Breton Break

After working on accounting all week, dashing off to Brittany two weekends-ago was a breath of fresh air. I didn't plan my trip, but relied on the kindness of my dear friend Béatrice, who took me on a couple of lovely walks along the coastline of Saint-Jacut de la Mer and the shores of the river Rance, near Saint-Suliac. We talked, we walked, she drove me to Dinan to visit old friends. It was a fabulous weekend.

I'm headed back this Saturday, this time for the Fête des Marrons, or chestnut festival in the city of Redon. This will be my first time visiting the festival, though I saw the posters for it last fall. I'm most excited for the evening fest-noz (dance) and the concerts and music contests throughout the weekend. I'll bring the fiddle, just in case a jam session walks my way. Béatrice is meeting me there, as she is an avid dancer, too. Then we'll head back to her place to pick up the kids. I'll stay longer this time, since next week is All Saints Day vacation (a week, really), but will be back by Wednesday to tell the tale!

First, a few photos of the region I love so much:

 Walking the coastline of Saint-Jacut

 Barefoot Béatrice, who later took a swim in the ocean. Grey clouds are no obstacle to her.

 Evening time on the Rance. The river is wide here, as it nears the ocean.

Green hills and fields not unlike Oregon... without the Douglas Fir

Settling In

Last week I spent a wild and wonderful weekend in Belgium, visiting my host family. I moved into my new chambre de bonne Friday night, only to leave early the next morning. I still hadn't seen the place in daylight. I signed up online for a carpool (much cheaper than a last-minute train ticket), something I'd done once before and which worked very well the first time. This time, however, I somehow ended up changing cars/drivers twice and ended up in a small 5-seater with 6 people: 3 and 2 kids, who were not exactly well-behaved... 

Anyway, I arrived safe and sound and only a half-hour late. Coraline met me at the Brussels train station and we spent the rest of the day preparing for the house-warming party she and her boyfriend, Rodrigo, were holding that night in their beautiful new apartment. It was a great party. The have the nicest, most intelligent and open-minded friends. Nearly all of them are tri-lingual at least (English, French, Spanish), and many of them speak other languages too. We went to bed around 3am, woke up at 9am, and after a sugery breakfast  featuring nutella and frosted corn flakes the 4 of us (Me, Rod, Coraline, and a friend) took the train to Liège, where Coraline's parents were holding the 10th anniversary party for their non-profit organisation Débrouill'art. Jean-Pierre and Corinne rented a river boat for the occasion, one that is permanently moored at the eastern edge of the river and serves as a café/bar most of the year. The Débrouill'art celebration  included a skit by Coraline's friend Charline, various dance performances by students and professors, and at 8pm a rock concert put on by Jean Pierre and his band. They played hits from Black Sabbath,Green Day, and various other bands, and had a good hour's worth of music prepared. I was so proud. Jean Pierre has become quite a competant drummer. Corinne's belly dancers were lovely as usual. Below you can see Jean-Pierre in the back (the one wearing glasses) playing the drums.

Péniche, or houseboat, on the river Meuse, Liège

Two of Corinne's dancers

 

Jean-Pierre's rock band

By the time we'd packed up and headed home it was nearly midnight. Nevertheless, my host parents got up with me at 5am to take me to my train.  It was exhausting, but I was very happy to be able to take off for the weekend.

Now I'm back in Paris, fully recovered and finally settling in to my new surroundings. I had to spend the whole week cleaning, since the previous occupant wasn't a huge fan of housework and left a ton of things behind. One can collect a lot of stuff in 6 years. I'm not complaining, though. Much of the things, like pots and pans, a printer, bedding, etc. are very useful to me. The rest I can take to be recycled, or re-used at Emmaüs (a Goodwill-like store). I'm also extremely grateful to have been able to move in right away even though Régine and her husband would have probably liked to do some work in it first. 
I am now living in the 16th arrondissement, the neighborhood in Paris most known for its upscale inhabitants. Mostly residential, the 16th arrondisement begins with the Arc the Triomphe to the north, hugs the Seine to the east, is bordered by the woods of Boulogne to the west (where the hippodromes are located), and ends at the Boulevard Périphérique to the south. With quiet, Haussmannian facades, bourgeois ladies walking little dogs, it's one of the calmest (and least active) parts of Paris. Historically, Paris' well-to-do built their houses here because the wind, which  blows from the West throughout most of the year, kept this part of Paris clear of smoke and pollution produced by the many factories in central Paris. Today, Paris is too large to have large factories at its center, but the reputation of the 16th remains despite it's relative distance from central Paris.

