Egalité, Fraternité, and Especially Liberté : Free Patrimony=Foreign Exchange Student Win!

Greetings again from France, y’all!  Sporting my red boots, a new pair of longhorn-cow-shaped earrings, and HUGE bags under my eyes from all of the tests I’ve had to take this week, I’d like to share with you an amazing discovery.  I was super-excited because I found out that on Thursday, starting at 7 p.m. and lasting until midnight (just like everything else interesting to do in France, it doesn’t start until after the sun goes down, and usually not until around 10 p.m.), the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Angers was free to enter for students. 

Stoked, I tell you, stoked.  

And why was I super-stoked in particular?  Because even though I am a student, I was too OLD to get in for free at all the cool stuff in Paris.  But at this museum, they didn’t bother to check my birthdate. 

This meant that I could actually get all nerdified for art, and this time, for FREE!

Free’s fun.  You know this if you’re a student, and especially when you’re a student paying your own way.

So to lavish on my experience, I will talk about all of the cool things I saw.  For.  FREE.  Ahem. 

First of all, let me just point out the fact that Anger’s Musée des Beaux-Arts was ranked as one of the top five best kept secrets in ALL of France according to my Lonely Planet travel guide.  I would suggest to any/every one that if you’re even thinking about studying abroad, look at some travel books.  Except maybe AAA’s, unless you either a)like Winnebagos or b) are over forty.  Just saying.  Between my own experiences with travel guides, along with talking to other people who have traveled a lot, Lonely Planet is pretty good, and you can find others that are good, too, based on Internet recommendations.  Also, just to further focus on my love of stuff “gratuit,” you can often find stuff in these guide books or online to do for fun, from visiting historic places and seeing a bunch of cool historic stuff, to art exhibitions, to other stuff—for free.

So, onto the free-dom!  

Going into the museum, I was excited to find a temporary exhibit of Jacques Villon, brother of Dadaist/Surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp.  Oh, you know Duchamp, he’s the French guy who either 1)just went out and bought a urinal at a 1917-style Home Depot, or 2) painstakingly created a urinal by hand.  He slapped his signature on this thing, and called it “Fountain”, which started a movement of works of art entitled “Ready-Mades”.  My personal favorite is his The Large Glass, also named The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even.  But it’s not necessarily the work itself that I love so much about this piece, it’s the history: after spending almost 10 years creating this thing, Duchamp felt that it was missing something as a finishing touch, so he named the piece Untitled in 1923.  Years later, in 1969, something happened to the glass during shipping, and it sent a HUGE crack through the whole thing.  That, according to Duchamp, was apparently the finishing touch, and he fixed the glass so that it would remain intact, and now, the finished product looks like this: 

Going back to Jacques Villon, his exhibition was not to my particular taste (I don’t really care much for Cubism, but hey, that’s just me), but I did thoroughly enjoy a small, Toulouse-Lautrec style drawing, and this self portrait:

Since I had to hurry through the museum in order to take a Grammaire test early the next day, I may try to go back soon, but in the meantime, if you get a chance to go see these works yourself in person, or online, let me point out a few works that I found particularly interesting:

A  Venitian painting with creepy smiley people and a random cat,

A huge painting with this angel in it, where you can see where the artist TOTALLY messed up and painted a new face on top of the old one!  Can you see the second pair of eyes just below and to the left under the angel’s skin?

And some others…

Pierre-Paul Rubens’Siléne ivre

Lorenzo Lippi’s L’Allégerie de la Simulation

Some other works by Jean Honoré Frangonard, whose painting The Swing is the most popular painting of the Rococo movement

Charles-François Lacroix’s Paysage

Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s Portrait presume de madame de Porcïn, which has a cute little dog in it

Karl-Ernest-Rudolph Heinrich’s Jérémie dictant ses phophéties, which has one of the most powerful facial expressions on both Jérémie and the angel of a mélange of hatred, belief, and determination that I’ve ever seen

Guillaume Bodinier’s Paysanne de Frascati au confessional

This painting of Joan of Arc (I couldn’t make out the name on the photo I took):

Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes’Paysage de bord de mer

Pierre-Narcisse Guérin’s Étude pour le visage d’Egisthe vu de profil

Alexis Jeaneau’s Femme á la coupe d’oranges (think Gaugin meets Carmen Miranda)

The sculptures at the end of the tour, where you can see the markings where the artist was never able to finish his (or her) piece of work.

