Bordeaux, and things that followed

Okay I'm back! I found something to eat (homemade pâté and a little bit of cold curry zucchini soup, if you were wondering), went on a bike ride with Bernard, and had dinner. Bernard said our ride was 12 km (about 7.5 miles). Most of it was really flat, but there was one long hill. It wasn't really all that steep, but my seat was slowly sinking down as I rode up and finally it fell all the way down....needless to say, I could hardly pedal. I fixed the seat, but it was hard to get going again since I was in the middle of the hill. Just at the top, though, was a little gift: a hedge of blackberry bushes that looked as if no one had touched them. Just the thing when you're thirsty and have just come up a long hill!! We came back to Linières Bouton and Rosa, a lovely woman of 80 something who lives with her son, invited us to sit down and have a drink. We stayed there for an hour. At one point Bernard tried to announce that we were leaving, and Rosa flat out said "Oh, no, you're not. Here, have more pastis." Now, pastis is a French drink that is made from anise. They mix it with water and it turns cloudy. The flavor is quite strong and, despite the fact that I insisted on only having a little tiny bit, she gave me about three times as much as I wanted, and she gave Bernard even more. I love meeting people from around here. People are more genuine and more interesting than in the cities - true characters.

Anyway, Bernard and I are going to try to go on bike rides every morning. We'll see how that goes.

. . .

So, Friday we went to Bordeaux. We parked right near the huge fountain at the Place des Quinconces, which is really grand:


This next to the Cathédrale St André...I don't know if it's part of the actual cathedrale. The statutue at the top was very striking, though.
This was the pulpit inside the cathedrale...made of wood with marble. wow.

Tired after a long day of shopping and sightseeing...sitting on the quai by the river and the fountain before finding somewhere to eat dinner.

We walked past the Cathédrale St André as the sun was sinking. This golden light right before the sunset is my favorite.

Grand Théâtre at night.

The trip back to Biscarrosse was uneventful. We packed up and said our goodbyes on Saturday afternoon.
Me with Severine, Sam (on the left; Nelly's youngest), and Naïs (on the right, Severine's oldest).

It was sad to say goodbye to such lovely people, but both Severine and Nelly said they'd be happy for me to come back in the fall. We'll see. I can't imagine not seeing them again, though. They were so wonderful!

On our way home, Pascal made an impromptu stop at the Chateau de Montreuil-Bellay, which is a little ways outside Saumur. It's a pretty chateau with a big church next to it, but what made it especially beautiful was that the sun was just setting. I barely caught the last rays of my favorite light on the castle:

. . .

Bernard informed me this evening before dinner that we are taking a 25 km bike ride tomorrow. Whoa.

A week in Biscarrosse

Sorry I haven't posted sooner - we just got back late last night, because Pascal decided we would stay for a week rather than five days.

. . .

Our trip to Biscarrosse took a total of 8 hours. It really didn't need to take that long, but Pascal forgot some things so we had to turn back, we had to go to the grocery store, and we had to stop several times for the children. [Note: we pretended that we were a little family: Jon was the father, but MIA on this trip; Pascal was the mother, or "muh.zer" as he says; Juan was the uncle and I the aunt; and the boys were the children. However, Pascal is, in fact, also a child.] Starting about an hour outside of Saumur, this is what most of the countryside looked like:

Finally, we arrived at the home of Nelly, one of Pascal's sisters. It was pretty typical of the houses down there, except the siding:

Kitchen/dining room, although we ate outside most of the time.

Patio.

Bedroom 4.0 was upstairs, which meant it was hot, but it was better than sleeping outside in a tent like the boys.

This was the view walking up to the beach the first day we went. The building is a 19th century hotel (says Pascal). The water really was that color, even in the waves. It was incredible.
We went to the beach and/or the lake almost every day. Wednesday evening we all cooked something and went over to the home of another one of Pascal's sisters, Severine. I made two tomato pies (a delicious recipe from Edgar's mom) which were very popular. All the French people told me how wonderful it was and several of them asked for the recipe.


