Paris is a place that never loses its magic. As many times as I have been there, I still feel as though I am stepping into an enchanted world when I arrive. I am always prepared for it to lose some of its original charm, but it never does. Mark and I went back a few weeks ago for the first time since we arrived in France this year, and the same wonderful feeling flooded over us both as we stepped off the train. We were there to participate in a Rotary orientation for all scholars living in France, and we had a great time. (Mark's input):It is also worthy to note here that while we have ventured to Paris
quite a few times now, we've only seen what might constitute 5% of the
city. Paris is old in many places but new to the view of each visitor. Like the patterns of the wallpaper in your house with its many details and specialties, Paris has become a familiar stranger. Like the moment when you realize that you thought you had memorized the arrangement of an old photo, you look just close enough to notice a new detail that isn't new at all. Paris will always have that new detail that can be overlooked because something else in its fabric has stolen your eye, and Paris is a thief. It sneaks up on you and surprises you with its every stitching.
Here are a few highlights from our visit:
A quick lunch with Adam Henson, to start our journey off right-- we had a delicious light repas at Café Rostand. Adam was a student in my French class, and he is studying in Paris this year.
Mark hanging out at the hostel while we wait on all the scholars to arrive. We liked the hostel when we first arrived (the interior is beautiful), but after zero sleep on Friday night due to some boisterous Russian guests (and I mean like 30 of them, minimum), we were not as impressed. And by boisterous, I mean slamming doors, laughing hysterically, yelling upstairs at their friends, and shouting down the hall in a thick Russian accent, " I am Russian; bring me the vodka!" They came in at about 3 a.m., and never went to sleep. Gotta love hostels!!
(Mark's take) It is not in particular that the noise is directly proportional to the presence of Russians but more of you being present in a hostel. Quiet or peaceful comes to mind with the thought of the beach on a calm winter day or the cloister of an old Roman Catholic Church. Hostels are not on the nomination list to be added to the above serene places. Anywho, I think that the Russians should have stayed to hear the petite lesson on what politeness means to the French, which they didn't. The morning after, or should I say later on that day, all of the Rotary scholars were given the opportunity to hear a professional politeness expert give tips on how to speak to the French and get your questions answered adequately. This is something that they take quite seriously...probably as seriously as the Russians feel about their choice of drink.
I am super excited about our boat tour down the Seine by night. It was spectacular!
View from our night boat tour-- remember the boat times??
These are some fun folks! These were some of the scholars we met in Paris: Tommaso, Anne, and Allysan.
No caption needed, really. I still get chills when it sparkles!
I just liked this picture of Notre Dame from our boat, for some reason. It looks so different at night than by day!
We visited Montmartre, but couldn't stay long because it was raining. Love this photo, though.
All the scholars in France this year!
The group of scholars from Japan, getting ready to sing a traditional song at our Rotarian dinner Saturday night.
The Americans sharing their talents... well, one of them anyway. Shar-Né has an amazing voice, so she saved the group when they asked the Americans to sing!
Here is a short clip of the American scholars singing-- I started laughing so hard at Mark I had to cut the camera off. But Shar-Né's voice is superb! (Mark's Part): Yes, I know; I am obviously an idiot. It is worthy to note that I was told of this 'routine' seconds before it happened. The story is, is that after Ikumi with her awesome talent, each group of scholars from Japan and the U.S. would sing a traditional song for the crowd. I was not informed of this and being an important detail, I thought it might have been necessary to tell all of the American scholars instead of keeping one of them out of the loop. Like a good sport, I went with it anyways. Like the seed of and unknown source, my reaction to the critical part of the song is sown in blissful ignorance which only yields the fruit of embarrassment and humor...it's a special feeling that one gets when you're laughing and then after a few seconds you realize that instead of with others are laughing at you. It was fun nonetheless, if it's laughter you are after, look no further than to the things that I try to do.
Ikumi, the Japanese scholar also studying in Lyon this year, rendered us all speechless. Luckily, the Americans sang before she performed-- who could follow this act??
