A Belgian-bound weekend

Greetings from Belgium. It's been quite a weekend! And we're not even done yet. Currently Josh and I--and the puppies--are in Brussels. Actually, we're staying a bit outside of town, by the airport, for two reasons: 1. the hotel is cheap and accepts pets, and 2. I really, really don't want to drive into the city. We got here by way of a little red Citroen, which is manual, driven by me. I've been mostly OK. Just don't put me on a hill, and for the love of God don't make me stop! Ha. No, seriously, highway driving has been A-OK. It's city driving that sucks. All the shifting gears and having to start from first and then quickly shift into second ... uggh. It's enough to give me flashbacks of driver's-ed. Seriously.

So, we started off the weekend on Friday because Josh didn't have class. We picked up the car and, since our friend Yulia was headed to Lyon and we had to pass through there anyway, we offered her a ride. That was my first test in city driving and it was scary! Stop-and-go traffic, hills ... we found a low-traffic street where a car was illegally parked with its hazards on, stopped behind it and dropped of Yulia. Then it was back on the highway, which went through gorgeous countryside. We first saw signs approaching Dijon and then we saw the mustard fields. They give the lush, green landscape these beautiful splashes of bright yellow. Wish I liked mustard ...

On Friday our destination was a town called Nancy. That's where we not only planned to stay for the night but also were supposed to meet up with a Chico friend of ours, Hailey. We got there a little later than we planned, and because of construction in the area, the GPS we rented with the car--a wonderful investment, to be sure--did not quite get us to our destination. We quickly tired of the "recalculating," parked and found our hotel. I attempted an uphill reverse, first failed and then succeeded (thankfully, because if I hadn't I either would have hit a car or put on the parking break and asked a random stranger to help me). I eventually parked in a more strategic place and then we caught a tram to meet up with Hailey. It was nice to see not only a familiar face but also someone who speaks our language. By that I mean more than English ... American English, California English, Chico English. Pop culture seems second-nature to us, but when you encounter people who are not from America, you quickly realize they do not get all your references.

It's now dinner time, so I'm going to eat. I'll fill everyone in about today's trip to Ghent and tomorrow's trip to Luxembourg later, complete with pictures.

A weekend of adventures

This past weekend was a blast! As a group, we decided the eight of us would rent two cars--the school has a relationship with a local Citroen dealership/rental place that is actually quite economical!--and explore some of the areas outside Yssingeaux. The only hitch: all their cars have manual, not automatic, transmissions. So ... yours truly did not drive. But I did take driving lessons! More on that in a bit.

Our first adventure was to Le Puy en Velay, this wonderful town just about 20 minutes southwest of us that is quite a bit bigger than Yssingeaux and too much history to absorb in just one day. Our mission was to go to the farmers' market--partly because Josh and his classmates are at school during the one in Yssingeaux, and partly because we heard it was fantastic. It did not disappoint.

The fruits and veggies were all artfully displayed.

The breads were fresh.

And we had a nice time along with all the other shoppers.

As we were finishing our shopping and heading back to the car, Josh, Clovis, Yulia and I came across this artisan patisserie. We had to try some of the goodies, mostly chocolate, that filled its cases. Words cannot describe the deliciousness.

These are just some of the ornate chocolates on offer in this shop. We tried several and each one was better than the last.

Despite the wonderful chocolate and the loot I walked away from the market with--some local raspberry jam and fresh-made apple juice--I was honestly more interested in seeing the Rocher St. Michel while we were in Le Puy. Perched high above the city, this chapel was built in 961 (no, I'm not missing a number) after the town's bishop made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Because of this, the chapel is one of the starting points of the famous Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage. If we hadn't been in a bit of a hurry, we would have climbed the steps up to it. But, we decided to leave a little something to do on our next trip there.

On our way back to Yssingeaux, we stopped at one of our area's biggest kitchen stores so Josh, Clovis and Yulia could pick up a few tools they needed for class. After we got home, Clovis agreed to teach me and Cindy how to drive in a nearby parking lot. Hilarity ensued. But he was a good teacher and when it came time to return the car this morning, I offered and I not only made it to the rental place unscathed, I also stopped at two filling stations (the first wouldn't take my card--credit cards in France are different from the U.S. and don't have the stripe!). I only killed the engine twice, while trying to park and apparently not putting enough pressure on the clutch. Craziness! But Josh and I hope to rent a car next weekend and at least one of us needs to know how to drive stick. I now totally understand why the French love their roundabouts so much--because all their cars are manual and a pain in the butt to come to a full stop in.

