The End of my Year Abroad May 27, 2009

OK so it’s been nearly a week since I got back from France so I thought it was about time I wrote that roundup post I promised. At the time I was too busy in sightseeing mode with Mum and Alan and to be honest the reality of leaving for the last time hadn’t sunk in; I just didn’t know what to write. In our last few days there we had dinner at La Capitainerie, The Salmon House and Quai West, had tea at Jardin des Delices, visited Amiens cathedral and Jules Verne’s house, and Rouen. In Rouen we had a look round its cathedral also, comparing it to Amiens’. They are both built in the same gothic style as Paris’ Notre Dame, but whilst Amiens cathedral has ornate chapels, a bright interior and highly decorative tiled floor, Rouen’s in darker, shabbier and in much worse condition. It suffered greatly from bombing during both wars and restoration work has only recently got underway. In contrast, Rouen’s astronomical clock is a shining glory, and the museum is fascinating. You can see the pictures I took in Rouen here: Rouen.

A typical street in Rouen

The Gros Horloge astronomical clock

Rouen cathedral seen from the clock tower

So, how should I sum up my year abroad? The truth is, I don’t think I can. It was too much of a rollercoaster of different emotions and experiences to be summed up with one conclusion. In some ways I hated it; the first semester was so difficult in terms of settling in and getting my head around the way the system worked, the weather didn’t help, and then of course the second semester was frustrating in many ways because of the strike. I don’t think I truly felt settled or confidently understood the way things worked until about January. On the other hand, I had some great experiences, especially on my travels to Barcelona and Brussels. It was great being so close to Paris as well, and if it hadn’t been for the strike I wouldn’t have had so much time to do other things and make the most of it this second semester. This time in France has put me off wanting to live in the country in the future – things may not be rosy in the UK but neither are they in France; the issues might be different but the outcome is the same. However, the time abroad has brought me a greater appreciation of European culture so I would definitely still consider life in continental Europe rather than staying in the UK. In terms of language, I don’t feel my French has improved that much. I picked up some more specific vocabulary but I didn’t do enough difficult writing to improve that. My listening skills have improved a bit I think, but I have to say that day-to-day life conversations aren’t usually enough to improve degree-level French.

So there you have it; a truly mixed bag of conclusions from a year abroad in France. I look forward to travelling more after graduation and in the more distant future, especially in Europe. If (when) I spend some more prolonged periods of time in foreign countries I may resurrect this blog under a modified title to continue posting about life abroad. Until then, adieu and feel free to watch my Life in Cornwall blog, which no doubt will see some action over the next few months!

Les Hortillonnages and la Nuit des Musées May 17, 2009

Yesterday was quite a random day in all; in the morning I went for my last supermarket shop to get my dinner for tonight, and in the afternoon I went into town to take some pictures of favourite places like Jardin des Délices and Retroviseur, to buy some more macarons and to meet Sonia and friends for a walk around the Hortillonnages. The Hortillonnages are an area of 300 hectares of wetland, very close to the centre of town, that have been inhabited and cultivated for 2000 years. Today only a few farmers remain and only about 25 hectares are cultivated; the rest has become a sort of park or fishing lakes. There are paths through parts of it, but to see all of it the best way is to take the punt barge from Quai Bélu and be poled through the narrow channels, between the islands of land. Some islands are just wildlife habitat, others are farmed, and others still have sheds or houses on them. Each house has it’s own bridge and some have even built steeply curved driveways over the channels. Each seems to have their own little boat as well.

Shed on one of the Hortillonnage islands

After we’d walked round a small part of the Hortillonnages (we seemed to have picked a path that didn’t go very far before we got cut off by water), we headed back towards town and the Parc St. Pierre, the big park that everyone chills and picnics in. There are also allotments along one side of it, which are all full of produce. Keeping allotments seems to be quite popular here; passing through Longeau on the train to Amiens you see lots of them and I’ve glimpsed a few in a green space between some house on the bus a few times; basically wherever they can be squeezed in, they go. We wandered through town a bit, got some crepes from a street stall, and sat in Place Gambetta until it started to rain, whereupon we dived into Mezzo di Pasta for a couple of hours, taking our time over some drinks and pasta.

At about 8pm we went to meet some others outside Maison de la Culture to start our Nuit des Musées tour. La Nuit des Musées is an annual European event where museums put on special tours or open their doors out of hours, and it’s free. It’s a sort of publicity event to try and encourage people to come to the museums who might not normally come. Two places in Amiens were taking part; la Musée de Picardie and Jules Verne’s house. Unfortunately, the Musée de Picardie is actually closed all this year because they are doing some major repair and improvement works; replacing the roof and putting in a new lift among other things. However, as was explained to us, they still wanted to be a part of la Nuit so they had invited a group of artists to put in a light installation in their courtyard gardens. To be honest it wasn’t all that impressive; partly because it wasn’t actually finished so there was no atmosphere, and partly because it hadn’t gone totally dark so the lights weren’t so bright. I still took a few photos though.

