November 30-December 1, 2014

Our trip to Poitiers was certainly an adventure! Christine missed the first autocar that Victoria and I took, so she met up with us later that afternoon, taking a later one. While we waited for her, we enjoyed a delicious lunch with Josie, a fellow high school alum I hadn't seen in two years. It was delightful catching up with her and I love that she's thinking about visiting Lourdes as her last visit for the semester. I just lit up talking about it with her. I like how much we have in common and our shared interest in literature from the AP English class we were in together as seniors. I hope to continue to stay in touch with her.

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 High school graduation 2012 

Reunited 2014 in Poitiers 

When Christine arrived later, we took a long bus ride to our hotel that dropped us off by the hospital Laridot, our closest stop. Nothing like feeling dropped off in the middle of nowhere and everyone looks at each other, like what now? After finding our way to our hotel, we took a bus back and wandered around the Christmas market. They even had a small ice skating rink.

The Christmas Market by the Hotel de Ville 

After that we visited the Baptisère St. Jean, an old Christian monument dating back to the 4^th century!! Victoria remarked how it has the look being hand built, the bricks are so old.

The Baptisère St. Jean

 Notre Dame de la Grande was also so beautiful with painted pillars, old Roman-like architecture. Out of all the towns I’ve visited in France so far, Poitiers feels the oldest; it has a very Middle Age feel to its structure. I’m realizing this is my last major trip with friends for this semester. It’s all coming to an end for them so fast. I will look back on this time well; traveling spontaneously and exploring with friends. And we’ll look back and be like, remember when this crazy thing happened? I am so relaxed here; Poitiers feels safer in the evening than Nantes, being a small, charming town. I’m so glad we got to meet up with Josie for dinner that evening as well. We chose to leave later rather than earlier the next day, way less stressful. This is so much fun; I feel like my bubbly, giggly self again. It feels good.

 Notre Dame de la Grande 

A very medieval looking fountain 

It was nice to be able to relax the next day and sleep in. It would have been really stressful trying to catch an early bus. They have completely different routes on Sundays. Needless to say, without Christine's help it would have been very confusing. We visited le Parc de Blossac, even though it was bloody cold out this morning! I should have brought my hat and gloves. So Victoria and I huddled together for a selfie in the park, which was a charming place with birds and fish and even a guinea pig.

Poitiers is a very cozy town, way older than Nantes. Later we visited the Église St. Hilaire, which also had very similar architecture to the Baptisère St. Jean. We enjoyed a pleasant quick lunch and took a later autocar home. I napped a bit on the way back, which was nice too. Victoria and Christine were really great travel companions as well and we got the chance to hang out with Josie twice!

Église St. Hilaire

I just love the look of this post office 

We had a wonderful time!