Art du jour (2)

Vierge en oraison

Virgin in prayer

Jean Bourdichon

Tours, 1480?

When I was studying in Tours for 2 months in 2010 I went to the Musée des Beaux Arts and bought a postcard of this painting. Instead of sending it out I kept it my room wherever I happened to be. 

In 2011 I was back home in Chicagoland doing an internship required for graduation. The Art Institute of Chicago was having an exhibition entitled "Kings, Queens, and Courtiers: Art in Early Renaissance France" which I went to on one the free visiting days they have with a friend. 

I turned a corner and voilà! saw this painting all the way from France. What a wonderful surprise it was! I think I took it as a sign of sorts, but as to what kind of sign, I have no idea exactly.

I'm all about Marian iconography. I'm sure that my name being what it is (Maria) has something to do with it. :) I like the crucial role art played in the Catholic Church for centuries and I like thinking about the personal choices artists had to make in creating an image of the Vierge.

Fleur d'oranger

Orange Blossom! Every now and then I'll get a flashback of sorts to my time in France. I'll see something or read something that I recognize as particularly French and realize even more just how many little cultural differences exist between the U.S. and France.

I was in a bookstore in Chicago recently when I stumbled upon a book of wedding fashions throughout the decades. While I was flipping through the pages, I found out that orange blossoms were a traditional staple of weddings especially during the Victorian era with brides wearing them as wreaths or making them a part of their bouquet. This was interesting to me because until I went to France this past year, I don't even think I had ever heard of orange blossoms being used in any context or mentioned in any way at all.

When I visited Provence I noticed a lot of perfumes, soaps, and shampoos (which are big selling items for tourists in region) are fleur d'oranger scented. Since I've never seen anything orange blossom scented in the United States, I made sure to buy fleur d'oranger scented soaps and perfumes knowing that it wouldn't be that easy to buy such things back home. I really love the fleur d'oranger scent and every time I smell it, I'm reminded of living in France.

The French Gastronomical Tradition from an American Perspective

I had an amazing 6 course French dinner last month that made me so happy. It lasted quite a long time as you can imagine, which I felt was a nice way to spend a Friday evening. I adored the attention to detail put into every course. The French are very proud of their gastronomic tradition, so proud in fact that it sort of gets unnerving when they often diss American food outright and believe McDonald's to be the epitome of American cuisine. BUT even though they have prejudices against American cooking, they reserve a special distaste and mocking commentary specifically for British food. You gotta admit, the fact that Fish and Chips are arguably the most well-known dish in British cuisine, is pretty sad.

Anyway, I digress. A typical French meal starts out with an apértif. An apértif is an alcoholic beverage that is served with something small like nuts before dinner in order to stimulate the appetite. Often it is a cocktail like kir (blackcurrant liqueur + white wine). For this dinner, sangria and some little crusty pastry things that looked like nuts were served as the apértif. The first course was beet sorbet. Yes, beet sorbet. It was so cool. Imagine beets like a sorbet. Yes, it's real! It was served with a flavorful toast that made scooping it easier. 

The next course was charcuterie. Charcuterie is one of the most important things in the French culinary repetoire. It consists of various porc (whoops, see spelled it the French way, I'm forgetting English!!!) PORK products. This charcuterie spread consisted of jambon cru (raw ham), lettuce, and French pickles arranged on a plate side by side. Raw ham is interesting... I actually saw the students prepare it earlier in the day. They literally took a huge pig thigh and just scraped the top of the meat off. It's preserved in salt to keep it from spoiling, but the idea of scraping meat off a pig leg then eating it, was very shocking for me, a little American used to her meat being cooked/processed/sterilized the hell out of. Charucterie is often served with French pickles which are about the size of one's pinkie finger.

The next course was the main course or plat. It consisted of an artfully arranged half dome of rice stuffed full of seafood like mussels (and other seafood that to this day I'm not sure what it was ) and vegetables, with sides of jumbo shrimp and pork bone. I've been eating so much meat in France that I never eat in the United States - mussels, duck, goose, liver, and lamb. In the cafeteria the other day they were serving lapin (rabbit) something which I feel is usually something that only hunters eat in America. I have no idea why Americans don't eat game except like deer. There are a few animals  I will NOT try - frog legs and snails (les escargots) for example. I would consider trying horse meat though. My host mom last year in France told me she grew up eating horse meat in Lyon (a city in the Southeast of France) in the 1940s because her family was poor and the meat was cheap. Then she said it became sort of a delicacy and therefore the price shot up. The meat is not commonly eaten anymore because a lot of families horseback ride and consider horses like pets now. 

