Reunited in Tours

Monday to Wednesday saw my first main excursion of my Year Abroad, and it was a very enjoyable couple of days indeed! I travelled a couple of hours north-east to Tours in the Loire Valley. My very good friend Rachel lives and works there so Morgan and I stayed with her for a couple of nights. I was fairly familiar with the city, having spent a week there doing work experience a few years ago, but this trip confirmed that Tours is one of my favourite cities in France. It's got everything; a big grand station, a huge river, a stunning cathedral, loads of shops, millions of gorgeous churches, an old part of the city where all the streets are cobbled and the buildings are really cute and full of character, a pretty square full of bars and restaurants, and generally a really nice ambiance.

La Cathédrale Saint-Gatien de Tours

The impressive Hotel de Ville, albeit with roadworks all around it

But of course the most exciting part of my mini holiday was seeing my two old housemates and sharing stories of our Year Abroad. Rachel is working in a primary school so it was interesting to hear about the different teaching strategies between her age group and mine and Morgan's.

Despite the low temperatures, we couldn't have hoped for better weather at the end of October. There was not a cloud in the sky as we visited the nearby town of Amboise and had a look at its château. We picnicked on the bank of the Loire eating our way through much too much fresh baguette and cheese. 

Eating al fresco on the banks of the Loire

View of the Château d'Amboise

The next few hours were spent in the grounds of the Chateau d'Amboise, learning about its history and appreciating the spectacular views onto the river. It was interesting to learn that only about 20 percent of the original château is still there, and was hard to imagine what it would have been like in the 13th century.

Château d'Amboise

Perfect weather for a panoramic view from the top of the Château

I realised when we got there that I had in fact briefly stopped off in Amboise with my family years ago as we were driving south for a holiday. I didn't remember the town being so picturesque though.

A typical Amboisien street with its timbered buildings

In our uni house last year, cooking was one thing we all loved to do, so being together again we took the opportunity to make dinner together. The first night we made a courgette, red pepper and mushroom in white wine sauce pasta dish, and day 2 we made red onion and feta tarte tatin. Both were delicious and have made me want to cook more exciting dishes whilst in France. The trouble is, it's difficult when there's just one of you, as you then end up eating the same thing for the next few nights.

Red onion and feta tarte tatin served with a side salad

We then set off for an apparently amazing pirate-themed bar which Rachel had been to before. But in true Rachel style, after walking for 20 minutes, we came to the conclusion that it wasn't where she thought it was, so we walked back to the old part of town and had a lovely drink in an English-themed pub called Sherlock Holmes.

The rest of my time in Tours was spent eating more bread, more cheese, lots of brioche, homemade croissants, gelato, and treats from the patisserie. It's fine, I was on holiday...

One-month anniversary

As of yesterday I have been living in France for a month! And so to celebrate, I spent the day trying and almost failing to get back from Poitiers...

You'll know from my last post that I spent Thursday night in Poitiers for another assistant's 21st. Stupid buses combined with a train strike had meant that Mike and I were surprised we actually made it to the city on Thursday. 

L’hôtel de ville de nuit

The party was very enjoyable, allowing me to meet lots of other English speakers in red and orange attire (the theme of the party). The majority of the people present were Erasmus students at the Université de Poitiers, so it was interesting to hear about people's Years Abroad from a studying point of view. I must say, the more I hear about the excessive hours of lectures and early starts for students doing Erasmus, the more I'm glad that I chose to be an assistant. Lack of hours, no essays, and the fact that we get paid way more than we deserve really do make taking part in the assistantship programme seem the right decision.

Having no plans on where we would sleep on Thursday night, Mike and I had anticipated hanging around in Poitiers all night and jumping on one of the first trains back. We ended up being very lucky in that Bethan ever so kindly let us sleep on her floor. Not waking up until 10am on Friday meant we needed to re-consult our train and bus timetables and work out what the best option was. Once we'd figured what train/bus combination we were going for, we had about an hour and a half to spare. We killed time by having a coffee and pastry in the main square followed by a spot of sightseeing.

Mon chausson aux pommes ;)

One of Poitiers' many rues jolies

We ended up killing too much time and missing our train. PUTAIN! Consulting our trusty timetables encore une fois, we opted for the next train, which was an hour later, but we'd then have to wait 2 hours in Niort for the next bus back to Melle. And it was now raining. Add this to the fact that we were tired (and for Mike, hungover); still in last night's clothes; with unbrushed teeth; and, for me, make-up still on from the night before, these were bad times... So we sat in a nearby café for 45 minutes feeling sorry for ourselves, kind of like that bit in The Apprentice when the losing team sit in the Bridge Café debating where they went wrong.

