Trip to Rouen & more

Yesterday, I went to Rouen in Normandie!

I had already bought the train tickets before I left Singapore and the train leaves Paris Saint Lazare station at 7:50am. So I had to take the 6:35am train from Rambouillet to ensure sufficient time for transfers and board the train.

Thus, it was an early (and rainy..hmpf!) 6:15am when I set off. I’m always worried that I will miss the train and will walk at a fast pace to the station. Usually that will take 10 mins so I got there about 6:25am.

Got to Rouen uneventfully at about 9am and made my way to the town center. It was about 15mins walk.

radiator blues

Today I almost froze in my sleep. The radiator stopped heating in the middle of the night and it was so cold. Actually I think it may have stopped working even when I went to sleep at about 11pm but the room was not cold then.

In fact, earlier on last evening, I suspected something was wrong with the heating while showering. The water was just lukewarm instead of hot as it usually is. I didn’t even have to balance the water temperature by turning on the cold water tap… luckily, the water was not cold and I managed to shower quickly.

I believe it’s a central system of heating in the building because when the radiator doesn’t work – which does happens sometimes during the day and that’s ok coz there’s some solar heat in the day – I noticed there is no hot water from the sink in my room.

Last night was terrible, I woke up at 3+am in the cold. As much as I huddled in the bedsheet, it was still cold. And I put on socks but my feet were still cold. I covered my head with the hood of the jacket that I wear to sleep. I even had to cover my head with the bedsheet coz my face was freezing. I don’t like to do that because the bed sheet is white and I don’t relate well to covering myself that way when I sleep.

In the end, after trying to get back into fitful sleep, I woke up at 630am. I even used a heat pack to warm myself but didn’t really help much. Basically, the temperature outside my room and within is the same. Usually, when I go out to the toilets and enter the room, there is warmth in the room. But today, it was exactly the same! Argh!

This morning, I checked with some students in the same building and at least, I know I’m not the only one. In fact, 1 guy said he bathed in the morning and the water was straight cold. I can’t imagine…it must be super cold and I wonder how he bathed. Even when I wash my hands with cold water for too long, they start to feel numb!

Right now, my room doesn’t feel warm enough. Just checked that the radiator is radiating a faint amount of heat…I hope it is not a sign that it will stop working again in the middle of the night. I have a bad feeling though…

(My internet is not working now so will post this in the morning. Update: luckily last night, the radiator worked quite well.)

Chartres & Paris weekend (part 2)

Today, I went to Paris to watch the Romeo and Juliet musical. Before I left Singapore, I was deliberating whether to catch it or not and I decided not too because I felt that I may not understand since it’s in French and there won’t be subtitles. However, that day G mentioned it again and I re-looked it up. Seeing that there was a 3pm show today, I decided to go for it since I’m here and it would be an experience to remember. Moreover, I loved some of the songs in the musical.

So, I bought the tickets via Ticketnet.fr – luckily they still had tickets. Fnac site was sold out and the Carrefour billeterie at Rambouillet told me it was sold out too. Apparently, each distributor has only a fixed number of tickets to sell unlike in SG where it’s a centralized system. The venue was at Palais Des Congres and I needed to collect my tickets before the show. Therefore, my plan was to retreive my tickets from the Virgin Megastore at Champs Elysees which is opened on Sunday.

Chartres & Paris weekend (part 1)

Busy weekend for me! Also means that I didn’t study at all…kekeke.

On Sat, I visited Chartres and saw the famed stained glass windows in the cathedral. Pretty pretty… When I first arrived, it was early morning and I saw many people carrying their marketing bags and going to the open market.

I also took the English guided tour conducted by Malcolm Miller because I read many good reviews about his tour. The guided tour costs 10 euros for 1.5 hours.

The group was rather big (about 20?) because there was a group of students. Not really a problem since we all had individual headsets and could hear the guide clearly. It was quite interesting as he explained a few of the stained glass windows and gave an insight into the history of the cathedral. At least, now I know that stained glass windows are supposed to be “read” bottom-up and left-right! It was extremely cold in the cathedral during the 1.5h because the heating was not turned on and some of the windows had been taken out for cleaning.

Apparently the whole cathedral is undergoing cleaning and this will be completed in 5 years. There is a huge difference – the parts that have been cleaned are white while the rest are dark colored! Same goes for the windows… those at the top are all dark and can’t be seen for what it is. I didn’t notice it until the guide mentioned it. I thought it was just like that – that part is white.

Food at Rambouillet

At the institute, we have fixed meal times and for weekdays it is: 8am breakfast, 1pm lunch and 7pm dinner. For weekends, it is an 11am brunch and 7pm dinner.

It’s great that the course is full board because it would be very expensive if I need to eat outside and I envisage myself eating a lot bread instead of some proper food. It is kinda “buffet” style so basically you just take a plate and then get whatever food you want.

Before I arrived, I thought that the food here would be quite plain but in fact, I find that they serve rather nice dishes and there’s enough variety within the week.

Breakfast is always the same but so far, for 1 day in the week there are croissonts available. The usual items available are bread, cornflakes, yoghurt, juices, coffee, ham, cheese, jams, nutella.

For lunch and dinner, there are always some vegetables and salad stuff. Sometimes, there are avocados available. The main dish is usually either chicken, pork, turkey or fish cooked in various ways. It is usually accompanied by a dish such as chips, mashed potato, rice or pasta. And at times there are grilled vegetables or oven baked vegetable dishes.

Desserts are available during lunch and dinner too. There are usually 2 types of desserts such as puddings, tarts, cakes, mousse and chocolate eclairs.

Not bad right?!

There are many students at the institute now so at lunch, some of the dishes are depleted before everyone has even taken 1 serving. I believe that the cook did prepare more food recently so hope that will not happen next week. But in any case, I try to get there early for lunch!