At 5AM on Thursday, Nov 6, I woke up, dressed, and went down to campus to catch the 5:45 bus to the rail station. Not surprisingly, I was the only person on the bus. I caught a 6:33 train to Cambridge, switched at Cambridge, and went on to London Stanstead Airport. I waited there for around two hours, exhausted. Then, at around a quarter to 11, I boarded my little RyanAir flight and took off around a half hour later. It took an hour to get to Tours, less time than it took me to get from Norwich to London. I landed around 1:15 in the smallest airport I've ever seen. I think it might have been smaller than my house. And, as far as I can tell, it only supports two flights: the one coming in from Stanstead, and the one that left for Stanstead forty minutes later. I had told Nicole to pick me up around 1:30, but since my plane had gotten in early, I waited...and waited...and waited. I waited for over an hour, and the entire time such panic was going through my head that she had forgotten, or something had happened to her. Nicole doesn't have a cell phone, and I (stupidly) didn't ask for her host family's address. I only knew that her house was somewhere near the train station. I knew we had to get a bus to get to town, but I couldn't see a bus stop anywhere near the airport. Maybe I should just try and find a taxi to take me to town, then either wait around in front of the train station until I saw Nicole, or just get a hotel and wander around on my own, I thought.
Luckily, around 2:30, I did finally see Nicole walking across the parking lot. She had had an exam that morning, after which her professor said, "All right! Now we're going to have a lab..." forcing her into an extra hour of class. Anyway, she came and we walked to the bus stop. Thank God she showed up because I would have never found the bus stop on my own. It's about a mile away, across two roundabouts and around the corner from a high school. Anyway, we took the bus down to La Place Jean Jures, which is one of the main squares in Tours and about five minutes away from the train station. Then we walked another five minutes to Nicole's host family's house, which is very nice and surprisingly big for a European city house. I dropped my stuff off in Nicole's room and rested for a while. Eventually I met Laura, the other American student living in the house. She had gone to Bucknell and had stayed with the same family when she studied abroad in Tours. Now she's working in the Assistant program teaching English in a local elementary school, and she asked to stay with the same family, since they had gotten along so well. We talked for a while, and then Nicole offered to take me out on a tour of Tours, since she was getting to know it so well through her classes and, obviously, by living there for the past two months. We walked around the majority of the city centre and Nicole took me to La Musee des Beaux Arts to see Fritz, a beloved circus elephant who died in Tours while touring France and who was stuffed and given as a gift to the city. She also took me to La Cathedrale Saint-Gatien, the ruins of the 5th century Basilique Saint-Martin, the 19th century Basilique Saint-Martin, to Les Halles (food market), and La Place Plume, another main square known for its architecture, and, more locally, for its restaurants, bars, and night clubs. She took me down a creepy 16th century alley...creepy because the buildings are leaning up against each other. We also stopped by one of what seemed like a hundred game shops so that I could buy my own copy of Jungle Speed!It was getting late and Nicole had told her host mother that we'd be eating out that night, so we looked around for a restaurant that wasn't too pricey. Unfortunately, France isn't terribly vegetarian-friendly. We finally stumbled upon one of many kebab places and I got a cheese panini. Then we went back to her house, I briefly met her host mother and the twins, Flore and Augustin, who were trying to fix their Wii.
We talked for a long time, then went to bed.
