Saint Etienne: de retour! + book & chestnut festival

De retour!

And I'm back!  Sorry for the delay, other than settling into my new place and starting school, life has been more or less uneventful.  School started on October 1, and now I'm on vacation for two weeks for "La Toussaint" or All Saints Day, which is just that, a day.  All Saints Day is November 1, but the teachers and students have been working so hard that they must feel this break is well deserved.  I on the other hand, am now left with two weeks off and nothing planned.

However!  This past weekend was rather eventful with a book festival here in the city of Saint Etienne, and a chestnut festival just up north.  This was the 30th anniversary of the "fête du livre" or book festival, and the idea is to get people to read more.  There were tents set up all around the city center with local, national and international authors and comic book artists and the like.  

 You could buy books from vendors who set up tents like the first photo, and they were all run by book stores from in or around Saint Etienne.  You could even buy really old books, which (nerd alert) I thought was really cool.

I had to read these books (not all, thank goodness) in school, and it was really neat to see these beautiful bound copies of the classics.

This was a live reading of The Odyssey by Homer, mostly done by this man fully dressed in Greek clothing, but you could volunteer to read passages just by lining up and standing in that little square.  I happened to pass by when little kids were reading and couldn't resist the photo op.  Little kids, reading The Odyssey?  My mind was blown.  This only happens in France. 

On to the chestnut festival or La fête de la châtaigne in French.  It was in a small town about an hour outside of the city center, and when I say small town, I mean very small town.  The nearest bus stop, which I went to with 3 other girls, was over 1 mile away.  Luckily the weather was nice, and the walk wasn't too bad.  I don't have many pictures of actual chestnuts, and it was my first time eating them.  You could buy them roasted, which was how I ate them, or there were crêpes made with chestnut flour, chestnut beignets and chestnut butters and jellies.  I never knew there were so many ways to eat a chestnut.  

A view from the top of the city called La Tour-en-Jarez.  It really was a gorgeous day.

I somehow always seem to find myself amongst medieval festivities.

A look at some of the vendors on our way to the top.  That blue tent was the "drinks" tent, with beer and warm wine for 1 euro!  The warm wine went perfectly with the warm chestnuts.

Myself + Lizzie (another American assistant from Milwaukee) and two other assistants from the Czech Republic and Cyprus.

I will hopefully find things to keep myself busy over these next two weeks, it won't be so long until you hear from me again, I promise!  

Aloha et ciao!

Geneva!

Bonjour!

Went to Geneva a few days ago and it was lovely, from the train ride to the old town.  The view on the train from Lyon was beautiful, it crosses through mountains, along rivers and past little towns here and there.  It was so interesting in fact, that my dad didn't even want to sit next to me!

The weather was rather dismal when we first arrived, chilly and gray.

This was a tiny island and statue of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Geneva born French philosopher and writer who complained about everything.

Just lounging around on the streets.

Making our way through the old town

And here, the most recognisable landmark in Geneva, the jet d'eau, which shoots 140 m in the air. Also, the weather cleared up!

Obligatory yoga pose in front of the fountain :)

The water in the lake is so clear!  There are swans and ducks all over the place, hoping for a bite of food.

Found a Victorinox store (swiss army knife brand), and there was an entire floor designated for knives, and a little bit of luggage on the side.  I saw these and thought how prepared you would be for anything in life if you had one. 

Geneva was wonderful, and incredibly expensive.  The Swiss dollar is about 1:1 with the American dollar, but with what you could buy for about $10 (USD) or less, you would pay almost double.  In any case, for a day trip it wasn't so bad! 

Medieval Festival in Puy en Velay

Bonsoir mes amis!

Today I went with France (yes, like the country), a teacher who I will be working with, and her family to Les fêtes Renaissance du Roi du l'Oiseau, a medieval festival in Puy en Velay, a small town just south of Saint Etienne.  People came from all over the country either to play tourist, or to partake in the festivities.  To work up an appetite, we climbed to the #4 attraction in France, Saint Michel d'Aiguilhe, a little church built on top of a mountain entirely made of volcanic rock from a neighboring now inactive volcano.  Construction began in the 10th (!!!) century, and I can't even begin to imagine how they got the rocks from the volcano to this city, before making it up the hill.

On another hill is the ever impressive La Madone 

Walking through the city

I ate a medieval themed lunch, duck au confit with lentils, and the dessert was a pear soaked in hypocras, a typical medieval wine with spices and it was delicious!  Then we walked through the medieval market where they had numerous food stands and shops where you could buy medieval costumes, jewelry and weapons! which were fake of course.

At the end of the day there was an hour long parade, filled with people from all over the country, dressed to the nines in their medieval Sunday best.

I forgot to mention that I too, was in costume (borrowed from France) but unfortunately for you (and very fortunately for me), there are no pictures.  If you ever get the chance to go to a Renaissance fair, I highly suggest you take it.  The people were so into it, especially the ones that traveled to Puy en Velay, they stayed in tents outside and burned firewood, like they would have done in the middle ages. (!!!)  Until next time... 

