Adventure Time in Europe: Train Struggles, French Countryside, and Frog Legs

On Wednesday, Kate, Kim, and I went to Clermont Ferrand for a day. Getting the train there from Roanne was quite a struggle. We had a train at 10 18am so we rushed to catch it in time. We ended up getting to the train station in time, but the train ended up being delayed 20 minutes. This was a bit of a problem because in order to get to Clermont Ferrand from Roanne you have to take two trains. We had 25 minutes originally to change trains, but now we would only have five minutes to catch the second train. So we waited at the station for a few minutes, and then we heard another announcement about our train. It was now an extra 20 minutes late (so 40 minutes later than we originally expected). Now we would for sure miss our original second train, but we realized that there would be a later train to Clermont that we could take. Unfortunately, we would have to wait about 40 minutes for the second train at the random train station in between the two destinations. We were getting a bit tired of waiting at the train station, so we decided to go grab a croissant at a boulangerie nearby in Roanne. We ate leisurely and slowly made our way back to the station thinking we would still have a few minutes there before the train arrives. As we were walking up the stairs to the platform, we saw that the train had arrived! We had to run to make it on the train! The train worker had just blown a whistle (which is basically a sign that the train can leave and all passengers are on) and we got on the train literally seconds before it departed! It was a bit stressful but we made it. At the random train station, we ended up taking a walk not too far from the station to pass the time. When we finally got to Clermont-Ferrand, we met up with a friend of Kate’s named Luke. We walked around the city looking for a place to grab some lunch when we got there. We didn’t have much time to find a restaurant because in France many restaurants do not serve food in the late afternoon (after 2pm until dinner time?) and it was around 1 40ish when we started walking into town. Luckily, we found a nice restaurant right before 2pm where we had a good meal.

Galette de Chorizo

Then we walked around some more and explored the city. We found a cool cathedral and we also wandered through a nice park!

Clermont Ferrand

Church in Clermont Ferrand

Park in Clermont Ferrand

Afterwards we got some tea, and drinks at a cafe. Then, we walked around some more and later we went to another cafe where I had a waffle with nutella. Yum!

After we chatted at the cafe, we ended up walking back to the station to take a train back to Roanne. Overall it was a good day. Luke is really nice and we all enjoyed hanging out together. I always enjoy meeting new assistants and also checking out a new city!

On Thursday, I got to meet my French host family that I will be spending time with while I am here in Roanne. They are very nice. There is a mom, dad, and two kids. Today I only met the lady and two kids because the husband was at work. The kids are really cute! The girl is 7 years old and the boy is 4. I had lunch with them at their house which is pretty much in the french countryside. They live in a little typical french village. After a delicious lunch they showed me around their village. We walked around some and I got some nice pictures!

Saint-Jean Saint-Maurice

This is an old castle (or I guess what is left of it) The two previous pictures were taken from the top of this tower!

I am really glad that I have the opportunity to connect with a french family and I hope to get to hang out with them often!

On Saturday, Kate, Kim, and I tried frog legs (cuisses de grenouilles) for the first time! They were actually pretty tasty. They were covered in a buttery garlic sauce which was really good. Frog legs do taste kind of like chicken lol (like very very small chicken legs). The restaurant was in the countryside and decorated with lots of frogs.

Frog legs

Kim, Kate, I, and Hector-our cool friend who took us to the restaurant!

Then after the frog legs, we had cheese, and dessert. The cheese and dessert was self serve. I had some brie and a variety of yummy desserts.

The dessert bar

Here are my selections! The strawberry cake thing was my favorite!

After the delicious and filling lunch, we made a short stop at Hector’s house where we had some tea and coffee before heading out to see some french countryside. Hector took us around the countryside and we got a nice view of the Roanne area from this little chapel.