This Side of the Lens (A Year in French) One American's perspective of living in France

Christine and I drove to Liege because Christine had signed up to be a presenter at the annual AATF conference.  Since neither of us have ever been to Liege, Christine thought it would be a good idea to go and check it out.  Even though friends that work at the European Union felt that Liege is not all that tourist worthy, if you’re able to take a stroll around the city there are some beautiful places.  If you are curious, please see the link at the end of the post.

The trusty TomTom guided us to within 80 meters of our hotel (where the street was closed for construction) so we took a deep breath and and went around the block.  We stayed at the “Les Acteurs” hotel, where the accommodations were minimal but reasonably priced considering the trip to speak at the conference is basically a personal donation.  If you are in the area it’s not bad and may be worth a look.  Shortly after settling into our room, one of the other attendees dropped by to give us the low-down on the local cuisine and other gossip.  We took her advice and went to the local dive where Mussels are the house specialty.  After looking through the menu Christine asked what I wanted to drink.  “When in Belgium”. . .I’ll have a Chimay Bleu, I said.  She remembered having some Chimay in the U.S. so she decided to have one too.  While waiting for dinner to arrive I enjoyed the Chimay maybe a little too much.  In Belgium the Chimay is a little over 9% alcohol content by volume, so I was feeling buzzed.  Anyway, Christine had a big bowl of mussels and I had a steak hache Provençal.  Basically a hamburger without the bun smothered in a rich sauce.  After our meal we went back to the hotel to determine the following day’s timetable.

Since we did not have internet access in the room I fired up iStumbler and surveyed the neighborhood from the hotel window.  Luckily I found an open signal and checked the itinerary, because Christine’s spot had been moved from the morning to the afternoon.  That meant we could sleep in a bit and get a decent breakfast before packing up the car and heading over to the convention center.  Once I got Christine’s laptop all configured to use the projector I decided to take a stroll around town with my camera.  Here is the LINK to those photos.  

With the conference now out of the way, the plan was to head over to Brussels and stay with a friend of Christine’s and take in some other sites at a more leisurely pace.  Since we had no detours in mind we let Susan (remember the TomTom voice) plan the route tout de suite.  Without trouble we made our way to Brussels and found her friend’s apartment.  Heck we even found a parking place right in front!!  This was the view from the apartment towards downtown Brussels:

Pretty nice view eh.  We thought so.  Well that’s all for now, I’ll try and catch up some more in the next post and who knows, maybe I’ll even get caught up 😉

Peace,

-G

P.S. Oh, I nearly forgot… The Movie Christine was in looks like it will be coming out soon in the U.S.  If you want to see the Trailer, just click this link.  Thanks (Oh, and it’s in Quicktime format, sorry Windows people you may need the free QT plugin to view the trailer.)  And for those of you who just went to the end of the post for the photos, here is another link…LINK

Things have been pretty crazy here and I wanted to let you all know that I would be getting back on the ball here soon.  For those of you who have been following the blog from the previous web domain, I just want you to know that the previous posts on this page are a short representation of the original posts, because many of the pictures were just too much trouble to find and move over.  If you want to see those posts in their original format please go to http://web.mac.com/largerpurpose/  I plan on posting up some new content for you soon and I hope to get caught up with the current events just as soon as possible.  Thanks again for following along.  

Take care,

-G

Some fresh baked goodies in the local market.

Wouldn’t it be nice to both have the time to do interesting and blog worthy things and also have the time to blog about them? Sure there is a fare amount of time spent listening to people talk to each other without fully understanding what is being said and really not being able to add anything useful even if I do understand the gist of what was said. That said, however, it is considered very rude to try and do anything other than attempt to follow the conversation. Anyway time really seems to fly by, and here I sit feeling as though I need to catch up again.

After cleaning out the remaining items from chez Annette, we were able to take a small break from the activity calendar and get ourselves ready for the conference in Belgium. Time off includes shopping at the market, eating the good food from the market, going to the beach and <of course> visiting friends and family. The plan is to drive to Paris where we will catch the Bastille day festivities, which I understand are well worth the experience. We’ll try to stay the night with one of Christine’s friends and then finish the drive to Belgium after breakfast the following morning. We are likely to make several stops along the way, so will have to wait and see what happens. OK maybe it’s already happened and I just need to get you, the readers, up to speed. Maybe I should just end this issue here and continue a little closer to the present so that we can all be a little closer to the present.

