Weekend pictures:

This is the flower market, Marché des fleurs, that is held every Wednesday & Saturday on one of the main streets in Tours, Boulevard Béranger. I went this weekend – it’s usually full of people, but it had just rained when I went, so it was pretty deserted.

I also went to another market that’s indoors and open every day (except Sunday and Monday). It’s called Les Halles and it’s full of booths selling fresh fruits and vegetables, spices, seafood, meat, sausages, paté, bread, pastries… everything you can imagine.

Outside of Les Halles is an outdoor market on Saturdays. It’s kind of like a farmers market with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, but there are also lots of people selling jam, compotes, honey, etc. I bought a little jar of the best honey I’ve ever tasted from a man who makes it here in Touraine – hope I can get it through Customs…

While walking around this weekend, I took some pictures of the bakeries that I walk by each day:

I also walk past this Hermès store (famous for their scarves & bags) when I walk to school. The blue purse is 1,990 euros!

This place, La Chocolatiere, supposedly has the best chocolates & desserts in Tours. Mme Bel told me that people come from Paris to buy chocolates & cakes here. The pictures I took in the windows didn’t turn out great because of the reflections in the glass, but you can see the giant chocolate balls in the picture of the display window for the Father’s Day.

I had a nice weekend, although I've been a little sick. I went to the pharmacy to buy echinacea Saturday, but I decided today that I need something a little stronger. I talked to a pharmacist who gave me something that she said would help. I took one pill, and I'm feeling a little better already.

Hope you had a nice weekend and a nice Father's Day!

Jacob gets here Thursday!

Cathédrale Saint-Gatien de Tours

This is the gothic cathedral that is on my street in Tours. Construction started in 1170 and finished in 1547. It’s hard to believe that something this massive and detailed could have been built that long ago.

If you’re looking at the cathedral, the Bel’s house is down the street a few blocks to the right.


















































(inside the cathedral looking out)

I went to mass here last Sunday, and since it was confirmation Sunday, there was a little reception in the cloître after the mass.

I thought it was interesting that this walkway had all these pieces of stone that have fallen off the cathedral lined up here against the wall.

Here’s a picture that puts into perspective the massiveness of the cathedral... look how tiny the people look in front of it!

And this is where I call Jacob every night! I walk to this “cabine téléphonique” around 9:30 or 10 p.m. (2:30 or 3 p.m his time). It doesn’t get dark here until about 10:30 at night.

This is the picture taken from my bedroom window at the Bel's house. I can stick my head out the window, look left, and see the cathedral -- I love the cathedral bells!

Today I'm going to work on my paper (I made some progress on it yesterday!), and I may go see a movie tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to walk through the big flower market here in Tours. Have a great weekend!

Jacob gets here in 6 days!

This is the Institut de Touraine. This is the main building with the library, media library, labs, classrooms, etc. There are two other buildings; I have one class in each of the other two buildings also.

This is looking down one of the streets on one side of the Institute. The French flags in the picture are hanging on the side of one of the buildings.

This is the courtyard directly behind the main building. Most people enter the building this way, and lots of people buy lunch in sandwich shops and eat it here. The Italian in our class said that was “very American,” and when I looked around the next day at lunch after he’d said that, it was true – only Americans who’d bought lunch and returned to school to eat it!

If you’re interested in reading more about the institute, here’s a link to the site:

http://www.institut-touraine.asso.fr/index-en.html

If it doesn't open in English, click on the British flag to change the text to English.

I don't have time to write much today because I'm supposed to be working on my paper. I hope you have a great day today.

Jacob arrives in Tours one week from today!

Since my official name is Amanda, but I've always been called Mandy, I frequently have an identity-crisis when it comes to what name to use. Interestingly, I’ve found two desserts in France that are named something really similar to both of my names. Of course I tried them both, and I am happy to report that both of my French dessert namesakes are excellent!

Amanda’s dessert namesake : une tartelette amande

amande = almond

I never realized that my name is pretty much “almond” in French, with the addition of the “ah” sound at the end. I love almonds, so I’m ok with that.

The tartelette amande is the best thing I’ve eaten so far. I discovered it 3 days ago at the little bakery / sandwich shop where I’ve been getting lunch, and I’ve had 2 already.

Mandy’s dessert namesake: a Mandisse from McDonalds

The Mandisse is basically a cupcake full of chocolate chunks, and in the center, it’s full of Nutella. Of course it doesn’t taste nearly as fresh as the tartelette amande, but a chocolate chip cupcake with Nutella in the center -- how could that not be good?

I had another full day of class today -- I'm not complaining -- I like class! And, I'm earning 6 hours credit, so I expected it to be a lot of work. I have an 8-10 page paper due next week, and I want to get it finished before Jacob gets here, so I'll probably start on that tonight.

Mme Bel taught me to make Quiche Lorraine last night, and she kept saying, "Oh, it's so simple, it's so easy!" I had told her that I thought it had such a good, rich flavor when we had it the first week I was here, and I think she was embarassed for me to see how simple it was!

The only ingredients (besides the crust, which is sold here fresh in wax paper, pre-cut the size of a quiche pan -- how nice!) were eggs, ham, gruyère cheese (which is sold shredded in a bag), crème fraiche, and salt and pepper. I think what gives it the unique taste I'm not used to is the crème fraiche, which I don't think we have.

As she was cracking the eggs (brown eggs that were individually stamped saying that they came from chickens that were raised outside -- she's very particular about using very fresh
ingredients!), she said, "Mmmm, these eggs smell very fresh." I was thinking, "How does she know that?!"


Jacob leaves one week from today -- the countdown is on!

