Although this blog is about my adventures in Denmark, last week definitely deserves a blog post. My family and I traveled (13 hours) to France. Our first couple days of vacation were spent in Paris. Paris definitely has it's charm as a city, there's little cafe's lining the streets with Parisian style buildings. And of course, the french pastries and bread didn't help my exchange weight. Since my host cousin, Filippa, is from Paris, she showed me around the city all three days. The first day I asked to go see the Eiffel Tower, so we sat on the grass in front of the tower and ate macaroons (I may or may not have eaten three). The Eiffel Tower was about the only actual tourist destination we went to. Filippa wanted to show me Paris from a native's point of view, so we spent the next two days roaming the lesser-known parts of the city. I actually liked this part of Paris better, because there weren't as many tourists (just me) and it seemed genuine (not like the shops were trying to attract tourists). We did quite a lot of window shopping, and discovered my new favorite store: The Kilo Shop. The Kilo Shop actually sells vintage clothes, but they charge you per kilo of clothes. Here, they had such unique things such as a bag in the shape of a cat or a neon green rain poncho with matching boots. I unfortunately didn't buy either the cat bag or rain poncho set but thought them to be interesting.
The rest of the week was spent in the countryside near a town called Leugny. Although Paris seems to be the favorite destination of France, the countryside challenged this with rolling hills of farms, villages with houses from the 18th century, and sunsets over valleys of fields. A lot of my time here was spent relaxing and reading, but we went on a few excursions as well. The first was to this castle that is being built right now. A few historians wanted to test the methods of how people in the medieval ages built castles so they are building one with the exact methods used. When completed, it will have taken 25 years to built and contains the castle, a few towers, and even a moat. We also went to a town called Auxerre and explored old cathedrals. On Saturday, we stopped at a French market. The market was like a farmer's market back home, but with a lot more variety because people in France still use markets and specialty shops to get most of their groceries and prefer to skip grocery stores.
The week went by quickly and I wish I had more time to explore France. Vacationing to France also made me realize how much I appreciate Denmark. For example, in Paris, you have to be careful of pickpockets and it probably isn't smart for me to roam alone, but in Copenhagen, pickpockets are uncommon and I can take the train alone without being scared or worried. Denmark also just feels more like home, where France was just a vacation. If I can get Weebly to work (the website has been acting strange), pictures will be below!
Hej Hej,
Sophie
The rest of the week was spent in the countryside near a town called Leugny. Although Paris seems to be the favorite destination of France, the countryside challenged this with rolling hills of farms, villages with houses from the 18th century, and sunsets over valleys of fields. A lot of my time here was spent relaxing and reading, but we went on a few excursions as well. The first was to this castle that is being built right now. A few historians wanted to test the methods of how people in the medieval ages built castles so they are building one with the exact methods used. When completed, it will have taken 25 years to built and contains the castle, a few towers, and even a moat. We also went to a town called Auxerre and explored old cathedrals. On Saturday, we stopped at a French market. The market was like a farmer's market back home, but with a lot more variety because people in France still use markets and specialty shops to get most of their groceries and prefer to skip grocery stores.
The week went by quickly and I wish I had more time to explore France. Vacationing to France also made me realize how much I appreciate Denmark. For example, in Paris, you have to be careful of pickpockets and it probably isn't smart for me to roam alone, but in Copenhagen, pickpockets are uncommon and I can take the train alone without being scared or worried. Denmark also just feels more like home, where France was just a vacation. If I can get Weebly to work (the website has been acting strange), pictures will be below!
Hej Hej,
Sophie