Cakes, beautiful cakes

It's time to post some more dessert pics. You deserve 'em.

(Close-ups are all of the ones Josh made!)

This last one is quite possibly my all-time favorite thing Josh has made. In English, it's just a modern Black Forest cake. It blows the old-fashioned Black Forest out of the water. Inside, there's a layer of brownie at the bottom, which is topped with layers of griotte (like a sour cherry) jam and chocolate mousse. The one girl in the class who says she doesn't like sweets even said she couldn't stop eating the chocolate mousse!

International randomness

Sundays never fail to amaze me here in Yssingeaux. I'm not sure if it's because the town does very little to advertise its events or if I just miss them because they're all in French. But today, for at least the second time in a month, I walked into downtown Yssingeaux thinking I'd find the streets nearly empty only to come upon a massive festival taking place that I had no idea would be there. Clovis, Josh, puppies and I headed downtown this morning for our new weekly ritual: cappuccinos at the corner bar. Almost immediately after passing the annoyance of street construction outside the church near our apartment, we knew something was different about today. Stall after stall of old keepsakes reminded us that someone had told us there would be a flea market in July. This must be it! We browsed a bit and bought a few small things (I found some cool coins from the 17- and 1800s!). They were literally selling everything, including the kitchen sink:

On the way to the cafe for cappuccinos we saw a sign advertising a jazz show at our favorite bar, Cine Lux, starting at 11am. We started calling people to meet us there. The jazz show was outside--it was electric and a lot of fun, especially for a pretty Sunday in July. We only stayed about 45 minutes before heading back. Then we saw the very end of what looked like a really fun steel-drum band's set. They were leaving for lunch but would be back in an hour. So, we would do the same. The Our Boys Steel Orchestra came all the way from Trinidad & Tobago (in the Caribbean) to play for us the country's national instrument, the steel-pan drum. The group was simply amazing, a lot of fun.

And apparently they weren't the only ones in Yssingeaux today representing other countries. There is a folk festival going on in nearby Le Puy en Velay and some of the folk groups came to our town today. There were groups from the Canary Islands:

And from Slovakia:

And from Kazakhstan:

All in all, super random fun on a Sunday. What did you do today?

Happy Bastille Day (almost)!

I was doing a little research on Bastille Day because, well, I honestly didn't remember much about it from my seventh-grade European history class. It's coming up on Saturday and it's a huge deal around here, so I figured I should know more.


La Fête Nationale, aka the 14th of July, aka Bastille Day, aka le quatorze juillet celebrates the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, marking the beginning of the French Revolution. The Bastille was a large prison in Paris and it represented the absolute power of the monarchy, at that time ruled by Louis XVI (his queen was Marie Antoinette). The country was in a state of economic crisis and after the king fired the royal accountant, a man beloved by the peasants, those peasants rose up. Riots broke out in Paris and elsewhere and eventually—on the morning of July 14, 1789, to be exact—sights were set on the Bastille and its weapons cache. The rioters were successful, proving for the first time that peasants could defeat the government. The French Revolution eventually led to the birth of the Republic, which we know today.
Some interesting facts about the French Revolution:


Some interesting facts about the French Revolution:

* The Revolution’s three ideals were, “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,” a motto that the French still live by.

* Those three ideals were expressed through a tri-color flag—red, white and blue—which is now the French flag.

* There were only seven prisoners in the Bastille when it was attacked.
Napoleon Bonaparte took charge of the French army at the end of the Revolution. Did you know … it illegal to name a pig Napoleon in France??

* Out of the French Revolution came the metric system!

* The guillotine was perfected during the French Revolution (many claim it was invented during this time, though this fact has been disputed). During the Revolution, more than 15,000 people were executed by guillotine.

Gettin' legal

Unless you've gone through the process, you really have no idea how difficult it is to stay in France--or any other country in the EU, for that matter--for longer than three months. I say three months because that's the length of time foreigners (most, if not all) can stay here without a visa. For those of us wanting to stay longer, we have a whole list of things to do, documents to prepare and processes to go through for a few lousy--but priceless--stickers.

