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.
Monday, November 2, 2009
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.
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...
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...
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