Adventure Time in Europe: Weekend in Tours!

For the next two weeks, I am on vacation (yay for french school breaks), so I will be traveling around France.

For the first part of my time off, I went to Tours to visit my french host family with who I lived with when I studied abroad during the summer of 2011.

On Friday, I took a direct train from Roanne to Tours. It was really nice to see my french mom (Brigitte), french little bro (Mathias), and the cat (Pilou)! This time I even got to hang out with the older two children, Lucie and Leo. Today also happened to be Brigitte’s birthday! We all had dinner together and some of her friends came over as well. After dinner, Lucie and I went out to Vieux Tours to meet up with some of her friends. On the way, we passed this statue called the monster, which I remembered from the last time I was here!

Le Monstre!

On Saturday, Lucie made carbonara for lunch! It was really good! Later on in the afternoon, Brigitte, Leo, and I went for a walk through Tours. It is definitely a different place in the winter. Nevertheless, I really enjoying seeing the streets and the different stores again. Le Hotel de Ville was as pretty as I remembered. The fountains here were still on which surprised me a little because usually in the winter they are turned off.

Hotel de Ville

We also walked past the river, la Loire, which is also the same river that runs through Roanne :). We passed by the Guinguette, which is an area by the river which is open during the summertime. It was weird seeing it deserted. In the summer, there is a stage, a bar, a dance floor, and lots of tables and chairs.

Deserted Guinguette

Place Plum was just as I remembered it, but with fewer people sitting outside enjoying a drink/meal because of the chilly weather.

Sunny but chilly at Place Plum

Then, we went to the Institut de Touraine, which was where I studied French when I was here last! It was so strange to see this building again, and it made me think about all the good memories from classes here.

At my old school!

Brigitte and I at the Institut!

After the short stop at the Institut, Leo and I dropped by a friend of his. His friend was really nice and he made some yummy scones! It was my first scone experience!

We had a nice dinner together that night, but I cannot remember what it was called. It was a casserole type dish mainly made of mashed potatoes, ground beef, and tomato sauce. I really liked it, and i am pretty sure that I had eaten it before when I was first here.

On Sunday, I went to the market with Brigitte and we picked up a few things. I really love the markets here in France!

Outdoor market

Then, we had a yummy lunch. We had veal with a mushroom sauce, and veggies on the side: potatoes, leeks, carrots, turnips, which were all cooked and warm.

In the late afternoon, Brigitte, Mathias, Leo, and I went to Villandry. We explored the chateaux and we walked through the gardens. It is a really nice little castle, and the gardens are nice as well. I bet they would look better in the spring and summer though, when there are more flowers blooming.