Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Toussaint, Day 7...






vendredi 30 octobre
Arles and free afternoon!

The day in Arles…well, we started off the day with a tour. Surprised? This was literally one of the longest tours I have been on in my life. Part of this was probably due to the fact that it was 3 hours long…ugh. Part of this was also due to extreme fatigue of tours in general. The town is actually fairly charming, and really old. Like, old enough to merit Roman architecture. We saw the ampitheater they built, as well as the old Roman baths. For living 2,000 years ago, they were astonishingly advanced in their technology. We even got to go under the town hall, which is built on an old forum of sorts. So we got to see where Romans walked, underground. There we experienced that wonderful French phenomeon of “tag along with the tour groups and pretend we’re part of the group too, even if we’re clearly 20 years older than said students. It is really fairly ridiculous how often this happens here.

After our 3-hour-tour (you’re welcome), we headed off to lunch. As Arles is fairly close to the Mediterranean, you would probably be correct if you guessed our lunch consisted of seafood. Actually, you would be correct. We had paella, which actually originated in Spain, if I do not confuse myself. It was yummy, minus having to peel the largest shrimp in the history of the world. They still had eyes, I’m telling you. During lunch, we took a survey to see what everyone felt like doing – apparently we were all really burned out, so none of us wanted to do anything. However, we all perked up when Dr. Allen mentioned the beach. How could we resist?

After lunch, we headed off for the Mediterranean. How cool is that? We got to a little town that is named something like Mary-on-the-sea (no joke, it really was) and headed straight for the beach. Actually, we headed straight for the ice cream stand. There was a gelato stand not 20 feet from the beach, and since it was a beautiful 70 degrees outside, we made a beeline for it. I personally went for coffee- and Nutella-flavored gelato. Delicious. With gelato in hand, we headed for the beach. Contrary to the stereotype of French beaches, this one did indeed have sand. However, the water was already ice cold. We all tested it. So instead of doing much wading, we contented ourselves with lounging in the sunlight. Great idea for an afternoon diversion.

After a relaxing afternoon, we all wanted to head out to dinner together. So we trekked off to a restaurant in Arles’ center square (incidentally, next to the one that Van Gogh painted while he lived in Arles. The specialty was: bull. Really. According to those who had the courage to order it, it was actually really tasty. I, being the coward I am, stuck with a fairly neutral and safe pizza. Not extraordinary, but nothing in France is actually bad, so it was fine. :) The dinner itself was hysterical, as any dinner accompanied by wine would tend to be. All in all, a good end to a good day.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Toussaint, Day 6...


Day 6 – jeudi 29 octobre
Aigues-Mortes and Nîmes

Aigues-Mortes literally means dead waters (Aigues is the local dialect way of saying « Eau .» So we spent the morning in the town of dead water. It actually gets its name from the extreme saltiness of the surrounding water – just like the Dead Sea. We had a tour of (of course) another castle/fortress from the Gothic period. It was actually fairly interesting – it got taken over by Louis IX so he could have a port fortress (everyone needs one of those). And this time our guide did not talk at the speed of sound, so we were fairly pleased with that.

For once, lunch was a little less filling. And by a little, I mean that we had fish instead of beef. It was still delicious – if you put the fish, potato, and garlic bread on your fork at the same time, it was a wonderful combination of flavors. However, we still had the cheese, dessert, and coffee, so we left really full all the same.

After lunch, we headed off to another new city – Nîmes. There, we saw the ancient Roman amphitheatre (literally about 2000 years old) and the Maison Carrée, considered the best preserved square Roman temple. The guide actually sassed Dr. Allen – he asked her to speak only in French, and she kept switching back and forth between that and English anyway. He was not pleased. After she left, we went into the Maison Carrée and saw a hilariously bad 3-D film that documented the history of the temple. We spent more time laughing at the ridiculous 3-D glasses than actually paying attention and it was totally worth it.

When we finished with the movie, we met up with the former French house assistant, Anne-Olivia, who was in the area. Somehow we ended up a bar, all having drinks. When a couple of us went to the bathroom, we realized that there was a camera in there, presumably to prevent hook-ups. This camera ran to behind the bar, so of course we hammed it up for those who might have been watching.

On the way home from Nîmes, we found the French version of Wal-Mart, Carrefour. Honest to God, there was no difference between the two, except the French one has no bags for your groceries. Awesome.

Toussaint, Day 5...


That's right. he's howling like a wolf.

Day 5 – mercredi 28 octobre
Carcassonne

Day 5 found us in Carcassonne, a two minute walk from a medieval fortress. Now, I would love to tell all kinds of stories about what was in fact a really cool castle. Unfortunately, our guide was insane. He spoke way too fast and abstractly, even though Dr. Allen had warned him to speak slowly for us. He also did a great wolf impression, which would have possibly been more hysterical if we had known why he was howling like a wolf. However, after we got back on the bus, Dr. Allen gave us the highlights and that was that.

Lunch that day was actually really fun. We had been invited to our professors’ house again, since they live near Carcassonne. So we had a delicious cassoulet at their house, along with the requisite cheese, dessert, and coffee courses. Bernie the nuisance was there as well, and naturally starting whining and howling anytime he thought he wasn’t getting enough attention.

After being force-fed a ridiculous amount of food, Madame Sinniger proposed a walk. So off we went, not knowing that our beautiful afternoon was about to be ruined by class time. Once we got to the nearby town, she and Dr. Allen decided it would be a great idea to go to the town’s museum that was an old military school. Admittedly, it was fairly interesting, but we all just wanted a break at that point from having to think about classes. On the way back, the sun was setting, and I got some great pictures of the sun setting over the hills. When we got back to the Sinnigers, we discovered Saïd had arrived (this was the day we switched out drivers), which made all of us very happy. Jean-Claude was a great driver too, but we had had Saïd for all of our trips thus far, and it was nice to have him back.

Toussaint, Day 4...


Day 4 – mardi 27 octobre
Sarlat

The morning of day 4 was spent in the grottes of Font de Gaume. Basically, they’re the only grottes in France of pre-historic art still open to the public. We learn in the French major about the grottes of Lescaux, but they’ve been closed at this point. Their copy, Lascaux II, has also been closed. Even if humans don’t touch the paintings (obviously bad for prehistoric art) their breath can damage it just as easily. This was news to me. So we went to another grotte, which has what they said was polychromatic art (more than one color). Even at this one, the safety measures are crazy strict. It felt like I was about to board an airplane. We had to leave any bags behind, wipe our feet on special mats outside to prevent bacteria getting in, and absolutely not touch anything once inside. However, the paintings are definitely cool. They’re mainly of bison, but what else would you draw in prehistoric times? Obviously, I don’t have any pictures, but I bet you can google one of the grottes to get an idea of what we saw.

Lunch was in Sarlat, a small town nearby (and it’s absolutely charming). This was seriously one of the best lunches we have had. Our appetizer (the entrée) was a kind of foie gras, which is evidently a specialty of southern France, judging by how many times we’ve had it in the past week. The plat principal was a steak and potatoes dish, but it was not boring by any stretch. The potatoes were au gratin, I think, which is another specialty. The steak was soooo good. In France, they like them more rare than in the U.S., so this thing was practically still mooing, but it didn’t matter – it was incredible. Of course there was a cheese course, and dessert was some kind of pecan/hazelnut tart. It was like pecan pie, French style. Easily everyone’s favorite meal thus far.

Our afternoon was spent working off the incredible meal. We walked all over Sarlat with a guide who insisted on wearing her tour microphone, even though there were ten of us. Completely unnecessary, but it was funny. We also got to see one of the great French traditions once again – the latching onto other tours. I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to us. Someone will notice we’re with a tour guide, and start following our group. This wouldn’t be so annoying except for two things – they haven’t actually paid for the tour they are following, and they’re never subtle about it. This particular time was a little old lady and her husband. The husband was at least a little classy about it, but the woman? She would pretend that she was reading a restaurant menu, and then the guide would say “okay, look to the left,” and whoop! Up would go her head at that exact moment. We spent most of the tour just laughing at her pretending to be reading menus at 3 in the afternoon, when nothing is actually serving food.

We finished our tour and hadn’t gotten into trouble yet, so naturally we tried to correct that by walking right into a funeral service. Several of us wanted to see the cathedral, so we traipsed up the stairs only to realize the doors were closed. We figured it was a mass (it usually is) when we noticed a guy on the stairs giving us the stink-eye. We then noticed the hearse at the bottom of the stairs. Oops. So we left, pronto.

We finished off our afternoon by moving on to a new hotel in Carcassonne. It was relatively nice, but had the distinct problem of each room being the size of a North Village room. Which is the perfect size for one person, but three is a little cramped. And there was a distinct lack of outlets. France really does not seem to believe in outlets. It’s a pest when you’re traveling with a phone, a camera, and a computer, all of which need to be charged separately.