The second part of the tour was to Jules Verne’s house, but that didn’t open until 10pm so we wandered in that direction and stopped in a bar by the Cirque just down the road from it to wait. They had Eurovision on the big screen, so that was a laugh. I didn’t see the UK’s performance but it was fun trying to explain the concept of Eurovision to the Americans! We got to Jules Verne’s house just after 10 and there were so many people there! The house is not that big and the tower part has a limit of 12 people at once, so they only let 20 or so people into the house at once. This meant that we were standing in line to get in for an hour, which we weren’t too impressed with. The line was just as long behind us, and their last admission was going to be at 12.30, so they also asked us not to take our time looking round the house, which I thought was a bit cheeky. Unfortunately, all video and photos are banned inside the house which I was very disappointed about, especially since there were some wonderful old posters! There was a room devoted to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which had portholes and all sorts of marine memorabilia, and one devoted to Around the World in 80 Days. I particularly liked that room because the floor was a big map with the around the world route marked on it, and the writing desk has the globe on which Jules Verne drew the journeys of his characters. Up in the tower there were stacks of huge old books, but there was nothing to tell us what they are. The house is certainly full of some very old, valuable and totally irreplaceable artifacts. I took some photos in the courtyard outside; the tower of the house has a giant blue globe on the top of it and one wall of the courtyard is covered in a mural depicting features of Jules Verne’s stories.

Jules Verne's house with globe tower

Wall Mural

You can see all the photos I took yesterday here: Album 3.

A Day in (and under) Paris May 14, 2009

I did head for Paris yesterday in the end, and gambled with the weather. As it turned out, it didn’t rain at all and was even quite warm with a peek of sunshine. Certainly enough for people to be out lounging and picnicking in droves in the Jardins de Luxembourg. I didn’t get everything on my list done, but I did see the things I most wanted to see. I ran out of time as I wanted to get the train back before 5pm in order not to have to pay extra on my train fare, but my feet were aching so much by that point I don’t think I could have faced walking round all the other things on my list! I can always do those another time; I doubt very much it’ll be the last time I go to Paris.

To begin with I headed the furthest south in the city I’ve ever been, to Place Denfert-Rochereau and the Catacombs. Although macabre and a little claustrophobic this was something I really wanted to experience. I had it down on my list to do on my first “grown-up” trip to Paris two years ago, but never got round to it.

Walls of bones in the ossuary

The Catacombs de Paris are an underground network of tunnels leading to an ossuary containing the remains of around 6 million people. They were created in the 18th century as a solution to the problem of disease caused by Paris’ many overcrowded city cemetaries, in particular the Cimetiere des Innocents which was in close proximity to the sprawling and busy food market of les Halles. The transferral of remain from les Innocents began on 7th April 1786 and continued for two years, with the remains being carried in carts accompanied by a religious procession under cover of darkness. Remains from all the cemetaries of Paris were deposited in the Catacombs until 1814. It became somewhat of a curiosity, with many noble men and ladies paying visits to the Catacombs. They were eventually opened to the public for a couple of days each week, and are now open every day except Mondays. The section of catacombs which are open now is 2km long, but in reality most of Paris is hollow underground! The carrieres are the former quarry galleries, of which some are open to the public, and then of course there are the vast sewer network which follows the street layout, and the 14 metro and 4 RER lines! All this tunnel-work under the city means that there is a whole department whose job it is to keep track of all the tunnels, maintain their strength and monitor all new building work to ensure no collapses occur.

As well as the Catacombs I had a small list of curious places in Paris that I wanted to see; such as the oldest tree, planted in 1601; the oldest house, built in 1407, and a wall with a cannonball from the revolution of 1830 still embedded in it. I had lunch in a lovely café called Berko on Rue Rambuteau, which consisted of a salmon and spinach quiche, salade du jour and a small sweet tart for €9.50. It looked like this;

Lunch

Pudding

Unfortunately the two cake shops on Rue Rambuteau I wanted to visit; Pain du Sucre and Pralus, were both closed, so I continued on my wandering tour of curious places to an Astrological Tower near the Louvre entrance to les Halles, an ornate entrance to the Palais Royal metro station and a WWI mobilisation poster still on a wall of a building near Place Concorde. By that point my time had run out, so I didn’t get to see the Chinese house, art nouveau building, or the house designed by the same architect who did the curly-wurly metro signs I like, but never mind they can wait for another day!
As always, full sets of photos can be found here: Album 1, Album 2 Album 1 also contains photos from trips in 2007 and 2008; yesterday’s pictures start with the Catacombs on page 2.

