Home Sweet Home

Sadly, this will probably be our last blog entry, as we made our way back home to Michigan yesterday afternoon.

We had an extremely early wake-up call as we had to leave the Abbey by 5:30AM to make everyone's flights out of Paris. George, an intern at the Abbey, drove us in the Abbey's minivan (had it not been so early, it would have been a hilarious scene since everyone had bags underfoot as well as on their laps to fit everything!) - and we made it all safely to the airport. After one last excursion to the "Picasso of pastries", Pierre Hermes, to pick up some of his famous macaroons, we were off.

The flight was uneventful, and although we stopped having access to the movie-player about halfway through because too many people were using it, everything mostly went well. (I have to say Air France has wonderful meals!) We were all happy to arrive in Detroit, where all of our friends and relatives were eagerly waiting to pick us up.

We will certainly all miss the Abbey and its serene setting, as well as the friends we made while we stayed there. It has definitely, as Peter wanted it to, given us "memories to last a lifetime!"

Au revoir!

Last Week in Pontlevoy

We can't believe that these are our last few days living in Pontlevoy and working on-site at the Abbey. We have loved everything from the beautiful grounds to the friendly students and staff here. After Peter's departure on Monday, we've been working hard to make significant progress on our project before departing from the Abbey on Saturday. We realize there are several things that we can only research here (and not in Ann Arbor), so we're definitely focusing our attention there. On Tuesday we visited Cheverny, a beautiful Chateau that remains in the original family tree. The grounds were truly beautiful and they had a very entertaining dog show which amazed us all! The tourism research group interviewed the Director of the Chateau, the Marquis de Vibraye, which was an honor (and extremely helpful!).

Today we researched some of the local tourist attractions including several local wineries in the Loire Valley area closest to the Abbey. It is amazing how many wineries are within 2 hours of Pontlevoy. We also visited the Mushroom Caves in Montrichard which we did not expect to be chilly and humid! We loved learning about how the owners grow the mushrooms and how much they could sell them for in the grocery stores.

Upon returning back to the Abbey we prepared for a fantastic barbeque thrown by Charles. We originally thought it would only be us at the BBQ, but were pleasantly surprised when students, friends from town and teachers showed up (and Nelson our favorite dog!). It was a great event to have some delicious food and hear more about the experiences of both students, townspeople and teachers.

We cannot believe that tomorrow is our last full day here at the Abbey. We've truly enjoyed our time in the small town of Pontlevoy and will miss everyone we've come to know here over our 3 weeks.

The Departure of Peter and Robbie

It's our last week in France and we're desperately trying to fit everything in before we go! Monday was our last day with Peter, so after going over some of our work plans with him in the morning, we took some pictures of the group as well as the Abbey grounds. Monday was also the most gorgeous day we've had since we arrived - over 70 degrees F and sunny! So after the workday, we met some of the students outside to get some sun on the Abbey lawn and kick the soccer ball around. Little did we know that there is a wonderful family-owned winery just a 3-minute walk out the back gate of the Abbey! We did a short wine-tasting before dinner with the owner, Cecile, who introduced us to wonderful Pontlevoy wine, and surprised us with the mouth-watering jellies they make using the wine. (We returned the next day to purchase several bottles each to bring home after we discovered we can check cases on the plane!) Our day ended with one of the best dinners any of us have ever had at the Chateau de Chissay, a restaurant sculpted into the caves that are partially integrated with a beautiful home on a hill.

After saying a sad goodbye to Peter (going back to work) and Robbie (going on vacation), we realized how much the weekend had improved our understanding of our approach to our project and continued to work on it on Tuesday. Later in the day we traveled to Cheverny, where we had an appointment to interview the owner, the Marquis de Vibraye, who has made his former home a wonderfully-run tourist attraction. He was incredibly knowledgeable, and we were surprised to learn that the chateau has been in his family for more than six centuries!

We've also found an amazing new friend who loves to play catch named Nelson (AKA Poulain) who is one of the nicest, most intelligent dogs we've ever met. He lives across the street next to Le Commerce, and frequently comes over to the Abbey grounds to play. We'll miss him when we're gone!

