Normandy in Autumn : A Road Trip

I wish I could begin to describe to you how stunningly beautiful Normandy is.

Imagine, if you will:

It's autumn. The leaves are bright red and rusted orange and sunny yellow and still a bit green.

Rolling hills everywhere. Dramatic, ever-changing light beams through fog and rain and clouds.

Mist over the hills and over the trees. Fresh raindrops mix with the thick smell of leaves burning in the distance.

Yes, that's it. Normandy is: a field full of yellow flowers fading into a foggy horizon of grey-purple clouds streaked with pink, illuminating the sketched outlines of craggy trees clinging to the last bright leaves of autumn.

Now that you've imagined it,

Toussaint activities

This week, I:

-Ate a cheeseburger
-Strolled a bit in the Bois de Boulogne with A
-Met up with M at Starbucks (I know, I know... but I got to see M!)
-Went to two museums (Centre Pompidou and Musée des Arts Décoratifs) and, most importantly, saw the Hussein Chalayan exhibit (credit for the Chalayan exhibit photos below goes to A)
-Witnessed the new (old) Libyan flag hanging at the embassy in Paris
-Saw a play at the Comédie Française (La Pluie d'été)
-Spent the weekend with A, whose Arabic language skills impressed more than a few North African vendors at the street market at Porte de Clignancourt
-Got my hands hennaed (also by A)
-Joined the Cowchsurfing group in Normandy for some embuscade and some talk in English (thanks to J, who invited me)
-Came up with a damn good comeback in French to counter a teenager's joke about my skirt, which, admittedly, did look a bit monastic.
-Hung out by the Seine on a starry night, talking about life, love, and revolution
-Did some serious research at the IMEC yet again, as the wind howled like ambulances outside, against the walls of the Abbey.

"Trick or treat", and "No more teachers..."

Once again, I'm behind in my posting. I'll start with Tuesday night, which was the Games in English/Soirée Crêpes at the Foyer. J mainly organized it, but I helped out, with another American assistant we recently met, D. We had a FULL house of about thirty or forty people, and everyone really enjoyed the games (along the lines of charades, Bingo, etc). Here we are hosting the evening:

The following day was Wednesday, and we both had the day off. We took a 9 km walk to a little town called St. Georges des Groseillers, where there was pretty much a church and nothing else. Ate fresh, tiny, sweet, crisp apples straight from a tree:

And of course saw a lot of cows, and a beautiful view. See the album below for more pics!

Today, I showed a presentation to my students about Halloween. They got to eat Halloween candy corns, and I gave out little plastic spider rings. We even watched the Monster Mash.

And now, we're officially on vacation for a week and a half (today to November 2nd) for All Saint's Day. Tomorrow, I'll be off to Paris to spend some time with A and, hopefully, M as well! I plan to see that Hussein Chalayan exhibit, and I have a ticket to see the Comédie Française's production of Marguerite Duras's "La Pluie d'Eté". A has also promised to bring me to the Grande Mosquée de Paris for some thé à la menthe and some sightseeing. Then, on Tuesday, I'll head straight to Caen to do some research. I'm also hoping to catch the Yelle concert in Caen on the 31st... there's a plan circulating amongst the other assistants to dress up that night for the concert (and for Halloween).

So, "No more teachers, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks"... France is on vacay!

Link to more pictures here

... runnin, runnin...

This morning, I awoke bright and early to take the train to Caen for my stage (training as a language assistant). It was extremely foggy out:

After the training, a few of us went to a bar near the center of town, Le Régent. The sun was getting ready to set, and the light was amazing:

Across the street, there was a sweets shop, and I stopped in to buy some macarons. These were really special ones: dark chocolate, rose green tea, pineapple, clementine, raspberry, coffee liqueur, and my favourite, pistachio. Here's what's left:

Tomorrow night, J and I have organized an English-speaking party at the Foyer, for the others to practice their English with us. That was her idea. The crêpes to go with the English-speaking were my idea. Apparently it's going to be a full house:

You might be wondering to yourself how I can possibly be eating all this scrumptious and divine stuff and still actually have clothes that fit me here in France. Well, in fact, I've actually lost weight since I got here. Here's what I have to say about that:

Moutarde et cornichons

I have a confession to make. I am guilty of eating cornichons and mustard in bed. This is about the most piggish thing I think one could do, and yet allow me to profer an excuse: yesterday was bad and freezing and drizzly, and when I came back to the Foyer last night, I vegged out. If you have never had cornichons and dijon mustard in France, this is a must-try. Eating them in bed is optional.

