Weather you like it or not...

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So “le meteo”, or the weather, gets center stage for this update. I know I’ve mentioned several times before that, in the words of Shakespeare, the skies above Pau often ressemble “a foul bombard that would shed his liquor” (Tempest). This has led the assistants to coin the phrase that it’s “Pauing” instead of pouring. However, this past week has been like nothing I’ve ever seen in my life. The rain did not let up for a single day after Easter. It rained in sheets all through Alla’s visit, right up until Saturday. Then, we had one day of absolutely perfect, sunny, 75 degree weather before being plunged back down into the black pit of despair on Sunday. Monday, however, took the cake.

I walked to work at Jeanne d’albret in the pouring rain, arriving “archi-trempe”, or soaking wet. I discovered there were no working lights in my classroom. The day is already off to a great start. Then, while I’m going over vocabulary with my 5emes, (which are quite possibly the smartest 12 year olds I’ve ever met, but that’s not surprising, because they take music classes and we all know from watching VH1 that Music Education= Brain Power) it starts HAILING. Yes, Hail, in April, in south-west France. These were not dinky little pellets either. They were about the size of a celebrity engagement rock. Oh well, at least it gave me the opportunity to teach my kids some useful weather vocabulary. They got a big kick out of “It’s raining cats and dogs”. When I got home from work that afternoon, chaos was reigning chez Canterot because we had a massive leak in the kitchen. As the downpour continued to fill the trashcan we’d placed under underneath it, Charlene came downstairs to announce that another leak had started upstairs in her room. Christine had to leave to go and help Sophie butcher and preserve several ducks (they do this about twice a year), which meant I got the chance to try duck hearts for dinner the next night. So, you can add one more thing to the growing list of strange food items I enjoy. All I can say is, they weren’t awful, just offal! (haha, get it?)

Tuesday was “Poisson d’avril”. We have April Fool’s, they have April Fish. Basically, people try to sneak up on you and stick a paper fish on your back. My 5emes got me while I checked their worksheets, but I was a good sport about it. Later that afternoon I went and saw a movie at the Meliees called “l’occitanienne”, about “The last love of Chateaubriand”, as the write-up said. I went to see it for 2 reasons: 1) it’s filmed in the Pyrenees and 2) I love me some French romantics, for those of you that didn’t already know. Technically, Chateaubriand was a precursor to the French Romantic Movement, and he’s often referred to as the Father of French Romanticism. I can’t say he’s actually one of my favorite authors, as I tend to prefer the more lively Gautier, Merimee, and Hugo to the lamenting, languishing Chateaubriand and LaMartine. Chateaubriand set his most famous work, Rene, in North America on the banks of the Mississippi. He hadn’t actually been there, per se, but he had a great imagination so he figured that would work just as well. He just had a little trouble with the local flora and fauna, as he goes off for several paragraphs about parrots and caribou, but other than that he did all right. Anyways, getting back to the film, I found it to be much like the works of Chateaubriand…slow and agonizing. The other thing that kept distracting me from the film was the fact that the lead actress also stars in “Plus Belle La Vie”, my French soap opera addiction, so I kept wondering why “Melanie” was suddenly playing the roll of a 19th century country lady.

So now I’ll back up to last week and the rest of Alla the Russian dancers visit, just to ensure that you’re thoroughly and utterly lost as far as chronology. Tuesday night (so we’re Tuesday, the 25th of March), she asked me after dinner if I would help her with her English, and I of course was happy to oblige. I was amazed at how little trouble she had with numbers. When I ask my kids to articulate anything larger than 15, I’m met with panic stricken looks and a seeming loss of all verbal skills. I can’t blame them. Large numbers are still intimidating for me in French, but here’s this 12-year-old Russian girl rattling off “four hundred and sixty-five thousand, two hundred and thirty eight” as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. In exchange, Alla taught me a little bit of Russian, although I don’t think I’ll be fluent enough to attempt a trip to St. Petersburg anytime soon.

