Fêtes Johanniques

This past weekend in Reims we celebrated a weekend full of medieval festivities aimed at celebrating the life of Joan of Arc.

Since the apartment that I'm living in is right in the center of town, we were able to observe a lot of what was going on directly from our balcony! There were lots of artisan merchants with tents set up to sell their handmade crafts (jewelry, wooden swords, costumes, jams/jellys, toys, medieval replicas etc...). I bought a few homemade products, but what was the most gratifying at the time were the cups of cherries being sold for two euros! So delicious!

Fresh cherries!

A few of the beautiful displays (yep, real bread!)

There were also different performances and stations where you could see men and women welding swords, roasting pigs, making armor, knitting, sewing.  They had a few plays that were put on, a bird show, and lots of parades through town.

Hedwig made an appearance!

Sometimes the parades included camels (yes, to many of my friends' disbelief, there do see to be camels in France), other times horses, and once in a while geese!

 What a French camel looks like!

The most entertaining for me were the people who were all dressed in spirit and acting their parts as well. They were all very friendly and always answered questions about their crafts of costumes.  Overall it was a fun weekend of festivities, even though many of the locals grumble about it blocking the entire center of town.

Here are some of the people I saw over the course of the weekend:

France vs. Serbia

For the first time in lots of years (maybe 22?) the national french soccer team came to Reims to play a friendly game against Serbia before the Europe Cup this summer.  It was also the first time that the national team had played a game in Reims' stadium.

 

Ticket

 Vincent and I managed to get tickets from someone at the mayor's office after Vincent and his colleagues organized "worldwide no tobacco day".  So after the speaker finished his presentation around 8PM, we headed over to the stadium. We had really great seats and made it in time for kickoff.

 The stadium

 French flags after the goals were scored!

The french team played really well, scoring 2 goals in the first 15 minutes! They dominated the first half, but the second half not so much. Not too much action, but we still won 2-0! The Serb fans were pretty rowdy even though there were hardly any of them. Their reputation for being violent led to them being basically locked in the stadium until everyone else had left and then they were escorted out. Lots of police and national security people. A fun night at the soccer stadium though!

 Corner kick for France. Super close seats!

Paris for the weekend

This weekend was a three day weekend here in France. Not for Memorial Day, but for a church holiday. Weirdly enough it is celebrated by some and not by others as mandated my the government. So some companies choose this day to work unpaid while other businesses choose another day during the year. Part of "giving back" to the government... the term they use is "being in solidarity". Okay, end of side note.

So on Saturday afternoon I packed up my backpack, hopped on the TGV, and took the high speed train into Paris by myself.  This was the first time that I was going to be in Paris alone, and although I love traveling with my family, seeing the city on my own was a new and fun experience too!
When I first arrived, I took the metro to a little town right outside of Paris where the Durlach's grandparents live. They were kind enough to let me stay with them for the weekend. Check out their amazing view and cute little neighborhood:

 TGV ride!

 The cute neighborhood of Pont-de-Neuilly and the awesome view from the apartment!

Later that afternoon I headed back into Paris. I was hoping to go to the Musee d'Orsay but there was a long line and it was too nice out to spend the afternoon inside. Instead I wandered streets, zigzagging back and forth, taking pictures and taking in Paris. I passed Notre Dame, a cool outdoor flower market, and stopped on Ile St. Louis. Following in family tradition, I stopped at a central "brasserie" and ordered a glass of champagne (I wasn't even carded!!) and two scoops of the famous "Mme. Bertillon" ice cream (strawberry and salted carmel, the waiter's recommendation)

Ice cream and champagne!

 Notre Dame

Later, I walked around more neighborhoods, seeing the Latin neighborhood, stopping in a park near La Sorbonne, scoping out future museums, and of course taking pictures. I ended up at my favorite restaurant in Paris, "Bistro d'Henri" where I had honey magret de canard and a glass of wine. After a wonderful meal I headed towards the Eiffel Tower. I timed it just right and was able to see it "sparkle" at 10PM. It was lots of fun for my first day!

 

A delicious dinner at Bistro d'Henri  

The sparkling Eiffel Tower!

My second day started out with a nice run in the "Bois de Bourgogne", a forest/park area right near the apartment.  I then came back, showered, and headed back into Paris. Since it was Sunday I had to choose wisely what my plan was since most things are closed.  I headed to the Monet museum where I saw tons of great impressionist pieces. They had a special exhibit on Berte Morisot, it was spectacular.  Lots of great memories of being here as an 8 year old too! After a lunch "en terrasse" (outside at a little cafe table), I headed back towards Paris where I again did some walking around and spent time at the Jardins de Luxembourg doing some reading and relaxing. I stopped by the Musee de l'Organerie where I saw even more Monet pieces as well as other fantastic impressionist paintings.

Just for you and your love for Renoir, Dad!!

Les Jardins de Luxembourg!

I grabbed a sugar crepe as a quick snack before meeting up with Clement Durlach, the oldest of the kids, who lives in Paris. He showed me around some new neighborhoods and told me lots of stories about Paris' history! We had lots of fun before returning to the grandparents for dinner.