(Side note from Mark): So, Ikumi (above) is a professional opera singer and certainly has an amazing talent. This makes it somewhat difficult when her sponsor Rotarian tells me that in the spring there is a multinational talent festival held in one of the local amphitheaters here and that Rotary has a part in and she would like to show us off. So, after Ikumi sings she turns to me and says, "What talent do you have to show during the festival? Do you sing? Does your wife sing? Do you have any talent that could be of use for the Rotary part of the show?" I then try to explain that while I appreciate the opportunity to be involved with what sounds like a miss multinational contest, I am humbled to admit that I don't sing and my wife doesn't sing and that I have no dog or pony to show the crowd. My talents these days seem to center around mollifying Ikumi's sponsor in any way possible and appeasing my professors with what they consider is the correct way to write a research paper. I did tell her that I play a little guitar, and that I didn't bring it to France so I don't really have anything that can be called (in her opinion) tangible talent. Simply put, we have little to no skills but on the other hand if you need an internet discount on a six night hostel in Dublin...I'm your guy.
Tommaso, Shar-Né, and Mark
Mark and I had the pleasure of sitting with this gentleman during the meal. He was such great fun, and had a wonderful sense of humor. He even taught us how to say "nanny nanny boo boo" in French.
Ahh, yes. This photo is of the Hôtel de Ville, at about 2:30 a.m. Why, you may ask? Because we attempted to participate in the "Nuit Blanche" in Paris. Shops, museums, the metro, etc., were supposedly going to remain open all night long. I say "supposedly," because the advertisements were a bit misleading. Only 2 metro lines stayed open, and most of the museums were closing about the time we arrived at their entrances. So, we ended up seeing nothing, and having to walk back to our hostel at about 4 a.m. Keep in mind that this night followed the sleepless, Russian-filled evening the night before.
Other than that trip, we have mostly been living a fairly routine life. We began attending the Rotaract meetings-- they are a fun and diverse group; we look forward to participating in their volunteer activities this year. We also benefited from a colloquium on translation a couple of weeks ago; the conference was called "Traduire sans papiers," and we were able to sit in and listen to various leading scholars on the topic of translation, both from a political perspective as well as from a literary perspective. I felt invigorated to be able to attend sessions during the 3-day conference. Mark is feeling a little overwhelmed with his school work these days, but we all know he'll pull through. Even though it has been awhile since he has had to submit papers, I am sure it will become familiar to him again after the first few pages are complete. As for me, I am enjoying the freedom of being able to research and learn on my own, without the restrictions of a course load.
Other recent happenings:
The facade of our apartment building is being repaired, so scaffolding
has been built all around us and my days of sleeping in have been
temporarily halted. Also, every once in awhile, we'll become extremely
startled by the sight of a random man walking past our window-- this
sight may not seem very frightening, until I tell you that we live on
the second floor. We're slowly getting used to that sight.
We also attended a really fun Beaujolais festival here in Lyon one weekend:
Most of the following photos were taken by our friend and Mark's
classmate, Nilay. She captured some great moments from the festival.
Yeah! Free wine and dancing French people! What a great Saturday.
Mark wanted to pose with this little fall ride for children, and the gentleman running the operation decided to have some fun by placing that little pumpkin hat on Mark's head.
Good wine and great company
Tasting the wine! Nilay is pictured on the far left, along with one of her friends.
There were several bands playing throughout the square-- this one was one of the liveliest.
Lovely ladies kicking up their heels a bit!
Waving the flag to the music
We took advantage of a photo opp with the mayor of Morgon, who happened to be there while we were tasting the wine at his tent.
People were dancing to the live music everywhere; it was such a festive ambiance.
There was a gourmet cook on site, serving delicious foods that paired well with the wine. We had lots of tasty treats!
And a puppet show! We enjoyed watching the performance for a few moments; La Maison de Guignol is located in Lyon, and the puppets are a traditional part of the ville.
Aside from the wine tasting, we have also kept up our regular visits to the park and zoo. This park is one of the main reasons we don't blog too often-- we'd rather be strolling though here:
It is kind of hard to tell, but that is Mark peeking out from the middle of the "O" in LYON.
And again, this time in front of the "Y."
We finally found the zebras! First time we have seen them this year.
ROAR!! Except it was actually a yawn-- but the photo still looks pretty impressive!
We had just finished a bike ride, so please excuse my crazy hair, etc. But look at the pretty fall flowers behind us! The park is truly breathtaking right now.
Beautiful flowers-- I have a ton of photos like this one.
