June 4

At about 8:00 in the morning, all of us met in front of the school, and we went in a bus to Amiens. It was very cold, and the first place we went was les Hortillonages, which are floating gardens. Going around in a boat on a river didn't do much to make us feel warm...anyway. Les Hortillonages are very pretty, but a bit too green for me. There weren't many other colors. However, I did see baby ducks and baby loons...very cute.

After, we had until noon to roam the city. My group went to all of the stores I had been to on Saturday night. I didn't buy anything, but I think everyone else did, even Jeanne. Some girls stopped at McDonald's and some other girls at Quick. We then went to a playground where we met up with the others and ate lunch. I had a ham and butter sandwich (Before this trip, I would never have thought I would like a ham and butter sandwich, but I ate a ton of them while in France) that Cassandre and I had bought at the bakery that morning. I also had chips and candy. I drank a P'tit Oasis Orange (if you've ever had Crystal Light Orange Sunrise, it tastes exactly like that). We sang and danced -- the people walking by must have thought we were exceedingly strange.

After lunch, we had another thirty minutes of roaming time, so we went to an area near the train station where we met up with some of Alison's friends. We stood, talked, and danced for twenty minutes. Then we headed towards Notre-Dame d'Amiens, a very large cathedral.
Most of the French kids did not go inside the cathedral -- only Pierrot. Strangely enough, Melissa, Pierrot's host sister, was the one American who didn't go inside. The French teachers gave those of us that did go in a tour. One can see the age differences in the sections of the cathedral, both by the building itself and by the stained glass. This cathedral is better lit than most because so much of the stained glass is clear. During WWI, the stained glass was sent to America to be stored, and when it was brought back to France some of the colored class was gone, so it was replaced with clear glass.
The teachers who were giving us our "tour" pointed out interesting aspects in the stained glass windows, on the floor, and inside the chapels.
The cathedral claims to have the head of John the Baptist -- so do 6 other churches in Europe. Everyone was looking in through this small window at a shrunken head...
At the cathedral I bought five post cards.

After the cathedral, we went to Jules Verne's house, which is now a museum. I am in the middle of Around the World in 80 Days, so this was very cool.
Various things I learned:
Verne didn't really like women, but he finally fell in love with Honorine. He wrote 63 books and only one of them has a female main character.
He was the oldest child in his family.
He had one son, Michel, who was a troublemaker. Verne named his three boats St. Michel, St. Michel 2, and St. Michel 3.
Verne didn't travel much, but his research was meticulous. In the room that was his study were two large bookshelves of encyclopedias and maps and such.
He woke up at 5:00 each morning to write...
He had a contract with Hetzel that required him to write 2 or 3 books per year for 20 years.
I really enjoyed that museum...
In the gift shop I bought a book with pictures from the museum, one post card, and one book of three rarely read short works by Verne.

Then we went back home. I got on the internet, chatted on Facebook with one of my friends...then Cassandre and I left the house again at 6:40. We drove to Alison's house and picked up Jeanne and Alison, then went on to Pierrot's house. Alison and Cassandre told us that they were going to pretend to be American -- it was a joke on Pierrot's 14-year-old brother.
When we got to the house, we all sat in the living room or the dining room and talked -- Pierrot, his brother, Sandra, Alison, Cassandre, Jeanne, Timo (a German student who was staying with Pierrot's family), Melissa, Pierrot's parents, and me. Melissa showed us the "little" dog (When she first arrived Pierrot's mother told Melissa she had a "very petit chien") who is the biggest dog I've ever seen. With most big dogs, it's just a joke to say one could ride them, but one really could ride this dog...

For supper, we ate mini-crepes, which we made ourselves on a machine that made six at a time. We had two machines going, one for each end of the table, so we were making 12 crepes at once. I think I ate six, all with some combination of cheese, shrimp, mushrooms, or ham on them. Yum. During dinner, Alison and Cassandre were speaking English and kept asking how to say words in French. Finally, one of them said something about having eaten mini-crepes before, and Pierrot's mother said, "And how is that, girls?"
"Because we're French!"
Pierrot's brother looked so shocked; it was amazing. We laughed for ages.

After supper we walked down a road to a field where we hung out, sang, and played tag. The French kids told me I should have brought my jump rope...I guess I had told Cassandre about that? Anyway. The French kids smoked, Pierrot showed us his sheep, and then we went back into the house for dessert.
Dessert was more mini-crepes, but sweet ones this time, not savory. The first one I had was with salted butter and sugar, the second was with sugar, and then the third and fourth ones were with white chocolate.
After dinner we looked at the slideshow Pierrot had made of photos from the week, watched Melissa play Rock Band with Timo and Pierrot's brother -- she can't play at all, so that was hilarious. Then Alison's dad came and took us home, and we went to bed.