Next came a cheese course which consisted of two long rectangle pieces of cheese (don't remember which kind...), dark berry jam and lettuce. Cheese and jam is such an awesome combo. Now that I think about it, in America we eat cream cheese and jelly bagels so I guess we have the same concept just more fattening. I'm sure there's an art to pairing the right cheese with the right jam but I have no clue how. I'm getting used to French cheese more in general. Frankly I like good ol' American cheese better. French cheese tends to have too strong of a taste and it's often overwhelming when consumed in more than tiny quantities.
My favorite French cheese is Camembert. Camembert is from Normandy in the north of France and it comes in a circular box. You cut it into wedges usually and eat it with bread. The head English teacher here told me that Camembert+baguette+saucissons (salami basically) is probably the favorite meal of French men. Camembert consists of flexible rind or la croûte and a gooey delicious center. I don't really like the rind, I think it makes the cheese taste bad. Another famous French cheese is Roquefort. To be certified as a Roquefort cheese it has to come from a specific place in France, so Roquefort is produced in a comparatively tiny  area given the context of the country. Roquefort is too gross to eat on its own in my opinion, but obviously a lot of people disagree with me. It's whitish with blue-green spots throughout. The blue-green spots are mold. I think Roquefort is good when it's on a sandwich. I had a sandwich in Nantes which consisted of jambon cru, little Roquefort chunks, and other creamy cheeses. It was good because no taste overpowered the other. 

On to the dessert! The dessert for this meal was a cylindrical puff pastry about a half a foot tall drizzled with a colorful glaze and filled with a similar colorful amazing cream. The flavors you could choose from were raspberry, piña-colada, and peach. I chose peach. It was paired with a sweet white dessert wine that complimented the pastry so perfectly that the taste was lingering on my palate for weeks. Why don't we do the dessert+wine thing in the States?! It's amazing! Well I guess French desserts are amazing in general. All throughout France in every city and town there are pâtisseries that sell French desserts. It's always a treat to walk by a pâtisserie and see all the pretty desserts on display. A couple weeks ago I bought a millefeuille from the local pâtisserie/boulangerie. A millefeuille is a rectangular layered pastry that is awesome. Here's a picture of it -> MILLEFEUILLE PIC! 

After dessert, the server usually asks you if you would like a coffee to round off the meal. Coffee in France is served in really little cups which you can't get it iced. It is also pretty expensive if you compare it to the price of a medium iced coffee in the States. That's one thing I miss about America is the variety of coffee+tea. I usually get a tiny coffee like a noisette when I go to a café since I don't like coffee very much anyway.

I forget to mention that this meal was served with three different types of wine each corresponding to the different flavors present in each dish. It was very cool to see the wine glasses add up in front of your plate, like I said it's the attention to detail!  I don't remember what wines they were but when dining out the sommelier does an impressive job of presenting them. Often when a bottle of wine is opened the sommelier or server if it's a not-so-fancy place will open the bottle for you and ask you to try out the wine to see if it's acceptable. Like I said, the French are very proud of their gastronomy. In Bordeaux I had great regional wine - St. Émilion and Médoc for example. Red wines are mostly produced in Bordeaux and it's really cool too in France that you can go to the supermarket and buy wine for like 2 euros.

Looking Back

I have been looking back on all my posts tagged FRANCE.  Some of them were about experiences I wanted to have or opinions I thought in the first few weeks of being here. Today is the last day for our journal entries before we hand them in to our professors and I thought a reflection post would be most appropriate.

I still have one more week in France left and I want to make the most of it. Over the past few months I've felt much frustration as equally as euphoria. I've learned that French people don't spice their food very much at all and though they can be pretty stoic and intimidating at first, the French are great!

