Sunday (October 25) was another glorious day. We began at the river's edge on a warm, sunny day. Along the Garonne, there is a wide path where people walk, bike, skate and mingle. There is also a market with the most incredible array of foods for sale. Beautiful produce, cheese in artistic shapes and seasoned with all kinds of herbs and fruits, magret de canard, macaroons of all colors, which we have learned is one of the specialties of Bordeaux, fish, poultry, flowers such as we have never seen in the States-- mini olive trees, cabbage-heads trained up into flowers that look like roses--tantalizing breads, pastries, etc, etc. and also prepared food that one can buy and eat at small tables overlooking the river. Foods from Morocco such as pastilla and lamb shanks, calamari and shrimp prepared in many ways. But the best for us was les huitres crus (raw oysters) and bulots, which are snails from the sea just a few miles away We bought a dozen oysters and a dozen bulots , which come with bread and butter - and of course white wine if you like. We sat at a little table eating, watching the jazz bands including multiple tubas, the river and all the people going by. Then we strolled along the river's edge and admired the market for a short time before we left to link up with a tour we had signed up for to St. Emilion to taste the wine and learn about how it is made.
Chateau Fressac and its surrounding vineyards which we visited was purchased by its current owner about ten years ago--a rich man who took public his washing-machine business including at least 250 stores all over France. So things are apparently not all that different than in California wine country where the dot com rich have done the same things. However we understand that many of these chateaus have been owned by the same families for centuries. Most have large vineyards, unlike in Burgundy, where small plots of land are owned or worked by peasant farmers.
They have been making wine here for 2,000 years, since the time of the Romans. In Bordeaux, all the reds are blended from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. (In Burgundy, the wines are all of Pinot Noir and not blended.) On the left side of the Garonne River, e.g. the Medoc, it's predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon. If from the right, more Merlot. The whites are less well-known, except for fhe Sauternes such as the famous Chateau d'Yquem which are very sweet and generally taken with fois gras, certain cheeses, or dessert.
On Monday, school began. Bob had not expected to attend but the Alliance had him scheduled for classes, and he has found that them quite fun and helpful as well. We go every day from 9 to 12 and two afternoons a week for 2 1/2 hours more for writing. He is in a much more advanced class than me, of course. We are both very impressed with the quality of the instruction and the method.
There are people here from all over the world. In my classes there are people from Algeria, Thalland, Mexico, Turkey, China, Japan, the Republic of Georgia, Germany, Serbia, Brazil, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, etc. The classes are small and we are by far the oldest. Most of our class-mates are younger than our own kids. I find that it is so much fun learning a language. Everything is in French and in class I understand most things. Outside of class is another thing. We have had "cultural activities" which included on Wednesday, a two-hour walking tour to show us the city. There it was harder to understand everything that was said and sometimes it is quite frustrating but every day I learn more of the language. On Friday we had a wine tasting course for nearly three hours, also all in French. Happily, there were materials in English I could look at. More about that later.
On Tuesday, we went to the Prefecture to "regularize our situation" (the French expression) i.e. get me the right to stay here in the form of a "carte de sejour." I now understand how immigrants feel. We arrived at 8:45. It opened at 8:30. The line was already quite long and filled with a very diverse population, mostly Arabs, Africans and people from less prosperous parts of the world. I was among few women without a headscarf. We had to wait an hour and a half for our turn just to find out what we needed to present in order for me to get the equivalent of a green card. We are having a real chicken/egg issue because we have to prove we have enough money to support ourselves and even though we had copies of various brokerage accounts, that was not good enough because the officialdom could not be satisfied that they hadn't been created on the computer. The only solution was to establish a French bank account and get an attestation that we had deposited 12,000 euros (theoretically enough to support ourselves for a year), and our marriage license had to be translated (even though its meaning was pretty clear given that our names were on there along with the date we were married) and also several other things.
Arranging for a bank account sounds easy, right? Mais non. We picked one of the country's largest banks and the first time we went there, no one was available to see us. Everyone was busy! They suggested we come back in two hours. We came back after lunch and still everyone was busy but after some sharp politeness on our parts, they agreed that if we waited ten minutes, someone would be found to talk to us. So, we meet Sophie Vigier, a totally charmless junior banker whose mission seemed to be to say no to everything we wanted. First she said nothing could be done unless I had my carte de sejour. Catch 22 since the prefecture said no carte without a letter from a bank saying that we had money. Then they said I needed an original paper letter from our bank in the US attesting to my bon reputation. They would not call, email or fax and even after we presented it, it could take 30 days to complete the opening ceremonies. Bob said "I don't undertand, We are trying to give you $18,000 and you don't want it? I am an EU citizen. This makes no sense."