And finally, although I usually don’t care too much for this movement, I was really impressed with Philippe Cognée’s Recyclage number 1.  

This painting reminds me of Anselm Kiefer’s work, an artist whom I truly admire.  Born in Germany and now living in France, Kiefer’s works are made with natural elements.  This is because his works are reflective of the Holocaust, and he believes that like rocks, ash, and woods that deteriorates over time, our memories of that tragic event will dwindle and decompose as well.  I still remember standing in front of his work Lot’s Wife, mouth agape, at the Cleveland Museum of Art as the tour guide explained tried her best to explain this to a bunch of 8^th graders. 

 At such a young age, peering through my huge wire glasses and frizzy hair, I gazed at the train tracks made from straw and wood splinters forming train tracks that went to a smokestack somewhere in the distance where the crematorium would inevitably be found, followed it past the painting, and then looked down to the floor at the small dustings of ash and pieces of the painting, and understood what the tour guide was straining to explain over a mass of giggly tweenie voices.  

Needless to say, that painting left quite an impression on me.  

Making my way back home, thinking of all of the works of art I spent seconds looking at, but took years to complete, I worked my mind back to Kiefer’s painting, remembering that on Saturday, I would be visiting Normandy, where D-Day occurred. 

Isn’t it strange how things free of charge, like the museum and the art exhibit I saw on the streets in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, can be so impressionnante?

Il Y A Tout Ce Que Vous Voulez, Aux Champs Elysées...BAH DAH BAH DAH DUMM!!!

Bonjour à tous from (well, now back from) Paris!  I've FINALLY made it here (for more than just a two-hour wait in the train station at the airport), but so much has happened, and this week has been filled with tests, that I can't possibly talk about it all!  So...the short, short version of Paris.

Before I talk about Paris, I would like to talk about something that occurred just before leaving.  On Wednesday, just after classes, I found out that my maternal grandmother, Eleanor (Warren) Coombs, passed away.  She had been suffering for a long time from being unable to breathe independently, and had been dependent on an oxygen tank for a few years now.  A couple of weeks ago, she caught pneumonia, and was not able to recover.  This is a sombre note which takes me to Paris, but I know that she would have wanted me to go to Paris with a positive attitude, a smile, and a thought of her as I continue to experience my journey as a foreign exchange student.  But with that in mind, Grandma, I am sorry that I was not able to be home to be with you during your last days, and I will miss you very much.  I love you.

Now, in true "Grandma Coombs" fashion, who loved word searches, hidden chocolate bars in her nightstand, bowling, golf, and bingo so much, on to the fun!


So you know what that means when I talk about fun...it's time for a list! 

Wednesday, Day -1 (the night before leaving for Paris): The "Other" Type of Dinner My Host Family Serves

After I finished with my classes, my host family made my boyfriend and me an EPIC dinner, complete with
1. An aperitif of sweet wine and a sardine spread (which was awesome, don't knock it 'til you try it!) served on crackers from a little pot of the stuff that I bought for my host parents from St. Malo.
2. A first course of potage (a cream-based soup) made of Roquefort cheese, which you can't buy in the States because it's made from unpasteurized milk
3. A main course of roasted duck, potatoes, and veggies. Which. Was. Amazing.
4. A cheese course, including the Roquefort cheese, which you have to use a different knife to cut, since the taste is a very strong blue-cheese flavor
5. An amazing apple tart made by my host father with apples from his brother-in-law's apple orchard.
6. A follow-up glass of sparkling wine aperitif with a macaron from a gift box filled with them I bought for my host mother.  Her birthday is tomorrow, and I asked my host father what he would suggest, who directed us to a chocolatier close by.  These macarons don't have any fake coloring to them, just a nice, puffy crust with a gooey paste inside.  It was the best macaron I'd had in France.

All of this was served with some of the wine that was bought during our recent excursion to Saumur, and my host father even gave a bottle of wine to the beau-friend to take back as a souvenir for us to drink when I come back to the States.

I love my host family.



