Adventures

So, it’s over

Today was my last day of classes in Lillebonne. Aside from turning in all my keys (3 at each school), it was just like any other day. Dominique had asked me to be at PMF around 5:00, because she had tried to organize a little goodbye get-together. So, i waited around after my last class, and the only people who came to it were Dominique and Pascale! I don't feel bad about it though, Dominique had kind of tried to throw it together at the last minute. She is so busy: head of the PMF English dept., lecturer at Le Havre University, organizing a class trip to Britain, taking care of two teenaged children, etc. She always seems to be run off her feet during the week.

Anyway, she very kindly gave me a gorgeous (and heavy) book about medieval monasteries. She really is a treasure - even if i sound like i must be 90 years old when saying that. I can't even count the hundreds of things she and her family have done for me here, and i am incredibly grateful.

Stay tuned for posts about Versailles (next week with Pascale) and Mont St Michel (the week after with Dominique).

Would you like some Joy with that Division?

Tonight i went to a show in Rouen with Jen, the assistant in Fécamp, and her friend, Theresa, an assistant in Rouen. Now it's almost 2:00 in the morning, and it was such a good concert i want to tell you about it.

The band we went to see is called Nelson. Not this Nelson, but this Nelson. They are friends of Jen from Paris, and she just realized yesterday that they were playing in Rouen. I listened to a little bit of the songs they have available on their MySpace page, and i thought they sounded a little too much like Joy Division for my taste. I figured it would be fun anyway, what the heck.

Their stage presence was amazing. The show they put on tonight blew away the recordings available, and i am now a Nelson fan. There are four band members: a drummer and three frontmen. The stage is set up with two keyboards (one on each side), two guitars, one bass, and the drumkit. The band members, with the exception of the drummer, rotate between the other five instruments and share singing. For their encore, the drummer came out from the drumkit and played guitar. I have never seen a band do this before. It was so egalitarian yet so good.

I really hope this band makes it. They might have to change their name though.

Easter Monday

Easter Monday is a national holiday in France (yippee!). Dominique invited me over for lunch and an undecided upon outing in the afternoon. We (Dominique, Hervé, and i) ended up going to Bec-Hellouin, a village in Eure (the department on the southern side of the Seine) where there is a Benedictine monastery.

The abbey has a great 15th century belltower, while the rest of the older buildings, including a huge church the same length as Notre Dame de Paris, have not survived. The areas where the monks live, pray, and do whatever it is monks do all day were built in the 17th and 18th centuries. There is a chateau next door that has been given to the abbey, and the monks use part of it as a ceramics studio. They sell their ceramics in the little gift shop on the grounds (click here to see examples of their work).

After stopping in a cafe for a drink, we started heading backtoward Lillebonne. Hervé decided we should stop in Pont-Audemer to have a look around. He claims it is known as the Venice of Normandy. I thought he was joking when he said it, but it turns out they have a few canals.

It's a cute little town with lots of half-timbered buildings and a big church. Apparently, the parish ran out of money while building this enormous, gothic church, so it's a bit lop-sided. It also has a crêperie built into it, but i have no idea if that was a fund-raising idea.

After that, we took a ferry across the Seine, and i got home at about 8:00. Have i mentioned that i hate daylight savings time (summer time for you Brits/Euros)? I hate thinking i have lots of time left in the day, because it's so light out, but it turns out it will soon be bedtime.

P.S. As always, you can find more pictures on Flickr: Abbey & Pont-Audemer

Monet and Afghani Freedom Fighters

I had an interesting day yesterday. I went to Giverny with Dominique, Catherine (a German teacher at PMF), and Catherine's German friend, Cornelia.

We started at Catherine's great, old house on the top of a hill in Caudebec en Caux, which is near the Brotonne bridge over the Seine. She has a fantastic view of the Seine and the farmland on the southern banks. Stupid me, i didn't take any pictures. Anyway, we went from there to Giverny, a good hour's drive.

It's still a little early in the year for the flowers at Giverny, but there were tons of beautiful tulips, pansies, and assorted other flowers that i don't know the name of. We walked around the gardens and the lily pond, and then we went through Monet's house. The ground floor is decorated in the colors he chose: blue for the kitchen, yellow for the dining room, green and purple for a little parlor. There are Japanese paintings and prints on every wall; i had no idea he was so interested in Japanese art.

The gift shop was ridiculously expensive. Dominique and i basically walked around gasping. Catherine bought a postcard, and Cornelia bought a few small things.

On the way back to Caudebec, we stopped in Rouen to eat dinner. Catherine suggested an Afghani restaurant that she likes, but it was closed. So, we started wandering in the direction of a Lebanese place she recommended, but on the way we stumbled upon Restaurant Kaboul.

It turns out that the owner of Restaurant Kaboul, Qassim Azimi (click here for a French-language site with an interview), was a friend of Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance that fought the Soviets and the Taleban in Afghanistan (click here for a pro-Massoud biography). He brought out a couple of books of photographs for us to see and some pictures of him with Massoud when the latter came to Paris. He was a very interesting guy, and he made me want to learn more about his country. I would definitely recommend a stop at his restaurant for the history lesson, if not for the food (which was okay, but not great).

Definitely a satisfying day. Click here for pictures taken at Giverny, and here for a cool picture i took of Notre Dame de Rouen on the way back to the car after dinner.

The Long Goodbye

This morning i said goodbye to my favorite class of little ones. I have been working with these 6e students since October, and, for the most part, they're really sweet. We played [educational] games for the whole class time today.

Two of the girls wrote me a note about how much they will miss me and that they will never forget me. If i had a scanner, i would show it to you; the bottom third has a bunch of hearts on it.

That's the kind of stuff that completely outweighs the discipline and/or attitude problems of other students. That and a silly boy acting like an auctioneer while playing Hangman: "Is there a D, D, D, D? No! No D! Next?" And the fight over writing implements to write fond farewells on the board. And seeing the quietest kid in class finally laughing and having a good time. I could go on, but i won't.