In Ireland at last!

Yesterday I was able to take off work and leave for Ireland! Even though it seems very close to me here in Europe, it took 12 hours to get there.

First, I was driven to the train station. Then I took a train, another train, the Paris metro, another train, a bus, a plane, another bus and then was picked up at the bus station by Maeghan and Dave.

I was beat at the end of that, but it was nice to catch up with Maeghan over a snack of brown bread, butter and honey with some ginger tea. 

Today I think we might be going to see a castle (maybe?) and then we'll head out to my first session in Ireland tonight! 

Chartres

A couple weekends ago, I went on a day trip to see the cathedral at Chartres.  The trip was with some of my friends, other assistants, named Breanna, Niamh and Emily. We got up early and headed out in very sleety conditions. After an hour of driving, we stopped to get gas and found that the day had brightened up considerably. 

When we got out of the car, Niamh and Emily decided to practice being models. (Don't models hang out at gas stations?) 

"Okay so how are we going to coordinate this?" 

"Well you see, we have to flip our hair. I'll go in one direction and you in the other."

I think Niamh and Emily should stick with being teachers...!

Then we got back in the car and drove another hour south to Chartres. 

The cathedral was beautiful, but I just can't seem to get over these asymmetric churches here. They're disturbing to my aesthetic sense.  

This is the labyrinth that is on the floor of the cathedral. Emily and I looked up the meaning of it the night before the trip. What we found out is that people in the middle ages who didn't have enough money would walk the labyrinth instead of going on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

The cathedral was gorgeous and bright. That white stone is a recent development for it.  For many years, the stone has been dirty and black, but recently it has been cleaned with a laser to return it to its original white color.

This picture isn't very clear, but it shows the difference between the stone that has been cleaned and the old, dirty stone. 

The whole cathedral is filled with beautiful stained glass. 

Since so many of the cathedrals here in France have had windows destroyed by the war, it's always amazing to me to see a cathedral that is completely intact.

This structure still exists due to the valor of one man, Welborn Barton Griffith, Jr., during WWII. After the Normandy landings, the battles between the Allies and the Germans caused much destruction since it would be a huge loss to the Allies if they did not succeed in reclaiming France. Many historic landmarks were in danger since the Germans could use them to their advantage in the war. Some places during the war, such as the famous Monte Cassino abbey in Italy, were bombed because the Allies believed that there were Germans hiding within. As it turned out, there hadn't been any Germans in Monte Cassino and it had been destroyed for no reason.

When the orders came for Chartres to be bombed, Griffith realized the importance of the old cathedral and offered to sneak behind enemy lines to check out the structure. Once he got there, he found that there were no Germans inside and he rang the cathedral bells to warn the Allies not to destroy it. He died shortly after in a fight north of Chartres and was awarded the Silver Star, Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre posthumously.

Breanna, who had taken a class in college about castles and cathedrals, explained to us that the Belle Verrière is a very important stained glass window. I don't know much about this art form, but apparently it is very unusual for stained glass windows to have such large images covering several panels. The brilliant blue color of the stained glass is supposed to be very important too. Breanna said that nobody knows how they achieved that hue with their technology at the time. (12th century) This is an oversimplified explanation, so if you want to learn more about this window (and other Belle Verrières) click here.  The link has detailed pictures of all stained glass windows in the Chartres cathedral.

We also headed out for a little walk around the town.  It's amazing to me that I can drive two hours here in France and find a place with architecture that is strikingly different from the architecture in my own city!

Emily made it her job to ruin all of Niamh's photos....

What concentration!

This is a view of the cathedral from the back.

This is directly behind Chartres. The "C" in the middle stands for Chartres and the labyrinth is meant to be symbolic of the one in the nave of the church.

Turning around from the labyrinth garden you can see the very back of the cathedral. This would be so pretty in the springtime!

I think Emily is still photo-bombing Niamh's pictures....

We also stopped in the church of Saint Aignan. We all agreed that we liked this one possibly even better than Chartres.

My favorite part was the intricate painting and the wood work on the ceiling.

Some of the paint was peeling off the walls. It would be beautiful restored.

We then stopped by the stained glass studio, museum and shop.  Though we didn't have time to look at the studio and museum, we did take a look at the shop.  I think we were mostly glad to have a place to sit in the warmth though!

Our last stop in Chartres was to see the crypt of the cathedral.

This is supposed to be the veil of the Virgin Mary. It seems a little doubtful...but there it is. I've also seen the skull of Mary Magdalen and the skull of the blind man cured by Jesus here in France. All of those things seem like a stretch that anyone would still have them, but it's interesting anyway.

This was my favorite stained glass window in the cathedral. Look at all that beautiful blue!

...and that's it! Thanks for coming along to Chartres with me! 

Two Countries, Two Ways of Thinking

This past weekend, while I was visiting my former, French host-family, I had an interesting discussion about differences in the way that French and Americans think.

Apparently Americans are more pragmatic in their thinking while French people prefer to discuss ideas.

