Destination: Nancy

I came to visit this picturesque city thanks to my dear friend Autumn. So picturesque is it that it's been named one of the 1000 places you should see before you die! Awesome right? So one down, about 999 more to go.

First lesson. How to pronounce Nancy. No it is NOT like Nancy Drew, it is with a French accent. Pretend you are British and pronounce Nancy like the Indian bread Nan (Nahhhn) and to see. Thus Nahhhnseee.

Upon arrival, Autumn realized we had much to do in a short time, so we quickly took my bags to her place and I was given the grand tour of Nancy.


Autumn, my Nancy history buff, informed me that Nancy is located in the highly prized Lorraine region of France (I believe the Germans fought at least 2 wars to try and get their piece of Lorraine). As Autumn kindly pointed out, Nancy was never officially occupied by the Germans, and rests very proud of their unwillingness to bow to the occupation.

Our first destination in Nancy, the beautiful Place Stanislaus, reminds me of something right out of a 17th century decadent dream.


Apparently Louis the Somethingth (Aut couldn't remember) gave his father-in-law a dukedom as a present when Stanislaus was kicked out of Poland (he was the former King of Poland). With this dukedom came the difficult town of Nancy, which really didn't want to be a part of France. So the king said, hey Nancy, you can be on your own until Stanislaus dies, but then you become a part of France, thinking his father-in-law would die shortly. But Stanislaus had the last laugh, living to a ripe old age, at least 20 years after the king had given the dukedom.


Everything in the Place is bedecked and gold leafed. Aut gave me a symbolic tour of all the bedecked items, that tried to link both Stanislaus and the King together. The fleur de lis and the coq, signs of French royalty and the thistle and the Lorraine cross, signs of Nancy. It was very interesting. In the French Revolution the statue Stanislaus erected of the King was torn down and the people replaced it with one of Stanislaus himself, as he became a great loved figure in Nancy.


This is a cool looking monastery in Nancy, apparently monks live in there, but Autumn has never seen one of the supposed monks.

This is the declaration from Charles de Gaulle saying that France was liberated. Nancy is quite proud of their ability to remain unoccupied during Nazi occupation of France.



Nancy is a beautiful place but definitely only a day trip. Luckily Autumn and I occupied our time with a nice trip through the Musee des Beaux Arts right in Place Stanislas. It actually a remarkable collection of renaissance and contemporary art including a couple works by Picasso, Manet and Monet.



And Autumn was lucky enough to find a picture of her love, Mr. Darcy. Of course this was the perfect opportunity for a photo op of the happy couple.



After the classical art, the museum had a really amazing display of contemporary pieces. Once piece was this room that only one person could enter at a time and when you shut the door behind it looked like you were in a wonderland of lights.



Part of the contemporary display...



After a lovely afternoon of satisfying our cultural thirst, Autumn and I hit up the most delicious bakery in Nancy for some ficelles, possibly the French equivalent of stuffed pizza or a calzone. What they do is they take a baguette and stuff it with anything they want. We chose 3 cheese as one and then figs and brie. 3 cheese could have been incredible had they not included blue cheese as one of the three cheeses. BUT fig and brie was absolutely INCREDIBLE!

Afterwards we headed to this huge foire (fair/carnival) happening in the center of town. It was a huge carnival full of candied apples and carnies... pretty cool. The only VERY uncool thing about it was that it cost an arm and a leg to even go on a ride. Seriously 4 euros for a fun house? I am not a millionaire.


So Autumn and I just wandered around, eventually watching a game that spun in circles for about 20 minutes. Very cool you had to get a ring to go completely over really cool electronic devices (ipods, iphones, digital cameras, etc.) Spent 20 minutes watching other people win, pretty cool right. Next we ventured over to the exit from the Haunted House. If you have never seen a French person about to pee their pants in fear, I suggest, nay, I authoritate it for everyone. Just look at the photos... the live action though is SO much better.

After another 20 minute stop at the Haunted House, Autumn and I stopped for a minute to take a couple shot at the how intense is your love booth... obviously we are "explosif". Afterward all of the residents of Nancy now thought we were a lesbian couple, awesome right?



Well finished it up with a nice 3 euro ride on the most awesome french rollercoaster ever... Can't get any better than a rollercoaster in France right?

Anywho I had an awesome day and a half in Nancy, I would recommend that everyone visits it once in their life.

