Une année presque terminée

Where oh where does time go? It's been 2 and a half weeks since my last post, we're now over a quarter of the way through 2013, and I'VE ONLY GOT 4 WEEKS LEFT. What's even sadder is I'm about to enter into my last week of teaching. I know I moan about some of the kids, I have to wake up early, and lesson planning is a bit of a drag, but I really will miss being an assistante anglaise. I'll miss feeling like a celebrity surrounded by shouts of "'ello Emma, 'ow hare you'" every time I walk from one side of the school to the other. I'll miss little Maël in 6eme, my favourite pupil whose legs dangle off the chair since he is so tiny, and who makes such an effort to speak English in class despite making a mistake evey other word. I'll miss my car journeys with Laurent as he quizzes me each week on English current affairs to which of course I am totally oblivious. I'll miss school lunches where I get the opportunity to try random but delicious French dishes such as rabbit, stingray, and duck drumsticks. Most of all I'll probably miss Domie and Anne-Lise, who have never ceased to try and make me feel welcome. 

But hey, it's not over yet, and I've still got to tell you what I've been up to for the last couple of weeks. I shall attempt to summarize the highlights.

Rob's been here again. He didn't want me to be alone for Easter, so turned up at Stansted airport as I was about to go back to France after having been back for a day to go to a friend's 21st, informing me that he'd booked himself onto my flight and would be staying for the next 9 days. We didn't do much, since I had work, and he is currently training for 2 MARATHONS (once again I'm going to be cheeky and post the link to his sponsor page just in case anyone is feeling generous: virginmoneygiving.com/run-rob-run), but we ate yummy food, did more walking, and went to the Easter masses. 

The Easter Vigil was one of the nicest masses I've ever been to. Normally in England I'm playing keyboard or clarinet for this mass so I don't really get to appreciate it properly, but with the fire and candlelight procession into the beautiful Eglise Sainte-Hilaire, joyous singing resonating around the building, and church bells being rung on the Gloria to celebrate the ressurection, I felt so lucky. I wish I could have subtly taken a picture of everyone with their candles.

On Easter Sunday, after mass we went for a walk to Saint-Romans-les-Melle, which I'd already been to but Rob hadn't, and I think it's one of my favourite places in the area. It's just so peaceful and pictureque, and there were so many flowers. I literally couldn't stop taking pictures, Rob was getting a bit frustrated.

Here's some more photos from our afternoon in St-Romans:

Lavoir de Saint-Romans on La Béronne river

These little lambs have yet to be told by their parents that it's rude to stare

Christ est ressuscité, il est vraiment ressuscité!

On Monday evening we watched the sunset, but got there too early so left before it had fully set:

Night night Sun.

On Wednesday Rob left.

On Friday night I went to Poitiers with Mike, Sonia, Bethan, Amy and Lizzie for an 'end of year abroad' night out. It was a really good night, but was sad to think that might be the last time I see most of them :(

Other than that, time has been spent trying to do my YARP. Cry :(

And so here begins my final few weeks. A la prochaine xxx 

A grey day in Ile de Ré...and Sophie arrives!

The end of Rob's stay with me was marked with a little trip to Ile de Ré, an island off La Rochelle which I've wanted to go to for some time now. So on Monday morning, with the hotel booked, we woke up excited to go on our mini holiday by the sea, only to be greeted with snow. Bit of a piss-take when the whole of the week before there hadn't been a cloud in the sky. 

I do like my snow, however I'd rather it didn't come on the day I was going to the seaside.

Anyway, 2 buses and a train ride later we arrived in Sainte-Marie de Re, a town on the south of the island, walked for about half an hour in the freezing cold to our hotel, and checked-in to our swanky lime-coloured room that practically walked out into the swimming pool that we couldn't use as the weather was too cold. 

This would be perfect in the summer

Just after it started raining we decided to walk to the beach and check out the nearby restaurants so we could choose in advance where we would spend our last night meal together. I've never seen a 21-year-old so excited to be at the seaside but not be able to swim in the sea. That was Rob. I on the other hand was freezing cold and thinking how gorgeous this place would be in the sun. It was still nice to see the sea and boats bobbing on the horizon. 

