Nantes, je t'aime

Paris! (and potentially my last blog from France!)

Yeah well I pretty much did everything in two days in Paris -and still having a ball back home in Nantes. It was amazing arriving there at night with all the lights, in the car with a whole lot of French strangers (yay carpooling!), listening to German rap, Roy Orbisson and Mika.

Got a chance to use my French (which I think I can actually tell now has improved!) in la plus belle ville du monde...

 I've been living in France for two months now, and I was with Benoit, so we were speaking French, so it was with great reluctance I got out my camera like every other tourist. This shot is a bit better than your average, though: we got up at 6.30 Saturday morning (we were staying with cousins in a beautiful Parisien apartment in the 17eme so we were in town straight away) so it's still a little sombre..

 There were heaps of Japanese tourists making the Eiffel tower sign so we asked if we could join in (in French, even though they only spoke English, because I am kind of language-handicapped at the moment) and then a whole lot of Tunisians joined in. Turned out to be quite the party...

 The souvenir shops (and my opinion of their prices). We did get some prints of Paris: Benoit got the pretty ones in Summer, but of course I got the ones in Winter because that's how it is at the moment!

 This is Benoit's future residence (as president of France)...
(don't worry, I wasn't dragged along just for this, all the monopoly streets in French monopoly are in Paris, and some of them were around here)

 Climbing Notre Dame (so much better than just going inside, which is average). You get to see all the gargoyles, the architecture, the bells and the tiny staircases up close. We did this instead of climbing the Eiffel tower, because you can't actually see the Eiffel tower from there. Because of that, everything was free because we were both under 18 (and thanks Mum for the British passport that got me all the rights of a European citizen). Thanks also to the Australians who pretended to be our parents to get up l'arc de triomph..

 One of the many bridges in Paris where you write your names on a lock and lock it to the mesh. Guts if you get divorced and have to come back with a key..

 Mathilde, another cousin, and Leo, who's house we stayed at. We ate at a cute French restaurant Benoit and I had found the day before (and manage to find again!!) Tried French onion soup, ray with capers and we shared two creme caramels and two mousse au chocolats.

On our last night we happened to see this for one minute on our way back to the metro. This is really only a snippet (I can tell you all the rest when I get back to NZ in a few days!). Two other things that really should be mentioned was all the time spent walking along the Seine, by the second-hand book stalls, and through the streets of Paris, and discussing art like it was food like only French people can in all the galleries we visited. You can imagine I was shattered in the 'covoiturage' (carpooling) that took us back to Nantes.

La Cigale, ayant chanté...

Still having an amazing time -lots of fun times, music, laughter and beautiful things: you notice so much more in a different place!

I am a little worried, though… I’m using English expressions speaking French way more than I used to! (I’ll choose to believe the people who say it’s because I’m more relaxed!)

 Went to see a poetry battle (my second time at that theatre) with Marion, the eldest daughter of the Brousses, and Anna. Totally re-confirmed the French stereotype: funny and dramatic, and love to debate and talk politics in everything, even with poetry! We each had a yellow and red card (for each team) and at the end of each round which we raised for the team we thought was the best -it was really cool!

 Me and Anna bought a macaron à l'huile d'olive et à la mandarine (mandarin and olive oil!) from La Galerie L Fayette -ah-may-zing. It was a close call between this and a chocolate and fois gras macaroon.

 And a Chocolat Viennois with spekuloos (two of my favourite things!). This weekend it's actually got cold (minus one during the day!) so this was a real treat after taking the boat over to Trentemoult again. It's weird thinking how old this cafe (La Reine Blanche) is -there was even a soap opera filmed there once!

 Okay so it seems like I kind of have a thing with macaroons -I promise I just bought this one (fraise balsimique, balsamic strawberry) for the bag! (and the shop was pretty too, with a long glass case).

 Les belles Maria, Laura and Anna. We had breakfast at La Cigale (The Cicada), the most well-known restaurant in Nantes (mostly because it was the only affordable thing on the menu!)

 And me and Didier (it was breakfast, so it was early in the morning!)

