Final Celebration!

Bonjour Mes Amis!

It was so amazing meeting all of you! I had such a fun time at your school.

I’m glad I got to talk to all of you and answer your questions about my experience, as well as share some French Macarons. It was also very cool to be able to tell you guys about Medieval Iberia and how to related to what you’re learning in History class now!

I learned a lot in my four months abroad in France and being able to blog to you all about the experience was a wonderful way for me to process through all the new information I was receiving. It sounds like a lot of you also had a good experience reading the blog and that is very nice to know. I hope that you all will consider studying abroad when you’re in college, and maybe you’ll find learning about the history of the place you’re in as intriguing as I did!

Thank you for coming along on this adventure with me, I’m glad I got to share it with all of you.

Here are some pictures of my day at your school and our little parties …

Interview with a French Middle Schooler

Bonjour Mes Amis!

Well this is my last post for you guys and the next time you’ll hear from me it will be in person! I’m excited to bring you guys French treats!

For this last post I searched high and low for a french middle school student. I found one and we had a lovely conversation about school and being a teenager in France. Before I give you the transcript of the interview, I’m going to tell you all a little bit about the French school system because it is very different from the American school system.

Children start school at age 4. In France “elementary school” is called Ecole Maternelle until age 6 and then they go to Elementaire Ecole from ages six to eleven. There are five levels in Elementaire Ecole: “Cours Preparatoire”, “Cours Elementaire 1”, “Cours Elementaire 2”, “Cours Moyen 1”, and “Cours Moyen 2”. After Cours Moyen 2 the French move up to what we Americans would call “Middle School” or “Junior High”. In France it’s called “College.”

College starts at age 11. There are four levels in College: “Sixieme”, “Cinquieme”, “Quatrieme”, and “Troisieme”. At the end of College, at age 15, students take the “Brevet” exam and then they go on to “high school” which they call “Lycee”.

There are four options for Lycee. The French students can choose the professional path where they go to a technical high school to learn things like science and math, they can go to the humanities sections for french, english, history or other. They can go to a general lycee, or technology like a trade school. After Lycee students take a giant test and then depending on which school you decided to go to you either go on to University or get a job.

Since most of my French friends here are University students, I mostly know about the “Lycee Pro”, which is the humanities high school path. By the end of College (middle school) most of them already had decided what they wanted to do for Lycee (High school) and therefore what they wanted to do for a job in the future. To me this sounds terrifying. I’m graduating in June from University and I still don’t know what I want to do!

But, back to College and my interview with a student.

I interviewed one of my professor’s niece’s with the help of my professor’s daughter (who is in Lycee already). Her name is Lou, she’s 14, and she’s in the last year of College, troisieme. Lou was very nice and spoke english well although we still had trouble sometimes and it was helpful to have another French student to help me when I couldn’t understand or convey what I wanted to ask.

Now, on to the interview:

Question: What are your courses like in school? What classes do you take?

Lou: My courses are good. I take math, french, english, Italian, history which is also geography, physics which is also chemistry, science and life of the land, technology, drawing art, sports, and music.

Question: That is so many classes! Is it usual to take that many? Do you have a lot of homework?

Lou: Yes. I have a lot of homework in music and art.

Question: But not the rest?

Lou: Not really. We do a lot of work in the class and I have to study but not homework.

Question: How do you like your professors?

Lou: This year I appreciate my professors because they are attentive to the questions I ask and they are agreeable.

Question: Have you had professors you didn’t like in the past?

Lou: Yes.

Question: Are you looking forward to going to Lycee? Do you know what you want to do yet?

Lou: Maybe. I’m nervous and maybe I won’t be able to be with my friends anymore in class.

Question: What about in your free time? What things do you like to do?

Lou: I like to go out with my friends. I watch a lot of movies too. I also like to draw.

Question: Do you watch a lot of American movies? Like The Hunger Games?

Lou: Yes. I like The Hunger Games. Harry Potter too.

Question: Do you watch the movies in English with French subtitles or dubbed in French?

