| Toussaint |
Chateaux – Castles
This region is known for its castles, hundreds doting the Loire river valley. If you didn’t know, France has had a lot of kings and queens, who of course had castles, and they themselves had lovers/mistresses that had castles, and dukes and duchesses who also had castles. The original castles were less for living and more for protecting and resemble medieval fortresses. During the Toussaint holiday I visited two chateaux and a few cities outside of Orleans. I hope to soon see at least the most famous chateaux before I leave.
Beaugency – October 19
I went to Beaugency with a few other Americans, Charlotte and Nancy, and a Croatian girl, Mirta. Actually, we had the intention of taking the bus to get to Meung-sur-Loire, a small village with a chateau about 20 minutes outside of Orleans, but since it was Sunday, there were of course no buses running. Instead we headed to the train station, enquired as to a cheap ticket to visit a interesting city, and voila, we wound up in Beaugency. It is a pretty little town on the Loire. Guess who liberated the city in 1429 on her way to Orleans? Crossing the Loire in the direction to Orleans is a 26 arch bridge that has stood since the 15th century. There’s also the Tour de Cesar, which was once part of a chateau, and of course a large cathedral in the center of town. As you can see from the pictures, it is a very nice view of the river. On the 1st of November, I had chance again to visit Beaugency for a birthday party of a friend of a friend. Through my professor I have met a number of French young people and have spent a lot of time with them. This birthday party was held in a meeting hall of Beaugency, where we ate Raclette (kind of like fondue, except you dump melted cheese on top of potatoes, ham, and salad; quite good for a cold evening), drank wine, and danced up a storm to disco music. The best part of the evening was the brief English lesson I gave (French people always want to know how to curse in English…)
Blois – October 26, 2008
Kether, my American friend from Paris, came to visit so of course we had to check out a chateau. The chateau used to be the seat of the dukes of Orleans, but the most interesting aspect is the fact that it is actually 4 different buildings all from different periods in history. It was first a medieval fortress, made up of a meetings hall for the counts of Blois during the 10th century. The next section, a brick and stone wing, was added by Louis XII between 1498 and 1503 and exhibits an architectural style called “flamboyant.” The next section is from the Renaissance period and was built by Francois I. Finally, the last section exhibits Greek classicism styles, was constructed between 1635 and 1638 for Gaston d’Orleans. Most of the architecture was commissioned by Francois I and his wife, Claude de France. This can be seen by the prevalence of salamanders (which look more like fire breathing dragons to me) and minks, the royal symbols of Francois and Claude, respectively. The porcupine represents Louis XII. If you know anything about renaissance royalty in France, you have certainly heard of the all powerful Catherine de Medici. She actually passed away at this chateau in 1589. In the city of Blois, there was a funny museum of magic with huge dragons that sometimes appeared in the windows, and a church with a tribute to Joan of Arc.
Tours – October 29 and 30th
Mirta and I took the 1.5 hour train ride to Tours, the larger city in this region. An island of sorts, the city lies between the Loire river and the Cher river. In the center of town is an enormous cathedral, and was once a famous point for pilgrims attempting to see St. Martin’s tomb. When we arrived in Tours on Wednesday, we immediately took a train to Azay-le-Riddeau, a chateau surrounded by a moat. Upon arrival the chateau was unfortunately closed (during lunchtime), but we soon joined the crowds to enter the grounds. The construction of the chateau began in 1515 by the Treasurer of France. However, he and his croonies were accused of corruption and thus fled the unfinished chateau. Francois I (aforementioned Salamander) gave the chateau to a friend, which was then passed on to an aristocrat during the French revolution. Unfortunately I couldn’t take pictures inside of the chateau, but it was filled with art from those periods, salamander adorning fireplaces, statues, even a pool table. We headed back to Tours, dropped our stuff at the hostel, and then went out into the town. Place Plumereau, the old quarter of the city, had cute medieval style houses and buildings. The cool thing about Tours is that the university is right in the center of town, so young people of all types abound. As you can see from the pictures, it rained a lot on Thursday (and snowed!!) so we didn’t get to do much outside of visiting a museum of fine arts and the cathedral.
Fetes – Parties
The week before Toussaint our residence decided to have a festival of foods of the world. Monday night, Nancy and I made pancakes with maple syrup, Tuesday Mirta made a flan-like dish from Croatia, Thursday Leonor from Columbia made a dish of plantains, and Claude from Cote d’Ivoire made some rum drinks for the fete. The Americans ordered pizza that night, then we all headed upstairs to dance up a storm to music from all over the world. It was quite fun. We are still waiting for the French people (by far the largest group) to make something. I think that will be tonight as we celebrate Mirta’s last days in Orleans. The other fetes were more like dinners that I had with some French friends. The first was dinner at Madame Richer’s house with her husband, brother, Sylvan, brother’s friend, Tichou, and his girlfriend, Noemi. Everyone was very nice to me, and I applauded my ability to follow the conversation (though it was tough for me to participate as by the time I thought of a response in coherent French, the topic had passed). It was a truly French evening, first with aperitifs (before dinner drinks) of Kir (champagne-esque – can’t say champagne unless it comes from Champagne - white wine mixed with fruity syrups), followed by dinner of buerre blanc sauce (white butter sauce with shallots), fish, shrimp, and sauerkraut (and white wine). This was followed by a cheese plate and red wine, and then dessert of home-made mousse and coffee. The dinner started at 8:30 and didn’t finish until well after midnight. The following week, Noemi and Tichou invited me out to a friend of theirs’ birthday dinner at a restaurant a little outside of Orleans. The restaurant had live music and the group played songs from the 80s, classic French songs like “Champs d’Elysée,” and random American songs, O happy day, YMCA, and rollin on the river, to name a few. It was funny to hear them attempt to sing in English, getting a lot of the lyrics wrong and with funny accents. Nonetheless, we danced and had a good time, again until late in the night.
In addition to fetes, I have seen three movies in French: Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Le Crime est Notre Affaire, an Agatha Christie novel, and Mesrine, a film about a French criminal who broke out of jail in Canada, robbed a few banks and killed a lot of people. I also saw W, the movie about George Bush, and thought it pretty horrible, for the story but also for the weird scenes of the President (one of him chocking on a pretzel, another of him fighting his father in the oval office) and the horrible job of casting the director did. I got a bike for 50 euros, it’s cute and very French, though I would warn against attempting to bike with a baguette in your basket (my baguette fell out, sadly). The 4th and 5th I am headed to Paris to follow the US elections. Should be exciting for sure.
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