I wanted to write a reflection for this last post, but I realize now that I won't feel the full effect of this experience until later whether later be stuck in EL hating the midwestern winter and thinking back to this wonderful summer or in middle age when my own children will be of the age when they start exploring the world and meeting all different kinds of people just as I am now.

Like I've said in a previous post I'd like to come back to France because I have yet to feel satisfied with both my competency in French and the number of my experiences here. I know of some people doing a program in France in which they will recieve a small stipend to work with adolescents here in French schools for nine months. I would like to try to get into that program and so maybe next year I will be writing new blogs posts again from France. til then salut! à bientot!!!

La Musique

One of the most interesting things I've noticed here in France is how much American music is played. It boggled my mind at first why people would care to listen to music they understood only in varying degrees and the answer I got from the French people I asked responded "we listen for the beat."

That's all well and good but you miss something I feel but by not fully comprehending the lyrics you're missing something great... that soaring feeling you get when you connect with a song on that lyrical level.

However, it makes sense economically for bands to sing in English. The United States is I believe the third largest country in the world with 300 million people combined with the anglophones living in Canada, Australia and of course Great Britain make the English speaking audiences the ones you want to target for the most bang for the buck.

I've been listening to Phoenix a lot this past week because their songs are good summer songs, light qnd qiry anot not too serious... plus they're French so I feel an added sense of approval for listening to them. Anyway I found an interview where the band discusses its motivations for singing in English, you can watch it down below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=y3QGd1EW2Lw&feature=fvw

I'm really impressed by Phoenix songs. Their lyrics show a pretty intimate knowledge of the English language in terms of slang and the way the construct sentences even. When I first heard of them I'm pretty sure I didn't realize they were French. My friends and I met some really cool French kids our age and we were talking about French bands and one of the boys asked if they sung with an accent andf I told him no because the only way I could tell they're French is by their accent when they talk not sing. Very interesting

On the Front Page of Le Monde

Image, Le Monde

This morning at breakfast I was skimming the July 15 Le Monde and the front page above the fold article was the following:

Le Sénat américain ouvre la voie à la réforme de Wall Street

It made me think about two things 1. how incredible the coverage of the United States is in Le Monde and how it is not reciprocal in the United States and 2. what life would be like as an expat

A lot of the stereotypes pertaining to Americains not knowing anything about other countries while other countries know about us has some legitimacy. While I was skimming the article I kept thinking that it is so weird to be learning about this important political news from my country first from a French newspaper. It made me think about how I would feel and be different if I were to live in France for more than two months...

It was very interesting to go to Poland this summer with my dad. I expected him to rave about Poland the whole time and talked about how he missed it but instead he compared everything to the United States and how it was better there. I think the only thing connecting him to Poland is the family he still has there in essence. Sure he loves Polish food and music a lot, but 30 years in the US has definitely made its mark on him... it is an interesting thing to ponder - notions of identity and nationality.

Turn the summer into dust

I only have two and a half more weeks left in France! I don't want to leave!

I feel like I haven't accomplished something, like I feel like there is some goal or feat inside me and I haven't mastered it.

And in two and a half weeks the summer will be one giant step closer to turning into dust and I'll evaluate all my experiences and lessons and frustrations of the past two months.

Then I'll go back to East Lansing, finish up school, and figure out my next step and I hope that will involve traveling.

Traveling is such an immense experience especially if you venture to a foreign country for more than a week and I hope I'll get the opportunity soon to meet new people and hear their stories and ideas.

The French, Chicago, and Al Capone

Everytime I tell people here in France that my family lives in the Chicago they frequently mention Al Capone.... and sometimes Michael Jordan.

......Seriously? Those people out of everything and everybody else? No mention of Barack Obama?!! lol It is good to know that Chicago has such a nice reputation abroad! haha C'est drôle.

Well Marion Cotillard did star in Public Enemies with Jonny Depp and both of them live in France so maybe this just compounded Chi Town's reputation in France.

