Avril en quelques mots: Castles, Belgians and Skulls

Avril en quelques mots: Castles, Belgians and Skulls

Posts are dwindling…Ruh-oh. The past three weeks have been filled with the usual Fondation/course grind, but the past weekends I have had my share of fun. The end of this week marked my 8^th week at the Fondation. I am now on SPRING BREAK for two weeks.

Master plan: leaving tomorrow to the South of France (Montpellier) with Egg and Sarah Martinez(Geneseo’er visiting from Cadiz)

We're starting off by going to Cadiz(South of Spain) along w some day trips.

then going to Sevilla (South of Spain)

then going to Barcelona (Central Spain)

and finally heading back to ol’ Paris

Can’t wait for eating the fresh produce, hiking, and reading on the beach.

After France/Spain vaca, I will return to work/course jam for two weeks then I’m outta hur! April flew by. In a month, May 29^th, I’ll be saying my final ‘à la prochaine’ to Paris. But, I’m not quite ready to say goodbye yet!

CASTLES:

SUNY group trip to Loire Valley, France.

CHAMBORD: “le reve royal, grandeur nature.”

-Biggest chateau of the Renaissance.

-Constructed in the Early 16^th Century.

-Hunting lodge for King Francois I.

“Fs” engraved all over the Castle…for Francois (and Fiona)

 Salamander : Emblem of Francois I

-Salamander=symbol of both fire&ice

-Medieval iconography alludes to the salamander as the “righteous ones who never lose the peace in his soul or his confidence in God.”

-Francois I adapted this motto to be: 

“Nutrisco et extinguo”

“I nourish the good and extinguish the bad.”

Leonardo da Vinci’s Double Staircase

-Designed by da Vinci and located in the center of the castle.

-Called the “Lovers Staircase”

-It is a double windy staircase.

-It allows you to see someone else on the staircase in passing without ever meeting that person. Reasoning? It was designed so that King Francois could have his own staircase and wouldn’t have to cross paths with the servants.

Chateau d’Amboise

-We stopped by Amboise(the town) for an hour and a half and had free time to roam.

-I did meander into the castle... but only for 5 min or so.

Majority of time in Amboise was spent: eating, exploring, buying chocolat and a pretty ring.

Tea-ing  à Pierre Gerard

-Went to a patisserie with Ryan and Cailey (pic above) and I got a pot of Coconut tea. Miam!

Exploring

-Cute, quaint, cobble-stoned little town. Favorite French town I have been to thus far.  Not giving it justice right now but I recommend that anyone visiting France should swing by.

Chocolat-ing à Bigot

-Bigot chocolaterie d’Amboise.

-Created in 1913.

-Delicieux!

Shopping

-Met a jeweler (quirky old man) and bought a cute turquoise ring with a pressed flower in it. Not expensive, really unique. I’ll probably lose it eventually but I hope I don’t.

Chenonceau

-Romantic fairytale castle.

-Built in the 16^th century.

-Fresh flower arrangements in every room.

-Beautiful wild English-style gardens.

-King Henry II’s chateau but Francois I originally owned it.

Louise of Lorraine’s Bedroom

-After the assassination of her husband, King Henry III, Louise of Lorraine retired to Chenonceau to pray and meditate her grief.

-Her bedroom was eerily symbolic of her pain. It is all black room (black wooden ceilings and black wooden walls) with a portrait of Henry III on one of the walls and a Jesus headstone on the mantle.

-Visiting the room, her pain was resurrected for me .

-Louise was forced to war a white dress everyday but she made sure her room reflected her voided heart.

Kitchen

-It was huge!

Villandry

-Also built in the 16^th century, in 1534.

-During the reign of Francois I.

-The descandants of John Villandry owned the castle until 1754.

Intricately manicured maze hedges. Nap on the lake. Merci Céline.

