On Tuesday, Sariah (that's me) was sitting outside the Pompidieu, in the courtyard, using her computer. It's one of the few places she can get free internet and yes, Mom, she settled down near other students using their computers so I wasn't completely alone. This turned out to be a good thing.
I was looking up hotels in Rome to see how costly they are should I go there, when a man walked by. This man was perhaps 50, he was smelly, bearded, scruffy, pock-marked, short, and homeless looking. His French was very difficult to understand and so I ignored him, thinking he was asking for money. Not so. He sat down beside me, and was still talking in French but it was very lispy and airy and thick, so I only got maybe a third of what he was saying. He did say I was tres belle (very pretty), which is nice I suppose, but after he kept muttering, I told him I spoke French when he asked, so he wouldn't think he could go around calling me things (that's another story) that he hoped I'd agree to in English.
I started closing the windows I had open on my computer so I could leave since he was creeping me out, and he asked what I was doing. I briefly said, "Studying for class," to which he asked, "is it a tennis class?" Somewhat puzzled by where he was getting this idea, I said no, and he saw my window up about hotels in Rome and said in French, "Maybe we can go there after your class."
I said, very confused, "Rome?" He said, "No, a hotel!" I gave him a look and then quickly left. It was difficult for me to just leave because there's a chance he was homeless and I had misheard him and I hate being rude but I was glad there were lots of people and I said lots of prayers that I'd get away okay and he wouldn't follow me. He didn't, and I did get away just fine. Thank goodness! The moral: maybe it's not always good to be belle in France!
29 September 2006
26 September 2006
A few very French Things
-Kamikazee pigeons. All around you.
-People coming on the metro and playing the accordion for money
-drinks in restaurants costing about 4 euros for a pint of liquid
-you don't have to give tips; it's included in the price, which is why food costs so much (partly)
-very few public restrooms. MacDo (mcdonalds) is the most reliable place to find them
-The MacDo on Champs Elysses is the only one in the world to have golden arches that are white. It's a requirement - all buildings on that street must be white
-every hour, on the hour, for ten minutes, the Tour Eiffel sparkles.
-internet is ridiculously hard for students to find
-French cars are tiny
-French driving involves only honking to let someone know you're coming, never in irritation since everybody's irritating. Americans would flip out driving here, people are so rude on the road.
-food-specific stores: bread store, cheese store, frozen food store, etc.
-American titles, brands, phrases that are often odd (ex., US swear words are only as strong here as "drat!" is in the US so it's easy to get offended by what people are calling you, ex., US word "sexy" is spelled "sex'y" here, ex., Puma is huge here, as are US movies)
-You use "American" for the adjective and "United States" for the noun. Don't say you're from America; nobody does that.
-Tourists are really, REALLY obvious.
-pitch your voice lower and slur your words a little bit to pretend you have an accent
And finally, this morning's experience: la Brocante. This is sort of like an expensive flea market - very old stuff, lots of vendors, outside, etc. It actually reminded me of a very expensive, very HUGE garage sale. Mom would have loved it. Super expensive. Super huge. I managed to get a ring for 5 euros when it really cost 12, since the lady said 5 before she checked, but most places when I asked if they had anything under 15 euros looked at me in horror and commented that I must be a student. Too true!
-People coming on the metro and playing the accordion for money
-drinks in restaurants costing about 4 euros for a pint of liquid
-you don't have to give tips; it's included in the price, which is why food costs so much (partly)
-very few public restrooms. MacDo (mcdonalds) is the most reliable place to find them
-The MacDo on Champs Elysses is the only one in the world to have golden arches that are white. It's a requirement - all buildings on that street must be white
-every hour, on the hour, for ten minutes, the Tour Eiffel sparkles.
-internet is ridiculously hard for students to find
-French cars are tiny
-French driving involves only honking to let someone know you're coming, never in irritation since everybody's irritating. Americans would flip out driving here, people are so rude on the road.
-food-specific stores: bread store, cheese store, frozen food store, etc.
-American titles, brands, phrases that are often odd (ex., US swear words are only as strong here as "drat!" is in the US so it's easy to get offended by what people are calling you, ex., US word "sexy" is spelled "sex'y" here, ex., Puma is huge here, as are US movies)
-You use "American" for the adjective and "United States" for the noun. Don't say you're from America; nobody does that.