Luckily we got on our train in good time (which then took years to actually leave the station) and got transported to Niort. In Niort we took the opportunity to spend the couple of hours before our bus was leaving by doing some more sightseeing. Although no French people I've spoken to seem to think that Niort's anything special, I really like it. The pedestrianized area in the centre has got a nice quaint feel to it, the city's relatively buzzing (OK, living in Melle, that's not difficult in the slightest) and it's got a pretty river.

I've never really appreciated autumn in the past

La Sèvre Niortaise

...And 24 hours after leaving Melle, we arrived home.

My next excursion takes place on Monday, when I will travel north-east to the city of Tours, where my housemate from last year is currently an assistant. My other linguist housemate from uni, Morgan, is also coming down from Paris, so I can't wait to see them both again and find out how their Years Abroad are going! I shall return on Wednesday, so it is highly probable that Wednesday shall be the day when you next hear from me. Until then, goodbye and keep warm.

Buses hate me, and I hate them too

It's just coming up to midday and I've already woken up, walked to the town centre, come home, gone to bed, and woken up again. As a result I am feeling a bit disorientated right now. Allow me to tell you about my Thursday so far.

It occured to me a couple of weeks ago that I hadn't yet informed my uni that I'd arrived safe and sound in France and that I had indeed started working at the schools to which I had been assigned. As this 'certificate of arrival' meant that my next Erasmus grant would get sent to me, I thought I better get my act together and sort it out. But because it needs to be signed by my lycée, and I'm only at my lycée once a week, last Thursday was the day I had in mind to get this done. However, other administrative issues and lack of time resulted in an unsigned form at the end of the day. Nevermind, hopefully I can get it done at my collège on Tuesday, I thought to myself, assuming that any official signature and stamp from a French education establishment would suffice. But no, the secretary at the collège told me it had to be done at my main host school. Having a day off this week from the lycée, I realised I would have to make a special journey there and back simply to get this done and sent off to England. I looked at the bus timetable last night (as before I've always got a lift to the lycée) only to see that, due to the stupidly irregular times, the only way I could get there and back without changing other plans for the day was to get the 7:37 bus there, and come back on the 13:20 bus! Oh well, that was my only option. 

At 6:30am 'Surfin' Bird' blasts out of my phone as my alarm, and I get ready to go out, making sure I have all the appropriate documents, and something to kill the time between finishing my task and getting on the bus back to Melle. I walked into the town centre, once again in pitch black and waited at the bus stop. And waited. Ah, there's the bus, I said to myself excitedly as one came along....and drove straight past my signalling arm. Merde. Maybe I'll wait a little longer in case that wasn't the proper one and the actual one's just running really late. At about 7:55 I gave up, and wandered back home. But about halfway back to my flat, the bus drove past me, on it's way to the town centre bus stop! I legged it back up the hill...but it had been and gone. Cue melancholy violins.

However, waking up this early for basically nothing did mean that I got to see the beautiful sunrise that happened this morning, which almost made it all worth it. Just almost.

After my little photography session, I sent an email to my uni to ask if they'll still send me the cheque if I don't send them my form until after the holidays. Then I went back to bed.

3 hours later, I woke up feeling slightly more refreshed, checked my emails, and yay, they will put my cheque aside and save it for until they receive my forms.

Now I can get onto enjoying my day. Weather should be pretty good again, and this evening I'm going into Poitiers for another assistant's 21st which will be my first proper night out in France (I will never be able to call Melle's clubnight a proper night out...). With nowhere to sleep and being too tight to fork out for a hotel room, it looks as if Mike and I are going to have to stay out all night and catch the train back tomorrow morning. Apart from that, it should be a great night!

Oh, and this is the outside of my flat I've been living in for the past month, just after sunset:

My flat is the greyish bit on the left

Happy again

It is November next week, yet today I managed to sunburn my face. Not serious sunburn, but still, it's slightly pinker than it was this morning. In no way am I complaining though. The rain has finally cleared and made way for some beautiful sunshine. That was all I wanted to say.

