Les Vacances à Névache

Life as an English assistant is pretty rewarding.  After only 4 weeks of classes we had 2 weeks of vacation at the end of October and the beginning of November.  This meant two weeks off to finally let my life settle down a bit, considering the previous month had been completely hectic but incredibly exciting as well.  As a travel buff, I was expecting to be able to travel all around Europe during this break (London, the Netherlands, maybe even a little Switzerland since it’s nearby).  However, since we hadn’t received our first paychecks yet and I was nearing broke, there weren’t many options in my mind for exciting places to travel to—or so I thought.

One small lesson learned very quickly: some of the best experiences come about because of who you know and the connections you make (it’s worth getting off the couch sometimes).  I’m incredibly lucky to have already made friends with some cool people through my roommate Héléna.  Her friend Victoria was nice enough to invite me and Iris to spend a long weekend in her family’s chalet in a quaint alpine town of 350 called Névache, just on the border of Italy.  A €50 weekend including scenic mountain views in a quaint French town with the likelihood of crossing the border to Italy for some authentic pizza?  Umm, yes, please.  Also what better way to extend my birthday celebrations?

Having been raised a flatlander, mountains still don’t cease to amaze me, even though I live among them every week.  We left Friday evening from Lyon, once Victoria, Gladys and Helena got out of class, and drove for about 3-3.5 hours until we reached our mountainous destination.

Unfortunately though, since we drove through the night, all we could see were small town lights speckled across the darkness of mountain valleys and cliffs.  The following morning we were greeted with this extraordinary view that was worth any wait:

My first thoughts were: This is a postcard, this isn’t real life.  I just wanted to sit there with a cup of coffee and ponder over life.  What a beautiful place.

Fortunately there was nothing concrete on the trip’s agenda except relaxing, watching movies, eating junk food, eating delicious raclette, walking around the magnificent surroundings and enjoying each other’s company.

This is what our chalet looked like: 

 

 

Saturday morning we had breakfast (probably the best baguettes I’ve had in France so far, thanks Névache) and took the car to get a better view from a higher perspective.

An epic pose by Victoria's dog, F'djouley

 

After a nice long walk we went back to the town and then our chalet to relax, watch a movie and eat some raclette.

Raclette is a type of cheese that is eaten mostly around Christmas time.  When you make ‘raclette’ you melt the cheese in your own individual pan (see above) and either add some potatoes and other vegetables directly in the pan or spread the cheese on a delicious concoction of potatoes, ham, pickles, onions, etc. on your plate.  Raclette is a Swiss cheese and the tradition comes from Switzerland, but many people (especially from countries around Switzerland) enjoy raclette like this as well.  In Frankfurt last year for example, I was lucky enough to have it for the first time with some delicious mulled wine.  It’s such a treat and so easy to do.

Day 2:

Waking up in Nevache was always welcomed by a gorgeous view.  The second day was no exception.  Just when we thought it couldn’t get any prettier, it snowed.  The first snow of the season!  Yes, snow in October.  Only in the mountains.

With the snow came a frigid temperature.  -5 degrees Celsius, or 20 Fahrenheit. 

Of course we had to make the most of the snow and our time there, so we went for a short walk before turning back to warm up.

Day 3: Our big hiking day

On our last full day in Nevache we took a couple hour-long hike to Victoria’s family’s chapel and back.  You could definitely tell we were in the mountains because the air was fresh and there wasn’t as much oxygen in the air as there is at lower altitudes.  I felt like such a rugged mountain woman.

As night fell on Nevache and our stomachs were getting hungry for dinner, we hopped in the car and drove down the windy mountain rounds across the border into Italy for some authentic Italian pizza.

 

 We left the next morning and headed back to Lyon, the mountains disappearing behind us.

 

 

Twenty-Three in Chambéry

So, as you can see, this is my first post with an English title, but only because it rhymes and I couldn't think of anything clever in French.  It's also an incredibly late post, considering my birthday was October 24th.. so a lot has happened since then, but it must not be forgotten!


This year was the second year (consecutively, as well) I spent my birthday away from home.  Last year's celebrations in London set the bar quite high for birthdays abroad, so I felt I had to do something more exciting than staying in Belley at least.  So Iris and I decided to spend the day in Chambéry, a city about a 50-minute bus ride away from Belley.  As it was a Wednesday and Belley doesn't have its own train station, we made do by taking a 2 euro (4 roundtrip) bus from the main road in Belley straight to Chambéry.  Also because it was Wednesday, the students don't have any classes in the afternoon, so neither do we!