-Tourists are really, REALLY obvious.
-pitch your voice lower and slur your words a little bit to pretend you have an accent
And finally, this morning's experience: la Brocante. This is sort of like an expensive flea market - very old stuff, lots of vendors, outside, etc. It actually reminded me of a very expensive, very HUGE garage sale. Mom would have loved it. Super expensive. Super huge. I managed to get a ring for 5 euros when it really cost 12, since the lady said 5 before she checked, but most places when I asked if they had anything under 15 euros looked at me in horror and commented that I must be a student. Too true!
19 September 2006
Food, the bad.
On the bus ride home, our director called randomly on people and had them come up and say what they liked/didn't like about the trip (to the bus on the microphone, no less). Most people (out of maybe 6 total) gave sort of testimonies, which was nice, but also sort of out of place on the noisy, sleepy, smelly bus ride. I got called up last and decided I'd be honest. I believe my comment was something like this: "I hated the food. That was the worst part. I also loved the food. That was my favorite part. It was either great or terrible" and I went on to explain that my biggest fear since I was a kid for serving a mission was the food. This was after the raw salmon/raw roast beef experiences.
Since then, I've gotten to eat more exciting and terrible stuff. We eat dinner with our French Maman (mommy) 3 times a week, and there are always more than 3 courses, usually about six, and usually it is all new. One night we had a "cheese pie," which is basically quiche. We always have some kind of meat, and Fr. Maman likes pork which is good since I do, too. Once for an especially ornate first course (she spends 3 hours cooking for us. It's amazing.) there was this cucumber/cream sauce thing, which was tasty, except for the slices of crab on top. I had to eat it all. My American mom suggested taking small servings and that way avoiding too much nasty food, but not so! She dishes it all out and we get a new plate/bowl for each meal, so no serving ourselves. I want you all to know that I ate ALL my crab and I was so proud that I didn't gag visibly. It was pretty much the hardest thing here...until last night, when we had fish.
There were only two fishes, (well, breaded fish fillets, I guess) and so I hoped she remembered that I hate fish and didn't get one for me, but NO, Fr. Maman wasn't having any fish! Sigh. I should have taken a picture - it was huge. I had to eat it - what else could I do? Oh and Ben would appreciate that on the side, as an added blessing was steamed/cooked spinach which in comparison to the fish was a veritable doughnut. I managed to eat 3/4 of the fish before I simply couldn't anymore, but that was enough to render itself acceptable, and everything was good.
I am quite proud of me but I'd rather not have any reason to be proud...!
Since then, I've gotten to eat more exciting and terrible stuff. We eat dinner with our French Maman (mommy) 3 times a week, and there are always more than 3 courses, usually about six, and usually it is all new. One night we had a "cheese pie," which is basically quiche. We always have some kind of meat, and Fr. Maman likes pork which is good since I do, too. Once for an especially ornate first course (she spends 3 hours cooking for us. It's amazing.) there was this cucumber/cream sauce thing, which was tasty, except for the slices of crab on top. I had to eat it all. My American mom suggested taking small servings and that way avoiding too much nasty food, but not so! She dishes it all out and we get a new plate/bowl for each meal, so no serving ourselves. I want you all to know that I ate ALL my crab and I was so proud that I didn't gag visibly. It was pretty much the hardest thing here...until last night, when we had fish.
There were only two fishes, (well, breaded fish fillets, I guess) and so I hoped she remembered that I hate fish and didn't get one for me, but NO, Fr. Maman wasn't having any fish! Sigh. I should have taken a picture - it was huge. I had to eat it - what else could I do? Oh and Ben would appreciate that on the side, as an added blessing was steamed/cooked spinach which in comparison to the fish was a veritable doughnut. I managed to eat 3/4 of the fish before I simply couldn't anymore, but that was enough to render itself acceptable, and everything was good.
I am quite proud of me but I'd rather not have any reason to be proud...!
17 September 2006
Girly Dreams, Versailles, and l'Eglise!
I fulfilled every girl's dreams on Friday...I went shopping. In Paris. Pretty much all day. I got a good outfit out of it, too. What girls do NOT dream about I also got...that's right, huge blisters and amazingly painful feet. I cleverly wore character shoes, since I figured for heels they've gotta be relatively comfy. I believe the response to that statement would be a picture of me kneeling in the sock section at a Monoprix (like a mini Target) in Paris crawling around, keeping my feet off the ground.
