Feb 18 2008
Orleans rehash
SO, for Christmas and New Years Eve, we spent it with the boyfriend’s sister up in Orleans.
(PSST, jooree where is Orleans?)
THERE.
His sister, her husband, and their adorable-bratty-at-the-same-time son live in this old ENORMOUS house which they redid all by themselves.
A couple of pictures on the road there..
OH did I not mention that we drove there?
YES, all eight hours. Thankfully, I don’t know how to drive a manual (thank you LA) so I mostly slept in the back.
Actually, they live in tinier town called Sully La Chappelle
It’s a TINY town with large fields of… nothingness.
But it was fun to walk around. A child always gives a better perspective.
Orleans is known for a couple of things. OK, I lied, One thing and here it is.
Jeanne D’arc (Joan of Arc to us Americans)
She helped turn the tide for France in the Hundred’s Year War in Orleans and now they have this huge Cathedral dedicated to her.
BTW, that cathedral is fucking enormous. And WAY cooler than Notre Dame.
It is being refurbished right now but the stained glass windows are amazing.
I mostly spent the holidays trying not to do anything “unfrench-like” and indulged in a lot of WII.
It is so addicting and a perfect way to sweat. YES YOU CAN SWEAT WHILE PLAYING WII GOLF. The boyfriend and I are very competitive.
I also had my first 4×4 cart experience.
*NOTE this picture was taken for you my readers to show HOW ridiculous I can look.
But it did give us the opportunity to drive around the area
And see this house with it’s own moat!! Why does America have nothing like this??
And craploads of cows.
Christmas was lovely as even I received gifts from his family.
BTW I never believed in Santa Claus but apparently his nephew does so it was hilarious to hold this over his head for a week.
“Si tu ne faites pas bien, on va appeler Pere Noel!” (If you do not behave, we’re going to call Santa Claus!)
The right side were presents for him. ALL OF THEM.
And still, he asked “Mais ou est-ce que le ______ que j’ai demande?” (Where is the (have no recollection of what he wanted) that I asked for?) after shredding TEN gifts.
Kids these days.
Alex was pleased with his gifts.
It was a comic book on Jean Claude Van Damme. It’s a big french joke here that he’s always on drugs and speaks in the weirdest mix of french and english and thereby making no sense in either language.
Example:
BTW, I know this is kind of perverse, but I LOVE taking pictures of french children.
Of course, being only 2 hours away from Paris by train demanded that we go. So we did.
(This is for you Jullie and Ben)
After a short train ride, we went to the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, which was near the train station.
Even Parisians put man first.
There were also aborted babies
A premature born cat
And the best sculpture EVER
BTW this is scary for kids. Two monkeys killing a man?
Then a stroll through the outdoor zoo they had.
I’ve ALWAYS hated zoos, as the animals alway look depressed
but this one had guinea pigs! With bunnies for some bizarre reason.
(It started out with two…then…)
And my first ever sloth sighting.
And the boyfriend meeting up with some old friends
We walked on the Champs Elysses
and to my HORROR…
McDo has invaded le champs elysses. Why aren’t more parisians pissed? Where is Jose Bové ?
We ate at a Korean/Chinese owned restaurant with some decent kimchi….but OMG
I ate fucking dduk. 7 EURO dduk!!!
Then impressed the shit out of the boyfriend at the Eiffel Tower. He didn’t want to go and be a tourist, but he was the one most excited when we got there.
No matter how much I bag on Paris, it is goddamn beautiful.
Look, it’s coming out of our heads!
And a more proper picture.
