Photo Time

Look at me, the mad poster! Hardly anything gets posted for weeks and weeks, and then suddenly it's like I'm doing nothing else!

I mean, sure, they're not block-of-text posts like I usually do, but at least they're still interesting. Right?

So, today's post is going to be a photo show. I recently went down to Nîmes in the south of France to visit some friends who live there, and we went to a lot of really awesome places and took a lot of amazing pictures.

A picture's worth a thousand words, right? Right. Let's get started, then.

This is a statue of a Bullfighter that stands in front of the grand Arena in central Nîmes. (In French: Les Arènes) He's dressed in full regalia: tight-fitting pants, sparkly jacket, ridiculous hat, and carrying his pink cape, though obviously the statue is metal and un-colored.

The best part. (Sorry, Mom.)

This is the actual arena, as seen from outside. Sort of makes you feel like you've just teleported to Rome. If you look closely at the bottom arches, you can see the metal grills keeping people from walking in anywhere but the official entrance. You do need to pay to get in, unless you live in Nîmes and can show your ID card to prove it.

Some pictures I took of the inside of the Arena. The stone is old and worn, and I kind of thought I would feel all funny, seeing it, like "Whoa this is hundreds of years old.", but actually I just kind of wished the stone would heat up a little, because you froze your butt off if you tried to sit on it. Also, the stairs slope at a very subtle angle, and you always feel like you're going to slip right off. It's not a very pleasant feeling.

The view from the very top of the Arena. I know it doesn't seem all that high from the photos, but I was having a seriously hard time getting myself to stay up there for long enough to take the pictures. If the wall hadn't been like three feet thick at the top, I probably wouldn't have done more than glance over.

That wall was really, really long. The great thing is, behind that wall (which is actually a part of a several-hundred year-old fortress) is a city. A completely functioning, economically stable city. It's called Aigues-Mortes, and it's a tourist city inside of a four-walled castle. Inside are a bunch of cafés and gift shops, as well as stunningly beautiful houses and even a gorgeous old Catholic church. You can take a tour of one of the towers and go all the way around the ramparts (the top of the fortress walls).

Some pictures of the Catholic church in Aigues-Mortes.

The entrance of the tour building. You go in, pay a small fee (except if you're a student) and you can visit the fortress itself.

Let's see if I can roughly translate this for you guys.

There's the name of the museum, and then at the bottom it says

"One finds here:

The Galley, where the Huguenots, condemned for their faith, were held.

The Grill, bringing to mind prisoners like Marie Durand, known for for her memorable carving in the stone: RESIST. (We will come back to this.)

The Huguenot Cross, the emblem of all Huguenots dispersed in all refuge countries, the one which signifies a French connotation.

Several pictures I took while taking the tour of the main tower. It was such a gorgeous place. The tower was used as a prison for Protestants, and you can go up and visit the rooms where they were kept, as well as the top of the building, which has a lovely view.

Said view, out over the lovely town of Aigues-Mortes. It really takes your breath away to see it. In the distance of some of the pictures, you can see the local beach on the Mediterranean, the Grau-du-Roi.

Some pictures of the inside of the tower. The light is kind of bad, but there's no electric lights in the tower, only sunlight.

 Remember the sign I translated? This is why Marie Durand is famous. She was a Protestant woman who refused to renounce her faith. She was kept in the tower of the fortress for years and years, and has been credited with this carving. In the stone (I know you can't see it well in the photos, it was all I could do to see it in real-life) is carved one word, in French: "RESISTER", which, obviously, means "Resist".

And...I've officially run out of good pictures. I hope you liked them, anyway.

~Jocelyn Harris

Payment Accepted

Okay, now, this is just getting to be ridiculous.

It starts out like a bad joke. So, an American walks into a French store...followed with the inevitable punchline of "Your card doesn't work."

Which is nonsense. It works just fine. It's just that the cashiers happen to be French, and, keeping with French tradition, assume that every customer they meet is going to be stupid, wrong, or both.

My exchanges tend to go like this:

The cashier rings up my purchases and I dutifully hand them my card. They turn it right side up, look at it with a small frown, and try to put it into their chip-reader. The machine fails to make the 'accepted' beeping noise.

