Today I had my French language class and a French civilization class (it's one of my electives). I finished at 2:30 today, so Thursday is definitely my shortest day. I'm going to take advantage of the afternoon to walk around and explore a bit.

This is one of the (*many*) great things about France -- a vending machine that makes coffee! It works just like a soft drink machine, except the drink choices are Café Long, Café Court, Café Crème, Café au Lait, etc. It also dispenses hot chocolate, a "mokachinno"(which is 1/2 hot chocolate and 1/2 coffee), and hot tomato juice. When you put your money in, the cup drops down, fills, and voilà!
In fact, I'm drinking a coffee from this machine right now...


I decided not to pack a lunch today, but since I couldn't convince anyone to go to the Resto U with me, we went to a sandwich shop. It was a little shop open to the street with a big glass case (like in a pastry shop) full of all different kinds of sandwiches on baguettes, round bread...just about any kind of bread you can imagine except sandwich-sliced bread, which is so rare here!

Yesterday after dinner, I went to a friend's apartment for about an hour and got to speak to a few French people my age. One of the students in my class (from Italy) invited people from our class over to his apartment to meet "real French people," as he said it! He is staying with a French friend of his that he knows from participating in ERASMUS with him in Barcelona. (ERASMUS is an exchange program for students in Europe -- if you've seen the movie L'Auberge Espagnole, it was about a group of ERASMUS students.)

So I went, and I got to chat for a while with a girl my age who is a doctor. She's married with a young child, and working in the hospital here in Tours. She has one year left to complete (what sounded to be) a residency, then she will have her doctorate and be a pediatrician. There were 5 "real French people" there, all doctors! When I arrived, they told me, "Tu ne peux pas mourir ici!" --"You can't die here" -- too many doctors!

Hope you have a great day!

Today I had a test in my French language class, and I have a presentation in my Renaissance poetry class tonight, so I've definitely been pretty busy with school work.

I just had lunch and am getting ready to go to my afternoon classes. I've been packing a lunch every day, but I may try the university restaurant (le restaurant universitaire, which everyone calls "Resto U").

Speaking of food in France, I must say that I had the strangest dinner I've ever had the other night: 3 hot dogs (no bun) and lentils, followed by the usual salad course, then cheese course. ...a little different, but strangely good!

Today, I'm posting pictures of where I'm staying:

This is my street. You can see the cathedral ahead on the right (above the trees). It’s really very close, but it appears kind of far in this picture. I'll post more about the cathedral later. The street is mostly walls and/or garages to the houses. You enter with a key through the garage, then you're in the garden in front of the house, which would be what we'd consider the front yard.

This is the Bel’s house. It is a very nice house with 6 (!) bedrooms. They told me that the living room was built in 1830 but that the kitchen and other parts are "new." I learned that here, that means only 50 years old! As you can see, the garden is very green and lush.






This is where we eat when the weather is nice. I read and studied out here for several hours on Sunday. There is a music school just down the street, so you can almost always hear music playing when you're out here!










This is inside the house, looking out into the garden. The ceilings are very high! The doors and windows are open almost all of the time.



















These pictures are of my room. I am really enjoying the big window.




















Here are the *squeaky* stairs just outside my room -- I'm on the third floor!















The window at the very top is my room. Yes, that's me in the window!



This picture is looking out of my window, toward the cathedral. I love hearing the bells chime.









Hope you're having a great day!

It's 3:30 here now, and I just finished class for the day.

My class schedule is different each day, and I have several different classes: a language class, a lab, an oral expression class, a "workshop," and a course on Ronsard & DuBellay. All the language classes are taught by instructors at the Institute, and the Ronsard/DuBellay poetry class is taught by a professor from University of West Georgia. West Georgia is the university that organized the program that I'm on -- I'll receive my credits from UWG.

There are many nationalities represented here, although there are definitely more Americans than any other nationality here for this session. Since most people come for either one month of studies or two months of studies, groups come in waves. I was told that it's very unusual for there to be this many Americans here. In my class there are 9 Americans, 1 woman from Spain, 1 woman from Libya, two women from Mexico, 1 woman from Taiwan, and 1 guy from Italy.

Most days I have variation in my classes, but today was "Langue française" all day, so it was a pretty intense. I even have a test tomorrow! I also have homework for my language class, and I have a presentation tomorrow in my poetry class, so I have quite a bit of work tonight.

This is where we ate our last group meal before we met our host families.

This was dessert -- looks good, right?!

Here are a couple of pictures of Tours. I'm planning to post more pictures of the town when I have more time, but I wanted to post at least a couple to show what the town looks like -- so different from the US!











This is the Hôtel de Ville, also known as the mairie, which is basically the town hall. Civil services for marriages are held here also. The tents in the picture aren't usually there -- there was some sort of food tasting there this weekend.

I hope you have a terrific Tuesday!

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...

Today is Friday, it's 5pm here, and I am about to head "home." The mother in my host family is a really sweet French lady who cooks delicious meals (yet with very simple ingredients!), so I look forward to going "home" each day to see what inviting smell is there to greet me. (I'll post more about my host family later.) The pictures below are the final installment of photos from my week of "castle hopping" during the first week I was here.














These photos are of the Saint Calais chapel at Château de Blois, built by Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne; it was consecrated in 1508. In the picture of the entrance, their initials (L and A) are above the door. Louis XII was the father of François I, who was the father of Henri II (married to Catherine de Medici), all kings of France.

Our dinner Thursday night was at La Ritournelle. The picture is blurry, but the restaurant was very cute. We ate outside on a patio behind the restaurant.

This is a picture of my dinner – Mom, this picture is for you!

Friday morning I toured the wine caves at Vouvray. They make three different types of wine & sparkling wine here.

I visited Château d'Amboise Friday afternoon. This is a picture of the château and the chapel.

Here I am at the top of the château .

Our guide told us that at the very beginning of the Wars of Religion in
France (before the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre), the king had Protestants hung from the balconies (that you can see on the left) to be seen from the town below to set an example. I asked the guidehow many people were hung and she said, “Oh, less than 10… but that’s still too many, right?”

This shot was taken from the top of château as well.

This is the chapel at Château d'Amboise; the tomb of Leonardo de Vinci is inside.

On Saturday, I visited Château de Chenonceau. You walk down this long pathway surrounded by trees, and at the very end of the "tunnel", it opens up to a huge open area with the château.

This is Diane de Poitier's room -- Henri II's mistress. Henri gave this château to Diane as a gift, but Catherine de Medici (his wife) took it back after Henri's death. She did give Diane another château in exchange though!

This is a painting of Catherine de Medici from the 1800s. It’s ironically hanging in the room pictured above, which is called “La Chambre de Diane de Poitiers.”

This is Catherine de Medici's room, her window, and the view from her window.

Once again, this is the symbol seen throughout the châteaux that has various explanations of its meaning.

This room is known as “La Galerie,” and it served as a hospital during World War I.

This was taken in the kitchens of the château. I took a lot of pictures of the kitchens since I love cooking & kitchens, but I won’t bore you with those!

The château has beautiful gardens around it, which you can see in these shots.

One of the gardens is a maze garden --here I am after finding my way out in the rain!

Here’s two last shots of Château de Chenonceau. I loved seeing all the châteaux, but I especially enjoyed this one since I’m reading a biography of Catherine de Medici. It was so fascinating to see the places that I’m reading about in the book.

My future posts shouldn’t be as long since I’ve started my classes now, and I’m not traveling as much. The next pictures I post should be more about the town of Tours, my host family, etc…

Until next time…

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures from the airport – Jacob & Christian, I MISS YOU!