La Roche-sur-Yon

La Roche-sur-Yon

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.