SUCCESS!

Last week I went on a day trip with my friend Kiran. Kiran is an art history student from Rome who lives in my dorm. We bonded by cooking together in the dorm kitchen and talking about art, and decided to take our sketch books to Marseille. We stopped at the market and got some tunesian treats and ate a picnic lunch on the port. Then we settled down with our sketchbooks and drew the view of the cathedral which overlooks the boats and ports. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a fantastic time. Kiran doesnt speak english, so we could only communicate in french. This limits conversation a bit, and it took a lot of concentration to both draw and sketch. But it was still a great afternoon!

When we had finished our sketches we walked up to the cathedral to admire the view.

On our way back to the bus stop we passed the market again. We bought two huge fish-2 kilos! and i dont think it could have been any fresher.

When we got back to aix we went to my friend christens apartment where two other americans joined us. We decided to have our easter dinner a week early, since several of us would be out of town the following weekend.

Kiran gutted and cleaned the fish, I stuffed the inside with garlic, lemon, and basil. Im not gonna lie, there was a lot of blood and i coudlnt really look too closely. Then we popped them in the oven, head, tails, and all. While the fish cooked, Christin sauteed some artichoke and asparigus in a white wine and parmesan sauce and put that over pasta. The feast was served- and it was absolutely amazing. The fish was so fresh it was sweet, though there were a lot of little spines.

Drooling yet?

We made a desert too. Kiran made an italian custard, I melted dark chocolate, and we put that over strawberries. The entire production was conducted in french, and by the end of the evening I was absolutely exhausted and incredibly proud. I hadnt spoken English at all that day.

A few days later I had another culinary succes, Christin and I made a tart for my friends birthday. I cant help it, im about to brag. Christin baked the crust, which i have to admit was the best part. We then put down a thick coat of melted dark chocolate, then a coat of italian custard which i learned to make from my Kiran. We topped this with artistically arranged strawberries, bananas, and grated chocolate.

it tasted as good as it looked!

eur-a-peein

i wish i could take credit for the pun, but im afraid i stole that beauty from rick steves.
I thought I would take a minute to write about a little cultural difference that I never anticipated, but which plays a very large role in my daily life- bathrooms.
My dorm room comes equipped with a bidet (pronounced bid-day). This little wonder is like a mix between a urinal and a sink- a porcelain basin with a drain and running water that- unlike an italian bidet- does not squirt up, but trickles out. It can be used for all sorts of wonders. One of my friends lined hers with used towels and used it as storage. Another friend tried to keep one of the neighborhood cats in his room and tried to teach the cat to use it as a litter box. not surprisingly- he failed on both accounts. and then there is the more traditional use. eur-in-all.
Another common phenomenon in france is the lack of toilet seat. There are no toilet seats in my dorm, in the university building, and in many other public toilets. Its more of an optional accessory than a necessity here i guess. The first time i walked into a stall in our dorm bathroom and saw this i backed out and went to the next stall, thinking there was a mistake. and then i went to the next stall. and then i stood in the middle of the room turning in circles feeling very lost, until a guy walked into the bathroom. This did not make me any less confused, because i hadnt yet realized that co-ed bathrooms are common in dorms and university buildings. he asked me, in french, with a very thick north african accent, what was wrong. I didnt catch a word of it and just kind of stood there until he repeated himself very slowly. i finally understood and put together a semi comprehensible french response. Luckily i was in the right place to have the crap scared out of me.
and then i came accross one more fun cultural difference- France operates on a BYOTP basis.

This weekend I visited the Loire Valley, in the midwest of france, which is famous for its meideval and rennaissance castles. There are over 50 castles scattered along the Loire River. I travelled with two friends, Christin and Allison, and we used Blois (pronounced 'blwah') as our jumping off point. Besides having its own lovely castle, there were 5 or 6 others within easy reach.
We left the dorm at 4:30 am friday morning to walk to the train station. We took one train to Marseille, another to Paris, walked from Gare de Lyon to Gare d'Asterlitz, and then took another train to Blois. We arrived exhausted but excited, and immediately got lost trying to find the office de tourisme. When we did find it, it was closed for lunch break. Which was two hours long. Typical. Eventually we did make our way to our hostel, which it turns out was more along the lines of a YMCA than an actual hostel. From there we made it the bus station, and onto the number 4 bus to chateau cheverny. We arrived just as the castle closed and the rain started, and spent an hour at the bus stop waiting for the next bus. Though the afternoon was a bus, we had a lovely bruschetta dinner in town and went to very bed early.