On Sunday we decided to do a bit more sightseeing--because we could. Our first stop was to a small town just south of Le Puy, where there is a beautiful waterfall called Cascade de la Beaume.

You can see the waterfall behind us. 

For our second sight-seeing activity of the day, we wanted to check out Forteresse de Polignac, north of Le Puy. Unfortunately, although the guide I picked up in Le Puy said it would be open in April, we found out when we got there that the fortress itself won't be open till May 1. We'll just have to go back there, too!

The fortress includes a medieval castle and, understandably boasts breathtaking views of the city and houses below. 

Last night Josh, Clovis and Yulia worked on their French homework together. It is not easy! I helped because the teacher clearly did not start them off in "beginner" French. They're expected to know how to conjugate irregular verbs (like etre and s'appeler) and whether certain words are masculine or feminine. And although there was an entire exercise about tu vs. vous, the teacher hadn't explained the difference--"tu" is informal "you" and "vous" is formal or plural "you"--so I had to explain that. Clovis has a pretty good grasp on it, as he explained Portuguese and French have many similarities--and Yulia speaks some Italian, which is helpful. Luckily, we have Rosetta Stone and Josh started using it after his first French class last week. I hope the teacher slows down enough to make the class worthwhile for everyone. Josh has that today. Along with food tech, I think--they do classroom stuff on Mondays, which is kind of a drag, and then they get back into the lab Tuesday through Friday, which seems to lift everyone's spirits. 

That's all for now. Until next time, au revoir.

Dinner at the chateau

I'd hoped to have blogged about this yesterday, but the Internet was down, so ... a day late isn't too bad. On Tuesday we had a wonderful dinner prepared at the school for all of Josh's class and others involved in his program. Dane, the guy who oversees a lot of the program's details, was nice enough to invite me to join them. A good time was had by all.

We got a group shot (or 20) on the school's front porch. L-R: Yulia, Josh, Clovis, Lizzie, Cindy, Annie, Jeneva--that's Josh's class--and then myself and Lionel and Karen, who work at the school. Karen, incidentally, has family in Red Bluff, just a 45-minute drive from Chico. Her husband also works at the school.

After the pictures, we went to the school's restaurant, where we were served drinks and some delicious food--wonderful deviled eggs and veggies to start off, then a white fish of some kind (we couldn't put our finger on it and the server only knew the French name for it--nobody wrote it down) accompanied by ratatouille. Yum! And conversation was easy. Dane started off with an introduction in which he said "this group is special."

During dinner he gave us some more insight into how the program works, particularly the internships. Apparently the students start looking for internships at the three-month mark. The school has a relationship with chefs all over the country and they try to pair students up with chefs they think they'll work well with. Then the students have to set up their own interviews, etc. If their first match doesn't work out, there's time for a second pairing. Dane also indicated that, while the students may not get "graded" they are assessed, weekly, and at the end of the program there will be a star. That star might be offered a special internship. The star from the last program split his two-month internship between two MOFs (pronounced moff, it stands for Meilleur Ouvrier de France and those who earn the title get to wear the colors of the French flag on their collars).

Speaking of MOFs, dessert Tuesday night was a special treat. It turned out there was a MOF in our midst. He'd been visiting the school and put together the impressive dessert spread. I'm sad to report I didn't take pictures. You'll just have to take my word for the beauty and deliciousness. There were three tortes on offer. The first two included raspberry and lemon and were amazing. The other was chocolate and had a wonderfully creamy mousse in the middle. Surprisingly, despite my penchant for chocolate-flavored anything, my favorite was one of the tartier concoctions. Who would've guessed ...

OK, that's all I have for now. I'm getting ready to head to the market and this evening I'm going to make lamb stew for Josh and his classmates. It's been a cold week and it's nice to give people a reason to socialize! I hope to have more pictures to share tomorrow.

Yssingeaux, in the snow, part deux

DSC_1983, a photo by mercoop on Flickr.

Today while Josh was in "food tech" class I wandered around town in the snow to take pics. So you can see, too, that it's really quite beautiful! This photo was taken in the town center. Click on the Flickr link for the rest.

