La Fete des Lumieres

A lit up statue at La Fete des Lumieres!

This weekend I went down to Lyon for La Fete des Lumieres and to see Dianne! Le Fete started to honor Mary(as in the mother of Jesus), who is the patron of Lyon and each December 8th the people in Lyon would put candles in their windows. Now it has become a giant spectacle with about 3 million people visiting the city for each Fete. It started on Wednesday and went through Saturday night. As I have to work, I was only able to make it on Friday night, but Dianne and I made the most of our time.

Friday night we went to a bouchon, which are restaurants that Lyon is famous for. This not being the second time I went to Lyon, nor my first time at a bouchon, I was excited to go to one that was better. According to Dianne, the bouchon that we went to two years ago was the worst one (I believe her, because my meal was disgusting). So at the bouchon I ate chicken livers and sausage made out of something (I think it's best we just forget what was in it), but it was AMAZING! Dessert was even better, praline pie. It's bright red and delicious =)

That's right! I'm eating chicken liver =)

After dinner we walked around and looked at all the different light shows. One of my favorites was where this man is singing into the microphone and you see his face projected onto the facade of a building and it MOVES. I uploaded the video onto my facebook if you want to see it (I highly recommend it).

A picture of the moving face

Saturday, Dianne, Miriam (the Spanish assistant at her school) and I went to one of their professor's house for lunch and it was an interesting way to spend the afternoon. As usual French meals last awhile so it was almost dark when we finished, so it was time for the lights to start! We decided to go to the giant park, because there were fire installations! I love fire so I thought it would be really cool to see, and it was! It looked like a post-apocalyptic world because it was dark, there was fire, smoke, and dead trees.

Post-Apocalyptic World!

Another cool light show was where there was an old church and they projected this movie onto it where they were building the church brick-by-brick and then they fast-forwarded to it's destruction (I also uploaded that video onto my facebook). Afterwards we went to one of Dianne's favorite bars, the drunken parrot.

At the Drunken Parrot!

Unfortunately, Sunday was my last day, but we spent it in a great fashion, we went to a gastronomie fair, where there were many different French food vendors, selling foie gras, jam, champagne, wine, cheese, sausage, pasta, escargot, chocolate, pastries, basically anything you can imagine. You may ask why would you want to go? I will tell you, EVERYONE gave free samples. It was like Costco, but with high class French food. Everyone wanted you to try their food. I did buy some of the best foie gras I've ever eaten, some jam that literally tastes like heaven, and some really good cheese. I think it was a well spent afternoon.

After the amazing food at the fair, I had to go back to Metz, another 6 hour train ride, but I am so glad I was able to see La Fete des Lumieres and Dianne.

Marche de Noel in Strasbourg

In order to get the full "Marche de Noel" experience, Ilaria, Megan, Patrick, and I decided to go to the one in Strasbourg as everyone says that it is the biggest and the best as the one in Metz is a little touristy. So the day started off early with an 8 AM train. Which was good because all of the trains were running late because of the snow, so if we had taken a later train, it would have meant less time in Strasbourg.

The one thing I will say about Strasbourg it is COLD! I was freezing the whole entire time, but the marche de Noel was a lot of fun. There was more to look at (and buy) and the cuisine in Strasbourg is different and definitely helps warm one up =) Basically a lot of cheese and bread, you can't really go wrong with that!

Ilaria and I in front of one of the stands at the Christmas Market

In Strasbourg, there is this Cathedral that is PINK (because it is made out of pink stone) and inside it has this giant clock and at every 12:30PM all these little animitronics come out and do things, unfortunately we were an hour late. But this clock is amazing it can tell you everything about what is happening in the world, it says where all the planets are.

Part of the clock I mentioned

At the end of walking around we (I) decided to go to this bar called "L'academie de bieres" (The Beer Academy), that has just about any beer ever in the bar. It was pretty cool, I ordered some beer from a tap and the glass was rounded on the bottom. It was a little difficult to figure out at first.

And then we had to catch the train, which was late! All in all not a bad way to spend a day =)

Marche de Noel

Christmas Markets!

Europe has this obsession with Christmas Markets, which basically are little elf houses within which people sell Christmasy things like ornaments and foie gras and liqueurs, sometimes also little gifts like scarves and jewelery. They also have food stands with churros, waffles, hot dogs, tartiflette, latkas, frog legs, escargots, and oysters! Even better are the vin chaud (hot wine) stands everywhere that really help keep you warm as it is getting progressively colder everyday.

The opening day of the markets all of the assistants walked around and checked out each area of the markets. It was a great way to spend the day.

"Russian" Area of the Christmas Markets

There are 4 different Squares in Metz covered with the markets and each has its own theme. This was my favorite because it was the weirdest.

Me in the playground that I pass everyday

OFII Medical Visit/Thanksgiving

OFII or Office de Francais Immigration et Integration (French Office of Immigration and Integration) makes all foreigners have a medical visit in order to validate their visa. My visit was scheduled for Thanksgiving, which was a little good and a little bad. That way I didn't have to go to class, but it meant I had to go to that. Luckily everyone had the same appointment so we had to all go together. It was painless but a little weird, but I passed and am now able leave France and come back =) They did have to add this ugly stamp into my passport, but c'est la vie.

