It's been a funny old weekend. I, like millions of others, have spent this month tuned into what is occurring on the roads of France in the Tour de France. France feels homely still. I have always felt a sense of allegiance to anywhere in which I have spent a great deal of time, be that here at home in Flitwick, or at University in Canterbury, or now indeed in France. When something happens in one place, I feel affected by it. I immensely enjoyed my year abroad, and I know that the same can be said for the large majority of those who have done the same experience. Yesterday was the 14th July, or Bastille Day; the French national day where everyone is 'en fete', they sing and dance and enjoy spectacular events.
However, the weekend began in tragedy. On Friday night a train crashed on the outskirts of Paris just as people were heading home to celebrate the holiday. This weekend I spent the weekend in Shropshire visiting a friend, but on the way I picked up a French newspaper 'Libération' which moved me to tears as I sat in Kings Cross station. I've translated the editorial from the newspaper:
A train accident as bad as the one at Brétigny, the day of the start of the holidays, represents a national tragedy. For their victims and their families, for the railway community but also for the entire country. We'll remember the emotion on Guilaume Pepy's the CEO of SNCF for a long time and his tears live on television as he visited the accident site. The train, more than any other form of transport, belongs to the history of the nation, and this tragedy touches all the French, who are all, one day or another passengers on the SNCF. The train is taken daily by tens of thousands of us without concern of its safety. And, in that aspect, the SNCF has an excellent record which it, and it's workers take in pride. Fatal accidents have been quite rare over recent years, which makes the exceptional accident at Brétigny even more tragic. At the moment it would be inappropriate to speculate what the cause of the accident was, and a full and transparent inquiry must be held, not to do so would be to damage the confidence of the SNCFs users.
The newspaper did not make for easy reading with headlines such as "Dans ce wagon, il y a surement des enfants". But major events, both good and bad rally a nation together and this was seen in France (in the negative event situation) and at the Olympic Games in London (in the positive aspect). It almost made the celebrations to come over the weekend much more poignant.
In truth, I've always liked France, their language and their culture (I'm in the wrong degree if I don't), and so have always tried to read French newspapers. But now I feel in a small way I share in their events both good and bad. On the night of the 14th July I watched a wonderful classical music concert at the base of the Eiffel Tower 'Le Concert de Paris' on TV5Monde which was followed by a wonderful firework display, despite feeling incredibly tired, I felt a feeling of joy.
I don't know if others feel a similar way, but perhaps once you've lived somewhere and you've moved away, you've never truly left. A piece of you remains, and a piece of it remains in you.
Well, I'm sat at home, in the United Kingdom. The adventure is over, well I guess if you look at it another way, the adventure is only just beginning.
First off, I had computer issues, but all good now (that stopped me from writing a blog sooner, then I had a busy last couple of weeks!)
First up, it was sunny towards the end of April/Early May in Paris, and I took the opportunity to go take photos in the city. Well, I say take photos, the plan was to go to the Eiffel Tower, then grab the RER further down the city to somewhere else. I ended up walking from the Eiffel tower to Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand (10km apparently). It ended up being a lovely afternoon, I even managed to sneak in a museum where I saw the original ruins of Paris, then sat on the riverbanks of the Ile Saint-Louis. It was quite tiring towards the end, but a memorable day in which I saw practically all the main sights of the city.
I followed this up with a visit to the Chateau of Fontainbleau which was a bit of a long way and saw me going via Gare de Lyon. When I got there I was faced with a 15 minute bus ride, but wow was it worth it. I was faced with this massive palace filled with rooms that were so beautifully designed.
It was the way home though that gave me my strange story of the day. I got back to the Gare and the ticket inspector stood and watched me validate my NaviGo, it made the accepting ding noise and then, immediately. 'Monsieur, veuillez presenter votre titre de transport pour une inspection'. I obligied, but I wanted to say 'BUT YOU WATCHED ME VALIDATE IT!!!'. But onwards I went.
The next week or so was spent saying Goodbye to places and people, and then I ended up in a reflective mood of what a wonderful year I've had. I might even pop back and spend another year here after my final year of university.
Then came the big test, I had to pass an interview in French. I won't go into details of it (let's face it, it would bore you!) but I passed and ended up on what is essentially a waiting list for a contract to free itself up. What a fantastic end of year!
So, that's it, the year abroad is over. I've had a blast and would snap up the chance to do it again. Thank you for reading this throughout the year and I'd love to keep up the occasional blogging. So, this isn't the end. It's just the end of the beginning.
