Zoo Parc de Beauval

It's been quite a busy week this week now that the rest of my classes have started, I don't think the 4 hour lectures are ever not going to be exhausting but hopefully they'll get better! I've finally opened a french bank account and I've had various meetings and bits of shopping to do...I think I'm getting there.

On Thursday there was a welcome evening for Erasmus students, they took us through the list of trips etc. for the term and afterwards there was free champagne and mingling with our french marraines/parrains. Apart from that I just slept most evenings, the lectures tire me out so much! But on Saturday me and Rhianna went to the zoo with some other Erasmus students (Chloe, Sarah, and Michael), which was a bit of trek but totally worth it as the zoo was enormous and had an amazing range of animals including pandas, white tiger cubs, a baby elephant, a baby orangutan, koalas, and rhinos. It was nice to see some more of the Loire Valley on the journey there too, it looks pleasingly stereo-typically french with all the vineyards and chateaux, I can't wait to explore outside Tours some more. 

On Sunday I went to Parc Balzac with a different group of Erasmus students (from Greece, Spain, and Italy) and saw the animals there, and also the River Cher for the first time. I went to the boulangerie in the morning to pick up some bread and it wasn't the usual lady, who I've spoken to a few times, it was another lady who after our brief interaction decided I must be German to the extent that she switched to German without even checking! 

Today I went to my first french exercise class, in an effort to get into some kind of routine and also to counteract all the patisseries. I wasn't really sure what it would involve as it's just called 'Fitness-Remise en forme', but it reminded me of how the sims work out in Sims 2. Unfortunately I think sims do it with a lot more dignity than I managed, but it was a great work out and I got chatting to a couple of the other girls before class.

 Here are a few of the photos from the zoo:

Bisous!

Journées Européennes du Patrimoine

This weekend was the 'Journées Européennes du Patrimoine', which meant that museums and galleries opened for free and various buildings that are not normally open to the public were opened for these two days. Although they are 'Journées Européennes du Patrimoine', the idea has been around in France for a lot longer than in many countries, and as this year was also the centenary of important French heritage protection laws, there was lots organised for Tours.

Unfortunately on Saturday there was torrential rain all day, so we eventually abandoned the idea of walking into town, so instead I went to look at the enormous cemetery near my halls and to look at the war memorials there. Luckily the weather picked up on Sunday so me and two other British Erasmus students went to have a look around. First we went to the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Touraine, a very grand old building used for business tribunals, which it's usually not possible to look around as it is still in use to this day! After a pause to eat crêpes we went to the Musée Saint-Martin, which was really interesting, I hadn't realised how important Tours used to be as a place for religion and pilgrimages. Finally, and with very sore feet, we looked around the Musée des Beaux-Arts, which I had been really wanting to do. I think I'll return for a second look when it's less busy, and to have a look around the gardens, but it was a lovely day and it was nice to make the most of the opportunities.

My camera played up on the second day, but here are some of my photos and some of Rhianna's:

Cemetery

 War memorial

 WWI graves

Memorial for British soldier from the Yorkshire regiment

 Graves of members of the French Resistance during WWII

Palais du Commerce

Inside Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie du Touraine

Inside Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie du Touraine

 

View of St. Gatien's Cathedral from window of Musée des Beaux-Arts

Merci pour ma cuillère

I've been in France for two weeks now, I can't tell whether time is moving really quickly or incredibly slowly, it seems to be alternating between the two.

I've met a few of the french people on my corridor in halls now, and they've been very welcoming and patient with my basic french (e.g. trying to thank them for welcoming me but ending up thanking them for my spoon). The halls are quite nice but missing quite a few basics which meant a trip to IKEA on the other side of the city in the middle of a heatwave! The location is lovely though, it's right by the Loire and the walk to my uni buildings or the main shopping street is along by the river.