Lou: In French. It’s too hard to read and watch together. But I hope to get better with english and watch the movies in english. I think they’re better that way.

Question: What do you know about school in America?

Lou: Not a lot. From the movies and tv shows it looks fun.

Question: But you only know what you’ve seen in films and tv?

Lou: Yes. They don’t do a lot of work in the films and tv shows. There’s a lot of time to spend with friends.

That was the end of our conversation. What do you guys think? Does the French school system sound like hard work or easier than American Middle schools? Do you think what Lou has learned from American TV shows and Movies is an accurate depiction of your experience in Middle school?

World War II told three ways

Bonjour Mes Amis!

Today I’m going to talk about World War II. France was deeply affected by World War II and still today I can see how the war has shaped the way the French think, what they believe, and how they live their lives. For France, World War II is recent history, practically not yet old enough to be in the history books. And there’s a lot of things I’ve learned here in France about the war that I had never learned about in my classes back in the United States.

Even if you all haven’t learned about it in class yet, I’m sure everyone knows a little bit about the war. Here’s the story I learned in my U.S. classes about WWII and France:

Germany, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi (national socialist) party, wanted to take over all of Europe. France was still devastated financially and militarily from the first World War and so when the Nazi’s rolled their tanks into France the country fell quickly. Hitler and the Nazi’s had control of Paris and started to round up the people in France of Jewish faith or “ethnicity.” Yet France still had a resistance that fought under the leadership of the General Charles de Gaulle. Charles de Gaulle famously called the country to arms to protect themselves from German occupation and it’s told that people all over France followed the call. The resistance stayed strong until the end and helped to save French Jewish people as well as destabilize the German army so that when the United States joined the war they were able to save France from German occupation.

That’s a pretty good story. It makes France seem really brave even in the face of defeat. But I’ve learned recently that this story is only part of what really happened, and even more importantly, it’s been exaggerated. This goes back to what I told you all about how sometimes stories are more important to a community than the truth. In some cases stories like this though can hide some pretty nasty truths.

France did have a resistance that fought against German occupation, but it was never as large as I had always learned in classes. The speech that Charles de Gaulle made from England over British Airwaves was actually not even heard by the majority of the population because many people didn’t have access to the BBC radio network.

But I forgive the French for inflating the numbers of the resistance. After all, being a resistance fighter was risking your life and the life of everyone you knew to not even achieve very much. It makes sense that the majority of people wouldn’t put themselves in the line of fire and afterwards of course they all must have wanted to join in the bravery of the resistance once the threat was gone.

The part of the story that goes largely untold and is, for me, important to be revealed, is that the government of France at the time of German Occupation was actually collaborating with the Nazi government. The Vichy regime, as it was called because the capital was moved from Paris to Vichy, France for a short time, was actually rounding up it’s own Jewish population and resistance fighters and sending them away to Germany. The Nazi’s never even had to ask.

While in the United States I had never learned about this, in France there’s two different stories of the Vichy government and the resistance.

Early in the term I got to go to the Musee de la Resistance and Deportation (resistance from the Germans, deportations of the Jews). After we took a tour of the museum that talked about the war and France’s efforts, we got to talk to two French men from Pau who had been a part of the resistance.

Both men had been only 16 when they joined the Resistance. One was from a family within the French communist party and he joined the resistance because the Vichy government was against communism. The other man had witnessed what had happened in Spain recently when a dictator took over and there was a huge civil war that killed many people, from that experience this man decided that he had to fight as well to ensure that such things would never happen in France.

The men told us of some of their missions, sabotaging rail road lines and spying on Germans for information. They talked about how after the war they knew who had been collaborators and who had been in the resistance and how much they disliked the people who falsely claimed they had fought in the resistance. Interestingly, however, they never mentioned the Jewish people. They didn’t express that they were fighting in the resistance to save the Jews, nor did they even acknowledge what was happening to the French Jews at the time. I found this strange because in my classes back home I was always taught that the resistance was primarily helping to save Jewish people.

