Category: Travel

After one full day in Paris, getting my sea legs, I headed off to Besançon to explore my first arch. I have long been excited for this particular leg of the journey…I’ve never been to this part of France before and this small city near the Swiss and German borders is rumored to have one of the prettiest Centre Villes in France. I can now verify that its Centre Ville is beautiful.

I took the TGV from Paris to Besançon, then the local train to Besançon proper, then the bus to my airbnb. I stretched my rusty French when I picked up my airbnb keys (honestly, just TRYING gives you so much street cred that and BEING NICE…I should make a post about loud, stereotypical Americans over here that completely justify our bad reputation.) Checked into my airbnb — which is perfect, and explored the town a bit.

The town is VERY charming — even in rain and with grey skies. The road through town, “La Grand Rue,” is the old Roman road that broke the town into halves (the cardo). Besancon (and the Grand Rue actually) is also the birthplace of several notable Frenchies, Victor Hugo and the Lumière brothers.

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with my desires to explore this town to the max. I had planned on Sunday being relatively relaxed, but between the rain and travel catching up to me, I didn’t get very far besides a small walk. On Monday, a ton of things were still closed (I forgot that that was also a European thing) and the rain was RIDICULOUS. IT poured, and when it wasn’t pouring it was still raining pretty heavily, and it alternated between the two with little warning. I got nothing very productive done, besides wading through some ultimately unhelpful 18th-century sources. (At least now I know they’re unhelpful?) It turns out that France was hit by what they were calling Tempête Zeus a strong storm with winds that blew a bunch of trees down across the country, and several people were actually killed… (not near where I am though…my weather was mild in comparison to elsewhere.) Between feeling rather cooped up, and not getting to explore my monument the way I wanted to or the rest of the town, I was in a pretty dark mood by the end of the day.

Today however, while the sun didn’t shine and the rain wasn’t completely gone, it was much improved on all fronts. I began by doing a quick walk around my monument and the surrounding area, which got my spirits up immediately. Then I went to the cat cafe which was WONDEFFUL. It made me happy to see the kitties, even if they weren’t into cuddles (I wanted it too much). Then I spent several hours *finally* doing all things I needed to do with the arch. I looked at the arch, photographed it, then explored the hill up to the citadel, including the Cathedral of St. Jean. I went back to my apartment, checked my photos, and then went back to the arch again for good measure (and the fact I had forgotten to get shots of a few angles.) All in all, it was a good day to end my stay in Besançon– even if I didn’t get to explore the way I wanted to. There’s always next time.

My brief 2 days in Paris to launch my trip went very well. My goal with this few days was to basically just get on Paris time and to build some extra time into my schedule if anything inopportune occurred with my travel. Fortunately, my flight arrived early and all went well.

Friday was a day of low-key exploration with mon amie de Paris, Lindsey. We went to Saint-Denis (a very important church in the development of Gothic art), to the Marais for noms, and to some fun areas for walking. It was a good day filled with fun times, fun people, and delicious noms. The only sad face is the fact I tore a small hole in my light jacket (not my rain jacket thankfully).

This has been a phenomenally long day, but was practically perfect in every way in comparison to my last first day in Paris. This is a boring blow-by-blow of my day and trip with little things I want to remember.

The view during our descent into Paris, taking by my charming Breton seat mate

The Plane This airplane trip was fully of personalities. There was a very peppy group of sorority girls that greeted each other with a VERY LOUD, “BONJOUR BITCH!” (All of the French people within in hearing suddenly had very wide, surprised eyes). There was one of the rudest passengers I’ve ever seen on a flight. She packed the LARGEST carry on I’ve ever seen, got mad when it couldn’t be stored near her, expected that her seat would be moved to place her near her bag and suggested she should be somehow compensated for this, she took videos of herself dancing in her seat for a good hour, about an hour before we arrived she got her carry on down from where they had stowed it at the front of the plane and spent probably a good 20 minutes in the rest room primping…all while being incredibly rude to the flight attendants who were unfailing patient with her (THOUGH — there definitely were some exceedingly annoyed looks and the two dealing with her did a *little* totally deserved bitching.) Completely entertaining and horrifying.

This was probably the best batch of in inflight movies I’ve had in recent memory…I watched Florence Foster Jenkins (HUGH GRANT LOOKS OLD), Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (omg, I loved it), and Bridget Jones’s Baby (much better than I was expecting and COLIN FIRTH LOOKS OLD).

The flight arrived early, I cleared customs relatively quickly, gathered my bags and made my way through Paris proper to the small suburb. I had time to kill because checkin at my airbnb was not until 1, so I sat on a bench for a bit, then I went to a cafe where I spoke some rusty French that the lady at the cafe very kindly complimented. I ate a tarte with onion, courgette, cranberries, and a type of cheese I forget. I stayed there for a bit and read until I settled into my AirBnb (a very nice couple with a young son who airbnbs their bottom floor). I showered and napped, then met my dear friend Lindsey and we went grocery shopping, then back to her apartment, where she made a delish dinner. We then went out for a little walk and a dessert crepe.

La Soeur Tartin: a crepe with carmelized apples, vanilla ice cream, chantily, salted caramel sauce, and pralines. 

All in all, not very eventful or crazy exciting. I had wanted to go to the Louvre, but I underestimated the level of my tired. I’m off for bed now for a fun, ease-myself-into-the-European-walking kind of day. There wil be pictures that will be SO much more exciting than these here.