For dinner, we were still pretty full, so instead of a real meal, we got kebabs from a nearby street corner. In France, these are more like sandwiches than food that is skewered, but it’s delicious all the same. When we finished clogging our arteries, we were almost as full as the lunch earlier had made us. Yikes.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Toussaint, Day 3...

Day 3 – lundi 26 octobre
Périgueux

This was a low-key kind of day. The morning was spent traveling – boring. The afternoon was spent in the town of Périgueux, which I can’t say particularly enraptured me. We had a tour, which I absorbed very little of. I’m not even actually sure what the city’s importance is. All the history starts to run together after a couple days. Take a twelve-day trip around France and you’ll see what I mean.

The real highlight was the part of the day after the tour. We went to a corner grocery store right near our hotel, ordered a couple of pizzas, and ended up camped in mine, Amanda and Emily’s room. We for some reason got a larger room than anyone else, so it turned into the party room, if you will. We even convinced Dr. Allen to join us for pizza. We spent most of the night just hanging out, playing dumb card games, and watching hilarious videos on Youtube. Just what we needed.

Toussaint, Day 2...



Day 2 – dimanche 25 octobre
Chateaux of the Loire Valley

Next morning we started out bright and early – 3 more chateaux were on the schedule. Breakfast was delicious. French hotels on the whole have a gift for continental breakfast. Coffee or tea, plus bread galore (I really like bread), yogurt, cereal and juice. It’s the same stuff that you tend to find in the U.S., but it’s all fresher, and therefore much better.

First up – Chateau Azay-le-Rideau. Nice enough, but again, I’ve already forgotten the story. These silly chateaux all blend together after a bit. We had fun frolicking on the grass after the visit, I remember that.

Chateau de Langeais – this one was actually really cool. It’s older than the older chateaux that we’d been seeing. It’s about 1100 years old as opposed to only 600 or so years old. Very nifty. We got to climb up on the ramparts and see where the guards would have patrolled.

Chateau d’Amboise. Easily my favorite. This might have had something to do with the fact that it was the last chateau on the schedule, but I would like to not be that cynical. It was better than the others, plain and simple. It’s situated on top of a hill, so you have a view of Amboise from every angle. On top of that, the day itself was gorgeous, so that didn’t hurt either.

After we finished with 3 chateaux, we got to have a wine tasting. Our guide, Annabelle, took us to a nearby cave to try some local white wine. We got the entire wine making process explained to us, and it’s actually really cool. She told us that while they’re fermenting the bottle, should it be opened, the force is equal to 2 ½ tires blowing out. One bottle of wine. I have a whole new respect for it now. The cave we were in had about 4 million bottles being prepped, and each year they ship or sell about half of that. We figured that could keep one person continuously drunk for about 1,000 years. Not that you want to drink the wine – since it’s not finished, it’s all really, really, really dry. After our little tour, we had a degustation of about 6 different wines to finish our day.

Toussaint, Day 1...


Phew. Lots has been going on – we’ve been traveling around France on a tour bus and looking at a lot of really old stuff. My goal is to get some of it down before I forget it all. So here goes.

Day 1 – Samedi 24 octobre
Depart and Chateaux of the Loire

We had to leave unbearably early for this trip. We had to be at the train station at 6:45 AM, and let me tell you, it was nothing short of torture. Especially considering that it was raining and we had a lot of luggage (for a 12-day trip). I met up with Kirstin at the bus stop, and we somehow maneuvered our suitcases and selves onto the first bus that showed up. When we got to the station, we were actually on time! So proud of that. We also made the happy discovery that we got a bigger bus than we had had for Normandy. Phew. We had warned Dr. Allen of how difficult that had been. The enormous bus with an actual trunk for our suitcases was literally one of the highlights of the morning. We also made the acquaintance of Jean-Claude, who was going to be our driver until said could meet up with us a few days later.

First on the itinerary were the chateaux of the Loire. We started off with the Chateau of Blois. It’s a nifty indication of French architectural history. Each of the four sections was built at a different time by the a different king in a different style. The chateau itself didn’t grab me, but it was cool to see how the architecture evolved over a few hundred years.

Lunch – at a restaurant in Cheverny (wherever that is). We had what is apparently a regional specialty of guinea fowl and potatoes in a sauce gratin dauphinois. The appetizer was a pate of some kind – they seem to really love it in the south. Dessert – fruit with chocolate sauce. Mmm.

After lunch, we rolled our way through two more chateaux, Chateau de Chambord and Chateau de Chenonceau. Chambord doesn’t have any furniture because it was never an actual residence (just a hunting lodge for Francois I). We didn’t get to go in, but we did see the outside, which is impressive all the same. It also has a double helix staircase that was built to enable those protecting the castle to use the stairs without running into invaders. Very convenient.

Chenonceau is more impressive, seeing as how we were allowed to go inside. It (if I get the story right) was a gift from Henri II to his mistress Diane de Poitiers. However, this didn’t go over so well with his wife, Catherine de Medicis, and when Henri II died, she forced Diane to move to another, less impressive castle. The castle itself was built on a bridge and then expanded later, so whatever window you look out, you get a great view of the river and gardens off to the sides. We finished off the day with a visit of medieval Tours that I have already mostly forgotten, since I didn’t really listen to start with. Oops.

After whizzing through 3 chateaux in 1 day and a visit of Tours, we checked into our hotel, hoping to crash. No such luck. We were forced to go out to dinner at this fondue restaurant in Tours. It was torturous. We had a fondue of 3 cheeses with cold cuts and bread to go with it, and 3 bottles of white wine to complement the fondue. Dessert was a tarte – no one actually knows what was in it still. It was a berry like blackberries, but I think it was something special to France. After scarfing all this down, we finally got to pass out in rooms.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Weekend in Normandy


Ok, the big trip to Normandy. This was a great weekend, punctuated by a ton of picture-taking. See Picasa for more details.

Friday morning, at the ungodly hour of 7 AM (if the boulangerie hasn’t opened yet, I should not be going anywhere), we gathered in front of the train station to meet up with our wonderful Saïd and the bus. We discovered we had a tiny little thing of barely 20 seats. This wouldn’t have been a problem, except our luggage had to go in the seats as well – no storage. So we were a bit cramped.

Having snuck off to the boulangerie for breakfast, we made for Rouen and got there in just under 2 ½ hours. We had an adorable tour guide to take us through the old city. Rouen is the city that Joan of Arc was tried and burned in, so that’s a large part of the history. The tour included the cathedral (gorgeous stained glass windows), and the medieval section of the city. We also learned the origin of the phrase “taking the high road.” In the Middle Age, the people had to throw their waste out into the street – no sewage yet. So the middle of the road was really disgusting because of all the grossness out there. If you were rich, however, you had the privilege of walking under the eaves, where nothing could get on you. So you got to “take the high road.”

In addition to the medieval city, we got to see Pierre Corneille’s house, the actual site of Joan of Arc’s burning at the stake, and one really cool clock. In the Middle Ages, most people couldn’t read, so the clock with the day on it couldn’t just say “Thursday.” Instead, they took the Roman god for each day and made a picture with them on it. Each day at noon, the clock changes pictures. We were lucky enough to be there right at noon and saw it change from Thursday to Friday. Apparently, a lot of people in Rouen don’t even know it does this. Sad for them.

After lunch, we headed off to Bayeux, small town near the northern coast of France, and home to the famous tapestry, “The Lady and the Unicorn.” This thing is literally a thousand years old and depicts the story of William the Conqueror. Our favorite part was the battle scene, where instead of embroidery, you suddenly find beheaded men’s bodies in the border. How odd. We couldn’t take pictures, since the tapestry is so old it could probably disintegrate just by being touched, but Google it. It’s very cool.

The next morning, we got up and had breakfast before heading off to the beaches of Normandy. Incidentally, we had the most amazing coffee ever at this hotel’s breakfast. Should you desire the name in order to stay there sometime, I can hook you up.

First, we went to one of the beaches where the British came ashore. From the cliffs above, you can see the temporary ports they built and then left there. This enabled them to bring in about 700 (ish) ships a day once they had established a line in France. From there we went to the American cemetery. Trivia fact: the cemetery is actually American land and is maintained by Americans. It was given to the U.S. by France after the war and is literally ours forever. The cemetery is gorgeous, but of course it’s really sad and somber, since it’s a graveyard. There are over 9,000 graves, and the only criteria to be buried there is to have died at some point in the Normandy invasion (which was a 3-month long enterprise). The cemetery itself overlooks another beach where soldiers landed, and you have the opportunity to see what the German soldiers would have seen the morning of the invasion.

