La Roche-sur-Yon

La Roche-sur-Yon

Friday, December 18, 2015

Butterball has a hotline?

Thanksgiving is an interesting undertaking every year abroad.  The ingredients are difficult to find, foreign friends don't understand that sweet potatoes are not a dessert, and how on earth are we going to find enough dishes to put everything in?

This year, I was torn between two Thanksgiving meals happening at the same time at each of my schools.  I defaulted to my usual Thursday school, where I sat down with the cafeteria chef ahead of time to plan out the meal.  I was stunned walking into the self (cafeteria) on Thanksgiving: there were American flags and turkey decorations everywhere. They got me to wear a Stars and Stripes scarf and I helped to emcee a quiz game in the staff room (questions on the U.S., Thanksgiving, and Minnesota).  Everyone is now aware that Prince was born in Minneapolis.  Mission accomplished.

The meal itself was incredibly well done, especially considering it was made for around 400 students and staff.  Turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries, and even pumpkin pie squares with fancy cranberry sauce cubes on top.  It was definitely the best pumpkin pie I've had in France, and the bravest of the students tried it.  It generated a lot of discussion in class afterwards.

On Friday night, Thanksgiving among the assistants went considerably smoothly as well.  Last year there were only two of us from the U.S. to obsess over the meal, but with a group of six this year, we divided the duties pretty well.  I had the cranberries and sweet potatoes.  The girls who had turkey duty actually found a turkey at a supermarket (the ONE I didn't know existed at this time last year).  It was small but delicious; when it was put on the table, there was a silence followed by, "...Does anyone actually know how to carve a turkey?" and thanks to a certain video made by my family last year, I was able to save the day.

All in all, there was a lot to be thankful for this year: wonderful students, colleagues, and friends; living and working in a beautiful country; and being able to Skype with my family and friends far away.

À très bientôt!

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Nouvelle ville, nouveau château

Sometimes, I get caught up being in France and in Europe in general, and forget to explore my own region.  There's one city in the Académie de Nantes that I've meant to visit many times, but my plans have always fallen through: Angers.  Early in November, I finally made it happen.  I took a train about an hour and a half north toward Paris for a day trip.


Angers is the third-largest city in my académie (after Nantes and Le Mans).  It's a comfortable size with a beautiful centre-ville and architecture similar to that of Paris and Nantes.  It has a university as well as plenty of cafés, restaurants, shopping, a cathedral, and an impressive castle.  It's the envy of all assistants in the Académie de Nantes waiting for their placement: a perfect liveable town.  After walking around to get my bearings for the first hour, I stumbled on possibly the best crêperie I've ever been to, La Crêperie du Château, on a small side street near the castle.  I stopped by the cathedral on my way.

It was a beautiful sunny day for visiting the château itself.  Inside the fortified walls, there's a huge garden and a chapel.  It was mostly built in the 13th  century; it's one of the few defensive castles built that never fell thanks to its enormous walls and seventeen towers.  You can walk on the ramparts, where there are many small gardens and a view of the city and Loire river.  But the castle's claim to fame is the Tenture d'Apocalypse (Apocalyse Tapestry), commissioned at the end of the 14th century by Duke Louis I of Anjou.  It's located in a huge dark room underground: six pieces of tapestry, two stories high, divided into fourteen story panels each, depicting the apocalypse according to John.  It's massive, very well-preserved...and recognized as the world's most important medieval tapestry.  During the16th century, the castle was home to Catherine de Medici.

After the château visit, I searched for, and found, a decent pair of boots for the upcoming rainy season.  I know it's not very interesting compared to epic medieval tapestry, but the Vendée is not the best as far as fashion goes, and I have to take advantage when I get out.  A day trip well worth it.

Monday, November 30, 2015

You knew it was coming: another vacation!

Just as the cold air and rain began to roll in to La Roche, I escaped with Hélène and the three kids to the southwestern corner of the country, the Pays Basque.  Hélène's mother has a huge apartment on the sixth floor of a building, complete with a wrap-around terrace, in Biarritz; after four hours of driving through sheets of rain, I found myself with this view:



Biarritz is known for its beaches and huge waves, making it home to several surfing competitions.  I was able to watch part of the national championship of France while I was there (which was not as interesting as it sounds; from the beach, the surfers are so tiny you can barely make them out).  The coast in the region is nicknamed la Côte d'Argent (the silver coast) after the usual color of the ocean.  It was breathtaking in every light. Apparently it often rains, but we had ten beautiful weather days.