I didn’t get back too late in the evening so I went out with Sonia and some other Erasmus/ISEP students to Retroviseur to enjoy the usual Wednesday night Jazz. They were actually selling a CD of their music for 5 euros, which I considered a good investment. I didn’t take any more film as I was too involved in conversation but as I plan to take mum and Alan there next week I might take some then.

I will leave you with a couple more photos from Paris.

Jardins de Luxembourg

A hazy Eiffel tower overlooking Place de Concorde

Brussels : City of a Thousand Languages April 12, 2009

The Mannekin-Pis, an icon of Brussels

Sonia and I were granted our wish for great weather this weekend; after leaving Amiens in a dull and unpromising grey morning, we arrived in Brussels just before midday to wonderful sunshine and a warm city. It took us a while to find our hotel because the map I had printed from google was wrong. Fortunately Sonia had also written down directions and hers were different, so we tried those and found it! For the price (€30 each for a twin room, 1 night) the hotel St. Anne was amazing; it seemed to be brand new, everything gleaming in a white, minimalist and modern-art style. Breakfast was a generous buffet, included in the price and featuring bacon and eggs as well as the usual continental fare! It was just a short walk from a raft of restaurants, bars, shops and the main old centre of town, so ideally placed for us.

After we had checked in and relaxed for 5 minutes, we headed out to start exploring, deciding to go to the furthest point out and work our way back. So with street map in hand we navigated uphill through the Sablon/Marolles area, to the Palais de Justice and viewing point at Place Poleart for views over the city. On the way back down we wandered through the narrow streets of the old quarter, peering at the old antique shops, and the amazing number of fancy window displays in the chocolate shops, until we reached the bottom and the teeming corner where the Mannekin-Pis stands. This tiny statue/fountain stands barely a foot tall and is constantly surrounded by a melee of tourists having their picture taken with it! Just a short walk into the centre of this area brings you to the Grand Place, surrounded by the magnificent buildings of the Town Hall, King’s House and ornate Guild Houses.

Something we did as we were walking round the town was try to find various comic-strip murals that have been put up as part of the 2009 celebrations of the comic strip. I bought a guidebook including map from the Comic Strip House and in the end we managed to see about half of the murals. Some were too far out of our way to walk to, but most are clustered in the centre of town so it was those that we saw. In keeping our eyes out for them we also came across many other pieces of street art or sculpture, all unusual or of much higher quality than your average graffiti! My favourites out of these were some graffiti sketches of pigs, which now adorn my computer desktop! To round off the afternoon, we decided to go back up the hill to wander through the large Parc de Bruxelles, between the old Palais Royal and the Parliament building; but since our feet were aching we got the metro this time! It was lovely in the early evening sunshine, and the park was full of families and couples who had obviously been enjoying some of the first nice weather of the year.

We chilled at the hotel for an hour or so until it was about time for dinner, and in the process of searching for a good looking place we experienced the multiculturality of Brussels come to life! Anyone who has been in the narrow streets of the St. Germain area of Paris in the evening would recognise the scene; tiny cobbled streets lined with restaurants on both sides, all with tables and menus outside until there is barely room to walk between them, and all with maitre d’s touting for your business, trying to persuade you that theirs is the finest menu or the cheapest price. And also as you find in Paris, the different world cuisines tend to gravitate towards each other; so you have little Italy, Greek street and Chinatown, the German style, French style and the list goes on. In the event, Sonia and I battled our way through all of these to emerge in Place Agora Plein; a blissfully quiet oasis after the noisy, crowded streets we’d just escaped. We picked a small, simple place who didn’t hassle us and had an equally non-fussy dinner of steak-frites. Sonia got her long-awaited bottle of Kriek cherry beer, which I tried and liked, and I chose another beer which turned out to be a success; Lindemann’s Framboise (raspberry) beer. After dinner we went to find Delirium Café, a famous bar which has over 2000 beers on offer. The bar itself was incredible, never mind the beers they serve; it was covered in beer signs, trays, mats, mugs, bottles; all stuck to the ceiling and walls or indeed cemented into them. It was packed and playing lively rock music; the pictures don’t do it justice and in retrospect I should have taken some film! We only stayed just long enough for another beer and to take in the atmosphere, since we didn’t want to be up too late with a full day to take in more of the city in the morning.