Versailles was actually, to me, dissapointing. Much of it was under construction, or rather, "restoration," which means they're cleaning it, so that wasn't cool but mostly it was dark and musty and crowded. I had thought the gardens would be amazing but they were extensive and sort of...only extensive. I'm sorry if I'm hurting anyone's opinions out there! We DID spend a while playing with some slugs and had a fun time haggling with the souvenir sellers. I also saw the Tour Eiffel! It was exciting and it SPARKLES every hour which was very exciting.
Church (eglise) today was interesting. It's exhausting to be actively translating the whole time. Oh yes and I also was the piano player for all three hours today. With hymns with different names and a lot of the music is a little bit different here. It was fun, though. We found a family from Boston who speak English and are just here for two years (one down!) and they sort of knew Hannah/Tyler when they were here.
Versailles was actually, to me, dissapointing. Much of it was under construction, or rather, "restoration," which means they're cleaning it, so that wasn't cool but mostly it was dark and musty and crowded. I had thought the gardens would be amazing but they were extensive and sort of...only extensive. I'm sorry if I'm hurting anyone's opinions out there! We DID spend a while playing with some slugs and had a fun time haggling with the souvenir sellers. I also saw the Tour Eiffel! It was exciting and it SPARKLES every hour which was very exciting.
Church (eglise) today was interesting. It's exhausting to be actively translating the whole time. Oh yes and I also was the piano player for all three hours today. With hymns with different names and a lot of the music is a little bit different here. It was fun, though. We found a family from Boston who speak English and are just here for two years (one down!) and they sort of knew Hannah/Tyler when they were here.
14 September 2006
Week of Adventures!
What I’ve been doing!
Wed/Thurs
Mostly we just had orientation to our classes and got all our cards for free entrance to museums. I went on two of the 18 required “Paris Walks” and got to see the Place de Concorde, Tour Eiffel, Louvre, and the Palais Royale. My lunch was a roast beef sandwich. Upon opening the bread to push a loose piece of lettuce back in and before beginning to eat, I discovered that the roast beef was raw. There was blood soaked in to the bread. I ate it ALL, Mom.
Collonges-la-Rouge and Sarlat - Friday
We started our trip south today, and stopped in a little village called Collonges-la-Rouge, which is neat because it is made entirely out of red sandstone. It is very picturesque. We drove on down to Sarlat, which ended up being my favorite village. For dinner, the first course the hotel served was salad with salmon on top – raw salmon. I did eat one bite of the salmon, you’d be proud, and then just at the salad that wasn’t contaminated. Luckily he next courses were tasty and we finished off with a nice Crème Brulée
Sarlat, Beynac, and Domme - Saturday
This was the best day of the trip by far! There was a market in Sarlat (these have been happening every Saturday since the middle Ages) and it was great fun to wander the stalls around the city and look at everything from huge cheese rinds to knife shows to purses and rings. They used to have livestock too, but a few years ago laws banned that in the middle of town for sanitation reasons. I got lots of little things there, and I am happy with them ALL! (I got something for Becky…)
After the marché, we went to a canoe rental place and went, as it is in French, canöing down the Dordogne for about three hours, seeing châteaus every half hour or so. We pulled off the river at the Château de Beynac, which is a medieval castle built for defensive purposes and one of the only châteaus in that region to remain loyal to France during the Hundred Years War. The end of the movie “Ever After” was filmed here, and part of that movie was also filmed in Sarlat. We walked up the huge, ridiculously steep hill of the city and arrived at Beynac pouring sweat. (Did I mention that the humidity is killing me?) We had a funny tour guide with a very thick southern French accent and who made fun of me for mispronouncing Dordogne (the river and also the region) and randomly would exclaim it to me as we walked through the chateau. Finally I got it right, and not only is it my new favorite French word, but also nobody else in my group can pronounce it right except for me. It took me an hour to say it right.