The next day we spent the morning walking around blois and visited a beautiful cathedral and its gardens, which looked out over the river. Then we took a bus to Chateau Chambord. We arrived and immediately regressed into our disney childhood. It was a ten year old girls fantasy. Its a huge decadent building made of shining white stone with a moat, a magical stair case, paintings of princes and kings, who, though not particularly charming, at least had good architectural taste and the money to indulge it, suits of armour, and more romantic towers and chimneys than you can shake a baguette at. We ate a picnic on the front lawn- baguette, strawberries, cheese, champagne, and chocolate. We then crawled over every inch of the castle. One of my favorite parts was a long hallway decked with a herd of antlers which culminated in a stuffed deer. all i could think of was gaston singing ' i use antlers in all of my decorating...'

After spending several hours inside we went back out to the grounds for one last look before catching the bus home. The day had turned overcast, but the sun had ducked below the clouds. The castle shone gold against the stormy sky, and a perfect reflection hovered on the surface of the moat. I think the beauty of it all made me a little trigger happy because i took a disgusting amount of pictures. Dont regret a one of them though. None of us wanted to leave. But we didnt want to sleep under those menacing clouds either, so we got on our bus and strained our necks for one last look.

As we were driving through the countryside back to blois, we saw a large rainbow over the feilds and cottages to our left. I would not have been at all surprised to see unicorns prancing beneath it.

The next day we took a train to Chateau Chaumont. Its perched on a hill overlooking a row of quant stone cottages and the Loire river. This castle was much less decandent, though charming in a humble way. there was a drawbridge, though no real moat. We decided that Chambord was the beauty and the beast castle, and this was the cindarella castle. The interior was better furnished, lots of cark carved wood, canopy beds, and medieval tapistries. We finished our tour and went outside for another picnic lunch. It had gotten much colder, so we sat on our bench and ate rather quickly. We had some amazing pastries from a local bakery. Mine was a cream filled strawbery topped concoction.

We went back to the train station, and Christin (who had class the next day), headed back to blois then on to Aix. Allison and I caught a train to Amboise, another city further down the river. Here we visited Amboise castle, which, like Chaumont, is perched on a hill overlooking the river. But while Chaumont is relatively isolated, Amboise is right in the middle of a decent sized town. This is where François Ier seemed to spend most of his time. There is also a small adjacent chapel where Leonardo Da Vincis remains are preserved! François I invited Da Vinci to live in his court in france. DaVinci, already 64, accepted the invitation. Apparently François visited Da Vinci regularly, there was even an underground tunnel leading from the castle at Amboise to Da Vinci's house at Clos de Lucé. Another highlight from Chateau Amboise- fantastic gargoyles.

Allison and I eventually left there and walked to Da Vinci's house at Clos de Lucé, though we didnt go in because we didnt have all that much time before our train back to Blois. We got back in time to watch the sun go down over the city.

Monday, our last day, was spent exploring Blois. We visited the castle, which had by far the most interesting interior and history. François I, again, was closely connected to it, as was his son Henri II. We saw the room where Catherine de Medici died, and the secret cabinets in which the royal treasures were hidden. Dumas mentions them in one of his novels, but according to him Catherine to Medici hides her various poisons there. We also saw the room where one of the Henris (I think II, though the names and geneology were confusing) had his rival assassinated. Allison and i spent a good part of our time in the castle trying to keep the various Henris, Louis, Charles, and Francois straight, not to mention the Medicis and the various heralds and emblams that went with each.

After that we walked to St Nicholas Cathedral and looked around. The light was shining in through the stained glass and creating some wonderful light patterns. Then it was one last picnic before catching the train back to aix. We got in around 10:30.

It was an amazing weekend, and reminded me why I chose to come to france in the first place (as if i needed that). I hope that someday I can come back to the Loire valley and explore it further, maybe staying in Tours and visiting Chenonceau and Ussé.