Today is Monday, July 28. This past weekend, I spent the entire time visiting some truly amazing places!
Friday was spent in Amiens with the class, which is located in the north of France. It’s known for its canals and unique architecture that is quite different from that seen in Paris. It feels more inspired by the UK, which makes sense because it’s right across the English Channel.
Here’s a funky building with some cool stained glass! I also love the wood shutters and door.
One of my favorite parts of this trip was getting to see the Cathédrale Notre-Dame d’Amiens, which was, in my opinion, wayyyy more impressive than the Notre-Dame de Paris. The amount of detail within the entrance is highly impressive, as well as the extremely tall vaulted ceilings.
The religious figures stepping on people piqued mine and Ben’s interest, and after a quick Google search, I found out that the figures being squashed are representations of sin.
I was also curious about the number of depictions of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist I was seeing in this church, but then I saw the reliquary dedicated to him and researched it more. His skull was located there, but it is now on display in a museum in Munich.
Here’s a cool view of what some of the canals looked like! It had a particular… odor… but that’s expected due to the still water.
I tried poutine for the first time and loved it, then we went to the Jules Verne house museum. It was very heavily nautical themed (of course) and was cool to walk through. I especially loved the replica of a boat on one of the top floors.
Saturday, Naomi, Ben, and I woke up early to catch a train to Marseille, which is in the south of France. Naomi had a tattoo appointment with an artist she had been following for quite a while, which was the reason for going! The ride there was gorgeous, and I got to watch the sun rise over small French villages that looked straight out of Beauty and the Beast.
When we arrived, we walked around for a little bit in search of food. We settled on a nice restaurant in the Le Panier area near the port.
This is the view coming out of the train station in Marseille!
After filling our bellies, we decided to check out the Palais Longchamp, which is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. It houses both the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle (Museum of Natural History). This grotto was a nice spot to hang out while waiting for the tattoo parlor to open up.
When Naomi was settled at the tattoo parlor, Ben and I split off to find somewhere to swim. We decided on the closest beach to the city, Plage des Catalans. The public transport gets an A+, by the way. 5 euros for a day pass for the metro, bus, and tram? Amazing.
The water was a gorgeous aqua blue and very pleasant to swim in. I couldn’t believe I was swimming in the Mediterranean Sea! It was very fun to dive into the waves; it reminded me of being a kid. It would be really fun to boogie board here, but I guess the French aren’t on that yet.
Something that amazed me was that there were many topless women there. The female body is sexualized so much, so it was nice to be around humans who are comfortable in their skin.
Sunday was spent at Disneyland Paris! I’d never been to any Disney park before, so I was ecstatic. We did everything we could, starting with getting a snack, of course, then Hyperspace Mountain. After that rush, we went to he much calmer It’s A Small World, which I loved. Slightly creepy and reminiscent of Willy Wonka, but the message was nice.
We then got lost in Alice’s Curious Labyrinth and rode the carousel. The top of the Red Queen’s palace had some nice views of the park. After that, we went to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which was epic. The animatronics were so realistic! Following this was Haunted Mansion.
We then looked at the dragon under the castle while it poured rain. On the bright side, this caused the line for Big Thunder Mountain to go down significantly, allowing us to go on without waiting for an hour. After this, we ate some lunch, then walked around to settle our stomachs before doing more intense rides.
We rode the Indiana Jones ride back-to-back twice! After Indiana Jones, we explored a bit more and decided to go back to the Star Wars area to do the Star Tours ride, which took a photo of me and said I was the rebel spy! By this time, I was pretty exhausted. We considered staying for the fireworks, but ultimately decided not to.
At around 10:15, we went back home.
Needless to say, this was a very eventful weekend for Ben, Naomi, and me, but it was the best time ever!!!