We spent the night just outside of Domme in the Hotel de Quatre Vents, which means “four winds” but on their sign written in a calligraphy-type font, the V of Vents looked like a D, which would make it the Hotel of the Four Teeth. Which was very funny. There was a nasty silverfish centipede thing in our room which caused lots of fuss with us, and we got yelled at all night (once after centipede, which we deserved, and once when we were ASLEEP, waking us UP) by a lady who was shrieking in French, “Silence, s’il vous plait! En FIN!”
Church, St. Cirq, Pech-Merle, and Figeac - Sunday
We went to church in Brieve and doubled the size of the branch. The hymns were very cool to sing in French, but we only stayed for Sacrament Meeting. We made a short stop in St. Cirq-Lapopie, which was another city on a hill (quite literally) and headed to Grotte du Pech-Merle. Pech-Merle is a cave filled with cro-magnon paintings. France is a big site for such things, and we got to see a painting of spotted horses which was very cool and is one of the most famous cave paintings and is put in most textbooks as an example of what they’re like. The caves were cool, and we got to see cave pearls and we saw a cave pearl top and it’s one of only 3 known ones in the world.
We went then to Figeac, where we went out to put our feet in the pool before dinner and two people got pulled/thrown in the pool by our bus driver (who is larger, very French, smokes at least 2 packs of cigarettes a day, and was wearing a speedo) and I elected to voluntarily go in (don’t worry, I didn’t ruin my skirt, I wore boxers) and keep them company. Dripping hair and clean clothed, we went to dinner which was an amazingly tasty l’agneau dish (lamb) with very very tasty potatoes and may very well be my new favorite food, if I could remember what it was called. We also had mousse au chocolat! We went on a walk in the city and 3 of us decided to go back to the hotel before the rest but we got lost, although we eventually found it. There were a lots of prayers said by each of us then, since we didn’t know what our hotel was called or what street it was on and there were lots of French men who were probably harmless and lots of dark streets. It turned out to be close, so we were okay. Unfortunately, my roommate with the room key was still out walking, so I sat, locked out, in the neighboring room in my sweaty shirt wanting a shower.
Conques and Albi - Monday
We went to Conques, which is where St. Foy’s remains are kept on Monday. St. Foy was a 12 year old girl who was killed for not renouncing her Christianity. We saw her reliquary which was given to Conques by Charlemagne, along with various other objects of great significance. One of those was a box which allegedly held rocks from Christ’s tomb and pieces of His cross. I don’t know how true that is, but if I were a Catholic pilgrim (like the many, many who come there and start the Camino de Santiago de Compostela there) I would start the Camino there, too. The symbol of Conques is a shell, the same as the symbol of the Camino. We met several pilgrims just starting out, and all were very surprised to hear that my sister had done the Camino this summer, and told me to tell you, Becky, (in case you plan to do this again and didn’t catch this importance by yourself) that if you were to do it every summer as they, seasoned Camino veterans do, to bring good shoes. Don’t go forgetting that, as I know it never occurred to you! There was also a way cool sculpture thing on the face of the cathedral that was of the Final Judgment that was very detailed and had funny little demons.
We went on to Albi and saw the museum of the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who was born in Albi, and so when he died his art was donated by his mother to the city. This fellow was a midget and had lots of genetic disorders since his parents were first cousins. His mother took him to Montmartre (near Sacre Coeur) and he spent his life there from adolescence until death, spending a lot of time in Moulin Rouge (in the movie Moulin Rouge, he’s the midget) and he is famous for his style and also for his posters. If you think of a poster of Moulin Rouge, the famous ones are his. I’ll try to get a picture of one to post for you. Also at Albi we had nasty gross pizza with Roquefort cheese and yummy, tasty profiteroles.
Cordes-sur-Ciel, Rocamadour, and Limoges - Tuesday
To make a long morning short, my roommate and I spent 50 minutes lugging our luggage around Albi trying to find our bus, which turned out to actually only be five minutes away had we gone the other direction. That was not fun, and that day my daily drenching of sweat (I think as a group we’ve pretty much given in to the fact that everyone is going to be SOAKED and DRENCHED all the time. We wonder if we should just toss the deodorant and be like the French?) came early that day.
We went to Cordes-sur-Ciel and walked up yet another tall city hill (drenching number two) and I was dismayed to see that we walked all that way to no castle, no cathedrale, but just for the view. I was somewhat disgusted with this motive, since this particular trek was optional, but there was indeed a lovely café that gave me a nice steak, an okay salad, and very fluffy mousse au chocolat and we got a chance to dry out on the top of the city in the breeze. The entire city was absolutely covered with stray cats; I have never seen so many.
