Week 4: Produce Picking and Retreating Glaciers

Welcome back! I hope you had a fantastic weekend and were able to get out and enjoy nature a little; I know I most certainly did! We started our week of SLS activities by going on a trip to a local farm to go fruit and vegetable picking. This activity was perfect for me because I had not had a chance to go grocery shopping for the week and was all out of food! I love fresh produce, but sometimes it can get quite pricy when purchasing it from the markets, so getting to pick my fruits and veggies right from the source was super exciting. Once we arrived at the farm, I was shocked by the variety of produce they were growing. They had everything from flowers and apples to kale and tomatoes of all sorts. The fan-favorite of the group was most definitely the strawberries! We searched through the leaves for the bright red treats until we could not eat anymore. After filling our bags with strawberries, Ida and I made our way to the apple orchard, where we decided to wander down the lane where the gala apples were growing. The orchard arched over a hill and had a beautiful view of some mountains in the distance! The second to last stop was the greenhouse with the cherry tomatoes. I have never liked cherry tomatoes; in fact, I have been a cherry tomato hater for my whole life! However, after much convincing from my fellow students and the environment of new experiences, I decided to try one right off the branch. I LOVED it! Seriously, I have never tasted a tomato so flavorful in my whole life! I am not the only one who has converted to a tomato lover; Ngari was also convinced to try them and was pleasantly surprised. I am so glad that I can finally join the tomato lover club, but no guarantees I will feel the same way once I return to the states!

Ngari trying a fresh tomato
Dr. Boulard and Megan in the strawberry/tomato field

For our second outing of the week, we had the opportunity to meet with the Carrefour association located in the city center, rue des Trinitaires. We got to hear all about the association when and why it was created, its mission, and the volunteer positions. The goal of the Carrefour association is to take in young people who may not have a place to live or the means to support themselves due to immigration, familial struggles, or any other situation. The association wants to help these children-young adults, for the most part migrants, integrate into society smoothly by providing them with valuable social and educational opportunities. This is where we get to step in and get involved! The association presented a wide range of volunteer opportunities, including everything from helping teach the younger residences to assisting in art and music classes. This organization provides a unique environment that allows us to directly bond with young adults who are most likely very close to our age! I am looking forward to seeing which avenues my classmates may pursue within this organization. Personally, I think it would be super fascinating to help facilitate an art class of some sort!

Entrance to the Carrefour association

This weekend I had one of my most nature-filled weekends yet! I visited the French Alps in the town of Annecy and Chamonix. Annecy is a beautiful little town on a lake and surrounded by mountains and truly one of the most serene places I have ever been. After arriving at my hotel, I quickly noticed the many efforts towards sustainability, such as providing cards to skip towel washing, automatic electricity cut-off, and solar collectors. So, I decided to do some research, and I found out that the place I was staying has been awarded the “Green Key Label,” one of the first international eco-labels for sustainable tourism. To be awarded this label, the hotel must reduce the impact of water, energy, and waste management on the environment. I think that this is a fantastic initiative that is so applicable to our current situation as we travel abroad. I will most definitely be looking for this label as I plan for my future trips.

Mer de Glace depicted in an old postcard
Mer de Glace today

In Chamonix, I witnessed the great Mont-Blanc, the highest peak in France at a staggering 4,808.72 m! I was able to take a cable car all the way up to 3842 m, where the views were breathtaking (quite literally) because, at that elevation, you only have approximately 60% of your standard breathing capacity. While the peak of Mont-Blanc is impressive, the real stars of the show for me were the two massive glaciers I saw. The Mer de Glace (sea of ice) is a glacier that gets its name because it covers an entire valley between the mountains. However, when I saw an old postcard of the same glacier, I was absolutely shocked at how much has melted over time. It was one of the most blatant signs of climate change I have ever personally seen. The second glacier I saw was on Mont-Blac, and I got to see it from the sky as I paraglided over it. Glaciers truly are works of art that are perishing so fast from human’s lack of regard for the environment. My hope is that the world may make collective efforts to stop this destruction before these glaciers are gone forever; nonetheless, I am so thankful I got to witness them while they are still here.