After our restaurant reccy proved futile (two were super pricey and the other was closed for the month) Rob and I were left weighing up our options: a) Rob ends up bankrupt after treating me to a meal at one of the 2 aforementioned eateries, b) we could buy some bits from the nearby Carrefour and have a picnic in our hotel room, or c) hope that the takeaway service we saw advertised earlier in the hotel was still operating at this time of year. After 10 minutes of head-scratching in a bus shelter we decided to go with optioned C combined with a bit of option B for booze, biccies and chocolate pots. Ordering a microwaved piece of fish and rice back at the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised when plates, cutlery, glasses, a bread basket and cute little salt-and-pepper shakers got brought to our room. 

Take-away in our hotel room. Call it 'room-service' and it suddenly becomes much more classy.

I'm glad I've now ticked Ile de Ré off the list, but it's definitely somewhere to go in the summer months rather than the winter - so many houses are shut up at this time of year and the town we were in was pretty dead. I certainly want to see it in high season in the future though.

Before Rob's plane the next evening Rob still wanted to take me to a restaurant, so we decided to leave Ile de Ré the next morning and go to La Rochelle where we knew there'd be reasonably priced restaurants. Once seated in a restaurant I lolled on finding that there was horse-meat burger on the menu, so naturally I couldn't resist.

With horse burger on the menu, it would have been boring of me not to

We had a couple of hours to kill after lunch, so we wandered for a bit around the harbour...

...and found the beach as the sun started to come out

After an emotional goodbye, Rob went through to departures whilst I waited for Sophie my cousin to arrive half an hour later. I'd been a bit nonchalant in my original planning of meeting Sophie at the airport then getting to La Rochelle station in time to get the train that would get us back to Niort for the last bus to Melle. I realised a few days before that Sophie's plane was due to land at 17:15 and the train from the other side of the city was leaving at 17:44. After messaging her in advance to tell her to make sure she's the first off the plane, I was pleased when Sophie was the 3rd person to emerge through arrivals. However it was now 17:25. We ran to the nearest taxi and leapt in whilst I was trying and failing to conjure up a Plan B should we miss the train, which was looking increasingly likely. Shoving 20€ into the cabby's hand as he rolled into Gare de La Rochelle at 17:42 we sprinted with case and travel bag in tow to the departures board to see that our train was to be leaving from the furthest platform which you have to reach by going through an underpass. So we legged it. And....

We made the train. About 30 seconds before the doors closed. Never have I been so proud/amazed.

Once again I've waffled in this post, so find out tomorrow what I got up to when Sophie came to Melle :P

Les Mines d'Argent

I am so behind on my blogging. I still haven't finished writing about where else I went with Rob whilst he was here, and I've had another visitor in the form of my cousin Sophie since then. So I shall attempt to recap the highlights of the past week.

Apart from its Roman Triad of churches, Melle is most 'famous' for its Mines d'Argent des Rois Francs (The silver mines of the French kings) and is the oldest of its kind in Europe still open to the public. It is also a 2 minute walk from my flat. Having been closed over the winter, Rob and I were excited to learn that it opened for the new season at the weekend. So we went along for a guided tour on Sunday. As Rob can't understand French, I asked at the beginning whether there were any guides in English, but the guy said it was only French. Rob didn't mind though, so we paid our 7,50€ and went inside. The tour guide obviously felt sorry for Rob not being able to understand, so attempted from about 3 minutes in to talk in very broken but nevertheless comprehensible English, which was very nice of him! And it was a really great trip - educational, interesting, and pretty to look at. I'll sum it up for you what the mines are about:

In use between the 8th and 10th centuries, miners dug and blasted through 30km (of which 300m is open to the public) of rock underground in order to extract the galena (a lead ore composed of lead, sulfur and silver). Once out of the ground the galena is washed to remove any lime or quartz, then is put into a furnace where the lead and silver melt down to rid themselves of the sulfur. To be left with pure silver it was then necessary to put the metal into another furnace where, with the help of bellows, the metal was oxidised. Reaching temperatures of almost 1000ºC, the lead oxydised but not the silver. This process was carried out until all that remained at the bottom of the furnace was pure silver. The silver was subsequently cut into small circles and stamped on both sides to make coins.

Sorry for the chemistry lesson, I hope I didn't bore you too much! In any case, here's some photos of the interior of the mines:

When the miners dug and exploded the rock, they made sure they left
columns so that the roof wouldn't collapse

There are many ventilation shafts throughout the mines which have, over hundreds of years, caused calcium deposits to grow on the rock as a result of condensation

And I can't remember why this mini lake has formed, but I like it because it's pretty, and apparently in the summer when there's no rain dripping down, the water is as smooth as a mirror, therefore allowing a perfect reflection of the surrounding rock :)

I know I said this post would be a recap of a few events, but the above is longer than anticipated, so I'll write about the rest in another post soon!

