Now with pictures!

Hey guys,

Now that I am back home for a few days and have my camera connector cord, I have been adding photos to my earlier blog entries. I haven't totally finished, but I started at the beginning, so if you want to you can scroll to the bottom of my blog and start checking out the pictures from there.

-Lauren

Complications

I wanted to wait to make this post until I was certain of my plans, and now that I am, here it is:

Tomorrow morning I am leaving my host family's house at 6am to catch a train to the Charles de Gaulle airport, where I am scheduled board a Cincinnati-bound flight at noon. My grandmother, Blanche Frisch Maier, passed away yesterday morning. She had been fighting lung cancer and the effects of chemotherapy for a long time and I know that now she's no longer in pain. There's a nice story below if you're interested in reading more.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20090901/NEWS0104/909020344

I was really torn about whether or not to return home for the funeral, but circumstances allowed things to fall into place, so I should be home by mid-afternoon tomorrow.

The last few days here have been very very long. Yesterday afternoon it rained and I got caught in the worst of it while walking home. Either I forget my umbrella a lot or I wear white shirts frequently, because it seems that everytime I get caught in a rainstorm I am dressed in the wrong color. I'm sure I ressembled a wet dog as I scurried along the Rue Victor Hugo in my sandals and skirt. I wore my rain jacket today.

Today our group met at the Musée des Beaux-Arts for a tour. The museum is located inside the duchal palace in the center of the old part of the city, and it is a gorgeous space. I really enjoy museum exhibits located inside historical buildings. Especially when those buildings correspond with the exhibits, as this one does. Entrance to the museum is free, and I plan on returning frequently once I am back in Dijon. For lunch we hit up Dersim Kebab, the guys' favorite kebab spot. I tried my first kebab yesterday at a store near Dersim Kebab (since that one was closed for some reason). The kebabs here consist of meat shaved off of a giant hunk of lamb, which turns on a spit. This meat, plus purple beets, lettuce, tomatoes, and your choice of sauce (the staple is "white sauce") is stuffed into a circular mini-loaf of bread, sort of the way one would stuff a pita. My kebab was tasty, but not mind-blowing. Apparently Kersim Kebab's are better. Today I tried a kefta kebab, which is the same, but with ground meat instead of shaved. It was still pretty good. Dersim Kebab's french fries are outstanding - super thin, super crunchy, and very salty. I don't even like french fries and these are addictive.

This afternoon we had class again at the diocese. Right now we're focusing on roman architecture (as opposed to gothic) because of the tours planned for this weekend. Unfortunately I won't be with the group when they go to Abbaye de Fontenay, but my host mom offered to take me there another weekend after I return. It's a day trip from Dijon, so it's not a big deal.

Last night as I was doing my homework I found the Diebolds' cat, "Espiègle" ("Impish"), in my wardrobe. Not wanting to put her out in the rain, I let her curl up on my lap and then sleep with me. I've never had a cat before and so it made me nervous when she extended her claws into my new jeans. And when I couldn't get over how funny her purring sounded. She sounded like an outboard motor! And once she fell asleep, it really did sound like a computer fan winding down. I'm sure this it totally normal for cats, but as a non-cat person this was totally novel. The word for purr in French is "ronronnement" which is even more difficult to pronounce than it appears!

I wish I had time to discuss tonight's dinner with my host family (and last night's dinner at MyWok with the Wake gang), but it's getting late and I have to be up very early. Wish me luck on my voyage tomorrow!

-Lauren

My own room for the first time ever!

Well that title isn't entirely true...I did have my own room for a few years before Holly was born, but since I don't really remember it, I think it's true enough. Yesterday evening I moved in with the Diebold family: Joseph (father), Noelle (mother), Arsène (oldest son, in his second year at the Louvre Institute in Paris), Gaspard (son, starting his first year at a theater school in Paris), Orane (daughter, age 14 and looks like Holly), Hendrix (Border Collie, as in Jimi Hendrix), and two cats. Their house is really neat. It's big and white and the entrance through the gate leads around the back to their walled garden/backyard. My room is in a studio apartment behind the house. It includes my room with a bed, desk, cabinet, and bedside table (plus WiFi, yay!) and then a bathroom and kitchen which I share with a French student named Sarah, who is studying for the Bac (the big exam that French students take at the end of high school).