Friday, Nov 7- Nicole had to wake up early for class and, since I don't have a key and can't lock the door on my way out, I had to leave with her. Well, she managed to leave the door propped open so it would lock when I shut it, so I actually left an hour after she did, but once I was out I was out until we met up later in the afternoon. Luckily, the family's oldest son, Aurthur, who lives elsewhere in Tours but comes home often, came home and offered to lock it after me. So, with Nicole's map in hand, I set out on my own to spend a day in Tours. My first stop was the Briocherie next to the train station, where I bought myself a large chocolate chip brioche, which was delicious. Then I mostly wandered around and tried to waste time window-shopping. I went into the Galleries Lafayette (A posh department store. I've been to the enormous one in Paris. I wasn't impressed with either) and the Gallerie Nationale (another mall). At the Gallerie Nationale I stopped for an orange juice at a cafe, then went to the second floor to browse the CD selection. Eventually I got bored and hungry, so I decided to try and find my way to Les Halles to buy some fresh cheese or something. No luck. Even with all the signs, I somehow couldn't find my way. I did, however, end up near the Basilique, so I decided to stop in for a while and just relax. Like I've said, I love cathedrals. Around 2:30 I left and headed back to the train station, stopping briefly at the used CD store nearby, where I bought a Dan Ar Braz CD in honor of Prof. Laurent. Nicole and I had agreed to meet at le Jardin Leonardo da Vinci, a "garden" in front of the train station frequented by drug dealers, but which was pretty convenient for our purposes. Around 3 she showed up and we went home for her to drop off her stuff. We had planned to go out again that afternoon, since it was the only real afternoon we'd have together, but I feel asleep! I must have been very, very tired, since I normally don't nap. Anyway, I didn't wake up until 6. We talked some more for a while. Eric was supposed to be visiting from Toulouse, but since there was a railworkers' strike going on, we didn't know if he'd be able to get a train. We had decided to just stop by the train station when his train should have gotten in, and if he wasn't there, we'd assume that he wasn't coming. So, at 7 Nicole and I popped by the train station...and by 7:20 we'd figured that Eric wasn't coming, which was confirmed when we saw Eric online once we got home. At 8 we were called down to dinner with the family, which was crepes, to accomodate my vegetarian needs. It was delicious, and a great dinner overall. I'd say I understood around 80% of what was being said, and I probably contributed more to the dinner conversation than I ever have at Dickinson French Table. Augustin would periodically make fun of my vegetarianism, at which point I would quip back, and then we would all make fun of his English, which isn't at its best. Laura told stories about how her 8 year-old students were asking surprisingly informed questions about Obama's election, the Martin Luther King and JFK assassinations, and the KKK. I spent a good five minutes explaining the translation for "couverts," which is "cutlery" in British English, but "silverware" in American English. But I had to explain how, although "silverware" is used broadly, it technically only applies to cutlery made of silver, and everything else is "flatware." This, strangely enough, was a very interesting conversation. Then we had dessert crepes and cleaned up. Nicole and I went back to her room to, what else? talk some more. Eventually I fell asleep again.
Saturday, Nov. 8 - I woke up early with Nicole again, who had to meet her Bucknell group for another tour. I had to be at the airport around noon, so I packed up my backpack, said goodbye and thank you to her host parents, and walked Nicole over to the Basilique, where she was meeting her program. We said goodbye and I walked back over to see the Saturday flower market, which was beautiful. I walked back down to La Place Jean Jures, bought a chocolate panini (which Nicole said I HAD to have before I left), and did some more window shopping in the vicinity. Then, around 11:15, I got on a bus and went to the airport...rather, the high school near the airport. Then I had to walk the mile to the airport (which wasn't bad at all, but I was grateful for the map Nicole had drawn me). I got lunch at the tiny little cafe in the tiny little airport and waited around. At 1:30, I borded my plane and headed back to Stanstead. My train from Stanstead to Cambridge was cancelled, so I had to take the Stanstead Express train one stop to some other station, then get a train to Cambridge from there. I waited at Cambridge for about fifteen minutes, then got on a train to Norwich. I was exhausted when I got back to Norwich, but Morissons is right near the station, so I figured I should do some grocery shopping before I went back. I shopped, caught the bus, walked back to the Village, and collapsed. Matthieu offered to come over and make me dinner, since I was so tired. So we made some tortellini, ate, and talked for a while until he went home and I went to bed, dreaming in Franglish.
I really enjoyed my short stay in France, but I wish I had had some more time. I think, even in a week, my spoken French would have improved just from being surrounded by French and being forced to speak it. And I was just starting to know my way around the city by the time I left, so a few more days I would have been able to find Les Halles! Oh well. I'll just have to go back.
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