Paris, Je T'aime

Following excerpt written from a Parisien café from my molskein cahier

There have already been several times when I have been flustered while speaking French. You know how they say you can smell fear? well you can also smell a flustered foreigner butchering the French language. Right now I'm sitting in a café/brasserie in Montparnasse in the 14e arrondissement. I'm staring up at the lone gratte-ciel skyscraper in Montparnasse waiting for my friend's train to arrive from Bruxelles. My impressions of Paris have so far been positive. My train got in from Tours à 15h30 and I've been walking around for the past 5 hours. While crossing a street I glanced over my shoulder and saw the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was incredible incroyable.  I just kept staring at it and thought - wow I'm really in Paris, aren't I? I began walking towards it hoping it was maybe close enough that I could get a good view without getting lost. On the way I stopped by a confisserie and bought French candies and the proprietor even gave me a free framboise bon-bon because I waited  longtemps while the guy in before me stocked up on sweets. I was as giddy as a child in the shop looking at all the different candies that I have never seen in the U.S. and the fancy paper that wrapped them. I also stopped at a 19th century cathedral as my pursuit of the Eiffel Tower became a lost cause and lit a candle for my parents as is becoming customary for me to do as I visit many old churches in France. I love going to old cathedrals and seeing the different types of architecture and art. This particular church had one of the most beautiful artistic works I have ever seen. It was a white statue of the Mary under who billowing carved stone clouds eneveloped her and her traditional globe and snake motif. From her paintings of gold sunrays spread out. This work of art stood in an enclave where several pews stood so that people could gaze at her and prayer to her for guidance and assistance.

*more to come!

New Month's Resolutions

So I have four more weeks in France left and i want to try to make the most of it.

I need to get over being shy when I speak French. The perfectionist in me wants to speak perfectuly at all times with as little an accent as possible. Thus with this sensibility, I have struck out many times in conversation because of my timidity to make mistakes.

I hit a rough patch emotionally about a week and a half ago. It was a day that I had to go to a lot of different stores to buy things for my upcoming week vacation from classes.I went to about 5 places and looked like an idiot/ didn't understand what was being said to me. I felt so incredibly frustrated like the French were personally out to make me feel miserable.

I then proceeded to rage and complain to Kaitie and Mary as well as to the internetosphere on facebook and twitter. From that frustration and overall miserableness I learned two things: A/ If anyone complains of people not speaking English in America I'm going to give them a piece of my mind because chances are they have no fucking clue what it's like to be learning a new language in a foreign country and B/ I'm going to have to get over my timidity if I'm ever going to truly progress further.

On the day I left for vacation to Poland, I got my first chance at this kind of redemption.

I was sitting in the train station waiting for a train to take me to Charles de Gaulle when a man passes by me and sits down on my bench. I thought this was weird because there were plenty of open benches in the station and my bench wasn't situated in front of the schedules or anything of importance like that. Then after a little bit he says something, but I figure to just ignore it since I couldn't understand what he saying in the first place and wasn't sure if his words were even directed at me. However, he says something different in a louder tone closer to my face, and I turn and the conversation begins.

And I had an interesting conversation with him. At first I couldn't understand what he was talking about, if he wanted to ask me for directions or what but after I asked him to speak "plus lentement" (more slowly) I understood. I explained to him that I was American and studying at the Institute and I guess he understood what I was saying even though he had somewhat of a blank look upon his face because he asked me in which part of the city I lived. I responded "avant le jardin" and he asked me which one. I told him I didn't know, which was the truth, but nevertheless I don't know if I would have felt comfortable telling him which garden.

You know it's weird. I read in my French culture book that when meeting new people the French rarely exchange first names, yet this guy asks me where I live? French people don't you think that where a person lives is more private than their first name? The whole public/private thing boggle my mind sometimes in France, and I'll speak about it more when I write my massive treastie on Muslims in France soon.

Anyway he asked me where I was going and I told him Charles de Gaulle. Then he asked if I was going back to America and I said no I was going to visit my father in Poland for vacation. Then he said "oh your father lives in Poland and your mother in the U.S." and I told him that my father's family lives in Poland and that both of my parents live in America. Then he said "Those Poles sure do love Americans" and I responded that I guess it's true (Poland's foreign policy is very Pro-American).

From there we got to the subject of politics and I asked him if he liked Nicolas Sarkozy and he laughed and said no. He then said he judged the United States for electing Bush, but conceded that the same could be said for France's election of Sarkozy, which I thought was very interesting.

