Chambery – classes, exploring and excursions!

The week here in Chambery flew by! Classes start pretty early in the morning (9am) and go until lunch time, taking up the majority of the morning. On Tuesdays we have a “workshop” class in the afternoon for two hours that is on specific topics. This past week it was an overview of the geography of France. Classes have been going well, though they are not challenging yet. Our teacher is French though, so I have been able to work on my pronunciation with her a lot and pick up on quite a few nuances – I’m definitely excited about that! We are switching teachers next week so I don’t know what the new professor will be like, but French for sure.

This week we went on a few excursions in the afternoons after class, all of which were very fun. On Wednesday we look a trip to the nearby lake, Lac du Bouget. It is the biggest lake in France and only a 20 minute bus ride from Chambery. The buses there and back were packed with people doing the same thing. I really like that the people here take the time to really enjoy their parks and the nature around them – almost any day I see lots of people just hanging out in the parks and enjoying the beautiful weather. Speaking of weather, I have had pretty perfect weather ever since I got here! It has been getting pretty warm in the afternoons (around 80) but there has been zero humidity and it gets cool at night...delightful! As a few people have noticed, this makes for some very pretty pictures of the surrounding areas.

On Thursday our group had an afternoon trip to the city of Grenoble. It was an hour train ride away through the beautiful country side of the Alps! It was really great to see all the vineyards on the sides of the mountains and the mountains themselves up close. I think in July we are doing a bike tour to one of these nearby vineyards (!) so that will be really cool. Anyway, Grenoble was a lot of fun to explore! We had tickets to take a lift (ski lift sort of) to the top of a hill/mountain that overlooks the city. An old fortification and castle called the Bastille was built around the mountain top in the 1800s and has been turned into a museum / panoramic view building. The view (if you look at the pictures on facebook) was gorgeous! The city was very cool to see from above – all the old red roofs and “vieille ville” architecture was so pretty from above. The mountains were absolutely gorgeous, too. They seem to go on forever when you are tucked in a valley in between them. My roommate and I explored the city on foot for a few hours before we had to head back and really enjoyed our afternoon in the town. We had the chance to have some dessert crepes at a local restaurant, which was of course fantastic! I think I might start a rating scale for the chocolate crepes that I eat in different cities. The one I had in Grenoble is definitely towards the top of that scale....mmm! I am still not used to the fact that you can’t eat food at a restaurant whenever you want – usually they stop serving food for the majority of the afternoon (until about 7pm) and only drinks and occasionally desserts are served. Inconvenient, I say, but very French! We see so many people, even here in Chambery, just sitting at restaurants for a few hours in the afternoon having drinks. Also, Renee and I stumbled upon a used bookstore in Grenoble so I was able to buy a copy of the third Harry Potter book (in French) for 1 euro. Sweet! I have already read the first chapter. There is something just write about J.K. Rowling’s writing (in English) and I can tell that quite a bit of that is lost in translation, but it’s still fun and exciting to read it in French.

On Friday a few of us went on a trip to the medieval city of Conflans. This tiny little village sits at the top of a hill outside the city of Albertville, home of the 1992 Olympics. Cool! The trip only cost 5 euro so I wasn’t expecting much, but once again I was blown away by the scenery! On our way there the bus driver wanted to give us a little history tour of where we were driving, but he spoke on French, which was a problem for the beginner French students. Our animateur (French version of a “camp counselor” or leader of a specific group) is a guy our age, but he doesn’t speak English very well either. I was really excited, however, when he asked me to translate for the rest of the group. The bus driver had me come up to the front of the bus and use a microphone to translate for the hour long ride to Conflans – I certainly wasn’t expecting something this formal! It was a lot of fun though, and a really good experience. The area of Conflans, he explained, was near a big hospital in the 15th and 16th centuries that travelers used to stop by on their way through the Alps. The Conflans city / fortification was built with the help of the Duke of Savoie and King Albert (from Italy). The area belonged to Italy for a long time but was passed to France in the 19th century with the surrounding areas of Nice and Marseilles.As you can see from the pictures the town of Conflans was very quaint! Small, for sure (one restaurant was the only thing open), but very rich with history.

Today I spent most of the day walking around town, exploring, and shopping at the market. The market here in Chambery is quite the experience! They have all the fresh fruit, bread, patisseries, meat, poultry and seafood you could every want! It’s really funny and cool to see the townspeople getting excited and loud over bargaining of prices and in making purchases. I was particularly impressed by the flower selection that they had out (beautiful!!) and the seafood – they had everything, including some *interesting* squid and other raw things. My roommate and I took advantage of the selection of fresh vegetables and fruit...mmm! They also had live chickens and ducks, and oddly, two ostrich eggs. Everyone comes here to get their fresh goods so it was packed all morning.

On Sunday my roommate and I are visiting Lyon for the day (1 hour train ride from Chambery). I’m so excited to see the city and to (hopefully) eat some of the delicious food there! Lyon is often referred to as the “captiale gastronomique” of the world, and I have been advised by several people to try the same thing there. We are really looking forward to it and will be planning for the trip tonight!

A toute à l’heure :o)