The first week was extremely frustrating, the inefficiency of french administration and life in general means that you can normally only get one, or if you're lucky two, things done per day, and you still end up exhausted by the end of it! But now that a lot of that is done and I've done several big shops I'm starting to feel like I can relax and actually live here.

I had two lectures this week and the rest start next week. The lecturer didn't turn up for the first one, but the second one went surprisingly well! It's 4 hours long and starts at 9am so I did lose concentration at some points, but I found that when I was concentrating I was able to understand the vast majority of what the lecturer was saying. The fact that it's ancient history also means that a lot of the words and place names are practically the same as they are in English which helps. The previous week I'd gone to a beginning of term meeting for 3rd year history students and understood next to none of it (which wasn't a great confidence boost), so it was a pleasant surprise to find that for the most part I could follow the ancient history lecture.

I also had a class and a test at the CUEFEE which does courses in french speaking and essay writing for exchange students. The test went pretty well and I ended up being sorted in to level 3 of 4, although my french housemates looked visibly surprised by this, it obviously wasn't the speaking section that got me through! In the taster class we talked about our first impressions of Tours, most of it seemed to revolve around food and opening hours...it's nice to know it's not just me who keeps getting caught out. An Italian student told us with passionate fury about his first night here when he ordered a pizza, only to find it had emmental instead of mozzarella (''pizza est mort'').

Yesterday I met up with my french 'marraine' who volunteered to be paired with an exchange student, I messed up my buses and ended up being pretty late but she was really nice and I spoke by far the most french I've spoken so far, although it was still pretty low level (all conjugations and french expressions seem to leave my head as soon as I have to talk spontaneously!) Then in the evening I went to an Erasmus party at Bar Ailleurs and met some other foreign students from my halls. I know I should be trying to socialise with french students but it's nice having people to talk to that are in the same position as you. Also french halls are quite different to British ones in that the same people often stay on which means that they already know each other and have their own groups of friends, rather than all being new together. I feel really fortunate that I met Rhianna when I was moving in, I don't know what I would have done without her to share all the exasperating moments with, and consult on how phrase french texts!

Le premier week-end

It's been a fairly slow start to the year, I'm not moving into my new room until tomorrow so I've been sort of in limbo this weekend, not yet able to unpack or meet people. It has been nice getting to know the area on foot though, despite not being particularly productive.

I haven't spoken as much french as I'd like to (I was almost excited when my key card didn't work yesterday and I had to go and sort it out at the desk), but I have been reminded of several things I'd forgotten about France...

1-The weddings. I saw two separate wedding cars go past yesterday both followed by a procession of beeping cars with passengers leaning out of the windows. People waved and rang their bike bells and passing cars joined in, it was really nice and it's not something I've ever seen outside of France.

2-Everything shuts on a Sunday. I mean I knew this was true of small seaside towns, but I wasn't quite prepared for the extent to which Tours, a city, was closed for Sunday. Every single shop I saw was closed apart from boulangeries and a Carrefour City which was open for a generous 4 hours this morning. The post office goes one step further and closes for the entire weekend, opening only during normal working hours Monday to Friday.

3-The smell of boulangeries, which is heaven itself. I saw one in Place du Grand Marché with a queue out of the door which I'm going to make absolutely sure to come back to.

Anyway, it's nice to be here, and there is a distinctly French feel to the city. Yesterday I walked up to my halls and went to look at the cathedral and today I went in search of a market which turned out not to be there and instead went to Old Tours and then walked back along the river and sat there for a while reading. Tomorrow things start properly, and I'm about 50/50 nervous and excited.

Setting out from Stansted.

Tours train station

L'Hôtel de ville

L'Hôtel de ville

Saint Gatien's Cathedral

Old Tours (Place Plumereau)

Basilique Saint-Martin de Tours

The river from Pont Mirabeau (a Pont Mirabeau, not the Pont Mirabeau)

La Loire

La Loire

Markings showing the height of the river at various points in time.

'Distances'