France, I feel at Home

My last stop on what has become a nine-month journey is France, where I have felt the most at home since leaving the US. Knowing the language makes all the difference because you have the advantage of being much more involved in the country and it’s culture. I have often expressed how important language is, so now that I am in a place where I know the language, I cannot help but feeling more at ease. When I have a question, I can easily ask someone and when I want to express myself and I can also do so with minor errors of syntax, etc. The real reason why I feel so at ease here, however, is that I have so many friends with whom I passed the time. It was the perfect transition from my aimless wandering and fantastic adventures in Asia to my purposeful return to the US.

Paris

I flew from Berlin to Paris, which is generally an easy flight to take—one hour and 20 minutes and bam you’re in a new country. For me, however, I rarely have an easy time at the airport, so I cannot say that I was surprised when they told me I could not get onto the flight I had intended to take. This around the world ticket has some advantages but let me tell you how annoying it is that my reservations never seem to be completely concrete. I was not at all upset because the extra time allowed me to catch up on blogs, etc. but what really bothered me is that I had made plans with my friends who I would not be able to see again for a long time. I was able to get a hold of one using Air France’s phone and left a message telling him that I would be late and did not know if I could get together with our other friend from Washington D.C. (These two friends in Paris I met while studying in Washington D.C. and we spent a considerable amount of time together while I studied in France in 2008.)

I got placed in first class, which was nothing special aside from the desserts we were served and the champagne that I drank. That was kind of cool! I have never ridden in first class, so it was appreciated that they put me there after having made me wait six hours to get onto a flight. I made it to my friend’s area of Paris, and he picked me up from the RER station. It was so fabulous to see him after a year and a half had already passed. Nothing seemed to have change except for everything, if that makes sense. I mean that our relationship did not seem to have changed but everything in our lives had changed. I think that is wonderful; I would hope that after a year and a half life would have dynamically shifted.

We ended up going to Versailles to meet up with the other girl who I had originally made plans with. It was difficult to find a parking spot and the fireworks started while we were attempting to find a spot. Thankfully, we caught the last five minutes of the show and were able to find our friend near the green statue—lit for Bastille Day—of King Louis. All of 15 minutes we spent together, but it was nice all the same to see her. Our schedules did not correspond so well since she was about to leave on vacation. Next time! I stayed with my friend’s cousin, which was marvelous because we talked for hours about Senegal (they are Senegalese) and she had a really interesting perspective on her country. Like I always say, the conversations make the difference.

The next day, I was off to stay with my cousin from my dad’s side. (She is the daughter of my dad’s cousin.) I ran errands with my friend and his girlfriend and got to my cousin’s in the late afternoon. It was so nice to see her and to catch up on life and all that had happened since we last saw one another. She and her boyfriend were a little out of it because they had just come back from the US that morning. Even though it was Bastille Day, which is supposed to be quite exciting in Paris, the day was rainy and the energy was really lacking in the city. We were all quite content to chat inside the apartment and go out for a bite to eat at a delicious Indian restaurant a few doors down from their apartment. It was perfect! I love those calm evening where you just enjoy one another and feel no pressure to do anything else.

Angers

I had lunch the next day with my friend from Senegal because he wanted to introduce me to his aunt who does a lot of cooking for official events. For the past six years, she has had a catering company that prepares amazing African food for official parties and gatherings. It was great to meet her and a few of his cousins. We tried some of her fish pastries (that sounds disgusting but it is only because I cannot find the right word for what I ate—it was like a mini empanada filled with a flavorful mixture of fish and vegetables) and before I left, she gave me a beautiful African dress to take with me. I always admire the colors that African women wear, so it was a real pleasure to accept one of their colorful outfits, which happened to fit me perfectly. My friend and I said good-bye but we plan to be in contact over the next 10 months before I go to Senegal. After having spoken face to face with him and some of the members of his family, I am even more excited and content about my choice to go to Senegal.

From the lunch with his aunt, I went to Montparnasse Bienvenue, which is the train station that goes from Paris to Angers. I have so many bad memories of that train station. I never seemed to arrive with enough time and compounded with the luggage I always seemed to have, I missed so many trains! This time I had more than enough time. I was unable to use my credit card to get my ticket from their machines, so I went up to the counter to ask for help. While standing in line, I noticed that there was someone speaking in English to the person behind the window. Neither seemed to understand the other very well, so I asked if I could help. Come to find out, this guy was American and he was finishing up a five-week in Europe after his graduation from college. This was his final step going from Paris to Barcelona in Spain. It was so much fun for me to be able to use my French to help a fellow American with his tickets. I know how frustrating it can be to try to communicate with someone who does not speak the same language as you. The whole process was a little complicated because this is the peak season in France to travel, so very few tickets were available. After about 45 minutes, we were able to figure it out. Good thing I got there so early!

