And We're Back

Now to update you all on the going ons around here. Back to our first road trip we took two weeks ago from Paris to the Alsace region to hit the wine trail. As our travels began, somehow we took a wrong turn heading out of Paris and realized we were heading straight south instead of straight east as needed. We first thought, damn...then decided we'd push forward and take a more unexpected scenic route. As we wound through small towns and beautiful countryside, it was our plan to hopefully find a campground along the way to crash for the night. We had about two hours until dark and low and behold, the glorious brown sign with a tent appeared and we excitedly headed in that direction. The sense of relief was immense....until we reached our destination and found the entrance to the grounds locked up. Pondering for a moment as to the validity/legality of hopping the fence and camping anyways, we decided to press on and hopefully either find another campground down the road or find a discreet patch of forest we could hopefully drive to. Alas, no luck. Then we found this tiny road with a patch of trees in the distance, and we went for it. It almost looked too good to be true as there were wide open paths within and large clearings that had been created. Not having much else of a choice, we popped the tent just as we lost our last bit of light....hoping that no one would be lurking through the forest that night and find us. Though a peaceful setting, it was a bit terrifying just laying there in the dark listening to the sounds around us. The creepiest thing was the fact that once night fell, the entire forest fell silent. Absolutely silent. The simplest crunch of a leaf outside our thin walls was absolutely deafening. Even more so to hear the occasional footsteps of critters walking by. Sleep was a bit restless, but as the sun rose, and we stepped out of the forest, we saw we had been hidden the entire night in a huge cloud of fog. You couldn't even see the main road from our patch our trees. We survived the night and decided to get the hell outa there as quickly as possible.....just as the sound of a pack of dogs in the distance came tumbling our way. Onward....

No Bears

No, bears did not eat us. We had a successful weekend trip, and we now have family in town, so posts may be sparse over the next few days ... weeks? Be back asap.

Salle Illinois

Ah, for all you Versailles alums, remember this room? Salle Illinois? Hours and hours spent here in crammed quarters with 40 other students for EVERY class. Now that the school's renovation has been complete, the UofI kids no longer have class here, but will soon get use this as the Annex, or place to work, check out books, get supplies, etc. Yesterday, Adam, Prof. Lapunzina, and I made a huge dent in the clean out project by getting a ton of stuff sorted, thrown out, put away etc. (this being the before photo). God, we were finding equipment from professors who taught back in the 60s along with 1000s and 1000s of slides (oh all those slides!) And oh yes, tons of slide rules and t-squares still in their shipping packaging from students who even studied with us...as we're thinking, man, look at all the money wasted on shipping! ha (not something a parent wants to hear, i'm sure ; ). Old class photos started showing up as well including those back before color was cool, but man, talk about all this history in this place! All the people who have come through these doors and left with their own stories to tell. And of course, besides the dust in the closet, we were also finding out a few skeletons in the closet from the program itself. Ooh, so much gossip on the administrative side of things ; ) So weird to think that we've now reached that status of admin vs. student with the privilege to now be let in on all this once-secret info.

Are there bears in France?

The key question for this weekend: are there bears in France? We'll let you know if we survive this camping / adventure / wine tasting / road trip weekend!

The Last Almond

I meant to post this, naturally, the Sunday before Bridgette's arrival in Paris. However, somewhere in the midst of trying to get ahead on my grading and cleaning the apartment (because I need to keep up this persona of a tidy-freak male, ha!), I forgot to do so.

Anyways, this was the final chocolate-covered almond. During our time apart, those several weeks seemed like a long time, but now looking back, consuming a box-full of almonds over almost two months wasn't so bad. =)

I'm glad it's over though. Much to look forward to!

Coupé la tête! (Cut off the head!)

....Yes, a phrase we actually did pick up, as well as something quite well known to French history. Sorry Ms. Antoinette! As noted earlier during a history field trip Adam and I tagged along with last Friday, we were reminded of the insanity of ruler Robespierre during the late 1700s in Paris with his goal to purge France of all traitors...or merely anyone who was around to execute. It got to the point during this so-called Reign of Terror where there were 100s of people dying each week, including, yes, our favorite gal who supposedly (though some disagree) coined that most beautiful phrase, "Let them eat cake!."

As noted earlier, though, Adam and I wandered about this weekend to check out our neighborhood marchés (markets). On Saturday, we found a small one about a 10 min walk from our place in which we successfully bought a whole chicken, some fruit, and une grosse tranche de citrouille (a big slice of pumpkin...for some traditional pumpkin soup). The chickens were so fresh, it looked as if they'd just been plucked that morning. Most even had their heads still attached, and of course, out of politeness, our friendly chicken vendor simply asked, "Coupé la tête?" ahhhhhhh, Oui,?! One less thing for me to deal with in the kitchen. Too bad they didn't have a mini guillotine on the table. It would have been kinda of funny in a very demented, way ; )

In any case, Sunday dinner never tasted so good!  It's so great to be able to step back and really appreciate the simple things in life...like how happy a successfully baked chicken can make you! Winner winner, chicken dinner : )

Saumur: City Hall and

(Continuing our field trip...)

After our morning visit to the chateau, we walked down the hill for a guided tour of the city hall. Our guide was excellent, had much information to share, and was able to show us inside to view some of the highly detailed interiors:

He then joined us for a short bus ride along the Loire for a visit to Notre Dame des Ardilliers. If I have the legend correct, a peasant found a statue representing The Pietà around the middle of the 15th century, and multiple times the statue was taken from the site, lost, and then re-found at the same location. So people gave up moving it, and simply built a church around it, despite the ground being full of clay (the spot is near the river). The French word for "clay" is something like "argile," and over the years that transformed into "ardilliers," hence the name of the church.

One thing I found interesting about this church is that it has many unfinished pieces, such as the pediment shown above (the triangular part above the columns). This simply has big blocks of stone ready for a sculptor to do his work, but the church has no records of what the intended scenes were to be, and this in addition to the extreme cost of such work leaves things incomplete.

More pics.

Things continue at Chambord.