Château Abbadia
I met several members of Hélène's family and spent much time looking after the younger cousins.  I also accompanied the family on day trips around the region. Our first stop was the Château Abbadia, built by Antoine d'Abbadie in 1870.  Abbadie was an astronomer, explorer, linguist, and anthropologist, and he built the castle as an observatory so he could study the stars.  The architecture is much different from that of castles in the Pays de la Loire; it had a Spanish twist as well as exotic animal sculptures carved into the outer walls.

Bayonne
I spent one afternoon on my own in Bayonne, known for its cathedral, its jambon (ham, which you can find in supermarkets all over France), and its typical Basquais architecture along the Nive and Adour rivers.  Typical Basque homes and buildings are white with red (sometimes dark green or blue) boarding on the outside.  A couple of other afternoons, we took the kids to play in Anglet, where the Adour meets the Atlantic.

Saint-Jean-de-Luz
Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste
One day, we spent the morning in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where everyone's favorite Sun King Louis XIV married Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche.  I stopped in the Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste, which was decked out in gold in true Roi du Soleil fashion.  It and every other church in the region has a model ship hanging from the ceiling in the middle just over the congregation, a tribute to the area's sailing and fishing history.  Next to the port in de Luz are two castles, one for Louis and the other for Marie-Thérèse (why stay in a hotel?).

Piment d'Espelette hanging to dry on buildings
Gâteau Basque
We passed many sheep driving inward toward the Pyrénées on our way to Espelette, a tiny town known for its piment (hot peppers).  They are hung outside of buildings by the thousands to dry, and then made into spices and sauces for cooking.  Being close to Spain, the typical dishes are spicy and mostly seafood-based; they have a delicious tomato sauce; and you can always find tapas.  There is also a regional gâteau (cake) filled with cream or fruit or both.  From Espelette, we drove into Spain for about twenty minutes: I can tell you that there are at least five roundabouts and a truck stop where we bought clementines.  (They were worth the detour.)

After our ten days were up, we drove north back to La Roche and to the rain.  I had the last weekend of break off, since the family was in Paris for a wedding, and I was invited to dinner with three of my colleagues from Belleville; the teacher who hosted has a Scottish husband.  We had a wonderful evening speaking English, singing and making fun of American pop music...and I tasted wild boar for the first time.  It was delicious - not something I ever thought I'd try in France - but delicious.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

God Bless (Apple) America

Had I had an American flag available, I would have gladly waved it running through the streets of Nantes.

This year, I thought I'd sit back on my heels during the first weeks of school and not worry about paperwork or getting a bank account or phone...

Well, I didn't have to worry about the bank account or general paperwork.  But I did manage to drop my phone in a puddle during the first downpour of the season.  After leaving it in a bag of rice for a weekend with no signs of life, I grudgingly made the trip to Nantes (and then the 45-minute tram ride to a huge modern mall called Atlantis on the outskirts of town) to plead my case to the Apple Store people.  Though I'd insisted that I bought Apple Care and that it should be covered just like in the U.S., all my friends had said, "Hah, but this is France...it won't be that easy."

But somehow, after only a tiny bit of finangling and three trips to Nantes in four days, and then some more finangling...thanks to my American Apple Care plan, my new phone had arrived from the U.S. was up and running.

I didn't realize how dependent I was on the stupid thing until my first day of school in Belleville, a small "suburb" of La Roche.  I have an eight-minute train to get there, and then a twenty-minute walk to the middle school.  Getting off the train, I realized there was no direct path; I tried following signs but ended up in a field with lots of cows.  In a downpour.  I stopped at a grocery store to ask for directions, which went like this:

Me: "Where is the middle school?"
Cashier: "Uh...well...it's not here."

After visiting a couple more farms and getting directions two more times, I finally made it to the Collège St. Exupéry an hour late and met with the principal looking like a drowned rat.