...and I'm back!

Bonjour mes amis!

I'm back in Europe, France to be exact, for another adventure!  I'm an English assistant in two high schools in a small town called Saint Etienne, 40 minutes outside of Lyon (the larger, more well known city in the Rhone-Alpes region, which is also the gastronomical capital of the world !!!).

It was smooth sailing from Honolulu to Paris, where I spent a few days walking around like a zombie, as the time difference is 12 hours, exactly half a world apart.  It was a fairly odd feeling to be wandering a city that was strangely familiar, yet incredibly unfamiliar at the same time.  We arrived on Sunday morning, which was night time for my body (and brain more or less), so to avoid taking a day long nap and staying up all night, I went to the Centre Pompidou, the museum for modern art.  

Sunday is family day for les Francais, and as I walked around half in a daze, I overheard some French children talking to their parents about how some of the paintings reminded them of Picasso.  I thought to myself, in what universe would you ever hear something like that from the mouth of a child not more than 10 years old, and then I saw this:

I guess when practically nothing else is open on Sundays, you take the family to look at art and let the kids do as they please.

On to the next day, and Versailles!  (aka one of the reasons behind the French revolution)

We were lucky to have nice weather, as it was still cloudy and gray back in the city. 

After a few nice (but rainy) days in Paris, I made my way down to Lyon and then to Saint Etienne where the weather has been sunny but rather chilly, at least to someone used to 80 degree weather.

More to come!

 

Paris 2.0

For the last part of our trip, we went to Paris!  It's the first time that I've been there during the summer, and like Rome, it was crawling with tourists.  The weather was really nice for the most part, not too hot!  // Pour la dernière partie de notre voyage, on est allé à Paris!  C’est la première fois que j’y étais pendant l’été, et comme à Rome, il y avait vachement beaucoup de touristes.  Pour la plupart du temps il faisait beau, pas trop chaud.

 The Notre Dame on a nice sunny day!

The most crowded I've ever seen Sacre Coeur

Lori, me and Mel in not so nice weather

While we were in Montmartre, we wanted to find the cafe where Amelie worked in the movie.  We finally stumbled upon it but unfortunately it was closed! //  Alors qu’on était à Montmartre, on a voulu trouver le café où Amélie travaillait pendant le film.  On a fini par l’a trouvé, mais malheureusement c’était fermé !  

Lori buying fresh paella at the Bastille market

Lori eating a crepe!

The line for my favorite falafel restaurant in Paris, L'as du fallafel

Finally got my falafel fix because it was closed last time I was there!

Mini shaka and a mini croissant in front of la Tour Eiffel!

Italian Food! // La cuisine italienne!

While I was surprisingly underwhelmed with the food in Rome, I was lucky enough to eat the best Italian food of the trip while in Florence.  The first night we found a restaurant in our book and it was so good that we went there the following night as well.  As far as Italian menus go, to start there is the antipasti which is more or less the appetizer.   Then there's the first course which is usually a pasta dish, then the second course is your meat or fish, and then there's dessert.  I don't know how it's possible to eat all of that, maybe Italians have that so-called second stomach to store more food.  We tried to eat all of the courses the first night but we failed, even if we shared the antipasti and first course.  //  Alors que j’étais étonnement déçu avec la nourriture à Rome, j’avais de la chance de manger la meilleure cuisine italienne du voyage à Florence.  Le premier soir on a trouvé un restaurant dans notre bouquin et c’était si bien qu’on y est allé le soir suivant aussi.  Sur les cartes italiennes, pour commencer il y a l’antipasti qui est plus ou moins comme l’entrée.  Puis il y a le premier plat qui est d’habitude compris des pâtes, et puis le deuxième plat, avec de la viande ou les poissons, et puis ce sont les desserts.  Je ne sais pas comment c’est possible pour tout manger, peut-être les italiens ont un deuxième ventre pour manger plus.  On a essayé de tout manger le premier soir et c’était un échec, même si on a partagé l’antipasti, et le premier plat.   

Sorry, I didn't think to take a picture of the antipasti, we had prosciutto and melon and I would say how delicious it was but everything was amazing!  This is a photo of our first course.  Usually I don't eat risotto very often because it's made with seafood, but this time it was with made with some kind of ham on top and shallots.  //  Désolée, je n’ai pas pensé à prendre les photos de l’antipasti, on avait de prosciutto et du melon et je dirais que c’était délicieux, mais tout était vraiment génial !  Voici une photo de notre premier plat.  D’habitude je ne mange pas de risotto souvent parce que c’est fait avec des fruits de mer mais cette fois-ci c’étais fait avec un type du jambon au-dessus et des échalotes. 

This is my second dish, Ossobucco.  Anthony had the bistecca, the house specialty and again I forgot to take a picture! : ( // Voici mon deuxième plat, l’ossobucco !  Anthony a mangé de bistecca, la spécialité de la maison et encore je n’ai pas pris de photo ! 

