This week has been a cluster of homework and personal strife. Regardless of that mess, tout est bien et yesterday, after class, I went home and took a much needed nap. Power naps are not something that I can do easily, but I was just that tired, not to mention that my awesome new doors have shutters that roll down like a garage door and completely block out the sun.
After the nap, some lunch and homework, we drove to Vire, because my host mom reserved tickets for us to see a theatre piece by her favorite French director.
We drove for a good hour, the whole time I was wishing that I could see the landscape. My ears were popping driving through the hills, while our philosopher friend chattered on about the author of the book from which the monologue was excerpted. When we arrived, we were a bit early, so while my host parents parked the car, the friend and I stopped in the bar for a drink. Like I know what to order in a French bar, so he ordered for me. He asked "beer?"
"Oui, ça va," and out came these large goblets with words written in German on them. The liquid was red, but I assumed it was a type of ale, so I braced myself for a strong wash of ale flavor and was happily wrong to do so. It was a cherry flavored beer!
Very smooth and I ended up practically chugging it, because I forgot that it was alcohol. After our glasses and their cigarettes, we headed to the theatre to be the first ones in line. My host mom stood there, jumping around like a school girl, so excited to see the production. We were led into a dark room with only about 50ish chairs set up on platforms.
The piece is about a simpleton (American translation: mentally retarded, very slow, has difficulty with social norms) who lives with his sister and it is a solo that goes on for an hour and a half. The lights, sounds, movements, words, everything in the production moves glacially slow, which sounds boring, but it was intense. The actor stays in the same position speaking slowly and moving so slowly that you don't realize that he is moving at all until he is in another position.
I wish that my vocabulary was higher so that I could have understood the elevated language, but the actor was so phenomenal that even if I hadn't known any French, I would have known what was happening. After an hour of being on the edge of our seats, situated in heavy, thick air, and being completely focused on this man, he began to tear, cry, and then he let out a blood-curdling scream that honestly, scared the shit out of everyone.
He let out two and then began to close the performance. The character dies of course, like any great drama. My host mom and I sat in our chairs long after most of the audience had vacated. There was a lot to think about after experiencing something that simple, but at the same time, that complex. We drove back in silence and comprehension.
Today, I awoke around 11h15 and got ready to leave, as we were leaving to go to Bayeux at noon. I wasn't French today, I refused to wear a scrap of black. We were going to visit the couple who brought the amazing cakes my second or third week here.
They're lovely, and being around them again today made me love them even more. I sucked down a cup of tea, without sugar, and off we went to see them. Outside, it was cloudy, but that is to be expected in Normandie in February, but warmer than it has been, and I was completely content in just my cardigan and scarf. Basically, I forgot my warm/rain jacket.
We began driving and hugging all of the curves in the round-a-bouts, there are so many here, and then HA, it began raining. Oops. Buildings were beginning to pass by more frequently, and the spire of the town's cathedral was on the horizon. I began to grow excited at the thought of seeing a new place and just smiled like an idiot the whole rest of the drive.
My host mom dropped us off in front of the cathedral and we strolled to a store front to take shelter from the rain under its awning. After letting me take what turned out to be some blurry pictures, we rounded a corner and came to some gated apartments.
There was a parking courtyard in the middle, and the building looked like a school, go figure, it used to be one. Our friends live in a separate building that is attached by two huge wooden doors to the other buildings. Apparently, they live in what used to be the head master's/mistress's apartment.
We were welcomed warmly inside and greeted with the standard French cheek-kisses. We stood and talked while waiting for my host mom to come meet us. I'm always shy to speak at first, I have to get my bearings and feel out the company, not to mention switch on my French-speaking brain.
Host mom came back, was greeted and then we were offered champagne and before-dinner snacks. The champagne in France is actually from Champagne and not sparkling wine, which is awesome, so I had my first glass of REAL champagne. It was delicious of course, even though it was a brut, it was still delicious, which just goes to show how wonderfully skilled the makers are. In cute, little, colorful bowls, there were various foods: wasabi chips, smoked sausage-pork-jerky things (bought from the market this morning), nuts, tiny bread sticks, and purple potato chips. Purple potato chips?
I assumed they'd been dyed or had flavoring on them, so I tasted them anyway (by the way, I am much more open to trying new foods and things here than in Texas, I think that's a practice that I'll take back with me). They were wonderful! They had a thicker, sturdier texture and the taste was much more subtle than regular chips. Apparently, explained our friend, there is a purple potato that grows in Bretagne and they make chips out of them. Interesting.
