Yo! Catching up on this. I was at the airport Orly in France typing this up and finished it as soon as I got to my Lisbon hostel. I spent last night packing and trying to calm my pre-flight jitters. After the end of this post is a sneak peek of Lisbon.
Monday was my last full day in France, and I was leaving for the town of Provins, an hour and 20 minutes away from Paris. I was excited but also super nervous because I would be taking the suburban train RER from an actual train station at Gare de l'Est (or just Paris Est), so the experience was a little different from just taking an RER train from a metro station.
I got to the station early to buy tickets, and after some miscommunication and realization that the RER train also leaves from the same platform as regular commuter train does, I missed the first train by like two minutes. Which is fine because I intended to take the 9:46, but the 8:46 would have been nice.
The station is huge and has a mini-mall in it. Got some coffee from Starbucks and waited for the train to announce the platform.
An hour later, I was on the train to Provins. As soon as we left the city and headed east, the buildings got smaller and smaller.
Seven stops later, I was in Provins. When at the station, it isn't immediately clear where the town was. The tourist office was closed so I used Google maps to find my way.
The first step into town was over a small creek and stone buildings just beyond it. There was, blissfully, very few tourists. So it was quiet and I could hear the birds and the wins. However since it was a Monday, most of the shops are closed - though the town isn't really known for shopping.
From there, I pretty much spent the morning wandering around since I had no city map. Kinda just went with it. There's some pretty amazing fortified monuments close to the center of town and medieval buildings still intact throughout. The first thing I saw was the Tour Notre-Dame-du-Val (first photo below).
I found a small museum that displayed art made in the Provins area since the 1200s up to 19th century. Shout out for the admissions guy for letting me in at a discounted 2€ instead of 4€ since I didn't have enough coins. The museum is also inside a converted medieval house; it had sections of the original wooden beams between the plasters. Displayed were interesting medieval keys, 17th-19th century paintings and many sculptures and religious artifacts. All the information was in French so I could only read the title and roman numeral years.
After that and wandering around some more I found a large fortified tower - Tour Cesar. I got in and finally got a map of the town while at the admissions. Its a cool tower full of history, intended to be a defensive monument, it was terrible as one and converted as a lookout and other means later throughout its operation. - Pinnacle of medieval aesthetics, gothic arches and stone stairs with wooden vaulted ceilings (which was apparently added later on). The stairs are very very narrow and, since no one was there and it was dimly lit, very creepy.
There are three levels, the bottom, top and the bell-tower. The bottom floor had a Governor's room, the upper floor was the look out area, accessibly by really narrow spiral stairs. Then up one more through the outside are even smaller stairs to see the two bells. On all floors, I could look outside and have a great view of the town and the distant farm fields.
Just before the exit, there played a infographic video projected on the walls in the atrium showing the history of Henri the Liberal who brought Provins up as a trade town.
I grabbed lunch at the north end of the town and unfortunately did not have enough euros on hand so I had to do the thing I wanted to avoid and pulled money from my debit card. But luckily there were even ATMs in the area! Funny thought for the day, I nearly bought a medieval costume in an actual medieval town! Nothing fit my preferences though.
I spent the rest of the day walking along the defensive walls and ramparts, crossing grassy "roads" and walking on the edge of town.
Just before leaving, I checked out one last church called Église Saint Ayoul. It was a church that never really finished when it was first being built and was changed over time. As a result, its a pretty plain looking church with some few large paintings and simple colored decal windows. There was no one inside so I could hear my footsteps walking on broken/shattered tiles and making a very long echo.
I spent 6 hours in Provins and came here with no plans. I think it worked very well for me since I wanted to get away from the crowds. I'm so lucky it was such a nice day - my trip to Provins will definitely leave a lasting memory.
I am now at my last destination: Lisbon! While I got away with speaking very broken French that I learned from TV and 100% bad pronunciation, the Portuguese language will be a whole different story! I already walked around the Baixa-Chiado (considered the centre) and I am already in love with Lisbon. Here’s the hostel I am staying at! It’s inside a train station!