 The brioches, pain, and petites pastries were pretty good, especially with tea (including caramel or pomme d'amour -toffee apple!- flavour), coffee or hot chocolate and grapefruit and orange juice, with caramel, apple compote, plum jam and of course butter to go with, but the real star was the decor. It's a historic building with amazing blue-and-yellow tiling, some of them painted, between oriental and old roman bath-houses (and the toilets were no exception -we made sure we checked them out too!)

 Just one of my favourite places, the markets. I took these photos because I leave in two saturdays' time, and I'll be in Paris next weekend, so I may not get another chance to go to a market in France. This is shellfish (mostly shrimps), of which the French eat a lot of, by the way.

 I haven't yet decided which stand I  like best, but during the Christmas markets there were lots of dried sausage stands, like this one, and they always gave out tasters! The French eat a lot of these as well; I like the peppery ones!

 and more prepared seafood meals. It may shock you to know that these are not the biggest dishes of food I have seen at a market (and there are other dishes that actually get cooked in these, but with the flat disk taken out)

 Des Galettes des Rois, a tradition that stems from the Christmas story, where the wise men (or kings, rois) apparently arrived to see Jesus on the 6th of January, so on the Sunday closest these cake-sized pastries are eaten, and whoever finds a little china figurine in their slice of almond filling gets to wear a gold crown. As you can see though (I took these photos today) the tradition tends to carry on until all the galettes are sold..

 And the chickens (lets just say a pretty good smell when you're wrapped up to your eyes and it's -1 degrees celcius at 11am in the morning)

and some nuts. There are heaps more stands but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for you -I do rather like French markets) I ran out of battery on my camera..

Il faut que je sois une touriste (au moins une fois)

After an action-packed weekend I have a dreadful head cold and have to stay at home for two days. This is not such a sacrifice as it may seem, as school does send me to sleep rather -if an exchange student ever tells you that school in another language is fun all the time, they’re lying! 

 

All French people (making a massive generalization here) hate marmite with a passion, so I was more than happy to receive a close-to-unused jar of (albeit English) marmite. I didn’t even realize I was missing that yeasty goodness until I had it with chips the next day!

NB That would be about the second time I’ve had chips (crisps) in France.

I spent the weekend in Rennes with Claire (the second eldest Brousse enfant) and Nicholas. Didier and Odile (les parents) drove me up there so they could see their apartment. We had a lovely long dinner (with lots of cheese and breaks for games –which I won for once!) and then I was alone in Rennes with Claire and Nicholas as my guides.

I borrowed Claire’s bike card and Nicholas and I rode into town, following the bus that Claire was in –we could actually keep up with it! (Note the rustic French music in the background -not intentional) 

Rennes has a really beautiful city centre, with the town hall opposite the opera house, and in between a pedestrian zone (or whatever we call it in English – Fußgängerzone in German) but blah blah who wants to hear about the history of a city/fascinating architectural wonders until you go there yourself….so, I’ll just add in a quick plug for la belle France and entreat you to take your fabulous selves to France (and to travel in general) .

It was also the last weekend of a massive Fête Foraine (fair) and Nicholas managed to convince me, after a long, hard day of sightseeing, that I should see a bit more of Rennes... from above, ie the biggest, most imposing ride of the fair. But, I did it and it was lots of fun (one of those big arms where they swing you back and forth and generally all the way round as well, holding you upside down as he chooses, and hold you there then spin the seats) It was fun listening to what everyone screamed though (like 'oh -la vache, la vache' which means 'the cow, the cow') and seeing the view.

I was in amongst a real French market, without clothes and foreign imports in the mix, and certainly no men with those irritating cheek microphones that celebrities had in the 90s telling everyone how good their perfume is! In my opinion it’s the ultimate French experience (other than a meal, of course!). There were stands selling fruit and vegetables, olives, cows’ stomachs –basically everything you could name (and of course the big dishes of Paella that everyone in my German class gets drilled on every time we have a test). And of course everyone knew their stuff –I could have been there for hours, asking about everything, listening to the buskers (who really do play fiddles, doubles bases and accordions –it’s not just in the movies!) but luckily I was with Claire and Nicholas who knew what to look for, so after a ‘Robiequette’ which is typical only to Rennes and consists of a sausage wrapped in a galette (pancake made with buckwheat, I think; search your memory people in my French class) –we had ours with cheese as well (hyper-yum when it oozes out the holes in the galette). We also had a fragranced hot chocolate later in the afternoon –mine was praline noisette/amande (hazelnut and almond –I’m a nutella junkie J)

Et Le Mont St Michel:
An old monastery on an island from way, way back, that you could only get to when the tide was down. A bit commercialized now, but much better in Winter with hardly any people.