So all in all I had a pretty nice conversation with this guy. I wasn't really nervous because he wasn't cute and was about a decade older than me. Since he initiated the conversation I felt more comfortable asking him to speak slower and also in talking myself because I didn't care how competent or cool I came off as.

Here's to hoping more of these situations arise in the next four weeks!

Plus Petite

Everything is smaller in France. The sidewalks, the drinking glasses, the ceilings in the mall, shampoo bottles, cars, all that jazz.

They have less space in France so it would make sense to have smaller things and be more prone to conservation but I also think it’s representative of the culture of excess in the United States. We have to have things bigger better, more impressive.

I think that this “culture of excess” can be linked to American eating/exercise habits as well. People in France and Poland put butter on their sandwiches, that’s like unheard of in the United States. (Although I’m starting to realize now that I’m here in Krakow that just as many Polish people are chubbin it out as Americans, and I shouldn’t go by my super tall/skinny cousins as a guide to the Polish norm! lol) Americans are carb weary forgoing pasta and bread for lettuce wraps while in France they chow down on baguettes everyday. Milk in France is like half and half! I drink skim milk at home and I’m going to have to take some time to get used to it again because the milk I drink every morning in France for breakfast is creamy and delicious.

I feel like Americans are super health conscious on one end and then really chubby and lazy on the other - there’s like no middle ground. Exercising and going to the gym is much bigger in the U.S. than it is France. I honestly don’t think the concept of moderation exists in the U.S. Thus we are both one of the heaviest populations in the world as well as the ones obsessed with dieting, exercise, and body image. I think I eat healthier in the U.S. but eat more and obviously walk less even on campus than I do here.

Europeans I’ve noticed both in Poland and in France utilize space better in their homes. They make the most of what they have.

My host mom in France considers Tours a small city but to me it’s pretty grand especially compared to a place like Grand Blanc, Michigan.

I went to a bar/café in town called The Guinguette on the banks of the Loire River and it had such a nice ambience with strung lights, completely outdoor tables and chairs, an area for games, a stage for music that I thought I would have loved to have had this place around when I was a teenager.

There are so many cafes, parks, and shops in Tours! In Grand Blanc the main hang out was the Starbucks where I went to too many times. Teenagers hang out along the banks of the Loire at night in circles talking and smoking (tobacco and weed) and it seems like such a nice slow paced sort of lifestyle here that I wonder how my life might have been different had I grown up here.

All this being said, I still feel like the United States is my home and always will be. 

Les Femmes! Fumez!?

My French professor here in Tours, Olivier, was telling us about how the division between the sexes in France is manifested through differing standards on public smoking. He said it was acceptable for men to smoke in public but less acceptable for a woman to do so.

Now surely a lot has changed especially in the past 50 years, but I think he said they were still vestiges of this double standard left in society.

Maybe I could equate it to something like double standard on sleeping around in American society – even though women sleep around as much as guys nowadays it’s still looked down more upon a woman if she sleeps around than it is for a man.

Anyway he gave an interesting explanation as to why it was more unacceptable for a woman to smoke in public. When a woman smokes in public it shows that she is doing something for herself in a very open way and in a patriarchal society women aren’t allowed to do things pleasurable for themselves. However it’s okay for a man to smoke in public because he can partake in pleasurable things while women had to cater to others not themselves.

Disclaimer: this was all explained in French so there’s a possibility I could have missed something. I don’t think I was paying attention but started to when he began explaining this so I could have missed some stuff.

What do you guys think?

(Image from weheartit.com)

Chenonceau and the original cougar

Our class went to the château Chenonceau (pronounced Sh-non-so) last weekend. It is a beautiful castle on the Cher River that was built in the middle ages and is situated not far from where I'm studying in Loire Valley. I didn't do any research to the history of the castle before going. On the way back to Tours I became intrigued by the history I was reading.

The first page of the guidebook has the heading "château of Chenonceau, the ladies' château" and as you flip through the most of the pages, you realize that the history of Chenonceau belongs more to the women of the French aristocracy than it did to the kings.

Most of the rooms bear the names of the woman who lived in Chenonceau throughout the years and its their lives who gave the château meaning and character.

