Travels in Europe, Part 1
Although it’s starting to seem like so long ago, only three weeks have passed since I returned from my journey around Europe. Each day I was there, I meant to write something to let everybody know what I was up to, but to be honest, I never had the motivation to sit down and write when I could be out seeing new places and making new friends. Now that I’m back, however, falling into the same day-to-day repetition of a “normal” life, I’ve finally gotten some time to relive the memories and let everyone know where my adventure took me.
France
After the UK, my trek picks back up across the English Channel in France. First stop: Paris.
During the rest of the week, I really didn’t do too much. After all, I had already been to the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe and walked down the Champs-Élysées. Instead of hitting up all the usual tourist places, I decided to try something a little differently and travel at a slower pace (more to come about this later). Over the next four days, I went to some parties, listened to street musicians near Notre Dame along the Seine, went to the top of the Sacré-Cœur, and spent a whole day in my favorite spot of Paris, Montmartre.
The next stop of my journey was Lyon in the central east part of France. There, I had an old friend from four years back to visit. It was awesome seeing him, and he was great enough to show me all of Lyon and its ancient Roman ruins. As it turns out, Lyon used to be one of the largest Roman centers in France. Weaved in with the busy modern apartments and businesses are old theaters, hippodromes where they had chariot races, and museums filled with thousands of sculptures, tablets, and other artifacts from the Roman era. I also went to Vienne, France which is home to France’s biggest Roman theater which is still used for concerts to this day. Aside from the wanderings through Lyon’s history, I spent the rest of my time catching up with my friend and really living the French lifestyle. We even went to my friend’s parents’ house for dinner one night for a tasty home-cooked meal and ate out another night at a small kind of French restaurant special to Lyon called a bouchon lyonnais. One of my favorite parts of Lyon, however, was actually the gigantic park they have in the middle of the city called the Parc de la Tête d’Or. At nearly half a square mile, this park has a lake, rivers, a velodrome, huge gardens, several gigantic lawns, and even a zoo!
After Lyon, another friend from two summers ago picked me up and took me to where he lives in a nearby city called St-Étienne. We caught up the night I arrived, but after that, we didn’t waste any time getting out to see things. The next morning we took off around 5:00 am or so and headed to Oradour-sur-Glane in the west part of France. Instead of beautiful landscapes or ancient Roman ruins, we actually went to Oradour-sur-Glane to see a different type of ruin – a demolished village that was left as a ghost town during World War II.
On June 10, 1944, the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich surrounded the village and brought everyone to town square saying were just searching the buildings for weapons. Thinking that this was all, the townspeople didn’t do much to resist. The men were taken to barns and the women and children were locked inside a church. Without a warning, the Nazis fired upon the men in the barns and the women and children in the church. After people were wounded and had fallen to the ground, the Nazis poured fuel on them and burned them alive. As a result of that day’s massacre, 642 people were killed, and only six survived.
Experiencing this village and standing inside the church where hundreds of people were murdered was almost overwhelming. Seeing as there’s not places in the United States with such a gruesome recent history like this – apart from those of 9/11, it meant a lot to go here.
On the way back from Oradour-sur-Glane, we stopped at some old French châteaux along the countryside before arriving at a friend’s country home in La Chaulme, a small commune of around 20 buildings back in eastern France. We barbecued some fresh sausage, listened to music, and just enjoyed a typical night in the French countryside.
The next day, we returned to St-Étienne, and the rest of the week was pretty relaxed back at my friend’s apartment. Days were spent editing photos, exploring town, and even play pool while the nights were spent trying new cuisines and tasting different apéros.
The end of the week brought a sudden change of plans. Originally, I was supposed to stay with my friend in St-Étienne for almost two weeks. However, after chatting online with my host brother (who I know from when I went to France in high school), it was decided that it would be best if I reschedule my stay with them to the next week and then return to stay with my friend in St-Étienne afterward. So with the new plans, I bought a ticket and headed for Aix-en-Provence, France where my other host brother would meet me and take me to their place in Nans-les-Pins, a small village east of Aix.
The next ten days I spent at my host family’s house seemed like I had only been gone for a few days since I last saw them – well, except for my younger host brother was as big as me. It was nice seeing old family and meeting some new friends, too. For fun while I was there, we saw a French movie at the cinema, went to the beach in Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, played some soccer, had a pool party (one of my favorite parts!), went out in Aix-en-Provence for the Fête de la Musique, and even went to a Muay Thai boxing tournament! My time with my French family was one of the most exciting parts of France, and it was great to hang out with some kids my age.
Before I knew it, I was on the train again heading to St-Étienne for my last week in France. Back with my friend, we mostly hung out, and most of my time during the day was spent planning the rest of my trip, which, at that time, was completely unknown. I didn’t even know where I’d be five days from then. Besides the hours on Google Maps, Flickr (had to find somewhere picturesque), Hostelworld, and other backpacking sites, we make it up to a beautiful scenic overlook above St-Étienne (check out the time lapse video I shot here). Toward the end of the week, we spontaneously decided to go see Mont Blanc, Europe’s tallest mountain at 15,781 feet, and Annecy, France, a city in the Alps where I had thought about studying abroad.
The drive to Mont Blanc was amazing! It was the first time actually seeing the Alps during my whole trip even though it was just the start of the great mountain range (more of which I’d see later on in my journey). Despite the cloudy day, I did get a small glimpse at the peak of the giant mountain, and, wow, is it way up there! We took a gondola ride up to the side of another mountain across the valley to get an even better view. Mont Blanc was very impressive! On our way back, we stopped in Annecy, and it was way more beautiful than in the pictures. Luckily, we made it there in time to see the beautiful lake because after about fifteen minutes, rain started pouring, so we were confined to the car for pretty much the rest of the time.
We returned back to St-Étienne later that night, and a couple of days later, I was already off for my last excursion in France – this time to Dijon, the former principal city of old Burgundy and the present-day capital of the French région of Bourgogne. To get there, we had to drive down the Route des Grands Crus (roughly the “Route of Great Wines”) through the Côte d’Or (or “Golden Coast”), a hillside known for its exceptional Burgundy wines. It’s even home to one of the most expensive wines in the world called Romanée-Conti, and I was lucky enough to see the vineyard (which is only 4 acres big!).
As we drove through the wine country, it was obvious we were getting deeper and deeper into the Burgundy region because more and more of the decorated rooftops were popping up. These special roofs with a style specific to Burgundy have different colored shingles organized in different repeating designs.
Alas, we arrived in Dijon. I was very impressed with how clean the city was. We visited some old churches and a museum, and all of the old Burgundy history inside was actually pretty interesting. After, we continued to walk around town where I touched the famous owl on the side of the Notre-Dame de Dijon. It is said to bring you good luck if your rub it (and, as I was told, it must be with your left hand while walking by from the left to the right). Finally, with some recently purchased Dijon mustard in my bag, we took off to see an old Roman road still in pieces tucked away in a city park. Although it wasn’t much, it was still pretty cool to see something that was constructed before my continent was even known to exist.
The night finished in a small town outside of Dijon where my friend and I stayed with some of his friends for the night. After a delicious outdoor dinner, we headed down the street for a town festival and gigantic bonfire where we had a great time full of music and chatting.
Well, that’s it for my time in France and for the first month of my journey in Europe. Like I had expected, I had a wonderful time in France, and I wasn’t disappointed once. Seeing all of my friends and [host] family made it feel like a home away from home. I was, of course, a bit sad to leave France, but, at the same time, I couldn’t be anymore excited for the unknown road I’d be venturing down the next day completely on my own. The first stop: Switzerland.
To be continued…
