Vieux amis, nouveaux mots

My first days in France were probably my favorites of this adventure so far.  Last Sunday, I took the train from Liège to Brussels to Paris, where I had to take two different Métro lines and sprint through three stations and across the Bercy neighborhood to a smaller station to catch a train to Nevers.  (I made it in record time and didn't get my suitcase stuck in a single turnstile.)  Two hours later, I arrived to a very warm bienvenue from mes amis Lise and Christophe, who were my hosts last summer in Strasbourg.  Christophe has worked in Nevers on weekdays for a few years now, but since it's a five-hour train from Strasbourg and they were only able to see each other on the weekends, Lise moved to join him last spring.

It's strange to think that, a few months before the CELTA, I randomly picked Lise and Christophe off of a list of possible housing choices.  They've turned out to be two of the most wonderful people I've met in France - genuine, easy-going, friendly, and curious; they turn simple outings like museum visits or walks along the Loire turn into lively adventures.  At my request, they wholeheartedly agreed to put me through three days of French immersion boot camp.  Lise's strong Alsatian accent presented the most difficulties for me, paired with her always-poetic prose, but my listening and speaking had become much more fluid by the time I left Wednesday.  French grammar has been coming back to me quickly, but vocabulary is a different story; I've been collecting new and forgotten words in a notebook.  I've gained some interesting and technical words from visits to museums and churches.  Lise and I had an excellent time trying to use some of these words in conversation after she helped me to understand the definition:

un plat à barbe - shaving plate
les voûtes en berceau - a type of arches often found in Roman and Gothic churches
truculent - eccentric, colorful, original (as in a personality)

La Faïence

Nevers is a small but charming town on the Loire, two hours south an a tiny bit east of Paris.  As Christophe explained to me, it is en décline economically; lots of shops have closed in recent years and people have moved away.  Nevers' main industry and claim to fame is la faïence (earthenware pottery painted in white, blue, green, yellow, and brownish purple).  In the 1600s, the town was full of pottery ateliers and vendors which were popular with upper-class customers.  Eventually, pottery from England rose in popularity and drove most of Nevers' pottery makers out of business; there used to be hundreds of ateliers, and now there are only five left in the town.  As a result of the poor economy, you will come across many disgruntled and pessimistic people in Nevers.  Lise and I met a man working at the Musée de la Faïence who seemed hate everything from Nevers to Paris to Obama to François Hollande.  He asked me to marry him and I declined on the grounds that he thought that Denver was north of Minnesota, among other reasons.

View from the apartment; Palais ducal de Nevers

Nevers is also home to the oldest château in the Loire Valley, le Palais ducal, which I could see from my window at the apartment.  Built in the 15th century, it was home to much royal drama during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance; I found it impossible to keep track of who married whom and who was exiled and whose children inherited what.  Le Palais was restored in the 1980s and now includes the tourist office, a small museum with information about Nevers and its history, and an aquarium where you can learn about all the fish of the Loire river.

Also well worth a visit is la Cathédrale Saint-Cyr-et-Sainte-Julitte, to continue with my theme of beautiful buildings that were destroyed in wars and are still undergoing restoration.  In the summer of 1944, the cathedral was accidentally hit and almost completely destroyed by an overnight airstrike.  Most of les vitraux (stained glass windows) have now been replaced by four different artists, and the result is absolutely stunning if you visit mid- to late-afternoon.


The best part of Nevers was spending time chez Lise et Christophe et leur chat (their cat) Vodka, who's grumpy as ever and still hates me.  Lise cooked excellent meals; she even made delicious escargots for me when I said I'd never tried them.  (It took me a few tries to get the technique down - I accidentally flung one poor escargot across the room, like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman - but I perfected my skills!)  There's a jazz festival in Nevers in November, and I'm hoping to visit again then - there's a train connection between Nantes and Nevers in the city of Tours, so I can travel between the towns without sprinting through Paris.  And Christophe insists I have to try frog legs next time.