Wednesday - Thursday

My time in Amiens absolutely flew by! I can't say how wonderful it was to see Juliette again, and to meet her brother, Julien, and mother, Anne, for the first time. They all took wonderful care of me, and I am so very grateful for their wonderful hospitality!

I left off at Rouen, so I’ll do my best to pick up the strings there in order to tie them all off neatly. This might take several posts – or one REALLY long one!

Wednesday was a very mellow day, which I enjoyed greatly! We just lounged around the apartment all day, without doing much of anything. Anne would have preferred for us to go out and DO something, to profit from our time, but in fact I think we did just that – at least I did!

The next day Anne took me to see Versailles. She woke us up early (aka before 10 am), so that we could get a better start on the day! Juliette and I took breakfast together, but she and Julien stayed in Amiens, as they each had too much work to spend the day away from home. Our first stop was at a boulangerie bio (organic bakery) – Anne buys as much organic as she can, as she is very health conscious – we picked up sandwiches for our lunch because everything in Versailles (also the name of the city which now surrounds the palace) costs obscene sums of money! We then left Amiens on the autoroute, destination Versailles. Amiens is in the region of Picardy, and Versailles is outside of Paris, in the region Île-de-France; the car ride was a couple of hours, especially because we got a little turned around a couple times. It was past noon by the time we’d gotten to the city, found the chateau, and parked, so we picnicked in the car with our really yummy sandwiches. If I had had my visa with me, I could have proven my status as a French resident under the age of 25, and therefore gotten into the museum absolutely free! But I didn’t want to carry my passport around with me (I figured it was safer that way), so I left it behind. I now know that I should always have it with me while traveling – yes Anne, I’ve learned my lesson well!

The chateau, built by Louis XIV from his father’s (much smaller) hunting lodge, has been turned into a national museum. We followed along as our audio guides told us all about what we were seeing – mine was in English, but the decision included much considering, and I almost chose French. We were not sure if we could take photos or not; flash was definitely not allowed, and every once in a while there would be a sign prohibiting photography, but everyone else was taking pictures. I think there were certain areas where photography is prohibited, but it was unclear as to where those areas ended. As a result I don’t really have photos of the interior of the palace (and the postcards were WAY too expensive!), but I took some of the exterior (lots of gold and marble as Anne said!).

The first rooms were filled with paintings – many of them portraits, and all having to do with court life. One of the portraits was of a man named Gaston (Gaston de France, brother of King Louis XIII), and of course all I could think about was Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”
We finished our tour, and stopped to look at the gift shop. I considered buying postcards, until I saw that they were 1,10€ each, almost $1.50 for one card! No thanks! (Postcards from a Tabac cost around ,50€ each) Anne bought one postcard, as well as a little book of “Les Fables de la Fontaine” (a collection of folktales, written in verse, which most every French person knows) which she gave to me. It was very kind of her!

After searching for the car, we left Versailles with one last stop before home. We visited an old school friend of Anne’s, who lives nearby. They went most of the way through school together, and have kept in contact. Every time they have the chance, they visit each other, and so we did. Bernadette and her husband, Louis, are both very kind – I think I remember their names correctly, if not, then I am truly sorry! We had a very nice gouter (afternoon snack), and I got to play with their 2 year old grandson, Alexis, for a while – we were matching and identifying the shapes of different cookie cutters and chocolate molds.

Anne called Juliette, right before we left, to ask her to get dinner started so it would be ready when we got home. I ended up playing car secretary for Anne, not nearly as easy in French as it is with my own mother in the states. When we arrived back at the apartment in Amiens, Juliette had indeed finished making dinner, so we sat down à table (this is becoming the phrase that rules my home life). I slept well that night!

I think that this is long enough for one post. I’ll post again soon with a recount of tomorrow's API sortie to the caves of Voiron and the Chartreuse monastery.