A little more about my host family:

Monsieur Bel’s first name is Jean-Pierre, and he’s the editor of the local paper.

This is the newspaper, La Nouvelle République. His column is on the bottom left corner of the front page; Madame Bel saves it for me so that I can read it.

I’m really embarrassed to admit this, but I don’t know Madame Bel’s first name – I always call her Mme Bel! The only reason I know that M. Bel’s is Jean-Pierre is because I’ve heard her call him by his first name, but I've never heard him say hers! Obviously, I’ve let this go on for far too long to fess up and ask her name, and the other American staying with the Bels doesn't know it either!

Mme Bel used to work when they were newly married and lived in Paris, but she doesn’t work anymore. She is always the first one up in the morning, and she eats breakfast with us every day. I see her reading a lot, and I believe she works in her flower garden every day. She cooks every night and goes out for fresh bread every day. She’s promised to teach me to make Quiche Lorraine tonight!

She also loves Sudoku and Lost! She told me that she was a little behind on Lost and asked if I could tell her what happened after they opened the hatch (!) – I told her she’d missed way too much for me to explain! She said her son is going to California next week for a wedding (he lived there a few years ago), and he’s promised to bring her the next season on DVD! She let me borrow her box set of Season 1 of 24, so I've been watching that in French.

The Bels have lived in their house in Tours for 18 years. She told me that after their children were grown and had moved out, they started hosting foreign exchange students from the Institute. She said it was either sell the house and move into a smaller house, or find a way to fill the rooms. I thought it was interesting (and very French) that they never even considering living in the big house alone… as if that weren’t even an option!

Here I am at dinner with the Bels. The weather has been nice lately, so we’ve been having dinner outdoors. M. Bel usually works in the evening, but this picture was taken on his day off, so he had dinner with us. He's been working a lot lately because of the elections in France.

They have three grown children: Fredérique, Yvan, and Auriane, and two grandchildren, Simon who is 8 and Marguerite who turned 4 yesterday – Marguerite means “daisy” in French.

One son is married with two small children and lives in Bordeaux, and the other is married and works and lives in Paris.

Their daughter, Auriane, is my age and is in her 2^nd year of her masters in French in Paris. She isn’t married but she’s got a PACS, which isn't a marriage, it's a "civil union" in France. I met Auriane the first weekend I arrived because she was in town visiting her parents, but I haven’t seen her since then. She told me that she taught one year of high school and hated it – she said it was too much discipline and not enough of the subject. She currently has an assistantship while she's working on her Masters and hopes to become a professor at a university. The Tuesday that she left, the Nutella disappeared, and Mme Bel told me that every time Auriane visits, the Nutella leaves with her because she loves it so much – do you think she's my French twin!

I had a L-O-N-G day of French language class today because we had to make up the hours we missed yesterday. I'm heading home to prepare for my Quiche Lorraine lesson!

Here’s a post about my weekend trip to Mont-St-Michel:

Mont-St-Michel is a tiny island upon which a massive abbey was built. This is what it looks like when you’re driving up – this picture is from Wikipedia – I didn’t take any from this far away.

The brochure said that the structure dates back to 708 when Aubert built a sanctuary in honor of the archangel Saint Michael, and the mount soon became a focus of pilgrimage. Over time, different parts were added, until it became the massive structure that it is today. This is what the brochure says about St. Michael:

“To Medieval man living in expectation and dread of the hereafter, Saint Michael was the one who led away the dead and put their souls in the balance on the day of the last judgement.”

Here I am in front of Mont-Saint-Michel.

The Benedictines lived in the abbey in the 10^th century, and a village grew up around the walls of the abbey. There are still monks who live here; I was sitting in front of a closed door, and a monk came and asked me if he pass through the door.

This is what surrounds the little island – depending on the time of day and the tide, it's either water or very dangerous sand! Everyone kept telling us not to walk in the sand since there are places that sink quickly, and they said there are often “incidents” with people thinking it’s safe to walk on. (By the way, that’s a rock I’m standing on in the picture – not sand!)

This is what it looks like once you’re on the mountain and climbing up all the stairs to get to the abbey.

These are taken from a higher point of the abbey.

These two pictures are taken in the nave, which was built on top of the mountain, 80 meters above sea level, on a platform 80 meters long. It’s a long rectangular chapel, and on one end it’s Roman architecture (rounded arches), and on the other end it’s considered Gothic (pointed arches) because part of it collapsed in the 1400s and was rebuilt toward the end of the 15^th century, so the architecture had changed.

This is the cloister and is the only part of the abbey that is open to the sky. For this reason, it was believed to be the place of the closest communication with God, so it was used for prayer and meditation.

This is the refectory, where the monks took their meals in silence, while one monk gave a reading.

One more picture with Mont-St-Michel...

After visiting Mont-St-Michel, we boarded the bus to visit the town of St. Malo. This is what we encountered along the way: a ton of bikers for a race and a police officer, who gave our bus driver a citation!

St. Malo is a walled port city. Here’s a picture of it from a distance, again from Wikipedia.

You can see the city wall in these two pictures; the water is to the right of the street in the 2^nd picture.

This is the port at St. Malo, just outside the city walls.

These pictures were taken inside the city.

The trip to Mont-St-Michel was exciting but tiring; we left Saturday at 7am and returned at midnight. This morning I came to class, but my teacher is sick, so our morning language class is cancelled. I'm using the time to catch up on emails and do some work for my classes. Yesterday, I went to mass at la cathédrale St. Gatien, which is down my street. I'll post pictures of the cathedrale sometime soon. After lunch yesterday, I did a lot of reading for my Renaissance poetry class, and I walked around a lot.

I hope you all had a nice weekend!