Just last week I was talking to the Jewish Rabbi here in Pau and I asked him about the Jewish story of World War II and the resistance. The Rabbit told me that as far as the Jewish people who survived the war understand it, no one was helping them. The resistance was fighting for France. The Government was selling the Jews out. Even the Americans didn’t really come to save the Jewish people, it was just a side effect. He wasn’t angry about it, he didn’t seem embittered or upset, it was just a fact. He told me that in Pau, because there was a large presence of the resistance and because it was so far away from Germany and the Vichy government, the Synagogue stayed open throughout the war which was actually shocking. Although there was also a detention camp next to Pau where Jews were sent before being taken to Germany. Now a days most of the Jewish population in France are all recent immigrants from Northern Africa.

It was interesting to be able to compare the stories that the Rabbi and the resistance fighters told me to each other and also to what I knew of World War II from before I came to France. I have learned so much about the war that I would have never even knew to look for before coming to France and it’s been an eye opening experience hearing different sides and perspectives to the same history.

Picture of the week

Christmas decorations are up all over town and it’s really rather lovely. I thought I’d share a few with you guys.

Folklore in France

Bonjour Mes Amis!

This weekend I got to go to to a small town called St. Bertrand-de-Comminges and we toured the prehistoric caves of Gargas, a medevial/gothic cathedrale, and Roman ruins. Then I went to the town of Lourdes which is famous because a young girl, Bernadette, saw visions of The Mother Mary there and now there’s a grand cathedrale and a spring of miracle water that is said to cure what ails people.

Going to all these places I was once again struck by how cool it is to be in a place where three vastly different cultures existed throughout history. Yet, also, I was intrigued by the stories that each of these places had. Whether true or not many of the stories told were folklore.

France has a very rich history of folklore. From the oral stories passed down to the medieval troubadours that wandered from Castle to Castle singing the gossip of the day to stories like the one I told you guys about Lady Carcas and the origin of Carcassonne. Folklore is important to the people of France, it’s a part of the culture, the origin stories and the way that people connect to their past and their land.

The prehistoric Caves are an origin for the French people. Many French people, at least in my area of France, like to say that the people who inhabited the caves 27,000 years ago are the original French people. Those nomads that visited Gargas cave (the one I went to) every winter went on to become the French as we know them now.

I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in the cave so here is a site with a few pictures of the caves and a little bit of informations. Gargas Caves

Of course after the prehistoric people started civilizations and stopped being nomads and thousands of years passed, France was taken over by the Romans. This should pose a problem to France’s story of being directly descended from the prehistoric cave people, after all the Romans were Italian.

Yet, when I took my tour after the caves of the Roman ruins in the town the tour guide wasn’t bothered by this contradiction and I’ve found other people aren’t either. The roman ruins consisted of a sports area, a theater, and some baths. Not much of it was left, just the foundations, but it was interesting to hear the tour guide explain how these ruins are unique to France. Even though they are from the Romans the structure of the buildings and the way the bath water system worked is, according to our guide, different from the way they worked in Italy. I found this interesting. It was like the French need to account for the other cultures that settled in France and they way they do so is telling folklore about how France assimilates the people. The moment the Romans settled in France they became French.

Of course, there are other kinds of folklore besides origin stories. There are moral stories, like Little Red Riding Hood. This is a favorite of my professors and every time I wear my red cape to class they call me “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge.” There’s also real stories that have been sensationalized like the story of a wolf that terrorized the countryside of Gevaudan in the 1700s and sparked a nationwide panic and fear of werewolves. Currently I’m reading the novelized version of this story. It’s a favorite of the French.

There are also religious folklores. France is traditionally a very Catholic country and therefore many of the folklore have religious aspects. But even more so there are stories straight from religious places and people.

The Cathedrale in St. Bertrand-de-Comminges had a crocodile hanging on the wall. The cathedrale was this gorgeous granite building with stained glass and hand carved intricate details and then just the carcass of a crocodile pinned to the wall. It was a little out of place. Our tour guide explained to us that it was a pilgrim that has brought the crocodile to the cathedrale and offered it to the Cardinal there. The Cardinal, who was short on money at the time came up with a rather brilliant idea. He pinned the crocodile to the wall then started telling people it was a dragon that had been slain and given as a gift. Of course people from all over France wanted to come see the dragon hanging in the cathedrale and with people came money. Soon the Cardinal had enough money to make the Cathedrale the grand place it is now. While this story is true we know that there was never really a dragon.