Thursday, Day 1: Royale with Cheese

1.  Dropped off at the train station by my host father, allowing the beau-friend and me some extra time to get ready for our early day.  Again, I love my host family.
2.  TGV-ing with the Beaners (Gene, my boyfriend).
3.  Arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport, which I arranged on purpose, since my ticket is round-trip, but Gene's is one-way, since he'll be flying back to the States on Sunday.
4.  Taking the RER (the "rural"-type train, which takes you into town from the suburban areas, and only stops at certain places) from CDG to Paris, where we changed trains toget to our hotel, situated close to the Arc de Triomphe.  The Champs-Elysées runs into the Arc de Triomphe, so I'll be seeing both for the first time.
5.  Holy heavens-to-Betsy:

This thing is HUGE!  Also, it being the day before Armistice Day (Veteran's Day in the U.S.), there are tons of tanks, big-screen TV projectors, and police about in preparation for a parade down the C-E the next morning.
2.  Check into the hotel after standing wide-mouthed at the magnificence of the Arc de Triomphe for a while as Gene stares at me.  I am overwhelmed by the sheer size and amount of artistry put into something that was created in remembrance of several battles France was involved in, including the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and finally, for World War I.  The tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI is here, and you can go through a tunnel that runs under the square to visit the Arc and even climb up it.  We didn't do that on this trip, but I hope to go back soon for a second chance to do so.  Seeing things like this is always profound for me; although I believe in peace, I understand that it is not always possible.  When those times come to pass, and there must be a battle to save others from enslavement, oppression, and the like, it warms my heart to see things like this, where those who live on can honor those who were fallen.  In some ways, if it wasn't for those fallen soldiers, in France, the U.S., as well as other countries, it would not be possible for me, being a working-class, non-traditional woman, to be able to travel alone to a foreign country.  It may not even have been possible for me to be able to go to school.  I have respect and appreciation for the lives that may have been lost in order to give me, and others, the opportunities that I have now.

3.  On a sillier note, after checking into our "quaint", but very nice hotel, Gene and I decided to be as American as possible and order a Royale with Cheese from Mickey D's, or, as the French call it, MacDo, à la "Pulp Fiction".  But it wouldn't be complete without the tiny can of beer that you can totally order from there, just like John Travolta said:

They serve their french fries with a mayonnaise sauce, not ketchup, by the way.

We are so American, right, John?

It's a Royale with cheese because of the Metric System, you know

3.  Nonchalantly, Gene looks at me and asks, "you wanna go to the Eiffel Tower today"?
This kind of question provokes a different kind of response from me.  Unlike many others, who freak out at the chance to go to le Tour Eiffel, I always thought it was very overrated, and was just a big ol' radio tower that no one uses anymore.

I was so wrong.

Walking down a few backstreets to save the C-E for later, we turned a couple of corners, and peeking through the fall-hued leaves of a few trees sprinkled along a small patch of green park space, I gazed at the image of what I that was something simply *meh*, and stood, amazed, at the magnitude that this symbol of Paris bestowed on the landscape...

...and I started to cry.

It was there, in that tiny park, among those tiny yellow-and-red-leaved trees, that it really donned on me that I was here, in Paris, and that I made it here to France.  I actually did it.  Really and truly.  And as a symbol of my own personal journey, this tower, a remnant of ingenuity for the 1889 World's Fair, was looking down on me, almost as if it was giving me permission to be in France, gracing me with its presence.  It was breathtaking.

Like a little kid, I skipped along the roadside, looking for a good place for pictures.  After a couple of photo-ops, we made our way to the huge line to get onto the elevator, since we found out that *you cannot walk halfway up via stairs, then take the elevator to the top*.  You can take the stairs halfway up, or you can take the elevator all the way up, but those are your only choices.  You can thank me for saving you up to two hours of waiting in the wrong line later :)

By the time we made it to the front of the line to go up the Tower, it was already dark.  However, this was a new experience for Gene, and for me, it was my first, but I think if I were to have the choice, I would have chosen to go up at night anyway.  The view is spectacular, and you get to see the Tower sparkle every hour:

Amazing.

You can't tell, but we're totally at the top of the Eiffel Tower!