BELGIANS:

Went to Athus with Lena two weekends ago for Vio’s early 21^st bday party. Nice to see old friends that I haven’t talked to in three years and so great to be back with the host family for a few days.

SKULLS:

Sarah has been in Paris this weekend. In two days she has seen a lot of the touristy sites, from la Durée to la Tour Eiffel. Today, Lauren S., Sarah and I woke up early to see the Catacombes. It was the first time for all of us.

Very brief history:

-Municipal Ossuary created at the end of the 18^th century.

-Bodies from the ‘Cemetary of the Innocent’ ( near les Halles, Paris) were dumped into this old underground quarry (The Catacombes) because the Cemetary of the Innocent was the origin of infection for inhabitants in the area.

-November 1785, the State of France decreed the removal and the evactuation of the cemetery of the Innocent.

 -From 1786-1814, the Catacombes was used to collect the bones of all the cemetaries in Paris.

The skulls on skulls were fascinating and disturbing. More alarming, from my perspective, were the morbid philosophical quotes about death etched into the stones. Sarah took some pics of them. They creeped me out.

After the Catacombes, I took Sarah to  Monsieur Alain for a crepe . I have been going there quite a lot for lunch. I love him.

DEMAIN:

Finished packing. Just bringing my school backpack with me. Ryanair has the dang  one-bag limit (but worth it for supa cheap flights). Katy and Maddy are hosting us in Montpellier, can’t wait to see them! I brought a little journal to keep track of some memories. Next post will be a South of France/Spain update.

À la prochaine, FSC.

Réapparitions&Récherche

Zut alors! Started uploading some pictures to this post two weeks ago(Sunday the 31st), with the intention of posting the blog. That intention was postponed (or procrastinated) to this rainy Wednesday eve which is now Thursday morning... 

Reminiscing on the past three weeks is a pishposh idea as my bad memory has already started to fail me. I will attempt to be more prompt with timing my next post. Well, the past few weeks have consisted of many réapparitions of Americans in France and beaucoup de recherche.

Réapparitions. Mary Bilik’s (Lena’s mom) exit this weekend ended the wave of New Yorkers à Paris. It was comforting to see familiar faces here. Still, it was odd  having the two worlds(for lack of a better word) collide.  While my "honey-moon" phase in Paris has grown a little weary, it was amusing to see how others react to Paris for the first time. 

I have desensitized myself to the pâtisseries at every corner (after having sampled them, bien sûr) for physical and peut-être mental preservation.  Cold turkey resistance is easier than indulgence for me, atleast when it comes to the sucre-filled delights. 
I, however, made sure that the guests didn’t shy away from the classiques: les éclairs, les croissants aux amandes, et les crêpes. Selon moi, it is the dégustation Right of Parisian Passage.

Et la Recherche. These past weeks, I have made some progressions at work; I have finished a rough draft for the U.S. sexual exploitation chapter and have been assigned to work on Ghana and Egypt sections of the book. I am in the process of drafting the Ghana chapter which I hope to finish this week, if I don't get too side-tracked.

I wrote about the trokosi slave practice in Ghana today.It's still pretty vivid in my head. Bon, alors...Ghana has a strong legal code condemning sex trafficking. It is a politically stable country but the enforcement of cracking down on sexual exploitation is difficult when there are limited economic means and other political priorities...

In certain animist villages near the Ghana-Togo border, if&when a man commits a crime(a societal "uh-oh moment" if you will, such as stealing their neighbor's cow),he can only receive religious penitence for the crime if he sends his daughter to the local fetish priest. 
The cost of this “penitence” is his daughter becoming the priest’s trokosi ( or slave who works in the field by day and who is frequently raped by the priest by night). It is considered ‘honorable’ to be a trokosi. EH? Oh it’s surely an honor to be: bond to servitude for life and prohibited from wearing clothing or talking to anyone outside the living quarters. It is hard for me to look at this situation through a culturally sensitive lens. While legal and social strides have been taken to end trokosi slavery over ten years ago, it still exists marginally in Ghana. MERDE!

