Everything Chambery-like!

Sunday and Monday – Aix-les-Bains et l’Abbaye d’Hautecombe

On Sunday I had the pleasure of welcoming my first guest, Miss Megan Wichser! She had been staying in Nice for the summer doing a pre-med program (which sounded amazing) and is now traveling for a while, so she stopped in Chambery for four nights. I am so glad that she got to come visit, see my town and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Savoie!

On Monday we (the group and me + Megan) finally made it to Aix-les-Bains and the Abbaye d’Hautecombe! I had been wanting to go here for a while since it was so close and was really excited to finally be able to visit. First we took a nice bus ride to Aix-les-Bains, a town just on the water of the lake (lac du Bourget). The town was really gorgeous and had lots of boats docked nearby and lots of docks to walk out on. This was really nice, especially given the splendid weather! After walking around the waterfront for a bit we took a boat over to the Abbaye, which was situated just on the edge of the lake. The Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery and later became a Benedictine monastery in Saint-Pierre-de-Curtille. For centuries it was the burial place of the members of the House of Savoy. [historical help from outside sources!] We got to see the inside of the church and had an audio tour – very cool. There is definitely a lot of rich history and cool facts about the area. It didn’t hurt that the views are absolutely gorgeous!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Abbaye_royale_de_Hautecombe_II_-_200501.JPG You can read more about the history here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hautecombe_Abbey

When we got back from Aix-les-Bains I went out to dinner with Megan and a few other girls from the program. Megan hadn’t had fondue in Europe yet, so of course that is what we did! We went to a “restaurant Savoyard” for the real thing, and my was it delicious! There were several different cheeses in the fondue as well as some white wine...mmm! Fondue is a very winter food here, but we enjoyed immensely it nonetheless. That is definitely one of the many things that I will miss!

Tuesday - French humor (l’humeur française)

On Tuesday afternoon we learned about “French humor” for our afternoon workshop. Everyone in the class was pretty tired and wanting to leave because it was a really nice day out....that combined with the sense of humor that we were dealing with (dry) was a little much. Our teacher was telling us some “classic jokes,” and a few of them were pretty funny. I was surprised that there were blonde jokes, but apparently the French have a lot of jokes about the Belgians (them being “idiots” haha) and the Swiss (them being really slow at everything). There were some interesting riddles that were more clever than funny, but it was cool to learn about them.
Needless to say, it wasn’t the most enthusiastic class ever, but fun to learn about!

Wednesday – lake Aiguebelette, concert

After class Megan and I got a bus to lake Aiguebelette, the same lake where I went canoeing last week. Once again the weather was perfect and we enjoyed a sunny afternoon on the clear lakeside! We brought a picnic lunch and hung out there for most of the afternoon, reveling in the beauty of everything. I got to swim a little bit which was really fun. Megan and I were talking about how spoiled the people here are to have such beautiful lakes near them!

After getting back and having a bite of dinner we headed over the castle in Chambery to see a concert that was going on. They have been having free concerts all summer a couple nights of week in Chambery – how nice!! It’s amazing that it is all provided for free. Needless to say, there were lots of people at the castle. We had no idea who was singing or performing but we got there just as a singer was coming on stage. It turns out her name is Berry...She is French but that is about all I know about her. She had a really pretty voice though, and her musicians (keyboard, drums, guitar, bass) were all really good. I really loved her music and want to get her cd! One thing that was cute and funny was that she sang a song about Las Vegas (this sounds so cute in French) and “the American dream.” She also sang another song in English which was entertaining to hear.

When we came back we had a little early birthday cake : ) Megan surprised me earlier in the day with flowers and cake from a nearby bakery as an early birthday surprise!! I was really ....surprised, and excited! The cake was delicious and I should be able to have a little bit every day up until my birthday! Thank you Megan : )

Other than that I have been resting up, organizing for travels, scrapbooking a bit and browsing the stores of Chambery. I’m looking for a good book on the history of Savoie to bring home with me. In the process I have found lots of grammar and literature books that I want to get, too! I could probably bring an entire suitcase of books back.

Anyway...this weekend I will be hanging out in Chambery again, visiting the market and enjoying the town! I really want to rent a bike one day and ride around town, but there has been a little confusion about deposits that we have to put down on the rentals, etc., so I’m not sure if it will work out. If not, at least some hiking or long walks! Renee and I want to check out a few cheap restaurants in town, too. There are a couple of random pizza truck stands in town that look (and I hear, actually are) very delicious. Kebabs are also really popular here – there are lots of kebab restaurants in town – so we want to try those. Our French teacher rolled her eyes at these when we talked about them in class because they are not very French, but they look awfully good!