Now that I’m home safe in AMERICA, I’ll try and summarize my last five weeks in France.
1 Weekend in the countryside
November 26th-28th—I spent the weekend at my French friend Elise’s parents' house. They live in the countryside by Belleville-sur-Vie, also in the Loire Valley. The weekend was full of good food and wine, including raclette (which I will explain later) and chocolate mousse (that I am still drooling over). Their house was very cozy and the fireplace was burning the whole weekend. Saturday we went to the beach at Les Sables about 30 minutes away, an aquarium, and then a dinner party at her cousin’s house Saturday night. A very comfy-cozy weekend!
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| Playing on the beach! |
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| Dinner party at Elise's cousin's house |
2 Weekends in Paris with my “brothers”
Weekend 1 (December 3
rd-6
th)—This weekend started with a last minute decision Friday evening to follow Wenonah to Paris and stay with our French host brothers at their cousin’s apartment. Friday night, Pierre Etienne had a jazz concert in a bar/restaurant and Saturday we made brunch, lounged around the apartment, walked around doing some Christmas shopping, and then went to a raclette party at some of their friends' apartments. I was livin' the real Parisian life—running around the city, hopping railings to take the metro, playing music on the metro trains, and being with my French brothers, who are also my friends :) Wenonah and I also visited the Museum of Natural History Sunday morning and did a bit of exploring on our own before heading back to Angers in the evening.
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| PE's band! Swanky. |
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| François (host brother/friend), Wenonah, and me--PE's concert |
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| Whole family! (PE, Wenonah, François, me) |
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| jamming on the metro |
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| Me and my T-REX buddy at the Natural History Museum |
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| Shakespeare and Company, a famous bookstore on the Left Bank across from Notre Dame |
Weekend 2 (December 19th-21st)—Wenonah and I again took the train to Paris Friday afternoon (Montparnasse is only 1 ½ hours from Angers via train). We hung out at Fabien’s apartment (the cousin) with two other girls from Croatia and Lithuania, cooked dinner, drank some wine, and waited for PE and François to arrive from Normandy driving through a blizzard. Once everyone got there, we went to the Latin Quarter (by the Sorbonne and the Pantheon) to a party in a bar with PE’s friends from osteopathy school. This meant an all-night dance party in the cave under the bar ending at 5:30 am, followed by a stop at a restaurant by the Seine with PE’s friends, and finishing with the first metro of Saturday morning to arrive back at Fabien’s apartment around 6:30 am. Definitely my longest night out in France, but a true Parisian and European experience. Saturday night was much more relaxed; we stayed at PE’s apartment enjoying some nice wines from the Jura and Bordeaux regions and foie gras. La classe!
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| The Gang at Fabien's apartment (we have mustaches drawn on our fingers) |
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| Wenonah and me in the snow |
3 Events in Angers to end the semester
· Gala: November 20
th—I went to a gala in the
Château du Plessis-Macé about 15km outside of Angers. A group of my friends from ESA (a school of agricultural arts in Angers) had their annual gala and invited Wenonah and me. The castle was beautiful and we spent the night drinking wine and champagne and dancing.
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| with friends before the event |
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| outside the château with Wenonah |
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| group outside the château |
· Marché du Noël: In Centre Ville, there were lots of little boutiques selling Christmas gifts and hot food and drinks. There is one of these in almost every city and it lasts all through December.
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| Marché de Noël |
· Château d'Angers: The main tourist attraction in Angers—a medieval castle right in Centre Ville. After walking around the perimeter so many times during the semester, I finally visited the château my last week and it was amazing! Whereas the other castles I visited in the Loire Valley earlier this semester were from the Renaissance period and meant for weekend getaways for royalty and the noble class, this castle was used by multiple kings, notably Roi René d’Anjou (King and son of Louis II d’Anjou and Yolande d’Aragon; born in 1409). This castle was also designed as a fortress and not solely for aesthetics. And finally, the castle houses the famous Tapestry of the Apocalypse, unique to the world because of it’s size, superior construction, and subject—the Apocalypse according to St. Jean, who is present in each scene.
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| Château at night |
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| View from the ramparts |
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| Tapestry of the Apocalypse |
3 New foods/drinks I tried
Foie gras—you may already know how this is made, but I’ll tell you anyway (warning—could be very disturbing!). The ducks or geese are force-fed with funnels for about 2 weeks before they are killed, thus producing a fattened liver that is served as is! No paté about it. Since it is an important French delicacy, my family served it at our last dinner together and François also bought it for our last apéritif together in Paris. I surprisingly enjoyed foie gras; it's very creamy and doesn't actually taste like liver. Actually I don't know how to describe the taste, but it's very mild and pleasing.
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| Saturday night--François and me, eating foie gras in PE's apt. |
Raclette—a typical dish for the wintertime, originating from Switzerland. It is a very communal meal as everyone shares a hot dish/plate in the center to melt cheese that is then poured over a variety of meats, potatoes, and vegetables. One of my favorite meals in france—delicious comfort food.
Calvados—an apple brandy from Normandy. Jean shared Calvados made by his neighbors (on his farm outside of Paris). Perhaps the strongest alcohol I have ever had… It’s served as an apéritif, a digestif (after a meal), or as
le trou Normand (“the Norman hole”) in the middle of a long meal to re-awaken the appetite.
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| Au revoir! |
And of course, the last thing before leaving France was saying goodbye to my wonderful family of 4 months. We had a last dinner on Sunday night and then Wenonah left early Monday and I left in the afternoon with François and PE. I spent one more night in Paris (we went to a jazz concert) and then headed to London Tuesday! The trip home was a bit crazy, but I’ll save that story for later. Thank you to everyone for reading my blog and checking in on me during the semester! I already miss France and my family beaucoup. However, I feel extremely lucky to have had this experience and even more lucky to have great friends/family to visit there in the future.
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| Jean & Me :) |
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| Madame, Jean, me |
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| Douchka me manque. |
Bisous!
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