Nans-Sous-Sainte-Anne (EN)

Nans-Sous-Sainte-Anne

I friggin' love this place.

Saturday, March 12, I went here with Alison, Brittany and Pierre-Jean. We did this mountain climbing thing called Via Ferrata (way of iron), which also exists in the U.S. It was sick! It may have been the scariest thing I have ever done in my life, and I loved it.

Essentially, you wear a harness with two metal carabiners for attaching to these metal cables that run all along the mountain. You basically climb across and up mountains only with metal rings and tiny steps to use. There are cables everywhere though, so if you slip off a step, you still stay attached to the cable (even though you'll be dangling 100+ feet off the ground...). We climbed an enormous amount, and my legs killed the day after. I put some photos below to better explain it a bit.

One of the views from one of the top points

Sunday, March 13, I returned (ironic, I know) for a trip with my class, "Société actuelle française" (Modern French Society). We explored the village, and visited the "taillanderie" (where they make metal tools for agriculture and such). It was awesome! We saw the factory inside, anvils, hydraulic-powered machines (water wheels), forges, furnaces, tools, etc.

After the taillanderie, we met some families from the village (the village only has 145 inhabitants, which is incredibly tiny). Then, we went back to the houses of our assigned families, and we ate for about 2.5 hours. The food was soooo good. The lunch started with some pork with carrots, celery cooked a way I've never tasted before (because it was actually good), and some other vegetables. Afterwards, we had beef bourguignon with fries, carrots, green beans, cannelini beans, and something else that I forgot. Then we ate a ton of cheese - Chamembert, Morbier (I've already tried it in the U.S.), and Comté, of course. Finally, we ate some dessert: it was some thing with raspberries from the family's own garden.

The second part of the meal (beef bourguignon)

Later, after the meal, the wife brought us to Salins-les-Bains to visit this big salt museum. This town is famous for its salt production in the past. The tour guide showed us all the processes of extracting salt from the water, and such. It was crazy, and there is absolutely no way whatsoever that I'd like to do the work they had to do.

That's a lot of salt!

Finally, around 6 p.m., we returned to the village, then returned to Besançon (by bus).

Photos of Nans-Sous-Sainte-Anne

- Matt Lipinski

Lyon (FR)

Vendredi, le 4 mars, je suis allé à Lyon. Ça faisait 2h30 en train...pas mal. Là bas, il n'y a trop de choses magnifiques : en fait, elle est une grande ville et c'est tout. Elle n'était pas banale, mais quand même, elle n'était pas très impressionnante.

Pourtant, je me suis beaucoup amusé. Je suis arrivé vers 11h, et j'ai mangé à un café qui avait de nombreux choix du thé vert (ça me plaisait bien). J'ai commandé un sandwich au saussicon...j'ai souvent l'occassion de ne pas trouver auquel je pense. Le sandwich a été composé de "salame", et c'est tout...pas de fromage, pas d'autre choses...du pain et de la viande. Il y avait deux tourists anglais au café qui étaient un peu bêtes, donc, je les ai aidé avec la nourriture.

En face de la gare de Lyon Part Dieu, il y a un grand centre-commercial ("shopping mall"), et j'y suis allé. J'ai essayé quelques vêtements, j'ai cherché...blah, blah, blah.

A partir de 15h, j'ai trouvé le "Parc de la Tête d'Or". Ô mon dieu, c'était génial ! À l'entrée du parc, il y a deux maisons (à gauche, à droite) avec des plantes exotiques. À gauche, on trouve des plantes viennent de Madagascar, de l'Amerique du Sud, de l'Amazon, etc. À droite, on trouve un désert (pas un vrai désert) avec des plantes du Mexique, de l'Amerique du Sud, etc. (comme les cactus et les plantes aloe veras).

En plus, dans ce parc-là, il y a un grand lac dans lequel on peut prêter/emprûnter des bâteaux pour traverser et s'amuser sur le lac. En outre, j'ai vu beaucoup d'animaux - des éléphants, des singes, et des girafes, par exemple. Pour finir, j'ai aussi visité une rosarie (elle sentait très bonne !)

Après le parc, j'ai vu un film (en français, bien sûr !) au centre-commercial, et puis, je suis retourné à Besançon en train.

Les photos de Lyon

- Matt Lipinski

Lyon (EN)

Friday, March 4, I went to Lyon for the day. It was only about 2.5 hrs by train...not bad. In Lyon, there are not too many awesome things : actually, it is a big village and that's pretty much it. It wasn't boring or ordinary, but it wasn't incredibly impressive either.