4.  After spending a long, long time at the top of the tower (which ended up working in our favor because it was too foggy to see anything the next day), we headed back to the hotel.  Passing in front of the Eiffel Tower, there was an amazing contemporary art exhibit setup, featuring photographers from all over the world.  I wasn't able to find the name of the actual exhibition, but some of the best photographers featured in Paris can be found here: I've copied the direct web address to feature one of the photographers, Hassan Hajjaj:
http://www.photoquai.fr/fr/2011/photographies/selection-par-photographes/fiche-photo/photo/spring-summer-collection-2018-1.html                             
by walking along the C-E, chock-full of stores ranging from souvenir shops to Cartier.  There were a lot of stores already decked out for the holidays, which was nice for me to see, since my dad goes all out with the Christmas decorations.  I particularly liked the Louis Vuitton window, which looked like it was decorated with Christmas ornaments from far away, but which were actually hot-air balloons up close:

5.  We finished our evening with yet another very American meal: Chinese food!

Day 2: To the Louvre!

After getting some Starbucks coffee for breakfast (oh, how I love French coffee, but miss you at the same time, oh Starbucks mermaid!), we watched the end of the Armistice Day parade, and walked down the C-E to the Place de la Concorde.  This is where there are two gorgeous fountains, and in true Archaeological-nerd style, I was particularly excited to visit the *real* Egyptian obelisk in the middle of the square.  The base, in French, explains how it was transported, by boat, to France from Egypt.  Although I know that Zahi Hawass, the former Egyptian Minister of the State for Antiquities Affaires, likes the idea of bringing all Egyptian artifacts back to Egypt in order to boost the tourist industry, I have to admit that following the recent uprising of revolutionaries in Egypt for democracy, the pillaging and destruction made by Egyptian troublemakers during the ruckus to the Egyptian museums and pyramids breaks my heart.  I'm glad that this obelisk is here in France, where it is now protected, for even though Hawass' dream makes sense, Egypt is not stable enough to protect its ancient artifacts--it has bigger problems to deal with right now.

Trust me, folks. I know what I'm doing.  I'm an archaeologist.

Speaking of pyramids, here's a picture of me in front of the one at the Louvre:

So, my French language teacher told us that the Louvre has so many objects in it, that if you spent 30 seconds looking at each one, it would take you over two months to look at everything.  With that in mind, if you have a student card, and you're under 25 (not the case for me, hélas), you can get in for *free*.  Zip. Zilch. Nada. Gratuit.
Some of the highlights of my (hopefully first of many) visit(s) to the Louvre which I found interesting:

The Venus de Milo

Winged Victory of Samothrace (statue of Nike)

Mona Lisa-but don't be this dude who's trying to take a picture with his HUGE iPad, ruining a nice shot for everyone else, please :)  Keep in mind that this painting is tiny!

Sarcophagus of the Spouses (Etruscan)

They look so happy together :)

Code of Hammurabi (example of cuneiform, the first form of writing)

"It is imperative that you use the French Future Simple if you're giving commands!"  My grammar teacher would be so proud of me for saying that!
And just a start of some others:
The Clubfoot (1642, painting, Naples)
Paintings by Peter Paul Reubens
Paintings by Holbein the Younger and Holbein the Elder (check out "The Ambassadors" when you get a chance, even though it's not in the Louvre, it's in the National Gallery in London)
Paintings by Arcimboldo (trust me, you'll want to look this guy up!)
Paintings by Caravaggio
Paintings by Rembrandt, including his older works
Paintings by Albrecht Dürer
The Mesopotamian exhibit
The Ancient Egyptian exhibit
18th Century Hellenistic sculpture exhibit

As I said before, this is just a starter list.  Two other things to keep in mind while you're wandering the halls is to *LOOK UP*--the ceilings are painted, too!--and to *LOOK DOWN*.  I recently had a discussion in French with a friend of mine here where we talked about the fact that the marble *stone* stairs are curved from so many people walking on them.  Just think!

Remember folks, the Louvre pretty much takes all day, so plan accordingly!