This picture was taken neither today nor on a sunny day, but it's still Melle, and I think a Melle photo is overdue on my blog:

Recipe: Boudin noir aux pommes et lentilles vertes

In Aldi the other day, I came across a pack of boudins noirs, which is basically France's version of black pudding. Being a fan of the British equivalent, I threw them into the trolley, wondering what I could do with them. Having a quick scour on the world wide web, it became apparent that the French commonly eat these sausages fried with apple. I like to do one-pot cooking, so I combined this idea with the apple one, thus creating my own French-inspired dish. 

Boudin noir aux pommes et lentilles vertes

2 onions
2 boudins noirs
1 apple
6 prunes
1 litre chicken stock
200g Puy lentils

Serves 2-3

• Chop and sweat the onions in a little oil or butter.
• Peel and finely chop the apple. Add to the onions.
• Slice the boudins noirs about 1cm thick. I think you're also meant to remove the skins, as I had some strange chewy bits in mine. Add to the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring regularly.
• Pit and chop the prunes. Add these, the stock and the lentils to the pan.
• Bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. Stir regularly, as lentils have a tendency to stick. Use your judgement, you may need to add a bit more water now and then.
• When lentils are cooked, remove from heat, and leave to rest for 5 minutes, allowing it to thicken slightly.
• Serve on a bed of mashed potato.
• And bon appetit!

It tasted nicer than it looks, promise!

Rain rain go away

I realise I have been neglecting my blogging duties, but believe it or not, I've actually been really busy for once! We left off on Sunday after my epic meal, so I shall take you through my week since then.

Okay so perhaps Monday wasn't as eventful as I make out, as I'm struggling to think of what I actually did. Let's move onto Tuesday. Tuesday was the second of our two training days in Poitiers, and as last time was quite dull, we were hoping this would be more interesting and useful. With CoVoiturage.fr saving the day yet again, I set off from my flat at 7am in the pouring rain and absolute pitch black to walk to where our driver, Katia was picking us up, meeting Mike and Alfredo along the way. When we got in her car at 7:30, we probably looked like we had just got out the shower, we were that soaked. Anyway, we arrived in Poitiers without any trouble and with a bit of time to spare, which meant we were able to chat with some of the other assistants before things got underway. The main aim of the day was to discuss effective ways of leading English oral classes to collège and lycée students, and I came away having quite a few ideas up my sleeve. The general concensus was that game-style learning is the most effective way to make people speak in the target language, so we had a good brain storming session to see how simple game ideas could be adapted to various learning topics.

Apart from the training, it was also a great day socially. A group of us went for lunch in a pizzeria, which allowed me to meet more assistants I hadn't yet seen. We had a couple of hours to spare at the end of the day as well, before our lift came, so we went for a drink in the lovely square in front of the Hotel de Ville, even though it really was quite chilly.

Wednesday was spent sleeping and lesson planning for Thursday. Sandrine (my supervisor at the lycée) had emailed me on Tuesday evening telling me my timetable, and it said I only had two classes where I was completely on my own, and I could do the same thing with each class, so I didn't have too much planning to do. I really wanted to be prepared though, so I even did a timeplan for the class. It felt like I was doing homework again!

Thursday was a long and tiring day, even though I only did 5 hours of lessons. Having been expecting only to have to do my last 2 classes on my own, I was surprised when Manue (the other English teacher) said at the beginning of a class 'Is it OK if I leave you now?'. It went well though, and it was quite exciting actually, being in charge for a couple of hours! Also, the pupils were quite participative and well-behaved, so it wasn't too difficult. My last 2 classes were a different story, however. I had 5 or 6 pupils in each, but their level of English was so much lower than what I had expected and therefore planned the lesson for, that we were all equally relieved when the bell went. They literally understood nothing I said, even though it wasn't humanly possible to talk any slower, and one girl just kept having laughing fits everytime I said something to her that she couldn't understand. What's more, they kept on mocking my English accent!?! At least now I know how weak they are in the language, so I can plan accordingly. It'll certainly be a challenge.

I was meant to be going to La Rochelle on Thursday evening with Anne-Lise and her husband, and Mike was going to come along as well. But she sent me an email during the day to cancel as she was too tired, which was a shame. Instead Mike and I just went for a drink at Café du Boulevard, but that was short-lived when it became apparent that it closed at 10pm.