We did manage to get up early, had a good breakfast and then checked out, leaving our bags to collect later. First on the agenda was to head back up to Sablon to explore the market that happens on weekends. I had hoped there would be a good book market there but as it was the stalls were mostly brick-a-brack, pictures, jewellery and antiques. Never mind, I still came away with 5 early-1900’s postcards and two pieces of jewellery, so I considered it a success even if there were no books to be had! Again we wandered back down to Grand Place through the myriad streets, admiring the architecture to be found on every corner. And then a treat; the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate! No sooner have you bought your ticket and they give you a tasting; this is my kind of museum! There were displays of everything from the horticulture of the cocoa plant, to processing, manufacture, historical methods, medicinal traditions, chemical properties and even chocolate fashion! There was also a small kitchen where a very friendly lady showed us how individual chocolates are made; from the solid 5kg block of chocolate that is melted, how to know when it is the right consistency; filling the moulds and allowing the excess to run out to leave the shells, and finally once it’s solidified, how to make it into a praline. And yes, we got more tastings! After this it was about time for lunch, but we only grabbed a quick light salad because both Sonia and I were craving chocolate, and more specifically the traditional and famous Belgian waffle! We bought our chocolates for later, but the waffles were for now; I opted for strawberry and chantilly cream whereas Sonia added chocolate sauce too. For the rest of the afternoon we browsed the shops and found some more comic strip murals, but all too soon it was time to fetch our bags from the hotel and metro back to Gare du Midi to catch our TGV back to Lille.

It is a strange experience crossing a border by train; no one checked our passports and it didn’t really feel like we had gone to another country! Part of this I’m sure is to do with the fact that Belgium is also largely French speaking, although of course Dutch and German are equally used. Another factor is that even in Lille, just within the French border and an international hub with trains running between Belgium, France and the UK, the three languages begin to appear on signs, so already the cultures are being mixed and you begin to feel like you’re in an international place rather than one particular country. I titled this post “Brussels: City of thousand languages” because I swear I heard every language known to man and more besides in two days there. Apart from the three “biggies”; French, English and Dutch, there were also German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Greek, Chinese and many other Arabic and Asian languages I couldn’t begin to identify. Evidence of cultural migration was everywhere; in shops, restaurants, services and just in the people walking down the street. It really is a completely international city, and somewhere I would definitely consider spending some time in if ever I needed to improve a particular language. I would say French and English were the two languages I heard most; and even though I spoke to people in French I was often answered in English, at least after a couple of sentences. This irritated me a bit because I don’t think I sound obviously English when I’m speaking French now; indeed I was always either asked “do you speak English?” or the person in question had heard me speaking English to Sonia before the language was switched. I can understand that, just as I try to always improve my French, the people I was speaking to may have been trying to improve their English, but I can’t help feeling that it was the “default-to-English” syndrome again and assumption about my level of French. One incident has stuck in my mind and that was when I was buying my waffle; there were no prices listed so when I got mine I had to wait until the vendor told me how much, which she did whilst turning away into the kitchen so I only caught 4… and not what came after. So I got four euros out and gave that to her, so she repeated how much more was needed. I heard “five”, in English (she’d heard me speaking to Sonia), so I gave her 5 cents, she shook her head and repeated herself; this time I heard what sounded like “five teen”, very badly pronounced, so I queried her; “fifteen? quinze?” in English then French, and she shook her head again, finally giving up on English and told me “cinquante”; fifty. At last! If she had just stuck to French, we would have understood each other perfectly and she could have moved on to the next customer already. The default to English syndrome really annoys me sometimes, especially in cases like this. I realise that for people who can’t speak French (or any other language) well, it is necessary, and I’m sure that I will need it in Dresden later this year; since I don’t speak a word of German. But when you have started speaking to someone in perfectly good French (or any other language) and it’s just a simple transaction why on earth must you switch to English!!

Anyway here are the photo albums: Brussels 1, Brussels 2, Comic strips, statues & other street art

Blocages! Another twist in the strike saga… March 19, 2009

Fac. Lettres doors blocked

Yesterday brought another turn of events in the history of this year’s strike. Now that we are roughly 2 months into the strike, it seems the consensus is that this is a critical breaking point. Last year’s strike cracked at about this time and they lost the battle. This year’s picked up almost where they left off, and they are more determined than ever to see it through to the bitter end. With half the university not observing the strike up until now and many rumours spreading of an end in sight, it was decided at yesterday’s AG that more drastic action was needed to show everyone that this fight is not over. So they voted for “blocages” until Monday and the next AG. This means picket lines and other forms of physical obstruction of faculty buildings, thus forcing those who had previously conducted classes normally to acknowledge the strike. The picture above shows the doors to the Faculté de Lettres section piled high with tables and chairs. All the other doors were the same, with the exception of the rotonde which was only partially blocked and manned by strikers who only allowed lecturers and maintenance staff through.

Faculties blocked until Monday 23rd. It is time that they understood that democracy is us!