After dinner, all the French people were talking to each other, and not to me. I don't want to give the wrong impression - for most of the week, they were eager to talk to me and patiently included me in their discussions. They were very impressed with my French, and I received a number of compliments...."You speak French better than some French people!" "You hardly have an accent!" ...which I'm sure were at least slight exaggerations, but flattering and encouraging nonetheless. Anyway, after dinner on Wednesday night, they were all engaged in personal converstations to which I could not contribute. Juan, the boys, and I went inside and had a ____-face contest. For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, everyone in the picture makes a ___ face: an ugly face, an awkward smile, etc. Here is a classic:
Awkward smile contest, except that Simon (who is Severine's youngest) had no idea what we were doing and is adorable all the time anyway.

On Thursday, we went to the Dune de Pyla, which is the biggest sand dune in Europe, or something. I knew as soon as they started talking about it that it wasn't really going to be my thing. Climb up and over a big pile of sand to go to a cold, windy beach? And then climb back?
No thanks, I'm okay. Why did I go? Well....exercise.
??! Literally.
Nevertheless, I made it to the other side feeling perky enough.

....until I realized I had to climb approximately infinity meters to get back up:
See those little dots at the top? Those are people. Full sized people. I only succeeded in climbing back up this because I pretended I was Frodo climbing Mount Doom to destroy the Ring.

No, I'm not kidding.

At any rate, I survived, and I wasn't even all that tired afterwards, which I was kind of disappointed about. I was hoping to be fully exercised. I did, however, have about a pound of sand that had been driven into my pores, scalp, and ears by the wind. Ew.

. . .

Friday we went to Bordeaux, but I'm getting hungry and it'll be another long post. Hopefully I'll be able to come back after I find a snack, but Bernard and I are going on a bike ride at some point and I don't know when it'll be.... If not in a bit, I'll post soon!

Mini vacances

Tomorrow morning Pascal, Juan, the boys, and I are leaving for Biscarosse. I tried to find/make a map of where it is in France, but it proved to be much more challenging than I expected because Pendleton (my laptop) does not have a program like Paint for PC's, as far as I can tell. If you look, though, on a map of France, you will see that Bordeaux is almost in the southwest corner. Biscarosse is just a little southwest of Bordeaux. For reference, the Moulin is about halfway in between Tours and Angers in the western half of France (farther north, but not past Paris). We're going to be staying with Pascal's sister, and (supposedly) we're going to spend lots of time at the beach and visiting things in the area. I've heard it's beautiful there and I realized a few days ago that I will be, in fact, visiting the old province of Aquitaine!! Of which Bordeaux was the capital, so I read.

I've been kind of out of it all day today because of some excitement last night. Mona (Pascal's black lab) and her friend Tosca (a yellow lab, maybe) were having a sleepover in the dining room of the Moulin, which is just adjacent to my room. At 3:15 this morning they started barking.....as there were guests sleeping in the room directly above them, I had to actually do something about it. I let them go outside for a little while since that seemed to be what they wanted. After that, I couldn't go back to sleep for an hour and a half (a 'hous-hav', as Pascal says) because my allergies flaired up. Apparently I'm allergic to dogs? They did the same thing again right before 8 this morning. They seemed to think it was cute, but I was not amused. Because of all this I've been really congested and tired all day. Bleh. I hope Pascal's sister doesn't have any dogs, but I'm bringing my Triaminic just in case. Yes, that is made for children, and yes, it still works for me.

The highlight of today was hanging out with Bernard, which I haven't really gotten to do. He and I went to pick blueberries this afternoon. They're a very nice berry to pick because there are no thorns, you don't really have to bend over, and there are a lot of berries on each bush. We had quite a time all the same because it kept raining sporadically. He pulled the car right up to where we were picking and we would sit in the car while it rained and then dash out to pick berries when it stopped. Eventually we just picked berries as it rained, and stopped when the back of our shirts were soaked through and our hands were numb. Getting to eat fresh blueberries made it all worth it, though. It's fun talking with Bernard because he speaks enough English to help me with most vocabulary I don't know but leave some things for me to explain, which forces me to not only speak more French but also explore the English language. If I ask him how to say something in French ("comment dit-on 'tired of washing dishes' en français?") and he's not familiar with the English word, I have to describe the concept. This can be challenging in and of itself, but then to do it in French...it gets exhausting. (How would you explain 'obnoxious'? in French?? yeah, I don't know either.) He sometimes asks me for help with English words and phrasing in emails when he's writing to English-speaking clients. We make a good team.

I probably won't be able to access the internet while I'm gone, but expect a long post with lots of pictures and stories sometime in the middle of next week!

