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!