In 1547 after the death of his father, Henri II offered Chenonceau to his beloved and mistress Diane de Poitiers. Diane was 20 years older than him and had known him and mentored him since he was a child! The original 'cougar' - Diane de Poitiers!

She had the most beautiful feature of Chenonceau built when she extended the château to connect to the opposite bank of the river. It is an interesting and unexpected feature and when you look out through the windows in that part of the château and the flow of the Cher river induces calm.

Diane wielded considerable power at court and influenced Henri's political decisions. Around Chenonceau one can observe the initials of Henri II and his wife Catherine de Medici, but the letters H and C are interwoven in such a way to form the D of Diane.

 >> me in the gallery overlooking the Cher!

I admired Chenonceau for its architecture the most. There wasn't much furniture inside the château as the kings of France moved often from château to château during the Middle Ages. This was done so the king could see and visit the common people all throughout his kingdom. It is said that the change to a permanent residence at Versailles for later kings of France helped contribute to the downfall of the monarchy because the king had lost touch with the people.

Most rooms, like I said, were minimally furnished and looked the same with a small square bed with a canopy and tapestries from Flanders decorating the walls. 

My favorite room was Louise of Lorraine's. The walls were painted instead in dark grey color with white accents of mourning objects such as silver tears, crowns of thorns, and widow's cordons, since she retired to Chenonceau after the death of her husband Henri III.

There is also a prie-dieu in Louise's room. A prie-dieu is a wooden structure designed to aid one in praying situated in front of a tall windo, which I thought was interesting!

 >>my friend Kaitie tryin' out the prie-dieu!

Tomorrow my class is going on another excursion to the châteaux Azay-le-Rideau and Villandry also located in the Loire Valley, the premier hotspot for châteaux in France.

La nourriture (Food)

I'm concerned with my diet in France. I eat bread and butter/or/cheese at literally every meal.

When you walk down the streets of Tours during lunchtime you cannot walk one block without seeing at least 3 people eating baguettes or baguette sandwiches.

I talked with my host mom this morning about the diets of Americans and French. I told her that a lot of Americans are carb weary because of the Atkins rhetoric we hear all the time. She cooks a lot of good food, but we eat cheese, butter, and cream sauces often. I wonder how the French stay so skinny!

Her answer was that it's the processed foods that make one fat not the natural stuff like bread, potatoes and butter! She also said that France was catching up with America in terms of weight gain. :P

It also seems as though the French don't drink as much during meals. They'll have a glass of wine during dinner or a glass of water but the glasses here are small compared to those in America and I feel like I look odd pouring myself as many glasses as I do during a meal!

I guess it's part of the culture of excess in the United States... everything does seem to have to be bigger in America. I'm going to talk more about the "culture of excess" in another blog post!

Oh another funny thing - I bought tweezers here that have pictures of French macaroons on them. The macaroons here are different than the American version and I'm excited to try them!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37158245/ns/travel-luxury/?pg=10#TRAVEL_100514_WhatNotToDoParis_Concierge

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Here's a typical sampling of what I eat daily in France:

Breakfast - Baguette with butter, jam, nutella, or honey, pain au lait (small rectangular bread), café au lait, les chouquettes (think of cream puffs without the cream, pictured below)

Lunch - Baguette with cheese, baguette with sliced ham, cheese and butter = classic French sandwich and lunch, various crudités.

Dinner - Lettuce with vinaigrette dressing, wine, baguette & cheese, some type of meat, vegetables (vegetables and meat are prepared with only a little spicing), and a speciality dish from different regions in France particularly Lyon because that's where my host mom was born.

Dessert - French desserts are reaaaalllllyyyy good, crème chocolat, tarte aux fruits, or simply fruit after dinner.

*My host family doesn't do courses, but a lot people who I've talked to their families do.

à la messe

I went to church this past Sunday in grand ornate cathedral dating back from the Middle Ages. As the small compact car my host mom owns pulled up in front of the cathédrale de Saint-Gatien, I was taken aback - the sheer intricacy and grandeur of the place is unbelievable.

To be sure there are very few churches in the United States that are built in a gothic style... I told my host mom, Monique, that Saint-Gatien was reminiscent of St. Patrick's in New York.