We went on to Rocamadour, which is a city “clinging perilously to the cliff” (as says our tour guide packet) which I thought looked a lot like Minis Tirith from Lord of the Rings. We (and when I say we, I mean the TA and only the TA) decided that instead of taking the free elevator down and up the city, we should walk down yet another city on a hill, or rather city of and stuck to a hill (and by hill I mean cliff. As though when Westly climbed up the Cliffs of Insanity in the Princess Bride he stopped and built a town in his spare time.) It rained very heavily the entire time. And instead of meeting us at the bottom as was expected, the bus had to stop halfway up, so we got to walk back up half the city. (Another two drenchings, sweat and rain.) Apparently in the middle ages the pilgrims to this place would walk up the stone steps on their knees, arriving at the top bloodied and penitent. I did not walk on my knees.
Oradour (Village Martyr) and back to Paris - Wednesday
This morning we went to Oradour, a village burned in WWII. The massacre and fire took place on 10 Juin (June) 1944, just four days after D-Day. When the village finally had hope for freedom, the Nazis, partly in response to D-Day and partly continuing as they had, began the massacre. All the women and children fled to the church for sanctuary on that day (occupation had been in place for a while) and the men had joined in little groups, “stakeouts” of a sort, but all the stakeouts were killed and some extremely small percentage of those men escaped. The Nazis then went to the church and shot all the women and children. All of them. Houses were burned to smoke people out or kill them. Some were gassed, some were burned alive, and the Nazis burned the bodies to prevent identification and for reasons of corporeal mortification. Less than 10% of the bodies were recognizable. Now the entire city is called Village Martyr and is left pretty much as it was (but there are tombs for the bodies, some of the grounds are kept in rein, and there are memorials and signs, and the church was washed out) but there are still bullet holes all over the church, and the ruins of the houses, only the brick remaining.
Now I’m on the bus and we’re close to Paris, heading off to meet our families! I live in Le Sec, the “chic” district outside Paris, with an old lady. I hope she likes us!
Wed/Thurs
Mostly we just had orientation to our classes and got all our cards for free entrance to museums. I went on two of the 18 required “Paris Walks” and got to see the Place de Concorde, Tour Eiffel, Louvre, and the Palais Royale. My lunch was a roast beef sandwich. Upon opening the bread to push a loose piece of lettuce back in and before beginning to eat, I discovered that the roast beef was raw. There was blood soaked in to the bread. I ate it ALL, Mom.
Collonges-la-Rouge and Sarlat - Friday
We started our trip south today, and stopped in a little village called Collonges-la-Rouge, which is neat because it is made entirely out of red sandstone. It is very picturesque. We drove on down to Sarlat, which ended up being my favorite village. For dinner, the first course the hotel served was salad with salmon on top – raw salmon. I did eat one bite of the salmon, you’d be proud, and then just at the salad that wasn’t contaminated. Luckily he next courses were tasty and we finished off with a nice Crème Brulée
Sarlat, Beynac, and Domme - Saturday
This was the best day of the trip by far! There was a market in Sarlat (these have been happening every Saturday since the middle Ages) and it was great fun to wander the stalls around the city and look at everything from huge cheese rinds to knife shows to purses and rings. They used to have livestock too, but a few years ago laws banned that in the middle of town for sanitation reasons. I got lots of little things there, and I am happy with them ALL! (I got something for Becky…)
After the marché, we went to a canoe rental place and went, as it is in French, canöing down the Dordogne for about three hours, seeing châteaus every half hour or so. We pulled off the river at the Château de Beynac, which is a medieval castle built for defensive purposes and one of the only châteaus in that region to remain loyal to France during the Hundred Years War. The end of the movie “Ever After” was filmed here, and part of that movie was also filmed in Sarlat. We walked up the huge, ridiculously steep hill of the city and arrived at Beynac pouring sweat. (Did I mention that the humidity is killing me?) We had a funny tour guide with a very thick southern French accent and who made fun of me for mispronouncing Dordogne (the river and also the region) and randomly would exclaim it to me as we walked through the chateau. Finally I got it right, and not only is it my new favorite French word, but also nobody else in my group can pronounce it right except for me. It took me an hour to say it right.