Joseph came and picked me up from the Hotel du Palais on Sunday evening. All of the Wake students were waiting for our host families to come and get us. I'm sure we looked like a bunch of orphans waiting for someone to adopt us - "Are they coming?" "Will they like us?" "Will it be awkward?" Joseph was very welcoming and friendly and let me take my time while speaking. He works at the university where I will be taking classes and rides his bike there everyday. I was thrilled when he told me they have plenty of extra bikes I could use if I wanted, and offered to install a new bell and lamp and find a lock. It took us about 15 minutes to get to the house from the hotel, which is the same amount of time it would take me to walk there, because of all of the one-way streets. When I walked in Noelle was preparing dinner in the kitchen and it smelled delicious! We had grilled duck (Joseph manned the grill) and sauteed vegetables (fresh from the garden) for dinner (along with bread and the red wine I bought for them - it was the best I've had so far here in France, woohoo!!). I tried some Dijon mustard with the duck and it was delicious. It was different than the varieties I have tried in the States - this one was grainier, with tiny balls of mustard seeds, rather than a smooth paste. I also tried some of Noelle's homemade mayonnaise. Gaspard requested it to go with his duck, so Noelle offered some to me too. It was slightly tangy. I almost wish I hadn't liked it, because it's mayonnaise. Then of course cheese after wards, followed by melon for dessert, then coffee.

The family was really patient with me during dinner. They asked some questions about my life at home and my interests, but they didn't drill me or make me feel like on-the-spot. Gaspard, who leave for theater school in Paris on Wednesday, was pretty aloof. He came in halfway through dinner, sporting a Batman t-shirt, jorts (jean shorts, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term), and a black bandana around his neck. At dinner it was Noelle, Joseph, Noelle's friend (whose name I never heard clearly), and then, halfway through, Gaspard. Sarah came in later and joined us for cheese, dessert, and coffee. Orane had some friends over, so Noelle made them a pizza and they ate inside. We ate dinner outside under the large tree in the center of the garden. It was so picturesque, with the ivy on the walls around us and a light hanging from the big tree.

This morning Noelle left breakfast for me on that same table in the garden. They will provide breakfast for me every morning and dinner two times a week (we decided on Mondays and Wednesdays). Noelle told me that she and Joseph both start work early, but that I should feel free to wake up whenever I want. Noelle is a psychologist and consults patients from her office in the front of the house. I woke up around 9am this morning and found the table strewn with all kinds of choices: two baguettes, half a loaf of brown bread, at least 4 kinds of butter and cheese, two kinds of pate, small containers of plain yogurt, and a carton of orange/mango juice blend (which happens to be my favorite). When I got back from my run with Kara and Carolyn around 11:15am, Orane was just waking up and eating some breakfast. She starts school on Wednesday, so she's enjoying her last few days of summer.

Their Border Collie, Hendrix, is very cute but slightly neurotic. He constantly paces the perimeter of the yard, including the gravel in front of my apartment. I don't really mind though. The cat and kitten are both very affectionate too. The family's friendliness is very encouraging. I hope all of these positive interactions continue!

PROVENCE

So this weekend was our first group excursion. We traveled from Dijon which is in the Bourgogne (Burgundy) region to Arles, which is in Provence. Provence is in southwestern France and touches the Mediterranean Sea. The region is known for its olives and olive oil, lavender, fabric (think blue and bright yellow patterns), wine, and beautiful scenery. Although we had an opportunity to enjoy most of these things too, Provence was a part of our curriculum because it ties in with the history we are studying right now. Dr. Barbour’s course begins with the origins of France, with the Gaul-Roman Empire. Before this week I had no idea part of the Roman Empire existed in modern-day France. Before we left on Thursday we read a number of articles about how the Gauls sought the protection of the Roman Empire and how the Romans built their model cities in the south of what is now France.

