It's Raclette time

Last week was the French holiday of Toussaint on November 1 (equivalent to the United States' "All Saints Day" after Halloween), which meant a whole day off with the weekend for travel time. Literally everything shuts down as people rest the day at home, spending hours over a good meal with family and friends. I admire the way people can truly relax here. We get holidays and days off in the States, but nothing ever truly shuts down so it's easy to still 'multi-task' and get other errands done on those days off. Too many times, I remember being more tired after a holiday than before...

Here, you really have to rest because you can't go anywhere and even if you wanted to, everything would be closed so there's no point in moving around. Sooo I spent the entire weekend eating and sleeping, and it was absolutely amazing. I went with a friend of mine to her hometown of Angers, a couple hours away from La Rochelle. It's a beautiful town, with the ubiquitous castle, chateau, churches, and old houses. Best part of this trip was the raclette party we had during the weekend. A Raclette is an interesting combination of what I would call an American barbecue + French fondue + Japanese shabu shabu, of sorts.

Raclette originated in Switzerland, and it refers to the Raclette cheese that is used in this meal. Traditionally, the Swiss cow herders used to take the cheese with them when they were moving cows to or from the pastures up in the mountains. In the evenings around the campfire, they would place the cheese next to the fire and, when it had reached the perfect softness, scrape it on top of some bread. Nowadays people melt the cheese on a special type of heater called a Raclette grill, and the melted cheese is then scraped on top of potatoes, meat, onions, and other vegetables.

I'm hungry just looking at this photo. You literally sit for hours, spending time eating and drinking throughout the evening. I think I had more meat in one day than I have in one month, and by the time it was finished we still had a plate full of Raclette cheese left for another afternoon. The cheese has a distinct but soft flavor, and melts easily on the grills
These large black grills are called Raclette grills, and you place slices of cheese in small pans, known as coupelles, on the two levels of the grill as you wait for it to melt.

From Normandy to...Oslo ?

It all started with a trip to visit Normandy....until we sat down to look at train ticket prices up North, and realized how expensive they were going to be so that sank that ship. Which brings me to another awesome part about Europe: the super cheap flights you can catch anywhere from the west to the east. Ryan Air, Easy Jet, Air Berlin...you can easily get a ticket from 5 euros and up. Puts Southwest to shame :)

So when our trip to Normandy and Mount St Michel was no longer possible, we decided to go to Oslo instead. Too bad we hadn't checked hostel lodging before buying the tickets, because it just so happened to be one of the busiest weekends in Oslo because every single hostel and hotel was booked that time. Searching for a room had never presented a problem so far, and if it had been warm summer I think we might have roughed it in the train station or a park or something. But it was definitely edging on 0 degrees Celsius in Oslo so lodging was going to be a necessity for the 3 nights. Only possibility? Couchsurfing. It's something I had heard of often but never tried before...basically, it's a website where people from all over the world log-in and offer 'couches' or beds for other travelers. You don't have to know these people, you probably will never see them again after you've come and gone, but people join for the sole reason of wanting to communicate with others from across the world.
So we ended up staying with this nice guy who lived right in the center downtown, and he basically picked us up at the train station, gave us the keys to his apartment, and took off for the weekend. It was incredible. Maybe in the States we get too nervous or realistic about these situations, but here it seems quite normal to just pass your apartment off to random travelers. Granted I wouldn't have done anything wrong anyway, but still.

Marta and I wanted to get to Bergen, which is a good deal west of Oslo, but its famous for its views of the fjords and classic Norwegian landscape. As it was, however, we ended up spending the entire time in Oslo, with a small side trip to Drøbak. Drøbak is one of 6 cities in Norway that claims to be the 'home town' of Santa Claus, and it was an important town in the timber and shipping industry back in the day. It's name derives itself from the Norwegian words, Drøye bakker, which means long lasting hills. The town is one of Oslo fjord's popular summer resorts.

Oslo sentralstasjon (Oslo Central Station)...as you can tell, it was FRIGID. I thought I had checked the weather meter beforehand, but I guess I got the forecast wrong. It actually snowed the very week we arrived, and I hadn't planned on the cold temperatures...