I went down to both my lectures today just to see what it was like but it was clear no one had any classes today, unless as I heard one irate lecturer say, they were conducted outside – that is if she could round up enough of her students. I think most people, having heard about it yesterday, didn’t even bother showing up. Tomorrow however, we have a mid-term exam in Spanish translation. Or at least, that was the plan. Now it seems likely that will have to be rescheduled. On Monday at the next AG (which I intend to go to this time) I presume they will vote again not only on whether to continue the strike but whether to continue the blocages. I can see a situation whereby they vote for blocages to affect one to three days each week; continuous would be too drastic a measure even for them but with partial blocages they could cause almost as much disruption. I have set an end-date on my space to watch; four weeks. That’s the length of time between now and when I fly home for Easter. I’ve decided that if the situation has a) not improved from current or b) got even worse, there is little point me coming back and paying more rent for May to sit around waiting for more-than-likely nonexistent assessments. We shall have to wait and see.

Rough interpretation: If you want to go to lectures, help us win this fight quickly

I am not bothered, in fact I’ll be quite pleased if that turns out to be the case. I believe that they are justified in fighting these reforms and that strike action is the only way they can get the government to take notice. I also believe that this is the time to step up actions and something like this was needed. This strike has a massive following; as the flyer they handed out today reads: it is the lecturers, university general staff, research laboratories, doctorates, IUT, IUFM and the teacher’s federation that are all supporting this strike action.

A tangle of tables and chairs effectively blocks the doors

As the flyer also says; “much better than last year when we were isolated.” Another passage rallies against letting the movement become slack: “In the face of this ambiant demoralisation that reigns over Amiens, where the impression is that the fight is useless, let us remember that this isn’t the case in France, contrary to what the media would like us to believe. It is time to find once more the strength that was ours last year!” It also states the figures from the CNU (Coordination Nationale des Universités) from the 16th March; 53 universities represented, of which 40 are blocked and 8 occupied.

La Picardie under threat March 8, 2009

Image from Courrier Picard

I noticed a month or two ago that the local newspaper Le Courrier Picard ran an article about plans to divide and essentially do away with this region; la Picardie. Much like Cornwall in some ways, many people here feel a strong cultural bond with the region and as well as being French they are Picard; there is the Picard language (as well as many dialects within the region), cuisine and customs. Geographically (and politically) speaking the region of Picardy is divided into three departements; Somme, Oise and Aisne. The map on the left shows how, under new plans of Sarkozy’s, these three departements would be absorbed into the surrounding regions of Nord Pas-de-Calais,  Ile-de-France and Champagne Ardenne respectively, effectively ending the existence of Picardie. Obviously, many people living in Picardie feel very strongly that this should not be allowed to happen; see the cartoon below for le Courrier Picard’s daily cartoon artists viewpoint. The changes would be part of Sarkozy’s plans to simplify France’s regional political hierarchy, which it has to be admitted is currently mind-boggling.

Dessin d'Alex from Courrier Picard

The 22 regions are themselves divided into 100 departements, further divided into 4000 cantons, divided again into 36000 communes. Sarkozy says the reduction in numbers would just help to simplify political processes; his sceptics say that it is a ploy to reduce the opposition party’s influence in certain regions. If you really want to get your head around the current subdivisions in France then here is the wikipedia page: Subdivisions of France. The BBC has even picked up on the debate and so there is an article you can read here as well: France considers redrawing the map For French speakers, le Courrier Picard has gathered together a number of views on the subject here: La Region en danger?

Birthday weekend in Paris February 2, 2009

I am happy to report that the weekend in Paris for my 21st birthday was a great success! I arrived by train from Amiens, mum and Alan flew from Exeter and dad from East Midlands, and we all managed to convene within a couple of hours of each other in a café next to our Hotel near the Luxembourg gardens. The café and the hotel are both directly over the RER line B; the nearest station is less than 20 yards away and so with every passing train there is a great rumble and, as we discovered, the cupboards rattle even on the first floor! We checked in and left our bags in the hotel and went out to spend the day in the city, starting with a walk down Boulevard St Michel to the river, and then down to Notre Dame. There were no queues so we went inside, which was a first visit for everyone except me, and pretty much new to me too since the last time I went in was about 11 years ago, on my first trip to Paris. After this we went to les Halles shopping centre, built on the site of the old produce and cattle market which was moved out of the city when the authorities decided it was too disease-ridden to remain where it was. The new centre is built in glass and metal reflecting the style of the old Halles, and much of the old structure (without it’s glass) has been left.