Take the average tourists Paris to do list. On it will be the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Sacré Coeur, then a little museum called the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay is likely to make an appearance and for very cultural tourists the Centre Pompidou is probably on there too. For the people who know Paris they're probably going to check out what's going on at the Hotel de Ville since they always seem to have an exhibition about something or other, there's the Espace Dali up in Montmartre, the Cité des Sciences seems to be up and coming these days. In short, in Paris there is lots to do.
Last week I decided to visit the Louvre, luckily so did a UKC friend Michael. So we went there, saw some sculptures, Napoleon III's apartments, the Mona Lisa etc etc. We also wanted to see Liberty leading the people, which I remember seeing when I went to the Louvre a while back. However the powers that be have moved it to the Louvre Lens, dommage.
The point in this is, I hadn't really once thought of visiting the Louvre whilst I'd been here this year, and then I got thinking; what else is there to explore? Paris is one of the cultural capitals of the world, I've always loved the place. Whenever the question came up where I wanted to go on holiday, it was Paris. I'd holiday-ed in Paris a fair few times and not seen it all, I've spent a good 7 months here now and I've still not seen it all. There's so much waiting to be seen, and not long to do it in. Time to get to it. But I know I won't see it all, it's impossible, Paris is a city that is constantly changing, perhaps that's what I find so exciting about it, and perhaps that's why I'll always keep coming back.
So, that's my short blog. I don't know why I felt the need to write this, perhaps to motivate me to go out and do more things!
It's been an entire month since I wrote a blog! Yikes! I've just been so busy I've forgotten. I'm just going to give an account of what I've done this month... so here we go!
March is the traditional start of the cycling season in Europe with one of the best (in my opinion) races of the year. The 'Course au Soleil', the Paris-Nice. I went down to see the Prologue in Houilles which is a nice little town in the Yvelines departement. I arrived in the town, not knowing where the heck I was going. I ended up walking about 2,5km of the course. It was a cold day, but an exciting one where I got to see many of the riders close up, one by one.
The stage was won by a young Europcar rider Damien Gaudin who has basically come out of nowhere to win. But it was a French win so the local crowd was (obviously) delighted.
The next day I took the long trip to a town called Nemours in the Seine-et-Marne departement, this town is some 100km outside of Paris, a town that has inspired writers such as Honoré de Balzac and Victor Hugo. It's not too hard to see why, the town has a beautiful river, church and small chateau, it was a ideal setting for the finish of the first road stage. Again, this one was won by a French man, Nacer Bouhami (who went and crashed out the next day) in a sprint finish.Those of you reading who may follow cycling will know of a man named Jean-Francois Pescheux who is the route director of the Tour de France and other cycling races owned by the ASO, the Paris-Nice being one. As he was born in Nemours, there was a small presentation to him on the podium after the stage.
Then I had visitors for an entire week, we went to Disneyland, The Eiffel Tower, Versailles amongst other things.It was lovely seeing some friends from Canterbury and doing some very touristy things during my Vacances d'Hiver. Though I felt exhausted at the end of the week. We were blessed with beautiful weather, even going as far as not taking a coat out! (This however, would not last the two weeks of my holiday).
Once they had left, I took a few days to rest up, boy oh boy did I need it. Almost 8 full days of walking around had taken their toll, I was exhausted! Then came Tuesday. By far the most eventful day of the holiday. It snowed. Again.
It wasn't too bad actually, we've had worse snow. However, I got stranded. And had to go from Marne-la-Vallee to Paris, Paris to Meaux to get home! And I was on one of the last trains to make it out of Paris. Lucky me huh?
The rest of the week, I devoted to getting my year abroad essay research into a 800 word summary to submit. Whilst I think my research is at an 'ok' level, my summary was pretty poor and I'm not expecting a good feedback piece on it. But I write my essays by doing all my research first, then all my writing. It's how I work best, I'm not changing it for this piece of work. Especially this piece of work.
Then came the weekend, on Saturday I was visited by my Grandma and Auntie who I met at Gare du Nord at lunchtime, we had lunch, saw the Waterlilies painting at the Orangerie gallery at the Jardin des Tuileries, then had dinner. The next bit is sort of strange, we went to the Moulin Rouge. This was something I'd never really considered doing, but turned out to be pretty great actually. Once you look past the obvious, the costumes and the choreography were top notch. As was the atmosphere. Would I go again? Yes! I laughed, was amazed and entertained for a few hours. It was a great night, ruined by surprise engineering works on my line. It seemed to caught us all out as I went from Paris to Marne-la-Vallée and then caught the 01:20 bus with a full bus of other people. (No photos, sorry folks. Cameras are banned from the Moulin Rouge).
