périgord

our final excursion of the year! a four hour bus ride south took us to a lovely historic part of france that you just don't find up near paris. everything was so springy and green! i hope you enjoy...

this little streetside garden in périgueux became the perfect spot for afternoon ice cream.

the entrance to the breathtaking gardens of eyrignac.

the hedges were unbelievable...

...with an occasional pop of red chinoiserie. until my camera died, i was in heaven!

the beautifully preserved medieval village of sarlat.

we arrived just in time for the saturday market!

approaching the château de beynac.

views from the château. aren't they extraordinary?

the hillside town of rocamadour.

a baby goat (born that day!) at the chèvrerie/fromagerie we visited. he was too cute for words.

the view from inside the cave of padirac. very alice in wonderland, wouldn't you say?

périgord is a truly lovely region of france unlike any other i've had the chance to see in my time here. it was the perfect way to round out my five months with bucknell en france!

fontevraud

another excursion, another rainy day... i'm beginning to believe it's impossible for our group to experience good weather in our travels. this fifth excursion was to the abbey of fontevraud, considered revolutionary for its placement of monks and nuns in the same establishment. napoleon I turned the abbey into a prison during his reign, though today it is a purely historic site.

a crucifix constructed in the fourteenth century. think about how old that is!

the rooftop of the kitchen at the abbey, rife with chimneys.

the ceiling of the kitchen from the interior.

pretty architecture...

...pretty landscaping.

one of several lovely courtyards at the abbey.

les égouts (the sewers) of the abbey.

murals of religious life at the abbey. would you look at those ceilings?

the light-filled eighteenth century church.

isn't it incredible?

another courtyard at the abbey. i love the gridlike hedges!

the convergence of the loire and the vienne.

my host brother, paul, ready for his cotillion dance and me in the process of getting ready for carl's birthday party.

normandy

our excursion to normandy was a long haul: early wake-ups, hours spent on a freezing bus, cranky professors yelling at us to speak only in french. there were definitely parts of the trip that i would have done differently if i'd been traveling by myself but the moments of the trip that went right made all the others worth it. saint malo and mont saint michel were beautiful but it was the american cemetery at normandy that really took my breath away. the second we set foot in the area, which is territory owned by the united states, we could all tell we had left france for a moment. i can't put my finger on exactly what it was — the layout of the museum? the bathroom stalls wide enough for obese americans? — but there was an immediate lift in spirits among the group. without further ado, some highlights of our trip:

the fortified village of saint malo.

view from behind the walls.

hanging out on the fortress. from left to right: carl, annie, denise, maika, and valerie.

mont saint michel from afar.

courtyard at mont saint michel.

monastery at mont saint michel.

stained glass windows in the cathedral at bayeux.

remnants from d-day on the beach at normandy.

entering the american cemetery.

a handful of the 9,000 crosses in the cemetery.

it felt like no angle could capture the number of white crosses. they just went on and on.

and on and on.

an unknown soldier.

pretty trees overlooking the american cemetery.

the altered landscape at pointe du hoc, where bomb craters offer unsettling proof of the battle that occurred here.

german bunker.

view from pointe du hoc.

kids playing in bomb craters. this should provide an idea of scale... the craters were huge.

the german cemetery. the gravestones (each of the squares on the ground — the five crosses are just statues) were engraved with the soldiers' dates of birth (unlike the american cemetery) and the number of 17-, 18-, and 19-year-old soldiers killed was truly disturbing.

le musée de la paix... interesting way to conclude our weekend of studying the second world war.

the gallery of nobel peace prize winners.

amboise et clos lucé

fun-filled first excursion today with the bucknell en france group: first to amboise, a onetime residence for french royalty, and then to clos lucé, leonardo da vinci's home for the last three years of his life. lots of snow at amboise then, miraculously, beautiful perfect-for-picture-taking sunlight at clos lucé.

the quaint and slightly dreary view from the courtyard outside amboise.

the chapel at amboise where leonardo da vinci is buried.

pretty chapel ceilings.

colorful amboise bedroom.

da vinci's last home.

pretty windows with heart cutouts.

one of the towers surrounding amboise.

gorgeous sunset — seems to be a trend in my travels!

view of amboise from the other side of the bridge.