These boots are made for walking

Ok, now I'm going to post about what I've seen.

First of all, I love Rouen. It's the large city very close (15 minute train ride and where I spend all my free time, basically) to Elbeuf. It's the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, so you can imagine that it's an old city. It's set on a hill, and at night the churches on the hill are lit up and it's gorgeous! It also has an ancient cathedral (well, several--Gustave Flaubert, who's from Rouen, called it the city of bells because they ring, and ring, and ring...), and the tower where Joan was held before she was burned at the stake. The Seine also snakes through the city. Well, I guess a river that large doesn't necessarily "snake" through anything. My favorite things in Rouen: the cathedral, Tour Jeanne D'Arc, Vieux Marche (the cute shopping district), and all the random churches, former universities, and random towers and doors that are left from destroyed churches and other buildings. I walk a lot of side streets and see things that the average tourist wouldn't. It's fabulous. And here are pictures:

I also have been to Mont Saint Michel. It's an abbaye that's 500 years old, and built on rocks, so that when the tide comes in it's surrounded by water. It's all about stairs and climbing there, but it was worth it. More pictures:



I've also been to Caen and Rennes, but only briefly. We just stopped in Rennes kind of as a break on our way to Rennes, and went to the chateau. In Rennes we walked the streets at night (which was gorgeous, but not a way to take pictures to remember) and then the next day it rained. We went to a museum and learned about Brittany. I was very glad I took a class on human evolution, as so many tools and artifacts have been found in Brittany from the Neanderthals, but there really weren't very good explanations at the museum. Bah, tant pis. Here's Caen:










Then, at the end of my fall vacation (which was a week and a half, gotta love France) we went to Etretat, which is probably on my top 3 list of most beautiful places. Gorgeous. And it was a beautiful day. Mind you, it was still about 14 degrees C, but some English people were swimming naked. Anyway, the tide was out, so we were able to underneath the natural arches. It was like walking undiscovered territory, as most people don't take the time to walk that far. There's many, many pictures from that day:

I've been to Paris, too, but don't have pictures from that yet as someone else took all of them, but that's soon to come!