Paris, Part Deux

So we had the misfortune of visiting Paris on what had to be one of the grayest, rainiest, coldest, most miserable November days of the year. But for a girl who has dreamed all of her life of seeing castles, her mother who's always wanted to show her one, and a North Dakota-born one-time wheat farmer who had never before been out of the United States, the weather was hardly enough to hold us back from seeing Versailles!

It was so great to see my Mom and Tom this weekend. They reminded me with their enthusiasm how exciting it is to be in France. We visited what has become my favorite restaurant in town, Le Montesquieu, which is just the perfect little French café. Only open for lunch, they change their menu each day. So I went in and talked to the proprietress the day before Mom and Tom got here and we picked out a special menu that Mom could eat so she could taste French cuisine without upsetting her allergies. She was so helpful and accommodating, and now the waiter knows me by name... Plus the food is excellent. I will miss that kind of service when I go back home.

Of course, not all French customer service is so exceptional. Today I was about ready to explode. First I talked to someone in the telephone store about a mistake with my bill and she acted like it was hard to understand me even though I'm sure I was perfectly comprehensible. I wanted to wipe that condescending smile off her face, let me tell you. Then she told me to call the 800 number because there was nothing she could do. I explained that it's hard for me to understand on the telephone and she repeated that she couldn't help me - not having even tried to understand the problem! - and added, by the way, I might not want to call today because they are too busy - call back tomorrow. As if that wasn't enough, I went to pick up my photos and one roll hadn't arrived, and the woman told me to call the lab myself to see what the problem was! She couldn't get a job at Kits Cameras! I was so frustrated...

Anyway, Versailles was amazing. Just so huge!!! I mean, I had no idea that 20,000 courtiers had lived there at once during the time of Louis XIV... And so excessive! Much of the furnishings are beautiful but I just couldn't take it all in. It was like all together you couldn't appreciate each object's individual beauty because it was just overwhelming. Every room was stuffed with gold, paintings, Sèvres porcelain, clocks, fireplaces, chandeliers - and there are sooo many rooms. The Hall of Mirrors - which the French call la Galérie des Glaces - was mostly closed for restoration, can you believe it? But we got an idea of its magnificence from the part that was still open, at least. Then we took what was meant to be a stroll in the gardens but turned out to be a 25-minute hike in the rain to see the Hameau de la Reine, that is, the little farm that Marie-Antoinette had built at the edge of the palace grounds so she could play peasant. It was so cute and charming, and yet - the idea is so outrageous of this queen pretending to be a commoner while the real poor people were starving to death. So I guess in comparison to their plight our situation of being freezing, wet, and extremely tired of walking seems a little less grave, but we were still really happy when we were finally able to call a taxi and be rescued from the middle of nowhere! Traveling - always an adventure!

Of course, the unhappy bourgeois got their retribution as well. But then just 15 years after the French Revolution, Napeleon crowned himself emperor in the most incredibly lavish and opulent ceremony. Ah France, the land where nothing makes sense... We visited Napoleon's tomb at les Invalides, which is appropriate as it is the 200th anniversary of his coronation this year... And had $10 sandwiches across the street. Somehow I hadn't realized that Paris is just as expensive as London. Ugh. But we did stay at the most beautiful hotel... Oh, just thinking of those huge fluffy pillows makes my eyelids feel heavy. And I got my first bath in about three months, so let's just say I was a happy camper.

Another highlight of the trip - there are so many! - was the Rodin Museum, which was incredible. I love sculpture, and I am rather fond of Rodin's revolutionary style, so shocking in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His images of passion and sadness are particularly moving, thus some of his most famous works - Le Baiser (The Kiss) and Le Désespoir (Despair). He also has a talent for intertwining bodies or simply posing figures in novel ways. The hands and feet of his sculptures are particularly eloquent, and often over-sized. Anyway, I thought the museum was very well-done, and it contains almost all of his works as he donated them the year before his death. The garden is particularly neat because you can wander around and the statues are more spread out. I was particularly intrigued by Les Portes d'Enfer - the Gates of Hell - because many of his other works are inspired by it, including Le Penseur (The Thinker), who is meant to be Dante reflecting on the afterlife. It really made me curious about Divine Comedy, which I've never read...