For Thanksgiving, the Americans decided to cook dinner for all of the other assistants. It took a bit of searching, but we found a turkey. A whopping 4 kilos! And only 12 euros a kilo, what a steal! hahaha Turkies are more of a Christmas meal in France, so they aren't as common at this time so we had to special order one. So for the meal I made biscuits, garlic mashed potatos, and a peacan pie. While Megan made homemade stuffing, sweet potatos, and a broccoli casserole, while Pat cooked the turkey (I helped but he did all the dirty work). Overall it turned out really well, the other assistants really seemed to enjoy their first Thanksgiving. It was really nice to share something American with the others.

So all and all I think it was a successful Thanksgiving =)

The table is set for Thanksgiving!

Falling into a Routine

Now that the greves are over and I have actually started teaching, I have fallen into a nice routine. I am getting to know the students better and falling into a rhythm of teaching and am getting used to it. Sometimes I actually like it! Especially when I get to teach something that I actually like, such as politics, which makes me rethink my decision NOT to become a professor.

The other assistants at my high school and around Metz are really nice. There is Patricia (the Spanish assistant at my school), Christiane (the German assistant, even though she is Italian, at my school), Martina (the German assistant, from Austria), Megan (another American), Patrick (another American), and Ilaria (an Italian assistant). We all hang out and it's a lot of fun getting to know everyone since we all come from different backgrounds.

Armistice Day

YAY for France having a lot of holidays! Today we had of because of the end of World War I. However, since everything in France would be closed, Megan and I decided to leave and go to Luxembourg for the day (Yes, you read that right I just hopped over to another country for the afternoon).

The trains were running fairly often because half of Metz works in Luxembourg, since Luxembourg has the highest minimum wage in all of the EU, but it is expensive to live there. So many Messins commute everyday, about 130 Kms every day round trip (imagine that!)

Luxembourg was an interesting little country, it's weird that it's so close but English is way more common than in France. Also they have their own weird dialect Luxemburgish.

But it was a great little day trip. We went to the city's museum to learn more about Luxembourg.

Angers, Nantes, Samur, et Bordeaux

Toussaint Vacation came and went. It started off a bit rough because of the greves (strikes) that have been happening everywhere because of the raising of the retirement age. So my train from Paris to Angers (it may look like Anger, but it is pronounced ON-JAY) was late because there were strikers on the railways blocking the trains.

In Angers I met with my friend Kat who is an English assistant in a primary school in Angers. Our other friend Dianne met us the next day. Dianne and I went to the Chateau d'Angers where they have the Apocalypse tapestries. I didn't know that when I went and I just followed the sign to the Apocalypse, like I told Dianne, when there is a sign that tells you there will be an Apocalypse you HAVE to follow. They were actually pretty interesting, accept I kept mistranslating a word, bete, which can either be stupid or beast. I thought it was stupid, which wasn't making any sense in the context.

In Nantes, Dianne and I wanted to go to this Renaissance Chateau but without a car I guess it is practically impossible. But it actually turned out for the better because we went to L'ile des machine (The island of machines), which is a magically wonderland of Jules Vernes machines. They are trying to make a 3 story carousel filled with little animals that one can ride. Dianne and I, each got to try one, it was a lot of fun! We also went on this 30 meter high elephant that walks. It was a great afternoon. We also saw the Chateau de Nantes which was pretty cool as well.

The elephant!

Me inside a fish!

One day Kat, Dianne, and I went to this little town called Samur which is about 45 minutes outside of Angers, where there is this Chateau that overlooks the Loire river. When we got off the train we asked for directions on how to get there, and the people just laughed at us, but actually it wasn't that far of a walk. But the views from the Chateau were fantastic, even though the Chateau wasn't that pretty. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to go to the Mushroom Museum(!!!), even though they were in the middle of a Mushroom FESTIVAL, because we had appointments for a guided tour of the Cointreau factory!

Me in front of the Chateau

At the Cointreau factory, we were the only non-French speakers but we still we able to understand everything the guide told us! I learned that Cointreau is the first triple sec, and it's the best! It uses real essential oils you can tell if you add an ice cube, the way the water mixes it looks silvery. The name triple sec, comes from the French word - sec meaning dry, so it's 3 times more dry, or less sugary than the other liqueurs on the market at the time. After the tour, there was a little "degustation" or tasting of Cointreau where we learned how to make different drinks with it. It was really good =) Another little interesting fact, 85% of the Cointreau that is made is sold to the US.

Kat and I smelling the different orange peels that they use for Cointreau

After all that fun, we all went down to Bordeaux. There my only goal was to go to a vineyard and we went to TWO! Unfortunately the day we went, I was bit by a bug on my eyelid and my eye swelled so it was a little hard to see. Luckily it is all better now.

Me in front of a vineyard (Notice my large sunglasses covering my giant swollen eye)

But before the bug incident happened, there was a carnival in town! And it was Halloween it was a lot of fun! (A lot better than the carnival in Grenoble, no near deaths incidents) We went on a special Halloween themed ride, it was actually scary, complete with a man that came out in the dark and grabbed our shoulders, I am almost 100% that would not be allowed in the US, for fear of a lawsuit. We also went on a ferris wheel at dusk and got to see all of Bordeaux, it was gorgeous.

Halloween Themed Ride

View of Bordeaux from the Ferris Wheel

Then I had to take a 6 hour train ride back to Metz, but all in all it was a great vacation with great friends, and even better food =)