Paragliding over the Mont-Blanc glacier
Peak and glacier of Mont-Blanc from a footbridge in Chamonix
Lake Annecy
Me in an ice cavern at the top of Mont-Blanc

Biodomes, a Meatless Cow, and a Lovely Picnic

It has been an activity-filled week with the SLS program! This week we got to go on many visits throughout the week! Our first visit was an organization called Un Jardin pour 2 Mains. This name is clever because directly translated using the numerical representation of 2 it means “a garden for two hands,” but when you say it in French, it sounds like “a garden for tomorrow.” The grounds were super cool and unique, given that the organization is sharing the space with other gardeners, artists, and even a YouTuber! When we were there, we got to tour their very own biodome, where they are researching new growing techniques such as aquaponics and vertical irrigation. Aquaponics is a food production system that combines plant growing with fish farming to reduce chemical fertilizer use. Vertical irrigation is exactly what it sounds like; the herbs are grown in a structure that runs water from the top down to produce a fresher taste and provide cleaner air in the biodome. I think these new gardening tactics are super interesting, which made this one of my favorite visits so far, and I hope to do some of my volunteer work here!

The inside of the biodome with the vertical irrigation system pictured in the center
The outside of the biodome

Our most exciting visit of the week was our big “sustainable” trip to Paris! This trip is one that we have long awaited for sure! We started the day by taking a cooking class at the Foundation GoodPlanet, where we learned all about the impacts of the production for foods that we eat every day. Me and my partner, Marc, were tasked with making a vegetarian protein substitute by roasting chickpeas. We were pretty happy about saving the cows, so we decided to get creative and form our chickpeas into a picture of a cow before putting them in the oven! Some of the other groups made dishes such as banana bread, green pea guacamole, chicory muffins, pancakes made with homemade oat milk, and the highly controversial beet ketchup (we couldn’t figure out if we loved or hated this one).

After we finished our sustainable snacks, we were off to our next destination: the Jardin des Plantes (the Botanical Gardens of Paris), where we had a picnic (yummy baguette sandwiches!) and enjoyed the stunning assortment of plants including an amazing pistachio tree that is over 150 years old! After venturing through many little garden paths and exploring different climate and soils, it was time for our last stop of the day, which was one of the Paris Design Week exhibits. Paris Design Week is essentially Fashion Week but for interior and exterior design. We visited one of the many showrooms and spoke with the designer about how he based his inspiration for each piece of furniture on nature and the seasons.

Waterlilies in the Jardin des Plantes
Paris Design Week exhibit
Dr. Jean-Jacques showing Lauren a handful of compost that is ready for use

Our jam-packed week of excursions concluded with a trip to the Saturday morning farmers market in downtown Metz. But first, Dr. Jean-Jacques Gaumet, a professor of chemistry at the University of Lorraine and partner of the SLS-France Program at Georgia Tech-Lorraine, took us to a local organization Oppidum: a community compost garden. There he explained the process of composting and showed us the different stages of the process. Did you know it takes about four whole months before it is ready to be used in a garden?! While we were at the garden, at least six locals showed up with their buckets of compostable waste. I thought it was so cool to see the community actively participating!

Speaking with a vendor at the Metz farmers’ market

After Dr. Jean-Jacques showed us the composting bins, he began to explain all the different herbs and vegetables growing in the garden. At one point, he literally plucked a flower out of the ground, handed it to me, and then told me to eat it and that it is excellent on salads. At first, I was skeptical, but it was actually quite nice! Once we had finished our herbal taste testing, it was time for us to go to the farmer’s market, meet with producers and pick out our lunch. Kara, Megan, and I decided to buy fresh tomatoes, strawberries, honey, bread, cheese, and olives to make a little charcuterie spread.