My birthday started early with a class at 8 am and one at 9.  I woke up early to this nice little note from Iris:

 

My classes went well and I didn't have to say "you better be good today and listen because it's my birthday."  We also ate at the cafeteria as usual (you can never beat a meal for 2 euros) and Wednesdays are usually the best days for good meals there, so it was a lucky day.  After lunch we hopped on the small bus and of course there were some of my students with us, so that was a little bizarre to see them outside of class.  When we got to Chambéry we decided to head to the city center to do some shopping at H&M and, by chance, we ended up running into the same students while we were shopping and they finally said "hello" to me.  I always love when I see my students outside of class and they make a small effort in English.


Chambéry:

Palais de Justice

Hotel de Ville

After shopping and walking around the city for a while we decided to stop somewhere to get some birthday ice cream.  I got nutella, pistachio and cookies. Words cannot describe the happiness this brought:

After that we decided to check out the castle to see if we could get a better view of the city, perhaps a panorama even.  On the way I noticed a Belgian beer shop, and, since many of my favorite beers are Belgian, I decided it'd be nice to stop in.  There was no one else in the store besides us and the nice saleslady.  I asked her about my favorite beer, Tripel Karmeliet, and asked if she had any similar recommendations since there were so many options.  I told her I used to live in Lille which is so close to Belgium that I was lucky enough to have such easy access to their great beers.  In the middle of this conversation she asked us which region in France we were from.  Ah, it's such a good moment when someone doesn't realize you're a foreigner right away.  She was impressed by how well we spoke and really enjoyed talking to me about beer.  I learned a lot of French words for describing different types of beer, and in the end I bought a bottle of Triplet Karmeliet which cost me as much as a glass of it would cost me at one of the Belgian restaurants in Milwaukee.  Such a good birthday present to myself.

As we stepped out of the small beer shop, the castle appeared right in front of us.

 Unfortunately tours of the castle were already over, so we saw a small part of the exhibition/history of the castle that we could before hopping on our bus back to Belley.

Back in Belley after dinner we were discussing our day with our neighbor Marc who works at the Lycee Pro.  He asked us if we saw the wild boars that were running wild in the city center that afternoon.  We were shocked.  Wild boars?  In the city center?  How could we have missed THAT?  Well, apparently we did... and we were just an hour or so late luckily because they ended up shooting them and donating the meat.


So those were my exciting birthday adventures.  Next up is what I did with my two week break and Thanksgiving!

Un Mariage à Paris

My extraordinary first week in France ended with a bang. I was lucky enough to have arrived in France just in time to be able to make it to my friend Courtney's wedding in Paris.

A little history:
Courtney and I went to high school together where we both took French. Although she was in a different class than me, as she was a year older, we both ended up going on the annual trip to France with a bunch of other students in French. After high school we both went to Marquette and both continued to take French courses, some of which we had together. She studied in Paris a year before I studied in Lille and met a guy named Michaël whom she married this September. When she told me her adorable story about how they happened to meet in the metro in Paris, she inspired me even more to study abroad. Ahhh, l'amour.

Friday September 28th: Heading to Paris!

I took an early 5 hour train Friday morning (the 28th) from Lyon to Paris where I met up with my Strasbourgeoise friend Mélanie who studied at Marquette during the 2010-2011 school year. She and I met because we both lived in Global Village and she and Courtney met through the French club. Once we realized that we all knew each other, we started hanging out together and became good friends before Melanie went back to France and Courtney made the big move to Paris. The last time we all saw each other was last October when I came to visit them from London the weekend following my most amazing birthday week.

Although this short trip to Paris made my schedule a little more hectic with moving in and getting settled, it was a very special and happy reunion which I was very glad to be a part of.

Melanie and I booked a hotel about a half a mile away from the City Hall of Courbevoie where the wedding was to be held the following afternoon. As both of us weren't desperate to be tourists that weekend and we were tired from traveling, we decided it'd be best to get some good Italian food and call it a night.

We were situated by La Défense, a major business district in Paris. The area was hardly like the Paris one imagines from romanticized postcards and movies.

Saturday September 29th: Wedding Day!

Melanie and I woke up in time for the hotel's breakfast and decided to walk around the centre commercial where we eventually got lunch before going to the city hall for the wedding.

Apparently all the weddings that took place there had about 15-30 minutes for their ceremony before the next couple got married. Luckily Courtney and Mike's was the last one of the day, so we were able to stay longer and take lots of pictures.

This is La Mairie (city hall) de Courbevoie:

The ceremony was followed by a photo session at the Parc de Bagatelle, which was a beautiful place to take pictures, even though we had to drive by a few prostitutes to get there. It was kind of funny though because Melanie and I and two other Americans who came for the wedding didn't have a ride so we rode with the photographer who was a rather goofy friend of Mike's. The whole time we all had a feeling we were driving all over Paris and not headed in the right direction until he called Mike, asking for directions and being told things like "take a right at the prostitutes who are having a picnic."

