The Loire Valley

LOIRE VALLEY

I just got back from the Loire Valley in Southern France to tour the many chateaus there and it was amazing. The Loire Valley is the very essence of charm, of warmth, of tranquility and enchantment, so I don’t know how anyone could ever feel like each day is not a miracle when they live there. It'd be so cool to live here sometime in my life. I could see myself as a writer living in one of the little cobblestone street towns where I could stroll along the castle grounds nearby on dirt paths weaving through the forestry, basking in the calm yet enchanting presence of the chateaus which would become my muses for the much inspired pieces of writing I would produce. Really, is paradise too much to ask?


It has been a while since I wrote my blog and I’m having a hard time organizing it into related thoughts, so I’ll just do an uncreative list format. Here goes!

FOREIGN EXPERIENCES

-- I had an idea this week to help us learn French better called “Speak Your Language,” an idea I stole from the MTC. My roommate and I spoke only French for a full day (okay, it was only until 4 o’clock when we got tired of other girls in our group speaking English to us and trying to speak back in French). We’re going to do it every Tuesday. But that morning at the metro, I was telling Rebecca in French about how my pants are all too big here because we don’t dry our pants in the dryer and shrink them in the process when a French woman heard us and talked to us. Turns out she is looking for some native English speakers to teach her three kids English twice a week until December. We said we’d have to clear it with our director and it could only be once a week, but we’d email her. It’d be way cool, though!

-- There was a single adult dance at the Institute last week and it was a blast! My favorite part was doing one of their choreographed dances (equivalent to us line dancing at Mormon dances whenever Cotton Eye Joe comes on). The song goes “Follow the leader, leader, leader (clap, clap, clap!).” Everyone lines up in two lines facing each other and hops on one foot as this group of black guys lead the dance. It was unbelievably fun!

DINNER ADVENTURES

-- One night at dinner, I was cutting a piece of ham that was wrapped in some flaky breading and trying to talk to my host in French at the same time when in the blink of an eye, my flaky ham was off my plate six inches away on the tablecloth, spreading buttery flakes everywhere as it flew! I have no idea how it got from my plate to the tablecloth, but as I quickly apologized while sort of giggling and sweeping up the flaky ham, my roommate jumped in with an explanation in French of the ham being like a bird because it flew. But she didn’t have all the right vocabulary in French to make this comparison, so there was a little miscommunication and we ended on the note, “Uh, like a plane.” So ridiculous!

-- Another night, I was talking with Mme de Boudemange about art and I said “abstract” incorrectly, so she tried to correct me, but my mouth was full of food, so I couldn’t pronounce the word right. But she kept having me repeat the word, so we went back and forth-- “abstract,” “abstract,” “abstract”-- over and over until I finally swallowed my food and got it right! If anyone is wondering, I can now pronounce the word “abstract” in French perfectly.

THINGS I SAW and WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT THEM IN FIVE WORDS OR LESS, WHICH IS WAY LESS THAN THEY DESERVE, BUT I CAN'T DO THEM JUSTICE IN DESCRIPTION ANYWAY

-- The Pantheon: “Neoclassical = better than cathedrals.”

-- Crypt of the Pantheon: “Cool, there’s Victor Hugo!”

-- The Pompidou Center, museum of modern art: “They call this art?!” (except for when I found the pieces by Braque, Picasso, and Calder)

-- Arc de Triomphe: “Amazing view of Paris.”

-- Opera House: “Ornate, but where’s the phantom?”

-- The Louvre: “Breathtaking. Gasp.”


OH, THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFUL
-- On the way home one day, we got off the metro and the light sprinkling of rain started to downpour! We had umbrellas, but still got pretty wet. We made dinner when we got home, dried off, and then drank hot chocolate while we watched it storm outside. It was nice and cozy, and made me feel at home.

-- At the top of the Arc de Triomphe, it was rainy and windy, so I guess we are all going for the “wet, windblown look” in our pictures. Everyone had these flimsy umbrellas, though, so every time there was a big gust of wind, somebody’s umbrella would bend backwards!

MORE PHOTOS FOR MORE FUN

That's all I really have time to write for now, but here are more pictures. Until next posting, I hope you are all doing well. I still miss you tons!