Until next time…
Peace,
-G

A statue in front of the Luçon Cathedral shows more "Family Values" propaganda from the Catholic Church

After Christine’s mom’s house was somewhat under control,
I learned that there was to be a limited family reunion at
Christine’s family ranch called “La Foye.” The plan was to drive
to Luçon, spend the night with Christine’s cousin, and then
drive to the ranch the next day for the reunion and then
either head back to Saint Gilles, or stay another night in
Luçon.

Christine’s cousin and her husband bought an old warehouse
that used to be across the street from a Shipping port. I’m not
entirely sure about the details, but what I understand is that there was a canal maintained from the ocean in-land that was allowed to dry up or was filled in. Again, not entirely clear about the details, but here is a map so you can see… And maybe more information (well no actually, I googled Luçon and came up with nothing, so if you feel like searching and you find more information, let me know.) As I was saying, they bought a warehouse that had partially been converted into a residence, and over the past 18 years and three children later, the house is pretty amazing. I know I would have made some different remodeling decisions, but all in all the house was very large and nicely arranged. We received a tour of the property and then sat down to a large French dinner of mussels, wine, cheese, bread, Pasta (for those of us not so hot on the mussels) and the other usual suspects. After dinner I put on a short slideshow for the family and we retired to rest up for the next days festivities.

The gentleman in the front center is Maurice. The family Patriarch that reminded me of Papa and of Don Vito Corleon. This guy is 95 years old and a lot of fun at a party. We all had drinks before our drinks (in france this is known as the aperitif, which is meant to prepare the stomach for some serious macking, although it seems to me to be the best time to catch a buzz before your stomach is full of food.) After the aperitif, and the meet and greet, we sat down to a large multi-course meal with just as many wines as dishes. After lunch various parts of the family wandered off in search of different activities around the farm. I went on a walk with a group of Christine’s family in search of a plot of land held by Christine, her brothers and uncle. It was a nice walk through the country, though I was never completely sure that the plot of land had been found. After the walk, there was a short tour of the bread oven, where Christine took ill from the overwhelming smell of Bay leaves left in the oven. While she was resting I took a short walk around to take a few pictures.
After my walk around the farm some of the men decided to play a game called Pallet. I’m not sure if I spelled that correctly, but is was pronounced ‘Pallay.’ Basically it was sort of like bocci ball, except that it was played with steel saucers on a sheet of lead. I thought my experience with disc golf would help me out, however, the men were determined to correct my form. In Pallet, you are supposed to angle your steel saucer downward to grab the lead to stop your disc. I had some good throws, but I’m fairly sure my team lost in the end. Well folks, the meter on the car is running out, so I’m going to wrap this up now, and say goodbye.

I received a few email’s about the blog, and will try to address some of the difficulty by changing the first page a little. I thought is was a little odd that so much of the blog would show up on the first page, when to really read the issue, you had to click read more. So this time I will change it so that it is more clear that you need to click “read more” to read any of the blog. As far as the font goes, I’m sorry, but since I chose this stupid cartoon theme, I can’t change the font without messing up the page. I may change the theme to something different after I get to Aix, but on the laptop, I’ll just adjust what I can to make it easier. I hope you are all well. . .
Take care,
-G

Shiny orbs are difficult to pass up when you're packing glass.