Collège St. Exupéry
But after that, it was all smooth sailing in Belleville.  This is the first year they've ever had an assistant, so all the staff and students are really excited.  I work with five English teachers, mostly with 3ème (9th grade) students and some 4ème (8th grade).  Belleville, I've been told, is a rather economically privileged area, so there are very few discipline problems.  My students there also comprehend spoken English better than at any other school I've taught at in France.

Collège Haxo
My other school is called Haxo, another collège, but in La Roche.  I work there Thursday and Friday, again with five English teachers.  It's a "city school", so students are definitely more rambunctious, but they're also very nice and fun.  Haxo also has a huge special education program called SEGPA, and I get to work with their 3ème4ème, and 6ème (6th grade).

I've improved my game from last year: I started by teaching my students all the Minnesota sports teams and showing them pictures of the Mall of America.  Between those two topics, I think I have them all hooked on the Twin Cities.

My other new adventure this year is living with a family and working as an au pair for their three kids: Estéban, who's eight, and Adrien and Margot, six-year-old twins.  I help them with homework after school, babysit some nights, teach them English, and help Estéban with piano.

Estéban
Margot
Adrien

They have extended family in the Pays Basque region of France, just north of Spain on the Atlantic coast.  It's one of the corners of the country I hadn't yet explored until we took a road trip over the October break: a beautiful, scenic area with the ocean, forests, and the Pyrénées.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Ching ching clang

It's always fun to have people from home come to visit, and this September presented a perfect opportunity.  After a week getting accustomed to my new host family in La Roche, I hopped in a carpool to Paris.

For the last few months, I've been using BlaBlaCar, a carpool website whose popularity has exploded in France.  If you have a car and are going somewhere, you can put in the details of your trip on the website; others can sign up to join you and basically pitch in for gas.  Besides conserving gas and paying less than the train, you also get to meet new people from all over the world and often from your home town.

La Défense
In Paris, I stayed with Yann, a friend's brother.  He and his girlfriend were incredible hosts; I never thought I would say that I enjoyed an evening in Paris staying in and playing Guitar Hero, but that's what happened. Yann loves cooking: he made the best hamburger I've ever had in my life, with all sorts of random ingredients that somehow worked perfectly together: curry, goat cheese, onions, vegetables, and several sauces.  During the day, I explored La Défense, the small, modern business quarter of Paris marked by skyscrapers with a view of an itty bitty Arc de Triomphe.  It was rather empty on a Saturday, but there is a large American-style mall that attracts visitors as well as a pretty esplanade.

Once my parents and Ryan arrived, we broke in our Paris experience by making a spectacular scene in the Latin quarter trying to find one of our favorite restaurants from last winter.  (We found it, although I'm pretty sure it changed ownership...). Thankfully, it wasn't ridiculously cold like last December, so afterward we were able to visit the Luxembourg gardens in the afternoon and walk leisurely through the Cluny street market without freezing.

For me, new experiences in Paris this time around included the Conciergerie, the Picasso museum, and getting fined 50€ on the Métro.  We'll start there.  Advice: save your Métro ticket until you've completely left the Métro and are above ground, even if you don't have pockets and it's annoying to hold on to.  This was the first time in eight years of Paris visits that I've ever seen controllers and probably the first time I threw away my ticket underground after getting off.  Go figure.

In happier news, I really enjoyed the Conciergerie, which is connected to Sainte Chapelle; it is the oldest building on the Île de la Cité.  It's a new favorite for me because it mostly includes information from the French revolution, which often gets lost in museums among all the complicated royal history of earlier years.  It served as a prison during the Reign of Terror for around 2,700 accused enemies of the republic, including Marie Antoinette, most of whom went on to be executed by guillotine.
The Picasso museum was small but well done, including mostly paintings, sculptures, and drawings by Picasso himself in more or less chronological order, but also a handful of other works by artists like Matisse, Renoir, and Cézanne.  The museum just finished undergoing a 5-year renovation last year and I was happy to have visited after the giant crowds calmed down a little.