Weekend Fun - Amboise, Tours & more

After working hard all week, we were eager for the weekend to arrive so that we could explore more of what Pontlevoy and the surrounding cities have to offer. We spent Friday writing a portion of our final paper and we finished around 5pm in order to properly welcome our faculty advisor, Peter, who was arriving that day from Michigan. While Brendan B. had traveled to Eastern France to meet up with some friends and Jen worked on her master's project, the rest of us decided to meander over to the town bakery to pick up some bread for the weekend. Just as we were exiting the Abbey gates, we ran into Peter and Robbie who just returned from the train station. Eager to transition into the French lifestyle, Peter accompanied us to the bakery and then we all sat down at Le Commerce to have some wine and snacks, and to discuss our experiences at the Abbey so far.

On Saturday morning we got into our car and expertly navigated our way to Chateau d'Amboise (en route to Tours). The Chateau was set way up high over the city, so the view was fantastic! We also stopped for some delicious crepes on the way out of Amboise - a very fun and quaint town. After arriving in Tours we shopped around the city and then rested up before dinner. We ate at a charming French restaurant on a cobblestone alleyway/street which had just about any kind of ethnic food you could want. After dinner we definitely wanted to experience the nightlife in Tours, which we accomplished by wandering down the cobblestone streets towards Place Plumereau - a square surrounded by restaurants and bars on all sides. We topped the night off with 2euro cones of french fries which really hit the spot.

We arrived back to Pontlevoy from Tours this afternoon and were eager to see a conference that was set up at the Abbey. We did manage to cook some lunch in the kitchen and enjoyed eating it outside in the sunny weather. This week is our last week in Pontlevoy and we're definitely planning to make the most of it!

Chateaux

Yesterday was the first day we were able to escape from our online research and visit one of the nearby chateaux, which are such a large tourist draw in this region of France. (Although we are not suffering for lack of fun! We watched The Dark Knight on a projection screen in a room supported by flying buttresses that has been converted into a hangout for the students.) Chenonceau is known for being the residence of royalty and is characterized by its unique structure, which spans the river Cher. It is basically impossible to take pictures as gorgeous as the aerial ones on their webpage, but we attempted to capture our visit with photos of the beautiful home and gardens. There was a beautiful copper kitchen display in the basement of the structure, but the arches over the river was really the most striking part of the visit. There were two very well-kept gardens on each side of the chateau itself, and a restaurant that we heard serves hamburgers and Budweiser in high tourist season!

Tonight we also went to the debut of an art exhibit at another chateau, Chaumont, which has several buildings that were very interesting to explore and a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside and river. They also have a very large park that is open to the public - this is definitely my favorite chateau so far! The art debut had some hors'd'ouevres and wine, and afterward we went to Le Commerce to meet up with the local students and townspeople and have a great time!

Return of the USM Students

We are no longer alone at the Abbey, and are happy that some of the Southern Miss students have returned from their week of studies in Paris, although it is their 2-week spring break now so there are only about 6 of them left. We had a very exciting first meeting with them on the Abbey front lawn at 4:30AM when the fire alarm went off (false alarm, no problems!). It's been great having an opportunity to interview them about their experiences at the Abbey.

We spent all of yesterday working on our project in the Abbey, and then changed our daily routine and visited Le Commerce for dinner - french fries! We had a great time talking with the local residents and some of the other students.

We're excited to visit some of the chateaux in the area later this week like Chambourd and Cheverny! Heading out to lunch now!

Back from Paris, Back in Pontlevoy!