"Mademoiselle, your card doesn't work. Have you got cash?"

I shake my head and point at my card.

"Try swiping it."

The cashier looks, confused, at the card in their hand. They try again to push it in. The machine stands resolute in it's decision that my card is chip-less.


"It doesn't work."

I sigh and point at the card again.

"It's an American card. You need to swipe it."

The cashier looks relieved to have something, finally, to blame.

"Oh! Well, sometimes American cards don't work."

"This one does. It's a visa. Try swiping it."

The cashier pushes the card in again.

"I'm sorry. It doesn't work."

"Alright."

I take my card back from the cashier, smile at them, and then reach around their arm and the cash register to swipe my card. The machine beeps.

"Did that work?"

The cashier looks astonished.

"Payment accepted."


 ~Jocelyn Harris
 

Anybody Want Some French Music?

So, I remember how much of a pain it was to find French music before I moved here. I mean, it was ridiculous. Of course, it hasn't gotten much easier, since most of what's on the radio is still American, but at least I have a better chance of finding something over here. So I figured, I'll give you all links to the stuff I've found. Not sure if you guys are going to like my style, so I'll link a few songs I don't like as well, so everybody can find something.

There's going to be two lists: French music I've found, and songs in English that I've fallen in love with over here or are popular with French teens. That works, right?


FRENCH MUSIC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQFQgItsm18  Watch the music video for this one if you have the chance, it's cute. The title (Dis-Moi Encore que Tu M'aimes) means "Tell me again that you love me." I personally like this song, it's got a nice tune and it's not necessary to understand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdwC26FHxkA&feature=related  Not a big fan, it's a little too Pop-y for me, but the music video is certainly creative and it's easy enough to understand if you have a background in French.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U05LgrRzNt8  There are no words for how much I love this song. Go and look up the lyrics, they're so clever and cute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6LJjFgHCwY  Incredibly easy to understand, and if you manage to memorize it, it's a good song to sing at random times to boost your confidence in your language-learning abilities, just saying. It sounds impressive even though it's so easy. Also a really cute song. I'm a big fan of Alizée in general.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvdZAhRzimA  Another Alizée song, and my favorite of hers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l-OxIqU0tY&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=MLGxdCwVVULXclF_mgsQ0VbKsv7J92KenE  Though I really like Calogero, this song is not my style at all. It's sort of half-rap, and I'm not thrilled with it, but in my experience, any French person will be able to at least sing you the chorus, which I'll admit is super-catchy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLg6uTT5izo&feature=related  I couldn't find my favorite Calogero song (Which is "La Bourgeoisie Des Sensations" if you want to try and find it) but I did find my second favorite. This is another "look up the lyrics" song, it's incredibly deep. If you're looking for songs that are obviously French, where the lyrics are clear and you can practice translating-on-the-go, go for Calogero. He is, by far, my favorite French singer. (The music video for this one kind of make no sense, though. Skip it.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E72zd1FQhQs  Normally, Superbus is a little too superficial and obnoxious for me, but this song, despite being kind of loud for my tastes, has a pretty good story line and is catchy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ig3g7U8wDM&feature=related  Another Superbus. I'm adding this one to the list because it was the first song I ever really listened to in French. Super easy to understand, if you cheat a little by reading the lyrics, you could probably understand the whole thing with only a year or two of french and a few word look-ups.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=satMi-rws1A  Speaking of super-easy, let's get this one out of the way. The woman who sings this isn't French, she has a bit of an accent, either American (most likely) or British. However the song is cute and catchy, and you're almost guaranteed to understand the chorus the first time through if you speak any French at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvyMG0z0FZY  This one is actually sort of nice. Fast, but soft. It's about a woman who wonders if her lover is still in love with her. Side note, the woman who is singing this is actually the wife of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOru9ITtVIg  Gregoire is a pretty well-known singer in France. This is one of his more popular songs, though personally I can't listen to it for more than a few verses before it starts to grate on my ears. The tune doesn't really change enough.



