Mystery Excursion

Yesterday was the date of our mystery excursion! What happened was they had emailed us with a message explaining what time to get to the train station, and which platform we would be meeting at. There was also a clue, that was nearly impossible to decipher. So yesterday my roommates and I rode the metro to the train station, and arrived at 8:30 to find out that we would be spending the day in Normandy! The American film festival was going on so there were many American and French actors staying in the town.
We got on the train and had a compartment all to ourselves to talk and laugh as we pleased. Being the nerds that we are we all believed that we were secretly on the Hogwarts Express and were going to be visited by the trolly cart filled with Berty Bott's every flavored beans, chocolate frogs, etc. In case you were wondering...they never came around.

When we got there we decided to first, and foremost, seek out where we could get coffee. We headed to the right, which was more the residential and fisherman's side of town versus the glamorous rich side. We found a cute cafe and all ordered coffee.

I don't know how many of you have been to Europe, but the coffee's here are TINY. They are basically a shot of expresso and they call that a drink. Nothing like the Venti Mocha's I used to slurp down back during finals week in SLO. This cafe however knew what was up. They served us a regular sized coffee and we were all BEYOND excited.

After our quick cup o' joe we kept exploring. We found the cutest houses with quaint little gardens, and church bells ringing. This town is freaking adorable.

We finally made our way to the beaches, and walked on the sand. While the beaches in Southern California for the most part are compact sand and shells, this was extremely different. When you walked along the coast your feet sunk down into the beach and it made me feel like I didn't want to eat anymore nutella or crepes! Despite the cold weather we played in the water and sand and walked down the boardwalk.

After this we took a ferry ride over to the ritzy side of town and went to stalk the celebrities of the film festival. We ate lunch with the 20 euro's that our program gave us (they are so nice to us after all the money we have paid!), at this very nice restaurant. I ate lasagna, which was delicious!!!

After lunch we got some sweet dessert and just sat and people watched. At 5:30, or 17:30 as they say here, we boarded the train and came back to our lovely home: Paris.

All in all it was a fun day filled with new sites and a different culture. We had a great time and I was so greatful that our program gave us this opportunity.