I think I outlined the process Josh and I went through when we were still in the States to get our visas. Because Josh is a student, he was applying for a student visa. That was a feat in itself. To obtain one of these coveted visas, one must first register with an agency called Campus France. For this you need your official acceptance letter to school you plan to attend, you must create a user profile on the agency's website, complete with photograph and resume, and then you fork over $120 and get an email certifying your registration in return. This is one of the many documents you must show to the consulate when you show up for your visa appointment.

Here's what Josh had to show:

1. Copy of the official acceptance from ENSP
2. Copy of the Campus France emails confirming registration and payment
3. Application form
4. Photo
5. Passport plus a copy of ID page
6. Processing fee (50 euro)
7. Proof that he had sufficient funds to live in France
8. Airline reservation info
9. Proof of residence while in France
10. French immigration (OFII) form filled out
11. A self-addressed, stamped express envelope

Here's what I had to show to apply for a long-stay visitor visa:

1. Application form, filled out
2. ID photo
3. Passport plus copy of ID page
4. Copy of my drivers license to prove U.S. address
5. Notarized letter promising not to seek employment while in France
6. Proof of income or available funds to support me while in France
7. Proof of medical insurance
8. Marriage certificate
9. Proof of residence while in France
10. Processing fee (99 euros)
11. French immigration (OFII) form, filled out
12. Airline reservation
13. Self-addressed, stamped express envelope

Oh, and note that we were required to prepare each document plus a photocopy, in the order specified. Then we made an appointment at the French Consulate of San Francisco (the closest to us) and show up early so as not to miss the appointment. The appointment can't be more than two months before you plan to leave, but the visas can take up to 21 days to be approved or denied.

On the day of our appointment, we woke up early, drove the 3 1/2 hours to SF, waited around for about an hour for our appointment, and signed in. We went through a metal detector, they checked my purse, and let us in to a room with a bunch of chairs and a couple of cashier-type windows. We were greeted almost immediately and the guy called us up together. We handed him the documents he asked for (about half of what we prepared), answered his questions and were sent on our way in less than half an hour.

We received our passports, complete with visas, and stamped OFII applications that same week. Phew!

If that wasn't enough, we were instructed that upon arriving in France we would have to follow up with OFII within three months. Luckily the school helped out a lot for this step--if they hadn't we'd have been stressed. They photocopied our passports, with visa pages and entry stamps. They also took our OFII forms and sent it all to OFII and set up appointments for us at our local office, which is in Clermont-Ferrand, two hours from Yssingeaux. But before those appointments we needed to gather a few more things, including buying stamps--from the local tabac--to pay our processing fees. For a student visa, the cost is 58 euros; for visitors, it's 349 euros.

The school arranged a minibus for the group a few weeks ago to go to Clermont-Ferrand. A friendly chef's assistant from ENSP agreed to accompany us as our French translator.

We first went to a clinic where we got chest X-rays. Let's just say the French are not as modest as Americans--no robes were provided--but they did bring us in each individually.

Then we brought those X-rays to another clinic, where we had health exams. Height, weight, vision, breathing, etc. We peed in cups--plastic cups like you'd drink from, no lids, very strange. Those of us who couldn't remember when we had our last inoculations were given boosters for tetanus and Hepatitis. After a short physical we were issued official documents affirming our health.


Next we stopped for lunch, then we were off to the OFII office. One by one, we stepped up to the window and presented our passports, stamps, an ID photo, the health certificate and OFII forms. We were supposed to have proof of residency but the school ended up having to send that later. Then one by one they affixed stickers to our passports affirming our legal status. Unfortunately one of the girls in the group grabbed her old, expired passport and instead of leaving with her sticker ended up leaving in tears. She had to go back on her own a few days later, missing class, to get her visa finalized.


So .... I won't even get into the process of getting the dogs here. Maybe in another post. Until then, we're all legal! At least until the end of the year. Woohoo!