Fête nationale

As you probably know, July 14 is basically the French Independence Day. They call it Bastille Day because it was the day the Bastille prison was stormed in 1789. To celebrate, we all went to a party that was held at the home of one of Jonathan's good friends. There was lots of fun people, good food and wine and plum moonshine, a pool, and fresh raspberries off the vine and plums off the tree.

Bastille Day party

This is Claudine. She is my favorite person at these parties. I'm so sad this picture is blurry (Impressionistic, shall we say?), but she's too lively to sit still. She speaks (at least) French, English, Spanish, and Italian, and she's always dancing to the music.

We caught the end of the sunset over the Loire while waiting for the fireworks in Saumur.

Still waiting. From left to right: Pascal, Brian, Kyle, Juan, and me. (I know it's a weird picture, but Pascal and Brian were being insistently un-photogenic.)

!!

(I was experimenting with a really long exposure here)

Finale!

Despite the beautiful fireworks show, I didn't get the feeling that there was a sense of unity or national pride. Perhaps, though, that is because I'm not French.

After the fireworks, we went to a bar/pool hall, where I surprised everyone with my pool skills (thank you Jesse!). Then the boys wanted to go to a discotheque...it was still early for the French (12:30), so we got in free. They played a lot of Latin music, so I got to do some [free style] salsa dancing with Juan and Pascal. It was such a great night!

i'm trying to Let Unconquerable Gladness Dwell

My mom mentioned this saying that hung in FDR's office in an email to me a few days ago. She also wrote that "Life can be challenging, but a grateful heart and a positive outlook can keep you strong and content." Sorry, Mom, but it's too good to keep to myself. I've been reminding myself of these little morsels when I have to practically babysit the two boys who are also working ("working") here, when I'm lonely, and before I go to bed when I'm thinking about my day...

. . .

A few days ago I finally got to explore the area a little. Jonathan was taking the guests touring that day and invited me to go along. Our first stop was the Abbey of Fontevraud!!! (click here for an explanation) This was my #1 thing to see while in France. The effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine (click here) is there, and she is my favorite person in history. [To put it briefly, she was a fiercely independent woman, was queen of France and then England, demanded respect for women, and lived to be 84 in the 13th century!!] She spent the last few years of her life at this Abbey. I was excited to go because of its tie to her, but I had read that it is the largest monastery in France and unique in other ways, so I was interested to see what it was like. Turns out it's GORGEOUS. In fact, I liked the Chapel of St Mary better than Notre Dame in Paris. It's made of all white stone and is incredibly well lit with sunlight.

The really well-lit part at the end of the chapel is the choir, which has lots of windows and was absolutely incredible. The effigies (Henry II and Richard the Lionheart are there too, as is Isabella of Angouleme) are right before the choir. Here's Eleanor:

I've seen pictures of it a millions times before, but to be there in person - and to walk where she walked - was in.cre.di.ble. Here are a few more pictures of other parts of the Abbey:

Looking into one of the courtyards

The choir of the chapel.

Self-portrait of sorts

.....Carousel animals. I know. The French have a tendency to do things like this - they put weird exhibits in historical buildings, I guess to trick people to going to visit them. This one involved very realistic animal sounds played in surround sound while the animals randomly went up and down. The overall effect was rather creepy.

After the Abbey, we went to a couple of wine tastings and visited a beautiful village (Candes St Martin) that sits right on the edge of the Loire.

. . .

This weekend we visited several different markets. On Saturday, Pascal took the boys and me to the weekly market in Saumur. The market itself wasn't all that different from other markets I've been to in France, but it was great to see some of the city.

Spice merchant's wares.

Chateau de Saumur.

Beautiful rainbow!

Bridge over the Loire connecting the halves of the city.

On Sunday, we went to a Marché aux Puces - literally "Market of Fleas," which I personally find slightly more unnerving than 'Flea Market'. This market was, honestly, not very exciting at all. What was very exciting, though, was that I got another bedroom upgrade! At this rate I'll probably be living in the chateau by the time I leave. I now live in a room right off the dining room in the Moulin. It has a very Mediterranean feel, and a door that leads outside:


Beautiful bathroom, which I have all to myself! This is, like, 1000 steps up from sharing a bare-concrete floor bathroom with 5 males.

Even the radiator is beautiful.