Once we left the cemetery, we headed back to Bayeux for lunch. We then packed up our stuff and headed out to make our way to Mont St. Michel. Everyone working at the hotel was so friendly, and as we drove away, the concierge stood on the road waving an American flag. How sweet is that?

Getting to Mont. St. Michel took a good few hours, so the rest of the afternoon was spent on the bus. We finally got there, and marched off to our hotel through the annoying throngs of tourists.  Our hotel was actually within the boundaries of Mont St. Michel, which meant lots of stairs. We had a considerable amount of free time before dinner, so the girls decided to go mudding. So off we go, marching back out of the city, taking off our shoes, and jumping into the mud. There were signs all around warning of quicksand, so naturally we couldn’t resist playing and seeing if we sunk or not. I don’t think there was any actual quicksand there, but if there had been, we had a resident expert in Emily (whose main qualification comes from having been stuck in quicksand earlier this summer). We frolicked for a good hour, getting disgustingly muddy and poking jellyfish with our shoes.

Dinner that night was in the hotel’s restaurant, and was absurdly good – like most food in France. I got to have a dozen oysters for an appetizer, which came with a really good sauce. I think it might have been raspberry vinaigrette of some kind. The main course was a plate of lamb, and dessert was crème brulée. Mmmm…

The next morning was the tour of the city proper. Surprisingly, for all the tourists they have, there are only about 70 actual residents, and not all of them are full-time. There’s not even a boulangerie or charcuterie within the walls, so it’s not surprising that people don’t stay – there’s no way to get food on a regular basis. We climbed all the way to the top and got to see the church and amazing view of the surrounding area.

After the tour, we grabbed our stuff from the hotel and meandered to St. Malo. It was completely out of our way, so I’m not sure why we went there, but after eating lunch at a little pizzeria, we did find an awesome fort to play at. By fort, of course I mean a medieval fortress from sometime in the 13th (ish century). It was really cool. Emily and I spent a good half an hour climbing all over the rocks right next to it and attempting to not die in the English Channel. All in all, a good visit.

From St. Malo, we headed back to Versailles/Paris. Naturally, everyone else who had gone away for the weekend was heading back at the same time. So what should have been a 3 ½ hour trip turned into 5 hours. We were all really antsy. To make matters more frustrating, we got back to Versailles 1 minute after the last bus of the night. Normally not a big deal, it turned into one when we realized that we had our luggage to carry in the drizzling rain for 15 minutes. Growl. Needless to say, I was very glad to get home.

That about sums up Normandy, I do believe. See pictures on Picasa for more detail, since I’m sure I’ve forgotten parts of it by now. It really is gorgeous there. If you need hotel suggestions, I can definitely help out there. 

Now all I need to do is update on Toussaint so far. Sigh.

I'm incredibly long-winded...

Sunday the 4th was a dinner at our professors’ house. Our theater and civ professor are married and the directors of the program, and they very kindly invited us to their house to have dinner and watch excerpts from the first play we read (La Reine Morte, by Henry de Montherlant, if you were wondering – I know you were). The play itself was interesting to read, but this is one of those times when it really helps to see it put into action (or mise en scene, as the French say). The prince on paper was a wimpy baby, but the man who played him made him stronger than he was written, and so you didn’t get annoyed by him the way he was in the book. The end scene was a little creepy. The book ends with the prince’s secret wife being murdered by the king (drama, huh?), and in the very last scene, the king has died, making the prince king, and you see the dead body of his wife propped up on the throne and he makes all the nobles come do their obeisance to her. Meanwhile the dead king is left to rot in his bedroom, and why not? I would be angry too if I were the prince and my dad killed my wife and unborn child. This piece had some serious drama, and it was actually really fun to see it played out by some actors that I thought were really talented.

Dinner itself was a mix of foods, punctuated by the dog Bernie wandering around and literally trying to hump every person there. It’s so funny to watch, because Mr. Sinniger hates that dog (who is really a nuisance) and Mme Sinniger loves him. Thankfully, their son-in-law, Matthieu, was there, and has the gift of making the dog behave. For dessert, Mme Sinniger had made an apple tart and a half-baked chocolate cake. Amazing. Wow. After that dinner, it’s a really good thing they drove us home, because I would not have made it on my own. I could have been rolled up the stairs to bed.

The following Wednesday was another one of our weekly visits. This particular week was Notre Dame de Paris. You know, the really famous one. The gorgeous cathedral with gypsies out front trying to steal your money. We had come by Notre Dame the first time we were in Paris, but this was our first chance to actually go in. Tourist trap or not, it’s stunning. You can easily spend an hour in there just looking and looking and looking. I wandered through, just enjoying the serenity and the stained glass windows, and taking pictures along the way. After about 30 minutes of just looking (my neck still has a crick in it), I snuck out past the nuns at the door, and made my way to a nearby alley. Just across the river from Notre Dame is a super-touristy alley with creperies and Greek food galore. For 3 euros, you can get a steaming hot crepe chock full of Nutella – it’s the same place that has the head sized jars in my pictures from Paris.

Two days later, we made for Normandy on a three-day weekend. But that’s going to be its own entry, so hold your horses on that one. Just know that it was really great. There. Now you know.

This past Wednesday, the 14th(we’re almost up to date!), we went to the Palais Garnier. If you don’t already know it, think of the gorgeous opera house that inspired Phantom of the Opera. As that’s one of my favorite musicals ever, I was really excited to go. As was Kirstin – we’re starting to realize that we’re the same person, and it’s a little unnerving sometimes.

The visit started off really promisingly. We had a guide who was really amusing and very illustrative with his stories. He’d tell us about each room as though we were Parisians living in the early years of the Opera. Then we had the good fortune to sit in the actual theater section for a few minutes and got to see the stage crew working to set up for that night’s production of – I’m not sure, maybe Joyaux? It was an opera, but I can’t remember what it was (and I had never heard of it). The famous chandelier was there, of course, so see the pictures on Picasa. The ceiling above it is modern and is only about 20 years old. If you look closely, you can see various monuments from Paris, and if you know your culture, the most famous ballets and operas are depicted as well. Look for Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, The Magic Flute…and that’s all I remember at the moment.

We also remembered to ask, and sadly there is not precisely a lake under the opera. Due to the enormous risk of fire (remember, that chandelier was filled with candles in the 19th century), they needed something to put out fires quickly. So they have a reservoir of water under the opera for just such purposes. Kind of redundant now since we have electricity, but useful nonetheless. We also learned that plays and opera make their acts as long as it would take for a candle to burn out, and then the entire chandelier’s candles would be replaced at intermission. So they came up with a phrase to describe plays they didn’t like– “Ca ne vaut la chandelle.” Literally, “it’s not worth the candle.” Hah.

We then went wandering through the dance foyer, which was modeled enormously on the Gallerie des Glaces at Versailles (they’re easily mixed up, in my opinion). The most amusing thing about the Opera Garnier is that Andre Garnier (the architect), was something of a prankster. No one expected him to get the job of building the opera for Napoleon II, and there were a considerable number of people upset that he did. So once he got the job, he played a few “tricks” on those who attended the opera. For instance, if you look at the pictures of the dance foyer, there seems to be a lot of gold, which would make the hall really expensive. It wasn’t. Except for the parts of the columns that are struck by light, it’s all fake — paint instead of gold leaf. In addition, the fireplaces are completely useless. You can’t actually light a fire in the opera because of the huge risk of fires, so the fireplace is just there to torment people when it’s cold.  He was a mischief maker, that Garnier.

After the foyer of fake gold, we found the library. It has basically every score of any opera, ballet, or oratorio that you could think of. Kirstin and I decided to be really rebellious and touched Mozart scores through the bars, just to say that we did. Take that, France. What a way to end the visit. It was marvelous.

Thursday was a quiche lesson with Madam Chauchat. She had very generously offered to teach us some French recipes, so we learned how to make quiche and then had lunch at her house. Yum. And so useful to know. I can now make my own pie/quiche crust. Also on Thursday, Dr. Allen arrived in France. We were all really excited to see him, because after spending a month and a half with each other, anybody new is welcome. We also got to go out to dinner to celebrate his coming, Dr. Maiden’s return, and Scott’s birthday. After dinner, we went next door to the professor’s hotel and had a really good cake for Scott’s birthday. Strangely, it had popcorn on top. Hmm. Still delicious, though.