We spent the night just outside of Domme in the Hotel de Quatre Vents, which means “four winds” but on their sign written in a calligraphy-type font, the V of Vents looked like a D, which would make it the Hotel of the Four Teeth. Which was very funny. There was a nasty silverfish centipede thing in our room which caused lots of fuss with us, and we got yelled at all night (once after centipede, which we deserved, and once when we were ASLEEP, waking us UP) by a lady who was shrieking in French, “Silence, s’il vous plait! En FIN!”
Church, St. Cirq, Pech-Merle, and Figeac - Sunday
We went to church in Brieve and doubled the size of the branch. The hymns were very cool to sing in French, but we only stayed for Sacrament Meeting. We made a short stop in St. Cirq-Lapopie, which was another city on a hill (quite literally) and headed to Grotte du Pech-Merle. Pech-Merle is a cave filled with cro-magnon paintings. France is a big site for such things, and we got to see a painting of spotted horses which was very cool and is one of the most famous cave paintings and is put in most textbooks as an example of what they’re like. The caves were cool, and we got to see cave pearls and we saw a cave pearl top and it’s one of only 3 known ones in the world.
We went then to Figeac, where we went out to put our feet in the pool before dinner and two people got pulled/thrown in the pool by our bus driver (who is larger, very French, smokes at least 2 packs of cigarettes a day, and was wearing a speedo) and I elected to voluntarily go in (don’t worry, I didn’t ruin my skirt, I wore boxers) and keep them company. Dripping hair and clean clothed, we went to dinner which was an amazingly tasty l’agneau dish (lamb) with very very tasty potatoes and may very well be my new favorite food, if I could remember what it was called. We also had mousse au chocolat! We went on a walk in the city and 3 of us decided to go back to the hotel before the rest but we got lost, although we eventually found it. There were a lots of prayers said by each of us then, since we didn’t know what our hotel was called or what street it was on and there were lots of French men who were probably harmless and lots of dark streets. It turned out to be close, so we were okay. Unfortunately, my roommate with the room key was still out walking, so I sat, locked out, in the neighboring room in my sweaty shirt wanting a shower.
Conques and Albi - Monday
We went to Conques, which is where St. Foy’s remains are kept on Monday. St. Foy was a 12 year old girl who was killed for not renouncing her Christianity. We saw her reliquary which was given to Conques by Charlemagne, along with various other objects of great significance. One of those was a box which allegedly held rocks from Christ’s tomb and pieces of His cross. I don’t know how true that is, but if I were a Catholic pilgrim (like the many, many who come there and start the Camino de Santiago de Compostela there) I would start the Camino there, too. The symbol of Conques is a shell, the same as the symbol of the Camino. We met several pilgrims just starting out, and all were very surprised to hear that my sister had done the Camino this summer, and told me to tell you, Becky, (in case you plan to do this again and didn’t catch this importance by yourself) that if you were to do it every summer as they, seasoned Camino veterans do, to bring good shoes. Don’t go forgetting that, as I know it never occurred to you! There was also a way cool sculpture thing on the face of the cathedral that was of the Final Judgment that was very detailed and had funny little demons.
We went on to Albi and saw the museum of the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who was born in Albi, and so when he died his art was donated by his mother to the city. This fellow was a midget and had lots of genetic disorders since his parents were first cousins. His mother took him to Montmartre (near Sacre Coeur) and he spent his life there from adolescence until death, spending a lot of time in Moulin Rouge (in the movie Moulin Rouge, he’s the midget) and he is famous for his style and also for his posters. If you think of a poster of Moulin Rouge, the famous ones are his. I’ll try to get a picture of one to post for you. Also at Albi we had nasty gross pizza with Roquefort cheese and yummy, tasty profiteroles.
Cordes-sur-Ciel, Rocamadour, and Limoges - Tuesday
To make a long morning short, my roommate and I spent 50 minutes lugging our luggage around Albi trying to find our bus, which turned out to actually only be five minutes away had we gone the other direction. That was not fun, and that day my daily drenching of sweat (I think as a group we’ve pretty much given in to the fact that everyone is going to be SOAKED and DRENCHED all the time. We wonder if we should just toss the deodorant and be like the French?) came early that day.