Another kind of religious folklore is harder to tell if it’s true or not. Some people call these miracles. I happen to believe in miracles but many people don’t. Even the French. The story I’m about to tell you, many French people don’t believe it’s real but just the same many people do.

The town of Lourdes used to be a small village where most people where sheep herders. In the 1800s a young girl named Bernadette was going to some caves to fetch firewood when she saw the vision of a woman. After returning a few more times the woman told Bernadette that she was the Mother Mary and that she wanted a cathedrale built in this area.

No one believed Bernadette and so then the Mother Mary made a spring appear in the caves and the water in the spring was said to heal people. Eventually Bernadette was believed and now there is a cathedrale above the caves and the spring is still there.

Here’s a video that talks about this story. Lourdes and Saint Bernadette

Folklore is so important in France, and it seems every town, every well known person, has their own story. It’s fascinating to learn about because it’s a way to figure out how the French think, what their identity is, and what’s important to them. I love learning about these stories.

What about you? What are your favorite folklores? Do you know where they come from? Have you every wondered why they exist or what they’re trying to teach?

History is alive!

Bonjour Mes Amis,

Life abroad is not all excitement. Sometimes it’s just life but in a different country where you don’t speak the language very well. This week has been one of those. It’s been relaxing and I’ve been doing a lot of knitting. Thus I’ve had a lot of time to think.

I’m not taking any history classes here in France and I miss studying history. I miss sitting in the library and reading old medieval documents or comparing secondary sources (I know, it must sound so dull to most people). I’ve felt sort of melancholy over it, listening to my friends back home talk about their classes and what they’re learning. But this week, during all my knitting and thinking, I’ve realized that even though I’m not actively doing history in an academic way I’m living in history in a way that I’ve never had the chance to do before. After all, in every post I’ve written for you I’ve talked extensively about history, it’s just a different kind of history learning.

Instead of learning about history I get to witness it.

I remember the first day in Paris we took a tour of the Luxembourg Garden (Le Jardin de Luxembourg). Our tour guide was walking us up to the gates and explaining to us that we would be seeing two different kinds of gardens. “There are the British gardens, wild and unkempt,” She said in a very Frenchy tone that made me question whether she liked British gardens at all, “and there are the French gardens, well groomed and very structured.” She pointed out the British garden when we arrived and indeed it was a vast plot of lawn with tufts of wildflowers and overgrown ferns and everything you would expect from a British garden. Then she pointed out the French garden which had two lines of trees perfectly even and parallel, the trees cut neatly into perfect triangles, no branch out of place.

The first thing I thought of that day was my Western Civilization class. My professor, a old grouchy man who is perhaps my favorite professor to date, explained to us that in the 18th century (the 1700s) Europeans believed that they needed to control nature. This century is commonly called the age of reason and people believed that nature was wild and needed to be tamed. If people didn’t tame nature then it would engulf them all. Therefore, in the 18th century all gardens were like the French gardens. Very orderly.

Yet then there was the industrial revolution and nature became less important, factories and cities were important. This was the 19th century and with the rise of industry came a backlash from artists and they had their own revolution, a cultural revolution that we like to call the Romantic revolution. Primary this was in England and the artists believed that Nature needed to be wild and people couldn’t, and shouldn’t, try to tame that. Thus the birth of the English garden.

It was fascinating to see these two schools of thought in one area but also I was struck by the tour guide’s words. She clearly preferred French gardens over English gardens. And the more I explored France and saw all their square trees I realized that France had never really grown out of the 18th century and the desire to tame nature. It was my first taste of living history that I had learned about in school and it was all about gardens!

I’ve had these moments a lot where I witness things I’ve learned about in classes in France and it makes me appreciate history so much more.