The old port town of Drøbak. The town has its famous Christmas shop called Julehuset (or, the Christmas house), and you can send letters from the central post office with the official "Santa Claus postal address" here.








Mermaid statue near the old port. The statues were a gift to the city from a former resident.









Marta standing in front of the old lighthouse. Many of the homes in Drøbak follow this type of architecture, as it is a quaint picturesque old town full of small white wooden houses.




My favorite spot thus far: Akershus Castle. The fortress was built by King Håkon V at the end of the 13th century. It protected Oslo and Norway through numerous struggles, and later was converted into a Renaissance castle and the fortifications were extended. Now, the castle is used for government receptions and you can wander through the entire grounds and still see the changing of the guards.






We caught some of the beautiful fall foliage in some parts of the castle here

Another spot not to be missed: Vigeland Sculpture Park. It is one of the most visited places in Oslo (over 1 million visitors per year!), and for good reason. This amazing park is the life work of the sculptor Gustav Vigeland who created more than 200 sculptures in bronze, granite and cast iron. The statues are intended to depict the cycle of life as they depict humans in all forms of living -- playing, fighting, loving, eating, teaching and sleeping. It's an incredible sight: you enter the park from these massive cast-iron gates, and in front of you spreads an entire paved road leading up to the crowning achievement on top of the hill - The Monolith (a massive 46 feet high totem pole, of sorts).

The famous machine animals of Nantes

Voyage II of the month: Nantes. Nantes is the 6th largest city in France and a major hub of the Brittany region. Only a couple hours by train from La Rochelle, it was an easy weekend destination trip. Once you know its original inhabitants were a Gaulish tribe known as the Namnetes, you can easily determine from where this ancient city derives its name...today, it is also commonly referred to as the "Venice of the West" due to its position on the Loire, Erdre and Sèvre rivers.


Standing inside the beautiful Passage Pommeraye in city center. The indoor passage-way is small shopping mall built in the mid 1800s, and elaborately done with renaissance style sculptures.

Yet another reason Nantes is a cool place to visit...you can meet Mr. Incredible himself.




It seemed that every corner we took had yet another church in view. This impressive church, the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Nantes, took 457 years to finish and the people were finally able to celebrate its completion in 1891.

And my favorite part about Nantes by far...Les Machines de L'ile Nantes. Built in a couple warehouses of former shipyards, the concept for this unique museum is the brainchild of two artists, François Delarozière and Pierre Orefice, who visualized a sort of crossroads between the "imaginary worlds" of Jules Verne and the mechanical universe of Leonardo da Vinci. Opened in 2007, the museum includes an exhibit gallery with a collection of mechanical creatures - manta ray, reverse-propelling squid, pirate fish, crab larva -- a workshop off to the side where you can see projects currently under construction, and (the center of attention!) the mechanical elephant.






The mechanical elephant is a whopping 12 meters high (of 39 feet, for all us Americans), made of 45 tons of steel and wood. It's exactly what you might envision while reading about the Sultans of Arabia riding their elephants into town, and for a paltry sum of 6 euros, you too can pretend to be a prince and ride on the elephant.
I didn't ride the elephant, but I did get to ride the smoke-spurting dragon (check it out!). Every animal machine had at least a couple seats for potential riders to hop on, although in the beginning it looked like only the little kids were going to be lucky enough to get the chance. Once I heard "adult volunteer," you can bet I was the first to raise my hand. It looks and feels like these machines were built a 100 years ago, and your job on a seat is a complex assortment of tasks all meant to be done at the same time. It becomes a sort of 'scratch your head and rub your stomach operation,' in which I had to rotate a squeaky lever on my right to make the dragon whiskers move, pull on another lever on my left to make the jaw rotate, and then stomp on a foot pedal for an action which I couldn't quite figure out for the duration of the demonstration.

