Weekend
5: September 13th – September 14th 2014
Wednesday, September 10th
I
(Stevie) just wanted document my work experience in Frankfurt Germany from
Wednesday, the 10th. I had the opportunity to film some of the FIRST
EVER meeting where engineering and operations electrical experts gathered from
around the world. It was a great experience and will definitely help in one of
my projects I’m working on. We were able to fly to and from Germany in the same
day. It was a long day, but I got to meet a lot of really experienced
people at the very new and modern Frankfurt Global Engineering and Construction
Solutions center, so that was neat! By the way, the flight attendants gave out croissants
(TWICE!) on the flight to Germany. It was pretty legit.
Saturday, September 13th
Well,
there’s not TOO much to say about today…We ended up on trains for the majority
of the day trying to get to the Chenonceau
castle/chateau just outside of Tours France in the Loire Valley. The Loire
valley is known for its castles as there are 71 along the river Loire. (We
definitely want to go back with a rental car so we can get to more castles!)
The castle itself had 5 large gardens and multiple kings/royal people have
lived in it including Catherine de Medici (<that woman has her name on a lot
of stuff all over France). This chateau wasn’t nearly as extravagant as Fontainebleau,
but it was staged like people still live there. The castle staff gathers fresh
flowers from the gardens every day to decorate the rooms, so the whole place
smelled like death (to Stevie), or flowers to people.
Anyway, we
eventually made it to the castle after a very very minor detour in Tours to
check out the cathedral there. That cathedral is definitely one of the best
ones that we have seen! We got back to our hotel in Orléans (the
original Orleans!) then had a nice dinner at a pizzeria in the old part of
town.
Sunday, September 14th
We
wanted to visit another castle today (Sully-Sur-Loire),
but the bus schedule was not in our favor. Stuart and I got up early to go to
mass nearby then we set out for a nice French breakfast (croissants, pastries,
and coffee). After breakfast, we went to check out the ‘Maison de Jeanne d’Arc’(house
of Joan of Arc). It actually wasn’t ever Joan’s house, but she stayed there
with the town’s treasurer during her heroic battle where she (successfully)
saved the town of Orleans. The house was just a 15 minute video interactive
room. The video was pretty cool with statues, tapestry, and walls getting
projected on or lit up. No one actually ever drew Joan of Arc while she was in
sight. The best drawing of her that there is in the world is just a sketch from
a guy who was in Paris while she was in Orleans (it looked like an 8 year old
drew it).
After the museum
we went to the cathedral in the center of town. The cathedral had stained glass
windows devoted to the life story of Joan of Arc. It was a very well preserved
cathedral with cool flags with a different coat of arms on each one lining the
main worship space.
After the church
we made our way across the street to Hotel Groslet,
a 16th century mansion where a lot of the Mayors of Orleans had an
office. Francois the second died there...The building was pretty cool with more
Joan of Arc memorabilia and old stuff.
We made our way
over to the Museum of Fine Arts next and saw some art. There were four or five
stories of paintings, sculptures, old plates and stuff. Not much to say here…I
(Stevie) am not much of an art museum person, but I did have the camera during
the museum, so I only took pictures of really funny or awkward pieces of art. I
hope you enjoy those pictures!
Moving from museum
to museum, we went to the Museum of Archeology next where we saw an exhibit of
Joan of Arc original pieces of art. The museum also had some old terra cotta, metal
pots, and statues and stuff.
After the museum
we got a late lunch/early dinner at an American style diner. They did a good
job trying to capture the typical American (steak and shake) type menu. This
was also one of the only places open because France (a lot like Spain) closes
up shop on Sundays.
After dinner we
got our stuff from the hotel then went to a free concert in the Cathedral with
the Symphonic Orchestra and Choir of Orleans. We sat near the back but had a
great view of the giant front door of the church. There was stage lighting on
the sides of the door and columns near the orchestra which changed color for
each song according to the mood of the song. It was a very good free concert! I
(Stevie) was expecting a dragon to bust thought the front of the church (like
in Shrek) because it really looked like something that would be in a movie.
After the concert
we got an aperitif (happy hour cocktail) then made our way to the train back to
Paris.
That was pretty much the weekend! Up next weekend: BELGIUM! Chocolate, waffles, a medieval town and Brussels with an
old study abroad friend of Stevie’s from Spain who is from the Brussels area!
Chaleureusement
(with warm regards),
Stevie
and Stuart
Amazing!! How long was the flight to Germany? Have an extra waffel for me in Belgium!
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