Finally, one of the neatest things we did was go to a Gregorian Mass at Notre Dame. The bells were thundering as we approached, and then as we entered the organ struck up its overpowering entrance music. During mass we were treated to the Kyrie, Sanctus, etc. sung in Latin by a male choir. Throw in the stained glass, the vaulted ceilings, and just the knowledge of being in one of the oldest churches in the heart of Paris...! Overall the effect was awesome. No wonder people were so much more religious in the Middle Ages... :)

Anyway, it was a great weekend and I had a hard time coming back to regular life. Well, regular life in France, whatever that is. Classes, homework, ugh! I will be happy to finish finals, that's all I can say about that!

The fit blokes in London (and their mates!)

I just couldn't bring myself to put a French title on my London weekend - it was too out-of-context! The culture shock in England was accentuated by the fact that I have been in France for the past two months. British culture is already pretty different from American culture, but then to compare it to France - I can't imagine two more different atmospheres!

First of all, I was looking forward to understanding the language better for a change - only to discover that the British accents were so thick I honestly had a harder time understanding Eric's Brit friends than I have understanding my French friends! Not to mention all of the slang - 'fit' means 'hot,' and 'rank' means 'gross,' and - the list goes on and on. On the plus side, I felt extremely welcomed because everyone was so open and friendly and, well, smiley, compared to your average French stranger. They were also a lot of fun - a perfect match for Eric's sarcastic sense of humor (or is it humour? ha ha). They like to laugh a lot, and also tend to have a knack for witty remarks. As Eric observed to me, they seem to value intelligence more than we do in America - there, it's cool to be educated, and they like to drop historical or literary references into conversations, etc. But they know how to kick back too - they go out to bars all the time, and tend to drink a lot! Of course, these are all generalizations, and these are all students at the London School of Economics - so I wouldn't go so far as to say they represent the entire population. That said, stereotypes generally exist for a reason. My host mother agreed with me that English people are more open than the French - but she pointed out that (like many American friendships?) it's also often more superficial, and that, though it takes a while to develop, once formed, a French friendship is deep and lasts for a long time. (No wonder it's hard to meet people here!) It occurs to me that the short, semester study-abroad program is thus not very suited to French culture...

Another side effect of my trip is that life seems a bit cheaper here in Nantes. Everything in London costs a fortune! I mean, it's impossible to find a meal for less than $10 - and that's not much of a meal, either, maybe a sandwich and some fries. (Those $1 pastries down the street here in Nantes just seem better and better.) Even the much-lauded transportation system costs an arm and a leg: The tube costs $4 just for one round-trip ticket. Needless to say, we walked a lot!

Although, in truth, we didn't go all that far. We walked by the British Museum but I'd already been in; we went down and saw Winchester Abbey, but it costs money to enter; I took some photos of Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. But then, tourism wasn't really the point of this visit. I feel like I got a great inside view of student life by just hangin out with Eric and his 'mates'!

Side note - it was FREEZING all weekend, like the kind of cold that hits you like a splash of ice water when you step out the door. Brr! Here in Nantes it is a more reasonable chilliness. (Then again, I better prepare for real cold, considering I'm going to be in the snowy Alps next week!!!)

One cool thing we found in London was Smith and Sons, which is a whole store just for walking sticks and umbrellas. How delightfully British! We also walked down Old Bond Street, which is apparently the Rodeo Drive of London. I have now seen a $10,000 pen - who on Earth would need such a frivolous creation? - and the fabulous extravagances of Tiffany and Co., though I must say I preferred DeBeers. (Diamonds are a girl's best friend...) Eric and I decided that that's where people who have too much money to possibly spend go to get rid of as much as they can. What wastefulness, as my host mother loves to say!