But France has also changed one fundamental way that I view history. History is taught in moments. I’m sure you guys have experienced this. In school it’s just easier to teach a window of time, it would be impossible to do it over wise.

For instance, I remember in school learning about Versailles. I learned that it was built by Louis XIV, that it was grand and that during the French Revolution the royal family was forced to move away. Yet being in Versailles you don’t just see that window of history. You see the build. You see hints of when it used to be a hunting cabin and you see Louis XIV’s designs and you see moments from when Versailles was used to create treaties and now when it’s used for galas and balls.

It’s like that everywhere here. Things aren’t nearly as old or static as I expected them to be. Like the Chateau in Pau which was built on three times in three very different centuries. It wasn’t just built and left as is in the 1300s. No, people added on, like we do now to our houses and buildings. They updated it for modern comfort or added defensive positions when needed.

Carcassonne was like that too. Remember I talked about how the Romans were the first to build the walls? Well, some of those Roman walls are still around but the majority of Carcassonne was actually rebuilt, redesigned, in the 19th century (far past the Medieval area that Carcassonne is always touted as being from) when France was working on trying to rebuild it’s decrepit history.

Our tour guide in Carcassonne made a joke about it. He was explaining that people used the stones from the walls in Carcassonne to build their houses. “Back then people didn’t care about historical preservation — preservation was for people not walls.”

It’s weird. Going from a classroom where, in theory, things stay the same to a country where things are constantly being built and rebuilt, added on to and torn down. It makes so much sense, now that I’ve seen it. Who cared about the legacy of a castle when they just needed to survive? Europe isn’t a very large place and there isn’t a lot of new land to build on. Sometimes people need to choose between a historical monument and the ability to house or feed their populations. Sometimes buildings need to added on to so that they don’t fall down. Sometimes cities catch fire and everything needs to be rebuilt.

In France I’ve come to see History as more than just windows into a time and place. I’ve come to realize that just because something was rebuilt in the 19th century doesn’t make that place less special or real or important. History is breathing and living and changing and here in France I’m getting the change to witness and be a part of that process. It’s magical.

My medieval adventure

Bonjour Mes Amis!

It’s been such a crazy week I’m so excited to sit down and tell you all about it.

I left for vacation early Sunday morning. With a backpack on my back and my friend by my side, we headed to the Pau train station and got onto our train heading east.

Since it was the week before Halloween my friend and I passed the time doing a Halloween crossword puzzle and learning the names of various ghouls in French. For instance, Vampire’s and Mummy’s are the same just pronounced differently (Vamp-ear instead of Vamp-ire) and witch is “sorciére” and werewolf is “loup-garou.”

Our first stop for vacation was Albi. Albi is possibly the cutest town I’ve ever been to. It’s definitely the quintessential southern french town with cobbled streets and narrow roads and everything is centered around the magnificent cathedral.

This region of France is called the Languedoc (I mentioned that last time. Remember, it’s called that way because these people used to say “Oc” instead of “Oui”.) From the 10th to the 13th centuries the region was independent and rather powerful. However in 1208 the French King and the Pope led a mean-spirited crusade against the Cathars in the region. This crusade was called the Albigensian crusade. It was because of this crusade that the powerful region began to fall and with it went the language.

Before it’s heyday, this region was ruled over by Charlemagne. And in the history the Spanish and the Moors have had control of the region. Because of all this changing of hands you can see influences from all over. Albi certainly had some Germanic architecture from the Charlemagne days.

The buildings in Albi are sienna brick and timber which creates a beautiful aesthetic. And the Cathedral rising above everything in a mass of grey stone. It’s beautiful and intimidating. The church was built in the 13th century as a statement from the Pope when the Cathars were finally defeated. Albi also had a rather wealthy Bishop who could afford to build an impressive cathedral.

When we arrived the Cathedral was actually having work done on it and it was very interesting to watch the process of preservation on the medieval building.

We spent the night in Albi, woke up to do some shopping because everyone had told us that Albi had the best shopping! It was fun to go shopping in modern stores in medieval buildings.

