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