What else can I say about London? Well, one thing is - why doesn't Big Ben strike on the hour? Unless I'm mistaken it kept chiming at quarter 'til... But I could be wrong, I suppose. Also, I finally found somewhere where the drivers are crazier than in Paris. Or maybe they just seem that way because they're on the other side of the road. :) But they come whipping around corners like nothing else so pedestrians better watch out! (Eric got hit by a mini a few weeks ago, in fact, but was not seriously injured...) Last but not least, I am proud to say that my first independent voyage went without mishap - 15 hours of traveling alone sans problème. Cheers!

Other than traveling, I'm keeping busy preparing for the Model EU, writing my speech for Thanksgiving, studying for various midterms... It all seems rather mundane, now, I have to admit! It was funny, though - I thought France would seem somehow disheartening in comparison with the light-hearted London weekend, but as soon as I was back in Paris I felt suddenly more at home. Hearing people speaking French all around, munching a quiche, and waiting for the TGV - how has this come to seem "normal"? I don't know, but it was kind of an epiphany. I think that I have come to take a lot for granted, for example, the simple satisfaction I get from understanding and being understood when speaking French. I know I will miss it... In fact, I am just starting to realize how big of an adjustment I'll be facing when I get home!

La frustration

Well, I think that title ought to be easy to translate, huh? I am kind of cranky at the moment so pardon the complaining - I'm forewarning you now! I waited 45 minutes just for this computer, and just wait until you hear about my weekend...

I had it in my head that I wanted to visit the Beaches of Normandy where the heros fought and died 60 years ago, and certainly those brave young men deserve to be remembered and honored, but I had no idea how tough it was going to be just to get there. I figured I'd just hop on the train and sort it out when I got to the nearest town, my usual do-as-you-go style of traveling - which, I may point out, hadn't really let me down before. But I bet Dad can sympathize considering when he was here he went all the way to Mulhouse - a whole day's train ride - to see a train museum, only to find that it was closed.

Anyhoo, this isn't meant to be a stump speech for the wisdom of planning ahead, but after spending 4 hours getting to Caen (and I got fined 10€ for forgetting my discount card and boarding the train with discount tickets!) mon amie Sarah and I found ourselves still 30 miles from the beaches with no way to get there. The buses didn't go that far, the car rental places were closed... No wonder the taxis make off like bandits. We ended up paying 150€ for a package deal to visit everything with one taxi over the course of 4 and a half hours. (Thank you Uncle Alex for that Christmas money!)

Of course, we did get to see everything. First we visited Arromanche, that is, "Port Winston" during the war - originally the Juno Beach attacked by the British, after the successful securing of which the Allies miraculously established a floating port from whence to unload trucks, jeeps, ambulances, and 150,000 men just in the first day. This thing must have been an engineering marvel, and they built it super fast. They sunk 160 ships around the harbor to create a breakwater and then installed these floating steel piers that went up and down with the tide so they could park the big ships out at sea and drive the supplies right up onto the beach! What a planner, that Winston Churchill.

We saw La Batterie, that is the German guns and bunkers - I wouldn't have wanted to be there on June 6 1944 but it sure beats running up a beach with no cover... We went to Omaha and the American Cemetary. All those marble crosses make a stunning image, but I seriously thought that I would be struck by the horror and the tragedy - and somehow those tranquil green lawns and the peaceful, if somber, beach, left me a bit underwhelmed. I realized that there's no way I could possibly recapture a sense of what that night was like by just being there sixty years later. If I really want to know, I think I may have to watch Saving Private Ryan when I get home. Try as I might, my imagination failed me utterly when I was walking along those beaches. I guess I should just thank my lucky stars I don't know what war is like. And thank those men who died so that I wouldn't have to...