Rouen

Yesterday afternoon, Anne, Juliette, and I went to Rouen for a bit of sightseeing as well as window-shopping. Actually, Juliette ended up buying a sweater, but Anne and I stuck to "window licking" (lèche-vitrine is the French term for window-shopping, and literally translates to window-licking).

We detoured to Londinieres, so I could see Juliette's childhood house. My parents spent some time there last summer. Since it's winter right now, the house is closed up and dark, and the garden is rather sparse. But now I have a better idea of what Mom and Dad's pictures represent. Anne also took the opportunity to stop at her favorite butcher to buy some quality meat!

The drive was very relaxing: the sun was coming through the windows, there was classical music on the radio, and the countryside was rolling by outside the windows. At least, on the way there. On the way home, it was dark outside, and we took the autoroute (comparable to a freeway) which is faster as it bypasses all the small towns, but not as scenic.

To celebrate Mardis Gras, we made waffles last night (we decided that we'd had enough crepes for a while) and had cider. The first few waffles were failures, but everything tasted fine, and we all had a good laugh or two!

Adventure à Amiens

I am so happy I came to Amiens for my vacation! My friend Juliette and her family (brother Julien and mother Anne Avronsart) live here and are kind enough to host me for my week of vacances d’hiver.

I met Juliette four years ago, after pleading my family to host a French student for three weeks during the summer. I gave up my bed for a futon on the floor in exchange for the best decision ever – Juliette quickly became one of my best friends, practically a sister! She came back the next summer, and my family dragged her all the way across the US on our road-trip to Kansas, she and I slept in a tent every night, while Mom, Dad, and Katie slept in the trailer. There were many nights we stayed up, giggling like little girls, sometimes until we were told to be quiet; other people were trying to sleep.

That was three years ago. Mom and Dad celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this last summer by taking their first trip to Europe. Half of their trip they spent with the Avronsart family in northern France. Now it’s my turn, though I only get to spent one week, they got two!

Getting here was interesting though! I woke up at 6 in the morning to get to the train station in Grenoble on time – the train was to leave at 7:37. Little did I know that there were two trains, back-to-back, both bound for Paris. In other words, I got on the wrong train! It was 7:30ish when I discovered this, as the man I thought was in my seat actually belonged there, and told me that I needed to be on the other train. So I scooped up all of my things, somehow not leaving anything behind, and ran for the next train. Luckily, the conductors saw me, and kept one of the doors of the correct train open – once the doors close, they don’t open until the next station! I climbed aboard, the door shut, and we pulled away from the station. Close call!

That was the TGV to Paris, which took about three hours. After getting off the train at la Gare de Lyon, I used the metro (thanks for the billets Mom and Dad!) to get to la Gare du Nord; two stops away on the green RER line. After wandering around for 20 minutes trying to get out of the metro, and into the train station, I finally found my way. I checked at to make sure I didn’t need an assigned seat, figured out which platform, and got on that train. After a couple of minutes, we pulled away from Paris, headed north. This was a slower train, which stopped probably eight times before reaching the terminus at Amiens. It took me and Juliette about a half an hour to find each other at the station. It’s not very big, but there are two exits and somehow we passed each other the first time without seeing each other. I thought to myself as the train was leaving Grenoble that I should have given the Avronsart family my phone number, for exactly this reason, but it was too late by then! We eventually found each other; everything turned out fine in the end, and in this case, that’s all that really matters.

I was exhausted when we got to their apartment, so I ended up taking a nap for about 45 minutes, but felt much better after that – the combination of stress from the actual traveling, the early morning, and the inability to sleep the night before due to pre-travel nerves had wiped me out.

I’m not sure how often I’ll have time to post during this vacation – I have the feeling that the Avronsart family will keep be very busy. They have already sat me down so I could finish all of my homework, after taking me on a walking tour of the city center. There has been talk of gaufres (waffles) for Mardi Gras (we decided that we’d had enough crêpes), and a trip to Versailles in the near future! But no worries – I’ll take good notes, and report back as soon as possible!