Wednesday, as a reward for working hard all day on my English literature lesson plans, I went out for a drink with Sabine, Bastian, and Colleen (despite having to start work at 8 o’clock the next morning). As always, Bastian had amusing stories to share with us. That night it was how his mother had told him he could pack his suitcases and move if he went out with us, and him proceeding to go out anyway. Anytime we all go out, Bastian always tells me to try a sip of whatever strange new beer he’s ordered. He then laughs when I tell him it’s “not bad”, while simultaneously pushing the glass as far from me as humanly possible. What can I say, I’m just not a beer person. The next morning was very hectic because I had to make about a million print outs of Shakespeare scenes and staple them all together, and of course this was the day the photocopier decided to jam at Clermont. Luckily we got it fixed, and I was able to get all my papers together, but just in the nick of time.

So how did Shakespeare with French 14 year olds go? Over all, much better than I’d expected. The final verdict isn’t in yet, because I’m spreading the lesson out over a few weeks to give them plenty of time to rehearse (and to make my job easier, let’s not lie!). We did an introduction to Shakespeare’s life and the theatre in his day, and then I handed out scripts. The kids could not have been more excited. It seems I’ve got quite a little bunch of actors on my hands. While they had a little trouble getting their heads around how “thou” and “thee” could mean “you”, I needed no extra incentive to get them to do their work (this is a rare occurrence, mind you). I especially have to give a hand to the 5 who are tackling the rude mechanicals scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I selfishly chose all my favorite scenes from Shakespeare, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy the performances. At the very last minute on Thursday night, I ended up getting invited to a concert of the Pau Orchestra at the Palace Beaumont. Sophie (of duck butchering fame) has season tickets, and her son couldn’t attend this performance. I really lucked out, because there was an amazing Japanese violinist who was the guest soloist, and I’ve never heard a violin sound the way it did in his hands. He was called back on stage 5 times after he finished, and then had to give an encore to get the crowd to settle down. It was incredible, and something I’ll remember for a very long time.

Friday, Laurence had some of her friends, aka my students, over to the house. As a special treat, I made them pancakes, which made me an instant hit and had them all asking for the recipe. However, they’d been watching horror films, which meant I scared the heck out of them when I called them to say their snack was ready. On Saturday, Christine took Alla, Elsa, Laurence, Alla’s friend, Alla’s dance teacher, and myself to St. Sebastian for the day. You may remember St. Sebastian from one of my earlier blog entries in the fall. It’s a very chic and beautiful seaside down right across the Spanish border where Patrick ran a half-marathon in November. This time, there was no running, just marathon shopping. Luckily, the horrible weather abated a whole 24 hours, meaning we could have our little excursion in blissful, sunny peace. Things were a little difficult, simply because Alla’s dance teacher speaks neither French nor Russian, but she seems like a very sweet lady. I didn’t actually buy anything in St. Sebastian, but I got a trip looking at all the high end children’s clothing stores. The Spanish don’t eat dinner until about 10:00 at night, and in the “earlier” hours (7-9 pm), they like to stroll around the town, dressed in their Sunday best (although for them I guess it’s every day best), and with their toddlers sporting little Dolce and Gabanna rompers. We stopped for lunch and I got to try Paella, a Spanish dish of rice, peppers, and seafood. Then, we walked along the beach and even put our feet in the freezing cold water for 2.8 nanoseconds, until we realized what a dumb idea that was. In November, I’d forgotten my camera. This time, I remembered it, so I have some St. Sebastian pictures. I haven’t uploaded them from my camera yet though, so I’ll add them within the next couple days. In short, it was a completely spectacular day.

So there we are, all caught up on my week of rain and Russians. Thankfully, things are predicted to dry out for this next week, and tomorrow night I’m making chili and cornbread for the Canterots. I think they can handle that, but I’m skeptical that they’ll eat the pumpkin pie I’m making for dessert. Paka! (or bye-bye, in Russian)

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Photos

St. Sebastian
so pretty

St. Sebastian
and for the first time in a week, we had sun!

St. Sebastian
There's an island in the middle of the bay

St. Sebastian
The bay opens up to the Atlantic ocean

St. Sebastian
uber-cold water

St. Sebastian
The king of spain has a vacation home here

Le Gave
Check out how high the river in Pau is after all the rain we've had