These are the first courses of the second night.  Ravioli with spinach in a lemon sauce. // Voici les premiers plats du deuxième soir.  Les raviolis avec des épinards dans une sauce de citron. 

Gnocchi with bacon yummmm! // Du gnocchi avec des lardons

If you ever happen to be in Florence, you really must go to this restaurant!  It's a typical Italian restaurant, which I suppose is recommended in other tourist books because there were other tourists but also locals, so you know it must be good!  // Si vous êtes jamais à Florence, il faut que vous ailliez vraiment à ce restaurant.  C’est typiquement italien, et je suppose que c’est recommandé dans plusieurs bouquins touristiques parce qu’il y avait des autres touristes.  En tout cas, il y avait les vrais florentins alors ça doit être bon !

La Martinicca Via del Sol 27

Firenze!

Florence was a nice change from all of the hustle and bustle of Rome.  Rome was crawling with tourists, and honestly, so was Florence, but for one reason or another it didn't feel like there were as many people.  It took us 30 minutes to walk from our apartment to the Colosseum in Rome, which wasn't even completely across town, but in 30 minutes we could get to the other side of Florence.  It was much easier to walk, and a lot more picturesque. // Florence était un bon changement par rapport à tout le brouhaha de Rome.  Rome était envahi par les touristes, et franchement à Florence c’était pareil, mais pour une raison ou une autre, il n’avait pas l’air qu’il y avait autant de monde.  Ça a pris 30 minutes pour marcher de notre appartement au Colosseum à Rome, qui n’était même pas tout à fait à l’autre côté de la ville, mais ça a pris 30 minutes pour  traverser tout Florence.  C’était beaucoup plus accessible à pied, et beaucoup plus pittoresque.     

Florence by day & night

There was a point last semester while I frantically tried to memorize dates for my course on the 16th century and I thought to myself, why would I ever need to know when Brunelleschi built his dome in Florence.  The first time I saw the dome, I ate my words.  Just fyi, it was completed in 1434, without any scaffolding.  These photos make the dome look smaller than it is, but it's really unbelievably huge.  We climbed 463 steps to get to the top. // Il y avait un moment pendant le semestre dernier où j’essayais frénétiquement de mémoriser les dates pour mon cours de seizième siècle et je me disais, pourquoi j’ai besoin de connaitre la date à laquelle Brunelleschi a construit son dôme à Florence.  Quand j’ai vu le dôme pour la première fois, je me suis rendue compte que je n’aurais jamais du penser ça.  Pour votre information, la construction a terminé en 1434, sans aucun échafaudage.  Ces photos ne rendent pas le dôme aussi grand, c’est incroyablement énorme.  On a monté 463 marches pour monter au sommet.         

happy, and hot as heck

As I said, there were plenty of people in Florence.  And, because we got there on a Sunday, and most museums are closed on Mondays, we had to wait an hour and a half to see the real "David" by Michael Angelo.  I wasn't all that happy that the line was so long, and on top of that we had to wait behind a group of high school students...american high school students.  It was a group of boys who wouldn't stop talking about how China would take over the world and who was the fifth country on the GDP list.  I think they were from California, they said that Hawaii had nothing to offer the United States and that we are worthless.  Anyway, they were just about as strict with photos of David as they were with the Sistine Chapel, so this is a photo from the internet.  // Comme j’ai dit, il y avait beaucoup de monde à Florence.  Et, parce qu’on y est arrivé le dimanche, et beaucoup de musées sont fermés le lundi, on a du attendre une heure et demie pour voir le vrai « David » de Michel-Ange.  Je n’étais pas trop contente que la queue était si longue, et en plus, on a du attendre juste derrière un groupe des étudiantes de lycée…qui étaient américains.  C’était un groupe de garçons qui n’arrêtaient pas de parler de pourquoi la Chine va prendre contrôle du monde et qui est le cinquième pays sur la liste de GDP.   Je pense qu’ils  étaient de Californie, ils ont dit qu’Hawaï n’a rien à offrir aux Etats-Unis, et qu’on ne vaut rien.   De toute façon, ils étaient presque aussi stricts qu’à la Chapelle Sixtine avec les photos de David, alors ceci n’est qu’une photo de l’internet.   

 David was really, really impressive.  He's a lot bigger than I expected, and it was worth the wait.  I have no idea how Michael Angelo sculpted him so perfectly and with so much detail.  You can even see the veins in his hands. //  David était vraiment, vraiment impressionnant.  Il est beaucoup plus grand que ce à quoi je m’attendais, ça valait la peine d’attendre.  Je n’ai aucune idée comment Michel-Ange l’a sculpté si parfaitement avec autant de détails.  On peut même voir les veines dans ses mains.     

Street art in Florence

Leather market that smelt sooooo good

Vespa city!

I think I wrote enough for one night, I give you credit if you read all of it.  Will do a separate blog for the best Italian food I had on my trip!