Bourges

Bonjour mes amis!

I’ve now officially made it through my first week of work! My classes all seem great, and the kids are always really excited to see me – it’s very cute. As soon as I walk into a class, they all say, “Hello!!” As I believe I’ve said before, French children are hilarious. I was in a CP (cours préparatoire, so the kids are about 6 years old) class on Thursday morning and we were talking (in French) about French words that come from English, like “le weekend” and “un hamburger.” (In a class where the children are that young, the main objective is just exposing them to the language, so there’s not a whole lot of teaching that goes on…) The teacher asked the class, “C’est quoi le weekend?” (What is the weekend?) A little girl then answered, “C’est une petite vacance le samedi, le dimanche, et le mercredi!” (“It’s a little vacation on Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday!”) Only in France would a child tell you that Wednesday is part of the weekend…

Yesterday, a group of 4 other assistants and I took a day trip to Bourges, a town about 45 minutes away by train. It was a delightful little trip, and Bourges is a gorgeous and really charming town, with a beautiful cathedral (St. Etienne) and lots of half-timbered houses and little medieval streets everywhere. We spent a little while wandering around the Saturday morning market, where I saw the hugest wheel of Emmental cheese I’ve ever seen! Bourges is a rather rich town, and it’s wealth dates back to the 1400s, when Jacques Coeur, Charles VII’s finance minister, chose Bourges as the site for his personal chateau, now called the Palais Jacques Coeur. (Jacques Coeur was later arrested for embezzlement, and didn’t even get to enjoy his palais!) We visited the Palais Jacques Coeur (for free, as many monuments in France are free if you’re under 26), which was absolutely beautiful. None of the rooms are furnished, but everything is so ornately embellished that it was a still a great place to visit.

Bourges has a rather quirky little museum called the Musée des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France; it’s sole purpose is to display the work of those few French artists/professionals who win the Meilleur Ouvrier (best worker) medal in their field of work. The trade for 2009 is roof ornamentation, so we got to see a room full of roof decorations and miniature models of different types of roofs.

We visited Bourges’ main church, the Cathédrale Saint-Etienne, a 13th-century Gothic cathedral that’s just gorgeous. We also got to go down into the crypt, where our tour guide pointed out that during the cathedral’s construction, one of the craftsmen had carved des fesses (a human butt!) at the base of one of the vaulted arches! We also climbed up the cathedral’s northern tower, and the 396 (!) steps led to a great view of the town.

In other exciting news, I’m moving!! The foyer where I’m currently living is really far from the schools in which I work (45-50 minutes à pied – by foot), and I also have no microwave, oven, or table. One of the German assistants and I had been looking for an apartment together, because she didn’t love where she was living either, and we finally found one the other day! It’s in the centre ville, right on the banks of the Loire River, and it will cost me about €150 less each month in rent. It’s 2 furnished bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room – we also have a little balcony! It is EXTREMELY funky and old-fashioned though, and I’m pretty sure the wallpaper hasn’t been changed in about 35 years, but I think it will work out well for us.
I have one more week of work before our first vacation starts, I think I’m working on Halloween (and how we celebrate it in the US) with my classes this week, so I’m excited for that.

A bientôt!