The view from le Mont St Michel

Nicholas having lunch (at 4pm, I might add!)

The church itself

Note to New Zealanders from Europe: use carpooling more http://www.carpoolnz.org/ -It works much better in Europe, of course, with more people and more places to go, but I took the French  version (covoiturage) and it was really agreeable and safe -a website with everyone's profiles so you could choose your time and level of discussion preferences (although of course any French person is happy to 'discute' for an hour!) and I was with three other people who didn't know each other.

And another note: the title of this blog entry is a little complicated; to tell the truth I only just learnt it myself. I found a book while shopping that conjugates every verb for you -I kept hinting at going back for it and thinking they had ignored my 'subtle' hints, I found it wrapped up and everything in my bag when I arrived home! (They'd already bought it!)... subjunctive here I come!

And a final note: feel free to read the following blog entry (or delete the jargon after 'blogspot.com' from the web address in that bar up the top of the window whose name I keep forgetting); it's new aswell... http://theytooksomemoneyandplentyofhoney.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-post.html

NO YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS ONE YET EITHER:

So I've been doing a bit of touristing in my last few weeks in France..

This is one of the rings from the monument to slaves that was featured in an earlier post (just not lit up).

I went to visit an exhibition about the limits of reality and arrived just in time for this film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AUFMGAck6A (you think the trailer is weird and arty -it was so much more weird and arty in real life, bits in Spanish with French subtitles!). It was definitely a worthwhile exhibition, though, and so much fun being able to spontaneously stay at an art gallery until 7 to watch a movie -oh the joys of eating late!

This mechanical elephant is probably the most well-known and best-loved thing in Nantes (other than me of course ;) so even though it's undergoing renovations at the moment I put this in as a tribute to my inner tourist (and for you Mum). In Summer it walks around and takes people for rides, along with a whole lot of other machines, although if you watch the video, some of them are downright creepy... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTyhkPNutmw

This is my street.

It's not incredibly exciting, but like I said to the Brousses (my host family), I'd rather they have a gorgeous house (which they do) and an average quartier (area) because it's Winter and we spend all our time indoors anyway.

These babies are the creme de la creme of macaroons, but since I struggled as it was trying to get a picture of them under the nose of the attendant in this moderately-well-known department store (think French Kirkcaldie and Stains), I can't even begin to describe the range of flavours there were. I do recall caramel au beurre salle (I've actually tried that flavour) and pistachio, apricot and cinammon and a Christmas special of Pain d'epice (gingerbread) being some of the parfums (becuase saying flavours just ruins the effect)

Ms Collard, this one's for you, because as anyone who's travelled beyond the world's most well known monuments (cue the leaning tower of Pisa and especially the Eiffel tower) will know, it's impossible to capture the essence of a city, and especially what it's like to be a foreigner in one, with just one photo (especially with my photography skills!), so the rest of you, you'll just have to imagine :)

Touristing by myself, or with others has been an altogether pleasant experience (but Paula if you're reading this -I do miss you!) In fact the times when I've been by myself I've been pleasantly surprised a lot that my level of French allows me to actually move around like a normal person!

Je suis une vraie gourmande (Brousse Willis!)

 Well it’s been one heaven of a Christmas! I’ll start with the photos:

 We took the boat across the Loire River to visit a friend of Anna. It’s just like taking the bus or the tram –all we had to do was show our travel cards and get on! In the background of the sixth photo (on the way back) you can see little red and green dots, which are actually rings of light which represent the chains of slavery, as a monument to the freeing of the African slaves (because Nantes, being on the Loire River, used to be the slave capital of France), which is pretty cool.

 Brousse Willis! In French, you pronounce their last name and mine the same as you say Bruce Willis, so me and Anna are team Brousse Willis. For Christmas I made her a jewellery box by cutting a square out of the pages of an old book, and bought chocolates at the Christmas Market with the letters BROUSSE WILLIS on them and put them in the box!