After our champagne toast, (when invited to a French person's house, I've noticed that its customary for the invitee to propose a toast to the inviter's health and happiness, how polite and awesome is that?) we sat down for the second course. In France, people eat lightly most days. Bread and tea or coffee for breakfast, salad or a bread something with a piece of fruit for lunch, a light afternoon snack of bread and cheese or more fruit with tea, and a heavier, traditional meal late in the evening. When one is invited to a meal though, there are several courses.
The second course was chilled shrimp and bread, so yummy, I shouldn't have eaten so many of those, because the main course was HUGE. Plates piled high with a Spanish meal that was cooked with saffron and other spices came rolling out of the kitchen.
We each had a chicken leg and thigh, an enormous helping of Spanish rice, in which there was more shrimp, spicy sausage, and muscles. It was delicious, I ate SO much. My host dad laughed and said that I was probably not used to this kind of food, and I just smiled and said that actually yes, this is very familiar.
The husband chimed in at about that same time, remarking that since Texas is close to Mexico, I probably have this kind of food all the time. I nodded and let him finish for me, and everyone laughed. I felt special, considering I could relate something to home and share it with everyone.
After that huge helping, we skipped the cheese course, because frankly we were out of room and needed un trou Normand (a Normand hole). This is a shot of strong, old Calvados that is drunk in between two large courses to help expand your stomach and supposedly help with digestion. Calvados is a liquor that is made from fermented apples and it is a Normand specialty.
We didn't take any shots, just some wine, and then were brought an AMAZING dessert from the same patisserie as the other two amazing cakes that they brought to our house a few weeks back. Heaven in a cake for me. It had a hazelnut crunchy base with the lightest and most wonderful chocolate mousse I've ever tasted on top of it, the icing on the cake, literally, was the chocolate shavings heaped on top. So stuffed by this point. We had coffee with dessert and then sat digesting for a bit.
The wife teaches ancient Latin and Greek at the local high school, so she showed me the titles of the Tapestry I was about to see translated from Latin to French. She taught me how to say some of the words, and my inner grammatical enthusiast sprang forth, as I noticed that the order of the verbs and nouns were completely different and that there are no determinants in Latin, as English and French are ridden with determinants, this part was fascinating.
We then all went for a walk to the museum and they left me to explore the Tapisserie de Bayeux alone. I was glad, I like doing that kind of thing alone so that I can take as much time as I want. We took some pictures outside and we parted ways. I walked inside, je suis étudiante. I love those words, it saves me so much money! Showing her my student ID card, I payed and followed a large group into the next room.
They gave tickets to the desk man, and I suddenly realized that the lady didn't give me anything, so I just smiled and said, elle ne m'a donnée rien. This is correct, standard French, and granted I have an accent, but none of my host family's friends have had trouble understanding me saying things in broken French, let alone correctly spoken French. The guy asked you speak English? Ugh. Yes.
He went on to speak broken English, and I just laughed in my head. I guess its polite to speak the tourist's native language, and it would have been very appreciated if I hadn't known any French, but I do. I just kept speaking in French to him, and then he asked me if I wanted an English sound device (they give you this thing that looks like a phone that tells you th story of the Tapestry, so that everyone can walk at their own pace).
Non, en français s'il vous plaît.
French for children?
Non, en français normal.
I'm trying to learn damnit! Je comprends plus que je peut parler was all I could think, but didn't say.
I entered the dark U shaped room and began listening. The tapestry is really an embroidered storyboard that depicts the events leading up to and the events of William the Conqueror's conquest of England. It was made in the late 1000s and is close to 68ish meters long (like 240ish feet).
It was very impressive, I walked and listened twice so that I didn't miss anything. Haley's comet is sewn in it, mythological animals, like griffins, naked people, hacked body parts, great battles, falling horses, a dying and dead king, and burning buildings are all part of the story. Like I said, quite impressive.
I then strolled the gift shop and found a post card with a good picture of the room and tapestry on it and a necklace with a Viking rune meaning generosity on it.
There were many books that I began reading, as I waited for my host mom to come get me. Honestly, I almost walked back, considering I remembered the way. Left, right, Cathedral, right. Not too difficult, but anyway, host dad and the husband came to walk me back, because host mom and the wife weren't finished with voice lessons yet.
