Monday, June 4, 2007

Today is Monday, and I had a long day of class today. I started at 9, and I just finished at 6:00. It's exhausting, but I am really enjoying it.

I had a nice weekend in Tours this weekend. I went to the movies Friday night, and I saw Après Lui with Cathérine Deneuve. I can definitely say that French films are very different from most American films, which typically have a clear opening, problem, solution, and closing. Après Lui was very "French" ...i.e. a very "open" ending without much of a conclusion.

Saturday, I took the bus to the outskirts of town to go to Carrefour, not really because I needed anything, but because I just wanted to check it out. Carrefour is a superstore (like Wal-Mart); they call it an "hypermarché" here. It was a typical supercenter, crowded with lots of stuff and lots of people. Many people here don't like it and prefer the small markets in town. My host mom says she does go there occasionally, but she buys most things in the small supermarket (she walks there). She also goes out for bread just about every day.



On Saturday, I went to this briocherie. I told my host family that I wanted to try brioche here since it’s a pastry similar to what's used to make king cakes in Louisiana. They recommended this Briocherie to me. I was told that brioche is usually sold in a bakery, but this place specializes in brioche and makes only brioche.




It tasted like a huge buttery dinner roll, and you could order it plain or with chocolate chunks. It smelled like buttery bread down the street before you could even see the sign, and there were people constantly in and out of the tiny shop. There were some for 1 euro that were a little smaller than the ones in the photo – I got the chocolate!



On Sunday I went to church at l'Église Baptiste here in Tours. It was very small with about 30-40 people. Everyone was nice, and I'll go back there next Sunday. Sunday afternoon I read a lot and studied.


It looks like it's about to rain, so I'm going to leave the Institut to try to avoid walking home in the rain. It's only about a 15 minute walk, but I'd rather not get drenched, so until next time...




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