Day 3: The Red-Light (and Red Windmill) District

This day we visited Montmartre, going first to the Sacre Coeur, which was built, on purpose, in the shadiest part of Paris as an attempt to make up for the Church's indulgences (different than paying the church for Indulgences, which is the reason why Martin Luther broke off from the Catholic church), during the turn of the 20th century.  A word of caution: do *NOT*, I repeat, *NEVER EVER EVER* let those guys come up to you to try and knot a bracelet together by using your finger, *NOR* let someone get you to sign a petition.  The petitions, at the bottom, state that you agree to give the petition people money, and it also gets you to stop dead in your tracks for the same reason that the bracelet-making people come up to you: FOR PICKPOCKETING.  Paris is beautiful, bien sûr, but please, please be wary.  You're a tourist, people can tell you're a tourist (i.e. camera is out, map is out, lost look on your face trying to find directions, you're carrying a bag from a souvenir shop, etc., etc.), so you need to do everything in your power to keep your stuff safe.  I know it's very "Eurotrip" of me, but I wear a money belt with a slightly oversized shirt.  I've had occasions where I've stopped somewhere to get something out of my bookbag, just to find that all of my zippers have been partially opened.  These people are professionals, folks.  Please be wary, be cautious, and help each other.

That being said, aside from those folks, Montmartre was beautiful:
1. The Sacre Coeur was beautiful
2. The view of Paris from the top was beautiful (the church is the highest point in Paris)
3. The French accordion player at the top of the hill was beautiful (I have a personal weakness for accordion music, but don't tell anyone-that would really make me sound nerdy!)
4. The Moulin Rouge was beautiful
5. The Art Nouveau-style Metropolitain signs were beautiful
6. Even the adult stores were beautiful, in their own funny way.

Gene also bought me a music box, which plays the song for the C-E.  At first I was really annoyed by the song, that I heard everywhere (even from Gene) around the time we arrived here, but having a music box that plays that song makes it a nice memory now.  I got my love of music boxes from my paternal Grandmother, with whom I lived for three years, until she passed away from cancer a few years ago.  She always wanted me to go back to school, and she passed just after I got out of the hospital from complications due to a malfunctioning gallbladder (which I think had to do with my very unhealthy diet at the time).  Seeing myself now, healthy and not only back in school but studying abroad, warms my heart to think of her.  

I am also thinking of my maternal grandmother now, and it puts my heart at ease to think that she is no longer suffering from the inability to breathe.  Standing in Paris, taking in the Parisian air with my lungs working at full capacity, I am glad to have my health, glad to have my friends, and glad to have my family.  For those of you who have been so supportive of me, and to you both, Grandma Coombs and Grandma Thomas, I am grateful for you all, and hold you all dear in my heart.
 

Alright, where's Ewan McGregor?!?!

7. But another reason we stopped in Montmartre was to visit the "Café des 2 Moulins", the restaurant that Amélie worked in, in the movie of the same (U.S.) name.  It is, of course, different in real life than in the movie, mainly because the movie made the restaurant so popular and tourist-y, so instead of showing what it really looks like, I want to maintain the glamour of the restaurant in the film, so I'll just show this picture instead:

 8.  After leaving Montmartre, we took the métro back by the Eiffel Tower, where we went on a guided boat tour along the Seine.  


You have to do this.  I'm just saying.


During that time, we went up and down the Seine, passing by the Eiffel Tower, along with plenty of other awesome places.  As we passed the Musée d'Orsay, which used to be the main Paris train station (and which was graphically reconstructed to it's train-station heyday in the movie "A Very Long Engagement"), I saw, along with plenty of other cities in France carved into the stone face of the Musée, my town:

Angers, c'est moi!

We finished off the day with a trip to a Japanese restaurant (which was really good), and packed for an early start tomorrow.  Gene has to leave early in the morning, and I'm going with him to the train station, but I will be free to roam the rest of Paris until around 9 o'clock, when I board the train back to Angers.


Day 4-The Last Day
Waking up at the crack of dawn, Gene and I headed to the Métro in order to buy our RER tickets for us to go to the airport.  I wasn't leaving Paris yet, though, so I bought a daily pass card, that gives me access to all Métro stops in Paris, the RER to get to and from suburban areas (including the airport), and all buses.  This was by FAR a good investment if you're thinking about going to Paris and wanting to see lots of things, which you will have to take the Métro to get to, anyway.  I found a really good site that explains the differences between tickets and stuff for Paris here:

http://parisbytrain.com/


Our trip to the airport ended up really being a journey, since the direct RER line to CDG Airport was shut down for repairs.  An additional 45 minutes later, Gene and I said our tearful goodbyes, and I was back on a shuttle ("navette" in French) to get back to the RER line to go back into town.  Although we are used to not seeing each other for weeks on end at times (he lives in TN, a 3.5-hour drive away), it was different this time, being in such a romantic city together, and knowing that he came all the way to France to see me.  Even though I was still excited to be in Paris and to be able to see different things, I was also very saddened to see him go.