We took a walk around and inside the cathedral. It was also magnificent. Part of the style is Baroque and part is Gothic. Lots of curly-cues and gorgeousness. My host dad described it as being dentelle pierre, stone lace, on the way to Bayeux. He was right. So after taking a million pictures of obvious and not-so-obvious things, we went back to the house, as it was getting dark.
We entered and I noticed that my host brother was watching a black and white version of Macbeth. Haha. Who would have thought that I would come all the way to France and still have Shakespeare following me around! Apparently, they are big fans and just bought the BBC collection of movies.
The wife brought a Shakespeare analysis book to me and as I opened it, I realized that it was in French. I forgot that she doesn't know English, and considering Shakespeare invented so many English words and has such complex language, I looked at my host dad asked how one could possibly translate his work correctly. He said that people try the best they can, but Shakespeare is not really studied in France for that reason, but the friends particularly like the movies.
We then watched a bit of a new project film that my host dad is working on and had tea. The husband asked me how I liked the cathedral. Oui, je l'aime bien! Très impressionnante! "Wait, is that French word?" I asked myself aloud, then I looked to my host for some sort of confirmation. Yay! It is a French word. There are so many words that are similar to English and one just has to change the ending or tweak it in some way to make it French. I have a habit of making up English words, so I am really bad about doing it in French.
We then had salad, cheese, bread, fruit, and another type of cake. I was still full from earlier, but it was so yummy! Decaf coffee and wine sealed the night and we had to hustle out the door, because host mom had a concert to attend. We said farewells and kissed goodbye. Incredible two days, I must say.
Also, wedding invitations arrived yesterday! Exciting, except that, when I went to view my shipment confirmation, guess what I noticed. The accent circonflexe that is supposed to be over the "i" in "plaît" is missing. Grr! I had a hullabaloo of a time trying to put those accents into the program and that
one silly accent got changed back to the normal "i," not that anyone but maybe my great-grandfather,
officiant, or future sister-in-law will notice, but it still irks me.
After the nap, some lunch and homework, we drove to Vire, because my host mom reserved tickets for us to see a theatre piece by her favorite French director.
We drove for a good hour, the whole time I was wishing that I could see the landscape. My ears were popping driving through the hills, while our philosopher friend chattered on about the author of the book from which the monologue was excerpted. When we arrived, we were a bit early, so while my host parents parked the car, the friend and I stopped in the bar for a drink. Like I know what to order in a French bar, so he ordered for me. He asked "beer?"
"Oui, ça va," and out came these large goblets with words written in German on them. The liquid was red, but I assumed it was a type of ale, so I braced myself for a strong wash of ale flavor and was happily wrong to do so. It was a cherry flavored beer!
Very smooth and I ended up practically chugging it, because I forgot that it was alcohol. After our glasses and their cigarettes, we headed to the theatre to be the first ones in line. My host mom stood there, jumping around like a school girl, so excited to see the production. We were led into a dark room with only about 50ish chairs set up on platforms.
The piece is about a simpleton (American translation: mentally retarded, very slow, has difficulty with social norms) who lives with his sister and it is a solo that goes on for an hour and a half. The lights, sounds, movements, words, everything in the production moves glacially slow, which sounds boring, but it was intense. The actor stays in the same position speaking slowly and moving so slowly that you don't realize that he is moving at all until he is in another position.
I wish that my vocabulary was higher so that I could have understood the elevated language, but the actor was so phenomenal that even if I hadn't known any French, I would have known what was happening. After an hour of being on the edge of our seats, situated in heavy, thick air, and being completely focused on this man, he began to tear, cry, and then he let out a blood-curdling scream that honestly, scared the shit out of everyone.
He let out two and then began to close the performance. The character dies of course, like any great drama. My host mom and I sat in our chairs long after most of the audience had vacated. There was a lot to think about after experiencing something that simple, but at the same time, that complex. We drove back in silence and comprehension.
Today, I awoke around 11h15 and got ready to leave, as we were leaving to go to Bayeux at noon. I wasn't French today, I refused to wear a scrap of black. We were going to visit the couple who brought the amazing cakes my second or third week here.
They're lovely, and being around them again today made me love them even more. I sucked down a cup of tea, without sugar, and off we went to see them. Outside, it was cloudy, but that is to be expected in Normandie in February, but warmer than it has been, and I was completely content in just my cardigan and scarf. Basically, I forgot my warm/rain jacket.