Île de Ré

Long before I arrived in La Rochelle, I had heard tons about this famous and beautiful island off the coast of my town here. It's one of three islands off the western coast of France by La Rochelle (the others being Ile d'Oleron and Ile d'Aix), and it's fairly accessible regardless of season since you can access it via boat or bridge from the mainland. So my friend and I decided to make a day of it and take our bikes out to see the island.

Île de Ré, much like La Rochelle, flip-flopped from French to English rule since its early settlement. The main port of the island, Saint Martin de Re, was fortified by the French in 1681 as part of a ring of forts and citadels built to protect the military harbor of Rochefort. Now, the city is a World Heritage Site and is very similar in both look and feel to La Rochelle's Vieux Port. It's a naturally popular tourist destination, although I would say it tends to attract the more ritzier crowd than La Rochelle, judging by the number of expensive cars and fancy boats I rode by while touring the island.

Biking up the coastline of the island...nothing but ocean and sand pathways stretching as far as you can see


Chilling with Marta in a couple alcoves in the ruins of the Abbaye Notre Dame de Ré


While biking into the old fortified port town of Saint-Martin, we saw a mini festival going on, complete with carousels and donkey rides. Not sure if these pant-wearing donkeys are a local custom or maybe they were just cold?
The sea is really low in the morning and early afternoon, and the beach was covered with humongous jellyfish (or, at least that's what I think they were). It felt like we were stepping on jellyfish potholes all over the sand.
On our way home!

La Rochelle

I write this 2 weeks into my move to La Rochelle, so you're hearing a happier and more adjusted me at this point. The first few days were rough, considering I found that I had landed myself in a pretty provincial French town where I didn't know enough French at all to get by. It's one thing to move to a different city, and quite another to move to a different continent while trying to figure out all the logistics of moving in another language. It's a lot of change all at once, and I guess it has taken me a couple weeks to feel finally settled in.

During my two year program at Group Sup de Co in La Rochelle, I chose to live with a host family for the first couple months. I figured it would give me a good base once I arrived and also help me practice more of my French by living in a French household. I've heard some horror stories about host stays, but mine has been really amazing so far and my landlady is great. She teaches Italian at the language institute, so she knows how to ease me into the language transition and she also doesn't know any English (which also forces me to speak French all the time). I'm pretty much constantly looking up what I need to say beforehand, in order to get my point across when speaking to her in person later.

View from my bedroom window. I live in a more residential neighborhood away from the city center, and you can see how peaceful - calm - and provincial the town is.
La Rochelle is a small town, so there isn't any public metro system and people rely on the network of buses and bicycles. Just about everybody owns a bike. I live a few kilometers from school so I bought a bike my second day in town so I wouldn't have to wait for the bus to get to school every day. I found this second hand bike at an old warehouse store and it may not be much to look at, but I figured the older and uglier it looked, the less likely it would be stolen. Makes sense, huh? Evidently the average student gets his bike stolen at least 2 times a year, so I'm also hoping my massive bike lock will prevent that from happening to me. I've been zipping all over town on this thing since buying it. Definitely much better and quicker than the bus, and the ride is easy since the town is fairly flat.



La Rochelle itself has an old and important history. It's located in the Charente-Maritime department/Poitou-Charentes region of France. It was founded in the 10th century and became an important harbor in the 12th century. It flip-flopped from English to French rule, but was the largest harbor on the Atlantic coast with its merchants dealing mainly in wine, salt and cheese. It not only changed hands between ruling countries, but also between major religions. During the Renaissance, La Rochelle became increasingly Protestant.




Beautiful fromagerie in the Centre Ville of La Rochelle; Outdoors farmers market, takes place a couple times a week. I pass by on my way to school each morning and always end up buying a loaf of bread or fruit. I love being able to shop daily for my food, and everything is so incredibly fresh. There are stands for bread, fruits and vegetables, rows and rows of fish that has been caught earlier that morning in the sea, and stands of pates, tarts and meat...



One of the three towers that stand in the forefront of the La Rochelle harbor. The sunny day, by the way, is typical here. La Rochelle is famous for the incredible amount of sunshine it gets each year (average of 193 sunny days per year, which ranks it right up there with the Cote d'Azur).





