Blown Transmission // The City of Blois & Da Vinci's Home
- Jul 10, 2016
- 2 min read
What's better, after a two-day, never-off-your-feet, out of town adventure, when you're exhausted and hungry and sun-exposed, then to have your travel van break down on the side of the French freeway with a leaking, burning transmission?!
Anything. Anything in the entire world would be better. BUT! In true French fashion - c'est la vie.
So the group of us, all sleepy and sweaty from a hugely packed day of castles and markets and walking, parked ourselves in a deserted field just outside the city limits for a solid hours, and waited for whatever rescue-effort could come quickest. Which happened to be a couple of taxis. Which happened to take us to the regional train. Which then turned our 2 hour trip home into a 5+ hour excursion. Très catastrophe!
But as I said, c'est la vie.
(Can you tell I'm trying really hard to make use of the ridiculously minimal French I know while I'm here?! Oui!)
If nothing else, us summer-school Social Workers are really getting our money's worth here with this hands-on foreign opportunity to practice problem-solving and crisis-intervention!! See, positivism. I'm pretty sure I learned something about that in my four year degree...
Despite the minor hiccup over the weekend though, our trip was rather lovely. We squeezed in 2 castles (Chambord & Chateau), a wine tasting, a visit to Da Vinci's quaint little home (which is actually huge...definitely not little), and then hit up a huge Sunday street market (which really actually was huge...it was awesome).
Then, like I mentioned, we got the added bonus of a train ride, which was also SUPER COOL. Wherever you are, if the opportunity arises, you take the train and you revel in it. I've been blessed in this life with enthusiastic train lovers as beloved family (shoutout Robertson clan!), but really, the train is exciting for everyone, and such an underrated way to travel. In other words, vive la train!
Anyway, this weekend has been insane and hot and just such a rad way to see more of what France has to offer. And I promise - my next post will be purely photographic, because I have no more space left on my phone, and I know you're all just D Y I N G to see what I've been seeing...right?!
Jessica*.
Comments