La fete de Halloween

We celebrated Halloween by going to a party hosted by one of the members of the social club we belong to, France Etats-Unis. We were to come in costume and bring a savoureux plat (savory dish) to share. There were 8 of us total, about half French and half American.

Finding a costume was more of a challenge than I'd anticipated as we didn't want to spend $ on them and our wardrobes here are limited. We ended up going as "American Tourists" complete with our Rick Steve's France book and our French phrase book. We had a good time.


While we saw some commercial items available, Halloween is not celebrated here like home. We didn't have nor see any children out trick-or-treating. I never saw a jack-o-lantern. I asked one of the other Americans at the party about it, she said "They just don't get it here." The picture below is of our French host, Pascal, who has spent quite a lot of time in the US and knows how to celebrate.


They do celebrate All Saints Day which is Nov. 1st. It's kind of like our Memorial day where family members go to cemeteries and decorate the graves of their loved ones departed.

the Cinque Terre, Italy

We picked the Dinsmore's up at the Genoa, Italy airport and drove another hour and a half to Levanto, which is just north of the 5 towns that make up the Cinque Terre on Italy's northern Mediterranean coast.


We rented an apartment near Levanto and it was literally on the top of a mountain. It was a 10 minute drive up, with a lot of switchbacks. The apartment was nice, though it had no heat and in the mornings we could have used it. When we asked about heat, the owner brought out down comforters for the beds. The picture below was taken from our second floor terrace.


These towns make up an Italian National park and are favorites for hikers. We hiked between the 3 most southern towns of the 5. The landscape was amazing. The towns are also connected via train and boat and we traveled that way too. The next two pictures were taken along the hiking trail.


I was expecting to have my fill of pastas. While there were some of those available, the area was far more suited to the fruits of the sea. One lunch we tried the special of the day, fresh, uncooked shrimp and prawns. It was an adventure. Oh, we were able to have our fill of their amazing ice cream, gelato. Here Jennie and I are preparing for our first bite of Italian sushi.


None of these towns are what I'd consider "touristy." Monterosso, the most northern of the towns had the flattest beaches and had more hotels to offer. The next pictures are of my favorite town, Vernazza. I really liked its little harbor, and quaint streets.

Barcelona

The weekend of October 10-12 we visited Barcelona with Pat and Roger Bonnicksen. We were unaware that it was a holiday weekend in Spain. Monday October 12th was Columbus Day (those of you over 40 may remember when we used to celebrate that day). Barcelona was where the king and queen of Spain met Columbus on his return from the new world. Needless to say, it was a very busy place.


Barcelona is a big city. It has 3 million inhabitants and there is not a house to be found anywhere in the city. There are many, many high rise apartment buildings.

Barcelona is home to the "mondernista" architect Gaudi. These pictures are examples of his buildings. The first picture is one of the most famous buildings in Barcelona, the Familia Sagrada, one of Gaudi's buildings, a church that is still incomplete. They continue to work on it even after his death.

I can't say I'm a big fan of this type of architecture.


My favorite spot in Barcelona was "the Ramblas" which is a long pedestrain street that works it's way down the hill and ends at the waterfront, where a statue of Columbus stands guard. This street is home to many vendors including street artists. The cowboy was just one of many of these artists working for handouts.


We took a speedboat tour of the harbor which was a lot of fun. Mentioned on one of our tours, "Barcelona was a city with its back turned on the ocean." The 1992 Olympics changed that and it now has a vibrant waterfront.

French lessons

I am just about to finish my second french language class. It's an intense class, 5 days a week for 3.5 hours every morning. Never having studied a foreign language before, I'm finding this challenging, but enjoyable. It will take a lot more studying and practice to become semi-fluent.


These pictures are of my first class in Sept. The other "etudiants" came from China, Russia, Germany, Canada, Singapore, Mexico, Turkey and the Philippines. Most of the guys in the class and the shorter gal in the front are enrolled in a Master's program in Economics at a university here and this class was required.

The woman in pink and the woman you can see just over my right shoulder in the back have become friends of mine. Lala, in pink, is from Russia and she has remarried a french man and is learning French so she can speak well enough to go back to work. The other woman, Monika, is from Germany and she has also resettled here to be with her fiance. She is currently looking for work in an office that speaks English. With Airbus being a dominant employer here, there are many businesses that speak English, much like Larry's office.

The woman in the gray sweater was my instructor, Elisabeth (pronounced Elizabet, the French language doesn't have the "th" sound). We liked her a lot. She had a good sense of humor but kept us on our "toes." You can tell by this picture that we had a relaxed atmosphere in class.

Stade Toulousain

We experienced our first Rugby match. My french language school offered student tickets for a "trés, trés, trés importante jeu" (very, very very important game). It was against Stade Français (Paris).


I can't say that the game itself was all that exciting, it ended in a low scoring tie but the whole experience was great. We learned that there are 3 teams in France that are always battling for first place, Toulouse, Paris and Perpignan (on the Mediterranean coast).



The Toulouse team is in red and black and the Paris team is in the pink (What professional team wears pink?). We rode public transportation to the stade and were part of the excitement. It had the "feel" of a college game with the flags flying and the cheers.


We enjoyed the Toulouse version of the Dome dog. One of Toulouse's specialties is sausage, and of course it's served on a french baguette.

Shopping (La faire de cours)

Do you notice anything unusual about my cupboard? Can you see the milk and orange juice sitting next to the popcorn and crackers. This is truly one of those sights that we just do not see at home in the USA. They process their milk and juices with UHT (Ultra High Temperature) which gives these products a shelf life like everything else in your cupboards. It took some getting used to looking for these items in the dry goods section of the "supermarche."

L'ile de re

Our last adventure took us to the west coast and the Atlantic ocean. We spent a weekend at the Ile de re. It is connected to the mainland via France's longest bridge. We spent Saturday exploring the island.


L'ile de re has 10 communities on it and they each had their own personality. I really liked Saint Martin De Re. There was a 12 century ruins of an abbey that was interesting. Our dog, Lady, tried to get acquainted with several chickens there, but they weren't interested in meeting her. It was pretty funny watching her try to catch up with them though.


Larry climbed to the top of this church in St. Martin De Re and got some pretty amazing photos. Dogs weren't allowed, so Lady and I stayed on the ground and avoided the 170+ very narrow steps. Near the top, the stairs got so narrow that there was only one way traffic. The picture below is of the stop light directing traffic inside the stairwell.

Some of the interesting things about this island are the salt fields and the donkeys. Donkeys apparently are the island's basic mode of transportation for every day work activities. They even have them wear pantalons (pants) to protect them while they are working in the fields. Since it was the weekend, we didn't see any donkeys dressed and working, but they certainly were well represented in the gift shops. I have to wonder how long it takes for each of those salt fields to experience enough evaporation to accumulate the salt.

On the more protected side of the island, we watched kiteboarders and para-sailors. The weather was a bit cool, so there weren't too many people on the plages (beaches) but it was fun to see the sailboards catch air.

This is the light house on the far end of the island. Larry also climbed the many stairs of this for another amazing photo opportunity.

On Sunday we went to the port city of La Rochelle at the other end of the bridge. Watch for its own blog entry soon.