East of West

15 October 2007

It’s pretty hard to believe that it’s the middle of October already. There are only 16 days until Halloween! Of course, they don’t celebrate Halloween here, but I believe I will actually be in Amsterdam or London then, so maybe they get all dressed up there.

            I just got back last night from a weekend in Normandy (today is Monday morning).

            We left early Friday morning, and managed to get all thirty of us onto a bus. Our bus driver’s name was Dominique, and he was absolutely hysterical. He has this microphone so that he can talk to the entire bus, and would give us commentary about the things that we were passing on the road. He also speaks about 8 languages, which is pretty impressive, and would always say “It’s so French” (in English with a pronounced French accent). The drive from Paris to Bayeux (one of the larger towns in Normandy, but pretty small if you ask me) took about 3 and a half hours, though it was more…interesting…than it should have been. That morning, there was an accident with a big truck carrying a load of animals to the slaughterhouse. The truck crashed and all the animals got out and ran away. Unfortunately, they were already on a highway, and pretty much all of them got run over. And not just run over. There were guts all over the highway for miles and miles. Icky.

            After that pleasant experience, we arrived in Bayeux. We all got lunch, and I tried a Norman specialty called a galette, which is like a crepe but made with a different kind of flour, and it’s more substantial. After that we went to see the Bayeux Tapestry. This tapestry dates from the 11^th century, and is over 70 meters long, and about half a meter tall. It tells the story of Guillaume le Conquerant (William the Conqueror) and his conquest of England in 1066. It’s incredibly detailed and must have taken years and years to complete, even with a team of people working on it. It was really interesting to see what contemporaries thought of William’s conquest.

            Next we went to see the cathedral, Notre-Dame-de-Bayeux (so many churches are called Notre Dame that you have to specify). It was nothing really special, except for the crypt, which was a lot older than the rest of the church and included frescos made during the time of William the Conqueror.

            After that we got some free time, and N. and I wandered around sightseeing. There is pretty much one street in Bayeux that you can explore (again, not a big place), but we actually ended up stumbling into French suburbia! I thought it was an urban legend, but apparently it actually exists. If you were parachuted there, you would have no way to tell whether or not you were in France rather than in the US somewhere (unless you knocked on someone’s door and discovered that they were speaking French).

            The next day we got up early and drove to the Peace Memorial at Caen (a larger city in Normandy). It’s not really so much a peace memorial as it is a museum about World War II. It was very moving, and very well done. Afterwards we saw a movie about D-Day. At this point the directors thought we needed a break from World War II (and they were so right, so we hopped onto the bus and went to Arromanches-les-Bains, where you can still see the artificial ports that the Allies constructed for the invasion into Normandy. We had lunch there and then moved on to the American Cemetery and Omaha Beach. We were sort of pressed for time but so we didn’t get to go down to the beach itself, but we wandered around in the cemetery. It was just heartbreaking.

            Next, to break the World War II theme, we went to a cider farm called Ferme la Lavoir. It’s basically just a family with their own little orchard, making apple juice, cidre, calvados, and pommeau. The owner/cider maker showed us around the orchard, the factory, the barrels of aging calvados, etc. It was quite fascinating. I learned that there are some differences between American apple-based drinks and Norman ones (they are a Norman specialty, not really made elsewhere in France). In America, we have apple juice, cider, and hard cider (cider with alcohol). In Normandy, they have jus de pomme (apple juice), cidre (which is like hard apple juice), pommeau (cidre and jus de pomme mixed), and calvados (which is basically half alcohol and doesn’t taste much like apple at all). They do not, however, have what we would call cider (a non-alcoholic drink made from apples, but different from apple juice). We got to taste all of these drinks, and it’s amazing how much better the apple juice there tastes from the apple juice in America. It just had an incredible depth of flavor.

We finally returned to Bayeux, and I wandered around a bit and got to buy some antique teacups (I collect teacups; don’t make fun). Then we went to dinner and then went to a bar (the teachers included) to watch the semi-final rugby game in the Rugby World Cup between France and England. France was winning for the majority of the game until the last 10 minutes when England got ahead and ended up winning the game.  Sadness.

            On Sunday we went to Caen again, and tried to visit L’Abbaye aux Hommes (the church where William the Conqueror is buried), but, lo and behold, there was a Mass going on. Who could imagine a Mass being held Sunday morning?! Instead of doing that, we went to the market at Caen, which was really huge and fun. My friend R. and I bought some food that we could eat when we got back to Paris (Camembert—a Norman cheese—some paella, some bread). Then we went to a creperie, and got some more galettes and this really incredible dessert crepe with pear and chocolate. Then we drove back to Paris—fortunately no dead animals this time.

            Upon returning to Paris R. and I went back to her apartment and heated the paella up and had a regular feast. There were whole crawdads or something like that in the paella, and we had quite a time trying to figure out how to eat them. Sometimes it’s better not to ask about what you’re eating. I finally returned home and crashed into bed.

            This week is going to be interesting because I have a ton of homework. Today I have to give two presentations (one in French and one in English) and then tomorrow I have a history test I need to study for, and then Thursday I have an Art and Architecture midterm. Wish me luck!