Friday, July 25, 2014

A Perfect Day Trip from Montpellier - Nîmes, Uzès, Sommières and Junas / 완벽한 딱 하루 여행; 님, 유제스, 쏘미에 그리고 쥬나스

During summer, there are so manythings going on in South France. We went to Avignon Festival and it was crazy! ( in an awesome way) There are milions of people on the street with hundreds of street artists and all the possible spaces were filled with posters!  oh! well see this! I took this photos when it's far from the main places :)  But it was fun! In normal, non-festival time, Avignon looks like this :)


We went to 2 concerts and both were great.  Especially I loved the second group.


The second concert, Hidegard Lernt Fliegen! Extremely talented 6 musicians in one group! It was awesome. We bought their CD to listen more later. If they come to your town, don't miss them!

Ok! So my point is that there are so many things going on and I found out that French people love Jazz! Jazz concerts everywhere! Being a Korean person, I am very proud of Yun Sun Nah, a Korean jazz singer who is very talented and currently very popular in France.  I saw a poster during the Music festival in Montpellier ( It was huge! Again! ) and decided to go see her in Junas.  Ok! another thing that you need to know, in south France, things are happening very very late.  The main concert of the day, which was Yun Sun Nah's concert started 10:30 pm! Yup! So since we had a car for a day, I planned to go to all the towns around Montpellier where we've planned to go but never been yet such as Nîmes and the second time we went to Uzès and Sommière ( we've been there but we had a car problem last time so we didn't have a chance to explore the area thoroughly) We've already been to the famous Pont du Gard with our Meetup hiking group and it was fantastic! but we've never been to actual Nîmes.  We passed many times, of course, when we took a train to somewhere east from Montpellier :) When I took a San Francisco history class in CCSF, the prof. said that when Levis used all up the sails from all the abandoned ships in SF bay, he had to import the fabric for his jeans which from Nîmes and that's why nowadays the fabric for the jeans called denim! ( from Nîmes - in French, de Nîmes.. got it?) Anyway, we drove to Nîmes to see the Roman amphitheater.. It's impressive structure but well… it's a old building that looks cool but… whatelse would you do with it except just looked at it and took some photos… I have to say, Nîmes… not too exciting place :)  But enjoy the photos! 


Roman amphitheater, the best preserved Roman arena in France!


I don't know what kind of building this is but it looked cool..


View from the top 


Inside arena


Maison Carée


We spent enough time in Nîmes and drove to Uzès.  Uzès Saturday market is very very famous among local people but I didn't have any chance to go there so if you ever in this area, try to go Uzès on Saturday morning! Uzès is very cute and tasteful town because it's duke's town.  We had a very nice lunch at a restaurant and visited the Duché Palace.  


Duché palace



Lunch at a local restaurant



Cute town…


The tour and entrance fee was 10 euros and I think normally it's much higher.  We got lucky~


View from the tower






In the dongeon, we saw all huge Veuve Cliquot bottles and later found out that One of the Duchesse of Uzes was the heiress to the Veuve Cliquot fortune….. Read about it here


Cathedral, and the Tour Fenestrelle( Window Tower)


After Uzès, we drove to Sommières.  It's even smaller than Uzès so there aren't much things to do normally but when we arrived there, the summer night market was started.. We bought sausages, olives, dices and Belgian beers!


Between Uzès and Sommières, there are many sunflower fields~  Such a happy flower~


Sommières


Cute little center 


Lots of tasteful artisanal shops




We bought the dice sets made out of bull's horn.  He is a Madacascan artist.

Recommended by our friend who lives in Junas, we went to this little restaurant near Sommières,  La Table du Marché.  It was a fantastic dinner!  I highly recommend it!


Foie Gras Crème Brûlée~ So very creative and delicious!  







Extremly great value restaurant also..  Less than 30 euros for 3 course meal… wow just wow..  The restaurant itself has no charm what so ever so when you enter the restaurant, don't judge them :P

Ok! Finally we are in Junas for the concert!  And guess what!!!!  As soon as she started to sing, just one word, the rain started and pouring down on us.  The concert was cancelled at 11:10! (It was scheduled at 10:30pm but she came up to the stage after 11pm and the concert was cancelled at 11:10pm) How sad!!  I really wanted to see and listen her live!  Well! C'est la vie!!! 