And we got a really fun video of an elephant totally jamming out-- the animals are really frisky in the fall! Mark had some fun creating this little gem for you-- enjoy!!
I began this entry before we left for Nice last week, but obviously didn't quite get it posted as soon as I thought. So, we'll end here for now, but we promise to get our nice adventures from Nice posted soon.
"At that moment on a restaurant terrace nearby, the wind magically made two glasses dance unseen on a tablecloth"- Narrator in Amélie
At this point in our trip, as we settle into somewhat of a routine and begin to call this apartment home for a short while, a strange transformation is beginning to take place within us. I remember the feeling from our last year abroad, but I wasn't really able to pinpoint exactly what was happening then. While looking at new pictures of family and friends back home, the realization that time hasn't stopped there sinks in, and the distance between us and our families hits hard. We feel far away, and recognize the absolute foreignness of this place, and a sadness begins to creep over us. Some would call this feeling "homesickness," I suppose, but it isn't exactly a yearning to be home. It is more like we must face and acknowledge the fact that while we are living abroad, and our lives almost feel as though they are on hold this year, our families' and friends' lives are very much in motion. Our nieces and nephews are growing up, babies have been born that we won't meet until they have been in this world for a year or more, and la vie continue, regardless of our temporary absence. Obviously, we are aware that time is passing for us as well, but in a different fashion. Thus, it feels as though we are the two wine glasses, dancing unseen in the wind, while the rest of our families move about their daily lives. It feels a bit surreal and nostalgic, but the concept is very freeing at the same time. And we know it won't be long before this adventure is coming to an end, and then we will feel nostalgic for our time here in France. So surely we can make it through just one more fall without a pumpkin spice latté, a Thanksgiving turkey, and Christmas in Paducah. We get to celebrate the Fête des Lumières instead, and I am sure that will be a spectacular experience that we will want to share with family and friends when we get home.
La vie quotidienne, or everyday life, for us is very leisurely and laid-back-- in other words, we are living like the French! Mark attends class four days a week for two to four hours at a time, and I regularly attend two French literature courses as an auditeur libre (Francophone literature and French literature of the 20th century). In the rest of my spare time, I am researching French contemporary authors, experimenting with French cooking, and helping Mark with brainstorming for his thesis. He already has an outline, but I am sure it will morph and change many times by next May. I remember all too well how I started out with mine, and by the time I finished the first chapter I realized it was moving me in a completely different direction than I originally thought I was going. Aside from class, we have managed to find time to enjoy a few more cultural excursions. Mark attended his first Rotary meeting last Friday; he presented himself to his host club and exchanged banners with them. We made contact with Rotaract, and we will begin attending their meetings. Our first one is this week, and we are anxious to initiate our involvement with them. Our service work in Nantes was carried out through the Rotaract club there, so we are looking forward to some hands-on volunteer opportunities through Rotaract Lyon as well.
Mark's banner exchange with Rotary Club Croix Rousse. He is standing with the club president,
Monsieur Noël Dussous, and another member.
We have not included photos of our apartment yet, so here is a video tour that Mark took a few days after we moved in. The little frog on the mantle is a special friend that traveled with me on our first year-long excursion, and he came back for round two this year. Thanks, Anne, for sending him along to watch over us! We LOVE our apartment! It is in a great location, near a metro station, several bus stops, a city bicycle stand, a boulangerie, and a small supermarket. Oh, and a pharmacy, which I am sure will come in handy for Mark at some point on this trip.
This is a still shot of our little froggy friend!
A few weeks ago, we took advantage of les journées du patrimoine here in Lyon. A special weekend is set aside all across Europe for cities to allow access to places that are not generally open to the public, as a celebration of their heritage and patriotism. For example, in Paris, the gardens were open at Elysée Palace (where President Hollande resides), and the president even made an appearance, signed a few autographs, and met a few of the visitors. Mark and I stayed in Lyon, but we had access to some pretty interesting sites around the city as well. Here are a few photos from our excursions:
The three photos above are of the great opera house in Lyon. We took a free tour-- it is magnificent inside! There is also a restaurant at the very top.
This photo and the following 5 are from the Hotel de Ville. Beautiful inside as well as outside.
Of course we had to take advantage of being able to climb around the Roman ruins, since they were opened to the public for the weekend!