Regardless, I'm sure the photographs turned out beautifully. For example:

Courtney & Mike

Me & Melanie

 Afterwards we headed to a fancy restaurant for the reception near the Chateau de Vincennes. Melanie and I rode with some of Mike's friends again and we got a short tour of Paris, as we had to drive through the center of the city to get there. Whenever I go to Paris, it's a primary goal of mine to at least get a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, just so I know for sure that I'm in Paris.

Here's my glimpse:

When we got to the reception venue it was all fancy hors d'oeuvres and flowing champagne. We socialized and talked with everyone until it was time for the dinner service. This was truly a multi-lingual/multi-cultural experience; Courtney's friends from work were from all over: USA, Germany, Sweden, and Ireland. At one point she introduced me to her Swedish friend with whom I tried to have a short conversation in Swedish, and then I explained how whenever I try to speak Swedish I think in German, and whenever I'm trying to speak German I think in French, etc. Just as I said that, one of Courtney's friends said "oh! I'm from Frankfurt." My brain was already mixed up from switching between French and English all night, but it was a fun experience that made me feel like my language studies indeed had a purpose.

When I asked Melanie what time she thought we'd be back for the night she said it could be 6 or 7 in the morning. This shocked me. This isn't how any American weddings I've been to have worked (although, admittedly, I've never stayed until the end of one). Then I soon figured out why this is: French meals. The French love to spend a lot of time dining. Not only that, but there were at least four courses to this meal. We started with appetizers while we were still socializing and walking around, then there was the entree (which I guess is an appetizer in English) which was a small portion of fish and vegetables if I remember correctly. That was followed by the main course of steak and potatoes. Thinking it'd be time for cake, Melanie informed me that it wasn't time for dessert until we had our cheese! How the French love their cheese. If you've ever been to a French restaurant, you can usually order a plate of cheese for dessert.

The thing is, I love cheese, but mostly hard cheeses, and France loves soft and extremely smelly cheeses which turn me off from the idea a bit. So here's the plate of cheese I shared with Melanie because I knew I wouldn't be eating much of it and my not-so-enthused face. Wine in hand, of course.

 It wasn't even until 11:30 that we finally got our cake (this makes the meal about 3-4 hours long already). This is also when I learned that French weddings don't typically have cakes like our wedding cakes. They usually have something like this which is called a croquembouche or a croque-en-bouche ("crunch in mouth"):

 The little pastries are like cream-filled profiteroles which are held together by melted caramel or something similar.

At 12:30 the dancing finally started with the first dance of Courtney and Mike.

By this point we all had enough champagne and wine in us to dance a bit. The music was a mixture of oldies, love songs and American group dance songs like the Electric Slide and the Cupid Shuffle. It was really amusing to see the older French people try to do the dances, but then a similar song in French came on which all the older French people knew and we youngsters were left to figure out how it worked. The best part was when an ABBA song played and everyone sang along, and then it was followed by one of my favorite French artists, Claude Francois. If you know me really well, you already know that he's a big guilty pleasure of mine. He's a huge French star from the 60's and 70's who sang disco songs and had funny backup dancers who wore fun costumes like this:

 

 

At this point all the middle aged Frenchies went wild, and I was especially excited to hear him in such an "authentic" setting. Fun Fact: my beloved Claude was the original creator of the song "My Way," you know, that famous Frank Sinatra song that everyone covers.

As the restaurant had to close around 2:30 in the morning, everyone had to leave and we didn't get to live out the party until 6 or 7 am, but we definitely had a really fun night.

Congrats again to Courtney and Mike! 

 Sunday, September 30th: Going back to Lyon and moving in.

Sunday was a crazy busy day because I woke up in Paris, had some breakfast at the hotel and immediately had to get ready to go to the Gare de Lyon (it's a train station in Paris that was originally built in Lyon) to catch my train back to Lyon. Once I got back I contacted Helena to see where she was because this was the big move-in day when she rented a moving truck to move all the big pieces of furniture to our apartment in Villeurbanne (technically kind of a 'suburb' of Lyon, but honestly, it's basically the city-the metro covers us).

 Unfortunately I didn't have much time to help move in because I had to make it back to Belley around 6 pm so I could start my first days of work. I still didn't have a chance to unpack my two big suitcases yet, so I was once again packing a small carry-on from my space bags full of clothes. It wasn't until the following weekend that my life settled down a bit.

Next up: my first few days of work with French high schoolers!

La Première Semaine

So, the first week has finally passed!
Considering I've done a ridiculous amount of traveling this past week, I'll lay out each day and hopefully it won't be too long or boring. This will also serve as a kind of diary so I can remember the first days. So read on as you wish!