Then, that afternoon, we got back onto the train and headed to Carcassonne.

Carcassonne was the city I was most excited for. I also knew the least about it. All I knew was that it was a medieval walled city and that I was going to love it. Everyone was right too, I absolutely adored Carcassonne. It was best at night when the lights illuminated the town and you could imagine the ghosts of medieval people wandering the cobblestone pathways.

There’s a legend about how Carcassonne got it’s name that our tour guide told us and later I found a postcard when the legend on it. It goes like this:
In the 800s Charlemagne and his troops besieged the town, called la cite. They laid siege for several years and the town was slowly running out of food. Everyone was going to die of starvation if they didn’t surrender soon. However, a clever woman, Madame Carcas came up with a plan. She fed the last bits of grain and other food bits to the last pig in the town. The pig soon became fat and then Madame Carcas tossed the pig over the wall. Splat. Carlemagne’s troops were bored and frustrated at this point and when they saw the pig they were all amazed. If the town had enough food to waste a fat party pig then certainly the soldiers would never succeed in starving the people out. They gave up their siege and Madame Carcas sounded the the victory bells. In french you would say that Madade Carcas sonne les cloches. Thus Carcas-sonne.

It’s a cute story but Historians have thoroughly debunked it. Sometimes, however, the story is important to the people and that’s when they become local myths. It’s something that unifies and strengthens the people of the area and that’s really cool.

Walking along the medieval walls is an amazing experience. You can see the layers that it was built from. First the roman walls which were smaller and less of a fortress. Then the walls built by the Cathars and Catalans. Then finally, when the heretical Cathars were defeated the French built the second wall and fortified the town with 52 towers.

When my friend and I walked around the town we pretended to be scouts for invading troops looking for the weak points. What we found is that there are no weak points. Carcassonne is an impenetrable fortress.

There’s a cathedral in the city that was created at the defeat of the Cathars. There’s also a Chateau where you can walk around on the ramparts. The whole experience was just so surreal. I felt like I was in a movie. Which is fairly apt because most medieval movies that you see base their towns off of Carcassonne.

After the excitement of medieval towns, my friend and I headed by a slower paced world. Our last stop was Collioure. This town is a little mediterranean hideaway only 15 miles away from the Spanish border. The town was absolutely perfect. There too was a medieval Chateau. It was 800 years old and certainly looked it’s age. The Chateau was built on what used to be roman ruins and served as home to many people, like the crusaders, Dominican monks, and Louis XIV.

We spotted many jellyfish in the clear water and when I asked a young fisherman about them he told me that it’s not usual to have jellyfish there but that the temperature of the water and driven them close to the shore. Which of course made us less willing to take a dip in the water although I did spend a few minutes letting the Mediterranean wash over it. It was glorious.

My favorite part of Collioure was the hike that we took. It led us first to a stone windmill from the 13th century which most recently has been used to make olive oil.

After the windmill we walked up the mountain to Fort St. Elme, a privately owned old medieval fortress among many on the tops of the mountains in this area. It was amazing to see and I’m envious of the people that own it!

The whole trip was absolutely perfect. I had such a great time and it was wonderful being able to immerse myself in medieval history. I learned so much and I was able to see things I have learned about in classes.
I don’t yet know what my next trip is going to be but I can’t wait to have another great travel experience.

Now, you all should tell me, would you rather spend your days exploring a medieval walled city, lounging on the mediterranean, or walking around a little french town?

Picture of the week

Happy Halloween!

Here’s a picture of the spooky medieval castle I’ve been spending my week exploring! 🙂 I’m excited to tell you all about it next week.

Sometimes the French do American things

Bonjour, mes amis! Comment ça va? Je suis très bien!

How much of that can you understand? Is it anything similar to Spanish? You all should tell me how you greet people in Spanish! How do you ask “how are you?” And how could I respond to say I’m doing well?

