I'm half way through my first semester here! There are no classes this week as it's the 'Vacances de la Toussaint', so I've taken the opportunity to get out of Tours for a bit. The academic year is much longer here than at home so it's nice having this time off to break it up a little.
My french marraine Pauline very kindly invited me to stay with her and her family for a few days during the holidays, so we set off together from Tours on Friday evening and I stayed until Monday morning when I got the train directly to Paris. She lives in a tiny village close to Bourges, called 'Le Grand Malleray', which is very rural and pretty. Her family were really friendly and welcoming, and put up with my sub-standard french. It was great to spend some time in exclusively french company and I got to meet her grandpa and great aunt as well, which was nice. On the Saturday we went into Bourges and met up with Rhianna and Justine (Pauline's roommate, who is also from the Bourges area and has unofficially adopted Rhianna), and explored the town a little and went to the Cathedral. Bourges Cathedral is truly spectacular, even better than St. Gatien's in Tours! We were also able to climb the never-ending spiral staircase up to the roof to see Bourges from above.
On Sunday it rained almost all day so it was a quiet one, but it was lovely to relax. The house was pleasingly french and Pauline's mum had cooked us 'coq au vin' with frites for lunch, which was delicious! I was very well fed over the weekend, and got to try several typically french foods, such as the sugared almonds that are traditionally given out at baptisms (her parents had been to a wedding and baptism on Saturday), as well as drink freshly pressed apple juice. We watched two french films over the weekend, 'Intouchables' and 'Le coeur des hommes', and on Sunday evening The Order of the Phoenix was on TV so we watched that in french. I understood most of the first two films but funnily enough I understood the Harry Potter word for word! It's always funny hearing some of the name changes though (e.g. 'Poudlard' for Hogwarts and the french pronunciation of Hermione and Dumbledore)
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