All was set for my departure, so I got on the train, and after one change and four hours, I was in Angers with my host family from 2008. It was fabulous to see them all. They welcomed me in with open arms, like a member of the family. It felt great to be back in Angers. I really did have a great experience there, especially with my family. I am so fortunate to have been able to rest in contact with them and share some moments with them again. They have two children, one girl who is 18 and one boy who is 14. I rested in contact with the girl through facebook (another successful facebook story!) and stayed with her in her room. She would like to become an English professor, so it was fun to talk with her in English and to give her some pointers with pronunciation and sentence construction.

We had dinner the first night and it was a big catch-up party, talking about all that had passed. They had three American teenagers staying with them, so it was funny to talk in both English and French. The last time I stayed with them, I never spoke in English except for a few words here and there, so they found it funny when I spoke in English. For me, it is always weird to switch between the two languages and I have not mastered the transition as well as I would like to. I always end up making more mistakes if I try to speak in both languages. They are such an inquisitive family, so it was a lot of fun to recount some of my tales and to hear about what had been happening in their lives. It was a real blessing to be with them again.

I only had one and a half days with them, so the full day I spent with them, I relaxed and did some laundry, had lunch with them (Korean-style since the husband is Korean and the wife is French and they cook both types of cuisine), and took a long walk along the Maine River with the daughter with whom I stayed. It was a lovely and unhurried day to enjoy myself. I left the next morning, but we had enough time to take a full tour of the Saturday market, which is absolutely fantastic. I missed that market and it brought back fond memories of buying my vegetables for the week and buying apples for applesauce. They took me to the train station where I took a bus to my next destination. I really made the tour of France to see my friends.

Laval

There is not much to see in Laval aside from a great friend I met while at North Central. He studied at North Central during my junior year and we became good acquaintances; then when I lived in France, we reconnected several times and he and his girlfriend even came to Chicago in April 2009. I was a little crazy at that time with classes and work, but we managed to have a couple of good encounters and have maintained contact throughout the past year and a half. It was great to see him and his girlfriend again. They are lovely people and really welcomed me with open arms. It has felt so good and has been a real blessing to see the hospitality at all the places I have stayed and to see my friends really make an effort to make me feel welcome and at home.

Unfortunately, my friend had to work the weekend I spent with them, but his girlfriend and I were able to hang out around town, which is quite small and does not have much to offer. We took a small tour of the city, grabbed some delicious bakery items then found a café where we sat down and chilled waiting for him to finish. He has an internship at one of the biggest newspapers in France and what was really great is that he had some interesting tasks in which he could include us. Thanks to his paper, we went to a small festival and to Sainte-Suzanne, a small medieval city. I had a great time at both. The festival was nothing more than three stands—drinks, food, and candy—a bandstand where they had three different performances (we stayed for two) and two acrobats that performed quite exceptionally. About 300 or 400 people showed up and the location was lovely. I loved every minute of the very French setting, but also the music was quite good and I had a great time dancing to it even though I was literally the only one, which made it even more amusing for me.

The next day we had a big day at Sainte-Suzanne, which is this cute medieval city. Since my friend was actually on assignment, I wandered around with his girlfriend, who is now as much of a friend as my good friend from North Central :) I love typical French villages with the history that seems to melt out of the walls. I mean, there is really nothing else like it. I love to wander aimlessly around these villages, admiring the buildings that reveal hundreds of years of history and appear as having been effortlessly built yesterday. She and I kept on bumping into my friend who was in the process of interviewing the brother of the mayor for the historical significance of the village and the tourist attractions. After the morning interview finished, we had our picnic lunch on a lovely spot of grass near the central square. Out of our bag came Camembert and Comte cheeses, baguettes, ham, cherry tomatoes and nectarines. It was just perfect for the summer and prepared me for a reposing nap underneath one of the big trees near the chateau. Don’t you just love those lazy days in beautiful places? It makes me feel so grateful to God for my life and for the time he gives me to enjoy fully the moments that pass.

Limosin

My friends and I took advantage of our last night to discuss some interesting cultural differences between France and the US, which are considerable when you start scratching the surface. I love to wrap my mind around the dissimilar ways people think and yet manage to live on the same earth with similar needs and desires. It was a great last night before I left early the next morning on a bus for Angers where I would meet another friend. I arrived about an hour and a half earlier than I had originally planned, but it gave me a chance to do one of my favorite things while in France: eat some fabulous pastries and have a coffee at a cute café.