We went to Cordes-sur-Ciel and walked up yet another tall city hill (drenching number two) and I was dismayed to see that we walked all that way to no castle, no cathedrale, but just for the view. I was somewhat disgusted with this motive, since this particular trek was optional, but there was indeed a lovely café that gave me a nice steak, an okay salad, and very fluffy mousse au chocolat and we got a chance to dry out on the top of the city in the breeze. The entire city was absolutely covered with stray cats; I have never seen so many.
We went on to Rocamadour, which is a city “clinging perilously to the cliff” (as says our tour guide packet) which I thought looked a lot like Minis Tirith from Lord of the Rings. We (and when I say we, I mean the TA and only the TA) decided that instead of taking the free elevator down and up the city, we should walk down yet another city on a hill, or rather city of and stuck to a hill (and by hill I mean cliff. As though when Westly climbed up the Cliffs of Insanity in the Princess Bride he stopped and built a town in his spare time.) It rained very heavily the entire time. And instead of meeting us at the bottom as was expected, the bus had to stop halfway up, so we got to walk back up half the city. (Another two drenchings, sweat and rain.) Apparently in the middle ages the pilgrims to this place would walk up the stone steps on their knees, arriving at the top bloodied and penitent. I did not walk on my knees.
Oradour (Village Martyr) and back to Paris - Wednesday
This morning we went to Oradour, a village burned in WWII. The massacre and fire took place on 10 Juin (June) 1944, just four days after D-Day. When the village finally had hope for freedom, the Nazis, partly in response to D-Day and partly continuing as they had, began the massacre. All the women and children fled to the church for sanctuary on that day (occupation had been in place for a while) and the men had joined in little groups, “stakeouts” of a sort, but all the stakeouts were killed and some extremely small percentage of those men escaped. The Nazis then went to the church and shot all the women and children. All of them. Houses were burned to smoke people out or kill them. Some were gassed, some were burned alive, and the Nazis burned the bodies to prevent identification and for reasons of corporeal mortification. Less than 10% of the bodies were recognizable. Now the entire city is called Village Martyr and is left pretty much as it was (but there are tombs for the bodies, some of the grounds are kept in rein, and there are memorials and signs, and the church was washed out) but there are still bullet holes all over the church, and the ruins of the houses, only the brick remaining.
Now I’m on the bus and we’re close to Paris, heading off to meet our families! I live in Le Sec, the “chic” district outside Paris, with an old lady. I hope she likes us!
06 September 2006
Bon (?) Voyage
I am heartily sick of traveling. Not only was it a 24 hour trip, but also somewhere stuck in there are seven more hours. Just to make it longer. Let's start off at the beginning: flight to Chicago was fine, and I only had my laptop on for 90 min (this is important later) and I managed to pretty well keep myself awake. Then commences the 8 hour flight to London. This was a long, spacious flight. I was told by my mother to sleep right after dinner. Obediently, I wait through my sleepiness for dinner to come and start watching some movie. Dinner was an hour late in coming, but it wasn't too bad. After dinner, I finished the last 30 minutes of my movie, and then I spent five hours, FIVE hours trying various poses, various songs in my head, various actions to make myself fall asleep. Nothing. Just sitting there thinking of how much I needed to, checking my clock to see what time it was at home, and laying there in a bored, long, frustrasted manner. Upon arrival at London, we waited a full half an hour after "docking" because the walkway thing they had was new and didn't work so they spent 30 minutes trying to fix it instead of getting us off there. I wonder if anyone missed any flights?
So we got the old fashioned stairs down, and upon exciting the plane, my first thought was, "Mom didn't warn me it was so HUMID!" It was humid. And I was tired, and hungry, and the whole driving on the left was weird. In London, thought, you meet lots of people with British accents. Somehow I always associated it with old, gray haired women. Not so. And there were the cute Middle Eastern guys with turbans on and I thought, "This is something I woulndn't go to DIA expecting to see." Also, they won't post your gate information (except for your terminal) in London until approximately one hour before your flight, so I didn't know where to sit, and things are in pounds, US dollars, AND Euros and I was basically confused. And so in my 3.5 hour layover I couldn't sleep through since I didn't know where to wait, I turned on my lappy (which has a 4 hour battery, well, 4-5 depending on what I'm doing) but it said I only had 9 minutes left! Sigh.