It's small, but well-lit, completely equipped and extremely comfortable. I couldn't ask for more.

I now take the metro to work instead of walking, which health-wise is a little too bad. But as winter takes hold and the days become rainy, I would be taking the metro either way. And as metro rides go, mine is quite spectacular. I take the 9 north and change to line 6 at Trocadero, where the metro is still underground. Before it reaches the Seine, however, the rails rise up, giving lovely views of the river the Eiffel tower, and surrounding buildings. The metro continues above ground until the business district of Montparnasse, where I get off and make the 5 minute walk to Reid Hall, where I work. Not too shabby!

Orchids and Aupairs

Once again, we return to the Garden of Luxembourg, one of my favorite subjects in Paris. I happened to wander through it after a heavy Sunday lunch with the Sarah Lawrence Program at the restaurant Parc aux Cerfs. It was a beautiful day, one of the last true days of summer. Paris seemed acutely aware of this, and people flocked to the parks, taking advantage of the sunshine to don their summer clothes before it was too late.
That weekend, I was still in the middle of my apartment search and hadn't planned to do anything else, but a sign advertising a tour of the garden's greenhouses caught my eye. The line didn't look too long, and with three hours to kill before my next apartment visit that evening I figured I had the time.

The greenhouses of the Garden of Luxembourg are open only once a year, during the weekend of the Journées du Patrimoine. They are a very popular visit, as you can see here, but people wait very patiently in line, taking their time to appreciate each individual greenhouse full of flowering plants.

The garden's greenhouses are famous for the orchid collection they house, the largest in Europe I believe. The orchid collection dates to 1838, when the doctor of the emperor of Brasil presented 30 or so species to the Faculté de médecine de Paris, then located south of what is now the Jardin de Luxembourg. This collection grew to include over 1,200 species. When the school of medicine was closed, the Senate agreed to take on the collection, and built a greenhouse specifically for the purpose of housing the plants. Today the collection includes 10,000 pots covering 150 genera, or more than 1,350 different cultivars, hybrids, and species of tropical orchids.

Orchids aren't the only thing contained in the Senate's greenhouses; they also supply the Jardin de Luxembourg's ever-changing flowering plants.

The garden also offers classes in horticulture, for both students and interested gardeners. After the greenhouses was a beautiful display of the different pear and apple varieties grown in the garden. There were many old European varieties and even some American ones whose names I recognized, like "Winter Banana"(1870).

On my way out I stopped to admire the little sailboats floating merrily on the fountain in front of the Senate building. Children wielding long sticks leaned in to reorient their boats towards the center of the pool.
I ended up visiting 2 apartments that evening, one of which I nearly ended up taking, but then I got a message from greataupairs.com, a website I'd signed up with but hadn't really expected to find useful. A woman named Régine Goury was looking to replace her au pair, a young American woman who, after 6 years with the family, had found love and was returning home to the states. The 2 boys, aged 10 and 14 were old enough to take care of themselves and the family was looking not for a full-time au pair, but someone to continue the kids' English lessons. In return, the rent would be free. It sounded like the perfect situation. Not paying rent would be a huge relief financially, and I did have time after work to dedicate to a second job. We arranged to meet that Monday to see if we could work something out.
I met Régine and her two boys, and found them to be perfectly nice. I still had to meet the father and visit the room (still occupied by the current aupair), but feeling somewhat confident about the situation I let the apartment owners I had been in contact with know that I had found something else. That was the hardest part, as they all wanted to know right away whether or not I was going to take their apartment. A week later, the stress was over. I met the father, Vincent, saw the chambre de bonne (maids quarters) that I would soon occupy, and received a contract by email from Régine (she's a lawyer).
I moved my suitcases across Paris Friday, September 28th after returning the keys to the studio in the 13th to Amandine. The previous aupair had left just that afternoon, so the family hadn't yet had the time to clean or even change the sheets, but I didn't care. The next morning I would be heading to Belgium for the weekend to see my beloved host family. All I needed was a bed to sleep in. Besides, I'd brought my own sheets...