On Friday we took the train from Blois to Paris - an interesting experience as we originally had to stand near the restrooms, awaiting some seating areas to become available. Eventually we secured 6 seats where we could rest our eyes and relax on our way to Paris. We arrived in Paris and saw an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower from the Ciel de Paris bar. It was a great view and a wonderful introduction to Paris. We could not wait to check into the Marriott which was located in a quiet area of the city (where we would have great concierge service and 24 hour amenities!) On our first full day in Paris, we went to see Notre Dame and the Mona Lisa in the Louvre (it was bigger than we thought it would be!). Three of us girls toughed it out through the rain ...mainly because we found a great cafe with wine and delicious desserts, which ended up being on the way to our final destination....the Christian Louboutin store where we ended up browsing (and buying!) for about an hour. We window shopped until we changed for a night on the town. Lindsay's mom organized a birthday party in the hotel bar including champagne and cake for everyone on our team. We then traveled to an amazing Italian restaurant in St. Germain de Pres for delicious gnocchi and wine. Our concierge directed us to El Alcazar and Mezzanine bar which were a great continuation of the birthday celebration. The end of our night was spend at the discotec where we got free passes and danced the night away. Of course, a night wouldn't be complete without crepes from the street, which satisfied us til the morning- Nutella, cinnamon sugar, cheese - you name it, we had it! We were sad to check out on Sunday, but were pleased to be able to see the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph along the Avenue Montaigne. We even saw the hotel where the last episodes of "Sex and the City" were filmed, which was fun for the girls in the group. We returned to Pontlevoy that night and were all eager to get a good night's sleep. Off to bed for now!

End of our first Week!

We are coming up on the end of our first week in Pontlevoy, and we already feel like we have been living here for months. Our team has split up into two groups to conduct research, and our group took a morning visit to the Tourism Office in Blois to interview the staff there. The Office is right across the street from the Chateau Blois, and we couldn't resist snapping a few touristy photos ourselves! We think that weather.com might be inaccurate for this area, because it keeps predicting rain when the sun outside is shining down. We reconvened with the other research group afterwards to conduct a few phone interviews, but later tonight we will be on the train to visit Paris for the weekend!

We've gotten a "mini-group" pass for the train and are very excited about our low fares. We're also very excited because we'll be celebrating the birthdays of two of our team members, Lindsay and Tiffany, on Saturday night - accompanied by cake and champagne at our hotel! We couldn't resist staying at the Marriott, which will be a nice dose of home located in a nice quiet area of Paris. We haven't completely decided what to do yet, but it will almost certainly include visits to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame, a creperie, and some nice shopping areas. The (possibly untrustworthy) weather report says it's going to rain, but as Audrey Hepburn tells Humphrey Bogart in Sabrina, it simply must rain on your first day in Paris. A bientot!

Day 4 in the Loire Valley

Today began with a sad discovery - the bakery is closed on Wednesdays! Alas, we went down to the kitchen and made some scrambled eggs and french toast with the grocery items we'd bought at the store. Yum! Today we had a plan to get some good intense research in. Right after breakfast we headed to our office to begin dividing up research topics and jumping in feet first. I've never heard the room so quiet in the past 4 days as it was today - everyone was extremely focused. We're all eager to check things off of our research list and get some answers to our questions. For lunch we walked over to our favorite place - Le Commerce! Today was a bit gloomy outside and it drizzled a little in the morning, so we limited our time outside. They served another delicious lunch today of turkey and pasta....and we couldn't resist getting some dessert, coffee and "chocolat chaud" (hot chocolate) - which was incredible! Back to the Abbey and to our research. We called it a day around 8pm after some great researching and a check in call with our sponsors back in Michigan. Starving as usual, we again went down to the kitchen, this time opting for some substantial cheeseburgers to satisfy our cravings. We're also trying to plan a local trip for the weekend in order to experience more of the French culture - maybe Paris? Maybe Nice?

UM Art & Design Coming to the Abbey

The University of Michigan School of Art & Design is holding a Creative Process course at the Abbey in May! The program is also available to UM alumni (and it's discounted!) - we're excited for the University to get more involved here - check out the link below for more information:

http://art-design.umich.edu/creative_process_france_alum.php

Brendan Baby was here.

Finally recovered from jet lag

It is our second full day here (the first one with all 6 of us here!) and we've finally figured out the meaning of life: bread from the pâtisserie down the block, cheese, regional wine, and Poulon chocolate! Poulon is the major French brand of chocolate, but somehow is ridiculously better than the normal brands you find in the US. We are addicted.

