Climbing on Castles

A couple of weeks ago a few friends and I were taken to see the oldest castle in this region of France. It was built sometime in the Middle Ages. I don't remember what it is called, but Richard the Lionheart made his home there for awhile.

The castle is in ruins now, but it was originally build as a fortress. Notice the different sizes of windows. The small ones are the originals. The larger ones would have been cut in during the renaissance when it became fashionable to live in a castle and outdated to have fortresses.

Sitting on the wall by the front gate

The interior is closed to visitors. At the back, there is a break in the back wall and a small cage to stand in on the edge so as to look down into the ruins. We didn't stay in the cage.

Standing on a castle.

The room below me. It was a long way down.

Another room of the castle

Sitting on a wall

Mary was braver than me and climbed up the opposite wall. She is a little bit crazy.

I have lots more pictures of the castle, maybe I should have made this an album on facebook. I'll end with those.

I kept thinking about the hundreds of people who had lived in that place and what life would have been like for them. I'm surrounded by lots of history here in France, and much of the stories have been forgotten. I enjoyed seeing this place.

Five Hours in Paris

Last week I had a break from school, so I went to Berlin to visit old family friends. It was a great trip! (more about that later, maybe)

My journey took me through Paris. I took a train from Limoges to Paris and then flew from Paris to Berlin and then did the same on the way back. Making the connection from the train station to the airport in Paris on the way to Berlin almost proved disastrous. I scheduled two hours between arriving on the train and taking off on the plane. I thought that would be plenty of time. Wrong. The Paris metro system is crap, and I nearly got completely lost under Paris. Despairing thoughts like never seeing the light of day again started to creep into my mind. But, I resolved to not let that happen and managed to find my way to the airport with a little help from a very unwilling French women. But, thats not exactly what I intended to write about.

Anyways, on the way back I had five hours scheduled between landing in Paris and catching the train south back to Limoges. I thought it would be nice to wander around Paris a little bit, but I was a little apprehensive after my first encounter with Paris underground. Well, I arrived in Paris and boarded the dreaded metro and headed into the city. I selected the metro stop near Notre Dame. I wasn't sure what awaited me on the surface. I wasn't even sure how to get street level. I selected a set of stairs going up and started climbing. When I finally reached the top it was glorious. I stepped into the bright sunshine right in front of Notre Dome to the sound of the bells ringing.

My first view of Paris

I just sat down and soaked it all in. I couldn't believe I was actually in Paris standing in front of THE Notre Dame. I kept muttering to myself, "Oh my gosh, I'm in Paris." I had to convince myself it was real. After I collected myself and took a few pictures for other tourists I headed off to walk around the city. I didn't really know where I was going. I hadn't planned anything, and I didn't know where anything was. After walking down the Seine a little ways I spotted the Eiffel Tower. I made that my target and snapped pictures along the way.

Heres a few shots from the city.

I walked all around Paris for five hours dragging my suitcase the whole way. At the end my feet seriously hurt, but it was so much fun. I made it to the train station on the metro with no problems. Maybe the metro system isn't that terrible.

I'm going to spend a few days in Paris in December before flying home. I'm looking forward to spending more time in the city.