I bought a Mango t-shirt and a dress but overall the sales shopping didn’t produce the bargain finds I’d hoped for. My presents more than made up for this though; I recieved books from Mum and Nan, other assorted presents from Nan included a CD of music from 1988, a mini iced fruit cake, cat playing cards and a bookmark, whilst I got jewellery from both Mum and Dad; a matching necklace, bracelet and earring set of beaten pewter spirals from St. Justin jewellery and a three-gold (yellow, white and rose) link bracelet from the Birmingham jewellery quarter respectively. Sophie from Keele also sent me a lovely pair of Pilgrim flower design earrings which I wore to dinner on Saturday night.

Dinner at les Deux Magots was wonderful; the restaurant was cosy but not crowded, traditional but not old, and the service was professional but not clingy. Overall it felt special and not at all stuffy or pretentious. I had millefeuille of goat’s cheese and tomato to start, followed by veal stew in white sauce with rice for main and crème brûlée for pudding. This was of course washed down with wine and some bubbly to toast the occasion. While we were eating we all noticed that the place was constantly busy; when we arrived, and the whole time we were there and when we left. It was a complete mix of people there as well; old and young, couples, groups, friends, and solitary figures with notebooks and papers. Some had full meals like us, others just a drink or a salad, some sat there all evening and hardly ordered a thing. Some people seemed to have come especially for dinner but many others just seemed to have dropped in after a day’s shopping for a coffee and a chat. I was glad that it has not lost its original ethos of a casual meeting place for friends and strangers alike, and has not become self-important as a result of its significant history. At the end of the evening I picked a single white rose from the huge bouquet in the middle of the restaurant to press as a memento of the occasion.

Sunday brought not much of a lie-in because we all wanted to have plenty of time in the Louvre before Dad left in the afternoon for his return flight. We had breakfast in a café on the riverside corner of Boulevard St. Michel and then walked down to the Louvre. Although it’s out of season, it’s free (as are most museums in France) on the first sunday of the month, so it was busy. We started off by heading for the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo by way of the Winged Victory (my personal favourite) and then explored the Greek and Egyptian galleries, along with the Medieval remains of the old fortress. We left to have lunch off Rue de Rivoli and then saw Dad off to the airport. For most of the rest of the afternoon Mum, Alan and I went to the Eiffel tower, and indeed up it, as far as the 2nd floor. This was quite an achievement for Mum as she is scared of heights! She did manage a walk around the platform although on the inside edge and with Alan between her and the fence! Again this wasn’t a first for me but it has been 11 years since I last went up and the view of Paris was better than I remembered. En route to the Tower on the RER line C, we noticed a man sat in the carriage we were in who had a tabby kitten on a lead! The kitten seemed quite happy, although curious and unsure of the noise every time the doors opened, but not trying to wander off. Most of the time he sat on the man’s knee, wobbling around with the train’s movement trying to stay balanced! I would have taken a picture it was such an unusual sight, but I think that may have been a bit rude!

Finally we capped off the day with a quick dash back to the Louvre before it closed in order to see the Crown jewels, whose room had been closed off earlier in the day. We just had time to see it all and take some photos before the stewards started ushering people out. Dinner was traditional French cuisine in one of the side streets off Boulevard St Michel but all too soon it was time for me to collect my suitcase and head back to Amiens. I really enjoyed the weekend, not just because it was my birthday but because I really enjoyed the family time, and it’s made me look forward to my week at home in 3 week’s time even more. Although it was cold all weekend, it was sunny. This morning however we woke up to snow in both Amiens and Paris, and mum and Alan experienced a couple of hours delay in their flight departure. When they did eventually get back to Exeter there was no snow there as they’d expected, and it has all melted here after this afternoon’s rain. Temperatures look to be rising slightly over the next week so hopefully a bit more sunshine than snow will be the order of the day! Here’s a few pictures to sum up the weekend:

Old les Halles overlooking the new structure

Graffiti seen from my hotel room window

The two statues of les Deux Magots

The Pyramid entrance to the Louvre

Looking up the Eiffel Tower from the 2nd floor

Looking west from the Eiffel Tower

The full albums from the weekend can be seen here and here. I’m waiting for some photos from mum’s and dad’s cameras and will probably post some more later on.

Black Thursday? More like grey… January 29, 2009

Well today was meant to be a day of massive disruption and protest, but like Adrian in Angers, it seemed a bit of an anticlimax. Up at campus I certainly didn’t noticed any difference apart from it being a bit quieter with fewer people coming up for lectures. I know there was a big march organised starting from the Maison de la Culture in the afternoon, so perhaps it seemed like more was going on in town. I did see a few buses up at campus when I’d expected none, and indeed looking on the Ametis website they claimed to be providing 80% of normal services today.
The Paris airports didn’t seem to shut down totally, apart from AirFrance flights of which about 40% were cancelled, and instead were only registering delays of up to an hour, this partly due to problems with fog as well. SNCF services varied throughout the country; while Eurostar, Thalys and other international trains remained unaffected, the TGV was completely cancelled and TER and Corail intercity trains at 30-50% of normal service. Some parts of the Paris metro and RER were running as normal, while the majority dropped to half or 3/4 of normal service.
For French speakers, here is a very comprehensive report from France 2: Grèves et Manifestations en France For the English speakers, here is the BBC’s report; Huge Crowds Join French Strikes

