A day in Beaune

Dear friends,

A group of 7 other assistants and I went to Beaune today, and it was amazing! 4 of us left Nevers at 7:23 this morning (it was a long day) and met the other 3 in Beaune. As I explained in my previous post, Beaune is already famous for wine, and every year it has a wine auction at the Hospices de Beaune, a really cool old building that was built in 1443 to serve as a hospital for soldiers wounded in the Hundred Years’ War. That wine auction is taking place this weekend, so tout le monde s’occupe du vin (everyone is all about wine)! We spent about an hour and a half exploring the quaint centre ville of Beaune before trekking 25 minutes through the rain to the Fete des Grands Vins de Bourgogne, a big wine exposition and tasting event (if that’s not dedication, I don’t know what is). For €24, we received a commemorative wine glass, a book with a list of all the wines to be found at the event, and unlimited tastings of any wine in the exposition – and there were over 3,000 different types of wine! It was in a big hall, and there were 14 different circular booths, each of which had many different wines, grouped by the communes in which the domaines (the wine houses, like the name on the label) are found. While I certainly didn’t love all the wines I tasted, I did find a few I really liked and would definitely consider buying at some point. We ended up staying for a few hours, and it was a wonderful way to pass a rainy Saturday afternoon!

In other news, Sarah and I had been having a lot of problems with our wifi in our apartment – it was going either really slowly or not at all, so I had to call the technical support line. I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with the technician, which was immensely more challenging en francais than it ever would have been in English! Luckily he was super-patient and even went through the process twice with us – once for my Mac, once for her PC. It all worked out well though, and now our wireless works perfectly! (Knock on wood for me, would you?!?)

I don’t have much other news à ce moment, I hope you all are well!

Armistice Day and 22 :)

Bonjour mes amis,

I have now been living in my wonderful 1970s apartment for over a full week, and I’m so happy to call it home! We’ve already taken advantage of the fully equipped kitchen to do some cooking and to host a dinner party, and we’re already planning our big Thanksgiving meal…

I haven’t done too terribly much since returning to Nevers from Liverpool; I’ve worked a few days, gone for a few runs, and turned 22! Two other assistants and I went to a Festival du Chocolat on Saturday afternoon (yes, it was as good as it sounds!), where we saw chocolatiers making chocolate and got to taste about 8 or 9 different chocolates… for free! There were also several chocolate sculptures, as well as a man who was painting white chocolate plates with different-colored chocolate “inks” – very neat. I also finally got around to watching Hiroshima Mon Amour this weekend – it’s a 1959 French film based on a novel of the same name by Marguerite Duras. It’s a rather bizarre film, but the main character in the movie is a French woman from Nevers (of all places!), so it was interesting to watch it and look for familiar places…

As you may have figured out from this blog, France is all about les jours fériés (national holidays, days when no one works and most things are closed)… Armistice Day (November 11) is a jour férié, so none of the assistants worked. This worked out rather well, as my 22nd birthday was on Tuesday, so we were able to have a big party in our apartment that night! We had a few assistant friends come from other towns and spend the night in Nevers, which wouldn’t have been possible if schools had been open as scheduled on Wednesday. It was a great birthday, and it was wonderful to get everyone together and celebrate.

I’ve started doing tutoring sessions with Guillaume, the 16-year old high school student whose mother teaches at one of my schools. It’s not too much work – he mostly wants to focus on improving his spoken English, so we just chat for an hour, which I enjoy.

A big group of assistants is going to Beaune, a town about 2 hours away from Nevers by train, on Saturday. The town is famous for wine and its annual wine auction, held in November at the Hospices de Beaune. Luckily for us, the auction this year is this coming weekend, and the town becomes all about wine for the weekend. We’re going to spend the morning exploring the centre ville before heading to an exposition du vin, which features tastings of more than 3,000 wines! Even though I’ve already been to Beaune twice before, I’m really looking forward to Saturday – it’s always fun to visit places when they’re doing what they do best, which, in the case of Beaune, is wine!

I have to go to Dijon on Monday for my mandatory medical exam, which all non-EU citizens must have in order to get our carte de séjour, which allows us to legally stay in France for periods longer than a few months. It’s rather inconvenient that we have to go all the way to Dijon (which is 2-3 hours away from Nevers, depending on which train you get) on our own dollar (or euro) WHILE missing work, but I guess it’s just what has to be done.

I hope you all are well, à bientôt!