As I stood outside looking up at it in awe this French man around my dad's age walks past me and says "oooooh mignonne." I've heard that European men do express themselves in such an outward manner (or should I say creepy?) but here's to hoping he's a creepy outlier and not the norm.

During the service I encountered a bit of cultural misunderstanding. During one part of Catholic mass in America one shakes the people's hands who are by you and says "Peace be with you". In French mass you say something like "La paix de Christ" and in addition to shaking hands, "kiss the air" around the people's cheeks. I didn't know this and I felt bad for the boy in front of me who leaned in as I awkwardly paused and said nothing (because I wasn't sure what was being said - I was thinking they were saying "le corps de Christ"). I wonder what he thought about me! lol

The most interesting thing though was that my host mom told me that she doesn't go to this church like at all because most of the parishioners are the bourgeoisie. In French class professors always told us that the bourgeoisie was akin to America's middle class. However I'm confused because my host mom appears to fall within the scope of the middle class, according to American standards anyway.

She reads extensively, from what I can tell. The books that pack the shelves in her living room consist of books about Chopin's time in France and one entitled "Sexe et l'identité feminine". The poor classes in America are known to be less educated than other classes, so this also poses another question in terms of correlation between education and class in France.

Le rêve Européen

Finally in Europe for the first time in my life. My journey began with the 5 hour car ride from Chicago to Detroit to board the group flight yesterday, followed by the 8 hour plane ride, and then a 3 hour bus ride from Charles de Gaulle airport to Tours, France where I will be staying.

Traveling is hectic. Air France, while being very hospitable, is not a good place to catch some shut eye and with all that sitting down my legs hurt incredibly and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything.

I haven't done any exploring but I have observed something interesting things already.

The 3 hour bus ride through central France was for the most part un-riveting. The French highway system would probably be undistinguishable from the American version in terms of landscape save for a few interesting features.

Most of the houses that dotted the countryside were similar in construction - all were very old with cream/tan exteriors and roofs in various shades of orange. Throughout the rase campagne (open country) stood majestic cypress trees and along borders of the highway were beautiful bright red-orange poppies. These little details struck me because they've been ingrained in my head through Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, though I hadn't realized it til today.

When I finally saw them it was an odd moment... to recognize something you've never seen before.

Monet

Van Gogh

Van Gogh

Burgeoning Cultural Theorist Gets Ready to Learn

I'm going to France for the first time in less than a week and I hope to not only gain a better understanding of French language but the culture as well.

My blog's going to change to reflect this as I explore topics in French culture and compare American culture to that of French.

Topics I want to cover include:

• Race
• Dating
• Sarkozy
• Immigration
• The Colonial Past
• Materialism & Money
• Gender and the role of women 
• American Dream vs European Dream
• Misc. differences between French and American society

I would really like to film my adventures in Europe but I don't have enough money to buy a camera worth purchasing, nor do I believe that the school that I will be studying at has any A/V equipment. So I'm going to rely on photos and possibly transcribe interviews from a tape-recorder (oy).

Excited to see what the next 8 weeks hold for me!

Life and the Artist's Way in Southern France

I'm going to France in a few short weeks with both a novice traveler's mind and a college student's pocket! Thus I am both really excited and cautious on where to go with limited funds. I have a few must-see places that I'm planning on going to so that my restless mind and first-time traveler's spirit will be placated. Provence is a place that I've been giddy about getting to see.


Provence is located in Southern France and is known for its unique cuisine, beautiful weather, lavender fields, and influence in artist's work from Van Gogh to Cezanne.

I've been enthralled with the region probably since as a 5th grader my art teacher had us draw our own renditions of Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles. Since then I've seen a few of the many versions Van Gogh drew here at the Art Institute of Chicago, but there's something to going to this area that became the home of so many artists that draws me for whatever stupid reason.


Here are some of the paintings that have been inspired by the beauty of Provence:

L'estaque, near Marseille, by Paul Cézanne

Café at Night, Arles, by Van Gogh

Starry Night, Saint-Rémy, by Van Gogh

Mont Sainte Victoire, Aix-en-Provence, by Cézanne

And finally the one that started it all!!

Bedroom at Arles by Vincent Van Gogh