Except, of course, the concert being cancelled, everything was great!  If you have a day for traveling around Montpellier and Nîmes but don't want to go to all extremely touristy place, visit this little two towns.. 


Monday, July 21, 2014

Grenoble, the Capital of the Alps & Chamonix-Mont-Blanc/ 그러노블러 랑 샤모니, 프랑스 알프스!

My husband and I've been traveling so much that I didn't have time to upgrade my blog on time.  Here are all the photos from our Grenoble and Chamoix trip in January.  I think it's the perfect time for all the snowy mountain photos! It's been hot in Montpellier.  I won't go outside today but just look at all my gorgeous photos and enjoy them :)  We arrived on the same weekend when Michael Schumacher got ski accident and brought to the hospital in Grenoble… ( Hope he is better now but it seems like it will take some time… Read about him here

정말 너~무 놀러 다녀서 블로그을 올릴 틈이 없었읍니다.  저번 1월에 갔다온 그러노블러랑 프랑스 알프스 동네!  날이 너무 더우니까 이 눈 덥힌 산을 보면서 쉬시길… 그 간 주말 이 딱 그 유명항 카레이서 오빠 마이클 슈마허가 스키타다가 다쳐서 그러놀블 병원에 실려온 딱 그 주말 이었거든요… 여전히 병원에 있다네요…


We were visiting our friends who are from Hawaii for Peter's sabbatical for a year in Grenoble.  It was huge climate change for them!  We, of course, had to eat the fondue since we were in Alps~! 

아시나 모르겠는데요  그 유명한 퐁듀는요 퐁듀의 산지 스위스에서는 정말 겨울에만 먹는 음식입니다.  너무 맛있었는데요 그래도 치즈가 너무 심하게 많아서 한 몇주가 치즈을 않먹었다는….  양도 장난아닙니다.. 거의 세수대야에다가 녹인 치즈… 먹다가먹다가 지쳐서…



HUGE fondue!  It was with chicken and mountain mushroom.. yum~ 세수대야 퐁듀.. 




Raclette!  라클레트! 이 세단계짜리 히터에다가 치즈를 녹여서 감자랑 먹는…


Grenoble central..


도시 자체가 완전 산으로 둘러싸여있어서 공기이동이 적어서 좀 탁하고 뿌~우 했다는…



Wherever you visit in France, you'd find a place where the revolution happened the first time OR Jean d'arc was in the town…. very interesting! 








River Drac.. So beautiful and peaceful







Fountain of the Three Orders











Archaeological museum of Saint-Laurent





View from la Bastille








Of course, we wore winter jackets but after all the huffing puffing hiking, we were too hot! :P 





I think it's kind a trend in France, we found a piano on the street and Marseille train station…Anybody can play it!


One of the best restaurants we've been in France! 









The chefs show us his dessert in the kitchen !




You have to make a reservation!  Highly recommend!


The next day, Peter decided to show us the famous Chamonix!  I've heard about it because it was one of 10 places in France that you have to visit! Yay ~


아~ 눈이 시리도록 눈부신 샤모니~~~








Top of the Aiguille du Midi!  We took the scary cable car ( Téléphérique de l'Aiguille du Midi) to the top!  Fun!



그 케이블카가 진짜 비싼데요, 한 50유로 했었나?  근디 그 만큼 그 풍경이 장난 아니었읍니다!






3842 미터, 12602 피트!






Our friends!  Umma was pregnant at that time!  The baby and his parents are safely back to hot Hawaii! 







People were skiing!  Crazy !  Just look at them made me scared!


Skywalk!  Step into the Void! Umma was so scared! :P



It was less scary than the Chicago Sear's one! Because the view seems so unreal :)



I saw the Avalanche!  It was so noisy and super cool! 




Skywalk view from outside!





After the adventure!  





You can buy the cable car ticket and this train ticket together! I think it called Chemin de fer du Montenvers! ( I think :P) It's been a long time..




You can see this view!


Isn't it great to see all the snow?  It was a great trip with our friends!  한여름에 보는 눈 너무 좋죠?  저희 친구들은 지금 따뜻한 하와이에서 살구있구여 저희는 여전히 여기 몽펠리에 있읍니다!