One of the things I love about living in France is how easy it is to walk wherever you want to go. I walk for at least an hour everyday, through gardens, on paved sidewalks, up stairs, down stairs, across the bridge. Blois feels more alive when taken by foot, and I feel more alive, too. As a pedestrian in Blois, I feel like there is nowhere I can't go. If I want to get to the opposite side of Blois, all I have to do is walk there. It may take me an hour or two, but it is possible for me to get where I want to be with nothing but my own two feet (and for free!). This would be almost impossible in the United States, where cars reign supreme.
Two weeks ago, my belief in pedestrain-friendly France was shaken by a unsuccessful cinema outing. Harriet and I decided to go see the new Twilight movie dubbed in French, and with our faith in our ability to walk anywhere in Blois, we set off by foot toward the big cinéplex on the northern side of town. Google Maps said the walk would take about 40 minutes--no big deal. An hour later, we were still searching for the cinema. It turned out that the cinema in Blois is one of those rare places that you can't reach by foot. Two round-abouts and a highway stood between us and the ridiculous fifth installment of the Twilight series. I was tempted to take my chances crossing the round-about, but Harriet wisely advised that Twilight was simply not worth risking life and limb. We went shopping instead, as the cinema is close to the ugly outskirts of Blois where all the cheap, American-like French chains are located. We left with martini glasses, a shaker, and a resolution to go straight to the Intermarché (our nearest grocery store) to buy vodka, triple sec, and cranberry juice for cosmos. We also invested in a tub of pistachio ice cream that lasted us all of two evenings.
I am still muddling through my disappointment that the cinema is not accessible to pedestrians. The next Wednesday, we took a bus to the cinema (a very inconvenient one that only circulates every hour and that costs 1,10 euros) and still found ourselves in unfriendly pedestrian territory. There were no signs for the cinema, no sidewalks, and no pedestrian entrance. After I tripped on a piece of trash left in the parking lot, I had half a mind to tell CapCiné that they needed to provide some better transportation options for the 4,000+ students, predominantly pedestrians, living in Blois. But the other half of my mind preferred to keep quiet and escape into the darkness of the cinema. (Note: the French Kristin Stewart sounds twice as intelligent and three times as interesting.)
Other than wayward cinema trips, not much is going on here in Blois, at least not that belongs in this blog. The big gala at the university was fun. Everyone was much too drunk and no one sang along to the songs as they were all American pop hits in English (Harriet and I were screaming the lyrics at the tops of our lungs much to the surprise of everyone around us). I'm looking forward to the next one in December, a more intimate affair to ring in the end of the world (December 21, 2012, according to the Mayans). Thomas the Marseillais is helping to organize it, so it's sure to be a smash.
I am slowly getting more comfortable with the teaching, and sometimes I have really successful, invigorating classes. Other times my classes go so badly that I want to cry. The other teachers are being mostly helpful, and I've even had some legit conversations with a few of them. Some even seek me out to chat. I'm beginning to feel less and less like the unpopular weird girl mistakenly seated with a popular clique.
Edwige invited me to join her choir that rehearses at the hospital. It is made up of women between the ages of 30 and 70, and I am the only one under 30 and foreign in the group. They are all very welcoming and nice, and I am so enjoying being part of a choir again. I've missed singing a lot. We sing simple songs, usually in unison or in canon. We are preparing for a Christmas program for children who are sick in the hospital over the holidays. I also love having the extra time with Edwige. She invited me over this weekend to help make foie gras and countless other strange French delicacies out of the whole ducks she bought at the market.
As most of you know, my dad had a heart attack last Sunday. He is doing fine and came home from the hospital on Tuesday, but it definitely was hard being so far away when my family was in crisis. I was able to reach my parents by phone and talk to them Sunday night, which really helped ease my feelings of worry, powerlessness, and detachment.
It was also weird being far away for Thanksgiving, which I celebrated with some leftover couscous and a beer with a French guy at a nearby bar. Christmas is sure to be equally strange, but I'm hoping my trip to visit my friend Ali and her boyfriend in Foix (in the Pyrenees, south of Toulouse) will be fun and full of holiday cheer. We'll hopefully be ringing in the New Year in Barcelona if we can work out our transportation okay, so that should prove to be quite the party.
Tonight, Amy, Harriet, and I are having a Titanic night watching Titanic and eating ice cream. Tomorrow, our friend Suzie is coming to Blois and then we're all going to Orléans together to check out the Christmas markets (perhaps the subject of my next post). For the first time in my life, I have money to spend on Christmas presents and I'm excited about creating a Christmas package for my parents. I'm also ready to get into the Christmas spirit. Suzie is spending the night in my apartment and we're ordering pizza and watching another movie. I'm looking forward to a fun and relaxing weekend! France continues to be wonderful, and I'm feeling more and more comfortable. I think I may be applying for next year...
Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Vacances de Toussaint: A Series of Successful Misadventures
Hello everybody! I'm finally done with my nice long vacation from my blog. It's time to end the denial phase, accept that vacation is over, and get back to work documenting my experiences in France. But first, a rather long note about my vacation.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I decided to spend my two-week vacation traveling northwestern France with my dear high school friend, Betsy Herlong (you can read her blog here). I kicked off our travels by meeting her in Nantes, a large city close to her home in a small town called Ancenis. After a day in Ancenis, we took a train to Rennes, where we spent only a couple of hours before setting off to Saint Malo. We stayed in Saint Malo for three days, and then headed back to Blois via Angers. She spent four days with me in Blois, which we used as a jumping-off-point to explore other places in my region, namely Vendôme, Amboise, and Tours.
Here's a map of our adventures. If you click on the pin, you can see some of the highlights of each city.
Like most vacations, ours was a series of successes and misadventures.
Successes:
We are masters of the French train system, and it never failed to impress us with its punctuality (except for that one time when the train was late in Angers). We also ate excellent food, ranging from French Mexican to Turkish kebabs, from giant desserts to homemade Italian soup, boeuf bourginon, ratatouille, and cube steak. We saw a great French rom com and understood nearly every word. We shared a wonderful evening of down-home Southern cooking with Mr. Gauben and his wife Dominique. We got touring cities down to a science: orient with a map or the friendly Office du Tourisme; beeline to château, cathedral, or ramparts, whichever comes first while scanning the restaurants for delicious, cheap food; warm up with coffee for Betsy and various drinks for me; find a park, river, or sea; take cool photos; get on train; repeat. As super-efficient tourists, we packed light, looked for deals (and found them!), and weren't afraid to try new things...which is probably why we got into some of our misadventures. (Note: Misadventures are not failures, but challenges met and overcome that enrich our experience.)
Misadventures:
Rennes
We were only in Rennes for seven or so hours, and we thought it would be a good idea to leave our heavy backpacks in the lockers at the Office du Tourisme while we explored the city. And it was a great idea, until we confused the closing time and our bags got locked in the Office du Tourisme over night. Whoops. We maintained our cool and sought Mexican food for solace. Luckily, it was not too time-consuming or expensive to go ahead and travel to Saint Malo where we had reservations at a fabulous hostel and return to Rennes the next day to claim our bags. We "roughed" it, going without shower or clean clothes until we were reunited with our backpacks the next day. We got more time in Rennes and delicious kebabs out of the deal, so all in all a successful misadventure.
Saint-Malo
We decided to go to a play on Saturday night, a musical comedy that was meant to make a statement of the superficiality of appearances in the modern world. After the woman at the front desk of our hostel nodded enthusiastically and encouraged us to go, we were sure it would be a tasteful, enjoyable evening, full of laughs, song, and deep thinking. What we found was a community theater production of a play still in production with a cast that could barely carry a tune. The play was set in the welcome office/ waiting room of a fitness center and centered around the development of a young Bretonne woman interning at the office. We enjoyed the first hour despite the off-key singing and ridiculous scenarios, but Hour 2 took its toll and we began to squirm, waiting for the end when everyone would come on stage and take their bows. We were sure when the pregnant woman attempted to shoot her non-committal, potentially gay boyfriend that it was over, but we still had 30 minutes to go, that included the little children dressing up as devils and stabbing aforementioned boyfriend with their spiked devil's forks. Finally, everyone got married, and we escaped into the night to get a much-needed glass of wine at a local night club.
Blois
When we returned to Blois, we came back to an apartment still infested with cockroaches. A ever-sympathetic Mr. Gauben (who will from now on be known as Henri per his request) gave me more cockroach spray, which I avoided using due to its toxicity that necessitates a quick exit from the premises. However, while I was cooking boeuf bourginon for our dinner, one of those sneaky little buggers decided that the knob of my stove would be an excellent place to chill out and wait for left-overs. After Betsy and I shared a good scream and some frantic prancing around with various hard objects to smash him with, I caught him in an empty tomato sauce jar and threw the whole thing away. We finished our meal and fumigated the apartment with the spray, electing to take a lovely evening stroll around Blois to avoid poisoning ourselves. We came back to a row of dead cockroaches. Victory is sweet.
Now I am back to work at the elementary schools and enjoying being a Blaisoise once more. Harriet and Amy are back from England, and we are determined to increase our adventuring between now and Christmas. We will try to see new things on the weekend and look for fun things to do and cool people to meet. Harriet and I have already begun our new challenge: yesterday, we had a great misadventure trying to go to the big cineplex on the outskirts of town to see (to our shame) Breaking Dawn Part 2 dubbed in French (according to the French previews, Kristen Stewart's French persona is both interesting and intelligent). Alas, we never made it as we couldn't find a way to cross the stupid highway, so instead we went shopping, found a cheap cocktail shaker and martini glasses, and opted for a night in with pistachio ice cream, cosmos, and a chick flick. Perfection. We'll be going out this weekend for the engineer university-sponsored blow-out party/ dance, so that should be exciting as well.
