Goodbye (part two)

This is the last night that I'll be in my apartment in Périgueux! It is no less strange than it was yesterday...

Tomorrow I'm getting up early because I have a long list of things to do before I meet with my landlord in the evening. It's all very do-able, but I want to get up and get a move on tomorrow so I don't feel rushed.

This will be my last post in Périgueux, so I want to talk about my last week of teaching and some of the other celebratory things we did this week. It was a good last week here!

Little ducklings on the path by the river today. (Random, I guess - but they're cute!)

The last week of teaching was fairly uneventful. I didn't even have all of my classes because there were exams going on. Most of my classes were normal, though a few of them had little parties to say goodbye. The kids brought food and drinks and then we played games (I stayed in the classrooms with the teachers rather than taking a group to teach on my own). One group of seventh-graders wrote all over the board at the end of the class:

For some reason they started drawing animals. My favorite part of this board was "Si you soon" (a phonetic misspelling) that someone unfortunately corrected to "See you soon" before I could take a picture. Also "good nyt," another phonetic misspelling - and a mix-up between "goodbye" and "good night."

This class could be a handful but they were generally nice kids. A little girl brought me a note that said "For Mégane" in which she thanked me for English class and wished me a "bon retour!" to the US. It was very cute.

I wasn't sad to say goodbye to teaching, though I was very sad to say goodbye to my tutoring students, Anna and Matéo, the kids that I tutor on Tuesday. They were the first students I started tutoring this year. I stayed for dinner, as usual, on our last evening and played badminton with them. We went to a play after dinner - put on by the students at the high school - which was actually pretty entertaining. Afterward we had to say goodbye and Anna wouldn't let me go and was starting to cry - I didn't want to say goodbye either! Matéo assured me that it was okay because we're going to Skype. I had written them notes to say goodbye so when I saw their mom at school on Thursday, she gave me some notes and pictures they had drawn for me:

Anna drew a picture of us playing outside her house and Matéo spent a long time drawing the Eiffel Tower for me so I could remember France.

I'm definitely going to send them both postcards while I'm traveling - and I'll have to buy some when I'm at home as well!

That's how my week with students went, though I also tried to do a lot with my friends this week as well. We took advantage of the nice weather and had drinks outside a couple times, and Friday night we went to an English pub where we sometimes go to play their trivia game. (I can't remember if I mentioned this yesterday - if I did, oops.) Our team tied in the main round of trivia and then won in the tie-breaker round - thanks to me since I knew four of the five answers...but also cause I can write really fast. We got five free beers out of it!

Hooray! The tie-breaker round.

The winning team. We were "Noche Flamenca" because afterward Azahara and Eve danced flamenco as a show for the bar!

Flo's birthday is Tuesday (the day I leave) and he's turning 30, so there will be a party for him. Since I won't be here, we also got together last night at Eve and Flo's and celebrated. We got him a book of recipes involving cheese and a party game where you have to solve mysteries. We ended up playing games and eating pizza until almost two in the morning, and had a nice night. As I've said before, I'm really going to miss the friends I've made here!

Tomorrow evening we're going to go out for dinner since it's my last night! Very sad!

My goal is to also write a blog post about general thoughts on living in France - and the things I'll miss. I have about nine hours on the train on the way to Nice on Tuesday, so I'm going to try to write that then. Otherwise, salut depuis Périgueux pour la dernière fois! Ciao!

Goodbye (part one) to Périgueux

I'm down to my last two days in Périgueux...

It's very weird. It's starting to sink in, mostly because my bags are mostly packed and I've started cleaning my apartment, but it seems strange to think that I'll be leaving early Tuesday morning. It's also stressful to think that. I don't like packing, and this is a particularly stressful packing situation because I need to get everything into my backpack and a carry-on size suitcase (which my purse needs to fit into). I filled two boxes to send home, so I think I'll be fine, but I won't feel relaxed until I'm on the train on Tuesday.

The point of this blog post, however, is to take a break from packing and cleaning and to post some pictures and thoughts I have about Périgueux. I took a bunch of pictures this week in town and on the path along the river so I could have a pretty last post about Périgueux.

Of course I have to start with the marché. I will definitely miss the market - both the fresh food and the atmosphere. As much as I detest grocery shopping, I enjoy going to the market!

So much color! 

Monbazillac and Bordeaux wine for sale in the market.

The main square of the market in front of the cathedral. There are also stalls in two of the other squares in the old part of town.

Because it's spring, there are tons of fresh flowers in the market now, too. All of which are very pretty and very cheap.

The market is Wednesdays and Saturdays, so I usually went at least one time a week. I guess I'll be able to go to farmer's markets at home, but it won't be as easy. Here all I had to do was walk out the door and turn the corner and I was right there in the midst of it. Apart from the language, markets are probably my favorite thing about France.

I also took advantage of the sunny day to take some pictures in the pedestrian roads of town. I took a bunch of photos like this when I first got here, but I figured it would be nice to take some more before I left.