Arrival in Paris, customs is a joke (they take your passport and immediately hand it back without looking at it and you're done), and I couldn't find anyone I was supposed to meet since there IS no baggage carousel one. Finally we found one and after waiting for an hour we decided the other girl left us so we got a taxi. Which dropped us off at the wrong Etap Hotel. And left before we knew it was wrong. So we got to walk two miles in the hot hot sun on my sore feet carrying/rolling baggage and speaking French/English to a stranger in my group.
But I'm here! And I got to go see Notre Dame today but I have a huge blister which distracted me and we got lost on the Metro and I really don't think this is the language they taught me at school. So the summary is I'm tired, hungry, disoriented, and incomprehensible. The taxi driver did say, when I said I spoke "un peu francais" that I actually spoke "un peu BIEN francais!" So!
So we got the old fashioned stairs down, and upon exciting the plane, my first thought was, "Mom didn't warn me it was so HUMID!" It was humid. And I was tired, and hungry, and the whole driving on the left was weird. In London, thought, you meet lots of people with British accents. Somehow I always associated it with old, gray haired women. Not so. And there were the cute Middle Eastern guys with turbans on and I thought, "This is something I woulndn't go to DIA expecting to see." Also, they won't post your gate information (except for your terminal) in London until approximately one hour before your flight, so I didn't know where to sit, and things are in pounds, US dollars, AND Euros and I was basically confused. And so in my 3.5 hour layover I couldn't sleep through since I didn't know where to wait, I turned on my lappy (which has a 4 hour battery, well, 4-5 depending on what I'm doing) but it said I only had 9 minutes left! Sigh.
Arrival in Paris, customs is a joke (they take your passport and immediately hand it back without looking at it and you're done), and I couldn't find anyone I was supposed to meet since there IS no baggage carousel one. Finally we found one and after waiting for an hour we decided the other girl left us so we got a taxi. Which dropped us off at the wrong Etap Hotel. And left before we knew it was wrong. So we got to walk two miles in the hot hot sun on my sore feet carrying/rolling baggage and speaking French/English to a stranger in my group.
But I'm here! And I got to go see Notre Dame today but I have a huge blister which distracted me and we got lost on the Metro and I really don't think this is the language they taught me at school. So the summary is I'm tired, hungry, disoriented, and incomprehensible. The taxi driver did say, when I said I spoke "un peu francais" that I actually spoke "un peu BIEN francais!" So!
02 September 2006
I'm actually going!
I'm not leaving until Tuesday (Sep 5th), but I don't know what the internet capabilities will be like in Paris. For family-type people (and friends too, I guess) who want to keep track of me, though, here's my schedule for the first week so you'll know where I am. Good luck figuring that out...I haven't ever heard of these places, either.
Tuesday Sep 5, I leave Denver at about noon and I arrive via Chicago and London in Paris at about noon on Wednesday. Wednesday and Thursday are spent in Paris, getting over jet lag, etc. Friday I'll be in Sarlat (which is apparently Southwest of Paris. Apparently.) Saturday I'm in Domme, visiting all sorts of chateaus, and I'll go to church on Sunday in Figeac. Monday we're off to Albi, Tuesday in Limoges, and finally on Wednesday we get back to Paris and meet our families we'll be staying with!
I doubt that I'll be able to be online very much during that first week, and I won't know until that second Wednesday (Sep 13) if my family has internet or if I get to spend lots of time in internet cafes. A bientot!
Tuesday Sep 5, I leave Denver at about noon and I arrive via Chicago and London in Paris at about noon on Wednesday. Wednesday and Thursday are spent in Paris, getting over jet lag, etc. Friday I'll be in Sarlat (which is apparently Southwest of Paris. Apparently.) Saturday I'm in Domme, visiting all sorts of chateaus, and I'll go to church on Sunday in Figeac. Monday we're off to Albi, Tuesday in Limoges, and finally on Wednesday we get back to Paris and meet our families we'll be staying with!
I doubt that I'll be able to be online very much during that first week, and I won't know until that second Wednesday (Sep 13) if my family has internet or if I get to spend lots of time in internet cafes. A bientot!
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