The following weekend was another free one. It started off interestingly – my French mom was having a dinner party, and she invited me to stay and have a drink with them. Incidentally, this is where I learned that Martini (the liqueur) is something to be avoided when possible. I got served some by the uncle and found I didn’t particularly care for it. So the next time my French mom went to answer the door, I snuck into the kitchen, poured it out, and put the same amount of water into my cup. I like water. :P

Highlights of the night: apparently South and North Carolina are too hard to tell apart. Every time someone found out I was from South Carolina, they asked me if I was from Charlotte. In fairness, it’s an honest mistake, given how close Charlotte is to the border. I also had the good fortune to hear a French man with a lisp for half an hour. I spent most of that time trying not to destroy French-American relations, since giggling in his face might have done just that. All in all, though, I met a bunch of really friendly people, including one who could actually say my name without an accent (they have just as much trouble with our “r” as we do with theirs) and the sister of my French mom, who is wonderful as well and reassuring to have around (she teaches French to Americans). Plus, my mom told me later that everyone said I spoke really good French – they even complimented my ability to say the French “r.” Hooray! It took me so long to get that blasted “r” right. It’s so easy to overdo. Or under-do.

Saturday, I ended up just spending the day being lazy with my family, which was really nice. Emily came over that night, so we made a quiche (spinach and feta, mmm) and watched Finding Nemo in French. Super. Sunday was a lunch with family. I had gone to church in Paris that morning, and on the way back to Versailles, I got on the same train as Austin! The odds of this happening, especially in Paris, are hilariously low, but it happened. We get back at the same time, and we find out that the “family” lunch is actually an extended get-together. So I got to meet what seemed like half the family. And the entire lunch, I was sitting there thinking “nobody talk to me!” 10 native French speakers are a little much to have aimed at you all at once, and I was extremely glad Austin was there with me. After lunch, we all watched a slide show of the daughter, Agathe, and her party that she’d had the night before. So adorable.

Having had a four-course lunch, you’d think I’d have taken it easy for dinner, right? Of course that didn’t happen, don’t be silly. We got invited to have a cheese and wine dinner party at the apartment of Matthieu and Marie, the son-in-law and daughter of two of our professors. So off we went.

The second we walked in the door, we got to meet Philippine, their adorable 2-year-old daughter. This child literally looked like an angel. She had big blue eyes and messy blonde curls, and literally was the prettiest toddler any of us has ever seen. She took right to Dr. Allen, and ended up sitting on his knee for most of the night. She kept wanting water, and would say “Eau. Eau!” So then we’d all coo over her and of course she got her water.

In between these bouts of fawning over Philippine, we actually managed to have dinner. Matthieu is something of a wine connossieur, and he got a couple of whites and a red for us to taste. Thankfully for a complete novice like me, he picked really good wines – they were so different I could actually taste the contrast. They also had bought about 10 kinds of cheese, which we naturally felt obligated to try. On top of this, they had bread and cold cuts and chocolate cake for dessert. We stuffed ourselves, but even so, at the end of dinner Marie thought we hadn’t eaten enough. The French really do seem to eat more than us at times. Marie may have thought we didn’t eat much, but my stomach begged to differ. Totally worth it though. So good.

Wednesday following, we went to Musée Jacquemart Andre. I would love to tell you all about it, but unfortunately, I didn’t pay so much attention to the audio-guide. It was boring. And we couldn’t take pictures in the museum, so boo. It was basically a house turned museum, so a lot like a chateau, but smaller and more boring – short visit though. That was good.

Next to come…Toussaint and the Tour of France. We currently in the middle of cavorting around the South of France, doing way too many tours and learning an awful lot of history.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Nuit Blanche



The following weekend was another free one, and very low-key, at least at the start. Then Nuit Blanche happened. Talk about a comedy of errors. In short, in French Nuit Blanche refers to an all-nighter in which you don’t sleep. Check. The entire city of Paris has exhibits all over to display new artists’ works, and some museums are open all night, etc. I ended up getting together with Brita and Sally, two old friends from Furman. We had decided to have a picnic somewhere in Paris, and this is the phone call I had with Brita before I left for Paris:

“Hey, can you bring a blanket with you when you come?”
“You want me to carry a blanket around Paris all night during Nuit Blanche?”
“Yeah, and do you have any plastic cups you can bring for the wine?”
“What? No. Stop it.”

In the end, we ended up grabbing a pizza (about the only thing that can be to-go in France) and a bottle of wine from a store, and we camped under the Eiffel Tower. This was fun in that the Eiffel Tower is lit up at night and tends to sparkle every hour. This was not fun in that the wind made it freezing and odd gypsy people were trying to sell us wine, even though we blatantly had a bottle of our own. However, on a really cool note, Sally and I have the ability to make the Eiffel Tower sparkle on command. We were getting impatient, wondering why it hadn’t lit up yet. Right as we go, “Why won’t it sparkle?!” the lights come flashing on! Everyone has a talent, I suppose. We’ve definitely found ours. We were so excited by this that we started cheering and this set off a round of cheering all around the tower. (Maybe we have two talents.) After bringing joy to the people of Paris, we decided that no night is complete without a crepe. So we got a couple and then headed off to Odeon, which was where the party was, according to another old friend Austin (the one who stayed with my family before me and came to lunch the weekend I cooked).

On the way into the subway, we ran into a group of about 30 drunk French students. We didn't think anything of this until they ended up on the same subway as us, on the same car. They were riotously singing French sports chants, or something like that and jumping up and down in glee, shaking the entire car. At every single stop of the subway, they played Chinese fire drill and ran down to the next car. It was hilarious. Naturally, the three of us HAD to follow them. We almost didn't get off at our subway stop in time.

Once we got to Odeon, we realized very quickly we weren't going to see anything anytime soon. The crush of people was insane -- there was literally an hour wait to get into the Jardin du Luxembourg, and all that there was apparently was a giant disco ball. It was kind of cool, but not worth an hour's wait. In the meantime of figuring out our next plan, we made friends with an extremely drunk French guy who started asking all about us. Sally gave him a cover story of us being Scottish (although we could have told him we were Chinese and probably gotten away with it). After a few minutes of getting creeped out, he turns his back for a second to check on his even drunker friend, and we bolted like, well, Usain Bolt.

At this point, I decided to try to head back to Versailles. Unfortunately, it was past 1 AM, so the trains weren't running anymore (although I didn't know this at the time). After attempting to find a train for a while, I ended up calling Austin, who promptly (and wonderfully) offered for me to stay with him for the night, since nothing was running. It took us nearly an hour and a half to find each other in the chaos of Paris, but we managed it eventually. Then, it only took another hour to actually find a moving vehicle that had room in it for us, take it to Austin's apartment, and stumble our way in on aching feet. My feet were literally in agony, and when I took my shoes off, I had the world's biggest blister on one foot. The next morning was NOT fun when I had to put my shoes back on my swollen feet.

Thankfully, the next morning was much less eventful. I took the subway back to La Defense (the business district) and then a morning train back to Versailles just in time for lunch. All told, a long and nerve-racking night. But it's actually kind of funny now.

I certainly wouldn't do it again though. Those blisters HURT. But more amusingly, the South Carolina blanket that I brought my family (and carried around Paris until 4 in the morning, per the request of Brita) saw about half of Paris in one night. I haven't told my French family that yet, I doubt they really want to know. :)

Update part one.

Uggh. I just got back from a really good dinner, and I'm so full/content that I might throw up. It's a paradox that even I don't understand.

Ok, so admittedly I suck at updating this blog. My bad. Here, for the two and a half loyal readers I might have, is a semi-update while I try to get the rest of my thoughts out of my head and into a Word document.

I'm going to be better at this. Be back soon. Promise.


An extract from an update that has been sitting on my computer for a week:

Plenty has been going on, and at the same time, not much, so it’s hard to know what to update. We haven’t taken a weekend trip in the past couple of weeks, so nothing on that front. But this weekend is Normandy (!), so there should be some great new pictures come Monday. We’ll be visiting the beaches where the Americans came ashore on D-Day, the American cemetery, and Mont-St.-Michel, among other things. We’re also kind of obsessed with our bus driver, Saïd (he’s awesome), and I fully expect our meal times to be as epic as the first two lunches were. Little does Madame Maiden know, there will also be more karaoke on the bus this weekend. Good times ahead.

So…updates. Not much goes on during the week. Mainly classes, dinners en famille, and the occasional trip into Paris. An entry of “a day in the life” has been requested, so that will be coming soon. And since you know me, by now you know that “coming soon” means “November.” But it will happen. I promise.

I think the last thing I updated was our trip to various chateaux. So backing up about a week and a half (maybe two).

We visited the Musee du Louvre about two weeks ago. I had been once in high school with our exchange group, but it was much more interesting to visit having actually studied some of the art since then. The only problem with the Louvre is that it’s so darn big. There are 60,000 pieces of art (and history) in what was the royal palace before Versailles was finished. So naturally, it’s enormous. And confusing to walk around, because who ever heard of a royal palace that didn’t get you lost? Right.

