from Veuil to Toulouse to Lyon

On the TGV between Toulouse and Lyon. Whew, the last few days have been non-stop.
There are a few things I've left out, so I"ll start there:
The night before we all left Angers I had dinner with Annick's family again. This time was much more fun. Understading conversations and being able to contribute was gratifying. They all made it clear that I have a place to stay if I return, which I told them I was sure to do. Annick's 7-year-old grandaughter, Emelie, again, sat on my lap for most of the evening and was loathe to leave when he time came. She made me realize how much I miss being around kids.
The party that ended my program in Angers was a mish-mash of interesting multimedia presentations , dance and song. As expected (at least on my part) the students from Japan wore yukatas. They were so cute, singing along to a Japanese pop song like karaoke. But then the one Japanese guy who ventured to perform broke out with some freestyle hip-hop dance with some African guys he met down at the train station, and they were amazing. Students from Russia, Kazakhstan and Lebanon gave informative and funny presentation on their countries, most notably the students from Kazakhstan, whose presentation started off with an "anti-Borat" symbol - hilarious. A big group of teachers from Spain, whom I might have mentioned in an earlier entry, performed a medley of songs, including "La Bamba," again, highly amusing. And then there were a couple of students that played piano, guitar, some played their own songs, I was amazed at how much talent we had among us. The party ended with everyone rushing the stage when our monotrices (the girls who were our teacher's aides) played Gwen Stefani's new single, which in earlier bus trips had, with repetition, become a theme song for our group. We danced and said goodbye, and some people slipped out with their host families to get a few hours of sleep before leaving the next day. My host mom, Annick was there with me, and patiently waited as I made the rounds. Saturday was great, got to Veuil, and from there...