Monday I packed up my stuff and headed back into Paris for my last day. I did a tiny bit of shopping (limited myself to one purse), checked out some fancy areas with beautiful window displays, grabbed a hot panini and met up with Clement again in the afternoon. We saw Rue Mouftard, Rue des Goblins, and the Parisien Mosque. It was gorgeous, and afterwards we headed  around the corner to the garden where they serve mint tea and middle eastern pastries. It was delicious. We did a little more local sightseeing before I headed back on the TGV to Reims. My feet were absolutely aching, but I had had a great 3 days in Paris!!

 

Window displays at La Durée (famous macroon store)

 

 

The beautiful Parisien Mosque

Once more photos have been edited etc... I'll post them in a new post. Enjoy!

Reims (pronounced Rhanz)

The town that I'm living in here in France, Reims, is most well know for it's production of Champagne. The cute town has lots of history and a beautiful Cathedral as well. I just wanted to post a few pictures that I took while strolling around in the evening. Paris post coming soon... I did so much and took so many pictures I need some time to get it all down! Enjoy.

My address/town square here in Reims.

A cool building right in off the main forum here in town. French flags included!

A cool key shop. Fun fact: Lots of keys actually look like that here. The key to my room looks just like the one on this sign. 

Cathedral Notre Dame

The Cathedral. Our apartment actually is just behind the cathedral. We can see through the stain glass windows at night, it's pretty awesome!

Work at the Hospital

I just finished up my third day of work at the hospital. They have definitely been full days, starting at 8:30AM and usually ending around 6:30PM! This week I'm spending the majority of my time in the pulmonary department, specifically in the tobacco section.

The first two days I shadowed nurses who helped patients who had decided they wanted to or needed to stop smoking. Some ambulatory patients came in for consultations, and for others we went to visit them in their rooms. We saw patient in maternity, re-animation (post hear attack type area), and rheumatology). I spent some time getting to know how the hospital is set up, as well as seeing parts of the medical school. Tuesday I again spent time in the morning at the tobacco into, and in the afternoon I met with the English professor at the med school. I'm going to be speaking at two of her classes in the next few weeks. These two classes are for hospital employees who want to improve their English.  They've asked that I talk to them about how our election system works, how are university system is set up, and also a bit about health care/hospitals in the US.

Today, I got to observe a different part of the pulmonary department where they measure lung capacity etc... I then went up a floor and watches three bronchial fibroscopies, where doctors place a tube with a camera on the end into people's lungs. It was super interesting and all three were for various reasons.  One they had to clear mucus from the patient's lungs, and the others they took tissue samples.  In the afternoon I went to the optometry area of the hospital. I observed multiple consultations and also saw them perform lots of tests ( I don't remember their names). In any case, I will be back in optometry two weeks from now.

This afternoon I took the tram home, a little train/public transportation that goes from the hospital to within a few blocks from the apartment.  I get to go to Paris this weekend for my three day weekend.  I'm very much looking forward to my little trip! I will post some pictures of Reims soon.

Days 3 and 4

I'm heading off to my third day of work and will update this post when I get home tonight, but I'll just post this picture for now.  It sums up the last few days pretty well:

Days 1 and 2

After landing in Paris, Vincent came and picked me up and we drove back to Reims together.  We made it to the apartment, which is literally 50 feet from the central Cathedral in town. I had a chance to relax and unpack my bag before lunch.  I wasn't feeling all that great, probably a combination of lack of sleep, airplane food, and being in a new place. We had a delicious lunch: salad, salmon, rice, and fresh market strawberries for dessert. I felt much better after eating. Vincent then took me out for a quick loop around part of the town so I could being to now my way around.  We passed the Cathedral several times, along with plenty of cute cafés I'll surely do some relaxing/writing at, and of course lots of french bakeries!

We came back and almost immediately after I left with Anne (host mom) and we took another tour around town. We did a couple of errands and found some places to go running. I was definitely feeling the jetlag but knew it was best that I was out and about rather than sitting down, otherwise I would fall asleep. As it happened before, right when we returned Vincent and I left the house again, this time to see a parade that was going through town. It turns out that the town's soccer team did really well in their league and get to move up to the next level next season. This hasn't happened in 33 years, the last time they were really good. So of course there was lots of celebrating and we watched the team go by on a double decker bus.

 

The parade, along with some cute french soccer players ;)

 We came back and had a relaxing evening and a casual dinner. I headed to bed around 10PM (yay for staying awake all day) and slept 11 hours... it felt wonderful. Today I feel much better! Little bouts of being tired, but I'm keeping going. This morning Vincent, Camille and I went for a walk down to the canal and Camille and I went for a run while Vincent stopped by the market. We had another fabulous meal at lunch today (cucumbers and goat cheese, lamb and potatoes, and then strawberries for dessert), and then Olivier and I went to the museum that's right near the Cathedral. We saw lots of old tapestries, sculptures from the Cathedral, bejeweled crowns and mantles that the kings used to wear.

I'm resting now and thinking about all my friends who are about to have a blast at Bay to Breakers. Just wanted to give a shout-out to Team Lele, hope you guys have a super fun morning!! Love you all and sending big hugs.