Today was pretty nice. I had a test though, not fun, and we had extra classes to make up for the fact that Monday is the national holiday. It was pouring today, always fun. At least it wasn't too bad while we were coming and going from school. I had thought about going to the Guinguette but the rain certainly changed my mind.  I tried French mac and cheese today and it wasn't bad it just wasn't what I'm used too. The cheese they use here is white and while good is not what one thinks of when they think mac and cheese. The macaroni is also longer, straighter, and looser (though this might be because I wasn't exactly sure if I was using the microwave (micro-ondes) correctly.

 

Macaroni with ham and cheese! 

Yesterday the Mount class had a field trip to St. Martin's Museum and St. Martin's Basilica. We had a scavenger hunt of sorts to find different trivia answers in the two locations, it was really fun. The museum and the Basilica are only a block away from the Institute so it was an easy trip. 

 

Old stuff with a display talking about the old locations. (The Basilica was once the Cathedral but WWII was not kind to it.)

 

St. Martin.

 

Looking at how locations around Tours have changed.

 

Mitre of some Bishop (évêque) whose name I forgot.

 

Stained glass windows.

 

More really old Roman stuff because this town is older than Jesus. (Actually this is probably left over rubble from the original structure, that was about three blocks bigger than the current structure.)

 

Very bad picture of a painting of St. Martin. 

I didn't take pictures in the Basilica but it was absolutely gorgeous and Adoration was going on while I was in there and it was awesome. I hope I'll have time to attend Mass there one day. There is also a crypt with relics of St. Martin, they used to have the whole shebang but then there was collapse of the church and one guy who was really devoted dug out what was left. At least I'm pretty sure that's what the plaque said. The nuns there seemed so friendly, one of the other Mounties spent a lot of time talking with one of them. It is also interesting to note that Clovis decided to convert while there. 

Well, I have to catch an early train to Paris tomorrow so I should probably get back to procrastinating. If I don't update I'm probably being tortured by the lack of wifi.