Hiking at Saint Remy Les Chevreuses

Six of us went hiking in Saint Remy Les Chevreuses. We took the RER train out of Paris and walked up a mountain and back.

THESE ARE YOUR HIKERS: (left to right) Tami, Laura, Courtney, Sandrine, Fran (not pictured: Manning). BACKGROUND: various trees and horse poop.

Hey, a slug! These are probably a delicacy or something here, right? Haha. Tami poked him with a stick, and I pretended to stomp on him, which scared everybody. Haha, suckers!

Laura, who had hiked here before, took us a little ways off the trail to show us this big wheat field, where Tami was transformed into a Soviet propaganda poster.

Lunch from above! I hung upside-down by my tail to take this. Over the course of our lunch, Fran spilled, let's see, smooshed strawberries, smooshed strawberry juice, almonds, water, brie, slugs, etc...

At the top of the moutain, we were rewarded with a big ol' castle! It's called le Chateau de la Madeleine. Man, I didn't even know the hike was going to end at something cool like this. It was a good surprise. Most times when Tami and I go hiking, it just starts out in the woods and ends in more woods that are higher up.

At the outer wall of the castle, we surveyed the horizon for possible invading hordes. Today was a slow day for invading hordes, probably because it's a holiday week. It's Bastille Day in a few days! They really have that here, just like they always said in school. But I never believed them, those bastards...

Oh yeah, here's the view of the village from up there! See, no hordes, I told you.

Tami prepares to cross the drawbridge and enter the castle...

... Oh wait, first we have to take this picture we always take!

Laura read us some crap out of a brochure in French and all I could make out was that this place was built between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. Ha, at that rate, I imagine it was one guy lugging one stone at a time over three hundred years.

Laura entertained us with her Quebecoise impression all day. Since I don't even understand regular French, I didn't get it, but I just laughed and pretended I did.

This style of turret with the exposed backside is the known as "the hospital nightgown of castle design." It's true! I learned it playing D&D.

While we were sitting here, four gendarmerie guys walked by with machine guns, no lie. Jeez. I have no idea what they were doing there, but they seemed pretty chill. I was still afraid to take their picture though.

I don't know what this is! A well? Man, I can only imagine how many witches have been tossed down there over the centuries.

I found a bunch of arrow slits! Look at how intrigued I am! Unrelatedly, please note, I immediately went home and bleached my roots after taking this picture. I really did! My hair stands up a lot better now. When the roots grow in, they're all soft and healthy so my hair falls over. Now they're good and dead and stiff like rigor mortis.

These are the first wheels in France, assembled here for your enjoyment! It's true!

TakeABreak.exe

As I was taking this picture, I was feeling really happy and proud of myself for getting out of Paris, out into the countryside, and seeing some really non-touristy stuff, and then a lady walked by me wearing a t-shirt with an American flag on it.

Here's a view of the front of the place as we start our hike back down. Hey, neat, that's the same tree from picture #6.

We found a dungeon or something! I was afraid to go poke the camera into the hole.

Later on, after we made our way down the mountain and back into town, we got drinks at a little market and sat around on this useless bridge thing that goes straight into a stone wall. This is French equivalent of the Winchester Mystery House.

The little canal was pretty.

The bridge is right next to this run-down building with a sign informing us about how this spot used to be where people cleaned their clothes back in the day. Okay, thanks.

Here's the Chateau again, while we were on our way back to the train station to go home to Paris. I love hikes where you can see the high-point from the road once you're done. We started down here! And went all the way up there! And now we're down here again! Go us!

Okay, the end!