We finished the day with a picnic in a beautiful amphitheater park on a hill with a fantastic view of Metz where we ate our lunch, had some great conversations with Dr. Jean-Jacques and his wife and daughter (who, by the way, are masters of the art of picnicking), and even did some yoga!

SLS students posing for a photo in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris

It was a lovely week full of learning with the SLS program this week! Have a picnic, get some fresh air, do some yoga, and enjoy being in the presence of nature this week its good for the soul! See you next week! Au revoir!

Toxic Gardens, Marvel Movies & the Seaside


Entering my second week abroad, I can hardly believe it has only been one week since my arrival here in Metz! I have seen and done so much already it seems like I have been here for a month. Last weekend, my fellow students and I got to experience our first weekend travels and face the trials of Eurail (the European train system). While the Eurail app could probably use some updating, the experience is something that we certainly do not commonly get in America. In fact, in class, we recently did an exercise in which my classmates would propose a theoretical policy that would help us move towards a more sustainable way of life, and we would “vote” if we would be in favor of the policy. One of my classmates proposed that all forms of transportation that produce greenhouse gas emissions be banned/limited. Pretty hard to imagine! However, if that ever were to be implemented, some of the only forms of motorized transportation left would be trains and electric cars. In Europe, trains are the most environmentally friendly form of motorized transportation*! So even after taking different routes because of track flooding and temporarily being stuck in a train station, it was nice to know we could travel in a less negatively impactful way!

2021 Fall SLS group posing in our green SLS t-shirts

This week in the SLS program, we got to visit the L’institut Européen de l’Écologie (The European Institute of Ecology). The organization is in the heart of downtown Metz inside the former Récollets convent. We got to walk around the beautiful property smelling all the herbs and flowers that they grow in their gardens. We even walked through the “toxic garden” where the abbey grew plants that they used for medicines, many of which are poisonous to humans in their raw form. At the end of the tour, we were given a presentation about all the exciting events that the Institute has planned for the upcoming months. The one that I am most excited to be a part of is their film festival in November now called “CINÉMAPLANÈTE.”

One of the most fun aspects of learning a new language in its origin country for me has been getting to experience everyday things in a new way. This week, some of the SLS students and I decided to go to the theater to see the newly released Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Watching movies and television shows in French has become a common form of study for me over the past few months, but I had never experienced a blockbuster film in a French theater. The whole experience was very intriguing, from how the concessions are sold to the audience’s reactions. Although no matter how different the experience, the overpriced popcorn remains the same.


We had a free weekend this week, which some of us took advantage of by traveling down to the south of France and visiting the city of Nice in the French Rivera. In my opinion, being near the ocean is always the best way to relieve the stresses of increasing schoolwork. What better way to appreciate and be grateful for the planet’s beauty than walking along the coast? Nice is famous for its crystal clear, bright turquoise water and its pebble beaches. The sound of the waves rolling the stones into the ocean was so peaceful and far less messy than sand, but it definitely lacked comfort. Tanner Crew, a fellow SLS student, braved the rocky beach to jump in the ocean and retrieve a bottle he noticed floating a little way offshore. He successfully recycled the bottle and was glad he could do his part while enjoying a refreshing swim!

As we strolled through old Nice, we happened upon an EcoJardin (Eco-Garden). The label of EcoJardin is awarded to a park when it has an astonishing variety of plants, utilizes only natural bacteria and products to fight against pests, and takes several other precautions to preserve biodiversity and promote public awareness. This beautiful park was full of people lounging in the lush grass, striking assortments of trees, and children playing on sustainably made wooden playgrounds. It was a beautiful example of people enjoying and living in unison with the environment in innovative yet simple ways.

That is all for this fun-filled week in France! We have lots of exciting things planned for next week! A bientôt!

*This statement is true based on France’s current use of nuclear energy powered trains. Some European countries still use coal powered engines which would not be a solution to reducing greenhouse gasses.