Blogs from Rouen, Upper Normandy, France, Europe - page 5

After the games there was a barbacue at Jean-Luc’s house for the whole team. The main event, however, was the announcement of the presidential election results between Segolene Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy, the two presidential candidates left for the run-off election that was held today. In a nutshell, Segolene represents a socialist politics, wanting to reinforce social security, unemployment and other social programs in France. Sarkowzy is a much more pro-America, pro-Bush, pro-capitalism candidate, who also speaks strongly about controlling immigration and strengthening the French borders. He talks about ‘selective’ immigration reform which would limit/control which immigrants would be allowed into the country. To generalize, Segolene represents the left while Sarkowzy is more right-leaning (though the political lines in France are not drawn exactly the same as they are in the ... read more

Here is my typical Thursday living here in France (sort of). I wake up around 9 am, just enough time to have a morning coffee, have a pastry, and to check my email before going to the gym. We have an overflowing amount of pastries, like croissants and chocolate croissants, because this is always in abundance at the pig park whenever we go there. By 10 am it is time to go to the gym but flo was not yet awake. I go upstairs to wake him up. We arrive 20 minutes late to the gym, and as usual Christophe is there on the stationary bike waiting for us. We go through our workout, and as always someone wants to know what we do with the big blue ball(everyday at the gym we bring a big ... read more

This past weekend we played Cherburg, one of the stronger teams in our division. They have three Canadians, all good players, a pitcher, a shortstop, and a second-baseman. In our first game we were completely shut down by their pitcher; he struck out nine batters and almost all of the rest he made us hit to second or short. I pitched the first game; we lost 2-0, their two runs coming in the 4th inning on no hits and three errors. The second game we lost 5-1. Our pitcher for the second game pitched very well, recording 9 strikeouts in seven innings. These two losses bring our record to 5-3, third place in our division. During the first game I was on second base during a timeout in the action and the other team’s shortstop ... read more

Eric Coutu has had a rough week, one of the most ‘unlucky’ weeks I have ever seen. (Eric is the history professor from Quebec who took me on a tour of Rouen when I first arrived.He pitches and plays shortstop, he also coaches the Cadet--15 year old--team at Bois-Guillaume. He is also the one in the picture in a previous blog with a balloon on his head.) Last Sunday on his way home from our game he rear-ended another car at a traffic circle. Then on Tuesday he went to the emergency room because of severe stomach pains (he has been having intestinal problems for a while). Then Wednesday at practice he was hit with a ball at first base; the ball hit a rock, came up and popped him in the face. He was knocked ... read more

Ah the French and their chocolat! The French chocolat is some of the best in Europe, with the Swiss and the Belgium chocolate. It contains real coco from the coco bean, when in other countries such as England it often contains substitutes. In Rouen, Auzou is one of the best chocolat producer and is a landmark for coco lovers. With it's famous chocolate fountain, and it's speciality of macarons, the store offers the best of the precious coco beans. http://www.auzou-chocolat.fr/ During Easter the store fills up with eggs and chocolate rabbits and fish. "Macarons are simply made from egg whites, ground almonds and icing sugar, and they're often sandwiched together with a spread of buttercream or jam. The result is a 'cookie' that gives an initial crunch before slowly melting in your mouth." Go see ... read more