Orléans

Bonjour mes amis,

I’ve had another good week since my last post – it’s been busy and filled with Christmas spirit, of course! One of my classes was cancelled for a field trip on Tuesday – my longest workday of the week – so that was a nice surprise! I didn’t work on Wednesday, so I slept in very late and then tried to send a Christmas package home to my family. (Note the operative word there, “tried.”) I ended up going to La Poste twice on Wednesday and STILL ended up bringing the box home with me. I was just planning on buying one of the prepaid boxes at the post office, so the first time I showed up with a few wrapped presents and some packing material. Unfortunately the only option cost €35, which is about $50, which is more than the actual presents cost!! I left the post office, bought a box, packed the box, then went back to the post office to mail it. I didn’t have any packing tape, but I was sure they’d have some there that I could use to seal up the box (seriously, EVERY post office in the US has rolls and rolls of packing tape available for use). Unfortunately my assumption was unfounded and I was told that it wasn’t well sealed and that I’d have to leave and buy some tape to seal it up. It was super-frustrating to say the least, but I finally got the box sent on Thursday!

On Thursday night I went to the Maison de la Culture again to see “Tango Metropolis,” an Argentinian tango show. It was really different from Cendrillon, the only other show I’ve seen there, but I really enjoyed it! It was basically just 2 hours of short-ish tango routines, but there was also a live band – complete with a wonderful old man playing accordion – that added a lot to it.

Nevers had its Marché de Noël this past weekend, on Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday. I went with a group of friends on Friday afternoon to have a look around – and enjoy some vin chaud, of course! It was much smaller than the ones in Lyon and Orléans, but I was pretty impressed. There were lots of artisanal stalls with mostly-useless-but-cool housewares – you know, the kinds of things you’d buy at craft fairs. There were also several vignerons (people who make wine) with stands selling wine, so one of my friends and I did a few tastings and ended up buying a bottle each.

On Saturday I got up WAY too early to take a day trip with 4 other assistants to Orléans. Our train left Nevers at 6:58, but it was definitely worth it, as we had a great – but FREEZING – day! We arrived in Orléans around 9 AM and spent a few hours wandering around the town – we visited the Hôtel Groslot, a gorgeous big house that was once the private residence of someone important and rich, and the Cathédrale Sainte Croix, the main cathedral in Orléans, where Joan of Arc attended Mass while she was in Orléans to liberated it from its siege during the Hundred Years’ War. Because she liberated the city from its siege by the English, Orléans loves Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc) and there are statues of her all over the city – we even saw one of her naked?!?

We also visited the city’s art museum and then the Maison Jeanne d’Arc, the house where she stayed for a little while when she was in Orléans to liberate it. Like I said, it was absolutely freezing, so we spent much more time than necessary at every indoor attraction, meaning we were inside the 2-room Joan of Arc museum for about an hour, if not a bit longer… As Orléans is actually a city of some substance, there was also a lot more shopping than there is in Nevers, so that certainly gave us something to do for a few hours! We then went to explore the Christmas market, one of the main reasons we’d decided to go to Orléans in the first place. There were lots of stalls selling more cool-but-unnecessary things as well as food – so we ate dinner (and dessert!) at the market before finally heading back to the station to catch our train. Overall I really liked Orléans – it’s a very pleasant town, and it was decorated so nicely for Christmas!

Yesterday we had a Christmas party and my and Sarah’s apartment – it was a wonderful success! We started by making cookies for a few hours in the afternoon, then took a break to go to the Christmas market again, then came back and decorated cookies, made spiced wine, ate dinner and cookies, and watched Love Actually! We also did Secret Santa, which was lots of fun. It was my first time making Christmas cookies solo, and it was pretty hard without a pastry cloth or a rolling pin! (I ended up using an empty wine bottle…) I think they turned out all right, and it was fun anyways!

I can’t believe it’s my last week of work before vacation – I’m leaving on Saturday to spend Christmas in England with some family, which I’m looking forward to! My favorite school is putting on its own Christmas market tomorrow night, so I’m going with a few friends – I think it’ll be cute!

That’s all for now, I hope all is well with all of you!