It's worth mentioning that it literally has not stopped pouring with rain for like the last week. It's so depressing. It makes me want to hide away in my flat with the shutters closed so I can't see how disgusting it is out there. I absolutely had to go to the supermarket on Friday though. I had said the previous Friday that I needed to go shopping in the next couple of days, so I'm not sure what I was living off to get me through a whole week with next to no food in the flat. Anyway, with a 15 minute walk to Aldi and back, I was once again a rather soggy excuse for a human being. 

You may be thinking that nothing particularly exciting has taken place this week, but things are about to change. For Friday night was Club Night at the Café  Yes, I was as intrigued as you are. Having seen no one under the age of 50 at the Café before now, Mike and I were wondering how Melle's beret-clad residents would fare with a 'DJ récent' taking over the place.  

Apparently we'd stepped into the 80s. 'DJ récent' was a lie; the only song I recognised was one from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, and I witnessed some of the oddest dancing since I was last at a party with my dad. It was quite an hilarious night though once we'd embraced the stark contrast from a typical student club night and once we'd discovered the local cocktail of cognac, triple sec and orange juice. As a result of the latter, I am writing this post in bed, where I have spent the whole of my Saturday not feeling particularly perky. And now I'm going to go to sleep, so bonne nuit.

Mike with potentially the coolest man in the world. Meet Beret Man.

PS. Sorry for the lack of pretty pictures; the weather has temporarily subdued my inner photographer

Food glorious food

I'm currently in a very good mood because I just had SO MUCH YUMMY FRENCH FOOD!! As I wrote yesterday, I was invited for lunch around Anne-Lise's house, and I'm now going to tell you about what I ate. So if you have no interest in food, then don't waste your time reading this post.

Apart from Anne-Lise and myself, there was also her husband Dominique, two friends of theirs called Danielle and a name I've forgotten, and their one-year-old son/daughter called Marin or something like that (I didn't manage to work out bébé's gender over the course of the afternoon). When I got there, I was poured a glass of Pineau as an aperitif. They explained that Pineau is a regional alcoholic beverage, and in my opinion it tasted quite like a sweet sherry. Small tart things were then brought out that were filled with egg, cheese and ham. I had quite a few of those, as they were delicious and I didn't quite realise how many courses were involved in a French lunch, and thought that they were the starter. After that, the actual starter was served, which was cold beetroot, with a garlic/mustard/vinaigrette dressing to go with it. I went back for seconds, so I must have enjoyed it. For main course we were given roast veal with sauted potatoes. Veal is the only meat I really try not to eat for ethical reasons, but I really couldn't say no in this situation! When it came out all pink in the middle, they were murmuring among themselves, and I could tell they were worried that I'd find it too underdone because I'm English. When I told them 'J'aime le sang' (I like blood) they literally all cheered and told me I must be part French. Of course, next came the cheeseboard. Including a HOMEMADE goat's cheese by Anne-Lise. Say whaaat? Apparently French people that work full-time and have a baby to look after still have time to make cheese. Along with a nice chunk of Roquefort and some crusty bread, it was perfection. Danielle had brought along a tarte aux pommes she'd made, so that finished off the feast in true French style (although the British part of me craved a dollop of creamy hot custard to go with it).

Obviously, conversation was all in French, which I was a little worried about. But I was quite pleased with how much I mangaged to follow, and I think I only said 'Comment?' about 2 or 3 times when asked a question. So there's progress on the language front, it seems.

Lunch was followed by a walk around their quaint little town of Prahecq where we were followed home by a cute little white cat. And then Anne-Lise and her husband showed us all the vegetables they grow, and the animal section of their garden. There were pigeons, ducks, 2 varieties of hens, and hutches full of rabbits. It was when Dominique pointed to each hutch saying 'these are for October, these are for November...' that I realised all the animals there were to be eaten at some point. As Dominique said, 'Les Français sont barbares'! I realised how immature I am when I kept silently sniggering to myself everytime Dominique mentioned 'mon coq'. Don't tell me you didn't enjoy that one too!

All in all it's been a lovely day. The teachers really do try and make me feel so welcome, which I really appreciate, as otherwise it's a struggle to meet people, especially in Melle. I would have loved to have taken photos of my meal (anyone who knows me will know I love taking pictures of food!) but I figured it may have looked a bit odd or rude to those I was with this afternoon. So it's not a very pretty or colourful post today. However, the sky was quite fiery this evening, so I got a snap of that:

La crepuscule melloise