagined, since she still had to go through customs.
Yet, an hour later, it seems a little strange that she was taking so long. I was a little worried, but what else could I do but sit around and wait? I was where I was supposed to be, surely she’d eventually come. If not, Shannon’s dad would surely text me if something had happened. Right?
Another 30 minutes passed, and finally I saw a woman that looked like the picture Shannon’s dad had sent me. “Fran??” I cautiously asked, hoping I wasn’t talking to a random stranger. “Yes?” she responded, looking shocked at the stranger talking to her. “I’m so glad to see you!” I exclaimed, jumping up and shoving things back into my suitcase.
“Umm… who are you?” She asked, giving me a strange look. It dawned on me that I hadn’t even introduced myself. “I’m Makenna, Shannon’s friend! I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself.” After a brief conversation, we realized that she, too, had been waiting an hour and a half, and neither of us had had problems… she’d just been standing next to the other Hippopotamus sign outside of the restaurant! We must have just missed each other. After laughing off our situation, we struck out to find our way to the RER-B, the train that would take us to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse. It was a little rocky getting there (and getting on board! The train was jam packed so full that I literally felt like a sardine and I was worried that the door would shut around my luggage bag), but once on board we road the train for about an hour and a half. I had some nice conversations with Shannon’s grandmother, and we were there before I knew it. Shannon’s aunt Katie picked us up, and I was settled in before I knew it. The ride through her little French town was quite adorable, though.
We had some news that Shannon would take awhile longer to come in than we had originally thought, and after sitting around a bit and an exquisite lunch made by Katie, she kindly asked if I would like to visit the gorgeous chateau that we had seen on the hillside on the way to their house. Naturally, my answer was a very enthusiastic yes! Finally, my chance to see a northern European castle! Fran and Katie’s husband, Jean, decided to stay behind and rest a bit while Katie would also show me around their little town.
After a short drive, we had reached the top of the hill. As soon as we got to the edge of the outer castle walls, there was such a gorgeous view that I had to take a moment just to stare.
We then stepped over the small moat and over the bridge into the main chateau. I’ll give you a little photo tour of the chateau, and I’ll try to remember all of Katie’s fun facts about it.
Here you can see the bridge – I didn’t manage to get the moat into the picture. The large building to the right is called the “Dungeon,” but back in this chateau’s day it did not have the same context as today. Back then, a dungeon was where the Lord and the Lady stayed with the other important people.
A lot of the chateau was lost over the years due to people coming up from the village to steal stones to build their own houses. It had been abandoned for an excruciatingly long time.
This is the courtyard
The dungeon is to the left, and to the right is a half-gone guard’s tower.
View from the front wall
We went down into the museum in the cellars after that – here are some artifacts found in the chateau.
Katie remembered something else she forgot to tell me on the front wall, so we went back up after that to see one more time.
There is grating there now to protect tourists, but before the front walls had these giant holes on purpose. When invaders would come to attack, they utilized them to drop giant boulders or other items down from here and it would roll down the wall with such force that it would knock the attackers down and roll them down from the mountain the chateau was on.
You can see here how the walls were made curved at the bottom so that the stones could pick up speed as they rolled down to the attackers.
One of the archer’s holes in the walls. There was angles to the left and right of it so that they could get the right angle to shoot at attackers.
The well for the people and animals. It draws from the small river that goes through the village, very far below. It’s useful also because they have a water source in case they have to stay up in the castle for an extended period of time.
I love how you can see inside this guard tower to get an idea of where the floors were before!
This was the last remaining guard tower of the chateau that had not been taken down.
Next, Katie took me down for a tour of her adorable little town. I’ll give you another photo tour of that.
The chateau I toured is on the left here.
The little river running through their town that I mentioned. The building on the left is an old washing house.
The building on the right is the oldest home in their town.
This is a restaurant where a famous author once dined – but forgive me as I cannot remember which one.
One of the chapels in town.
The monks for the chapel used to live in this building, and this is their courtyard.
Another chateau that we visited! This one is quite a bit newer.
This chapel is older than America! It’s also where people would go to hide during attacks. They would go up to the top of the tower and archers would be up and down the tower steps at the slots.
We stopped at a bakery on the way back home for Katie to pick up some bread. This was so cool! So many different pastries.
Shannon made it in later that night and we had a fantastic dinner. We went to bed relatively early because of Shannon’s jet lag… and we had a bright day in Paris to look forward to tomorrow! 🙂
I know it took forever to get my first day of the weekend posted, but I promise Day 2 will happen soon. I’ll probably also do a conclusion post. I’ll update you all soon!
Dos besos,
Kenna
Where in the World is Kenna? 