The days here are finally starting to feel like autumn. It’s chilly in the shade, although it’s still hotter than I would like. The leaves are changing colors and blanketing the grass. There are pumpkins at les halles, the farmers market of Pau! Have any of you carved pumpkins this year for Halloween? Halloween isn’t really celebrated in France, although it is starting to become a bigger thing, or at least the French are starting to warm up to the idea.

In Pau no one goes trick-or-treating although there are. Few Halloween decorations in some of the stores. I hear that in other cities trick-or-treating is a thing. Interestingly, all the French people I’ve talked to like the idea of Halloween. One of my friends told me that she visited the U.S. Over Halloween a few years ago and instantly loved it. She wants it to come to France badly. I have to agree with her. I am going to really miss celebrating Halloween this year.

However, I did go to a kind of Halloween celebration which was really interesting. It was a Halloween Pub Quiz and costume contest at the local haunt of many of the college students called Le garage. I went with one of my French friends and a few Americans and we ended up making a quiz team with two other French people. It was so interesting to see the French take on Halloween.

Most of the costumes were really impressive. There was a woman dressed as Edward Scissorhands, a mummy, a zombie mariachi band, and lots of horror themed costumes. The bar was also decked out with fake spider webs covering everything and little plastic spiders hanging around. Interestingly they didn’t play a lot of Halloween themed songs, actually it was mostly old American jazz.

My group did not win the quiz, unfortunately, but it was a really interesting experience. There was a lot less candy being given out than there would be in America. Overall, Halloween in France might give you more nightmares and less cavities!

The experience got me thinking about how France perceives and interacts with the U.S. Most of the movies in theaters are US movies and when I talk to my French friends they always talk about the US TV shows that they watch. One of my friends told me that in order to improve in my French I should solely watch French TV shows and movies but she immediately followed that by telling me that it was unfortunately because no French TV shows are actually good. Most everyone here that I’ve talked to loves the TV show “New Girl” (so do I) and they have all seen the most recent US movies.

But just because the French love US media doesn’t mean they love the US. Whenever I’ve talked to French people about their feelings on American I never really get a good answer. They think President Obama is handsome but they have very mixed feelings on the political system. They make fun of Americans for fast food but the McDonalds here always looks fairly full.

Recently I went to an American style 50s diner because a few of my friends were feeling homesick. The place looked just like any other 50s diner you find in the US and Happy Days was playing on the massive TVs overhead. It was such a strange experience to be sitting in an American diner ordering food in French. Like the Halloween experience, seeing how the French interpret American things is strange. It feels off, somehow, even if everything is technically right.

Well, now that I’ve talked a lot about how the French interpret US things, I’m now going to show you guys a traditional French meal at a very adorable restaurant.

French lunch is between 12 and 3. This is important to remember because restaurants will not be open after 3 (until dinner time at 6) and they won’t serve lunch until noon even if they are open for breakfast.

I went to lunch with my friend at 12. We found a restaurant called “La Cerise sur le gateau” (can you figure out what that means? Let me know what you think). I mostly picked the restaurant just because the tables were bright pink.

All meals come with a drink. Either tea, coffee, or wine. Everything costs extra but you can also just get water. My friend and I got tea.

We ordered soup which came with croutons and cheese. In France everything comes with cheese.

Then we got desert. I got a macaron cake. Macarons are my favorite French desert. My friend got a muffin.

It might not sound like a lot of food but it was so much! And that’s pretty typical of French meals. You have two or three courses (although you can have even more than that!) and you sit and eat and talk for hours. We didn’t leave the restaurant until 3. It was a very different experience than Halloween in France or the 50s Diner. It was so perfectly “French”.

I’ve found that France is a lot like that. There’s experiences that I’ve had that are borrowed from other cultures and while they are fun, there is nothing like doing traditional French things in France.

Do you guys ever have the experience of doing things originally interpreted by other cultures but put on by your own culture?

When you guys read this post I’ll be at the end of my vacation which I’ll be telling you all about next week! Get ready for lots of medieval towns!

À bientôt!

Picture(s) of the week!

I haven’t done much this week, what with midterms and preparing for vacation so I decided I would share some more photos of my time in the Pyrenees.