Still more catchin' up: Macon & Lycee Lamartine

Ok, a few more pictures of Macon and then a few of my school, Lycee Lamartine.

Amanda, Evelyn, Amanda, and Sarah one night in Macon. That's right, this is a pretty old picture from when Amanda was still here. I like the lighting, and you can see the shutters that pretty much every French building has. Unlike the US, these shutters aren't just for show--they actually work.

This shot is for Emily and Kate: check out this public art! This is the rond point just outside my school. It makes a nice landmark though.
And here is the entrance to my school, Lycee Lamartine. It has an actual gate, because everything is gated and fenced in France.
This is my lovely room. Now I have an actual desk because I traded my table for the one in Erin's room when she moved out. The open door you see on the left is my closet. There are actually two small free-standing closets in my room. My favorite part though is the brown packing tape on the walls. I have no idea why it's there, but I'm afraid to pull it off the wall and find out.
This is my rug from IKEA. It is a little slice of happiness. My standard of living changed dramatically when I put it down. Also, above my bed you can see a bit of the lovely carpet that is covering this wall. It's pretty ugly, and I try not to think about cleanliness, but I'm slowly covering it with postcards, brochures, and tickets, so it's not so bad. At least I can put tacks in it.
MMMMMMMM! These are some real French grapes that I just had to buy and eat because they were so pretty.
And now for the crowning glory! Can you guess what this is?


Well, it's one of the stalls in on of the girl's restrooms in the Lycee. That's right, it's a Turkish toilet. Apparently some parts of the French school system are still in the middle ages. Not to worry though, I use the restroom in the teacher's lounge, which has a real toilet.

More catchin' up: Macon

I guess I should show off my town a bit. It is pretty good-sized, which is nice. There are plenty of shops and stuff, though it is not as much fun as a city would have been.

Ok, this is from one night when a several of the assistants went out for coffee together. We are sitting outside one of the many cafes and restaurants that line the river. Very nice. The people from left to right are: Sarah (Iowa), Cipriano (Venezuela), Evelyn (Germany), and Andrea (Germany). We had a good time.
This shot is from the same night. The bridge in the background is very old and very pretty.
Just about every Friday we all get together to have dinner at Erin's apartment. It's a pretty low-key affair, and we have a good time. Erin is the one kneeling, and you can see the back of Gael's head, who has the other bedroom in her apartment. The apartment is attached to the side of a teacher's home, and Erin gets her room in exchange for working with the teacher's kids on their English.
Here's a shot of the girls that same night. Front row: Andrea, Sarah, me. Back row: Evelyn and Erin. I have to give credit where it's due on this one. Cipriano actually took this picture of Saint Laurent, the town across the Saone River from Macon.

These next few shots are of Vieux Saint-Vincent (11th-12th century). It is closed now because it isn't in very good condition, but you can look through the glass to see inside where there are some old tombs and stuff. It is very beautiful.

The front door is now just glass, where you can see the reflection of the Prefecture.

This is the tower.

Here you can see a common phenomenon: a new building has been built into an old one. Here a restaurant called, of course, Le Medieval, has been built into the old church, so a humble restaurant has medieval arches on its side. This sort of thing was everywhere in Cluny, which I'll write about another time.

Playing Catch-up

Ok, I'm WAY behind on posts, so I'm gonna try and get caught up today. This task is not helped by the fact that now I can type on French keyboards too, and now I keep making mistakes on my own American keyboard. Frustrating! The good news is that I've figured out how to do pictures more easily. Yay!

Anyway, here are some pictures from literally over a month ago, when I first arrived in France. One of the teachers, Mme. Lagoute (who is in charge of English Assistants at my school) invited Amanda and I (that's right, these pictures are from before Amanda left. I told you they were old!) to her house in a small town near Macon.

This first shot is of her home. It's shaped like an "L," which seems to be a common shape for old country homes in this area.

This is her dining room. Doesn't it look just like it should?

In this one, Mme. Lagoute is serving vin nouveau and fromage fort. More on that later. Amanda is seated (miss you!).

Ok, here's a closeup of the vin nouveau and fromage fort. Vin nouveau is new wine, which is traditional to drink at that time of year (early October). It is barely wine at all, so I liked it! Mme. Lagoute said that on the day that she bought it there were no bubbles, but when we drank it the next day some bubbles were beginning to form. Fromage fort is the normal sort of cheese to eat with vin nouveau. It literally means strong cheese, and it is goat cheese mixed with alcohol, Mme. Lagoute thinks it's brandy. I also liked the fromage fort, which surprised me!This is the view outs of her dining room window. Jealous? You should be!
This is a better shot of the vineyard in front of her house and this hills in the background. Isn't it just beautiful?
I just couldn't seem to take enough pictures of her view. The countryside is very beautiful here. A couple of weeks ago she invited me over again, this time with another English teacher, and after a very yummy lunch we went for a long walk in the country. Of course I forgot to take my camera with me, so you'll have to just imagine it. It was a beautiful fall day, warm enough but with a brisk breeze, and the vineyards were beginning to change color along with the trees. It was a really great day.

I LOVE French Parking

Well, to start off, I have to say how much of a kick I get out of the tiny French cars, especially the Smart Cars. They are really incredibly small. And then there's French parking. I have no idea of how they manage to get their cars in the tiny spaces, let alone getting out again. Here is a short series of shots from Lyon to illustrate.

First, you see Car 1 (blue), Car 2 (red), and car 3 (white).


Next, Car 2 and Car 3 getting up close and personal.

Then the real kicker. Is that legal? I especially enjoy the fact that you can see that Car 1 is a Peugeot.

I guess they must all arrive in order and leave in reverse order. There really isn't any other way. But I have watched some people do some amazing parallel parking jobs since I got here.

Finally, a post!

Ok, I don't really know where to start, so I guess I'll begin with my first pictures and try to get caught up eventually. Let the pictures begin:

This is me on the Pont Lafayette in Lyon. Behind me is the the Premier Arrondisment and the Croix Rousse hill, which is where I stayed for several days.

Oooookay, this program only wants to put pictures in the start of the post and I'm getting frustrated so I guess I'm done for now. I'll fight it later.

First Post

Oooooooookay. Just trying to figure out how this works . . .