Mark is delivering a beautiful and moving soliloquy...
And now he is applauding himself.
This couple decided to have their wedding pictures taken here-- what a great plan; wait until the ruins are open to the public to schedule your portraits! They were having fun.
The two photos above are from the Brasserie Georges, a famous restaurant here in Lyon. They opened their doors for people to come in and look around during the days of patrimoine. Many famous authors and artists have eaten here-- we plan to dine there soon, and I am going to request to sit at Hemingway's table.
Another visit we made recently was to a secret garden in the city. Mark surprised me one Saturday by taking me here; it was really sweet. I did not even know it existed, but he did the research and discovered it. This garden is called Rosa Mir, and it is only open to the public for a few hours on Saturday. The garden was built by a man diagnosed with cancer. He lived near the hospital where he went for treatments, so he would go back and forth between his home and the hospital to work on the garden. It was one of his dreams to finish it, and he finally did. It took him 20 years to complete it, and he built it for his mother. Kind of puts all those projects we always seem to put off and never complete into perspective. After he died, the city of Lyon began caring for the garden to keep it in good condition.
A few other items we have failed to mention in previous posts are things we love about the city and about French life in particular. One of the best things about living here is the access to delicious, fresh food and produce. There are too many open air markets to mention here, and we usually make it to one about once a week. We filmed a small portion of one of our favorites at La Croix Rousse, but it is impossible to capture the essence of walking through. Your senses are almost overwhelmed-- the bright colors of the food, the sounds of the vendors announcing their sales and the customers discussing which fruits/vegetables they would like to buy, and the different smells as you pass by the fruit stand, the meat stand with rotisserie chicken cooking, crepes being made fresh, the bread stand, the cheese stand, the flowers, and so on. And this delightful scene continues on for blocks and blocks-- it is so different from visiting your local supermarket. Please excuse my franglais in the video. I am still not good at switching back and forth quickly.
In addition to the markets, we also love the public transportation systems. There is a bus, metro, or tram that can take you anywhere you want to go in the city, relatively cheaply, so not owning a car is definitely no handicap here. (And we are happy not to have a vehicle, as the price of gas here is astronomical-- it makes our complaints about the cost of fuel at home seem ridiculous). We purchase monthly cards which allow us unlimited access to any of the public transportation. In addition, we have purchased a year-long permit to use these city bicycles, called GrandLyon, and they are located all over the city. You simply check one out at a stand nearby, and then you can park it at any other stand in the city. As long as you return it within one hour, it is free to use (with the yearly fee already paid, of course). I have to admit, I was a little worried I had forgotten how to ride a bike since I haven't been on one since I was about 12 years old, but I managed not to fall over, even on my first wobbly attempt at riding. And it feels sort of rejuvenating to ride bikes again! It makes me remember all the fun my siblings and I had with the neighborhood kids when we were little. Here are some photos of our bike rides in the park.
These photos are from the free zoo at the Parc Tete d'Or, where we love to bike. I loved the giraffes! I wish my nieces Kaylea and Ava could come see them; Kaylea loves 'raffies, and we get to see these whenever we want!! Ava would probably prefer the 'gopes' over the 'raffies, but they have those, too!
We also rented a paddle boat on the lake in the park. Apparently we have some crazy paddle boat faces, and I promise Mark hadn't been drinking!
Mark has been somewhat displeased with the system for calculating the fee you pay for transportation here. For train tickets, there is a discount card for students who are 12-25 years of age. This year, they extended that offer for students who are 26 as well. Unfortunately, Mark and I are both older than 26, and the next discount is basically for senior citizens. There is a card for people who travel on vacations, but there are a lot of restrictions placed on how and when you can use it, and most of them would disqualify Mark and I from getting our money's worth out of it. So, our train tickets are MUCH more expensive this year. The SNCF finally advertised a promotion called "carte weekend" that will help a lot-- two people can travel for the price of one, as long as you leave on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday and spend at least one night "sur place." Oh, and it has to be an aller-retour ticket (round trip). So that will help tremendously, but it is still not the same as the carte 12-25, which allows you up to 60% off on any train ticket, to anywhere, anytime. In addition, to use the local transportation, in order to get the student discount you cannot be over 27. So, even though Mark is a Rotary scholar and has a letter from Lyon 3 stating he is a student, he cannot receive the student price. So he pays a steep 55 euro per month fee. He tried in various ways to get around this stipulation (I seriously thought the TCL transport people were going to physically remove him from their office a few times; I tried to look nonchalant and pretend that I didn't know him during these escapades), but to no avail. In fact, he ended up paying an extra fee because he thought if he could get around them knowing his age, and just apply for a new card using his student ID, that he could "beat the system." You all know Mark well enough to guess how that turned out! Once your name is in the computer, there is no going back. The really ridiculous thing in all this is that they gave me the student price, without any questions, and I am not a student here! I have no student ID, I am only doing independent research, but since I am under 28 they gave it to me. I know Mark is appreciative of the huge discount I get, but I also think that it just angered him more when they gave the discount to me since he actually is the legitimate student here.