This week's highlights: eating roast hen, cooked in a pot over a chimney fire, at an old abattoir-turned-home in St. Cornier-des-Landes (thank you, Frédérique!), meeting with the Amnesty group in Flers, discovering the deliciousness that is chouquettes, cooking my very first "galette" at home (roquette/emmenthal/egg/crême fraîche...mmm), going to Caen on Wednesday to begin my year of research at the IMEC (thank you, Angélique!), finally getting a phone (BlackBerry, as always), seeing a couple of sunrises, meeting Danielle (another American assistant in Flers), going to market, pains au chocolat, and one particularly divine éclair. Some pictures here, and an album below:

Market purchases, with a few labels (click on the photo to enlarge it):

Enjoying a crêpe this morning in the market:

Link to the rest of the album here, because embedding isn't working today, for some reason.

Life in Flers

Last week, you'd have thought it was summer in Normandy. But this week, the typical weather returned with gusty wind, grey skies, and spitting (and sometimes pouring) rain. It's lovely, honestly, after such a long, hot Atlanta summer. But it is getting very cold, already...

It's been a busy week, full of paperwork, first days with each class, "Welcome to Flers" dinners (one with the teachers from JM, and one with the Amnesty International group in Flers), yoga class, visits to the local market and to the Amnesty International "Foire aux Livres" (=book fair), exploring town, shopping, lots and lots of walking, and the beginning of training for the Paris half-marathon (=runs around the lake in the park, with J). All in all, the week has been a lot of fun, but extremely tiring, as well, and last night I slept like a log.

In the album below, you'll find pictures from school, from the Morrocan dinner, and pictures of life in Flers:

Vie flérienne

Ultimate

This evening, I played Ultimate Frisbee with a group of others from the Résidence where I'm staying. I remember my friends at Berry playing this often back when we were there... so long ago. I never joined in, being rather shy. So tonight was a first for me, and I had a blast. I'm posting one picture, but for more, go to my friend's blog. (Just scroll down a bit on the main page and you'll see it).

The best thing about it all was getting to meet new people from the Résidence. There's something really sweet about knowing who's sleeping in the room above you.

Des rencontres

Tonight, after having dined for about a week on yogurt and fruit every night, I made the monumental decision to buy a pizza. Well, not really a pizza, because even in France each little cardboard round seems to scream "Artificial! Eat me now!!", but a sort of flatbread thing. The appeal of it was that the "brand name" was something along the lines of "Good Life", and below it in scrawled type over a picture of a field of wheat was written, "Our country artisans have great talent", or something to that effect. Which to me meant, hopefully, locally produced. I wish I could tell you what the damn thing was, but I threw the wrapper away, and I really don't know. It was Alsacian, and had a name like "knutzenflammenkeuchen", if my memory for recalling utterly ridiculous words in a foreign language serves me well. Which, on second thought, no it doesn't. In any case, it was pretty good. Basically, it was a long rectangular cracker bread, with cheese, bacon, and onions on top. Don't think I'll be eating that often, if I want to fit my pants.

