The picture from above is a picture that I took near the Minimes beach, which was only about a half mile from the university where we took our classes. A few days a week after class, we'd walk down to the beach and relax there for the afternoon... It was a pretty nice way to spend the day.
A few days a week (and sometimes a few nights, too) we'd hit up Ernest's, which is quite possibly the best ice cream shop I've been to in my entire life. They had a lot of local flavors like Caramel Fleur du Sel (which comes from the sea salt which is harvested in the area) and Café Cognac. My personal favorite was Café Nougatine... It pretty much became a staple in my diet in La Rochelle (especially when lunch was around 1 and dinner was at 8 or 8:30... I mean, it was pretty much necessary, right? )
We also did an excursion to the Ile de Ré, which is an island just off the coast of La Rochelle... the Ile de Ré is known for its Pineau (which is like wine but a little stronger and fruitier) and its sea salt. There are about five or six towns on the island, and the best known is Saint-Martin-de-Ré, which we visited as a group. Here you can see Aayla and I chillin on the Vauban fortifications, which surround the city and protected it from invasion. When we got the the Saint-Martin, the weather was lousy and overcast, but the sun came out and it turned out to be a beautiful day to see the sights in this charming city. The city's winding streets are lined with the "rose tremière" which is the tall, bright flower that grows up the sides of doors and windows in Charente-Maritime and is often seen on postcards and calendars. Here are a few pictures of Saint-Martin, a place where I could totally spend the rest of my life...
Back in La Rochelle, we went to the marché (market) one day for class, and we were forced to interview a few of the vendors about their products. My partner and I had to interview the florists, and here's a good shot of how beautiful the flowers were that were for sale... The family who put them together said that what was on the table was "literally their whole front yard"... could you imagine that house? Must be gorgeous... Most of the flowers came from the area, although a few were selling flowers from Holland.
During the last week of classes, the program took out all the students to dinner in La Rochelle near the old port at a restaurant that was pretty much closed except for us. We had an exceptional French dinner, and it was great catching up at dinner with friends from the group. Afterwards, we took a few funny photos... Joe was doing "the fish" i think...
We also walked around the old port and probably went to Ernest's. At one point, when we got out of seeing "Inception" downtown we realized that we were walking towards Ernest's out of reflex. We were kind of like magnets, accelerating our pace the closer we got... I think it was Victor who said, "We're heading to Ernest's aren't we?" and while none of us had really meant intentionally to go there, we all agreed it was pretty much a must. Here's a photo I took of the sun setting over the old port... I think it really captures a bit of the ambiance of La Rochelle during the summer...
Our final excursion was taking a boat trip to Fort Boyard, a fort that is situated between the Ile d'Aix and Ile d'Oléron. It was supposed to be used for shooting cannons at approaching enemy ships between the islands, but by the time it was finally finished (80 years after Napoleon had the building commence) it was no longer needed, since cannon technology had progressed to the point where they could shoot far enough from the shores to hit any thing coming towards land. So then they decided to use it as a jail, and now it is where the French equivalent of Fear Factor is filmed. Victor and I watched it with Sylvie a few times and it was awesome. Just the right amount of cheesy puns, token challenges and pointless tigers to keep me entertained... While the Fort was cool to see, I think a few of us were a little tired and passed out while on the high seas...
Here are a few pictures of my two favorite places to run while I was in La Rochelle. The first picture is of the Canal Saint-Martin, stretches from La Rochelle inward about 30 miles. I ran it often because the trail was quiet, well shaded, and had nice views. The canal starts at sea level and stays at sea level, even though the land around it rises about 100 feet the further you get out, so basically the trail overlooks the canal from a pretty high elevation the further out you go. There had to have been a TON of digging to make this canal happen, and it makes sense that, like Fort Boyard, Napoleon would have deemed this canal necessary, even though it also took 80 years to build and was pretty much useless by the time it was ready for use in 1886. Even so, it's a nice place to run and do tempo workouts :) The next picture is of the trails by Chef-de-Baie, a place to the West of La Rochelle that overlooks the ocean from a few bluffs. It was usually pretty windy, but gorgeous and the trails were soft.
This the École Supérieure de Commerce, where we took our classes... it's pretty modern and bright inside. I got pretty well acquainted with the café machines, which sold delicious espresso drinks for 35 or 40 (euro) cents.
The last night we were at Sylvie's house, Sylvie made us an amazing sea food dinner. Typically, I don't really like seafood, but most of what we had that night was delicious.
Sylvie is an amazing artist, so I took a couple photos of her pieces.. all of the artwork in her house was done by her.
I will miss Sylvie's dog, Vodka... who somehow can open doors with her paws in order to climb in our beds...
Here's Victor and I with Sylvie on the last night, getting some ice cream down by the Old Port at Ernest's (of course...). She was an incredible host... I hope to come back and visit again some day!
This is Victor, myself, Josh and Joe with our professor, Frédérique. She was the best professor we could have asked for-- she taught us up-to-date French and would correct every error. I definitely spoke better after her class in French than I ever have in my life.
The last thing we did was stop at Chartres to visit the cathedral. i think a lot of us were tired and ready to be done at this point, but this cathedral honestly blew my mind. It was probably bigger than Notre Dame and it's stained glass was stunning. unfortunately for us the Rose Window was undergoing cleaning/repair, but the rest of the windows were awesome. it's such an awe-inspiring thing to be in a place that literally took centuries and thousands of people to build.
Hopefully this blog has given you a little taste of what I did while in France... it was a summer to remember in a lot of ways. I loved staying with Sylvie and the rest of the Galliot clan and improving my French over conversations at the dinner table. I also go to learn so much about the country, its culture and its gastronomy that I couldn't have learned without actually being there. The trip has REALLY made me want to go back-- in fact, i'll be starting an application so I can go back and spend another year there very soon. La Rochelle was such a fun place to be for the summer-- I'd definitely recommend it!
Brings back great memories. But I never found that canal you took a picture of and ran on. Where did you find that?! I guess that means I'll have to go back and run it for myself. It's settled -- I'm going back to La Rochelle, Tim. Thanks for being an enabler. :-)
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