The next day was St. Patricks day, now me not being Irish, I don't really care too much for it. But upon hearing their were some Irish cultural performances and fireworks at Disney, I decided to pop along. I was not disappointed. Well, if you were Irish you'd have noticed their 'pipe band' were actually Scottish, but let's look beyond that! I saw some Irish dancing and stuff like that. I was very entertained by their Leprechauns (who were French of course) who went and turned a mans jacket the wrong way round as his lining was green. 'C'est vert, C'EST SAINT PATRICK HEIN?'. The day had a sour note when I had to argue with a person (in French), as I had to tell them off for pushing in front of me who had been waiting for something for 25 mins, as opposed to their turn up half way through tactic. I had a lovely meal in a restaurant
In short, I had a brilliant day, topped off with some amazing fireworks, followed immediately after by even more amazing fireworks.
The next week, I was back at work having a busy week, but I managed to see two movies during the 'Printemps du Cinéma' (Which is basically where every single cinema place is €3,50). Jappeloup and 20 ans d'écart. I wanted to see French movies to see how much I understood. A good amount, I came out satisfied with my understanding in each film. Jappeloup was very good though, if you are in France, try and see it! I also saw The Place beyond the Pines with my extension vouchers I won through the BNP Paribas facebook page.
A busy, busy month. I'll post more hopefully very soon, as there is always much more to tell. I'll leave you with a photo of me meeting Irish Mickey and Minnie (I couldn't resist).
Laughter is the greatest gift you could possibly give. So said Kermit the frog in the 2012 film 'The Muppets'. But I believe that laughing is something you should do everyday, laughing is happiness. Happiness is healthy. Now learning to laugh at yourself, that's something equally as important, you don't take yourself too seriously.
So today, I went to see a film called 'Vive la France', totally in French which was daunting in it's own right. When one of the opening lines (translated obviously) is: God created the most beautiful place in the world: France. But that was balanced out as God also created: The French'. That got a huge laugh. Vive la France was a hilarious film that focused not so much on French stereotypes, but instead on things that I could relate to. Without giving anything away, our central two characters are foreigners, there was a section of the film where the characters were in an office. The woman was asking for so many documents before she could do anything, and then it could take '4 or 5 years for a response'.
Vive la France was basically a comedic love letter to France, but wasn't afraid to make things (that are true) look silly. Yes all the montages featured the more beautiful parts of France. (Think helicopter shots during the Tour de France). Yes, the plot was basically two foreigners falling in love with the country. But I related to many aspects. Not being 100% sure of the French language so not understanding when things were said sometimes, to which the characters responded with 'Comprend pas'. But would it work to a foreign audience? Well, to some point yes. I'd show this to British friends and they'd get 85% of the jokes. But a guy wearing a PSG shirt in Marseille and being assaulted for it. No, most British wouldn't understand that.
I loved the film, I will buy it on Blu-ray for sure, and if you are reading this in France, make the effort to go see it.
I was nervous about seeing a French film in a cinema, without English subtitles. But at the same time, I wanted to do it, to see how my French had progressed. I knew I wouldn't understand all the film, but I understood possibly 90%, came out feeling very pleased with myself. So, si vous etes en France. Pensez a aller au cinema pour une séance en VF. Go aaaan, go annn.
In the newspaper a while back there was an advert for the Disneyland Paris leaders cup. What is the Leaders Cup I hear you ask? It's a mid-season basketball tournament organised by the LNB (Ligue nationale de Basket) replacing the semaine des As. So I grabbed a ticket for the final, and thought it would be something quite fun to go see. Turns out, I was hooked throughout the entire 3 day competition. So essentially it's a tournament which begins on Friday with quarter finals, then on sunday moves to a semi-final stage before the final on the sunday. It's pretty intense and lends itself to who is the best at recovering after a game.
Upon discovering the teams invited (Le Mans, Roanne, Gravelines-Dunkerque, Lyon-Villeurbanne, Strasbourg, Orléans, Paris-Levallois and Chalon-Saone) I took to Paris being a local team. They did pretty well but got knocked out in the semi-final round. The matchup I would be seeing was Gravelines-Dunkerque vs Strasbourg.
I arrived nice and early to the Disney Event Arena (where the competition would be taking place), and pretty quickly discovered that directly behind my seat was the buzzer. Everytime it went off, I would be getting gradually going deaf. Hurray! Second thing I noticed, the angle of seating was very strange. If the person in front of you stood up, you'd be seeing diddly squat.
I then happened to be sat behind Strasbourg supporters, who had those wacky party hooter things. 40-50 of those going off near you hurts your ears. To be honest, I wasn't cheering for anyone especially, but I went for the slight connection of Dunkerque being the closest team to where I am from.