Anyway, it’s really impressive, but since you would need approximately 4 years, 261 days, and 12 hours to appreciate it all, a 2 hour visit was a little daunting. We were instructed to hunt down 4 paintings to take notes on (and no, the Mona Lisa was not one of them), but surprisingly, we found that 3 of the 4 were closed. What are the odds, right? We later found out that they weren’t actually closed, but rather that we were on the wrong floor. Figures. We googled them anyway. And then went to look at other paintings. But after about 2 hours, we became overwhelmed by the vast array of art before us and went to find a crepe. You do what you have to to cope. It usually involves Nutella.

The following weekend, we had completely free. It was glorious. I got to sleep past 7:30, relax, and spend time with my family. The son came home for the weekend, so we had everyone present except for the 22-year-old sister who finds it difficult to commute home for the weekend from San Francisco. Saturday consisted of being absolutely lazy, and having a late lunch with my family. Steak – so yummy.

After lunch, I made my very leisurely way to Paris and spent about 3 hours doing nothing but exploring. I took some of the walking cards I had been given and went wandering around the Louvre, Tuileries, and Place de la Concorde just taking pictures and enjoying the sights. Since it was a gorgeous day, the Tuileries were swamped, but that’s because they’re beautiful. After Paris, I came back to Versailles and had dinner with Emily at a pizza place we had found the weekend before with pretty good deals. Sunday, the entire group had lunch together as a celebration for Kirstin and Dan. They ran the Paris-Versailles, a 16k from the Eiffel Tower to the gates of the Chateau. They got a sweet t-shirt for torturing themselves, and we get a really good meal courtesy of Furman at this creperie right next to the Chateau. My dessert crepe had literally the most amazing vanilla ice cream I have ever had. Incredible.

The following Wednesday, September 30th, we had our weekly trip into Paris for the Hotel des Invalides. It, like most old monuments in France, serves 3 purposes. It has a museum, is a monument, and is a church – the holy trinity in France (ha!). Literally. If someone asks you what something is and you don’t know, we’ve found that it will always be one of those three. In addition, it still serves as a hospital for the invalid (hence the name). It was nice enough, but the entire visit was basically wandering through a war museum being told the history of weaponry from the French Revolution on. For 6 of the group, it was relatively boring. Not to mention that Napoleon had a real complex. When we went into the church section and looked at his tomb, it’s enormous. He could literally have fit into 1/3 of the lid. The tomb in its entirety could probably hold an elephant or two. Not my favorite visit, but then weapons don’t hold a ton of interest for me. Emily, however, was inspired by the clothing to create a modern day fashion line based on Napoleon’s clothes. Although that might have just been boredom in civilization class.

To be continued...

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Quick note...

Two more posts up. Please bear with me, since they're fairly long. But it all builds up and then spills out when I make it to the McDonald's.

There are also more pictures on Picasa of: Chateau de Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte. Enjoy!

Mal

Thoughts on France...

Settling in has just about finished. I think for the most part, our group has gotten over the hump of “oh-my-gosh-why-did-I-think-this-was-a-good-idea-I-can’t-even-speak-French-and-I’m-an-absolute-moron.” It sure takes a while though. Now that we’re settled in, we all pretty much love France and would prefer to never leave. Or at least import a few boulangeries to the U.S. when we come back.

A few things that still stump me:

-The lack of colors in wardrobe. Everything is brown, black, tan, white, gray, or navy, with a couple of wine or light blue shirts thrown in. Having on anything else stands way out. The thing that confuses me is, they sell colors. Every mannequin has on a fairly bright outfit. They just don’t buy colors. I don’t understand why yet.

-I’ve yet to see a girl with a bad hair day. Which is made even more irritating by the fact that I’ve had a continuous bad hair day since I got here. I think they may legitimately be immune to frizz. Whereas I have frizzy hair from heat-styling (when I haven’t even been blow-drying my hair or straightening it) and then I see these girls with artlessly done hair that just looks perfect anyway. I need to figure out how they do this.

-The weather. It can be absolutely infuriating. The forecast will be something like: sunny with a high of 75. What they forget to mention is that the high only occurs for about 10 minutes the whole day. The rest of the day will be chilly, windy, and foggy. I might be exaggerating a little, but not by much. It’s necessary to layer, even now when it’s still warm. Plus, the leaves have already somewhat started to fall, and it’s not nearly as beautiful as at Furman. It’s kind of dull looking, actually.

-They adore Abercrombie and Fitch. This is hilarious to me. Here, wearing A&F means that you are in the cool crowd. Our group hasn’t figured out a polite way to mention that A&F stopped being cool after middle school. But it sure is fun to watch some kid with the logo go swaggering by like he’s all that.

-They also love Keds. You know, the shoes that Americans don’t tend to wear after about the 5th grade. And Converses, but everyone wears those in the U.S. too. Literally everyone here has a pair of one of those. It’s insane.

-Really, what it comes down to is: France is insanely fashionable. And chic. I’ve seen a chic four-year-old (obviously dressed by her chic mom). I’ve seen a 12-year-old with better fashion sense than some grown women. But they have this weird obsession with things that Americans (much less fashionable) gave up years ago. It’s bizarre. And brings me to:

-Scooters. There are so many of these. I’m convinced that every other kid in France has one. Remember how every kid in America wanted one, got one, played with it for 10 minutes and now they’ve been gone for a couple of years? Still going strong in France. How odd.

On the other side, things I actually do miss, having been gone for three weeks:

-Family and friends. Obviously.

-Milk. It’s not pasteurized. Gross.

-Ice cubes. They only come in restaurants if you ask. And even then you only get two or three cubes unless you specifically ask for a lot. Definitely never at home.

-Diet Coke (and regular Coke). They have Coca Light here but it doesn’t taste the same. And Coke is pretty close (much more so than Diet Coke) but it’s still a little off.

-English. I know the whole point of being here is to learn better French, and we’re definitely doing that. But sometimes it would be really nice to be able to have a conversation with anyone I meet, not just the 8 people here with me.

-Weather that actually adheres to a weather forecast, or is at least somewhat consistent.

-My cat.

-Having more than 5 shirts to choose from in my wardrobe. Or not feeling like I’m always wearing the same thing but in different colors.

-Football. It’s easy to forget it’s going on when you’re being herded through yet another chateau early on a Saturday morning, but I do miss it. Boo.

-Having a dryer. Washing clothes here requires a bit of planning ahead. Otherwise I might find myself without any dry pants to wear to class. This has not yet happened, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it does at some point.

-Sleeping in a bed bigger than a twin.

I’m missing less than I thought I would. It’s all more of an adjustment than an actual loss or missing of something. It’s hard to be upset over the loss of Chick-fil-a when I have a great boulangerie at the end of my block. I’m even starting to make friends with the people who work there. Which is good, considering they’re going to see me every day for the next three months. :)

I need to go, since we have a visit to the Louvre today, and I need to catch the train. But rest assured, France is great. And I miss y'all. And the word y'all.

Heads up...this is a long one.

Well, it’s certainly been a while. We’ve been keeping pretty busy settling in. Two weekends ago, we went to Giverny and Chateau d’Anet on Saturday, and then stayed in Versailles Sunday for the Grandes Eaux. This past weekend we went to two chateaux, Fontainebleau and Vaux-le-Vicomte. Sunday was a day of rest, literally, so I got to spend some time with my family and see an old friend from Furman who came to eat lunch with us. In between all of this has been classes, a visit to the chateau of Versailles, and trying to get to McDonald’s (the classy one, never fear) to use their wireless while conveniently not buying anything.

To back it up a bit…

Giverny – is obviously gorgeous, as you can see if you go to the Picasa page and check out the pictures. It’s Monet’s home, so you can probably see where he got his inspiration from. The entire place is drenched in flowers, and so it’s really pleasing both to the eyes and the nose. Lots of bees, though. So it’s not recommended for those with severe allergies/bee fears. We got to see his garden and pond with the bridge and water-lilies, even though they weren’t blooming when we came through. Monet intended to model his garden after the Japanese styles, but made one notable difference. In Japan, everything that isn’t nature is red, but at Giverny, the bridge is green. We spent the day exploring the house and gardens, and then headed to a wonderful restaurant nearby where we spent a good two hours thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

Chateau d’Anet – a small little chateau (bah –they’re all still humongous on a house scale) where Henri II hid Diane de Poitiers, his mistress. It was actually bought by a family when the country of France put it up for sale, so we also got to see someone’s rather impressive liquor stash in the enormous living room with 300-year-old furniture. But hey, why waste a perfectly good living room, even if a king did hang out there, right? The town itself is big enough to merit public restrooms and actual toilets, but small enough to not merit toilet seats, toilet paper, or soap. That was an adventure. But no worries, I learned my lesson at 15 in France, and I had hand sanitizer on hand (hah!)