Vieux Lyon
Dad and Ryan overlooking Lyon
After a few days in Paris, we took a high-speed train southeast to Lyon, the second-largest city in France (by urban population).  It was my second time there; when studying abroad, we managed to add an extra weekend trip in order to try the food: Lyon is the gastronomy center of France.  It's also a lively student town and cultural hub with a wide variety of museums.  While the city is large enough to be divided into arrondissements like Paris, it's easy to get stuck in the winding streets of the 5th, la vielle ville (old town).  This time, I also wandered through the 1st and 2nd, which are located on the peninsula between the two rivers (Saône and Rhône).  We explored the Saône via boat tour, and also spent a morning in the 6th visiting the giant Parc Tête d'Or (literally Golden Head Park), a huge area with gardens, a lake, a zoo, and several trails.

As far as museums, we started with the Musée Lumière, one of my new favorites.  It gave a thorough presentation of the early cinematography scene and inventions of the Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis.  They were inspired by Thomas Edison and William Dickson's invention of the the kinetoscope, an early version of the motion-picture projector, and continued experimenting with the aim of creating a device that both recorded and projected films.  The museum is located in the mansion of their father, Antoine, who was first a painter and then a photographer.

After, we saw the Musée des Beaux Arts (fine arts museum) which I thought was very well done.  I branched off and went to the Musée des Confluences, which turned out to be more of a children's natural history museum in an ultra-modern building.  The strange building itself was by far the highlight.

Guignol
I also visited the Musée Gadagne, which has two parts: a lengthy saga of the history of Lyon, and the world puppet museum.  The latter is inspired by Guignol, the main character in a famous French puppet show.  Guignol usually plays the part of a silk weaver; the silk weaving tradition is a huge part of Lyon's history.

The silk weavers and traders who passed through Lyon and stopped to eat at local inns started another tradition: the bouchon, typical restaurant.  Les bouchons are known for their meat dishes (sausage, pâté, roast pork...) and "pot Lyonnais", their 46-cl wine measurement.  There are about twenty certified bouchons in Lyon today, and you can find other restaurants whose cuisine is faite maison (homemade).

Raclette
Beautiful rainbow in Annecy
The final days of the trip were spent in Annecy, a small, picturesque town nestled in the Alpes.  We enjoyed a raclette at the restaurant La Freti, sharing a typical dish of the region: melted cheese (that one lucky person at the table must "harvest" themselves from the giant half-wheel as it melts...merci, Ryan), baked potatoes, and a cold meat plate.  Perfect for winter skiers in the mountains.

If you do a quick Google search of restaurants on Annecy, you'll find that the highest-rated is actually a homemade ice cream shop called the Palais des Glaces...so we were naturally all over that.  We stopped by every night and tasted many a free sample.  The online ratings don't lie.


Lac Annecy from les Talloires
Another plug for Annecy is the beautiful lake (Lac Annecy) surrounded by mountains.  My dad and Ryan biked the perimeter of the lake while my mom and I did the tour by boat.  The boat stops at several small towns; you can choose to get off at one and explore, and take the next boat back to Annecy.  We stopped at Talloires, a cute town with a beautiful view of the mountains and lake, where we took a "little" uphill hike to see une cascade (a waterfall).


Our last day was spent in Geneva in order to experience a bit of Switzerland; it's a rather ugly city thanks to the Calvinists, but interesting all the same, not to mention completely surrounded by France. We took an excellent walking tour to start and later visited the Patek Philippe Museum to learn about their famous watch tradition.

After quite the variety of adventures, we returned to Paris for one final evening.  Our Airbnb host sent us to a restaurant that was probably my favorite of the trip: Mélac, a bistrot à vins.  I believe we decided it was the best bœuf bourgignon yet, and the red wine was one of my favorites as well.  A good ending to the trip.

The next day, after saying goodbye, I finished out my adventures with a visit to the traveling ancient Egyptian Osiris exhibit at the Arab World Institute - extremely well done.

That afternoon, I BlaBlaCar-ed my way back to reality and work in La Roche.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

La rentrée...déjà?

Along with the rest of France, I took a little break this summer for les vacances d'été (summer vacation).  Rather, I gave up the fight of trying to be technologically connected since Internet has been hard to come by.  It's also been agreeable unplugging a bit and talking with people face-to-face.

First, the logistical news for next year: after much attempted finagling with the Académie in June, I did not get the school assignment I wanted for the year, but was at least placed in two different middle schools.  One is in good old La Roche-sur-Yon and the other in a small town called Belleville-sur-Vie, an eight-minute train ride north.  I am writing to you from first home wifi since June thanks to my host family for whom I just started working as an au pair.  This year, I'll be chasing after three kids (an 8-year-old and 6-year-old twins) and teaching English to the whole family.