We also love going to get fresh bread in the mornings. We have a boulangerie right across the street from our apartment, so we treat ourselves to fresh bread several times a week (we should really do it daily, if we truly want to live like the French!). The croissants are incredible! It is also fun getting to know our local bread maker. Along with the fresh bread, we have been much more adventurous with tasting different cheeses this time around. Mark was not a cheese fan last time, but he has tried several that he really likes this year. I still can't do Roquefort (bleck!); it is just too strong for me.
The cheap wine is also a fantastic part of our life here! You can find a really good bottle of wine for 3 euro here, and the superb wines aren't usually much more than 20. Mark has already purchased a bottle of Margaux for 22 euro; he's really excited to drink that one.
The coffee is actually coffee here. It is so much better! We love having an afternoon espresso at a little outdoor café-- the outdoor dining scene creates such a fun ambiance; I wish there were more places with a terrace at home. We will definitely miss the coffee when we leave (although this is the one time a year that I drink Starbucks, just because of that pumpkin spice flavor!! I will just savor extra French coffee to make up for it...)
Although the food in Lyon is fantastic, there are still certain things from home that we were missing. I love vinaigrette dressing, especially being able to make it homemade with fresh ingredients, but I also love Ranch dressing! And it doesn't exist in France. Luckily, we stumbled upon Little Britain, a small grocery store that specializes in American and British goods. I know we are ridiculous for buying French's mustard in France, but sometimes you just crave stuff from home! Don't worry; I promise I won't make Mark tote a giant bag of Dr. Pepper around with us on our next voyage, like I did last time.
Finally, one more thing that we love about our life here is the international influence. In Nantes, we rarely encountered people speaking any other language but French. There just weren't too many foreigners living there, especially not Americans! I loved living there for that reason, but Lyon has a different feel to it. There are people from all over the world living here, and everyone is respectful of each other. In Mark's program alone there are people from the Ukraine, Brazil, Serbia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Australia, Mexico, Canada, to name a few. You encounter people from all over the world, sitting at the same table together. And we love hearing their perspectives, which in many cases are so different from our own. Lyon is a very relaxed city, and people seem to be in good moods all of the time. They take their dogs everywhere with them, they enjoy long 2 and a half hour lunches, and they respect each other. Life here is pretty great in that regard. We have been watching all the unrest around the world (we get over 20 international news stations here, and in probably close to 10 different languages-- it is so nice to have some real news on the television!), especially the hatred many countries have for the U.S. right now, and it is a little uncomfortable to think about getting caught abroad in the middle of all those problems. However, we have never felt in danger in Lyon, and it is nice to meet people from other cultures who recognize the fact that not all of the U.S. is in support of the decisions our government makes. We will be watching the election from abroad once more, and casting our votes by mail-- Mark had trouble explaining to the election clerk in Wichita Falls why he needed his ballot mailed to France again. It really is strange that our travels coincided once more with the election, and with the Olympics. It feels a little like "déja vu." At any rate, it will be interesting to see how things turn out, especially from a completely different perspective than at home.
This is our new doggy friend, Roxy, who traveled to Lyon with one of Mark's classmates from Brazil. She gets to go everywhere in Lyon!!
We are attending a Rotary seminar in Paris this weekend, so a post about our Rotaract interactions and our visit to Paris will follow next week. I cannot wait to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night again! I have a feeling it will definitely be worth missing out on a few pumpkin spice lattés.