We began driving and hugging all of the curves in the round-a-bouts, there are so many here, and then HA, it began raining. Oops. Buildings were beginning to pass by more frequently, and the spire of the town's cathedral was on the horizon. I began to grow excited at the thought of seeing a new place and just smiled like an idiot the whole rest of the drive.
My host mom dropped us off in front of the cathedral and we strolled to a store front to take shelter from the rain under its awning. After letting me take what turned out to be some blurry pictures, we rounded a corner and came to some gated apartments.
There was a parking courtyard in the middle, and the building looked like a school, go figure, it used to be one. Our friends live in a separate building that is attached by two huge wooden doors to the other buildings. Apparently, they live in what used to be the head master's/mistress's apartment.
We were welcomed warmly inside and greeted with the standard French cheek-kisses. We stood and talked while waiting for my host mom to come meet us. I'm always shy to speak at first, I have to get my bearings and feel out the company, not to mention switch on my French-speaking brain.
Host mom came back, was greeted and then we were offered champagne and before-dinner snacks. The champagne in France is actually from Champagne and not sparkling wine, which is awesome, so I had my first glass of REAL champagne. It was delicious of course, even though it was a brut, it was still delicious, which just goes to show how wonderfully skilled the makers are. In cute, little, colorful bowls, there were various foods: wasabi chips, smoked sausage-pork-jerky things (bought from the market this morning), nuts, tiny bread sticks, and purple potato chips. Purple potato chips?
I assumed they'd been dyed or had flavoring on them, so I tasted them anyway (by the way, I am much more open to trying new foods and things here than in Texas, I think that's a practice that I'll take back with me). They were wonderful! They had a thicker, sturdier texture and the taste was much more subtle than regular chips. Apparently, explained our friend, there is a purple potato that grows in Bretagne and they make chips out of them. Interesting.
After our champagne toast, (when invited to a French person's house, I've noticed that its customary for the invitee to propose a toast to the inviter's health and happiness, how polite and awesome is that?) we sat down for the second course. In France, people eat lightly most days. Bread and tea or coffee for breakfast, salad or a bread something with a piece of fruit for lunch, a light afternoon snack of bread and cheese or more fruit with tea, and a heavier, traditional meal late in the evening. When one is invited to a meal though, there are several courses.
The second course was chilled shrimp and bread, so yummy, I shouldn't have eaten so many of those, because the main course was HUGE. Plates piled high with a Spanish meal that was cooked with saffron and other spices came rolling out of the kitchen.
We each had a chicken leg and thigh, an enormous helping of Spanish rice, in which there was more shrimp, spicy sausage, and muscles. It was delicious, I ate SO much. My host dad laughed and said that I was probably not used to this kind of food, and I just smiled and said that actually yes, this is very familiar.
The husband chimed in at about that same time, remarking that since Texas is close to Mexico, I probably have this kind of food all the time. I nodded and let him finish for me, and everyone laughed. I felt special, considering I could relate something to home and share it with everyone.
After that huge helping, we skipped the cheese course, because frankly we were out of room and needed un trou Normand (a Normand hole). This is a shot of strong, old Calvados that is drunk in between two large courses to help expand your stomach and supposedly help with digestion. Calvados is a liquor that is made from fermented apples and it is a Normand specialty.
We didn't take any shots, just some wine, and then were brought an AMAZING dessert from the same patisserie as the other two amazing cakes that they brought to our house a few weeks back. Heaven in a cake for me. It had a hazelnut crunchy base with the lightest and most wonderful chocolate mousse I've ever tasted on top of it, the icing on the cake, literally, was the chocolate shavings heaped on top. So stuffed by this point. We had coffee with dessert and then sat digesting for a bit.
The wife teaches ancient Latin and Greek at the local high school, so she showed me the titles of the Tapestry I was about to see translated from Latin to French. She taught me how to say some of the words, and my inner grammatical enthusiast sprang forth, as I noticed that the order of the verbs and nouns were completely different and that there are no determinants in Latin, as English and French are ridden with determinants, this part was fascinating.
We then all went for a walk to the museum and they left me to explore the Tapisserie de Bayeux alone. I was glad, I like doing that kind of thing alone so that I can take as much time as I want. We took some pictures outside and we parted ways. I walked inside, je suis étudiante. I love those words, it saves me so much money! Showing her my student ID card, I payed and followed a large group into the next room.
