Provins

A few weeks ago I went to Provins with the "Tuesday Day Trip Club"-a bunch of people from ABS who don't have Tuesday classes who invited me to Provins which means I'm tagging along until June.

I woke up in the morning and stopped by an a.t.m. before meeting my group at the train station. The machine decided to keep my card for the next five minutes and freeze on the choose a language screen. I yelled a few english profanities, and then the a.t.m. laughed at me and gave it back. Normal people would run away from the machine, but it was 7 am and I must have been in another state of mind. I saw another machine 10 feet away which looked much shinier and newer, so I tried my luck with that one. Another stupid stupid decision. Machine 2 liked to play a similar game, which led to more profanities, probably a little praying, and then the eventual return of my card. Keep in mind that I was leaving the country for Spain on Friday, and I don't have a bank account or any way to get money without that little piece of plastic.

So then we get to the train and make it to Provins, and it's pouring. This was the one time in France I really wished I had worn the bright purple ski jacket my mom got me that has a water shield so powerful that it can completely rid you of your peripheral vision. We quickly stopped caring once we found the tourists office surrounded by stone structures from the 1200's with little holes for bows and arrows when under attack. The woman at the desk gave us a list of things to see (which I believe is pretty typical of all tourist offices, so that was probably a very unnecessary detail), and then offered us a movie in the theatre! We realized that we had arrived at Provins before anything was open, so we opted for a little more time indoors with the movie. She led us into a large room with rows of wooden benches and a projector screen. We then watched a short film about the renaissance fairs and big gatherings that we would not be seeing that day (apparently we came off season), and looked at pretty pictures since we couldn't understand the French.

As we walked out of the tourism office, we realized that it had stopped raining and it was actually quite beautiful outside. The rest of the day for the most part just relaxing. We walked through a graveyard with giant marble tombs. We also visited Saint Quiriace Collegiate Church that survived so many different architectural generations that you could see the different styles from the time periods around the walls. The church was huge, and probably colder than outside. The old feeling about it though was very cool to see.

We stopped for lunch at a nice little restaurant near le Tour Cesar. I had my first paupiette (which kind of reminded me of those websites with the burrito, wrapped in pizza, wrapped in potatoe chips, topped with ice cream). Anyway, it was some sort of meal wrapped in veal in a really tasty sauce. We had a beautiful salad with melted chevre on toast. I tried to make it for my mom and sister when they came this week. Well the salad that is...the paupiette was a little bit over my head.

After lunch we went to le Tour Cesar one of Provins' medieval fortifications. We walked up to the top of the building to the bell tower and climbed through very narrow stone staircases around the structure. The best part of le Tour Cesar (other than the fact that the welcome desk woman was wearing velvet medieval clothing with a hat that looked like a donut ring- the types you have to sit on if you break your bum) was the basement where they stored the supplies. The museum had diagrams of the clothing and weapons that would be kept there, and then it started to sink in how old this place was, unless the US government still uses chest plates, metal armor, and crossbows. The outside of the building had a place for a moat and a drawbridge. I felt like I was playing in super mario brothers playing in fortresses, especially when we climbed through the walls and looked out on the city from up high.

After a visit to a rose honey shop (if you think that sounds amazing, you haven't tried the confiture rose with actual rose petals in it) we decided to head home. We got to the train station, and the ticket office was closed. The sign on the window of the guichet (french vocab word!) told us to try the ticket machine, which of course doesn't take American credit cards or paper money. With only 20 minutes until the train leaves, Alex, Ben, and I ran to the town center to find a place who would convert 40 euros to coins. A very kind bank teller searched the office for enough euros to help us out and is the sole reason we probably got home. We ran back to the station (which was not an easy feat for someone who was trying to keep up with two stilt legged men-alex must be at least 6'3) and ran to the train. The doors closed as the last of just made it into the car.

This post was also written two weeks ago during class before I went on winter break. I have attempted to modify verbs to fit the change in timing, but I make no promises. Hopefully more posts coming soon about Espagne!!!