I took a train on Wednesday because I do not have classes that day and the vacation started on Thursday. I got off the train and walked straight to l"Universite Catholique de l'Ouest where the AHA office is located as well as all of my friends who are studying. When I studied abroad, I became very close with the site director, Sue. Sue has lived in Angers for about 10 years now and takes care of all of the students in the AHA program. She was in her office when I arrived and Valerie got there about 15 minutes later when her class let out. We talked for a little bit before Valerie and I went to lunch at a small creperie. Valerie had another class in the afternoon so I went out for coffee with Annika, who is an assistant in Angers. I met Annika at the University of Oregon and we have had a few French classes together. It was good to see her since we hadn't seen each other since graduation in June. When Valerie got out of class we took the bus back to her host parents house where I met them when they got home from work. They are a young, very sweet couple who hasn't been hosting students for that long. They have a beautiful home, with a very chic feel to it.
They were going to dinner at their neighbor's house that night and Valerie and I were going to dinner with my host parents. I was very anxious and excited to see them because it has been more than two years since I was there. But I quickly felt right at home walking through the familiar roads and paths to their house. Therese answered the door looking just as she did two years ago. She is quite a bit shorter than me and commented that I have grown within the first few seconds! I told her that I hadn't but then Jean said the exact same thing when he came around the corner! It was so wonderful to see these two and start speaking with them again as if I had never left. We all had dinner in the living room and of course, Therese made a feast! We had some nuts and chips for an appetizer. Next came artichoke hearts with shrimp and a salad with fantastic, most likely homemade dressing. And for our main course, we had salmon in a white sauce with very flavorful rice. It was one of the most amazing meals I have had since I returned to France! Oh, and for dessert: homemade apple tart. I don't know what it is about these families but they keep wanting you to eat and eat! Jean cut the apple tart into 4 pieces! Then gave Valerie and me a quarter each! Think of it as eating a quarter of an apple pie after eating a huge meal! I was so stuffed but the tart was so good that I managed to finish it!
I don't know what it is about Jean and Therese but they are some of the easiest French people to talk to. I feel that if I were staying with them for the year I would be fluent by month 4. They are very patient, they speak slowly enough, and they help you when you are stuck and can't think of the word. We talked about everything that night from our families, to US politics, to what I'm going to do in the future. These are two people very close to my heart and I can't wait to see them again soon! And it's easy because I live so close now.
Therese, Jean et moi
The next day, Valerie and I met Sue to help her with some shopping and then we all met up with Annika to have some coffee and a crepe. The weather was absolutely terrible this last weekend. It was the trifecta of all storms: rain, wind, and cold. Not a fun combination! But we managed to stay out for awhile with our friends and returned home afterward. Thursday night, Valerie's host parents wanted us to have dinner with them. They wanted me to try Racklette, which is basically like fondu. They have a grill type thing that has slots, to insert pans of cheese. The cheese melts and then you cover potatoes and meat with it and dig in! It was absolutely delicious and I swore I could have kept eating the cheese and food forever! Marielle made tiramisu for dessert in our own little cups. It was another phenomenal dinner. That combined with the wine we drank and we slept great that night.
The next day was our adventure: Nantes and St. Etienne de Montluc. We got up early in the morning to catch our train to Nantes. Once we got to Nantes we visited the Cathedral and the Chateau. It was another miserable weather day so we tried to get inside at most places as to get out of the cold, but more specifically the wind! The Cathedral in Nantes was absolutely gorgeous with the tallest arches of any church I have ever seen.
Beautiful Cathedral
Altar
Someone was practicing the organ here
We wandered around the church before going to the Chateau that was just next to it.
The Chateau of Brittany Royalty
There was actually water in the moat around it! Very cool!
After wandering around for about 2 hours came the real adventure and reason why we were there: St. Etienne de Montluc. Valerie's great great grandfather owned a bakery in the small town and our mission was to go find it and take lots of pictures of it! We got on the train and only had about 20 minutes form Nantes. Good thing we were paying attention because if we blinked, we might have missed it. The train station was so small, I'm not sure it could even be called a train station. We were the only two to get off and there was literally nothing around.