Sublist: Songs That I'm Embarrassed To Like


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoISXWbRpZA&feature=fvst  Oh, man. I really shouldn't like this song, it's soooooo bad, but there's just something about hearing it on the radio five thousand times and dancing to it with a bunch of French teenagers for lack of anything else to do that makes you sort of tolerate it until you end up thinking of it fondly. I'm so sorry to have inflicted this on you. Listen to it anyway. (The music video is incredibly obnoxious, though: Watch at your own risk.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuDDC6i84fo  I was at a New Years party the first time I heard this. It was really quite a sight: Every SINGLE person in the room started singing along, even the kids. It's an 80s song, and it's so cheesy, but it's one of those "dancing-around-you-room-singing-into-a-hairbrush" type of songs. It stays in your head until you go crazy and start singing it under your breath just to try and get rid of it. Then it brainwashes you, and you start to like it.  (By the way, some south Korean ladies did a cover of this song, and the music video made me laugh so hard I accidentally fell out of my chair. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZOjFcqH_Jk They really are trying to sing it in French, bless them.)



SONGS IN ENGLISH:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Na85fPGYCM&feature=related  This has been playing on the radio non-stop. It's so catchy you can't help but remember it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-0Qx8HwlW4  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this song. I could listen to it all day. Go and listen to it NOW. Also, the music video isn't half bad, kind of elegant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0  Well, hopefully you've seen this. Just about every French teenager I've met could both sing it to you and do the dance, so there's that. Plus, it's catchy. And maybe it's just me, but I feel sort of vaguely patriotic when I sing it.

(Well, THAT was a short list.)



I hope that at least gave you one new song to listen to. French music really isn't bad, I don't know why we refuse to listen to anything international (besides Mexican) in the United States. It's such a shame.

~Jocelyn Harris

Joyeux Fêtes! (Happy Holidays!)

I know what you're thinking: "Wow, hey, that one France girl finally updated her blog. How long has it been, a few years since the last post?" and I'll just come out and say it, you're perfectly justified being a little annoyed. Sorry. I did have an excuse, but even excuses have time limits...

My first excuse (just to sate your curiosity) was that, in December, I was forced by some pretty awful circumstances to change host families. I don't want to go into any details, or incriminate anybody, I just want to say that my new host family is better than amazing, and everything is fine now. I've also changed towns and schools, but that was mostly because my old coordinator really wasn't all that great, and I wasn't making too many close friends at my old high school. No harm done there, and I've already made tons of new friends at the new high school.

That's life.

But, anyway, back to the awesome super-cool blog posts you guys are always looking forward to! (Right? ...Right.)

So, I know all of you are just dying to know about Christmas, here. And so, twenty-two days late, here goes every little detail.

I had actually arrived in my new host family n the twenty-third of December, so Christmas was just a little bit awkward. I had brought a gift for them and everything, but there was still that kind of "new person" feeling lingering about. (For reference: It's about the same type of feeling as when you have a new pet, but like...times ten. New exchange student. Ooh.)

As it turns out, Christmas Eve here in France is just about as important as Christmas Day: it's when you get your presents. I gave out my little box of expensive chocolates (you gotta love those French Chocolatiers), and was surprised in turn to get some presents from my host family; namely a scarf, some awesome leg warmers, and a CD from a popular French singer. We all sat down for an hour long aperitif, a sort of snack before a meal to whet your appetite, usually including alcohol, and I was allowed a tiny glass of champagne, just enough for a taste. (It was surprisingly okay, but I don't think I'm a huge fan.)

And then came dinner.

I've come to understand that, in France, Christmas Eve dinner can be...extraordinary. Every stereotype I'd ever heard about French dining (foie gras, escargots, lots of wine, staying at the dinner table for several hours, tons of baguettes) seems to come together for that one spectacular meal. It's really quite a sight. Thankfully, my host family dialed it down a few notches. There was still the foie gras and some traditional mushroom-and-fish type of stew (I didn't like it much, to tell the truth) but there was absolutely no staying at the dinner table for hours on end, for which I was extremely grateful.