Sunday morning we - Jean-Claude (J-C), Drew and myself - were up and at-em at 8. Ten minutes to get dressed and we were off to Jackie's patisserie for a little tour and croissants fresh out of the oven. Spent the rest of the day finishing what we could of the paint job in the kitchen (we ran out of paint, and no stores are open Sundays here, other than the patisserie which is a notable exception) and cleaning the house. J-C was blown away at the job Drew and I did on the house. He kept coming through the room we were working on saying things in his cute French accent, like "formidable!" and "incroyable!" He's a great person to work for because he is so expressive about his happiness. Helping to restore a house of this kind is like a dream. It is a thing that should be preserved. We were expecting J-C's sons Sunday night, so we gathered some flowers and then went back to the bakery to get pastries for "tea" and dessert. Had a little fun with them see photo), before eating a few with tea. And when the arrival was postponed, we ate the rest for dessert. They were lovely.
Monday J-C's sons showed up - Pierre,17, angelic blonde darling and Batiste,19, a computer genius with girlfriend in tow, as they were all leaving the next day for a vacation in Sweden. I was making dinner - a special thing for J-C who is always entertaining others, so he set up a table in the grass outside between the house, the castle and the grange, with candles on tall iron holders surrounding. I brought out my ipod and stereo and put on some classical cello, which just about sent J-C over the edge. It was amazingly perfect. The moon rose as we ate. J-C had bought a bottle of "le VRAI champagne" as he put it, meaning champagne from Champagne, the only region of France legally allowed to call their sparkling wine "champagne." His sons are, like all the teens I've encountered here so far, courteous, helpful and could hold their own in interesting conversation. Not that I had all that much to say - given my limitations in French, but they even tolerated that with grace. And, of course, when I cheated with a word or two in English, they understood. Drew, bless him, was consistently helping me with rewording phrases and vocab. We all departed together the next morning for our respective adventures, me to the South, Drew to another chateau called Nitray, and the family to their vacation.
I had a weird kind of backwards route to a stopover in Tours, where I checked out the town. Their was a German film crew at the cathedral in town shooting a scene wherein the pope arrives to a crowd of cheering "fans" and cardinals and the like. I was exhausted and fell asleep on the grass nearby to the sounds of directions to the extras in French, to the crew in German and random English phrases that I suppose are universal to the film biz now.
Long train ride to Toulouse (I read "The Life of Pi") and the first truly warm weather since I've been in France. Skirt weather! Yaaaaaaay! My host, Timothee, was waiting for me at his flat, just a 5 minute walk from the Metro station. Toulouse is beautiful! I love it there. And people there are good looking. More than any other location in France so far. Don't know why.
So, Timothee had friends and a picnic waiting by the banks of the River Garonne a short walk away. Many rivers and towns upon rivers here. I love it. It often makes for a stunning combination of natural beauty and architecture. Many many chateaux and cathedrals are right on the water, or just above. There were tons of people out, down by the river, fire jugglers and spinners, families having picnics, random groups playing soccer or petanque. We played petanque after our picnic, and I did alright. His friends were sweet and kindly warned me that calling petanque "boule" was risky as the word "boules" is also the word for "balls" and they weren't talking about the metal ones you throw in the game...
That brings me to yesterday, which I spent walking around Toulouse. It's a college town with lots of fun shops and beautiful brick buildings. The people are friendly and a little less guarded that those in Paris. Toulouse is a walking town. Everything is within walking distance. It is a city I could see myself living in, at least so far. I found an AWESOME adorable little candy store, right out of a dream. Olivia, if you're reading this, yes, I have something for you... I wanted to buy everything! As I'm running low on funds I restricted myself to 15 euro, but it was hard. There were syrups and sauces of so many interesting flavors and candies I'd never seen before. I made it to two of the cathedrals in town, St. Etienne smelled so beautifully of the incense I remember from midnight mass on Christamas's past, and had faint Gregorian chant playing. I am continuously in awe at the intricacy and beauty of the churches and cathedrals here.
I got a few things to make dinner for Timothee and the two other couchsurfers who were showing up that evening - two girls from Portugal, and called another couchsurfing person (Benjamin Levine who speaks English like his Jewish-American father and French like his French mother) in town to see if he and his roomate wanted to get tea. They were making jam at their apartment across the main square, but invited me over. Lovely people, who were insistent that I change my ticket for Lyon and stay in Toulouse longer. Alas, I have plans with my friend Thomas and couldn't do it. They did, however, meet me and the gang out for drinks after dinner that night. We went to a bar near the river that reminded me of bars in SF. Where people were friendly, the guys weren't overly forward (unlike Angers) and everyone had a good time. I'm sure it's where I would hang out if I lived there. I introduced Timothee and the girls to Benjamin and his peops and they collectively introduces us to the rest of the bar, basically. Between Tim, Ben and their friends, they knew everybody. I love making worlds collide! So that was last night. Went to someone's house after that for a bit, got home, had some tea, slept from 4 to 6am and walked to the train station, which brings me to now.
On my way to Lyon to stay with a couchsurfing city embassador, and Friday night there is already a party planned - wheee! But first, my friend Thomas, who was at Southern Oregon U with me last year, and was my conversation group leader, is meeting me at the train station to film me "discovering Lyon" so he can post it on the website of the newspaper he works for. I hope my French holds up, I"m really tired. Hopefully the'll be buying me lunch. :) Regardless, I'll be glad to see Thomas and I think that traveling is always more fun with objectives, so this little project makes my day. I'll post a link here once our little foray is on the net.

Things I want to mention: shutters on all the windows, the feeling of people living closer to nature (farming/land), the "way things are" the cultural expectations that start to feel comfy. One is expected to sit down and relax for a meal. One does not get up, unless absoutely necessary, until all the courses and conversation are finished. There is an unspoken agreement made at a certain point and everyone gets up together to get ready to go out or do whatever is next. There is not a lot of TV watching, thankfully. French people are extremely social. They go out late.
Otters in the Loire. The smell of the cathedrals, age and incense. The relationship of the people who live in the small towns in the country. The sense of history here, how it informs everything that people here do, and how easy it is to picture the people that came before walking about. Just a few random thoughts from one tired girl...
Update, as I post this, I'm in Thomas' office in downtown Lyon. We're about to head to a restaurant that has an innovative chef. I heard something about "molecular cooking." Supposedly cutting edge. So I"ll be speaking in French, and hopefully eating some cool stuff.
The photos: candlelight dinner at the castle, pastry, candy store in Toulouse