Now, in that light I guess my petty grievances and minimal sacrifices seem horribly trivial. Yet, I will continue with my tale of the not-so-perfectly-planned-or-executed weekend trip. See, the thing is, I thought we had made it sufficiently clear to our taxi driver that our train left in EXACTLY 4 and a half hours, so we'd need to speed the tour up a bit. But you can guess what's coming next...

Yes, we missed our train by about FIVE minutes. The last train, in fact, that night. So we were stuck. We honestly considered finding a new taxi to take us to our connecting train station two hours away. Neither of us wanted to pay for a hotel, sleep in our clothes, and not get home until noon on Sunday! But 250 more euros was just too much to handle. (Now it seems even crazier than it did at the time.) We were pretty exasperated.

But we made the best of it. (What else could we do?) We ate out - I tried moules frites, that is, mussels and fries, a very popular dish here - like the Normand equivalent of fish and chips - and it was surprisingly good. The trick is the salty, oniony, buttery sauce they put the mussels in. Anyway, we took a little night walk around Caen, and discovered that if we'd only seen the train station there as originally planned we would have missed out. There's a huge chateau built by William the Conqueror in 1030, all square and heavily fortified. There's a flamboyant Gothic cathedral, St. Pierre (why are they all named that??) with outrageous flying buttresses and rose windows - even moreso than Notre Dame. There was a restored three-masted sailing ship that still traverses the Atlantic from time to time and was originally built to carry cacao from Brazil, hence the name Belem, a Brazilian port. Point being, all was not lost. But STILL.

Then last night I had bought tickets for a soccer match, which the email told me was at 8 pm. But nothing is ever as it seems in this strange land. I got an irritated call from our activity coordinator at 5:30: "Where are you? Everybody's here at the stadium and I have your ticket and we want to go in and get seats!!!" Apparently it was really 6 pm and I didn't get the second email telling me so. Ugh. So she leaves the ticket with one of the ticket-takers with my name on it and I jump on a tram and head over there - all the way across town - which takes an hour. I get there just for half time, run around like a helpless american (oh wait, that's what I am) trying to find the one of a hundred orange-coated stadium workers who has my ticket, and upon finally entering, find myself faced with a stadium full of thousands of crazed French 'football' fans. I call my friends to try to locate them and naturally can't hear a thing. It's sort of a panicky overwhelming type of situation and I've already had a heck of a weekend so I'm kind of all adventured out. FINALLY after what seems like hours I see them - having futilely used up all of my remaining cell minutes - only to be greeted, "Jeez, Meagan, I missed the goal because I was looking for you!" I wanted to say, "Oh yeah? Well I missed half the game, does that make you feel better?" but I bit my tongue.

Luckily for me, I was soon transported by the enthusiasm of the crowd back to the old glory days of Bothell High football games. It's been awhile since I've been at a major sporting event like that! So I soon found my mood lifted by the songs, clapping, cheers, and most humorously, the taunts and jeers of the crowd ("The ref is an a**hole" being one of my favorites, chanted in unison and accompanied by various vulgar gestures). Of course when the ref makes a call that pleases the fans, they have a special little cheer in his favor, too, so he can't be too offended. :) You know how serious the Europeans are about their football - but you don't really know until you've been to a game. So I'm glad I went, even if it did take a major effort! (And even though the game did end in a rather unsatisfying tie. Americans would never settle for such an ambiguous result in their major sports! Good old overtime...)

So, that was my weekend. This has to be one of the first times I was relieved to get back to school. Even Monday, which is so full of classes at the University for me it makes my head hurt. (5 hours, ouch.) I wonder if one can get fed up with traveling. I think I'm approaching my limit. That said, I am planning on going to London to visit my best friend Eric this weekend, ha ha. Well, hey, what else could go wrong? (Famous last words...)