A few notes about the event: Whilst it was being held at Disneyland, it wasn't overly Disney. They played the parade music a little bit, and the half time show was High School Musical dance troops. But other than that, pretty normal. The match was not as competitive as the final scoreline would suggest. Dunkerque was always the better side, at half time it was already looking like the result was decided. Credit to Strasbourg for never giving up, or their supporters (Ear ache). Dunkerque took the early points, extended an early lead and then whenever Strasbourg scored a point, Dunkerque reacted with the same.
Conclusion: French basketball is highly competitive with an enthusiastic crowd. I had a great time and I reckon I'll probably attempt to go see a Paris-Levallois game before the end of the year.
I like France, I like the country and the language. But living here is something very different. I still like France, I've learnt that sometimes, they do things better than we do. But the opposite is also true. Living abroad opens your eyes to differences both the good and the bad. I've been learning French since I was 11 years old. I remember starting with the simple 'Je m'appelle Geoff, j'ai vingt ans' etc etc. Then we moved. Where I moved to, they had been learning French since they were 9 years old. They were already pros at the introducing yourself business. They had already moved onto 'Je voudrais un hotdog' and that sort of stuff. All of a sudden there was a significant gap between my ability and there abilities. In Year 8 (my second year of learning French) I was in the top set. How strange, I was in a top set with people who I was supposed to be as good as, but there was a gap.
Then in Year 9 (a new school) came a bizarre experience where I could
say very very basic stuff, and then a series of slightly more complex
stuff but missing out on a few in between bits. To be honest with you, I don't think I've ever made up that gap. Yeah, I know how to use the stuff they learnt, but not in the same way. I've not had that extra 2 years of practise and so I find myself in a situation where I still make silly little mistakes.
Now, moving to France and speaking every day in their language. There are barriers to overcome. Confidence being one, I was always afraid of making mistakes. My French is decent, but you don't want a situation where you speak the language, and a French person looks at you and says 'Eh?'. But, I've learnt that that is exactly what you need! You just need to try.
You are not always going to be able to say everything. Academic French and practical French are two very different things. I was told to keep something 'branché'. My first reaction was 'WTF does that mean?'. It means keep it plugged in. So, every when living here, you are going to struggle. Fact. (Future year abroaders, get ready for this. You're not going to know things, but not knowing things is actually how you learn things).
The biggest thing I've learnt though is that living totally in French is out of the question. I tried not phoning home for a while at the start of the year. But then, one day I broke. My mum said to me 'Why did you phone, it'll cost a fortune?'. My answer: 'I don't even care, I just need to speak English to someone'. That's going to happen. It's nothing to be ashamed of. You can't turn your back on your mother tongue. I read BBC News more than I read French news. Just because you are abroad, doesn't mean you turn your back on the UK. Just take that chance to embrace a new culture as well as your own.
Last term it snowed in France, I even blogged about it. Then last week, it happened again. When it snows, they don't really shut the school. But hardly any of the students bother going in. This leads to me turning up to a class and get told 'You know what? There's like 5 of them, you don't need to stay'. Then I wait for the next lesson. It happens again. It's not all bad, in theory I'm getting paid for doing very little. But I'd rather be doing something rather than reading a book I'm not really enjoying. Most of the students have the excuse of busses not running though, so I shouldn't complain really.
So, it did snow. And it snowed a lot. I woke up on Saturday and the ground was just covered in white. But that's nothing compared to Sunday. On Saturday at about 22:00 it started again, Sunday became a nightmare of a day. Busses got cancelled, trains broke down. But I give the French this, when it comes to gritting the main roads, they do it much better than the UK.
There's not too much to say from the last week or so, I've been inside a lot due to the snow. This weekend I'm seeing some friends from University, so I'm sure there'll be something to talk about there.
It's rare that something
happens and I feel the need to write it down right away, but tonight
that happened. I realise that this little story might not interest
anyone but me, but it's my blog.
During the year so far I've made plenty of memories. Memories that will
stick with me for a life time. Most of the things I do are planned, but
today I didn't plan anything, and today perhaps I've made my favourite
memory of the year. But what constitutes
as a magical moment? That depends on the person I would say. To me, a
magical moment is a feeling you get. Every magical moment may feel
different, but when it happens you just know. I felt it during the
opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. I felt it as Bradley
Wiggins won his Tour de France, and I felt it at my first university
summer ball.
This afternoon I had planned an afternoon browsing the sales at the Val
d'europe shopping centre, and that happened. Then I thought I'd browse
the sales at Disney Village (they are pretty poor by the way!). Then I
randomly popped into the Walt Disney Studios
park and got taught how to draw. I can't draw.
