We have a huge dog in the house! I forgot to mention "Douchka" before, but she is an enormous and very affectionate dog. I had a great conversation with Madame and Jean about dogs yesterday morning in which I tried to describe Boomer (my family’s golden doodle). This was difficult; I said that his dad was a golden retriever (they knew this name) and his mom was a poodle, but they did not know the word poodle. I couldn't describe poodles in French, but Madame took out a huge book called “Les Chiens” (“Dogs”) and I flipped through it to find a picture of a poodle…they are called “les caniches” in French…very different from the English word. And of course the picture was a foo foo poodle with the pompom haircut. Madame and Jean thought this was a very peculiar combination.
Boomer!
Anyways, today I ventured to Centre Ville again. On the way, I first stopped for a pain au chocolat (a very French pastry, it’s a croissant with two pieces of chocolate inside), and asked the lady where I could get a café. I had already passed two café/bars, but was too scared to go inside because they looked strange… they’re like a combination of a café and a bar and dimly lit, but I went in one across from the patisserie. I sat at the bar, ordered a café, and sipped it in the company of middle-aged French men on lunch breaks. We watched French horse races on TV. It was pretty fun and the bar tender was very nice. I felt very out of place, but very happy because I had been communicating effectively in French!
My University! I walk by it on the way to Centre Ville.
After my café, I continued walking to Centre Ville, where I did some shopping (bought a cute pair of pants at Zara) and did more exploring of the heart of the city (Indiana Jones style :) ). A super stylish French girl asked me where Zara was and I tried to give her directions, but wasn’t sure the street names for how to get there. I showed her the little map I had drawn in my notebook, but I don’t think it helped. But she was very nice and understood my French! I already have a pretty good sense of direction in the city and have really enjoyed my little excursions and encounters I’ve had. Each day I feel more and more comfortable and more excited about the semester.
La Maison d'Adam in Centre Ville (I wrote about it in the previous post)
Madame’s son came over for dinner and we discussed medicine because he goes to school in Paris to be an osteopathic doctor (D.O.). I told him that I went to school in the same city as A.T. Still (the founder of osteopathic med. created this school in Kirksville), and he knew the name! I also learned how to say pediatrician, obstetrician, and gynecologist in French—“pédiatre”, “obstétricienne”, “gynécologue”. After dinner I walked Douchka with Madame on the banks of the Loire! We drove about ten or fifteen minutes to get there and then hiked along the sandy banks. It was beautiful and there were little villages in the distance all along the walk and a chateau. I didn’t take this picture, but it looked like this because it was just after sunset.
Banks of La Loire (there's a chateau in the distance)
Thanks everyone for reading my blog and for the wonderful messages/feedback!
I found this bug on my desk when I got back from the walk.
I have arrived in Angers! The journey here was long, but it actually seemed to go by pretty quickly. I had to spend a couple hours in the train station at the airport before taking the TGV (very speedy train) to Angers. The hardest part of the trip was figuring out how to use the “cabines” (public telephones). I called my French host family and told them of my arrival and also called my mom and dad. Madame Chauvin is my French host; she’s very nice and her beautiful artwork hangs all over the house. Her house is very cute, it’s definitely very French. It’s narrow, but has three stories. My room is on the top floor and has a window that overlooks her garden in the backyard (see photo). When we got here, I took a three hour nap and then joined Madame and Jean (her very serious/long-term boyfriend) for dinner.
A Room With A View
My conversations with Madame and Jean have been pretty amusing…I ask brief questions or they ask me questions and I give short responses. And then we try to figure out what I’m trying to say, and then we all laugh. But they said last night that I speak French better than most other Americans who stay with them. There have also been some funny miscommunications, like last night when I was trying to tell them that I appreciate it when they correct me (Madame is a professor and they both correct me frequently), but used “correcter” instead of “corriger”, the difference being that “correcter” is the verb used in french to refer to when a parent hits their child for misbehaving and “corriger” is to correct in the grammatical sense. Also, this morning at breakfast, I told them I wanted to “explore” the city, and they said no, I wanted to “visite” the city, “explore” is what Indiana Jones does. And then we laughed and joked that maybe I did want to explore the city in the Indy Jones way.
I already gave up being a vegetarian, oops! But mostly because I’ve been worried about offending Madame and Jean by being too picky. I told them that I don’t eat very much meat and no red meat, but I’ve already had to try some interesting foods. Last night at dinner I had some meat spread on bread, I think it was pork. We also had something that I can’t figure out what it was, they said it had no meat in it, but the texture was weird…I tried to figure it out, but haven’t had any luck yet. I think Madame said it was canale, but I’m not sure. Today at lunch I had pâté (liver) on bread, it wasn’t terrible, but I really didn’t like it. They noticed that I like tomatoes and cucumbers and put out a bowl of them for me at lunch, which was very sweet. And after dinner I had a vineyard peach, which grow between grapes in vineyards and are delicious (see photo)! So they gave me the last one after lunch today.
la pêche de vigne
I finally did some exploring of Angers today! After lunch and a little nap, I took the bus to the "Centre Ville". I’ve heard Angers is the quintessential city of the Loire Valley, and that seems to be true. There is a castle in the middle of the city (Château D’Angers)! It's in the Centre Ville, which is the old part of the city. Cars are not allowed on the streets in this part, and all of the streets are made of cobble stones and wind around the old buildings. The fortress of the castle was built in the 13th century. I have not bee inside yet, but will soon. It has a beautiful garden on the edge of the small river that runs through Angers (La Maine). I also saw Maison d'Adam, which is a tall wooden house from c. 1500 with a very ornate facade and named for wooden statues of Adam and Eve on it.
Cathédrale St. Maurice (in Centre Ville)
View from la Cathédrale of La Maine and a fountain
Fortress of le
Château, garden on edge of La Maine
After dinner tonight with Madame and Jean, we ate some petits gâteaux (little cakes) and watched the news on TV. So far, the hardest part has been not being able to call my family and friends whenever I want. I feel a little lonely, but another student comes to the house tomorrow. It's a girl from Japan in the same program as me. And another American girl is coming on Thursday, which is also when my classes start. I did notice that there are tons of young people in the city, so I shouldn't have any problems making friends as soon as I'm around people my age...That's all for now! Leave your comments or send me an email! Lots of love!