On top of that, I'll be continuing to teach the same American civilization courses at the University of Nantes next spring of it works with my schedule, and adding four more sections at their branch in La Roche.  So please, please do your best to get rid of Donald Trump before January; it's already difficult enough to explain the circus of American elections...

On to the summer!  I was lucky to have been able to spend the first month and a half in La Roche and in the Vendée (the name of the department where I live...like a county, but bigger).  It's a shame that most language assistants only get to see this area in winter.  The Vendée is well known in France as a non-ritzy, outdoorsy summer vacation spot thanks to its wild beaches, campgrounds, and biking trails.  I can't believe how beautifully green the countryside became; I guess the rainy winters are good for something.  La Roche itself has a very flat terrain, but moving eastward, you'll find rolling green hills with small towns and farms tucked away in unlikely spots.

I also enjoyed staying with several colleagues from the collège, a week here and a weekend there.

The English teacher with whom I stayed at the beginning of July lives in a house at the Lycée Nature just at the edge of La Roche; her husband is an administrator there.  It's an agricultural high school, so there are regular buildings with classrooms, but also stables with sheep, goats, horses, and other cattle, and barns and tractors and ponds and areas for practicing farming and cultivation techniques.  Many students studying there are high schoolers, but they also have a program for adults who want to continue or change their education path to learn about farming and cultivation.

The next English teacher I stayed with for a few weeks lives in a small but modern area just southeast of the center of La Roche; it's an eco-friendly neighborhood, and their houses are designed to use as little energy as possible.  It was there that I fell in love with the garden culture of the French; almost everyone has a little garden if they have even a small yard.  Their home-grown berries, carrots, radishes, and cucumbers can't be beaten anywhere. We enjoyed nearly every meal outside on the patio.

One weekend, the same colleague brought me to a family reunion on a farm a bit further east within the Vendée.  Each year, the reunion has a theme; this year's was les livres (books), and everyone brought old books to exchange.   The annual reunion, with about eighty cousins, is held in a clearing of a farm that's been in the family since the 1200s. I got the tour of the house (the interior has been completely redone), stables, and caves.  La cave, I learned, is a rather sexist Vendéen tradition: every old home in the region has a small dirt-floor underground wine cave where, for those who follow the tradition, only men are allowed to go to drink, smoke, and talk apart from the women.

Back near La Roche, I spent a long weekend in Poiré-sur-Vie, not far from Belleville, where I'll be teaching next year.  This colleague, a math teacher, has a beautiful home out in the countryside and a giant yard and garden.  Her oldest daughter, Lisa, will likely be one of my students next year.  Lisa and her two younger siblings left me completely exhausted after the weekend: we wrote stories, went to the park and fed donkeys, played soccer...I learned never to let a five-year-old give me a makeover...but best of all, they have a beautiful piano that I got to play.  Lisa and my colleague Sophie both play too, and I accompanied them on flute.  We also enjoyed meals in their backyard; they have a nifty crêpe machine that can make five or six small crêpes at once; I was impressed.
Poiré-sur-Vie
Another pleasant surprise was La Roche's 14th of July celebration.  In a large clearing packed with...well, the entire town, near an old abandoned castle, they set off the most spectacular fireworks display I've ever seen.  It was coordinated with several music clips and lasted a full half hour, but was never boring for an instant.  Later in the summer I visited Bourgenay, a small town on the ocean, for their Fête de la Mer (celebration of the sea); their fireworks display over the ocean was a definite letdown.  At least the Vendéen folk dancing show beforehand and dancing afterword at the port made up for it.

In late July and into August, I tagged along with another colleague and her family to their vacation home in the Bretagne region, not far from Mont-Saint-Michel and Saint Malo, the walled city I visited last October with friends.  Their house has been in the family for generations; originally, it and the houses connected on the block belonged to fisherman.  The town, Saint-Jacut-de-la-Mer, is a tiny peninsula on the northwest coast of France.