We've set up our "office" in one of the classrooms here, since the Univ. of So. Mississippi students who normally study abroad here are studying in Paris for the week and then going on spring break for the two after that. The room has a gorgeous view of the gardens (I have to face the whiteboard - I don't know how well I could concentrate if I were in class here!). We spent most of the day there, taking a break to go to the restaurant across the street, Le Commerce. We are going there every day for lunch, and have discovered that we are very lucky indeed! So far the meals have been fabulous and the ambiance in the restaurant is very friendly and charming - they are even very accommodating to our group vegetarian. :) I'm sure when the linden trees are in bloom, the entrance to the restaurant from the Abbey is absolutely beautiful!

We also toured some of the unrenovated Abbey spaces with Robbie - some of the undeveloped wings have beautiful structures that really illustrate the great untapped potential of this place.

Our Arrival - Part 2

After we arrived here today, I couldn't believe that the pictures we had been looking at for so many days could be so inconsequential compared to the real thing. The outside of the Abbey and all of its buildings really are inspiring, and we had a beautiful day to explore them and the town of Pontlevoy. It must have been amazing to come in the old entrance to the Abbey back when it was in use, with the trees towering along either side of you as the grand building slowly grows in size as you approach.

Our rooms are located in the main part of the Abbey on the third floor. I have a beautiful view of the Town Church which is technically not part of the Abbey, but does reach inside its walls - the bells ring every hour starting at 7AM, but I love it because it reminds me of the church I used to live hear at home. My room is nicely renovated and has beautiful dark wooden furniture - a bunk bed/desk, two single beds I've pushed together to make a larger bed, and lots of wardrobe storage.

I'm glad I brought a blanket, because it is very cold inside the Abbey! There is another space in the Abbey on the top floor up near our rooms with a great DVD projection screen, seating, and an empty bar area that I'm sure is the hang-out spot when the students are here, but to keep warm, we all curled up in the rec room down- stairs near the kitchen and watched Chocolat together to get into the French mood - we had some amazing goat cheese pizza! I think half of us fell asleep during the movie...it is going to be great to get some rest after our tour of the grounds and the city!

We made it!

At 8:30am we touched down at Charles du Galle airport in Paris! The flight was long, but filled with great movies to catch up on. After locating all of our bags we met up with the Abbey Director, Robbie, who was kind enough to pick us up and drive us back to the Abbey where we would be working and living for the next 3 weeks. Since we were still on U.S. time, we were all starving(!) and we decided to stop in Blois, a town about 25km from Pontlevoy, for a typical French lunch. After some much needed cafe (coffee) and pommes frites (french fries) we were refeuled and decided to walk around the town for a bit. It was very quiet because it is Sunday and it was "siesta" time -- which apparently happens in France as well as Spain! Blois was very quaint with cobblestone streets, fun pubs and brasseries - we defintely want to go back when it's a little livelier.

Not long after, we found ourselves pulling up to the Abbey itself! Pontlevoy is a small town (1800 people) and the Abbey is literally right in the town and very much a part of the culture. It is beautiful! We hauled our luggage up 4+ flights of stairs (no elevator here!) which resulted in laughter and people needing to shower...and after a brief hour long "settle in" period in our individual dorm-style rooms, we were ready for a tour of the property given by Robbie. Not only does he manage all of the programs here, but he keeps all of the grounds and buildings up as well! We hope to post pictures as we take them because words cannot begin to explain how large the property is here and how much detail is in each of the buildings. There are stories behind everything! We also walked through Pontlevoy itself where we saw the local cafe/pub, bakery and a random street carnival taking place. Tomorrow we will go to the market and buy food in order to cook our own meals.

We are all so excited to get started on the project now that we've actually seen the amazing property we are working on behalf of. With a 5 hour time difference we're all struggling to stay awake right now, but we're having pizza for dinner in about an hour!

Au revoir for now! Enjoy the photos of our first day.

And we're off!

Our team is off to France in T-minus 4 hours! We are taking an overnight flight from Detroit to Paris, and we will be picked up at the airport by the Abbey's manager. What service! This is going to be an amazing trip and everyone is looking forward to learning about the specific condition and nature of the Abbey, but we are bound to be amazed considering the pictures we have seen so far!

See you there!