The Chronicle’s newest blogger, eventer Marina Royston, is about to set off to France, where she’ll work for French eventers Lindsay and Xavier Traisnel. And while she’s learning loads of new stuff (and trying to remember French), she’ll share her stories with us!

My trip to Janzé was supposed to be very simple: evening flight through Iceland to Paris, few hours to grab my bags and get to the train, then a three-hour train ride to Rennes where Lindsey would meet me.

Very easy, very civilized.

Driving to Dulles from my parents’, my mom and I planned for traffic as people made their way back home after the holiday, but apparently the mass migration was moving in the opposite direction. So we got to Dulles three hours before my flight instead of two. I thought, “Oh well, at least I won’t be frustrated when security inevitably takes forever”. Which I would have, had security procedures not lightened up so much that I zipped through in 10 minutes.

Hours later, I wandered over to the check-in desk when I realized boarding time had come and gone without any announcements, only to discover the ticker was showing “delayed” in large letters. Utterly confused as to what the issue could be (it was a pleasant 70 degrees outside) I asked the staff and was told that the weather in Iceland was awful with snow and wind so the plane was delayed five hours, not departing until 2 a.m.

Right, because it’s named “Iceland” for a reason. This definitely explains why tickets were so much cheaper when they went through there. Now all other flights headed to Europe had either already left or were completely full.

So I got to hang out in the airport and binge on Netflix. I even got temporarily adopted by an elderly Icelandic couple, who stared at me endlessly and followed me around the airport quite a bit. But then as I was standing in the boarding line at 1 a.m. ,I got an email saying my flights had been changed. I would now be flying to Frankfurt, Germany from Iceland and then to Paris from there. Not the end of the world but I would certainly miss my train, especially when both subsequent flights ended up being delayed as well. Thanks to my wonderful parents, I was able to get a hotel room at the airport in Paris and planned to catch the first train in the morning.

When I got to Frankfurt, I had to get a new boarding pass and discovered that my bags were most assuredly not in Germany. The staff at the gate thought that maybe the airline was sending the bags straight to Paris. When I got to baggage claim in Paris, however, I found that my bags were still in Iceland. I ended up arranging for my bags to ship straight to the barn, easier for me as now I wouldn’t have to wrangle two very heavy bags onto the train. What I didn’t know was that my bags wouldn’t arrive for days.

So after four airports, three planes, two bus rides and one hotel I was finally sitting on a train on my way to the northwestern part of France.

As we cruised along, the landscape slowly changed from the urban sprawl of Paris to flat farmland of the Loire Valley to the beautiful hills of Bretagne and it finally sunk in that I was finally in France. One thing that immediately shocked and excited me was the color—so green! While Virginia is beautifully green in the spring, summer, even the autumn, in the winter it tends to yellow, preparing itself for the snow. But here the grass looks just as beautiful and lush as it did when I was here in late August. Incroyable!

Now as I write this, I’ve only worked a few days so far but I can tell it’s going to be a great year. The horses are beautiful and talented, with personalities that shine through, from the tall, dark and handsome Moose to petite, spunky, and clever Brigid. The facilities seem perfectly suited for the program with plenty of pastures, a large partially covered round pen (perfect for lunging the young 4-year-olds), a sand and grass track for conditioning and a large arena. All with the quiet town of Janzé in the background.

I’ll be sure to post photos to Instagram (@merrrina) and Facebook, so until next time, Au revoir!  

Marina Royston has left Virginia for adventures in France as a working student for French eventers Lindsay and Xaiver Traisnel. You can read all her blogs here.