Answers and Updates

I think I've been asked three times how many American students are here in Grenoble, so I'll venture an answer. I have to say that I don't know. There are four or five groups within API, so I'd imagine that there are 40-50 American students in Grenoble with API. However, there are other groups from the states who don't have anything to do with API. There's also a large population of Chinese and a fairly large population of Korean students, plus a few European and South American students. We take up an entire college within the university, so there are a lot of us!

My classes are going well. It's interesting to be in a class that's not entirely focused on grammar - I am at a level that I've learned pretty much all of the rules, now I just need to practice using them, and in better stylistic ways. Between Samira (my French prof), Paul (prof from the states), and my literature class, I've been keeping busy outside of class as well.

Paul will be leaving next Saturday - the same day I leave for Amiens. He's hosting his own Diner d'Adieu this Thursday. He's really using his departure as an excuse to take us out to a fancy resaurant for lunch. Victor will arrive in March, so we'll be a few weeks without an SU prof. However, Paul has promised to continue assigning reading and essays, even after he's left - thanks Paul! His class won't have officially ended, so he can actually do that...

les grottes de Choranche

Today I went on an excursion with API (the company with which we have our housing, insurance, and a few excursions contracted). We went, as a huge group of American students, to les grottes de Choranche – the Choranche caves in Vecors. The rendez-vous was at 12:45 (my family usually eats Saturday lunch around 1 PM, so we did some shuffling today) and we all got onto a charter bus which took us an hour and a half away from Grenoble. Our guided tour lasted about an hour, we had some free time (gift shop/café), and then the return bus ride. I ended up sleeping all the way home, so I didn’t touch the homework I brought with me, but I’ll have all of tomorrow afternoon.

The caves were discovered around 1875, by some of the villagers from Choranche, who were curious as to the source of the river which exits the cave. They discovered the first chamber, with its massive pool, and named it “Cou fin” – thin neck. This name is reminiscent of the term “bottleneck,” which is appropriate as the vast pool of water exits through a rather narrow hole, forming the river. Later on, further explorations followed, and now continue to follow. The specialty of these caves is the soda-straw formations. The vast number, length, and regularity of diameter set this cave system apart from others.

Also on display in the caves are a prehistoric species of salamander. The only place these amphibians survive naturally is in the Karst Mountains of Slovenia. The Olm salamanders live in aquariums in the caves in Choranche. From the Choranceh Caves’ website:

"Called the "living fossil" because it is one of the oldest species in the world and because it still has most of its original characteristics, Olm salamander is definitely the oddest of underground creatures. It is an amphibian that lives off micro-organisms and other cave-dwelling species and is the number one underground predator thanks to its size (up to 35 cm long). Like all cave-dwellers it has no eyes and is totally colorless."

I was very excited to visit a cave in France, particularly because visiting caves is a family tradition for me. Ever since Katie and I were young, my family has made a point of incorporating at least one cave visit into our summer vacations. Our first cave was Lewis and Clark Caverns in Montana. Since then we’ve taken historic tours, with only our own candle light to guide our way, and I’ve even been swimming in a cave in the Philippines. Therefore, when the opportunity arose to visit a cave here in France, I couldn’t resist! While this cave tour was rather tame compared to what I really like, I was impressed with the work to maintain the integrity of the formations. I was also impressed with how the limestone formations were being to heal themselves from the no doubt generations of being soiled by contact with human touch – the dirt and oils on our hands leads to the discoloration of the limestone deposited by the ever flowing and dripping water inside the caverns. But there are many places within les grottes de Choranche where the discoloration is underneath new layers of clean white limestone. That was cool to see!

We also saw a very strange film in one of the galleries. It was projected on two of the walls – kind of a mix of a light show and movie. I noticed that there weren’t really many formations in that particular chamber, some of us were thinking about the potential damage from the sound vibrations and lights of the mini-spectacular.

All and all, I’m very glad I went. I also want to continue to explore more caves. If I were ever to pick up an extreme sport it would be spelunking! But, not while I’m in France.