On the way to Arles we stopped in Orange to see the ancient theatre there. This theater is famous because its “mur de scene” (the wall behind the stage) is very well preserved. This wall survived where others were destroyed because in the Middle Ages the people living in the city built their houses inside the theater and used it as a fortress. Since people’s homes abutted the “mur” and they wanted to defend their homes, it prevented it from being torn down. The theater has a semi-circle of stone seating facing the stage, which seats 7,000 people. They still have concerts, plays, ballets, and other performances there today. I think it would be incredible to live in a city which has a 2,000 year old Roman

theater. How humbling to sit on the benches and ponder the number of other people who have sat in the same spot over the last two millennia. Each human life is so small in the scope of human history, let alone in the scope of eternity.

After Orange we continued on to our hotel in Arles. Arles is situated along the Rhone River and our hotel itself was not far from the river. We stayed at a cute little hotel called Hotel du Musée. The first evening we ate at a restaurant called La Paillotte/Le Plaza. The weekend excursions are organized through a company called Keolis, so Dr. Barbour didn’t choose the restaurants. But Keolis chose well, this was my favorite meal so far (well, until the next night, when it got even better). We started dinner with an aperitif called Pastis, a specialty of Provence. It is a liquor made from anis seed and is diluted with water. Dr. Barbour told us it was licorice-flavored, but we (the students) agreed after tasting it that “liquefied jelly beans” would be a better description. I very much prefer kir.

Our chauffeur for this excursion, Patrick, was the chauffeur last time Dr. Barbour led this program in 2005. He chose the wine for the evening, a rose from Arles called Domaine de bBeaujeu. It was delicious and went perfectly with my meal. That night for an entrée (starter) I had an eggplant pate. It sounds awkward but it was very similar to an eggplant hummus. It was light and refreshing. For my main course I had “cabillaud cuit à l’étouffe,” cod prepared in a creamy pink-ish sauce and served wrapped in tin foil. It was incredibly tender and also light. For dessert, “délice glace pêche,” peach ice cream delight. The name says all. After dinner we walked around the town a bit. There’s a cute square near our hotel with numerous cafes. Arles is definitely a smaller town though.

Friday was a big day. In the morning I went for a run with Kara along the Rhone. There were lots of people out walking but we got a few odd walks. I don’t think jogging is as popular in France as it is in America. Then we went to the “Musée Archéologique Antique d’Arles,” the archaeological museum. The museum had both numerous artifacts and also excellent models of Arles as it appeared in Roman times. The most incredible for me was the boat bridge which crossed the Rhone. Today the stone pillars (adorned with lions) still stand, but the bridge is gone. It was ingeniously constructed of out of wood laid across boats, which were staked to two stone columns they built in the water. That way when the water line rose significantly, the bridge wouldn’t be destroyed but instead would be buoyed up as the water level rose. We had a guide in the museum as we did for the theater in Orange. All of these tours are entirely in French, which is good because I am building a more diverse vocabulary.

Then directly after the museum we boarded the bus and drove to Nîmes, another city near Arles. Nîmes has a Roman amphitheater (which, unlike my understanding of the word, indicates a ringed stadium which we would call an arena). Apparently after seeing the amphitheater in Nîmes, many Americans ask “so, where are the others?” The amphitheater is called “les arènes” and the actual ring where the action takes place is called “l’arène.” So people think there is more than one because the plural verb is really referring to one building. The amphitheater in Nîmes hosted the typical Roman spectacles: gladiator and man-versus-beast fights. Today it’s used for all kinds of shows, including Holiday on Ice. The ugly metal bleachers somewhat marred the picture, but it was so cool to sit in the stands and imagine how many shows must have happened there in the last 2,000 years. In Nîmes we also saw a building called the Maison Carre, which was built by one of the Roman emperors after the death of two of his sons. There is also a huge public garden in Nîmes which reminded me of the gardens of Versailles. How incredible would it be to have a park like that in your hometown? To eat your lunch on a bench next to a Roman library? To throw Frisbee on the grass behind the spring which allowed the Romans to build a city on that location. Too cool.