Sunday, September 23rd: Leaving Milwaukee
Leaving a place you love and know well is always the hardest part of traveling/moving.
Throughout the summer I was definitely sad to be leaving my fun (and basically work-free) summer as well as missing my usual nights out and of course my friends and family, but all good things must end, right? What made it easier though was knowing I'd be in good hands when I arrived and I'm not completely unfamiliar with France and its workings (very luckily, this place can be confusing--read further for details).

Monday, September 24th: Arrival in Lyon
I made it! The long 8 hour flight to Zurich was bearable and the food was decent. Swiss Airlines was pretty awesome; I got a warm towel, played Sudoku and got to charge my phone the whole time.  Upon arrival, I knew I was back in Europe just by looking at the people around me in the airport. The airport looked really chic and modern and the women and men all around were extremely well-dressed, wearing their best. All that was left was a simple one hour flight to Lyon where I was welcomed by a huge hug from Helena.

Tuesday, September 25th: My first full day

This was probably one of my busiest days. I left Helena's mom's apartment around midday to meet up with other American assistants for some Salade Lyonnaise before meeting up with the other American assistant at my Lycée in Belley, Iris. Once we finally found each other we had to take the metro (with 2 huge suitcases and one carry-on, mind you) to pick up our keys for the apartment we were renting for the night. Once we got the keys it was another hectic and sweaty trip on the metro until we got to Vieux Lyon.

This was the view from our apartment which was a really adorable place owned by the most beautiful and seemingly happiest couple ever. Everywhere you looked there was a happy, artsy couple photo of them. Unfortunately, however, we didn't get a chance to actually talk to them since we came home late that night and ended up leaving the next day while they were at work. Dommage.

So we relaxed a little since we were still recovering from our jetlag (we both left from O'Hare within an hour of each other but were in different terminals so we couldn't meet up ahead of time). Around 7 or 8 we decided we should probably get something to eat. As we happened to be across the street from Johnny Walsh's (an infamous pub I've heard a lot about from friends who studied abroad in Lyon), we decided to go there. When we arrived we were asked if we wanted to play pub quiz, and of course we did. We weren't sure what to expect, especially since it was likely going to be in French. It turned out to be a little different from the pub quizes I'm used to back in the States; they asked the questions in French and English (for kicks, I'm assuming) and then had a break after the 16th question during which everyone left the piping hot basement/cave to go and have a smoke while the quizmaster corrected the first questions. By the time we all reconvened Iris and I were really tired and were losing pretty badly so we just decided to call it a night.

Wednesday, September 26th: Going to Belley
This was a pretty rainy day, and boy did we get the worst of it, Iris and I. We slept in too late to get lunch with a friend, and we hadn't gotten our train tickets yet to get to Belley so we decided to get them from an SNCF boutique (the French national rail system) earlier in the day. As it was raining hard, the streets were full of puddles and I had to share an umbrella with Iris. I was upset that my pants were getting wet, but it was nothing compared to what happened along our walk. While we were standing on the edge of the sidewalk, waiting to cross the street, a car sped past us through a huge puddle which caused a tidle wave of rain water to splash all over us. There's nothing like a nice puddle of rain to the face to wake you up in the morning. Luckily we were only a block from our apartment so we ran back and dried off for a brief amount of time. The only thing I could think was "welcome back to France."

Luckily the rest of our day went better. We got our train tickets without a problem and got to the train station with all of our bags, ready to meet Belley. We were met at the train station Virieu-Le-Grand (there's no train station in the town of Belley) by my contact at the Lycée, Amandine.


The mountains that greeted us in Virieu

Since it was our first night and there was surely not going to be anywhere open to get food, Amandine was kind enough to invite us over for dinner with her husband and two year old son Victor (the cutest kid in France!).

Thursday, September 27th: Exploring Belley
Iris and I didn't have to start work until the following week, so we decided to take advantage of our free days and see what there is to see in Belley to get a feel for where we'll be living for the next few months. We went around the school to get some administrative things done, walked around the centre ville, and went on an adventure on our boarding school's rooftop (by climbing out our bedroom window).

This is Iris.

 

The recreation courtyard

Belley city center

 

 
After walking around the town and having a coffee + pastry, we decided to find out where the nearest Carrefour is (like a combination of Target and Pick 'n' Save). Unfortunately for us, it's about a mile away so we won't be doing any frequent shopping there. However, I did find this adorable decoration and found the perfect place to put it. =)

At the end of the day I had to catch a train back to Lyon so that I could get on an early train to Paris the next morning for a friend's wedding. Although that was part of my first week, I'm going to dedicate a post to it since a lot happened that weekend. So stay tuned, my busy first week continues!