Le saveur du sud

"The flavor of the south" - okay, so that's the name of a tea I like here (I knew it had a nice ring to it!) but it also describes the marked difference that I noted between the southern coast of France and any other region I've visited. I mean, of course there's a big difference; but at the same time, it's amazing how much variety there is in France when one considers that the whole country is about the size of Texas.

Upon arriving in Montpellier, I was struck by the atmosphere of southern France: the palm trees lining the streets, the stucco and red tile roofs, the melodic accent of the French spoken there. It's très méditérané. It seemed at the same time older and newer than Nantes. With the Roman aquaduct and a cathedral in the old Gothic style that resembles a fortress more than a church, and roads even more narrow and windy than those in Nantes in the Vieille Ville (Old Town), I felt as if I'd been transported into the past; yet, venture 15 minutes across the city to the east side and the Antigone district, and everything is brand-new. The architect tried to fuse the past and the present with a style that harkens back to Greco-Roman design, with arches, columns, symmetry... but all the glass, the fountains, the sheer geometrical perfection make it feel almost futuristic. Being there is like being in an idyllic and artificial oasis - the redirected river within the stone banks, the huge glass building in the shape of an arch that houses the regional government, the potted plants and palms, and all the apartment buildings and the huge mall all in the same white stone and the same plain, elegant style, arranged along a single straight line. I can't describe it, it just felt surreal. What a fascinating city!

We also took a half-day trip to Nîmes to see the Roman ruins, which was well worth it. We saw Les Arènes, which is like a miniature version of the Colosseum in Rome, only better preserved. It could still seat 24,000 people! It was crazy to imagine the gladiators fighting and everything... I guess lions were too expensive, so they used local animals (boars, bears, etc.) in the morning, then the slaves fought in the afternoons. One slave defeated 32 challengers before being freed! Wow. My mind can't even conceive of what life must have been like back then... Or of how many feet have passed over those same stone steps... Yikes. And then, get this, in the Middle Ages they used the place as a fortress. It makes sense - it was already there, and the walls provided a good defense. So they actually filled in the lower levels and built a town in the middle. People lived in the corridors! Isn't that wild? It was even more of a stretch for my imagination to try to envision a medieval town in the middle of this huge arena! Then, in the late 18th century, they decided they wanted to restore it, so they evacuated all the residents and tore out the town and excavated the original stadium floor... It's funny, now the historians are upset that we don't have more information on the medieval town. It's weird with things that have been used for so many purposes - of course we can't keep them all around, it's either restore it to the way it was or keep the modifications, and either way we lose something. But I think the city of Nîmes has found a good solution: They've gone back to using the arena for sporting events, concerts, etc. Each year they also have a celebrated bull fight, la Feria. I don't think they actually kill the bull but it's a big spectacle. How cool would it be to see that!

Anyway, we also went to the beach - bien sûr! It was really beautiful two of the four days on the trip. (The other two it rained a bit... random French weather!) The day we went to the beach we had the luck of clear skies and balmy weather, but of course, the busses that go to Palavas-Les-Flots (the little seaside town) were on strike. Typical. So we had a nice walk of several miles or so through the French countryside - pastures, farms, etc. It actually was kind of interesting, although we weren't really prepared for such a hike (shoes, water, etc.) It did make arriving at the beach that much more of a reward, though! So I can now say I've been in the Mediterranean Sea. Well, at least up to my ankles. :) There were plenty of people there - and almost everything was closed for the winter. I can only imagine the madness in the summer! I'd love to go back...

We also took a tour of the city - which, although it was a Roman settlement, didn't really exist until the 13th century when a rich aristocrat married to Marie de Montpellier founded it (kind of like the Medicis founded Florence, or some such); went to the Mediterranean Film Festival and saw a great (but wild) film from Bosnia; and generally had a really good time. I'd write more if I had the time... But to sum it up for now, I had a taste of the South of France with my Montpellier weekend - and I really liked it!