After spending an extra hour or two gushing over presents (notably my host sister's new cellphone, which didn't leave her hand for the next several weeks) we all went to bed at a reasonable hour so that we could wake up at Dark o'Clock and start driving up to visit my host mom's family for Christmas. (Don't ask me where they live, because I don't know. I completely forgot to ask. I have no idea if we went north, south, east, or west. I just know we all crawled into the car and bored ourselves silly for two hours listening to the radio and looking desperately out the window for something amusing to engage our attention.)

We finally arrived at the family's house, I had a small heart attack trying to kiss everyone hello and pretend like I remembered names and faces, and then...

The Meal began.

The Meal was unlike any meal that I, even as an American, have ever undertaken. The Meal is not to be joked around with. The Meal is a sacred and time-honored tradition.

The Meal is eight hours long.

It consists of several courses, each with about an hour in between to rest your stomach and allow you time to digest the food you've already eaten. Adults will stay at the table the whole time, talking. Children will very quietly get up out of their seats, sneak over to the door, and go wreak havoc on the rest of the house, playing board games that they've been given for Christmas. They will, however, return for every course, and will eat just about as much as the adults.

I'll just say this now: I have no idea how the people in this country stay so skinny when their stomachs can be like bottomless black holes. Seriously. I was full to bursting after the first course, and I only ate half of it!

(Did I mention that after The Meal is over, about an hour later you're supposed to eat dinner? Yeah, I don't think so. I passed.)

I don't think there's very much to say after that, though. After dinner we all crawled upstairs to try to sleep with our upset stomachs, woke up in the morning somehow hungry again, ate a small breakfast, and sat around lazily for the whole morning. I think the adults were in the dining room talking some more: I personally was tucked up in my room trying to read a little bit in English to get rid of the awful headache I'd gotten from speaking and trying to understand French for the entire day before. (You can think what you want about learning another language, but it's sure painful sometimes.) We all dragged ourselves down to the dining room at around 12 to have a small lunch, and then packed everything in the car and went home, spending the next few days getting up at eleven in the morning and doing absolutely nothing. It was recovery time, I swear.

And that was Christmas.

There is, however, a reason the French say "Happy Holidays" more than "Merry Christmas", and it's not our sissy American reason, either: The French, from what I've seen, really couldn't care less about offending someone's religion by wishing them a Merry Christmas. It's because, in fact, they have two major holidays around this time of year, one of which I was woefully ignorant until a few days before it took place.

The French call it the "Réveillon", and it takes place on New Years Eve.

(This is, actually, the second day of the year to be called the "Réveillon": Christmas Eve is the first. The word, as far as I can tell, comes from the verb "se reveiller", which means "to wake oneself up".)

My host mom gave me the best description of the two holidays: "Christmas is high-strung, very noisy, and it takes a lot out of you. You spend it with your family. Réveillon is whatever you want it to be, because you spend it with your friends."

On the day of New Years Eve, I got all dressed up, put on more makeup than I'm strictly used to, and went to a party.

It was so. Much. Fun.

There was dancing, food, a few "name-the-song" contests that I was awful at, and even some karaoke, which was amusingly awful. I was forced to stand on my chair and wave my paper napkin around for one of the songs, an action I still don't understand, and learned the lyrics to an old 80's French song with some of the most clichéd words I've ever heard. The DJ made me come up and sing the only English song on the Karaoke CDs ("Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King), I sucked spectacularly at it, and I danced until my back and feet were on fire. (I was, of course, the only one that knew all the lyrics to "YMCA" by the Village People, and I belted it out proudly.)

At exactly midnight, everybody started counting down, and as the clock hit midnight, a gigantic wave of sound exploded over the room as noise-makers went off and people started yelling. There was no ball dropping in New York, no Auld Lang Syne, and I have to admit, I didn't miss it. The energy going around that place was absolutely overwhelming. It was all I could do to stay awake for the next few hours, and when we left at around two in the morning or so, I was exhausted. When we got back home, I tumbled into bed almost without changing into my pajamas.

And then, of course, I woke up early in the morning to celebrate the proper New Years. (Those silly French people, nine hours ahead of the rest of us.)

~Jocelyn Harris