After calls to others within the bank, much discussion, and mysterious tapping on the computer, Sophie reconsidered; I still needed a letter but if we deposited the money and the check or wire-transfer cleared, Bob could get an account. Could we get a copy showing the form of such a letter? No, she didn't have it and could only give it to us in person if we came back for it the next day. This person is sitting in front of a computer: one wonders what for! Also, we had to bring our host to attest that we had a contract to live with him and prove that he lived at “our” address (which in fact he has owned for 30+ years) in the form of a recent utility bill. When we showed up with him the next day, Sophie decided that since Bob was an EU citizen, I didn't need a letter attesting to my good character after all, just proof that I was applying for a carte de sejour and that after our wire transfer was received she could give us something to show that to the prefecture. But before she could actually open our account we would have to get a paper from the prefecture showing that we had made application for the carte de sejour. After meeting our smiley landlord she is now our new best friend. We had neither the chicken nor the egg but our problem was prospectively solved.
We ultimately had to spend nearly $130 to have our one-page marriage certificate and various pages from our health insurance policy translated by a court-accredited translator. Hopefully we can get those papers next week. Without a Euro-style bank card from France (containing an embedded security chip in addition to the familiar black strip on American credit card) which many machines now require, we could not order the phone we wanted over the internet. Mobile phone service is very expensive--35 or 40 cents a minute. We found a service on the internet for only 19 cents a minute but it won't take our cards so we have to wait til the bank gives us one. The bank charges about 10 euros a month for the privilege of carrying such a card, which turned out to be only a debit card. So we spent the week arranging for all these documents.
The weather has been wonderful and we have walked to school every day. Good exercise. It is about 25 minutes. Several days, we have brought our lunch, just like in law school, because food here is not cheap. We can sit in a park and eat. One day we ate in a park that was built around the ruins of a building that Charlemagne built for his wife. Hard to beat that. There was a clochard on the next bench. (That is a french wino) Walking to and from school we go through the Jardin Publique. There is a children's section with climbing things and in the afternoon it's filled with little children and their parents, often fathers as well. And on weekend or school holidays there is a puppet show in the park called Guignol Gueran (I think I have spelled that right) which is a particular brand of a sort of French Punch and Judy that has been running continuously since 1853! As Bob would say, it is so French.
On Tuesday evening, we and our hosts were invited for dinner to the apartment of the French girlfriend of Gianvito, the Italian architect who is our fellow-boarder. They are both about 27 and we and our hosts are 60ish It was so much fun to see how a young French person lives. The apartment is quite small. The kitchen is a part of the living room and the bedroom is a small adjacent room with only a beaded curtain between. They were so gracious and don't seem to think anything about the age difference. Carole is a school psychologist who met Gianvito when she was visitng Italy this summer. He is leaving in December so it remains to be seen what will happen with them but they are very sweet together. She made a lovely dinner with hors d’oeuvres in little spoons and individual little square shot-glass containers, which included boudin and sauteed apples with parsley, fois gras with apricot marmalade, shrimp in yogurt (in the spoons) and crab soup in tiny little personal soup tureens. She also gave me the card to let me use her health club for two weeks.
On Friday, the school arranged for a wine tasting and lecture at the Wine School of Bordeaux and for 12 euros each we had a lesson and tasted three wines. The room was set up like a chemistry lab for really serious students with each person sitting on a stool in front of a table with a sink (for pouring out what you don't drink) and a small lamp for looking at the color of the wine. The teacher told us about Bordeaux wines and then about production, etc. and then handed out tiny bottles that contained essences of various smells that one is supposed to find in the wines: cherry, mushroom, vanilla, pepper, licorice, cinnamon, strawberry, etc.. I only got one right! Then we tasted some lovely wine. One white from Graves, one red from Pomerol and a sauterne-like white.
Noemie, the young women employed at the Alliance as “cultural director” has decided to make a movie about the school and the people who attend. They want to film a section about "older" students so they are going to take some film of us and the Fourcherauds at our home. The Fourcherauds are so warm and open and generous. While they certainly do this for the income it adds to their lives, they also truly enjoy having people live and eat and interact with them. Bob and Jean Marie are engaged in constant dialogue and never seem to run out of things to discuss--the business of baguettes, an important topic, social security, architecture, etc.
This weekend, we are at their home in the country. The country, in this case, is the region of Cognac, about one and a half hours away by car. We left about 7:30 Friday evening with the whole family in two cars. That means both daughters, the son-in-law Guillaume and the sweet little granddaughter Alyse. This family is quite close and enjoys being together. The married daughter, Sophie, and her family have had dinner at our house about four times already and we have only been here about ten days. The other daughter takes great pleasure in taking care of Alyse and yesterday brought out her homeopathic kit which contained various essential oils and a book of remedies especially for children. l don't think she has ever made any money from it, and she may just be learning but there are homeopathic pharmacies everywhere.
The manner of child raising is also remarkable, at least in this family. Alyse is only 18 months old but nothing around her is child-proofed, She knows not to touch and the adults seem less hovering. She smiles all the time and is kissed constantly but they don't get down on the floor very much to play games or read to her. But she comes along everywhere and is amazingly good natured.
The country house is in a tiny town called Siecq with about 250 inhabitants. It is where Jean-Marie and his seven siblings grew up and the house he owns there belonged to his grandmother, who among others in their earlier generations were licensed as “bouilleurs de cru” or cognac distillers. The countryside is one vineyard after another with grapes for making cognac as well as our family’s favorite aperitif, the Pineau de Charente. The house is large, dating from the 1890s. The furniture is old and rickety for the most part and some of the walls need plaster and paint but it seems to be how many people live in ancestral homes in the country. There is a large “parc” and garden and an out-building with another kitchen that his grandmere used to use and then carry the food into the home (or the servants did). There is also a small kitchen in the house We used both.
