reflections on Bourgogne (Burgandy)

I got back from Bourgogne around 10 pm tonight, and, after eating dinner and watching the end of "The World is Not Enough" in French ("Le monde ne suffit pas") with my host mom, I was exhausted, and instead of sleeping, bien sur, I went online for 2 hours.

So now that it's 1 am and I should actually go to sleep because I have so much to do tomorrow (inclduing seeing Julia!!!), I feel like I need to get something out about the Bourgogne excursion:

It was nice to get out of Paris.

There. I admit it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOVE Paris with all my everything, but as soon as we hit the French countryside and I saw the leaves changing colors just like New England (ok, not AS beautiful but not too far, really), I just felt really happy. It's good to leave the city from time to time, and I had not left Paris since our Normandie excursion at the end of September. The thing is, sometimes I get so caught up in Parisian life that it's easy to forget that there is a whole beautiful country outside of Paris. All of France exists outside of Paris, and much of it is incredibly different. I feel very fortunate that Sweet Briar started off this Parisian study abroad experience in a smaller town, Tours, and that we spent a significant amount of time there and got to experience French life and French culture, not just Parisian. See, now I understand why our program is called Junior Year in France...

Yes I got a little more Boston-"home"-sick watching those abovementioned beautiful colors in the trees, but it was alright. I was often distracted by the pouring rain and the cold in my feet and the pretty villages and cracking mustard-related jokes in Dijon (which is actually a lovely town).

But then we got back to Paris and the bus dropped us off in front of the Opera Garnier, which is absolutely gorgeous both day and night, and, well, y'know, I remembered that Paris isn't so bad at all. Ha :-P.

I would write more, but I'm exhausted. A short video will be forthcoming, eventually. Night.