Yay France!!
Wow… Everything has been happening so fast since we left Thursday afternoon!! There’s no way I could get it all in…Luckily I’m starting to navigate myself around the French keyboard a little better…I’ve had a few cyber café stops to get me a little acquainted…at the moment, the American class and a few of the French students are in the computer lab at UTT (from where the French students cyber connect with us every week), and the local TV station is here to do a piece on the UTT/USC exchange and our visit here. (We’ve had other media attention along the way…when we visited the little medieval town of Mussy sur seine, this ancient journalist came to take our photo in the church…apparently they had rarely had so many Americans in their midst at one time.)
Anyway, there is SO much to talk about, and I suspect that my classmates have already covered much of it, that I will hit some of the high spots and my personal favourite moments thus far.
We spent Saturday in the country – in Mussy (where we were greeted with croissants and coffee – tea, for some of us – at the tourist office), Essoyes (at Renoir’s atelier and gravesite), at Gyé sur seine (I’m pretty sure that’s right) for a tour of a champagne cave and a tasting, on the side of the road by a vineyard between Mussy and Chaource for a picnic, and in Chaource for a tour and tasting at a fromagerie. It was pretty much a day full of my favourite things…throw in an open air market and maybe a bookstore and some music and I’d have been set!! We finished off the day with dinner outside at this kebab place and a football match (which was FREEZING but still lots of fun!!)
Sunday was a little more laid back…slept late, then walked around Troyes a little bit with my keypal/host Thomas. Found an internet café, then tried to hook up with some classmates at the fair in town (much like our state fair, but a bit smaller and in French…and with nougat and brightly coloured marshmallows and crepes and…just better candy in general). We actually managed to run into Michelle and Thibaut, and headed back to the middle of town where we ran into even MORE American/French student combos, and had drinks at an outdoor café on the square. We were joined by more classmates, hit a bar, and then made our way to La Tourelle for an awesome evening full of crepes, cidre, and adventures in bilingual conversation!!
Monday started off early with a tour of UTT, followed by an English class (where the Americans spoke French and the French spoke English…go figure), and a champagne reception downtown with a French senator. We got lunch and took it to a courtyard in front of one of the many churches of Troyes to eat…then I quickly hit another cyber café before joining the rest of the group for a tour of the town.
I LOVE Troyes!! Apparently it has like the largest concentration of medieval houses in the world?! (Someone correct me if this is wrong…) Seriously…there are half timbered buildings EVERYWHERE!!!! And churches. We saw the church where Henry V married Catherine of France (yay Shakespeare for helping me remember history!!!!). After the tour we split up for a bit (got a crepe avec nutella…pour emporter, my favourite way to eat a crepe!!), then headed back to UTT to give a presentation about USC, and for the “Evening Afro-French,” (yum, plantains and beignets!!).
Okay…there’s more to talk about, but I’ll save some for later!!! Au revoir for now!
love & peace,
annie :-)
Anyway, there is SO much to talk about, and I suspect that my classmates have already covered much of it, that I will hit some of the high spots and my personal favourite moments thus far.
We spent Saturday in the country – in Mussy (where we were greeted with croissants and coffee – tea, for some of us – at the tourist office), Essoyes (at Renoir’s atelier and gravesite), at Gyé sur seine (I’m pretty sure that’s right) for a tour of a champagne cave and a tasting, on the side of the road by a vineyard between Mussy and Chaource for a picnic, and in Chaource for a tour and tasting at a fromagerie. It was pretty much a day full of my favourite things…throw in an open air market and maybe a bookstore and some music and I’d have been set!! We finished off the day with dinner outside at this kebab place and a football match (which was FREEZING but still lots of fun!!)
Sunday was a little more laid back…slept late, then walked around Troyes a little bit with my keypal/host Thomas. Found an internet café, then tried to hook up with some classmates at the fair in town (much like our state fair, but a bit smaller and in French…and with nougat and brightly coloured marshmallows and crepes and…just better candy in general). We actually managed to run into Michelle and Thibaut, and headed back to the middle of town where we ran into even MORE American/French student combos, and had drinks at an outdoor café on the square. We were joined by more classmates, hit a bar, and then made our way to La Tourelle for an awesome evening full of crepes, cidre, and adventures in bilingual conversation!!
Monday started off early with a tour of UTT, followed by an English class (where the Americans spoke French and the French spoke English…go figure), and a champagne reception downtown with a French senator. We got lunch and took it to a courtyard in front of one of the many churches of Troyes to eat…then I quickly hit another cyber café before joining the rest of the group for a tour of the town.
I LOVE Troyes!! Apparently it has like the largest concentration of medieval houses in the world?! (Someone correct me if this is wrong…) Seriously…there are half timbered buildings EVERYWHERE!!!! And churches. We saw the church where Henry V married Catherine of France (yay Shakespeare for helping me remember history!!!!). After the tour we split up for a bit (got a crepe avec nutella…pour emporter, my favourite way to eat a crepe!!), then headed back to UTT to give a presentation about USC, and for the “Evening Afro-French,” (yum, plantains and beignets!!).
Okay…there’s more to talk about, but I’ll save some for later!!! Au revoir for now!
love & peace,
annie :-)
posted by Raison d'Etre @ 2:46 AM
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