Definition of small town France
It wasn't hard to find where we were looking to go because there were maps of the city everywhere and signs pointing to all of the major landmarks. We started walking toward the church, because the bakery was apparently right across from it. It only took us about 10 minutes, and we were laughing the whole time at just how ridiculous our little adventure was turning out to be. Who would have ever guessed that we would be searching for this small bakery in a tiny little town in France. We came up on "centre-ville".
The heart of the city
And then we found the bakery, right where her mom and grandma said it would be. I took lots of pictures of Valerie in front of it for her family. It is still a bakery to this day but no longer in Valerie's family.
The bakery we came to see!
After taking lots of pictures of the bakery and probably weirding out all of the townspeople, we found a cute little place for lunch. Since it was still cold and storming, it was so nice to sit down in a warm restaurant. Valerie tried to see if our really nice waitress knew anything else about the town or about the bakery but she didn't. We did have a wonderful meal though so we were happy.
Valerie with her wine and the really cool water glasses
Me with my wonderful lunch!
After lunch we still had about an hour until our train so we decided to try and find the cemetery. As soon as we walked out of the center of town, we saw another huge map which was very very helpful. Because this was such a small town, the cemetery was about two blocks away. We walked over to it and found the entrance. It was a green door in a stone wall, and Valerie said she felt like Mary in the Secret Garden when we went through. It was a beautiful cemetery with lots of flowers on every grave and beautiful tombstones. It was also quite large and we only had about a half hour before we had to be back at the train station. Valerie suggested that we might send up a quick prayer to Saint Anthony for some help finding her relatives' grave. I think my exact words were, "So Saint Anthony if you could just throw us a bone, we would really like to see Valerie's great great grandfather." And the search began.
Cemetery when you first enter through the door
We searched and looked at many graves and names looking for "Soulorde" which was Valerie's great great grandfather. There really was not any rhyme or reason to our pattern, we just each took one side and walked all the way around. Fifteen minutes later, we found the graves of "Soulorde". Thank you Saint Anthony!
Valerie's family's grave in St. Etienne de Montluc
We were incredibly excited and I actually got chills at one point. We had to leave shortly after that but it was a really really great day and a good adventure for a long weekend. We went back to Nantes and looked around for awhile before heading back to Angers for dinner and sleep.
The next day, we didn't do a lot in the morning but relax. We were so exhausted from the day before. But then we thought of all of these other things we wanted to do so we completely jam packed out day from 2 pm on. At 2, we walked to the Berthelots again for some coffee. Therese, of course, had a little tart waiting for us as well. We all sat at the kitchen table and talked for about 2 hours. Then Jean went and ran errands, and Therese took the bus with Valerie and I into town. We went to a few different shops with her and then she left to finish her day and we went to go see a movie. It was a French film but there was an American character, so much of the film was in English with French subtitles. The film was "Elle s'appelait Sarah" and it was wonderfully done although very sad. The movie is based on a novel called "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay.
After the movie, we got dinner at a Greek restaurant that sold kebabs and then we decided we would stay out and go to a couple of different bars around Angers, some that we had never been to. It was a fun night even though it was just the two of us! We made our own fun! We would have taken pictures but we felt that we already stood out so much that we didn't want to draw anymore attention to ourselves by taking lots of pictures!
The next day was Sunday and I was leaving at 4 to head back to Caen. I took all of my stuff with me and Marielle dropped off Valerie and I at church. After church at the Cathedral (which I had never been to so that was a fun new experience), we met up for lunch with Sue at a creperie. We sat there talking for about 2 hours. It's always nice to catch up with Sue especially since I do not see her that often. Before we all parted ways, Valerie and I had Sue take the only picture of the two of us together just to show people that yes, we did hang out all weekend. And good thing we did, because it is adorable!
Valerie and I in Angers
It was a wonderful long weekend and I am so happy I was able to visit with all of my amazing friends living in Angers right now! And, I am going back in just over a week for Thanksgiving! Every year, AHA does a special Thanksgiving dinner and this year I was invited! Even though they do not celebrate in France, it will be nice to have an authentic dinner with people that I have come to see as family!
Until then, I am back to teaching in Caen. Nothing new to report; my classes are all going really well. It seems that everything has calmed down since the strikes and I can actually hold the kids' attention. Hopefully it stays that way until Christmas break. We will see! Lots of love to you all!
C'est la bonne vie pour moi! :)
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