I made my way to the Latin Quarter after checking out of the hotel, and walked around Notre Dame, the Place St. Michel, and also passed by the Sorbonne and crossed the Pont Neuf.  It was a beautiful day, and I managed to find a seat on the Pont Neuf to do a bit of homework (yep, I'm that big of a nerd, bringing homework to Paris).  After visiting the MacDo closeby for a bathroom break (*hint* they're free to use there, you don't need to buy something to use it like you do at the other MacDo's) and walking through a Parisian artists' studio building, I made my way back to the métro.  

This time, since I was already seasoned with the huge detour to follow in order to get to the airport, I was able to help several people, sometimes in English, sometimes in French, to explain to them what was going on, and where to go to get to the Airport Shuttle.  After a long conversation in French with a nice older man, a very cramped RER ride to the shuttles, lots of questions to me in French and English, and seeing a video that a New Yorker named Daniel took when he was pulled up on stage at the 30 Seconds to Mars concert at the Zenith the night before, I ended up being at the airport with two hours to spare.  

This actually ended up being perfect, because I was able to ask for a good place to eat in the Terminals.  My best advice to you, if you're going to Paris via CDG Airport, is to get there with plenty of time to spare.  This is because of Terminal 2D.  Terminal 2D has plenty of restaurants to choose from, not just overpriced and overbaked patisserie stands, and if you go downstairs, it is nice and quiet and no one else is there.  The bathrooms are also very clean downstairs, there's a grocery store (along with MacDo, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks among the restaurants upstairs), as well as a big fiberglass cow and a tiny fiberglass frog perched atop of a platform that tells a story about the two.  


After eating a sandwich and doing homework with the vache by my side, I made it to the train station, sat down, and opened my "Français des Affaires" book just to look over and see the exact same book in the lap of the guy beside me.  It was another student from my class, and we had a nice conversation before boarding the train and coming back to Angers just before midnight.  Crawling into bed, I felt satisfied with my first trip to Paris, and hope to go back again before I leave back to the U.S. in January.  

But for now, onto a week filled with tests!

Hills-Rocks=Chateaux + Caves=Awesome Wine and Mushrooms in Saumur!

Greetings fellow “prend”-ers!  I say “prend”, or prendre, because that is the familiar verb one uses to describe eating or drinking.  The word actually means “to take, or to take in”, and works perfectly with all things “prend”-able, whether it be beverages or food.  With this in mind, I had a great time “prend”-ing all there was to “prend” in Saumur, a quaint little village close to Angers, known specifically for its wine, mushrooms, and, of course, chateaux. 

However, without the chateaux in the Loire Valley, these special vineyards and caves used for growing mushrooms and aging wine would not exist.  Pourquoi pas?  Well, it all starts with the wish for really rich people (royalty and the like) to build their second mansions in the country, oftentimes in the Loire Valley.  Personally, I think this became a “my chateau is bigger than your chateau” contest, but anyway.  So in order to build these great chateaux, people gutted the underlying hills of the Loire Valley, valuing the shale (like the mine my host family and I visited on our bike ride), limestone, and other rocks that could be used for constructing these huge buildings.  In place of all the rock gutted from the hills, caves formed, and somewhere along the line, someone thought that it would be an awesome idea to grow/ferment stuff in them.  In some cases, people even thought it would be cool to live in the caves, and those caves were given the name “troglodytes”.  It is very à la mode now to live in these troglodytes, which remind me of the houses of the Hobbits in the Shire from Tolkien’s books. 

(Chez moi)

My host parents thought it would be a cultural experience to visit some of these caves and vineyards to see the magic of winemaking in the Loire Valley.  The whole aspect of visiting/appreciating/tasting/choosing all things “prend”-able is VERY French, and was a great opportunity to see true French culture.  This was especially nice because my boyfriend came to visit me for the week, and although he has visited Paris twice (three times after this weekend, avec moi for the first time!), he has never really seen true French culture like this.