Jean-Luc, the father in my host family, mentioned that he had noticed this while living in the US.  It was at the start of  the Iraq war.  American newspapers would title their articles with “40 Killed in Bombing” and French newspapers would title the same event with something to the effect of “Iraq Struggling Under Terrorism.”

Americans want the fact, while French people want the idea in the title.

Additionally, Jean-Luc was a member of a religious group in the US that was organizing a retreat.  The members were told to come for a meeting to plan the retreat. Jean-Luc expected to arrive and discuss the topic for the retreat, but to his dismay, they talked about the logistics (food, location etc.) for two hours and about the topic for two minutes!

I think it’s really interesting that not only the habits, food, and social interactions are different between countries, but that thought processes are different as well!

New Year's Eve in the Alps

This post is woefully out of season, but I figured I'd post the pictures even so. 

Maria, Pierre and I spent New Year's in a chambre d'hôte in the Alps. There was a group of children in a foster-type situation with their educators who stayed in the same establishment with us. The owners of the chambre d'hôte were very friendly and they cooked us dinner and spent time in the evenings talking to us. 

Since there was a piano, I had the chance to play and sing with another person staying there! Everyone loved my Adele song and kept requesting it. It was really nice to have the piano and guitar there because it brought the group together for New Year's. We hadn't been talking or interacting until we started playing music and then everyone became friends. (For the time being!)

The orphaned girls had a little dog that they brought with them. He was awfully cute, but he had an obnoxious habit of biting your fingers if you stopped petting him. What a little brat! I had to give him some love though since I missed my puppies.

The woman who ran the chambre d'hôte made the table look pretty and festive and she even had a Christmas tree there.

The afternoon of New Year's, Pierre and I had a rather extensive argument about gender roles and societal expectations of each gender.  As soon as we got down to the living room for the "apéritif," the woman announced that the men's glasses had blue sugar on them and the women's had pink sugar. Then, for some reason, the other travelers rehashed the whole gender roles discussion. My eyes just glassed over at that point and I focused on enjoying my food!

The entrée was very seafood based. Those little red buggers are a piece of work to de-shell and then you only get a tiny bit of meat at the end. I gave mine to Maria because I just didn't have the patience!

Maria and I were being silly during dinner and when we lost focus with the gender roles discussion we made fortune tellers out of our napkins.

Maria and Pierre were big fans of the dessert. It looked good, but I didn't eat it since it had a lot of cream and milk-based ingredients.

And there it is, New Year's eve!

When it was finally midnight, an old man went and tried to ring the bell by the door of the kitchen to bring in the New Year, but he didn't realize that it wasn't attached and it fell on his head! Then everyone went around and had to kiss everyone else in the room. (On the cheek!) :)

Cuers and Toulon

This is a sort of mishmash of photos from around Christmas in Toulon. 

This was one of our dinners at home around Christmas. It looked so pretty and well-arranged that I had to take a picture. The meat is duck. 

While we were in Toulon, we went to the Christmas market. It was even bigger and prettier than the one in Rouen and it had a huge Crèche with santons that were animated.

Maria took me to a chapel on a hill above Cuers. There was a big compass built into the ground there with signs for North, South, East and West with descriptions of the cities in those directions. They had Niagara falls on one!

Whenever I see animals when I'm out and about I get homesick for my puppies.

This is the port of Toulon.

When we got there, we arrived just in time to see a women walk towards the edge of the port and fall into the water! She was stuck in the water attached to the wall by her pants. Luckily, there was a group of men nearby who rushed towards her and pulled her out before I even had time to think of what to do. The men were from Iran and only spoke a little English, so I translated for her afterwards. She must have been so cold in her went clothes!

The town hall of Toulon looked very Christmas-y despite the palm tree out front.

This is a typical Buche de Noel that all of the bakeries sell.

One thing I love about Christmas in France is that all of the cities, even very small towns, have elaborate lights set up all over.

That night we made mussels for Pierre. He loves them and he polished off the bowl in short order.

Saint Tropez and Port Grimaud

While I was staying with Maria in Cuers, we took a little trip to Saint Tropez. It was a gorgeous, though chilly, day. 

Here is the old fish market of the city. It is still in use.  I love the intricate mosaics. 

Just walking through the streets was a treat. All the colorful flowers against the yellow walls and bright doors made the whole place look like a postcard.

The bare trees and the colorful roof of this church reminded me a little bit of Dr. Seuss. Speaking of which, I mentioned Dr. Seuss in class today and none of the French kids knew who he was. That's so sad. I guess it makes sense since his books rhyme and that would be difficult to translate into French, but I just can't imagine childhood without Dr. Seuss.

Another postcard view. I should make a painting of that.

We visited the citadel of Saint Tropez, which was up behind the city, and saw the naval museum there.

I now know how to pilot a boat.

Maria!

I can't believe they would decorate their arms so intricately! How beautiful for something meant to kill.

So peaceful.

After Saint Tropez, we stopped at Port Grimaud to see the Venice-like town. It's a town built on the water with canals and boats for transportation. Unfortunately it was night at that point, so I couldn't take too many pictures, but this will give you an idea.