Poitiers

UPDATE: I wrote this on my phone and it has auto-correct errors and all sorts of funky stuff. Don't care enough to fix it, :P

We stopped overnight here in Poitiers after getting really lost trying to find this hotel. This city or town is about as far north as La Rochelle but further inland as we're making our way to Paris. The weather is lovely now-cool in the shade and getting rather warm in the sun! I greeted this weather by trying to wear Bermuda shorts only to realize that France and Spain and croissants have taken their toll on me. This is so different from my other vacations. Usually it's not that I eat less but I don't snack as much and walk around a lot more. I blame France. And croissants.

So last night we ate really late around ten pm. I'm still not used to eating dinner during the day time. Even after Yale. Mads knows very well that I feel really strange ordering a pitcher cocktail drink at eight pm when the sun is still out making fun of all of us mere mortals. Regardless we walked around a bit and my mom declared "no me like it. No me like it Poitiers" which got me a bit upset (I'm not a fan of judging). This morning I just wanted to get out of here. Even skip out on Notre Dame la Grande which is the main sight here. My mom and I set out to walk and got the biggest surprise of our trip. The weather is beautiful...and so is Poitiers. We saw a lot of construction (my mother insisted that it meant the town sucked while I said it meant the town was alive. I won) but beyond a few streets of rubble we got to a series of nice cobblestone pedestrian streets with...affordable stores! We bought berets. Yes. Berets. One for me and one for Nati. I never thought I would but I now own one and it shall keep my head warm in harsh new England winters.

We got to the main plaza around the church we wanted to see. The church has to be my favorite. We've seen some crazy ones but this one is so old and elegant. It's designs are mostly Moorish in influence. Aside from the windows which are more traditional stained glass the church looks a bit like a mosque with brightly colored geometric designs on plaster. Every column was different. We got there at noon for midday mass by mistake but stayed for a while. That's the first time I've been to mass since I don't know when. It was strangely nostalgic. Church always sounded like a foreign language to me anyway. I took a video which I guess I'll post eventually. It was so surreal with those columns and debris. The dimly lit church. I think we're actually going to stick around a bit more.

We bought white nectarines.