My schedule for the most part is: work, class, workout et sleep. Lauren coined the “boulot (job), métro et dodo(sleep)” phrase and it sums up our weekdays well. Work and working out are keeping me sane here. This vie is too grown-up and solitary for me for the long term. But temporarily, it's ok!

DONC...REWIND to a few weeks back...

to the gruesome twosome: Meera&Marie

Hey RI!

Noticed this 'Lion killing it's Prey' statue in the Luxembourg gardens for the 1st time. Marie pointed it out. 

  

                                                          Goose. Sporting my beloved sweater and some baguette&vin.

Café creme vs. normal café 

I really miss the fat American coffees. 

Meera and Marie came at a good time for Lena because she was recovering from a sudden fainting episode during a school museum visit (got the a-ok from Leen to share this story).  Not enough protein in the system which is very easy to happen here. So much walking in the city. Long story short, I had lunch plans with her and she didn't show up. I knew somethin' was up. Lena always shows up.  It was scary to find out via her classmate, but all's well. She luckily hit her chin instead of her noggin and was stitched up. She now has a perfectly placed, discrete and noble battle wound on her chinny-chin-chin.

Dodo pour les petits. My roomie has officially quit school and is coming this week to get her clothes. When? I do not know. I haven't seen her in 4 weeks. Room to myself is glorious. Strict rules for the dorm though...no guests! I was a fool, I thought that the guest-rule-enforcing system was weak (as Lauren and Maddy had already abused it)but Monsieur Marc was on concierge duty. Maybe the enforcement was generally weak, but it is sure as hell not when Marc is concierge. He does his job the right way! I tried to sneak Ri in my dorm the night before Meera arrived, but she was caught the next morning by Marc and had to dish out some euros. Rough, should have simply followed the rules. I'm not kicked out but if it happens again I am kicked out of the convent, er Foyer! 

Degustation Right of Passage

Part I. Mon Dieu, For the Love of Pastry

 

P'tit déj trio pour Marie: croissant, pain au chocolat, et croissant aux amandes.

The Bee was all about the café (coffee) éclair. 

 

Heather was also 'all about' the café éclair.

 

Jen, Meg and Ava tried the beurre salée (salted butter) éclair. Miam miam!

Part II: Les Crêpes

I thought (emphasis on this word) that I was taking the visitors to my two favorite crêperies(which are equally satisfying) of Paris. La bonne blague.

1)I took Lexi and Heather to one on Rue Rambateau near my work. Funny Italian guy whips up the crepes. He makes savory veggie, meat and sweet crepes. He also has some nice sauces. I like the spicy sauce (which gives my mouth a nice chili whipping). I come here for lunch once a week or so.

Lex got a mixed veggie, cheese and egg crepe (my usual) and Heather went for the classique ham et cheese

2) I took Meg and Ava to a Creperie near my place on St. MICHEL/ cross section St. Germain.

 

Ava got a egg&cheese crêpe and Meg got a nutella&banana crêpe.

So...I THOUGHT these were the top-notch crêperies, les crèmes de la crème, UNTIL I found Monsieur Alain. I love what he does with food. He's inspiring. I discovered 'Les Enfants Rouges' ('The Red Children'...I don't know where the name come from) Farmer's Market in the 3rd arrondisement two Sundays ago. So many vendors. Delicious, authentic, fresh, natural, scrumptious, culinary delights to be: viewed, smelled and tasted! Et not too cher, en plus! I stopped by Alain's stand. And I keep coming back for moreeee. Went there two weekends in a row. And I'm going to walk there for my lunch break tomorrow...2km, c'est rien for the best crêpe de ma vie! 

This is what I got (last time & the time before). If it ain't broke, why the Hell fix it?

Cornet Végétarien

Buckwheat Crepe (first of all, OUI to the Buckwheat!)

