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!