I flew to Paris first class thanks to an obligatory upgrade, on top of a very generous family pass from my aunt. The flight left a little after 6 pm and the first class amenities started before leaving the ground. Champagne on the tarmac was a nice offer but I decided to stick to water. I was in the first row of the plane which meant I was in a select class of people that had seats capable of reclining completely into a bed. Being in the first row, however, also means that you get to hear every last bit of gossip from the flight crew and when one of the flight attendants spills water it comes rolling down the isle at you during take off. All that aside it was a very enjoyable flight. The woman who sat next to me told me all about leaving her husband and child for her french lover who lives near Paris. She had rented an apartment and was planning to love learning french and learning her french lover; or frenching her learned lover; or learn french lovingly, oh you get the picture, she was sharing a little too much information. So in first class you can watch an endless stream of movies, however, I was unable to see a single film as I actually tried to sleep after dinner. In the morning the flight crew pretends that we have all adjusted to Parisian time by flipping on the lights and serving us breakfast. I know that it was technically 6 am in Paris, but my body was still convinced that it was 12 midnight Eastern standard time and why on earth would I be eating such a large meal, including chocolates? Well we landed on time which meant I had time to find my luggage and then figure out how to catch a train to the west coast of France by 10:27 am.

Even though my suitcase was the last, I repeat, the LAST piece of luggage on the plane, somehow the ground crew was able to un-load and send my suitcase out last. I’m not sure how this is accomplished, but I watched them load my bag on the plane at the last minute, and then almost after giving up and heading over to the luggage counter in Paris, I breathed a sigh of relief as I finally saw my bag emerge on the conveyor after watching everyone else walk away with their own luggage. Now that I had my bags in tow I made my way in the general direction of the exit, where I assumed I would find the information booth and directions to the train. Along the way I came upon what was apparently the customs station. Unlike Mexico where you play the customs lottery, or the U.S. where they stop everyone, in Paris the customs agents stop whomever they choose, based on whatever criteria they go by. When I realized what was going on in front of me, I activated my cloaking aura and made for the exit. I don’t believe I heard any requests to stop, so I went straight out the exit where I joined the general population.

Per my instructions I went straight to the information booth (where I was told english was not a problem and I would get good information.) I asked where to go to catch my train to Nantes, and the nice gentleman told me to take the tram to terminal 1 where I purchase tickets and catch my train. Other than feeling like a sardine, I had no trouble getting to terminal 1 and making my way to what appeared to be a ticket counter. The woman there told me that the booth was closed, and at first she told me to wait 27 minutes. Then, after some pleasantries, she changed her mind and told me that I should catch the same tram I had just taken and to go to the next terminal where the train I wanted would be much easier to catch. Oh well, back down to the sardine packing machine I went and continued on to the next terminal where the real train station was (not just the local trains to Paris proper.) Here I found the ticket line and stood patiently while awaiting my turn. After what seemed like and extraordinarily long wait I approached the counter and said something like “Nantes s’il vous plaît.” Despite being short and somewhat choppy, the gentleman looked up the info and gave me a price. At this point it became clear that he understood a little english and we worked out paying for the ticket together. (Something about the credit card reader not liking the first card.) He hi-lighted the important information on the ticket for me and when I asked what track the train would be arriving on he laughed and said it was a surprise. Then he said that it would be indicated on the board only a few minutes before the train arrived, and to stand in front of the board to await this somewhat crucial information. (OK I added that part.)

The information did finally appear on the board and I went down to the platform to get on the train. I did manage to board the train, get on the right car and tuck my luggage away properly for the trip to Nantes. The trip was a little over two hours and Christine was at the platform to meet me when I arrived. From Nantes we drove the Euro-Focus to Saint Gilles croix-de-vie where I was wiped out and needed to take a nap. We went to Christine’s cousin’s house where she had been staying and I went down for a couple of hours. When I came to it was time for dinner, so we all had a bite to eat and we called it a day. The next day it was back to work as Christine’s mother’s house had to be cleaned and cleared out for the new owners and there was a schedule to keep.

The New Duke

Even though I had been in France for three days already when my nephew was born, I’ve chosen this event to mark the divergence of the blog from the last days in the states to first days in france. This is <the> Duke. A huge congratulations to my brother and Sister-in-law on the birth of their first child Duke. I am not sure if the name will grant him instant nobility, but maybe if he plays his cards and wears the right clothes he may have some fun passing it off.

Also, since I don’t know what photos are sanctioned, I’ll do some slight manipulations here to share this cute little yard ape with the rest of you. . .

Adorable (That’s the first French I’ve used in this blog)
I hope to receive more photos and share more news of my nephew over the coming year. From here out it looks like it will officially be my year in french,
-G