Cheers!
As I mentioned in my previous post, I decided to spend my two-week vacation traveling northwestern France with my dear high school friend, Betsy Herlong (you can read her blog here). I kicked off our travels by meeting her in Nantes, a large city close to her home in a small town called Ancenis. After a day in Ancenis, we took a train to Rennes, where we spent only a couple of hours before setting off to Saint Malo. We stayed in Saint Malo for three days, and then headed back to Blois via Angers. She spent four days with me in Blois, which we used as a jumping-off-point to explore other places in my region, namely Vendôme, Amboise, and Tours.
Here's a map of our adventures. If you click on the pin, you can see some of the highlights of each city.
Like most vacations, ours was a series of successes and misadventures.
Successes:
We are masters of the French train system, and it never failed to impress us with its punctuality (except for that one time when the train was late in Angers). We also ate excellent food, ranging from French Mexican to Turkish kebabs, from giant desserts to homemade Italian soup, boeuf bourginon, ratatouille, and cube steak. We saw a great French rom com and understood nearly every word. We shared a wonderful evening of down-home Southern cooking with Mr. Gauben and his wife Dominique. We got touring cities down to a science: orient with a map or the friendly Office du Tourisme; beeline to château, cathedral, or ramparts, whichever comes first while scanning the restaurants for delicious, cheap food; warm up with coffee for Betsy and various drinks for me; find a park, river, or sea; take cool photos; get on train; repeat. As super-efficient tourists, we packed light, looked for deals (and found them!), and weren't afraid to try new things...which is probably why we got into some of our misadventures. (Note: Misadventures are not failures, but challenges met and overcome that enrich our experience.)
Misadventures:
Rennes
We were only in Rennes for seven or so hours, and we thought it would be a good idea to leave our heavy backpacks in the lockers at the Office du Tourisme while we explored the city. And it was a great idea, until we confused the closing time and our bags got locked in the Office du Tourisme over night. Whoops. We maintained our cool and sought Mexican food for solace. Luckily, it was not too time-consuming or expensive to go ahead and travel to Saint Malo where we had reservations at a fabulous hostel and return to Rennes the next day to claim our bags. We "roughed" it, going without shower or clean clothes until we were reunited with our backpacks the next day. We got more time in Rennes and delicious kebabs out of the deal, so all in all a successful misadventure.
Saint-Malo
We decided to go to a play on Saturday night, a musical comedy that was meant to make a statement of the superficiality of appearances in the modern world. After the woman at the front desk of our hostel nodded enthusiastically and encouraged us to go, we were sure it would be a tasteful, enjoyable evening, full of laughs, song, and deep thinking. What we found was a community theater production of a play still in production with a cast that could barely carry a tune. The play was set in the welcome office/ waiting room of a fitness center and centered around the development of a young Bretonne woman interning at the office. We enjoyed the first hour despite the off-key singing and ridiculous scenarios, but Hour 2 took its toll and we began to squirm, waiting for the end when everyone would come on stage and take their bows. We were sure when the pregnant woman attempted to shoot her non-committal, potentially gay boyfriend that it was over, but we still had 30 minutes to go, that included the little children dressing up as devils and stabbing aforementioned boyfriend with their spiked devil's forks. Finally, everyone got married, and we escaped into the night to get a much-needed glass of wine at a local night club.
Blois
When we returned to Blois, we came back to an apartment still infested with cockroaches. A ever-sympathetic Mr. Gauben (who will from now on be known as Henri per his request) gave me more cockroach spray, which I avoided using due to its toxicity that necessitates a quick exit from the premises. However, while I was cooking boeuf bourginon for our dinner, one of those sneaky little buggers decided that the knob of my stove would be an excellent place to chill out and wait for left-overs. After Betsy and I shared a good scream and some frantic prancing around with various hard objects to smash him with, I caught him in an empty tomato sauce jar and threw the whole thing away. We finished our meal and fumigated the apartment with the spray, electing to take a lovely evening stroll around Blois to avoid poisoning ourselves. We came back to a row of dead cockroaches. Victory is sweet.
Now I am back to work at the elementary schools and enjoying being a Blaisoise once more. Harriet and Amy are back from England, and we are determined to increase our adventuring between now and Christmas. We will try to see new things on the weekend and look for fun things to do and cool people to meet. Harriet and I have already begun our new challenge: yesterday, we had a great misadventure trying to go to the big cineplex on the outskirts of town to see (to our shame) Breaking Dawn Part 2 dubbed in French (according to the French previews, Kristen Stewart's French persona is both interesting and intelligent). Alas, we never made it as we couldn't find a way to cross the stupid highway, so instead we went shopping, found a cheap cocktail shaker and martini glasses, and opted for a night in with pistachio ice cream, cosmos, and a chick flick. Perfection. We'll be going out this weekend for the engineer university-sponsored blow-out party/ dance, so that should be exciting as well.
Cheers!
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