V. Trips

A. Paris for All-Saint's Day

 [my diary from that week…taken from the page I maintained while in France]

   In France there is a week-long school vacation over the last week of October in honor of All Saint's Day. (Halloween has really just started in France.) Since I had yet to really see Paris, we decided to take the 3 hour train ride out to visit the City of Light.

   We stayed at Delphine's grandparents apartment in the University City area on the south end of Paris. Delphine's cousin Claire and her mother, Edmée's sister, came up from Ardèche for the first half of the week.

   Delphine, Claire and I visited the Louvre and discovered, only after waiting in a line for almost an hour, that the museum is free for anyone under 18 and therefore he hadn't needed to wait.

   One day I took Benoît out to EuroDisney, a 45 minute train ride out of Paris. We had fun, but spent a good part of the day waiting in lines. The park is actually quite small, especially when compared to its American counterparts. Moral of the story? If you're in Paris, stay in Paris. There's way too much to do in the city to waste a day at America-in-a-can.

   One evening we had the wonderful opportunity to see a concert at the New Morning, Paris' premier jazz club. It was a bossa nova quintet - not something I'd generally choose to see, but it was still great.

Pictures...(use back function of your web browser to return here)
silhouette of some Paris skyline
me in front of the Eiffel Tower
the tomb of the unknown soldier, under the Arc de Triomphe
close up of the engravings on the underside of the Arc de Triomphe
the Arc from farther away...full view
pretty picture of the Louvre with a mini pyramid and blue sky
and then the sky went grey...with big pyramid
my favorite picture from Paris
Delphine in the metro
Notre Dame with pretty clouds

B. St-Philibert for Christmas

    We spent Christmas vacation on the southern coast of Brittany, at the Trinité-sur-Mer in the Morhiban gulf. Being seaside for Christmas was a new experience, and the absence of snow seemed downright odd, coming from the white Christmases of New England. Ah, but there was snow -- a special kind of snow that Delphine introduced me to. At the nearby "Côte Sauvage" (Wild Coast), we were greeted with bits of sea foam flying through the air with the harsh winds. It wasn't exactly the kind of snow I was expecting or was used to, but I'll certainly never forget it!

    On Christmas Eve, we went to a mass in a small seaside chapel. Before the mass, the priest did a presentation of the story of the creation with a slide show of religious art from churches all over Brittany. The art was remarkable, with its simple yet moving figures, generally painted on wood. The influence of the marine culture was quite evident.

    During the mass, my fifteen-year-old host brother Vincent volunteered to do a reading. He ended up with a text about how Christmas is a family time and an invitation to pray for those who were separated from their families during the holidays. Until that moment, I'd managed to hold back the tears, but with that little twist of fate, I cracked.

    After the mass, the whole family introduced me to the French tradition equivalent to our stockings over the fireplace. Each family member puts a shoe around the tree, and their presents go in and around it. I missed the digging through the pile of presents to find my own on Christmas morning, but liked their tradition nonetheless.

C. Skiing for February Vacation

   Students in France get two weeks off in February, as well.

   The Dahirels decided to go skiing for the week in the Pyrénées, the mountains shared by France and Spain. We went to a town called Gourette, very close to the Spanish border. It was a tiny little village that seemed dropped in the middle of these towering mountains. It was at an elevation of 1600m. Everyone in the village was either skiing, a ski instructor, or otherwise involved in the tourist/ski business.

    Delphine and I took lessons at the highest non-competition level. Our instructor was absolutely insane - a former French skiing champion. He took us off-trail into 2 and 3 foot deep powder. We all fell more than we were up, but we had fun anyway.

D. Lourdes

    I went to Lourdes November 7th and 8th to participate in the 5th annual congress of the French association of liturgical choirs. It was quite an experience. About 85% of the participants were over 50 years old. So that means there were only about 1,500 "younger" people. Yes, there were 10 thousand singers there. It was quite incredible, although the way we were set up, we couldn't really hear the entire group, so that was kind of disappointing.

    The congress was held in Lourdes, which is in the Pyrenées, practically in Spain. The mountains are absolutely beautiful. The city itself consists of 5 things: tacky tourist shops, tacky tourist hotels, and 3 giant basilicas. :) Literally, that's like it. The basilica they put us in is the modern, underground one. It was actually really nifty--picture the skeleton of a fishing boat flipped upside-down. This is what it looks like inside. From the outside it looks like a field, because that's what it is. It really is underground. It holds probably about 15-18 thousand. We were all in there, and there was still lots of room. The altar is in the middle of the "boat".... it's kind of hard to explain.

The crucifix of the underground basillica...It was very modern-artsy and the form kind of reminded me of a cookie- cutter. It's kind of hard to see in this pic.
The older of the 2 beautiful organs in Lourdes...This is in one of the 2 old basillicas.
Vigil candles...this is only like a third of the candle path. These guys come around every 15 minutes or so to clear out the little cases to make room for new candles--they recycle the wax. The number of candles is just phenomenal. It must be quite a sight at night.
Typical basillica architecture...a pretty tower.
View from the top of the higher old basillica
An old fortress...check out the French flag. Isn't that cool? :) As you can see, it was a gorgeous weekend.
Another pretty view...you can see one of the side path-arch-y things leading up to the high basillica. It's the thing the people are standing on.
Side view of the high basillica...the tower opposite the lower tower there (its mirror image on the other side) is the tower in the pic above. I was standing in between the 2 when I took the top view pic above.

E. Ardèche

    For April vacation (2 weeks total), I went back with the Dahirels for a week-long trip to Ardèche, a department in the southeast. We stayed for 3 days and 3 nights in a château, of which a good portion is owned by Edmée's brother. It is a beautiful medieval stone structure, with four stories of historical, fascinating, drafty rooms.

Return to Perspectives: my year in Brittany

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