L'Abbaye Fontevraud and American Thanksgiving in France

The Church

The Church

 Last Sunday Michele and I took a road trip to L'Abbaye Fontevraud, a monastery and abbey constructed during the 12th century about 45 minutes away from Tours. At one point in the Middle Ages it was a combined monastery, housing both men and women. As you could imagine, at the time, the abbot in charge received a lot of criticism for this blended monastic community. Near the end of the French Revolution, Napoleon transformed the monastery into a prison which remained until 1963. There is a large church, cloister, chapter meeting rooms, dormitories, a refectory, and a modern hotel/restaurant in the building which once housed lepers.

I'd been wanting to visit a medieval monastery for the longest time because of my interest in religious life during the Middle Ages. Michele and I easily spent 2 hours at the abbey, making sure not to miss anything and following along with the personal audio guides. When I visit these old establishments, like the Gothic cathedrals and medieval castles, it becomes so easy for me to imagine living during the Middle Ages. The combination of the cold and rain and the few number of tourists at the abbey made it even easier to imagine a medieval life there.

Michele and I also stopped at a little cafe nearby, owned and operated by a cute English woman. The cafe was overstuffed with gaudy antiques and trinkets from England, but it still had charm. On the way home we stopped at Les Candes Saint Martin, an old church where the bishop of Tours, St Martin, died and remains buried today. We arrived there late in the afternoon and with the cloud cover and dusk approaching, it was very dark inside, only a few candles lit to illuminate the beautiful interior.

It was really wonderful to spend the day with Michele. She is such a wonderful, beautiful person and we get along so well. Even though her daughter is my age, I don't seem to notice the age difference between us because we have such a good time together. We've gotten in the habit of mixing English and French, switching back and forth, not noticing when we transition from one language to the other.

Panoramic View

The Church

Interior Courtyard

Monday and Tuesday at school I didn't work with two of my usual classes, the older 3eme classes, so that I could spend time with the youngest 6eme class. I really enjoyed working with the younger kids (we talked about Halloween) because they are so sweet and fun. I saw many of my 3eme students at school who said hello to me in the hallways and asking when I would be seeing them again. 

Thursday and Friday lessons went alright, but I had one difficult class, and unfortunately I had to send two students out of the room. I felt badly about having to do so, but the kids were interfering with the other students' opportunities to learn and participate. 

Thursday morning we woke up to a "White Thanksgiving". Snow! (Although, it melted as soon as it hit the ground.) Thursday evening I celebrated Thanksgiving dinner at Ryan's house.

Thanksgiving at Ryan's

Everyone prepared a dish to bring and we ended up having quite the feast: roasted turkey and potatoes, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach casserole, corn, stuffing, cranberry sauce, macaroni and cheese, bread, salad, and vin chaud (warm wine). We were a mixture of Americans, Australians, English, and French. It was a really lovely get-together which I was grateful for since it was my first Thanksgiving away from home. When I got back to my apartment in the evening, I phoned home and got to speak to all of my family gathered at my house. In the end, it was a bitter-sweet Thanksgiving, but one I was happy to experience in France.

This weekend, the city of Tours has turned on the Christmas lights all over the city, including the lights on the giant tree outside the Hotel de Ville. There is a Christmas market lining the boulevard with log cabin store facades and a merry-go-round, as well as another large Christmas tree and ferris wheel by the river. In short, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas :)

Even though I only teach 12 hours per week, I keep so busy making it easy to let a week fly by without writing a blog entry. It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, even though it's not celebrated in France. Many stores have put up their Christmas decorations and the city has put up lights everywhere, but they won't be turned on until the beginning of December I guess. If I were in the U.S. at this time of year it would be hard to forget about Christmas coming up, but here, despite the decorations around the city, I don't feel like it's the holiday season.

Teaching is still going wonderfully and I'm learning more each week. I'm getting better at making lesson plans and I'm building relationships with my students. It's at a good point where they respect me and I them, but I still get to be the fun American teacher who doesn't have to be so serious all the time. I have a few students about the age of 13 who are quite the comedians. They enjoy trying to get attention through distracting behavior and comments. Sometimes I have to cover my face until I regain my composure so they can't see me laughing. The more time I spend teaching in middle school, the more I enjoy working with kids of that age. I always had the idea that middle school aged children are the worst- they are mean, immature, and don't take anything seriously. Maybe I perceived this because I preferred my high school experience to my middle school years. I'm still not at the point though that I would want to work as a middle school teacher for years to come.

This weekend I may be visiting a chateau and will post more photos. I usually teach Friday afternoons but I don't need to go in tomorrow, so I'll be enjoying a three day weekend :) 

The First Week of November

After the departure of my dad and Halloween I still had a few days left of the holiday to relax and spend time with my friends. I saw a French film, "La Princesse de Montpensier" that was just released. Although it wasn't anything extraordinary, it was generally a good film with a decent story line and was easy to follow. French cinema has a tendency to be like American independent, artistic films, sometimes making them more difficult to follow. I also took time to prepare lesson plans for my upcoming classes, which resumed Thursday November 4th. Last week and this week I have been teaching lessons about Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Teaching seems to be getting easier and I'm becoming more confident. I am starting to see my students/classes for the second or third time so I am learning names, remembering faces, and gaining a better understanding of their abilities. Some students in the "European Section" take an extra 2 hours of English class per week, so I've become even more familiar with them.

Saturday I met Adeline for lunch and then we did some shopping together. She had never taken the bus from my apartment to hers, and after we found the bus stop together I went back home. I later learned she waited a very long time for a bus that never came, thanks to ANOTHER demonstration about the change in the retirement age. Saturday evening I went to Ryan's house and we made dinner together before meeting Adeline at a rock concert. Ryan's roommate, Thibault, is in a local rock band so we thought it would be fun to go to a local music concert in Tours. We arrived around 10pm and saw two bands before Thibault's group, 'The Ghost Brothers' Big Band', played last. I enjoyed the atmosphere more than the music because it reminded me of going to many local concerts in Fort Collins at university. Thibault's group was by far the best though!

Sunday, Emma drove Jenny, Alex, and I to the castle at Chenonceau. Chenonceau is one of the smaller castles in the area but well-known for it's beauty, charm, and construction over the Cher river. Even though it was raining on and off, it was still a wonderful day. Around the castle grounds are trees, forests, and gardens. It was the perfect autumn weekend to go as the ground was covered in orange and yellow leaves while just enough remained on the trees to keep the scenery from looking bare.

Chateau de Chenonceau

Emma, Jenny, and me

Emma and me

Yesterday and today my classes went extremely well. Not only was I well prepared with my lesson plans, but my students seemed genuinely interested in Thanksgiving/Halloween and were happy to participate :) Now more than ever do I understand how important it is for students to participate- not only so they can show what they understand- but so the instructor doesn't do all the talking! As a student I thought I was pretty good about participating, but I never understood its importance from the teacher's perspective. Now I very much appreciate when students willingly volunteer to read aloud or give an answer. Oh, how the tables have turned!