Our day started with my boyfriend Gene and me riding backseat in my host family’s Renault along the countryside for about 35 km.  We arrived in Saumur to have a look around the town, which had a good portion of the original buildings bombed during WWII, and had to be rebuilt.  We stopped for an espresso and a croissant for breakfast, treated to us by Jean and Marie-Anne, and strolled along casually through the town.  Gene and I were told that there are no “chain” stores in town because most of the stores are either operated by the very wealthy who live around Saumur who simply have an interest in selling things made of lace, pâtés, or other things, or by people who genuinely appreciate the patrimony of Saumur.  To truly be French, you have to have a great deal of pride in the patrimony of your region and of La France her-self, and honor that respect for the French customs, culture and tradition well (such as visiting the vineyards and caves where you buy your wine and mushrooms). 

Along the way, we walked up to the Chateau of Saumur, stopping at a “house for craftsmen”-when someone truly wants to learn the best of a craft, they come here, stay for a year, and work during that year as an apprentice.  Coincidentally enough, when my host father came up to a stonemason who was working there, covered in chalky dust from sanding the block he was working on, and spoke to him in French, the guy had no idea what was going on because he wasn’t French, but British!  Leave it to us to find the only non-French-speaking guy on a day trip to experience everything French!  Yet I don’t mean this in a bad way at all, actually, quite the contrary.  This means that France, along with its “Maisons de Metiers”, is so appealing that people who know ABSOLUTELY no French will come to learn other things that have to do with French culture, such as stonework in this guy’s case.  After a pleasant, English conversation, we walked up the hill to visit the Chateau of Saumur, made from the same gutted stones from the caves and troglodytes around town.  The view was incredible, and it even had a space for a moat, along with a Medieval-Times-themed spectacle advertised on the HUGE door.  It is very strange to watch movies like “A Knight’s Tale” and even “Robin Hood”, and to think of the effort that had to go into building and operating all of the chains and doors used in REAL castles.

And now I'm distracted by the thought of Heath Leger and Alan Tudyk in "A Knight's Tale"...

After making our way back through town and eating lunch at an awesome restaurant, which was truly French, not just French-themed--think of your favorite local hangout vs. a chain American restaurant like Texas Roadhouse or TGI Friday’s--we visited the countryside.  There was a tiny 15^th-ish century chapelle (an old church where there is no priest who lives there, as my host mother explained), tons of vineyards, and these little chimneys that rose up from the ground.  We were told that these are chimneys used in the caves for ventilation of the underground air along with smoke from fires lit inside the caves to light them up.  They are still used during times for barbeques (which is the same word in French, by the way), and you can even rent a space within a cave for your own particular winemaking use.  Therefore, if you become rich and famous, you can live in one cave, and your wine can live in another!

As a side note, did you know that although the wine made in France is very much French, grown in French soil and tended in the French tradition, that the grapes are actually American???  I spoke with my host father about this, because I remember reading about it before coming to France.  You can read about it, too, at:

http://wampumkeeper.com/wineblight.html

The first cave we visited was from the family of Retiveau-Retif, who makes the brand of wine called “Les Champs Fleuris”.  The man who showed us around was very polite, and described to us in French that he had been working there for his grandfather, one of the proprietors, after he moved to the area from Lyon when he was younger.  The art of winemaking is actually suffering greatly in France, because it is such a difficult job to manage, and is wayyyy out in the country, where younger generations don’t want to live for fear of boredom or hard manual labor.  

It's a lot harder than just pouring you a glass, folks!

This I can understand, because after looking at all that goes in to winemaking, one can easily tell that it is a 24/7/365 job, for there is always something that needs to be made (wine barrels), replanted (new vines), harvested, bottled, and boxed, often by hand (the wine itself), as well as sold.  ALL of these things have to be done by the winemaker, which makes it a tremendously hard job with no breaks.  However, if you LOVE the art of winemaking, and wish to make that your profession, you should seriously think about moving to France!  You’ll find a job in no time, since the demand for good wine is so big, but the number of people to create it is so small.