Filled with
-Mushroom salad
-Chopped Fennel
-Grated Carrots
-Chopped Parsley
-Avocado
-White/black sesame seeds/Pepper
-Fresh squeezed lemon zest
-Chevre goat cheese
-Honey

I will gladly pay 6euro50 to uplift my soul tomorrow. Lauren can attest to my blissful tears of joy and satisfaction as I devoured my first Alain crêpe. 

Chez Luna, 118 Rue de Ménilmontant.
I'm not buttering this place up, IT WAS DELICIOUS.


Grab what you want out of: the fridge full of quiches and tartes, the breakfast counter chock full of fresh croissants, crêpes, and pains au chocolat and the table full of other breakfasty delights like eggs and oven roasted potatoes. 

Classic French breakfast meets funky resto. Hidden in the 20th. Non-touristy. 

Solid B-Day Cake

Caroline from work had a B-day party for a friend. She made a delicious cake. Had to take a pic.









Shakespeare&Co. visits

Momma and daughter.

Le Louvre

Went to the Louvre with Lexi and Heather. Too much art in one place. It is beautiful and overwhelming. What's good Mona? I love the Pyramids. Yes, I think about the da Vinci code when I'm walking around the Pyramids. 

Lex went to the Louvre by herself when she had some free time and was unfortunately pick-pocketed. Her wallet was stolen in a swift second...She handled the situation with grace and didn't let it put a damper on her stay. C'est la vie, shit happens sometimes. I mention this story only because I just found out that the Louvre has been SHUT DOWN due to pick-pocket protests! Watch out in Paris...pick-pockets galore! 

http://www.ibtimes.com/au-voleur-pickpockets-shut-down-louvre-1184445

Last weekend: Chateau Fontainbleu

Free métro to the suburbs on the weekend so a few people from my program and I went to le Chateau.

Chateau Fontainbleu. Un peu d'histoire for those who are curious:http://www.musee-chateau-fontainebleau.fr/spip.php?page=sommaire&lang=en

Photo reel:

La groupe.

Quelle beauté!

 I spy a Tim.

Nice day trip. Nice escape from Paris.

P.V.C.

The Paris marathon was this weekend.

This Friday, during her midi lunch break in her work canteen, Lauren was sitting next to a soon-to-be marathon runner who was looking forward to his race on Sunday. He was having a conversation with the table(strangers to Lauren). The soon-to-be marathon runner was talking about the upcoming race and shared his secret to training: "Pouvoir, Vouloir et Courage." 

In English: "To be able to, to Want to, and Courage."

He used these three words to help him mentally focus and achieve his end goal. 

When leaving the cafeteria, Lauren said "Bon chance Dimanche!" ("Good luck Sunday!") 

He tipped his head to Lauren and said, "Bon Courage."

That story was an inspiration to Lauren and when she told it to me, made me smile. 

P.V.C. I like that.

We bumped into the second marathon-connected stranger on a Starbucks refuel on Sunday afternoon. He was an American from Chicago who was looking for a place to buy a scarf for his girlfriend...Anyway, this guy was planning on running in the marathon(which was that day) until he got injured a few weeks prior to the marathon. He still came to Paris for vaca. There really isn't much to this story except for the fact that we talked to this stranger for a solid half an hour. This story is by no means inspirational BUT it was to us. It was another link to this Parisian marathon and for that reason alone: an inspiration.

What we have decided: we are going to run a half MARATHON Sept 1st (as long as we don't get injured) back in Geneseo. P.V.C. 

Next week I am going to run a "Humanathon" which is 10k in Ivry-de-la-Seine. I'm pumped. Running has been my glue, holding me together, giving me a sense of stability and muting my stress. It's been a year since I've started running on a regular basis. Dramatic, but it's hard to think of my life without it. Cheers to my running shoes and my i-pod shuffle. 

Thank you and goodnight, F.S.C.