Herbeville: Population 1,000, maybe with 500 cows

I went on a mini vacation with the Manet's out to the French countryside! About an hour outside of Paris is this adorable little village called Herbeville, which is known for it's Antiquities and outdoor markets. Although very tiny, less than a thousand people live there. It is practically untouched by all of the dirt of Paris. Situated in grassy knoll surrounded by farmland. The town itself has one Mairie (town hall) which just happens to be attached to it's sole ecole (school). The Manet's friends live right on the outskirts of the town limits, far away from the little village. The old home reminded me of something that my Mom dreams about living in one day. The family said that that house had belonged to their family for over 150 years and that they think it was built a little over 300 years ago.

Right in the town...

Raphy getting a push from Suzanne

The lovely view...

Overall very fun, except the ride to and from as I got to partake of the joy that is Jasmine's carsickness. Let's just say I feel really really bad for her.

I am Dumb ( Do not read if you vomit easily)

So, during the Olympic Torch Relay in Paris, there was a huge riot. I happened to be walking home from my class in the northern part of the city and ran into the protests against China. Things got a little rough and someone threw what I can only assume was a glass bottle (most likely wine, as that's the only thing they drink in France). The bottle broke and glass ricocheted in my direction, severing my left pointer finger...

Sadly this is not the truth. I cut my finger while cutting baguette to put some cheese on it. Seriously how French of me. Any who for the price of 2 stitches and 10 euros I got an insider tour of Hotel Dieu (the oldest hospital in Paris located right next to Notre Dame), which just happens to be the closest l'Urgences (ER) to me. AWESOME.


PS the orange stuff is iodine not blood, bc apparently the French like to see that it's disinfected.

Frohe Ostern

Spring is in the air! So the only reasonable thing I wanted to do was be with my lovey for Easter. This was not an easy feat as the cheapest way to get to Germany was by bus. Lucky for me the bus ended up being 2 hours longer than it was supposed to be and I arrived in Munich to a freezing cold Vince.

We went straight into the city and visited the Neue Pintathek. It was actually a pretty incredible museum with artwork ranging from the Middle Ages to my personal favorite, Klimt. After a good 2 hours at the Pintathek, Vince and I went for a lovely drink and lunch at a corner restaurant. It was actually quite delicious, and my tummy was content. Surprisingly Germans DO have vegetarian meals!

After our meal we then headed to Vince's family friends, the Sabalowskis for a nice early Easter dinner. I even tried lamb, which was interesting... Afterwards we played Wii, I am perhaps the most awkward person to ever play this game, although that is closely followed by my bright red boyfriend. After a couple of rousing hours of Wii, Vince and I headed back to Erlangen, I was lucky enough to not be the designated driver and also be quite tired!

Vince and I then spent a relaxing morning at home and went and grocery shopped for something to make for Easter Dinner with the Sablowskis, we ended up choosing a green bean casserole and some gross German vegetable mayonnaise thing. After a day of cooking, we headed back into Munich for some Easter celebrations.

Another delicious lamb meal and a rousing game of 6 nimmt, and the younger crowd was ready to head out to check out the German club scene. Let's just say, Germans can for the most part not dance. Originally I thought it was just my boyfriend, but after a closer examination, it is all of them. Although inherently the German females have more grace and composure on the dance floor than the men. Secondly, German club music is either AWESOME 80's music or AWFUL hard German rock, which is the worst music to ever been played. After one too many drinks and some awful music we headed home only to find we missed our bus by 5 minutes.

Once home, we went to our respective sleeping areas and I was pleasantly surprised by a huge bottle of water! Unpleasantly it was bubbly water....

The next morning after lovely German waffles, Vince and I headed back to Erlangen to take care of the cat (who after months of residence with the Buergers still has no definite name) Vince somehow coerced my lazy bottom into a lovely hike around Erlangen (it took 2 and a half hours) and it was quite cold but beautiful. We then lazed around watched a movie and the next day headed out to take me to my 12 hour bus!

What a lovely way to spend your Easter! I guess if I couldn't be with my family I could at least be with a boy I love!

Planned Absence

Just to warn my loyal readers... I will be taking a nice little paid holiday to the South of France to watch... 40 kids. Yea though not the perfect holiday, it's actually pretty great, 40 little French kids 7 animateurs (3 of which speak English), 40 ponies, and the beach. And they are paying me a bit under 600 euros to do this... for 10 days. Seriously this could be quite incredible!


Love and miss all of you... you'll see new posts April 30th!

Jessie