Un Bon Week-End Chez Moi

Salut mes amis!

The fortification wall at Château de Loches

I thought I'd talk about my weekend, the first one in over a month that I have spent in Tours!

Friday night I had dinner at my Canadian neighbour, Chelsea’s, where we introduced our Estonian friend, Maarja, to some authentic Canadian cuisine, namely Kraft Dinner. Chelsea prepared some toasted brie with red currant jelly and walnuts on French baguette while Maarja brought some vin rosé pamplemousse (grapefruit flavoured rosé wine- everything always sounds better in French). For dessert we had some of my caramelo Second Cup coffee and mint chocolate Girl Guide cookies (courtesy of my parents’ awesome care package). A girls’ night in is always a good idea.

View from atop the tower at Loches. The leaves
are finally changing! 

Saturday our Châteaux et Paysage class took a trip to visit the Château de Loches, which is a medieval castle. It’s very different than many of the other chateaux I have seen. The premises consist of the original donjon (or tower) and the prison and at the other end is the actual castle and the church. The site is elevated from the rest of the city and is surrounded by an immense wall or palissade.  The actual castle itself wasn’t overly impressive but the tower and prison sections were pretty cool. Also, being France, our beautiful sunny day became a torrential rain-shower. By now you’d think I would keep my umbrella with me at all times (it rains nearly constantly here), but clearly blonde is my natural hair color. All in all, it was fun to go on an old-fashioned school field trip.

L'églisse de Ballon-Miré 

Today was the day I finally got to meet my French family! My family, Jeanne and Yann, invited me over to their house for lunch. I knew immediately that I was going to like them because Jeanne picked me up in * drumroll * a Toyota Yaris hatchback! (which in case you are unaware, is my absolute favourite car and makes a great graduation gift * hint hint *). Jeanne and Yann’s house is everything I thought a French home should be. They live in a small village called Ballon-Miré just outside of Tours in an adorable wood and stone hundred-year-old house. They grow all their own fruits and vegetables and have a black cat that their daughter brought back from Guyana (the name was very French so I just call him “Petit Chat”).

The trees and their reflections at the Lac des Bretonnières

Jeanne and Yann are originally from Bretagne (but met in Cameroon, what a story!) so they prepared me some traditional Bretagne cuisine. We started with savoury crêpes of eggs, ham and emmental cheese and also those filled with fromage du chèvre (goat cheese, which is best French cheese, in my opinion). This was accompanied by some authentic Bretagne apple cider. We then had sweet crêpes with various fillings such as apricot jam (apricot flavoured foods are very popular here), apple sugar and sirop de dattes (which they brought back from their trip to Egypt). Très délicieux!!! For dessert we enjoyed jasmine tea and Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

Sailboats on the lake

After our déjeuner, we went for a promenade through the center of town and also around the Lac des Bretonnières, which was perfectly scenic with the autumn leaves and sailboats. I had such a great time today with Jeanne and Yann. Jeanne is perfectly bilingual (she lived in Vancouver for a year) so she was very patient and supportive, helping me find the right words in French, without speaking to me in English, which was appreciated). I actually learned a lot of vocabulary today, which was nice, because my classes thus far haven’t been terribly helpful in that respect (I recently failed a test because I didn’t know how to translate “nuclear power plant,” because you know, that comes up often in conversation). They have invited me to do some hiking near Chenonceau next Sunday and I’m looking forward very much to seeing them again soon!

Back to my earthly existence for a few days and then hitting up Château de Chambord on Saturday (the biggest castle in the Loire Valley!). Stay tuned!

Z <3