A Manifestation and some Peanut Butter Cookies!

Today I have the day off because the teachers at the school are on strike. This morning around 11am I headed into town and took a few photos of the protesters who had all gathered. In total, I heard there was about 10,000 people who came to the manifestation! That's 1/10th of the Besançon population! Whoa. I took the opportunity to take some pictures.

Then when I got back home, I had a craving to eat some peanut butter. I know, really random. I found a cookie recipe online and hop, made some homemade American peanut butter cookies. French people are not fans of peanut butter, and Christophe especially, but thankfully he likes the cookies. So I guess they were somewhat of a success. Woo-hoo!

Spring is Coming!

Spring is FINALLY coming to Besançon. We've had about 5 beautiful days in a row and I've been soo happy! During the past two winters that I've spent here, the first time that I was able to break out my spring jacket was in May! And if I remember correctly, last March we had a couple snow storms and it was the first time that it had snowed all winter! But as spring arrives, decisions have to be made. Where will I be living next year and what will I do? Well, that's another subject for another time.

On another note, I didn't get to celebrate St. Patrick's Day like I wanted to this year, since of course, the French don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day mostly because there is not a big Irish population. I did however, do an easy English lesson with my students on Tuesday. I don't think they actually learned the words, Leprechaun or Shamrock, or Rainbow or Pot of Gold, but they got to color and make cool book marks. Oh well, I tried.

This week I only have two days of teaching because Monday, I didn't feel like going so I called out (I know very irresponsible), Wednesday there is never school, and Thursday there is another Grève for the same reasons as the last one except people are even more pissed off. Furthermore, Sarkozy did a recent trip to Mexico to deal with a small problem with a French citizen and stayed at the one of the most expensive hotels in the country. Sooo the French are not very happy about that news when people left and right are loosing their jobs and having trouble putting food on the table.

Even more of a slap in the face is the news about the AIG bonuses. I've been reading every day in the newspapers just how outraged everyone back home is. And I really hope that our government does something to reverse their "contractual obligations" which is a load of bull.

Voila just a few updates. I know that I need to be better about updating this blog. I'll try harder from now on. Bonne semaine!

Back to Work...and my Normandy Vacation!

Allo everyone! So, ça y est, vacation is over! Back to teaching the darling children which I'm not too excited about but in a way it's a good thing. I'll be occupied again with a normal routine and I'll avoid spending money out of boredom. Last week was the Besançon - Normandy road trip and I had a great time. We ended up cutting Versailles out of the plan because we didn't have enough time and I was out of money. We divided up our week by spending two days in Normandy, and two days in Rennes, Brittany at Christophe's friend's apartment. The remaining two days were used as travel time. Since we had a very limited time to visit the region, we picked a only a handful to sites to visit.

First on the list was Deauville, home of the annual American film festival and the location of the film "Un Homme, Une Femme". It was a very classy city and a little too up-ity for me. We got to walk along the beach and the famous boardwalk.
Next city we visited was Caen. We didn't get to spend too much time in the city itself but we took a brief tour of the center. What we really got to see was the Caen Memorial Museum, a World War II museum dedicated to the memory of the French liberation by the American and British troops.
There was a vast collection of American war equipment and vehicles like the tank in the photo above. I was a little surprised that there was almost absolutely no mention of the Holocaust but since there was a large number of elementary school groups, the museum probably decided to tone down the atrocities of the war for all age groups.

On the way to the Normandy beaches we stopped in Bayeux to see the famous Tapestry. Ok, taking photos wasn't allowed but we did it anyway.This tapestry is over 1000 years old and in several scenes tells the story of how William the Conqueror took power in England in the year 1066. Not only it this thing really old but it's really really long too! It's 70 meters long (229 feet!). Très impressionnant!

Next we visited two of the American landing beaches during D-Day, June 6, 1944. We visited Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc. Here are a few photos:
The Pointe du Hoc was really impressive. There were tons of German bunkers that had been abandoned, one was even in pieces. There were also hundreds of craters in the ground from the dropping of the bombs during Operation Overload.
Well voilà, that was all of the highlights of my vacation in Normandy! Hope you enjoyed!

Ski Trip

I went on my first French ski trip yesterday. Today, I'm in a lot of pain. I think I did fairly well (I fell only about 10 times) not bad I think considering that it's been 4 years since I last skied.

You can see the Alps in the Distance and the Mont blanc!

C'est les vacances!!

These past few weeks have thankfully passed by very quickly. I'm finally on vacation! Woo-hoo! Unfortunately to begin the vacation, I have 6€ which won't go very far. Thankfully February is a short month and I'll hopefully be paid within the next few days. I'll need it to go to Normandy for the following week. Christophe and I and a friend are planning on doing a France road trip from the east to the West coast with a stop over to Versailles. Last year I did a similar trip to Brittany to visit Rennes and the Mont St. Michel, but this year we're driving a few kilometers farther to visit the Beaches of Normandy from WWII and to also visit some museums and well known cities. On the agenda is visiting Caen, Deauville, and maybe Cherbourg. Other than this voyage, a ski trip might be in order this week. The monthly budget will have to be strictly followed during this vacation or I'll quickly find myself with 50€ for all of March.

In other news, Christophe and I bought a mixer/food processor to facilitate our cooking. We also bought electric beaters so I think i'm going to attempt to make a soufflé of some sort. I found a video cooking blog on the NY times website and I've fallen in love. I'm going to attempt some of his recipes. I need to remember to document my attempts so that I can post pictures to the blog.

Lastly, this week, my students celebrated Carnavale, the annual event where people dress up in crazy costumes and faire la fête (party) in order to prepare for Lent. It was so cold but the kids had a blast. I also ate one too many beignets, a traditional Carnavale snack, which I guess is the equivalent to small pieces of sugary fried dough. I had a pretty bad stomache ache at the end of the day...

To those who are en vacances (on vacation), enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I decided to do something different this year and take advantage of my new oven to make an edible Valentine's Day gift for Christophe. Thanks to Leesa's post on her heart shape sugar cookies, I decided to try to make my own version. Here's the process in pcitures:


They came out soo yummy! So thanks again Leesa! Other things on the Valentine's day agenda besides baking cookies? Christophe and I are going to dinner at a popular thai restaurant that we've been meaning to try for a while. I can't wait!

So until the next post....toodles!

La Percée

Sunday was a great day that was spent outside tasting wine and getting frostbite on my toes. We attended the event by train and after, a navette bus was provided to get to the small village that was 15 km from the train station. About 50 "caves" wine cellars were opened to everyone to taste and buy wine. Upon entering, you were given a wine glass that you could wear around your neck with 10 wine tasting tickets placed inside.
Regional food stands were allowed in only so there were no kebabs to be found (thankfully). I ordered a Tarti' Mont d'or for my lunch which is a regional dish that consists of potatoes, ham, and mont d'or cheese. Very yummy.

40 wine tickets spent, and 2 bottles of empty wine bottles later, we were ready to go home. It was a great event and I hope to attend next year.