Me wearing Napeoleon's jacket.


Just kidding. It is really old though. Jonathan gave it to me as a gift for working here.


This isn't related to my room, but it's adorable.... Bernard rescued a baby bird from the cat a few days ago, and we're nursing him back to health. The wound on his head seems to be healing and his wing is usable now.
We feed him baby bird food - which just happened to be lying around the office - but it comes in pellets and since he's such a baby we have to make it into mush and feed it to him like this:
And guess what?! I was in the newspaper on Saturday! There was an article about the village picnic last week. The other guy in the picture is a friend of Jonathan's.

By now I have a fairly regular routine...

I wake up around 7:30 or 8 and go to the Moulin with Pascal to get breakfast ready. The guests eat (bread, croissants and pain au chocolat, apricot preserves from their apricot tree, fresh squeezed orange juice…), and then leave with Bernard for the day on their excursions to caves, horse shows, wine tasting, chateaux…. Pascal always disappears after breakfast too, and everyone else is still at the village. That leaves me to clean up the table, wash all the dishes, and clean the kitchen.

I finish with all that at about 1 or 2 – later if Pascal has given me other tasks (cleaning out the compost buckets, washing the kitchen windows, hanging laundry…). Then I go over to the office/living room where I can use the computer and take a much longed-for nap. At 5ish, Pascal returns from wherever he was – generally grocery shopping or napping – and we begin preparing dinner. Menus so far include:

Soup – curried zucchini or cream of cauliflower, served cold

Main course – duck confit, fresh vegetable lasagna, chicken with potato-like vegetable

Salad – lettuce from the garden with a dressing (and not much else)

Cheeses – Roquefort, Camembert, goat cheese, plus lots of I haven’t heard of

Fresh baguettes

White and red wines served with each course

Dessert – apple sorbet with sautéed apples, tarts from a local patisserie

In the evenings I do a lot of preparing vegetables, but by far what I do most is wash dishes. I really don’t mind it inherently, but doing these dishes stresses me out. Most of them are very old and fragile, and the wine glasses are endless. [We typically go through 5ish bottles of wine a day.] On top of that, the sink is porcelain so it’s very hard, which makes things more likely to break if they hit it.

Since I’m mostly alone from about 11 until 5, the duck family who comes to the kitchen door make for good company. There’s a Mama duck and six toddler ducks (the babies are elsewhere). Pascal buys unbelievable amounts of bread, so there’s always some old, hard pieces that I can soak and give to the ducks. They’re very cute – they nip at my toes because they think it’s food, and when I have bread they’ll eat it out of my hand.

Dinner is usually between 8 and 9 (Pascal gets very upset with the Americans who want to at 7:30 – “too hot! Ils sont fous! (they’re crazy)” he says). I help him serve and remove the plates of all the different courses, washing dishes in between so it’s not so overwhelming afterward – which it still manages to be. We usually don’t finish cleaning off the table, washing all the dishes, putting everything away, and setting the table for the next morning until about 12:30.

When I get back to the village, Jonathan is very chatty. I usually sit and talk with him for a while and then go to bed around 2. I’m hoping I won’t have to get up every day at 7:something, because I’m not getting enough sleep and I can’t go to bed much earlier (an hour at most).

. . .

Yesterday we went swimming in the pool of the chateau behind the village, and today we don’t have to make dinner because the guests are eating at a restaurant. Hooray!! I think they’re unusually busy, so (hopefully) it won’t always be like this. I’m hoping I’ll get to be involved in other parts of the bed and breakfast too, aside from the kitchen, like marketing and booking guests & their itineraries. A couple days ago, Pascal taught a cooking class for the guests. I translated some recipes into English as well as the class itself. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be.

. . .

And now, more pictures:

My new bedroom, with my own two sinks!

I took a different way to the Moulin the other day and passed this row of poplars with ornament-like mistletoe (which is everywhere).

Cleaning the kitchen.

The clean kitchen! It's pretty small, but all the windows make it seem less cramped.

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but this kitchen is the epitome of not putting things away.

My friends the ducks! They keep me company during the day when I'm alone in the kitchen cleaning. I can't capture their cuteness in a picture.

Table set for dinner a few nights ago. The flowers are all from the gardens here - cosmos, calla lilies, roses (that smell absolutely amazing), daisies, and wheat.