Les Grandes Eaux – Given the enormous number of fountains at Versailles (see pictures – I didn’t even scratch the surface of all the fountains there), it’s fairly expensive, time-consuming, and effortful to get the fountains running. So in the interest of efficiency, they are only turned on once a week for six months out of the year. It was really impressive to see, but sadly, we only got to see a little, since they only leave the fountains on for an hour at a time. We then spent the rest of our afternoon eating at a little café/brasserie on the side end of the gardens. It was pretty good, but what in France isn’t? I haven’t really run across bad food yet, nor do I really expect to. Unless I go to London at some point.

Wednesday of last week, we split up the monotony of classes with another Wednesday visit. This particular one took us to the Chateau of Versailles, which we had not yet visited, despite having already been here for two weeks. We grabbed our audio guides and marched off into the maze that is Versailles (and yes, I got the audio guide in French because I felt too guilty when I thought about getting it in English). Versailles is gorgeous, but the visit wears you down a bit, and the whole thing is a little overpowering. I still got a lot of pictures though.

Chateau de Fontainebleau – this is yet another one of those chateaux belonging to the royal family of France for them to play in when they get bored with running the country. I should have taken pictures, but didn’t since it was about 9 in the morning on a Saturday and after a while, chateaux start to all look the same. They have the exact same rooms anyway. Master’s bedroom, mistress’ bedroom, waiting rooms for both, council room, servants’ quarters, etc. The only difference is who lived there. But it’s still really cool. I’m just not sure what I’m going to do in October when we hit 4 chateaux in one day.

Probably drink a lot of wine.

I digress.

Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte -- this is probably one of my favorites due to the story behind it. The guy who built it, Nicolas Fouquet, was one of the grand financiers of the state of France. Since the monarchy couldn’t run on its own, it essentially borrowed money from people like Fouquet. Well, he decides to build a nice new home called Vaux-le-Vicomte. He even thoughtfully throws in a special room for the king, because he’s such a great guy. So he throws a huge party, invites the king, who comes and proceeds to have a major temper tantrum. Basically, Fouquet’s chateau is better than Versailles was at the time. So the king (one of those Louis’ – XIV) has Fouquet arrested on absurd charges, steals his architect, lets Fouquet rot in prison for the rest of his life, and expands Versailles in the meantime. Lesson learned? Don’t invite the king to a party if your house is better than his. He gets cranky.

The chateau itself is, of course, gorgeous. The entrance is impressive, but the back view is stunning. I took about a dozen pictures just of the back because of how pretty it was. In a way, I liked it better than Versailles. Versailles is designed to be ostentatious, to show off, and to impress foreign monarchs and domestic nobles alike. It has paintings all over every ceiling, fabric covering every inch from the ceiling down, and basically so much art that you feel overwhelmed with patterns and sculptures and everything else. But Vaux-le-Vicomte is much less so. You can see where parts of it clearly influenced the construction of Versailles (since they were both built by the same architect), but VlV actually feels like it could be a home (and it was). I could easily see making it my personal vacation home. Especially with the talking statues.

That’s right. Vaux-le-Vicomte has been overtaken by Disney animators and now history is being reenacted by the same robots used in Pirates of the Caribbean (the ride, not the movie). This is funny, not only because I got to see a stuffed pet squirrel on a robot’s shoulder, but because Emily and I had had a conversation about this kind of thing just 2 hours earlier. We were sitting on a bench, talking about how the chateaux run together, and how it would be much more interesting if people dressed up and reenacted the history for us. And lo and behold, the very next chateau we visit is doing just that, with little speeches playing from the walls as the robots’ heads move woodenly back and forth. It was awesome. We really felt like we were part of history. Or a Disney ride.

Sunday, we had nothing planned for the first time since we had arrived in France. This was really nice, and it was a gorgeous day to have nothing to do. I ended up making lunch for my French family. I had brought them she-crab soup mix and cornbread as part of their hostess gift, so I made that, plus a salad with raspberry vinaigrette, a peach cobbler, and sweet tea to introduce them to the South. To make matters even better, Austin came to lunch. He’s an old Furman classmate (we had maybe one class together) who also had my family when he studied abroad a couple of years ago. Now he works in Paris and comes to have lunch with them on a regular basis. Since he’s from North Carolina, he was the true critic of my Southern lunch, and according to him, I got full marks.  Surprisingly, they really liked our food. Or should I say, they liked our tea. Soup and cornbread I can understand them liking. Salad they have all the time. But tea? Well, in France they prefer for drinks like tea to be hot. And strong. Not cold and sweetened. For instance, they take their afternoon coffee (an espresso) black. It’s really strong. But they actually liked sweet tea. Definitely a surprise. They also wanted to request more cornbread. I tried to explain it was a mix, but I’m not sure I explained it very well.

After lunch, we just sat around talking for about an hour and a half. It was so pretty out that none of us really wanted to move. Later that afternoon, I ended up going to Paris with Emily and Dan just to hang out. We wanted to take advantage of everything being open, but ended up just wandering around and exploring. This weekend was the Journées de Patrimoine in Paris, which basically means they open the political buildings, chateaux, and most monuments for completely free. The only caveat is, it’s free for the rest of Paris too. It ends up being like tax-free weekend – you stay and home and take the tax just so you don’t have to wait in a four hour line to see where President Sarkozy lives. He wasn't even home, since I saw on the news last night he's in NYC for a summit of some kind.

This coming weekend is a free weekend, so no one is sure yet on plans. We won’t go far though, because a couple of students are running in a road race from the Eiffel Tower to the Chateau of Versailles on Sunday. Not me, oh no. I will be cheerfully waving from the sidelines with my brioche in hand. So stay tuned for what might be our first foray out of the country. Or at the very least, our first foray on our own. Even if it’s only to Disneyland Paris.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

For exceptional beauty that will bring tears to your eyes...

Go to this website...

http://picasaweb.google.com/mallorycporter

It has the pictures I've taken so far since being in France. Check it out. I put a lot of work into it (i.e. I hit the sync button on Picasa and checked the news while it did the work for me).

Enjoy!

Love,
Mal

Monday, September 14, 2009

Quick update...

So as you can probably see below this post, I've updated on Paris. We're not up to date yet, but this should tide over my pushy readers (Mom and Meredith) until I can get back to this frigid McDonald's to freeze and type a little more.

Should you desire pictures, I'm in the process of updating pictures to a picasa web album, since facebook is pesky and not everyone would see them there. I will give an address soon.

Until tomorrow (ish),
Mal

Living chez de la Monnerraye...

Today my key wouldn’t work. It literally nearly sent me over the edge. I couldn’t even open the gate to my house. I ended up having to leave my key in the gate, climb over said gate, take the rest of my keys in, and wait for the little brother to get home so he could fix it. An hour and a half later. Grrrr…

I did have the good fortune to get the use of a shower. Sometimes I think my mom can read my mind. I get home from Paris, ask for a phone charger (as the phone I was using had died without one) and after that, she showed me how to wash my clothes and offered to let me use the shower in the older sister and brother’s room, all without asking. She even offered later to have my friends eat lunch at the house, which is incredibly welcoming by French standards. Incredibly. So now we have a place to eat once we pick up our sandwiches.

Also, my house is really wonderfully located. I am a 10 minute walk from grammar, a five minute walk from the school (drama and civilization) and a five minute walk from conversation. In addition, I have a great restaurant at the end of my block, a wonderful boulangerie right next to it, and a central bus stop in the center of the circle at the end of said block. I have one of the smallest commutes of anyone in the group, plus a wonderful family.

My entire family is great, in case I didn’t say that already. My mom has been so welcoming, and offered me all these things without me even having to ask in most cases. My 17-year-old sister (Agathe) is great, even though she talks really fast, and is always willing to help me understand stuff. The youngest kid (Paul) is adorable. He’s 11, and is actually just learning English in school. Right now I can hear Anne reciting the days of the week with him, his latest assignment. The one before this was to learn the English alphabet, which was a really funny experience. He sits down at dinner with me and Agathe Monday night and starts reciting. We correct where necessary, and before long, he’s at “ S…T…U…V…”and then for “W,” goes “2-U!” He’s half right, at least! I even had the chance to meet the older brother (Yann) who’s away at school in Paris. I come walking in from the train to Paris, struggling with all of my stuff, and I notice a bunch of baggage strewn in the hallway. While I fight to get my key out of the door (I hate that door, and the gate too), he stands up and introduces himself. He seems nice, but I only saw him for about a minute before he left for school. And sadly, I don’t get to meet the eldest daughter (Amelie), since she is working in San Francisco this year, and left the same day I did. But in any case, I love my family, and am really glad I got them. Judging from what others have continued to say about their families, I have the nicest, most welcoming, most helpful, least intimidating family in Versailles. Plus I have a TV. Hah. Not that I understand any of it yet. Except for the weather reports.