Snow in Yssingeaux

It's been snowing here all day and just finally decided to stick. Pretty crazy--I was not expecting it to be this cold here! We tried to go to the movies today. We were going to see "La Colere des Titans" ("Wrath of the Titans"), but they canceled the 2:10 show for some reason, so our adventure out in the snow ended there. Yssingeaux, by the way, is pronounced ee-san-joe. It's turning out to be a really nice little town! Below is a pic of Josh and our roommate, Clovis.

The market!

I'd read about the weekly farmers' market but was not prepared for its scale! On Thursdays in Yssingeaux, the town transforms. Vendors line the streets in several directions and range from those selling fruits and vegetables to cheeses and meats to eggs and hot meals. There also are easily a dozen swap-meet-style booths. It's really a shame Josh has school on Thursday mornings because, seriously now, this market is serious stuff. I swear half the town was out and about. Today I just bought some potatoes, garlic, olive oil and zucchini, but next week I definitely plan on picking up some meats and cheeses as well. And I'll take pics :)

Josh's first day, and settling in

Josh had his first day of school yesterday and learned quite a few things, about the program at least:

1. We don't have to switch apartments--yay!

2. Instead of having 23 or 24 classmates, as we had anticipated, he has just six. He and Clovis are the only guys and Josh is the only (North) American. There are girls from South Africa, Russia and two from Asia--Taiwan and Korea, I think. The oldest is 38, the youngest in her early 20s. 

3. He'll have more French class than we'd thought because apparently the number of hours offered to previous classes had not been enough. 

4. Most Mondays he will not have class.

After class was over, Josh and Clovis returned with their new pastry toolboxes. Pretty neat, eh? I'll take some pics of its contents later. Everything that's metal has "Graham" engraved on it. Awesome!

I also got to unpack a bit yesterday and I took a few pics of our apartment to offer an idea of our living arrangements. Here are two views of the kitchen. The thing on the far right of the first one--yeah, that's our fridge:

Our salle de bain (bathroom, not to be confused with the toilette, or toilet room, not pictured because it's not all that interesting):

Our living room with our white leather couch and two black hassocks:

I'll take some pics of our bedroom and dining room when they're more presentable. Until then, au revoir!

In Yssingeaux

IMG_1089[1], a photo by mercoop on Flickr.

And showing off some Chico pride in the process!

Blurgh

A short update for now ....

After a few beautiful, restful days and nights in the French countryside--one night in Dunieres and two in Allegre--we are finally in Yssingeaux. The town is delightful. We're living on a street called La Rue de l'Eternite--pretty romantic-sounding, yes? But there have been a few hiccups in our living arrangements and the school's international liaison "didn't know I was going to be here" and, while we're getting along quite nicely with our roommate, Clovis, from Sao Paolo, Brazil, we will be forced to move ... whenever they feel like getting another apartment ready (which, by my estimation, will be after the Easter holiday, meaning we can't unpack all weekend!).

Add to that the annoyance of not getting into this preliminary apartment until late yesterday afternoon (instead of the morning, as had been promised). This meant that when I went to return our rental car to Lyon, I was able to get a train to the nearest station--St. Etienne--but the last bus to Yssingeaux had already left for the day. So, tonight will be my first night in the apartment. That we'll be moving out of in a day. Or two. Or three. (Hopefully before Josh starts school on Tuesday!)

OK, enough complaining already!! In all, things have been quite good. As I mentioned before, the towns we stayed in this week were breathtakingly beautiful. I particularly liked Allegre (also spelled Alegre). I promise, before I'm finished with this blog, I will get the accents down as well. And Yssingeaux is so nice! Our beacon of "home" is this super old church. I'll have to take a pic of it this weekend and find out what it is.

Well, sleep is calling. Until next time ...

We made it!

To France, that is. We are currently sitting in the Paris airport/train station awaiting our train to Lyon. Must keep this short, because I'm on a 30-minute Internet pass. Just wanted to let everyone know we're here and we're safe. From Lyon we rent a car and head toward Yssingeaux. We actually stay in a nearby town called Dunieres tonight, then figure out our accommodations tomorrow if all goes well. (Random aside, all the buttons at the top of my Blogger page--"publish," "edit," etc., are now in French! Crazy!)

:)