The region is known for its always-changing weather; some days, it alternated between sun and rain every thirty seconds.  Luckily, it was the one part of France that didn't experience this summer's massive heat wave and drought: we wore coats and scarves some evenings.  During the marée haute (high tide), it was fascinating to watch the rapidly-changing color of the water as clouds rolled overhead.  During the marée basse (low tide), the water cleared out, leaving boats stuck in mucky silt; you can walk through it to what are normally islands just north of the peninsula.  Every year, tourists neglect to look at the marée schedule and end up stuck on the island, sometimes until two or three in the morning.  The beauty of the place is best described visually, so here is a bit of my Saint Jacut photo gallery:





 




I don't go back to work until October, but this week, the rest of France is all abuzz with:

la rentrée - back-to-school

Thursday, May 28, 2015

One brother.

Sarlat-la-Canéda
My last little hurrah for the vacances d'avril was a trip back along the same train line to Bordeaux, where I stayed with a different Pierre and his roommate Chloé, both of whom are music students.  I arrived Friday evening and Saturday was my day trip to Sarlat-la-Canéda...which is in the region, but a bit further than I anticipated.

Sarlat was my favorite town that I visited when I came to France on our high school trip.  It was small but lively at the same time, with lots of character.  When I arrived after a long train/bus fiasco, it was maybe even better than I'd remembered.  The Saturday market was still open and I promptly got into a philosophical discussion with a vendor over saucisson noix (nut-flavored sausage).  For lunch, I tried cassoulet, a regional specialty, a delicious duck stew.

Matchbox win
The météo (weather forecast) had told me it would rain all afternoon, but I had only beautiful sunny skies.  I was able to make several trips around the town, peek inside the cathedral (which had excellent matchboxes...), and visit the garden atop the hill.  Late in the afternoon, I found a tiny side street and stopped for a coffee at a small place with an outside terrace.  I suddenly recognized whatever was playing on the radio; when evergreens and gingerbread cookies popped into mind, I realized that Christmas in April was about to happen (the culprit? "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree") and I looked around at the other customers (a couple of French families and an English couple).  Not sure who started it, but suddenly, we were all dancing to Christmas music on the terrace...in the middle of April.  In that moment, I became convinced that the three-hour trek to Sarlat was worth it.

After, I had a beautiful sunny train ride through the Dordogne region back to Bordeaux.  I spent my last rainy day visiting Sunday markets throughout town before taking the train back to la Roche.

Coming back was a bit of a blur.  Most of the other assistants had already left the city or were leaving, as we were already at the end of April.  Elyse and I had many a picnic during that final week as weather permitted before she headed back to the U.S. of A.

Grenoble
Returning to work, I was introduced to les ponts du mai : literally, the bridges of May.  I may have mentioned the French phrase faire le pont before; it basically means that if Thursday is a bank holiday, everyone bridges the gap and takes Friday off too.  This year, this happened every weekend in May, which was kind of ironic after having extended my contract.  I also had a job interview across France in Grenoble (near the Alpes) and was let off the hook one Tuesday at the lycée.  The following Tuesday, there was a huge strike in France concerning proposed middle school reform...and since most of my teachers decided to protest, I didn't have to go in.

My couple of days in the southeast were well spent.  I had my interview in Grenoble, but stayed with my friend Katie a forty-minute train ride away in Chambéry, le carrefour de l'Europe (the crossroads of Europe, with trains coming and going from Italy and Switzerland and several places in France).  Chambéry is an adorable small town with the gorgeous snowcapped Alpes looming in the distance.  We went to the Lac Bourget, the largest lake in France, and she introduced me to the regional cheese fondu specialty...even if it was 90 degrees and way too hot for it.  Side note: Alpes specialties are best enjoyed during winter ski trips.
Lac Bourget


May turned out to be a light month of work, but students continue until the beginning of July; they have about two months off for summer.  While I'm done working, I'm still in contact with my colleagues at the collège who are helping me to piece together my life situation for the summer months; we all have our fingers crossed that I'll be assigned to the same school next year!

To fill my newfound spare time, I'm discovering the not-so-fun side of being a college professor (grading 150 final exams...all essays...one hundred and fifty?!?) and also swinging by a different lycée in la Roche that didn't get an assistant because it's private and not part of the Éducation National; one of their English teachers is a friend of mine.  Her students are very spunky and snarky:

Me: "Do you have any pets?"
Student: "Yes: one brother."