Marie-Anne describing to me the craft of making wine barrels by hand

After leaving the first wine cave, we visited another wine maker named Bouvet-Laudbay, which is a company that works very differently than the last one.  As I said, it is very difficult to find enough people in the Saumur area to grow and harvest wine grapes, so there are other companies, some French, some German, some from other countries, too, who buy grapes from local vineyard owners, and just make wine, cutting down on all of the tasks for both the vineyard keeper as well as the wine company.  The company gets to keep its name and make a business selling the wine that it makes from local grapes while the hassle of the latter part of wine making is taken away from the vineyard owner, who can just focus on growing the grapes.  It’s a win-win. 

This particular wine maker used to use the old caves just for the fermentation process of all of its wine back in the day, but with the awesomeness of technology, it now creates 90% of its wine in a factory, which is easier, less time-consuming, and certainly more sanitary than making the wine in musty, fungus-covered caves!  

 When my host family told me originally that there were “mushrooms” in the caves, they didn’t just mean the kind you put on your pizza, they also meant the kind that we know in English as “mold”-gross!   

We also visited an art gallery on the premises while waiting for our tour to start that sported a horse-themed installation.  That’s the other big thing about Saumur: their horses.  There are a LOT of military people who live here (“it’s like a town within a town,” as Jean described), and they take horse riding very, very seriously.  Out of the artists I saw, I liked the works of both Jacques Blezot and Jean-Jacques Grand the best: the first made a horse sculpture with the horse’s body made from an old motorcycle, and the second made graphic drawings of horses with a hand that was obviously skilled in calligraphy, if you would like to check either of them out.

However, do not fret, hypochondriac, Purell-toting Americans (myself included, so I can totally say that)!  Both the young gentleman at the old wine cave and the English-speaking tour guide at the latter wine cave (who also sells bottles of wine from the estate of the actor Gerard Depardieu, bien sûr), told us that the mold stays on the outside of the wine barrels, while the wine inside (save for a tiny bit that leaks out as vapor “for the angels” as they say) stays nice and fresh.  However, as is the tradition of the former winemaker, the hand-made barrels have to be trashed every three years, because the mélange of different tastes from different harvests of grapes affects the next batch of wine placed within them.  Apparently, this company is most well-known for its sparkling wine, which, depending on how sweet or dry it is, has different amounts of sugar added to it after all of the natural sugar has been lost during the fermentation process.  My favorite of this was actually the “Brut Zéro” variety, which means that it is dry (“brut”), and has zero added sugar.  It was very tart, but amazing.  

We made our way back to Angers with a trunk full of bottles and boxes of wine.  The “boxed wine» idea was originally such a joke for me, because we all know how “classy” boxed wine is considered in the States, but here it is truly an art, sans blague!  Our day ended with a Saumur-themed, light mushroom omelet made by Marie-Anne, who, as I continue to reiterate, is an amazing cook, as well as a new understanding and appreciation by both Gene and me of the real French lifestyle.  C’est la bonne vie, la vie qui est plein de vin et champingnons! 

In England or France, a Revolution's a Reason to Throw a Party!

Greetings, folks!

I'm going to Paris this weekend!  I can't even believe that I'm finally going to be able to stay there and visit all the places I've seen in movies, history books (ranging from archaeological to art history), and even, yes, that silly Champs-Elysées song.  I'm going there this weekend because my boyfriend has actually flown all the way to France to see me, and will be hanging out with me (when I'm not in class, they're really strict about that here) until he flies back on Sunday.

The first night he arrived, we went to my friend Ben's house for a "Guy Fawkes" day celebration.  You should look it up, it's where the "V for Vendetta" mask is from, and where you hear people say "Remember, remember, the 5th of November".

You know the guy.

After eating some English (and Asian) goodies and setting a tiny scarecrow-looking guy ablaze in Ben's garden (which is the tradition, apparently), Gene and I made our way back to my house, where he spent the next day sleeping in "une grasse matinée" is the term in French.  My friends and I spoke mostly in French while we were there, and although Gene can't speak that much of it, he participated in a French study program when he was in high school, so he can understand it pretty well.  This is great for me, because I don't have to translate everything!  My host father wants to take us to Saumur tomorrow to visit some wine caves (with the ok from all of my teachers, of course), and we're hoping that Gene's "décalage horaires" (jet-lag) will be better by then. 

À bietôt!