bonjour!

I made it to Paris! I got in on tuesday morning, the 6th. We toured around the city by ourselves the entire day, just exploring the metros, seeing the eifel tour, notre dame, eating delicious baguette sandwiches. loved it, and didn't capture any of it because I left my camera at the hotel.. way huge deal for me to do.
&That won't ever happen again.
promise.


But the very next day we hopped on a five hour train ride down to the southwestern part of France. A town called St. Jean de Luz was our first stop and we'll be here [staying in a hotel] for four days. Yesterday we had all free time to enjoy the town and see it for ourselves. We picniced at the beach with panini's,
[I got a "san remo" - tomate, fromage, balsamic, et jambon]
The bottom had "panini" branded in it.



We walked around the whole coast bordering the city, and didn't even discover most of the city until tonight.. had no idea.
I love it though, walking through the cobble stone streets listening to the many quiet french conversations and watching people in love making out. I seriously love it.










Today we went to Biarritz, France. A coastal port city, as well as Bayonne. Biarritz had a musee du chocolat which was so interesting, and smelled like chocolate from the second you walked through the doors. We painted chocolate on chocolate bricks.
And learned about how chocolate is made, how chocolatiers work, and how these amazing sculptures are molded. It's really incredible.








Then in Bayonne, [basque country] - look it up. don't feel like explaining, and no I still don't really understand that completely myself.
But very interesting. Again, our days are so long and I'm still so worn out and tired from my lack of sleep on the airplane over here, but I tried really hard to keep my eyes open and brain interested at the basque museum. It seriously was really cool to learn about, and they used to/ or still do, play this sport called "pelote." One version of it is kind of like raquetball, but they use their hand as the raquet.. it looked so cool but definitely not a good idea for any hand models, or flimsy wristed humans.


Then we walked around Bayonne, such a pretty city. So far all the places here in France that I've been have had that old town structure, my favorite; and I haven't been let down yet.
Large shutters on all the windows, colored buildings, and narrow, cobblestoned roads.
Took the bus back to St. Jean de Luz. Ate dinner at a restaurant, no idea what the name was; I'm really bad at caring about that, but Hemmingway used to eat there. I really have been wanting to eat the fish from here, since I'm literally right next to the ocean, so one guy who is here with the program told me about the fish he had last night for dinner.
..a plate with an entire fish on it; eyes, teeth, tail, everything. I've never done anything like that before, so i totally wanted to try it. It was delicious! I ate every last bit of it.
I can't wait to get back to Paris &get to my routine of things so I can start running, its already needed.



<3


ps. k please don't hate me but I'm falling asleep, I have to wait to put pictures up tmrw.