They gave tickets to the desk man, and I suddenly realized that the lady didn't give me anything, so I just smiled and said, elle ne m'a donnée rien. This is correct, standard French, and granted I have an accent, but none of my host family's friends have had trouble understanding me saying things in broken French, let alone correctly spoken French. The guy asked you speak English? Ugh. Yes.
He went on to speak broken English, and I just laughed in my head. I guess its polite to speak the tourist's native language, and it would have been very appreciated if I hadn't known any French, but I do. I just kept speaking in French to him, and then he asked me if I wanted an English sound device (they give you this thing that looks like a phone that tells you th story of the Tapestry, so that everyone can walk at their own pace).
Non, en français s'il vous plaît.
French for children?
Non, en français normal.
I'm trying to learn damnit! Je comprends plus que je peut parler was all I could think, but didn't say.
I entered the dark U shaped room and began listening. The tapestry is really an embroidered storyboard that depicts the events leading up to and the events of William the Conqueror's conquest of England. It was made in the late 1000s and is close to 68ish meters long (like 240ish feet).
It was very impressive, I walked and listened twice so that I didn't miss anything. Haley's comet is sewn in it, mythological animals, like griffins, naked people, hacked body parts, great battles, falling horses, a dying and dead king, and burning buildings are all part of the story. Like I said, quite impressive.
I then strolled the gift shop and found a post card with a good picture of the room and tapestry on it and a necklace with a Viking rune meaning generosity on it.
There were many books that I began reading, as I waited for my host mom to come get me. Honestly, I almost walked back, considering I remembered the way. Left, right, Cathedral, right. Not too difficult, but anyway, host dad and the husband came to walk me back, because host mom and the wife weren't finished with voice lessons yet.
We took a walk around and inside the cathedral. It was also magnificent. Part of the style is Baroque and part is Gothic. Lots of curly-cues and gorgeousness. My host dad described it as being dentelle pierre, stone lace, on the way to Bayeux. He was right. So after taking a million pictures of obvious and not-so-obvious things, we went back to the house, as it was getting dark.
We entered and I noticed that my host brother was watching a black and white version of Macbeth. Haha. Who would have thought that I would come all the way to France and still have Shakespeare following me around! Apparently, they are big fans and just bought the BBC collection of movies.
The wife brought a Shakespeare analysis book to me and as I opened it, I realized that it was in French. I forgot that she doesn't know English, and considering Shakespeare invented so many English words and has such complex language, I looked at my host dad asked how one could possibly translate his work correctly. He said that people try the best they can, but Shakespeare is not really studied in France for that reason, but the friends particularly like the movies.
We then watched a bit of a new project film that my host dad is working on and had tea. The husband asked me how I liked the cathedral. Oui, je l'aime bien! Très impressionnante! "Wait, is that French word?" I asked myself aloud, then I looked to my host for some sort of confirmation. Yay! It is a French word. There are so many words that are similar to English and one just has to change the ending or tweak it in some way to make it French. I have a habit of making up English words, so I am really bad about doing it in French.
We then had salad, cheese, bread, fruit, and another type of cake. I was still full from earlier, but it was so yummy! Decaf coffee and wine sealed the night and we had to hustle out the door, because host mom had a concert to attend. We said farewells and kissed goodbye. Incredible two days, I must say.
Also, wedding invitations arrived yesterday! Exciting, except that, when I went to view my shipment confirmation, guess what I noticed. The accent circonflexe that is supposed to be over the "i" in "plaît" is missing. Grr! I had a hullabaloo of a time trying to put those accents into the program and that
one silly accent got changed back to the normal "i," not that anyone but maybe my great-grandfather,
officiant, or future sister-in-law will notice, but it still irks me.
Oh, I can't believe they messed up your invitations! Well, at least you did not have an entire line of text missing. Could you call them/email them and get it fixed? I know it is going to bother you.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could try those cakes! That sounds so yummy! All of the food sounds so delicious. I wish I could be there to try it all myself!
GRRR!!! Sorry about the invitations! Those purple chips sound amazing, and my mouth was watering with every meal you mentioned. I want to try it all aussi! The picture of the cake is delicious looking too. That tapestry also sounded amazing! I wish I was there to see it avec toi. I miss you baby! I love ya too!
ReplyDelete-hubby-to-be-