Fun fact: Nîmes is the home of denim. The sailors who worked nearby used a particular strong material for their pants, which needed to withstand a lot of work. Levy Strauss recognized the potential marketability of this durable material when he visited Nîmes, and thus a phenomenon was born. It’s also the home of Lacoste, whose crocodile comes from city crest of Nîmes.

We returned to Arles for the evening. I very much prefer to stay in one hotel and make day trips than to be constantly changing hotels. For dinner we went to a place called Restaurant L’Escaladou, which specializes in the cuisine of Provence. One of the big dishes in Provence is bouillabaisse, a fish stew in a broth called rouille (whose name comes from the red tint of its Spanish spices). Mine had two whole fish and part of a third. The two whole fish still had their heads and tails attached. This aesthetic detail didn’t prevent me from thoroughly enjoying the soup. It was served with a tray of shredded white cheese, a clove of garlic, toasted baguette rounds, and a curry mayonnaise. Patrick showed me how to add all of the elements to my bowl and I tucked in. The tureen was big enough to feed three people! Even though I had some help, half of it was left when I was finished. I am really glad I tried it though. I am very pleased at how my fellow Wake students are willing to try new foods. Wright ordered escargots as his entrée and rabbit as his main course. Peter tried mussels and lamb’s feet. At least two others had a different fish soup as their entrée. Everyone is very willing to share a bite of their meal, and I’ve gotten to try lots of tasty bites.

Saturday was much more laid back than Friday. We had the morning free to explore Arles and some girls and I went to the market. The market in Arles happens every Saturday and is the biggest in the area. There was one section where vendors sold produce, meat, seafood, and bread and another with knick-knacks and clothing. For me it was a flashback to the souks of Morocco. The fruits and vegetables are so beautiful and vibrant! There were vendors selling spices too, but these were in smaller quantities than in Morocco and had helpful signs indicating the contents of each basket (unlike in Morocco, where I just admired the colors with no hope of discerning the names). And I didn’t realize paella was so popular in this part of France. It makes sense since Provence is so close to both the sea and Spain. There were vendors selling it cast-iron pans so big I could have bathed in one. I ended up buying a cotton skirt with a blue and white Provence pattern around the hem. Most of the clothing was the “made in an Asian sweatshop variety” but this skirt was clearly more local.

In the afternoon we drove to St. Maries à la Mer, a beach town on the Mediterranean Sea. It’s located in Camargue, a smaller region within the region of Provence. Camargue is known for its taureau (bulls), white-grey horses, rice and sea salt. There was no history lesson along with this part of the excursion, only the pleasure of an afternoon at the beach. Since it was very hot in Orange, Arles, and Nîmes, I was really looking forward to this afternoon all weekend. I was not disappointed. It was very relaxing. We did all of the usual beach activities: sun-bathing, Frisbee-throwing, splashing in the water, taking lots of silly pictures. After a little while I went in search of a gift for my host family along with Carleigh and Mary Kate. We browsed the many cute boutiques of the quaint beach town. Since the area is know for its bulls there were lots of cowboy boots and leather belts and saddles. In the past I never would have associated bull fighting with France, but I guess that’s the cool part about going to a place rather than just reading about it. After a lot of browsing, both Carleigh and I decided on a bottle of red wine from Chateauneuf du Pape (we’ve tried it on this trip and I liked it) and a bouquet of lavender. I am going to give it to my family this afternoon when I meet them; I hope the wine is good!

That evening we went back to La Paillotte/Le Plaza for dinner. *I’m not sure why Keolis had us to go the same restaurant twice, potentially because we’re a group of 10, including Dr. Barbour and Patrick, and not many restaurants will take reservations? No one is really sure* I got the same entrée, but this time tried the taureau as my main course. It was prepared inside a pastry crust and the meat had the consistency of pulled pork. It was more tender and flavorful than I expected. For dessert I had fromage blanc, which is similar to plain yogurt but a little sweeter and creamier (I think of it as a cross between plain yogurt and whipped cream, but it has cultures like yogurt).