Adjustment to French life...

Adjustment is still taking some time. Every time I think I’m just about settled in, I get smacked by one more thing that makes me feel completely out of place. The good things are easy to adjust to. The hard things take a little more out of all of us.

I miss hugs. No one gives them here. They kiss. But our group is not French and doesn’t really kiss either, so there’s no human contact at all. I have to make do with affection from the dog, Shipy (which I found out means “bêtises,” or stupid things/someone who does stupid things). He’s very affectionate.

I really miss milk. My family has plenty of it, but it’s disgusting since it’s not pasteurized and I’m definitely not used to that. I’m not sure what I’m going to do for the next three months without it. So if anyone wants to ship me some, that would be super.

The French go to bed really early. Like 10 o’clock, every night. We were told not to make or receive phone calls after 9:30 at night. We assumed that it was simply because it’s rude to call late. Nope. It’s because they’re already in bed.

They also don’t have excess space. I think they’d be really confused by U.S. consumption, like “why do you need that when this much works just fine?” Everything is just big enough and no more. It’s great when this means no leftovers because Anne made just enough. It’s a little bit of a problem when it comes to showering and I can barely turn around, much less shave my legs.

The French are never in a hurry. Unless they are in a car, which is when they try to kill you (especially in Paris). The service here is incredibly annoying in a sense. While it’s nice that the waiters don’t hover, it’s nearly impossible to get their attention or have them bring you something else without asking for it explicitly. So paying the bill can easily take 20 or 30 minutes. Even a water refill is difficult. I get where they’re coming from — if you don’t drink it, they’ll just have to chunk it, so what’s the point unless you actually need/want it? – but I’m so used to the American standard of “never let the glass get more than half empty.”

Nothing is ever to-go, especially after 7. I know this is a bad American habit, but it is really helpful sometimes. When we were in Paris, some nights we were really tired and just wanted something like pizza or Chinese, but the French don’t believe in take-out. So we had to sit through 2-hour dinners every night if we wanted to eat. The French do plenty of sandwiches and the like for lunch, so you can do that if you want, but every single one of these places closes no later than 7. The French don’t start eating dinner until about 8. So if you want to have any chance of finding something simple and ready to go, you have to plan way ahead. Which is difficult when you don’t know you’re going to need to do so.

Doing without a dryer is a pest. My clothes aren’t soft anymore, that’s the main thing. I’m going to go buy a bottle of fabric softener tomorrow and maybe that will help the process along.

The French are also very frank. Mme Vedel has no trouble correcting us bluntly in class, nor does Mme Chauchat (the American-turned-française). Especially today, when Mme Chauchar lectured us, there was a definite sense of unease. In America, the host probably wouldn’t have spoken of it at all, or at least mentioned it quietly and very much “oh don’t worry about it, just be careful for next time.” None of that here. It was simply “I have other things to do. Make sure to not come more than 5 minutes ahead.” Eesh. This frankness is killing me.

Standing out is also annoying. No matter what we do, we all look distinctly German-Irish, much like most Americans. We don’t blend, even when we dress just like them. Mainly because we’re all huge compared to them. My sister here is 17, but she’s approximately the size of a 12-year old boy. Literally. They’re all like that. Tall, model-thin, gorgeous. It’s hard not to feel completely inadequate every time I walk out of the house. Or in the house, as the case may be.

Classes in Versailles

Classes here in France don’t seem to be so bad at first. A couple even seem like their American counterparts. My civilization class is taught by Monsieur Sinniger, an adorable old French man who walks with a cane and seems to chuckle at everything. His wife, Martine, teaches our drama class (20th century French drama) and is this cute little woman who wants to make sure we understand every single word that comes out of her mouth. I think she already likes me, since our first class covered the 17th century writers, and I was the only one who had taken French 32 already, so I knew most of what she was talking about. Grammar and conversation will be more difficult.

Madame Vedel takes grammar for our group, and she’s a good teacher, but very frank (typically French). I like her so far, though. I think the first class was just the hardest one -- once we kind of got the hang of it, things went much easier. Conversation for our group goes to Madame Chauchat, who is actually originally from New York and is still an American citizen. She moved here 18(ish) years ago when she married her husband and teaches English at the middle/high school. Conversation will be difficult simply because it’s speaking French for two hours straight, about anything at all. Today’s class was a little painful, but it's also the first class. Eesh. On top of that, we accidently miscalculated how long it would take to get back to Mme Chauchat’s house from Dr. Maiden’s hotel where we had lunch, and we got there 15 minutes early. She was a little peeved with us and gave us a little lecture about how to not come so early. It was kind of scary. But she seems really great-- she's already offered to give us French cooking lessons!

More to come as classes unfold (because I know you are all so interested).

Paris, part 2...

Saturday in Paris, we started to hit some of the more touristy things. We started off the morning by heading to Notre Dame, but sadly, we didn’t get to go in. We then meandered off to Sainte-Chapelle, which has incredible stained glass windows (called vitraux in France). It’s actually not a cathedral or church, but a reliquary. Apparently, a while back, a French king named Louis thought he had the actual crown of thorns that Christ worn on the cross, so he built Sainte Chapelle to house them. The result is really amazing – over 1500 windows that tell the story of creation through the resurrection in minute detail. We couldn’t actually see all of it, since they’re in the middle of renovations (that continue until 2013). Being as old as they are, the windows have acquired quite a bit of dirt, but since they’re so old, it requires fancy cleaning instead of Windex. So they’re going window by window (13 giant panes in all) and using infrared light to see and remove the dirt. It’s really cool, because they’ve already cleaned a couple, so you can see the huge difference the cleaning has made.


After Sainte-Chapelle, we discovered the (not-so-much) wonder of French public bathrooms. This particular one was beside Notre Dame, and besides being disgusting, the cleaning lady yelled at me because I simply let her know that the stall I had been in was out of toilet paper. It’s probably a good thing that she couldn’t see where I’d managed to break the soap dispenser, right?

After being yelled at for being courteous, we headed over to a really touristy alley with lots of Greek sandwiches and creperies. Crepes are amazing here, especially when they fill them with Nutella. Mmm…I also saw the world’s biggest jar of Nutella. I wanted to steal it, but that would be wrong. And I would have had to carry it all over Paris for the rest of the day, and my bag was already heavy enough. We did, however, feed Ratatouille…or so we’d like to think, seeing as how there were mice under the floorboards of the creperie. Ick.

The afternoon was dedicated to the bateaux mouches (literally, the boat flies). They take you up and down the Seine so you can see the main sights of Paris. They’re super touristy, but it was fun nonetheless, even if it was freezing cold from the wind. When we were done, we wanted to go shopping at the Galleries Lafayette, but managed to go completely the wrong way and take the longest route humanly possible. The shopping was good, but really expensive and we all ended up just looking instead.

For dinner, we ended up finding this amazing restaurant just the next street over from our hotel. All of us were too tired to go more than a street or two over, but this was a real find. It was a basic French restaurant, kind of expensive (but Furman—aka our tuition—picked up the bill), and was really good. I had onion soup, lamp chops and stole some half-baked chocolate cake with caramel sauce from Charlotte. Yum.

Sunday, we had a really full day. We started at the Hotel de Ville, then headed to the Place des Vosges, all for architecture lessons. We ended up having lunch at a quintessentially French café, with an adorable (typical) French man as our waiter. I decided to go typical French and had a croque monsieur and a crème brulée for dessert. The sandwich was okay, but the crème brulée was wonderful. It’s funny -- I keep hitting home runs with food and don’t even mean to. Although it’s not particularly tough to do in France.

After lunch, we realized that we were about 100 feet from Victor Hugo’s house, so naturally we went to see it. We then trekked to the Sorbonne and lastly to the Louvre, all for more architecture. We all headed back to the hotel and about died, but rallied just enough to go to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Talk about feeling inadequate. The entire staff spoke Chinese (obviously), French for Parisians, and English for tourists. And I’ve been so proud of speaking just French. I managed another home run with my sautéed chicken and grilled walnuts (the walnuts literally tasted like candy). Afterward, we all really wanted some crepes, but since this is France, nothing was open late, and we got lost anyways.

The next morning, we somehow managed to drag ourselves out of bed, went to get breakfast (hotel breakfast is so good here – croissant, brioche, and baguette), and took the train back to Versailles. Such was our visit to Paris.