 The fourth photo is Anna, Priscilla and Quentin, all friends from Anna’s youth group. This photo is actually quite important because we were outside for a while and although it’s not very cold here, I caught a cold that day, so I fitted in perfectly with most of the rest of the family, who were sick as well (the joys of a Winter Christmas!)

 The sixth photo is Roland, the Grandad who stays at the house for Christmas. It’s hilarious how he smokes his cigars inside the house (very French). I don’t really understand anything he says though!

The next photo is Odile, the mother who is super- (although the French would say hyper-!) lovely and a great seamstress. Her work, which I go to Friday afternoons, involves sewing too (I included a picture in a previous post). Women who can't otherwise find work sew things to sell. One Friday they were making diary covers with cool fabric and buttons and I chose one I liked -Odile surprised me and gave it to me for Christmas! She has been super-busy leading up to Christmas, preparing the meals for all of us, including the two older daughters Marion and Claire and their husbands, who just add to the fun, and sewing us all Christmas presents. They all wear very interesting, colourful clothes (perfect, right?) and all the females wear each other’s clothes and jewelery pretty much as we please. Odile made me a cool poncho with snowflakes on it to remind me of my Winter Christmas.
Everyone in this family laughs lots (I think it's very French!) but Odile laughs the most. There are lots more words for the different types of laughter in French than there are in English -I think that in itself says something! Fou rire means to laugh without being able to stop, and Odile does this lots!
We watched a video from someone's birthday (it was in Summer -very different - which makes me want to visit again in Summer!) where they had had a concours (competition) for the meal where everyone had prepared a different apperetif (appetizer, normally in delicate little glasses like shot glasses with miniature spoons) and Benoit had made one in normal size glasses, with cold porridge and munched cucumber, and it had been disgusting! Watching them all laughing was hilarious, and set everyone off again! I'm definitely still the stupid exchange student (!) so I'm not sure if it's just with me, but the same jokes tend to get brought up again and again!

We've eaten lots of long and elaborate meals (seven hours on Christmas Eve long enough for you?!) but there's still not the same feeling of not wanting to eat for another year that you get in NZ -at least not for me, anyway!! (The magic of French food..) On Christmas Eve we skyped my family at home when they were eating the Christmas meal (midnight for us and midday in NZ) and we hadn't even got onto the dessert yet! It was fab -we each did a course and dessert was gorgeously presented homemade choux pastries with a caramel and chocolate fountain, and vanilla bean ice cream.
Marion and David, who arrived last, also brought a massive crate of pates, confits, nuts and the ultimate dish of Christmas for the French, which we had with onion jam (but you can also have it with fig jam) and gingerbread: Foie Gras. They also brought a ginormous loaf of bread for eating with the other things.
We decorate the table for Christmas, and play games and do sketches in between the courses. As you can probably tell, the Brousses are very dramatic, and it's quite a sight when all of them, plus their exuberant other halves, are all together under one roof! Here Anna and me are making roses out of serviettes.

 This is a picture during our Christmas meal (which started at 4pm, like most of our lunches, by the way!) which is mostly for my family to see a bit more of the house. The children had made a poem for Odile, and they stood in a line with their backs to us and turned around one by one and read a line (not at all out of the ordinary in this house, little performances like this!)

For the Christmas meal we had a chapon (like a giant rooster) which was great, until Nicholas took the head (which had been left on, with beak, feathers, eyes and all) and started waving it around, then picking it apart to find the soft bits of meat!

 Just another moment of dancing..

And music.. (I gave them a CD of NZ music and it is radical listening to all my favourite NZ artists while eating and playing games together in French!) And there's still the odd moment when I have been blogging, or skyping someone in English, and then I randomly will ask someone a question in English!

 This is Shalom (it means Peace in Hebrew). I'm not actually sure if she is their only cat, because there are always the neighbour's cats that seem to live in the kitchen aswell! She eats almost as much as us and we often find her on the bench eating the leftovers, and sometimes even the dinner!

 Boxing Day we went for a walk in the countryside.

 And... yeah.

Me, Claire, Anna, Benoit and Didier.