Lusignan

I'm writing this week's blog in the wrong order. I told you the other day about my trip to Coulon because I was so impressed with it that I was keen to blog about it straight away. But the day before that Rob and I took the train to Lusignan having awoken to another perfect blue sky.

Lusignan is a small town situated south-west of Poitiers, on the edge of the Vonne valley. Despite being a sleepy town today, Lusignan has enjoyed an eventful history. Named after the powerful Lusignan family in the 11th century, the town has in times gone by been home to Lords that were also kings of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Armenia. Lusignan is at the heart of the 'Melusine' region, an area associated with the Melusine fairy. The fairy is strongly recognized in the town, with a street named after her, several carvings of her on buildings, and even a restaurant bearing her name. Legend has it that the château of Lusignan was in fact built in the 10th century by the Melusine fairy for her husband.

Today all that remains of the château are the outlining fortifications. At the top of this are the old castle grounds, which have since been turned into a large open landscaped garden which are beautiful to walk through as well as giving impressive views over the valley and distant viaduct.

Apart from this there is the imposing 11th century Eglise Notre-Dame et Saint-Julien and the wooden market place. The town itself is also very pretty with its cute cobbled streets, attractive houses, and pictoresque views.

Had the bus and train connections allowed us to spend a couple more hours there, Rob and I would probably have taken a walk in the woods below the town, which we briefly had a look at.

We both really liked Lusignan, but I think if the weather hadn't been on our side we would have struggled to find things to do and we would have got a much different impression of the place. While I wouldn't rush back there, as I feel I've seen all there is to see, I'd recommend popping by if you are ever nearby.

Strolling in the Marais Poitevin

I've just come home from a day out that I HAVE to tell you about. I forgot to mention it in my last post, but Rob has been staying with me since last Thursday, and is here until next Tuesday, so we've been doing a bit of touristy stuff together seeing as I have my 2 week holiday from work. So today we went to a village called Coulon, and it is a place I really recommend.

Coulon is just to the west of Niort, and is the capital of the "Venise Verte" (Green Venice) which is part of the Marais Poitevin, a large marshland that stretches west from Niort to the Atlantic coast. On the map below, the green and yellow bits are the Marais Poitevin:

This week's weather has been absolutely glorious -  I have not seen a cloud in the sky since last Friday, and so this seemed like a good opportunity to go and venture to this part of the region. Rob and I originally tried to go on Monday, but sue to the supposedly correct bus not turning up for us in Niort, we had to change plans. We then found out you have to RESERVE THE BUS that goes to Coulon. What is this madness?? Anyway, conforming to French craziness that still suprises me from time to time, I phoned up the bus company this morning, telling them which stop I wanted to get on at, which stop I wanted to get off at, and which time I wanted, along with my name, my address, my phone number, and my date of birth. I have no idea what I've signed up to. In any case, we arrived in Coulon at lunch time, found a boulangerie, got a fresh baguette, and had a mini picnic in the square in the town centre in the beautiful sunshine. All the buildings and paving are in clean, bright cream stone, so it was so so pretty! 

But the gem of the town/village is the part on the Sèvre niortaise river. With coloured shutters on the cute buildings on the quay, little wooden boats lining the edge of the water, and willow trees blowing in the breeze, Coulon is postcard perfect. Rob and I took a stroll along the banks, and with the bright sun glistening on the water, it couldn't have looked lovelier. On a crisp February day like today the town was very tranquil and quiet, but we could both see how it could be heaving in high-season. There are obviously many companies from which you can rent out a boat for a few hours, and there are quite a few restaurants there considering its modest size, so perhaps Coulon isn't so quaint in the summer, but it's somewhere I'd definitely come back to and would recommend to others.

So, if you're ever in mid-West France and fancy going for a stroll somewhere, go to Coulon!

Settling back into French life

Wow it's been a busy couple of weeks since I've come back to France (which will hopefully explain my absence from blog). So as not to bore you all with too much detail, I'll instead just give you a brief overview of what I've been up to in this time.

Thursday 10 Jan

Had Galette des Rois at school today, and my slice had the fève (lucky figurine thing) in, so I got to wear a crown. Yay!