Anyway, I had a good time. I arrived around 11 a.m., and I ate a café, near the train station, that had a ton of choices of green tea (obviously that was awesome for me). I got a sandwich that ended up being just salame...literally just bread and meat. It didn't suck, but I was disappointed; still, it was delicious. There were two British tourists at the café who didn't speak French, so I had to help them out a little with ordering food and drinks.

Across from the train station, there's a huge shopping mall, so I went there. I tried on some clothes, I searched for...blah, blah, blah.

After 3 p.m., I found this huge park, the "Parc de la Tête d'Or." Damn it was awesome. At the entrance, there are two houses on each side of you, each with crazy exotic plants. On the left, there are plants from Madagascar, South America, the Amazon, etc. To the right, there is this simulated desert place with plants from Mexico, South America, etc. (like cacti, aloe vera plants, agave plants, etc.)

Further into the park, there is a huge lake where people can rent boats and tandem kayak-things to ride on the lake. Also, I saw a ton of animals...there's a small zoo in the park! There were elephants, monkeys, giraffes, and other animals. Oh yeah, and there was a rosary there too; I won't lie, it smelled awesome in there.

After the park, I went back to the shopping mall and saw a film (in French of course), and then, I returned to Besançon by train.

Photos of Lyon

- Matt Lipinski

Zürich (FR)

Pour les photos : franchement, c'est trop ennuyeux et dur à afficher toutes les photos sur "Blogspot" et à décrire ces photos. Alors, j'ai créé un album sur le site Internet "Photo Bucket" qui télécharge tout de suite mes photos, et c'est beaucoup plus facile pour moi.

Au début de cette semaine, je suis allé en Suisse (à Zürich) avec Tracy et Kristen. C'était un voyage et une ville magnifique ! Nous sommes arrivés le 28 février (lundi), et nous sommes restés en Suisse jusqu'au 2 mars (mercredi).

Quant au voyage, ça faisait 4h en train de Besançon à Zürich (deux arrêts - Mulhouse Ville et Basel/Bâle). Nous sommes partis à 9h lundi (de Besançon), et à 19h30 mercredi (de Zürich).

Lundi : Après être arrivés, nous sommes allés à l'hôtel (un peu à l'exterieur de la ville). Il faisait très froid ! Pour manger, nous avons trouvé un supermarché avec du fromage et du pain délicieux. Pour le dîner, nous avons mangé du pizza. Après avoir exploré la ville, c'était tout pour la nuit ; il faisait trop froid.

Mardi: Nous avons exploré la ville - des églises, des magasins, etc. A partir de 14h30, nous avons fait un tour de Zürich : premièrement, le bus nous a conduit à travers Zürich et les villes proches. Après, nous sommes montés dans un téléphérique pour des vues des villes, du lac, et des montagnes. En plus, le bus s'est garé sur un ferry, et nous avons traversé le lac (dans le bus, sur un ferry). Enfin, nous avons conduit à côté du lac pour voir le "Gold Coast" (côtes d'or). C'était très beau !

Photos de Zürich

Mecredi: Ce jour-là était super ! Nous sommes allés à Zürich Zoo ! J'afficherai de nombreuses photos du zoo, donc, je n'en parlerai pas. Après le zoo, nous sommes partis en train pour le retour à Besançon.

- Matt Lipinski

Zürich (EN)

As for my photos: honestly, it became too much of a pain to individually upload each photo onto "Blogspot" and write captions. So, I created an album on Photo Bucket, which uploads my pictures very quickly, and it's a lot easier for me (there is a link some below).

At the beginning of the week, I went to Zürich, Switzerland with Tracy and Kristen. The city and the trip were both amazing. We arrived on Feb. 28 (Monday), and we stayed until March 2.

As for the trip, it was about 4 hours on train from Besançon to Zürich (two stops - Mulhouse Ville and Basel/Bâle). We left at 9 a.m. Monday morning and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night.

Monday: After arriving, we went to the hotel (a bit of a distance from the train station and the city). It was really cold! For snacks, we went to a nearby supermarket and got some awesome cheese and bread. For dinner, we had some Swiss pizza. After exploring the town, that was it for the night; it was way too cold.

Tuesday: We explored the city - churches, stores, etc. Starting at 2:30 p.m., we took a tour of Zürich: first, the bus drove us throughout Zürich to different sites and the nearby cities. Afterwards, we climbed a mountain in a cable car for other views of the city, the lac and the mountains all around. Next, we drove the bus onto a ferry, parked, and crossed the river (in the bus, on a ferry)...awesome (and weird). Finally, we drove next to the lake for a view of the "Gold Coast."

Photos of Zürich

Wednesday: This day was awesome. We went to Zürich Zoo. I will post numerous pictures of the zoo, so I'm not gonna talk to much about it. After the zoo, we took the train back to Besançon.

- Matt Lipinski