My friend picked me up right on time according to what we had originally planned. She and I met at a Christian gathering in Angers in 2008. Even though we only spent a little time together while I was studying in Angers, we managed to stay in contact, sending emails every couple of months. When I told her that I was coming back to France, our schedules managed to align, which was quite amazing considering all the activities she was in the process of doing. She invited me to spend a few days with her at her parent’s home in the Limosin, which is central France, since she had packed up all her stuff at her apartment a few days before she and I connected. She was moving back to her parent’s place for a couple of months before starting her work as an archivist. It all worked out marvelously. Before hitting the road for our five-hour roadtrip, we cleared the apartment of most of the remaining things. I was off on another adventure with another dear friend.

Despite the lengthy distance between Angers and my friend’s childhood home, we did not really notice the hours passing because we had so much to talk about. We discovered that we had much in common (more than we knew previously) and had a great time telling stories and sharing anecdotes. It was so enjoyable to run through the gamut of topics such as family, friends, hobbies, and musical interests. We stopped in Limoges—the eponymous city of the region—where her younger sister currently lives while working on her masters. There is not much to see in Limoges, but it seemed like a nice place to study. Our last hour zipped by and we arrived in the middle of the French countryside where her parents have lived since she was born. Everything was calm and peaceful, verdant and bucolic, charming and placid. I was really in for a treat!

Her parent’s home is absolutely lovely—a restored old farmhouse—with gardens and trees all over the grounds that make for a fantastic outdoor spot for dining, which we were able to do two out of the three nights (one night it rained so we ate inside). I took advantage of all the open space and ran both mornings on the narrow roads that wound through the farmland and forests. The first day I was there, it was a triathalon of discovery. I ran in the morning; then we three (her youngest sister joined us as well) had breakfast before leaving on a short bike ride around the premises. Traveling to the nearest big city called Brive—50,000 habitants which is quite large compared to the three houses that are located in my friend’s small hamlet of Moussours—we walked around and she showed me the pretty central quarter and the places where she hung out while in high school; then we did some grocery shopping and stopped at Donzsac, a medieval city, for some bread. It was really fun for me because her region is nothing but these small villages that seemingly pop out of nowhere to recount one story after another. For the French, these little villages are pretty but rather archaic and outdated, but for me, I could not help being transfixed by the tenor of life that passes each day as if post-industrialized world had never commenced.

Finishing our delicious lunch in the winsome backyard, we four (her sister from Limoges joined us) left for a fun afternoon of walking and swimming. Our path led to a small chateau that had been reconstructed expressly as an exhibition center and as a place for picnicking, fishing and walking, and hosting concerts. The forested paths attracted our adventurous feet, so we took a small turn about the grounds before leaving for the lake. It has been a long time since I last swam, really swam, in a lake, so it was a really great way to spend an hour and a half. We finished our afternoon with some cookies as we cast our dreamy eyes across the tranquil surface of the lake.

Swimming the day before had been a good choice because the next day the weather had dramatically changed and threatened to rain at any moment. On and off, it sprinkled, but fortunately, we did not encounter any storms, so we fully relished our day in the center of France, discovering some of the most beautiful villages in France: Collonges-La-Rouge, Turenne, and Curmonte, as well as Rocamadour, which was much more touristy and larger than the first three. With each village, we took the time to see almost every street and corner, which is not difficult to do when there are fewer than ten streets :) The best part was definitely our lunch because we found the most engaging spot I have ever discovered for a picnic. It was high above the village of Curemonte, which created a fabulous backdrop of reddish buildings rising from the lush landscape as we sat on our beach towels on grass dotted with pretty little yellow flowers. While eating, we looked out onto this historical landscape, which had been at one time—about 2000 years ago—the final hold out of the Gauls against the Romans.

Rocamadour was our final stop on this journey across this serene countryside. What makes this city such a tourist attraction is the manner in which the very medieval portion of city was constructed. The central cathedral was built into the side of a cliff and has been a destination for religious pilgrims since the 12th century. In spite of the number of tourists and boutiques that have taken over the street that leads to the stairs to the cathedral, it remains immensely interesting.
We found a parking spot upon entering the town, but we were a little confused as to how we should go about getting to the cathedral. After wandering around a little, we found a route for descending into the valley. The route was down a road called the Saint Road because many religious pilgrims had taken that route in the past. The stone road descended into the valley providing an exquisite picture of the town and cathedral. Once we arrived at the steps, we took them to the very top where we saw the cathedral jut right up against the cliff. I was enraptured by both the construction and the countryside around me. It was like a fairytale. What is even better is the fact that we did not have to take the same way back. On our way back up to the parking area, we took the Stations of the Cross path, which showed all the stations along the wooded path. The greenery was lovely and the views continued to mesmerize me. It was a fantastic end to a fabulous trip around the French countryside.