Paris, part 1...

So after about 10 hours of sleep that was in no way enough, I got up and ate breakfast with the family, baguette with butter and honey. Soooo good. France really knows how to do bread. I then found myself facing one of the bigger challenges thus far: how to bathe.

In France, bathtubs/showers and toilets are in separate rooms, which is enough of an oddity to me. But they also rarely have dual showers/bathtubs like we do in the U.S. The only shower in the house is in the little annex for the older son and daughter. If I want to use it, I have to walk though the backyard to get there and back. Admittedly, this would be a problem come fall when the weather is cold. This leaves me the bathtub option. Their bathtubs have showerheads attached, but no shower curtain. The basic concept is that you take a bath, and use the showerhead to rinse your hair after washing it. Only, without a shower curtain, it’s a little tricky to not flood the bathroom. (I actually did this the first time I came to France when I was 15. Oops.) I did manage to not make a mess, but the concept of three months of baths is a daunting one.

After I finished packing, I headed to Mme. Chauchat’s house for a placement test in grammar. From there, we headed for Paris, stopping to get our Navigo passes along the way. The Navigo pass that we have is basically a three-month, all-access card that lets us use the buses, trains, and metro in Paris and Versailles whenever we like. And it has definitely already come in handy. Plus, there’s the added psychological benefit of feeling really cool.

We get to our hotel, where Amanda, Charlotte, and I find out we are on the 5ieme etage. The French start numbering from the second floor, and the first floor is considered 0, which put us on the sixth floor of the hotel. All three of us started to freak out, because France does not often have elevators in its hotels, and the stairs definitively got steeper as we climbed (it wasn’t our imaginations, they really did). However, when we came back downstairs, we found out there is in fact an elevator, one that is just big enough to hold all three of us in one trip. Hooray!

The afternoon was spent at the Musee de Cluny, a museum devoted to Romanesque tapestries and art, and finding a good sandwich shop for lunch (not in that order). Once I had my trusty jambon-beurre (ham and butter, sooo good), I was happy enough to traipse along anywhere. Our group has already discovered that food makes just about anything easier to deal with, and at the same time, funnier than it was originally. Like Scott being harassed by an 8-year-old boy for a cigarette and refusing to take no for an answer. We had a late dinner eating at a restaurant near our hotel, with an amazing tarte aux framboises (raspberry tart), crème caramel, and chocolate mousse. And we made friends with the waiter.

This morning we got off to a late start, mainly due to our room of three (who didn’t wake up to our alarms). We visited St. Germain-de-Pres, a famous Romanesque church in the heart of Paris, and the Basilique St. Denis, a cross between Romanesque and Gothic. Cathedrals often took 100-200 years to complete in the Middle Ages, sometimes more, so most of what we’re seeing right now is a mishmash of styles. St. Denis was really cool, as it’s the location for lots of famous tombs of French kings and queens. We got to see those of Louis XIV, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (all in modern tombs), the Merovingian kings such as Clovis and Dagobert, and basically every king of France between the 10th and 18th centuries, ending with Louis XVIII. They also have the mummified heart of Louis XVII (the one who died in prison during the Revolution after his parents were beheaded). It looks like a dried pomegranate pit. And it’s kind of creepy. The afternoon at the Basilica was one of those times that blows your mind, like “I’m standing in front of the bones of a king who lived 1500 years ago and changed the course of French history.” Not unlike how you feel when you contemplate the Internet, but in a different way. Standing in front of those who made the history just makes it seem more real. It’s a lot to take in, and a little intimidating, since the U.S. is too young to claim that sort of thing. But very cool. It just makes my head hurt a little trying to wrap my mind around it.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was kind of lazy, since all of us still have a touch of jetlag (that, and we stayed up late last night). We did get a chance to stop by Monoprix on l’Avenue de l’Opera (the one with the opera house from The Phantom of the Opera – it’s gorgeous and I can’t wait to go there). Monoprix is a lot like Walmart or Target, with just about everything for sale, but it’s probably closest to say that it’s like a step above Target. I finally managed to get an adapter for my computer there, which is good, since I’ve been going crazy for days trying to find one. Now I have access to the world of technology again, and it feels much better. Since we’ve been settling in here, we’ve found that the little things make the transition much easier. Like an adapter for your computer, or an Orangina to get the morning started, or a chocolate mousse after dealing with French customer service in a phone store for an hour (yup, it happened).

Friday, September 4, 2009

On est arrivé!

We have, in fact, arrived in France. But this is the first access I've had to internet/my computer. My computer didn't have an adapter until tonight, so it couldn't be charged, and the family's wireless hadn't let me on yet. So the only way to use the internet was with the special French keyboard. It takes a lot of getting used to.

We're in Paris now, but for the sake of continuity, let me back up.

I got to the airport in Greenville Tuesday after saying goodbye to people at Furman. My first brush with disaster came at check-in. My new suitcase came with a lock, which of course I used on my luggage. But come check-in that suitcase was two pounds overweight and I needed to move things around. The only problem was, I couldn't find the key. After looking three times through my purse, twice through my bookbag, and once in my other suitcase and in the car with no luck at all, I went to the TSA man to get him to break the lock. As they are searching through their keys for the correct one, I find the key to the suitcase in the one purse pocket I had not yet checked. Go figure. I try to protect my luggage from others and lock myself out instead.

All travel involved was fairly eventless. We met up with the rest of the group in Dulles and sat through the 2-hour layover -- not bad at all. To our surprise, our flight to Paris was shared by a friend -- a guy that was my conversation leader for French at Furman when I was a freshman, then went to UVA for his doctorate in French and was heading to Lyon to be a teaching assistant. Small world, right? After taking off half an hour late, we landed at Charles de Gaulle-Roissy half an hour early. So early (6:15 AM in Paris, ugh) that our coordinator hadn't even made it to the airport yet.

After meeting some of our professors (Sally, I'm already in love with Mme. Chauchat!), our families came to get us. My French mom, Anne de la Monneraye, is wonderful to me and very welcoming/motherly, especially compared to what others in the group have told me about their families. She took me home and introduced me around the house and to her family. Her daughter, Agathe, is 17 and a sweetheart, even though she does talk a LOT and very quickly. Too fast for me to keep up yet. Paul is 9 and in the sixth grade. He's absolutely adorable and has been so much fun so far. He loves to tease, and since he's the only one whose speech I can actually keep up with, we'll be good friends I think. :)

The first day with the family was low-key. Anne made lunch for all of us, and we ate outside in the backyard. I took a 20-minute nap to keep me going until bedtime (having slept 3 hours in the past 26!) to help stave off the worst of the jetlag. I unpacked and gave them their presents (pralines for all, and an afghan with the SC flag on it, plus a promise to make a Southern dinner soon -- and now I've found crab meat in Monoprix for the soup, that can happen!). They love the pralines, so I think that was a good idea. Anne then took me to Parly II (the mall) where I was able to get a new SimCard for the phone she's letting me use. Her eldest daughter is actually in San Francisco for a year, having left the same day I did, and I get her phone for while I'm here. We also got me a hairdryer with the European current, so no worries about blowing power to the hotel while I'm here. We went back to the house, had dinner, and after watching a little French TV, I crashed in bed around 10 so I could leave with the group for Paris the next day, which is where I am now.

Phew...I still need to update on Paris, but that can wait for a while since this was pretty long. and now that I have an adapter and the WiFi code for the hotel, everything seems a little easier. So, a demain!

Mallory

Monday, August 31, 2009

It's about that time...

So I leave tomorrow. At this point, I don't even have the energy to be nervous with all of the last-minute shopping, packing, and organizing that's been going on. There seems to be so much left to do that worrying about how to actually speak French falls pretty far down the list.

For those that care (Mom and Dad), my flight from Greenville leaves tomorrow at 2:20 and my flight to Paris leaves at 5:29, both on United. You should watch them on FlightTracker, it's really fun.

As a last-minute excitement builder, I decided to make a list of what I would and would not miss about the U.S. (and the South):

I will miss:
-Southern food
*including, but not limited to: sweet tea, mustard-based barbeque, pecan pie, cornbread, she-crab soup, and fried chicken
-the word y'all
-people that speak English
-cold milk
-my family and friends
-football season :(
-watching the leaves change at Furman
-getting drinks that include more than 2 ice cubes
-heat that turns on when I want it to
-cokes that don't cost $5

I will not miss:
-the oppressive heat
-the lack of a good jambon-beurre on any street corner (or put another way, fast food)
-Walmart


The next time you hear from me, I'll be on the other side of the Atlantic.

It's kind of exciting in a really, really big way.