But, I did make this:
I had dinner, then saw the time. 18:30. I had time to wait for the bus.
So I thought at that moment I would go into Disneyland park and ride Big
Thunder Mountain (One of my favourite rides). I arrived at the ride at
18:40 and saw a 15 minute queue sign. Perfect,
enough time to ride it and get out the park and get the bus at just gone
7. The queue was not 15 minutes, they had begun the process of shutting
down the ride. I eventually boarded at 19:02. Disney Dreams (the
nighttime spectacular had already started). The
train leaves the station. This is where it begins, I saw the fireworks
coming from the castle in the distance as my train whirled around the
mountain. Brilliant! We arrived back, there were people waiting for the
front and back carriages only. 'Mesdames and
monsieurs, vous pouvez faire une deuxieme tour'.
Lesson 1: big thunder mountain is one of disneys most popular rides. It's fast, family friendly and beautifully themed.
Lesson 2: You NEVER get invited to go again on a Disney ride.
So the train left the station again. This time even more fireworks, the
fireworks in Disney dreams are colourful and rather beautiful. So seeing
these in the distance was a real treat. You may never experience this,
so you'll have to trust me, it's an image
ill never ever forget. As we arrived in the station people changed
'RETOUR RETOUR'. We didn't get a third go, but the woman came over the
announcement system wishing us a 'très très Bon soirée'. I then walked
down liberty arcade serenaded by a beautiful song
from the film Tangled. I arrived at the bottom of a deserted Main Street
and I didn't leave as intended. I stayed to watch the end of dreams. I
was surrounded by about 15 other people all spaced out. And as I ended I
just felt a strange feeling. I smiled and
did that almost cry but not cry thing. It's a beautiful show, but
nothing will compare to how I saw it tonight. Thank you Disney.
How do we mark memories? Since the Olympic Games got awarded to London
I've been caught in the pin collection craze. I have all the x years to
go countdown pins. But they say we can attach memories to pins. Indeed
we can. About 70% of my Olympic pins have various
memories of the games attached to them. Disney parks also have a pin
collection craze. I can attach memories to all my pins. Tonight I bought
a big thunder mountain pin badge. And the story you have just read is
the memory attached to it.
Right then folks. Christmas is officially behind us (Sad times), we've enjoyed those first few days of a new year and it's back to reality. And my reality is a year abroad. So, on Sunday 6th January I boarded a Eurostar to head back to France. (Not such a bad reality really...). But before I tell you what I've been upto my first few days back, here is a quick rundown of how Christmas went.
I arrived back in the UK on the 22nd December and the first thing I did was grab a Nandos in Kings Cross. Not because I was hungry, but because there weren't going to be many chances over the next few weeks and I needed to take this one, I had missed it a little bit. I got home, and then slept. Oh boy did I sleep. Christmas itself was nice and quiet, just as usual and the way I like it. I didn't bother with the sales until the 27th December (and even then, I only really wanted the Michael McIntyre DVD). Then we went to York to see the grand parents for a couple of days. Not the most fun you can have, but it was nice to see them. New Year was another quiet affair with a bit of watching a DVD, then Jools Holland/Fireworks on TV (Never really made a big fuss over New Year). On Saturday 5th I saw some friends from Uni, which was great fun and I hope to see them again, in France real soon.
Packing to come back was a bit of a chore, that I left until last minute. Cramming all the stuff you got over xmas in a small case was a hard job, but luckily the security guys in London didn't want to have a look in. Taking it all out and repacking it would have been a nightmare. When I say things were crammed in, I mean it. It's amazing how returning with a few more t-shirts than you left with causes such problems.
Back in France and it all felt quite normal very quickly. I went straight to the Thistle pub to do their pub quiz, and a few minutes after seeing friends, doing the usual 'How was Christmas/New Year' catchup that we are all so familiar with as you tend to do it every year at Uni, it was just on to normal topics of coversation. It was like we never left, well aside from the fact that I had a few cases. I spent Monday in bed, only moving to go to a few shops in Val d'Europe. Tuesday I was back in the school. After doing my first two lessons, I wasn't needed for the rest of the day, so I went home and just chilled out watching TV. Imagine my delight at discovering a button on the TV that changes the language to English on dubbed shows. Wednesday was the first day of the French January sales, I'll check those out tomorrow (Friday 11th).
Not too much has happened this week, but I'll get around to getting something interesting to blog about soon, I promise.
But to everyone reading this, HAPPY NEW YEAR. Or as they say here in France, BONNE ANNEE!