Saturday morning, Bob, Jean-Marie, Guillame and I rode very old bikes (without any gears) through the countryside to meet Antoinette at a farm that sells produce so we could buy things for dinner. We got very lost au milleu de nullepart (eck veldt where I come from) but Jean- Marie had his iPhone along which after much fiddling showed us the way. As you ride along, the fields of vines and corn stalks and the remains of sunflower fields are just lovely and you can smell in the air the grapes which have recently been harvested. Some have been left on the vine and have begun to ferment. They taste like very sweet, soft raisins. After about an hour and a half, we found the farm (which was really quite close as the crow flies). There we picked the sweetest strawberries I am sure I have ever tasted. If I had not picked them myself, I would have sworn they had been covered in sugar for hours. Antoinette also bought vegetables for pot au feu. We had lunch in the garden consisting of deviled eggs, then maigret of canard and mashed potatoes with fresh strawberries for dessert. Just a "simple little French lunch." Afterward, we went up to the second floor in the out-building to have coffee and play French billiards (three balls, no pockets) on a century-old table whose maker's name was affixed to the table by a bronze placque.
Antoinette gathered snails FROM THE GARDEN for dinner. Then she put them in a box covered with chicken wire and sprinkled them with flour which I think she said somehow cleans them of things they may have picked up in the soil. Then they are further cleaned by soaking in a mixture of water and vinegar. In the meanwhile, we all drove over to visit a relative in Vaux Rouillac who makes cognac, some of which he sells to Hennesey (which tells you how good it must be) and some of which he bottles for his own label. His name is Andre Dixneuf. It is speculated that since he was an orphan and orphans are often named for the saint who is celebrated on the day the orphan arrives (there is one for every day of the month) and for the day on which they arrived. He was named after Saint Andre and since he was left at the orphanage on the nineteenth, he is Andre Dixneuf. The label is Dixneuf Pere et Fils. He also raises abeilles (bees) and various vegetables. He is in his early seventies and works with his son and almost no one else. But he seems to do well. He has lots of expensive machinery and land and quite a charming house, beautifully gardened by his very friendly and one can tell once very beautiful wife Jeanine.
And of course, there was Rudy the dog. It seems everyone here has at least one dog. Jeanine took us into her cellar to show us the endives she was growing. It grows from the top of a very large root and you cut it off just as it is ready to eat. If you leave it in the fields, the leaves grow big and green, like chard. But if you remove the root and plant in a big pot covered with cloth and put in the cellar, nice new white shoots spring up, ready for the salad bowl. Who knew?
Then we had a tour of the whole cognac making process, followed by a tasting of several kinds of pineau and some cake. All of this is only in French so I only get some of it. A splendid day, followed by my helping Antoinette prepare the snails which involved making garlic and parsley butter and stuffing each snail with a smudge and baking them. I cannot believe I got to see and do this and they were delicious. All in all it is hard to beat maigret and strawberries for lunch and snails for dinner, all in one day.
This morning, we took a promenade with Jean-Marie around the village. All the buildings are in the Charentaise style, which in part means behind walls and doors. There are no front yards or cars parked in the streets. The town looks deserted because everyone lives behind walls and doors that come up close to the sidewalk. The windows are all closed with shutters so you cannot see inside and most houses have one grand arched door for entry (in the past) by the carriage and a small door next to it for people to enter.
We came back for lunch of fresh shrimp followed by pot au feu and apple tart for desert. Always the tarts or sometimes custard puddings like creme caramel. And always the baguettes. They go every morning for fresh bread, In this little village, the town owns the boulangerie because otherwise it would be hard to keep a baker, who could not afford the investment and would anyway more on to a bigger town as soon as he could. And usually, there is a cheese course. For lunch today, before the tart, we had fresh goat cheese on which they sprinkle sugar.
Bordeaux has a population of about 250,000 in the city proper and counting the environs, about 600,000. Even though Parisians would consider it the provinces, it is quite sophisticated. All the best stores are here if you want them...Hermes, Sonia Rykel, Max Mara, etc. I could not believe the Arche store. I have never owned a pair but the number of different designs and colors is astounding and I may have to break down and buy a pair because they are so beautiful, despite the price. So many shops have unique clothing like you have seen nowhere else. It makes even New York seem like Indianapolis. The city is casual, uncrowded, quite clean and fun. There are flower shops with flowers and plants I have never seen before and it seems like every other shop is a chocolate or macaroon store.
We have been so busy that we have not yet gone to the museums, which have some very good exhibits but next week we should have more time. Nor have I yet gone shopping. but the prices combined with the dollar being so low and the fact that I have to carry it all may well deter me, which is just fine. I already have more than I need. The women here are so stylish and many have long, beautiful, incredibly thin legs. It seems to be in the genes. It is fun to admire them.
And so now, I must close because I must do my homework for tomorrow before we pile into the car to return to Bordeaux.
Karen
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