This morning, Sunday, we left Arles to drive back to Dijon. Along the way we stopped to see the Pont du Gard (literally the Gard River Bridge, but it’s actually a Roman aqueduct which spans the river). It is enormous and one of the best examples of Roman aqueducts still preserved today. Again, I am astonished at what the Romans were able to accomplish without modern machinery. I look at things like that and think: people greatly underestimate themselves. People are capable of amazing feats. Of course, the Romans probably had a lot of cheap labor to help them out, but we have technology! I am impressed if my iPod lasts two years without dying, and this bridge is 2,000 years old. I apologize if I am gushing, but I want to convey the extent of my amazement. So now we are en route to Dijon, and hopefully almost there. I thoroughly enjoyed Provence and would certainly return again someday. It was very hot during the day, but this is also the end of August. I am sure in May or June or even the middle of September it would be much more pleasant.

If you’ve made it this far, know that I am very impressed.

A Few Thoughts on Dijon So Far

Hello all,

First of all, I must apologize for taking so long to update my blog. Whenever I travel I always struggle to balance experiencing new places and taking time to record and reflect on what I have seen. But when technology malfunctions (like computer batteries and internet connections), it’s harder to maintain this balance. Anyway, time to get to the good stuff:

While en route to Provence on Thursday morning I took some time to think about elements of the culture in Dijon which have surprised me or stuck out to me since I arrived a little over a week ago. Keep in mind that certain things stand out in contrast to my recent experience in Morocco. So things I notice are different from (or the same as) elements of culture in the U.S. or in Morocco. I came up with the following:

Young people: I have read many statistics about how (population-wise) Europe is dying and the Muslim world is exploding. But now I have seen it firsthand. Walking around Fez in the evenings I was shocked by how many young people I saw: young children, adolescents, and tons of teenagers. Here I have definitely noticed a lack of children. I have yet to see a mother with more than one child, and there appear to be a lot of mature adults. Both statistically and within my own experience, the U.S. is somewhere between these two extremes.

Dogs: It seems like a lot of Dijon’s residents own dogs. I’ve seen many “French” breeds (especially lots of Brittany and Cocker spaniels), but also golden retrievers, bulldogs, and every other kind. Plenty of people in the U.S. own dogs, but it seems like I have seen a lot of people walking them in the centre ville (the center of the Dijon city). It seems unusual to see so many people walking their pets in the downtown of a city. And this is very different from Morocco. Since the Koran stipulates that dogs cannot be kept inside the house, the only dogs I saw in Morocco were either junk yard-esque dogs being walked by swaggering males or a foreigner’s pet.

Portion size: The panini I had for dinner on Wednesday night was pretty skimpy, but besides that the dishes at cafes and restaurants have been in larger portions than I expected.

Friendliness: The people I have observed and encountered in Dijon have been less outwardly friendly compared to people in the U.S. or in Morocco. Once I have a conversation with someone they seem to warm up, but most people don’t walk around smiling (of course I am generalizing, but there are the trends I have noticed)

Stores close early: I have not yet ascertained whether this is specific to smaller cities like Dijon or it reflects a more general trend in France. Last night Kara, Carolyn, Carleigh, and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Le Prince de Sange-Melee). The film was entirely in French and without subtitles, but I was able to understand all of it. Our movie didn’t start until 9pm, so after eating our panini on the square, we walked around to look for a place to get dessert. We couldn’t find anything open. We ended up buying snacks at Monoprix (similar to Target, but physically more compact). I bought a bag of miniature “d’épices” cookies. Pain d’épices (gingerbread) is one of Dijon’s specialties (along with crème de cassis and mustard). Pain d’épices can be sold in various forms: loafs (like banana bread) or wedges or slabs or even as small bar-like cookies the shape and size of Fig Newtons.

Kebabs: When I hear the word kebab in America I think of pieces of grilled meat and vegetables served on skewers. Here they call that dish brochettes and kebabs are more like gyros. I have yet to try one, but everyone else raves about them, especially the boys. I had no idea that French people ate them, but they must because in Dijon the kebab shops are almost as numerous as the patisseries.