Same port and castle views, at night. It's idyllic and charming. The whole port is lined with seafood restaurants, cafes, and little bars. There are always tourists in town, although most seem to be from other regions of France as opposed to other countries. So the overall experience remains distinctly French despite the presence of tourists every weekend.
There was an old car show near the Vieux Port last weekend, and they had a car from California there. I saw another car with New York plates, and it made me proud that my two favorite states were so well represented!

Salut, Paris!

I finally arrived in France and decided to stay the week in Paris before heading to La Rochelle. I have a couple friends who live in Paris, so I was lucky enough to stay with them and they made my transition to Europe so much easier. It's great to walk around and tour a city, but even better to come back to friends in the evening. I also met up with the Notre Dame Alumni group in Paris for the second football game watch of the year. Who knew I could meet up with college alumni halfway around the world?? It's a small group, and half of them were passing through on business trips, but it's nice to have the college family even in France.

Père-Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Paris and a major tourist attraction as well because of all the famous people buried there. When it was first opened several centuries ago, it was considered too far from city center to attract burials. So as part of a marketing scheme to increase funerals, the administrators moved the tombs of several famous citizens to their cemetery. Sure enough, soon everybody wanted to be buried at Père-Lachaise. Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Frederic Chopin and Edith Piaf are just a few of the famous ones here.
The famous burial sites are numbered on a sign as you walk into the cemetery, and you can either buy a map of the cemetery layout or take down the numbers of grave-sites you want to see. Or, you can just follow the mobs of people as they make their way inevitably to Morrison's or Wilde's tombs. I personally thought it was more fun to just wander around and check out the tombs that weren't surrounded by tourist groups.






(Below) In front of Palais Garnier, also known as the Paris Opera House. Even the dreary day can't detract from the beauty of this old building. It is now used mainly for ballet performances since the was a new opera house was constructed at Place de la Bastille.



I felt very Devil Wears Prada-ish this week in Paris! It was Fashion Celebration Night on September 7, and the fashion and couture shops along Champs Elysees and Avenue Montaigne had an opening night to showcase their new designs for the year. This was the first time an event like this had happened, and concurrent opening nights were taking place in all the major cities around the world the same week. Here in Paris, it was an amazing experience. The couture houses seemed to be trying to one-up each other by serving better drinks, or better food, or attracting more models to show up to their event. So in the end the whole street was completely packed with people trying to get in, and the bouncers were blocking the doors as cameramen ran from place to place.

I'm not really a fashion person and I don't know most of the famous people and definitely wouldn't want to lead the lifestyle, but its amazing to see what goes on in this world. My friend works for Chanel, so we stayed in the Chanel shop for most the evening. It wasn't too crowded (on account of the bouncers moderating people flow for most the time), so we were walking around and sampling the macarons and champagne until suddenly a swarm of people rushed in. And who should be there but...Karl Lagerfeld. Karl is considered as THE man behind Chanel fashion, and he was there with Chanel model, Baptiste Giabiconi, and his fashion entourage.



It's a cruddy picture on the left here, but you can see how packed we were inside Chanel! Cameramen were shoving people around as they tried to get every breathing second as Karl walked into the room. The up-close shot of Karl is on the right. He has been a designer for over 20 years, and is a continual presence in this scene



Baptiste Giabiconi, talking on his cell phone (left); In the picture on the right is a member of Lagerfeld's entourage -- the guy at the top of the stairs. We thought he was another model, but turns out he's only the chauffeur...he's definitely the best looking car driver I've ever seen

With my friends Gwen and Marie-Laure, in Chanel

Jardin du Luxembourg - it's beautiful now that fall is coming around. And it's also one of the spots I hadn't seen in my previous trips to Paris, so I took a day to wander around the gardens and sit outside. They have tennis courts and running trails around the gardens as well, and the massive palace at the front is the Luxembourg Palace (which houses the French Senate). The palace was originally constructed in 1611 by Marie de Medicis, who wanted a place that resembled her palace in native Florence.





And because you can't leave Paris without checking out the Eiffel Tower, it's only right I throw in a couple pictures of it here...