Other areas of industry were also on strike but to a lesser extent and effect. The one other main area to be affected other than transport was the education system. Two of my three lectures were cancelled today, and many lecturers who would have been willing to continue lectures gave up because their students weren’t able to travel to them. For those in the education sector, this day of striking follows on from the one in November, in continuing protest against reforms and the elimination of 13,500 jobs announced for the coming year. I got a flyer tucked into my door this week from the UNEF student syndicat, mainly to encourage support for today’s strike but also outlining their general opposition to the changes. In summary, they are against: funding reforms, elimination of the post “teacher/researcher”, the “masters” level extension of teacher training

Campaign Image from UNEF.fr

(which will exclude those who cannot afford another 2 years at university), and the general cutbacks in the number of jobs in the education sector. They are for: an emergency plan for young people at the bottom of the employment ladder, a national diploma system and for it to be recognised by employers, and deep reforms in the university system so it returns to behaving like a public service. The flyer is emblazoned with bold statements such as “The death of the public university”, “We will not be a sacrificed generation!” and “In the strike there is a dream.” For those in the education sector then, this is a bigger fight than they can win in one day. To that end, many lecturers are suspending their lectures indefinitely from Monday, unless they see changes being made in their favour. Many of the student body are also taking part, both by raising awareness, taking their own campaign to the government and by not attending lectures themselves, in solidarity with the lecturers. In theory this suspension of lectures could go on for weeks, and with no time to recover lectures lost before the exam period, the exams could be very simple indeed! In practice, it will probably only last a week or two at most, and in fact only one of my lecturers has so far announced his participation in the strike, accounting for 4.5 hours of my timetable. Another 5 hours could potentially also go, but I have yet to find out about those. Six of my lecturers have either not mentioned it, or expressly said they will be continuing their classes.

Anyway, enough about the strikes! The hockey match I went to on Tuesday night was certainly a new experience – I did enjoy it even though I’m not really much of one for sports, and even found myself getting quite caught up in cheering Amiens on. The match was the Amiens Gothiques vs. the Briançon Red Devils, and unfortunately the Devils won 4-3. We were all surprised how long we were there; the match started just after 8 and we didn’t leave until about 10.30, because although each match is three sessions of 20 minutes each, the clock stops frequently when the puck goes out of play or an offense is committed. It wasn’t too violent, there were lots of collisions and slamming into the walls, and the refs have to keep hopping out of the way of the players and puck, but there were no proper fights, just some facing off after a collision that the refs quickly dissipated. When Amiens scored a goal for the first time, we all had a laugh because these four pink tube streamers popped up from the corners of the rink with GOAL!! emblazoned on them, the crowd was cheering and blaring horns and on top of that they have a special victory tune they play whenever they score! They do seem to take it quite seriously; there were lots of people in costume or with team shirts, or with face paint, and there was one corner in particular that chanted and sang encouragement and songs for the entire game. The tickets were only 8 euros and I’d definitely go again, it’s something I could get into! I took some pictures, most are on Facebook but I’ll post a couple of the best here.

Marché de Noël December 17, 2008

I put off the christmas shopping yesterday, partly due to the grey and drizzly weather and partly to laziness, but I’m glad I gave in to that because it was much nicer today! I cracked the last of my christmas shopping, save for one or two small additional items I might pick up from duty free at the airport. It was nice because I could just wander aimlessly instead of trying to battle through the people on my way to do something else, as has always been the case before now. I had some chichis – long twisted sticks of fried dough rolled in sugar, and the obligatory vin chaud. I actually splashed out a little extra to get the souvenir mug (white with the red Marché de Noël d’Amiens logo on it)! I obviously can’t tell you what I bought, because some people reading this might be receiving the gifts in a week’s time! The exception to that is the little suitcase I bought, one that’s small enough to go as hand luggage but big enough for a short-trip bag. I’m going to need the extra space to bring things back this time; there was no way I’d fit it all in my one, medium suitcase. It’ll be useful for travelling over christmas and in the future as well. I might go back to town tomorrow afternoon after I’ve had some time to reflect and if I think of anything else I need, but apart from that I just have a 1hr spanish comprehension exam tomorrow morning, then I have to do laundry and start to pack. I’m going to have to pace myself though; given that I shouldn’t need to leave Amiens until lunchtime on Friday even if I want to be hours early for my flight, it’s going to be no good if I find myself sitting twiddling my thumbs with everything packed by 4pm tomorrow! I blame nan for this gene that makes me abnormally efficient at packing! I shall leave you with some photos again, this time from the market.