Anyway, it was a monumental decision, because I don't have an oven in my "kitchenette" (pronunciation: kee-tchee-nette). Which meant I had to go downstairs to the communal kitchen to cook it. Being somewhat timid in initial social settings, I stalled until 9:30ish, then hunger took over and I made the terrifying descent down to the rez-de-chaussée (=ground floor). Imagine my delight when I came across my new South African friend, J, in the kitchen already cooking. Which worked to our mutual advantage, because suddenly neither one of us was the weird girl cooking by herself, we were two friends cooking together. And two attracts more. Thus, I am proud to announce, I now know some people here. People my age, who do things like go out on weekends, or go to the gym together, or eat dinner together. I've never had this in France. I've usually been alone here, or in a group with other students, or perhaps with one French friend (thank you, M). But if I'm going to spend the greater part of a year in France, I think I'm going to want to get out of my room from time to time.

And so, to begin our convivial mingling, I agreed to join in a game of Ultimate Frisbee tomorrow evening.

God help me.

Oh, P.S.: Having friends is also wonderful for another thing. It keeps one motivated. Thus, yours truly is now registered - in a copycat gesture of said new South African friend - for the Paris Half Marathon. It's in March, so I guess that gives me a bit of time to start running (!).

Paris in the morning...

I'll show you Paris in the morning...

I made an impromptu trip to Paris this weekend, mainly to go to a reception for celebrating the publication of the 2nd volume of Samuel Beckett's letters. When I arrived in the city, it was about 10 a.m., and the light was magnificent. I couldn't resist taking some terribly touristic photos of the Ile de la Cité, where the famous Notre Dame cathedral is, among many other recognizable sites. The city was brilliant in the morning sunlight, sparkling and glamourous. I stayed at M's again; as usual, it was wonderful to spend time with her. We went for lunch on Saturday to one of her favourite restaurants (have I mentioned how great it is to know an insider in Paris?), and of course I had to have a taste of the delicious pavé de boeuf (a beef filet) that she chose, served on a slate board with some pan-fried potatoes and a little green salad. I, having a particular weakness for goat cheese, chose a croustillant au chèvre: it's a slice of goat cheese wrapped in thin, honeyed pastry, then lightly fried. It's served over a salad of green lettuce and vinaigrette. Heaven. We both took a "café gourmand" for dessert, which M introduced me to: you get a coffee and a small sampling of several desserts (a tiny financier, a small brownie, a little cup with fromage blanc/raspberry coulis...). Eating in France is such an event.

After lunch, we went to a street sale (brocante, in French), which was happening right outside of the restaurant, all along the street, for miles and miles. We followed it for what seemed like an hour, at least, perusing the vast array of all sorts of items: antique furniture, rugs, old postcards and coins, assortments of porcelain, china, glassware, and silver, toys, vintage clothing (including some beautiful silk scarves and wonderful shoes), etc. etc. Perhaps one of the stranger things we found was a cross between a stuffed animal and a lamp. If you don't believe it's possible to achieve such a hybrid, see my photo album below. And of course, I made a couple of purchases, but I tried to stick to things I needed: a salad bowl (hand-painted porcelain, from Hammamet, for a mere 5 euros), and a lithography (entitled "Adam et Eve"; too sublime to pass up, despite the fact that M was convinced the price was too high: 23 euros after a bit of coaxing... "tu te fais arnaquer") to cover my bare, white walls. M managed to resist the call of consumerism, although she did particularly admire a vintage hat. Later, she bought a lovely pair of suede boots in the mall.

Too many wonderful pictures to post, so check out the album here:

Paris

In the evening, M accompanied me to the reception. We met a wonderful woman there who is working on the publications of Beckett's letters. When I asked her how she became affiliated with the project, she said, "Well, he asked me to do it", and went on to explain that he had been a friend of hers. It was a golden moment, speaking to her about how she came to know Samuel Beckett, her friendship with him, and how the years had passed leading up to this day. Her eyes twinkled as she urged me to "seize every moment", assuring me not to ever take anything in life for granted, that everything leads you to where you are. It was a surreal encounter: I could feel the passing of each second; I wished I could memorize her words, or record them, bury them deep inside my heart so as to never forget. It gave me a renewed sense of the mystery and energy that the upcoming year holds. I intend to live it to the fullest.