We should totally have 'Kings' Cake' in England

This evening Mike and I were blessed with Aurélie's offer to drive us to Niort for a meal, and as a way to allow us to easily get out of Melle. The 3 of us met Lewis in town where we went for a meal in a 'pub', and I had a yummy pizza. We then met a couple more assistants, and headed on to a bar where there was a Couchsurfing soirée happening. Met more cool French people and spoke lots of French. Great evening.

Friday 11 Jan

This evening there was a gig going on at the Café, so Mike, Alfredo and I went along for that. Performing was a folk/ballady duo, comprising a singer and guitar player. Pretty easy-listening tunes, although they got a bit samey after a while. Nevertheless, was very French, and the Café was buzzing.

Singer Claire Dousset performing at the Café

Saturday 12 Jan

The sales in France don't start until the 2nd week of January, and so this marked the first weekend of the sales. Mike and I headed up to Niort to see what bargains we could find. Bought a nice cosy red jumper.

Sunday 13 Jan

Aurélie once again was kind enough to offer to take us to Niort today to go and watch a film. We saw 'Foxfire' which is about a group of girls who rebel against society by setting up their own secret gang. The film was long and had a dark theme to it, but it kept me entertained to the end. And we later found out that the director of the film (whose most successful film is the famous Entre les Murs) was born in Melle! A proud moment for the 3 of us.

Tuesday 15 Jan

Mike and I organised to go to La Côte de Boeuf (the local steak restaurant) the following day with Aurélie and Alfredo to celebrate my 21st birthday. However, as I was sitting in my kitchen that evening, I got a call on my English phone from my boyfriend. Yes, you guessed it right. Rob had decided to surprise me (once again) by turning up unannounced and spending my 21st with me!

Wednesday 16 Jan

My 21st birthday. And it snowed in the night! Well, a little bit. But it still felt magical!

My wish for snow on my 21st birthday came true!

After a lazy morning opening cards and presents, Rob and I took a walk on the outskirts of Melle, after which I made the most of his biceps by suggesting we go to Aldi and stock up on heavy things so he can carry them home. Ssh, it was my birthday. 

Opening a bar of Dairy Milk was very welcome indeed

Crispy snow on the soggy leaves

I'd cancelled dinner with Mike, Alfredo and Aurélie since Rob's parents had decided to treat us to a meal, just the 2 of us. So we set of to La Côte de Boeuf on a bitterly cold Wednesday night, only to find.....the restaurant was shut. Gutting when you have been excited about the prospect of a succulent juicy steak all day. We ended up instead going to the pizzeria, which was still lovely in any case. I haven't been that full since Christmas Day though. Coming home and watching Notting Hill, it was the perfect birthday surprise to have Rob with me, and I don't know how I'm going to match it when his birthday comes around...

Rob and I pre-dinner

The French really know how to do a good salad

Pizzaaaaaaa :D

Thursday 17 Jan

Said goodbye to Rob as I went off to work, since he was leaving later on. Only worked 2 hours, so was done by lunchtime. Enjoyed a massive school dinner as usual, introducing me to yet more French food. Today was Hachis Parmentier, basically a French version of Shepherd's Pie, followed by French-style trifle. Delicious. After returning to Melle for the afternoon, Mike and I decided to not waste such a sunny day, and so went a nice long walk. And after 4 months here we still discovered hidden parts of Melle we'd not yet come across!

Mike and I discovered on our walk that at the back of the derelict
hospital in Melle there is a chapel. Who knew?! 

Memorial statue to Jacques Bujault, who also has a place named after
him in Melle. I can't remember exactly who he was though

Old water pump

This evening was exciting too. The association that runs where I live had organised a big meal in a nearby village, to which staff, volunteers, and all residents of the association's 10 appartment blocks were invited. Travel was all arranged, and the 3-course meal was all paid for, so I only had to wait for my doorbell to ring. In total there were 25-30 of us at the meal, and apart from the food (salmon terrine followed by pork, pasta and carrot soufflé, followed by pear tarte tatin), there was a quiz and a charade-type game. My table didn't win, but I learnt many interesting things in the quiz, such as the étiquette when a man takes a woman to a restaurant is for the man to enter first, check said restaurant is safe, appropriate and worthy of the woman, then allow the woman to enter! I also met another really nice girl from my block called Angélique, so all in all today was a pretty good day.

Woke up this morning to a little bit more snow, but from seeing friends in England's photos, it's nothing to get excited over! No work for me until next Thursday now, which probably means I should start cracking down reading for my research project :( Bye.

View out my kitchen window this morning. I want more snow!