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Published: March 30th 2007
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As I've been preparing my Spring Break travels (which start tomorrow), I realized that I need to get a blog out before I forget everthing that has happened up until now. I'm pretty good about blogging big trips, but there are all sorts of little events that add up to one blog's worth of info. So here goes...
The first scholl day after the Belgium trip, I went to a wine tasting session at IES. The French are very serious about wine tasting, it is even considered a science (oenologie). I went to the same session last semester, but I found it was easier to follow this time since I'm more used to the taste of wine. We tried 4 wines (1 white, 2 reds, and a champagne) and in between wines, the speaker (a wine maker with a degree in oenologie) would explain wine-related topics. For instance, wine-making is heavily reuglated with rules regarding what you can call your wine and even what type of grapes you can grow in specific regions. He also described the process of growing grapes, and ironically, you don't want a very high quality of top soil because you want the roots to
dig deep into the ground and imbed themselves way below the surface. The first white was from Alsace, and it was very good. The first red was very mild tasting, but the second red was from Bordeaux and tasted a bit like Windex (though I'm told it was an excellent wine). The french like strongly flavored wines, but I'm not quite ready for "reds with a personality". The champagne was my favorite; it was very, very bubbly.
That weekend, IES sponsored a trip to see the D-Day Beaches of Normandy. About 40 of us piled into tour buses and went to Caen, where there is a huge memorial museum. There were tonds of exhibites about pre-war, war, and post-war topics. There were people there from all over the world, and all the exhibites were in French, English, and German. There was also a theatre there that showed real footage of the D-Day invasion; there were no words, but I think translting everything into 3 languages would have taken away from the effect. It was a very impressive museum and it gave all of us a lot of food for thought. That evening, some of us walked around Caen and
saw all the old buildings and cathedrals lit up at night. The next day, we went to the American Cemetary at Omaha Beach. There was a big circular memorial with details of the invasion, and teh cemetary was amazing. All the tombstones (in forms of crosses and David's Stars mostly) were set up in diagonal lines. We walked through the cemetary, and it was very humbling to be surrounded by so many crosses. Then we went down to the actual beach. Now, it just looks like a normal beach (no leftover debris), but it was still easy to imagine the invasion. Then we drove down the road a bit to see Point Hoc which was extremely impressive. it is actually a cliff that overlooks the sea, so soldiers had to climb up the cliff to attack. There are still German bunkers and tunnels, and the most amazing, there are still huge craters all over the landscape. Later that day, we went to the twon of Bayrou to see a historic tapestry depicting historic events between France and England, but we were all a bit drained from all the war sites.
A few weeks ago, I was strolling around Nantes
with my friend Alexa, and we went to the fair of Regional Products. There were lots of people that had come to stock up their wine cellars and would go from booth to booth sampling wines. Alexa and I didn't even try to get samples: we didn't exactly look like the buying-type of customers. There were also merchants selling dried sausages, other meat products, breads, and cheeses. See the picture of the immense whell of cheese with me standing next to it for scale. Then we went to downtown Nantes, where we found a large street band playing pop-songs with a little choreography. I didn't thnk they were that great, but there was a huge crowd around them, but then again, the French don't really have the high-school marching band experience that we do.
Last weekend in Nantes, they started up the Carnaval Week with a big parade through the town. Some of the floats could have been matched by the old LSHS homecoming parade, but there were come other really cool ones. The theme was humor and entertainment, so there was quite a variety of floats. It started out with a drum group, and I was shocked to
see the second group: Giles from Binche! (See my Belgium blog) They had brough their costumes, hats, and band all the way from Belgium, and Anna and I felt privilaged to know who they were (most people didn't). Other floats of note: Charlie Chaplin float with about 20 black andwhite Charlos (French name for him) running around, a Marx brothers float spouting silver ticker tape, a loat with Mr. Bean and his Teddy Bear, and an Austin Powers float led by an Austin with 15 go-go girls. Also, the poor French children don't get to do Halloween, so they all took this opportunity to dress up as Spiderman, Captain Jack Sparrow, and Disney princess; and bury the the streets in confetti and silly string.
For a little pocket money, I run an English conversation group for members of the France-US Alliance. So every Thursday, I prepare some conversation topics for my little group (4-6 members usually). We get along really well, they speak excellent English, and I really enjoy our meetings. One couple (named Hill coincidently) invited me and a friend to dinner last Wednesday, and it was very nice. My friend, Kaitlin, and I got there with the
polite "15 Nantais" (the Nantes 15), though we did have to do a lap around the block to manage to get there 15 minutes late. They had also invited a German girl (who runs a German conversation group that they attend), and we had a complete French dinner: Aperatif (a drink with little appetizers), asparagus with italien ham and a butter sauce, roasted duck with potatoes, a cheese course, and apple pie a la Normande (with whipped cream, cane sugar, and calvados (a licquer made from apples)). With all the conversation and spaced out courses, we got home very late indeed.
I also couldn't help signing up for the IES visit to La Petit Boulangerie, the best boulangerie in Nantes. The owner (who refusesany money for his presentation) explains how to make traditional French bread and lets us try our hand at it. A few years back, he was rated "meilleur ouvrier de France" (best boulanger in France), so he knows a thing or two about bread, and he really seemed to enjoy tlking with us. We walked out with our own little baguette and we all went right back in to buy some patisseries (cakes and sweet breads)
to thank him for his time (there was a more selfish motive to that, as well)
So, now I'm ready to set off for Srping Break with a clean blog-slate...
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