Viva Espanya – and especially Barcelona! December 9, 2008

Well, where do I start?! With the title I suppose – I haven’t spelt “Espanya” wrong (normally España in Spanish), I’ve just spelt it in Catalan. Which I learnt a bit of over the weekend! It was a fantastic minibreak, and we crammed quite a bit in – enough to fall in love with the city and to know that we must go back to finish what we started. None of us were ready to come back yesterday. There’s so much to recount, I think I will split this post up into bits otherwise I’ll forget.

Firstly, Ryanair! My god, what a horrible airline. I will avoid flying with them in future, they may be cheap but others aren’t far off their prices and you feel much more comfortable. The yellow and blue colour scheme, cheesy music and fanfare (!!) when you land just make you feel you’re in a cartoon for cheap brit holidays to marbella. The cabin crew are in a rush and harrassed-looking, not a smile nor a moment to spare, and they just roll out set phrases without taking much notice of what you actually say back! The turnaround for flights is dangerously fast, with the safety talks and everything done as you taxi to the runway. The pilots must have practically no relax time between flights. Anyway so that was a bit dire but on to the good stuff…..

Where we stayed: Barcelona Mar hostel, a couple of minutes walk from La Rambla, and the gothic quarter. Completely international place, very popular with english-speakers. We were staying in a 16-bed dorm but they also do smaller rooms, and it was ridiculously cheap considering the standard. Doors and lockers were card controlled, 24hr reception, free internet and breakfast, tv and lounge area, ample and clean bathroom facilities and any information you could possibly need available.

Barcelona: is a beautiful city in large part. The gothic quarter has the oldest and most stunning architecture, and houses the remains of the Roman founding city. There are plenty of other districts but we didn’t have much time to experience them. The port area is quite structured, with big plazas, walkways, sculptures and avenues of palm trees, but this is because of the renovations for the 1992 Olympics. It’s pretty but it’s hard to forget it’s all artificial – even the beach, whose sand was imported from Egypt, and all the palm trees are on (official) loan from Hawaii….a bit bizarre. It’s the best area to eat though, especially if you are after traditional tapas and paella. La Rambla and La Boqueria are the market areas, full of stalls and touristy shops….and unfortunately pickpockets. But every city with tourists has those, so you just get on with it. The tiny twisty streets of the gothic quarter feed off La Rambla and are full of shops we didn’t have time to explore properly.

What we did: We arrived late on Friday so just went for a drink before crashing into bed. On Saturday we had a look at the day’s offerings of activities on the blackboard in the hostel and picked out the walking tour of the Gothic quarter, a Spanish cooking class and a bar crawl for the evening. We wandered round the area for a bit, partly exploring and partly looking for the Travel Bar, the meeting point for the walking tour. As it was the walking tour retraced most of our steps but it was fascinating and we learnt a lot of interesting bits and pieces about the city. For example, there is a square (actually a triangle) named after George Orwell in memory of his fighting with the Catalunyans during the Civil War. There is a statue there now from a local art student which could be meant to represent TB (what Orwell died of) through a microscope – I think it looks like a giant robot CCTV camera. Perhaps more ironically (think 1984), the square is the local drug user and dealer hangout, and therefore has the most CCTV surveillance of anywhere in the city. Apparently George (of dragon-slaying fame) is also Barcelona’s patron saint, along with two others, and we saw a stone wall carving of him killing the dragon. We also saw some of the oldest remaining Jewish quarter houses, of which there are not many since the quarter was destroyed in recent history. In other parts of the town there are stones in walls of buildings inscribed with hebrew, which were robbed from the Jewish houses. Anyway after that we had some lunch (with Sangria) and followed that up with the cooking class down near the port, at which we started with…..more sangria! We learnt to make that, tapas and paella. It was lots of fun and there were only 8 of us there so it made it a bit more interactive. The bar crawl started not long after, proceeded through 4 bars (with free drinks at all) and ended at a club. We got back to the hostel about 4am, so a successful night! Needless to say, Sunday was a chilled day, and we just visited Park Guell (one of the biggest Gaudi architectures) in the afternoon, had more of a wander round the town and saw the Sagrada Familia (the massive Gaudi cathedral, still under construction), and had dinner at the port. We made an earlier start on Monday and took the cable car up Montjuic to the castle at the top, for a good view over Barcelona. It all passed too quickly though and before we knew it we were heading back to France.

Here are some of my favourite pictures, but the full albums are available here and here

Palm trees and house

Streetlights

Paella

Gothic Cathedral

Pillars in Park Guell

View of Sagrada Familia and over Barcelona city