A shot of the garden within the remains of the old Roman amphitheater.

Some of the little streets.

And old antique book store - there are actually quite a few of these in Périgueux. I got a cool book about the origin of different French words in one of the stores.

This street definitely shows how old Périgueux is.

I'm definitely feeling more favorable toward Périgueux than I did for a lot of this winter. Everyone keeps telling us how the assistants are unfortunately here for the worst time: October to April. I guess between the end of April and September it's much prettier and much livelier. That's unsurprising because already we've had some really nice days and there have been a lot more people in the streets. And of course the fact that I'm leaving makes me think more favorably toward the city. It's definitely a pretty little city, and I would like to come back and visit someday. But I'd like to visit for a weekend...not for much more.

One of the other things I liked about Périgueux was the path along the river. I went running there with Eve a lot and sometimes Katie and I would go for walks. We went for a really long one on Wednesday so I could take photos of the path and the river.

View from one of the main bridges into Périgueux.

All the baby ducklings are out in full force!

There are yellow flowers all over the place - it's really gorgeous! And this is to prove just how deep into the country Périgueux is - horses right next to the running path.

The view of the cathedral as you walk back toward Périgueux!

Unfortunately the weather hasn't been nice since I took all these pictures, so these might be some of my last shots of Périgueux looking pretty. It's been kind of gray and rainy for the last couple days and it doesn't look like it will be too nice tomorrow or Monday. But, hey, that's been part of the experience here as well!

And, to finish, a few shots of the monstrous cathedral that dominates the town:

Definitely a cool cathedral - very different than many that you see in France.

So that is my ode to Périgueux, if you will. Tomorrow (when I need a break from cleaning) I want to write a little bit about my last week of teaching and a few other things I've done this week - the rest of the goodbyes.  And then I guess my next post will be from Nice as I start my big and final trip. Pretty exciting!

In all, thanks, Périgueux. We may not be best friends, but if given the opportunity in the future, I'll at least stop in to see how you're doing.

Sword fights, as promised

I don't have a whole lot to report today, mostly because I haven't done much. I slept in, went for a run/walk, wrote my itinerary for my upcoming trip, and watched some TV. We did head over to the Medieval fair though, as I said we would. It was in one of the squares in - what else? - the Medieval part of town. There were booths and crafts and some foods; not much, but a small little Sunday event.

A whole lot of Périgueux was there because, hey, there's nothing else to do on a Sunday.

The highlight, of course, was the sword fights. There were dozens of kids who had a ball watching the men fight and put on a show. They were as fun to watch as the sword fighters were. It was also cool because the actors were surrounded by Medieval buildings - pretty cool. I will miss being able to see ancient historical buildings every day! It's pretty cool to live in such an old town - even if there's not a lot to do.

The old Medieval building (one of many since this is the Medieval part of town) that they sword fighters were fighting in front of. Pretty authentic in that respect.

"Fighting." The kids loved it. One started flicking his hands/wrists like Spiderman and yelling for the guys to use that move.

This funny puppy was bored. 

More fighting. The one guy looked like a pirate and had a headband on. So maybe less authentic in respect to the costumes, but still funny to watch.

We wandered around the fair for a bit and then went and had ice cream at a cafe we go to sometimes. The weather was okay today - I went for a run/walk and it was nice and sunny, but it's not nearly as lovely and warm as it was last week. I think it's supposed to get nice this week before I leave. I hope so, because the second part of my trip is going to be COLD (Berlin - iffy, Stockholm - cold, Iceland - cold). It's going to feel nice to step off the airplane in DC...for lots of reasons!

I'm looking forward to seeing my friends and wandering around and eating in cafes this week. I'm definitely going to enjoy my last nine days in Périgueux!

Ever lived less than a kilometer from a 16th-century castle?

Seriously. Imagine walking for ten minutes and being confronted with this view:

Château de Monbazillac, built in 1550.

This weekend one of the teachers I work with, Vero, invited me to spend the night at her family's house and join them for a barbecue. Vero lives about 40 minutes from Périgueux outside the town of Bergerac (which I have visited before, thanks to her). Her family lives up on a hill looking down on Bergerac and a bunch of vineyards and her address is technically Monbazillac, an area known for its wine - not unlike much of this region! But, basically, if you live up on a hill looking down on vineyards and old French towns and you live about a kilometer from an 500-year-old castle...you're doing something right.

View from the terrace at Vero's house.

Some flowers around the terrace (the photo on the left was taken in the evening and the one on the right in the morning - that explains the totally different lighting).

More views... 

Vineyards!

Obviously it's a really beautiful location! It was a bit surreal actually! I went over with Vero on Friday evening and had dinner with her husband and three of her five daughters (the other two are in college in Paris). We had a nice time chatting and eating foie gras and tasting local wine and also an alcohol made from walnuts. We spoke mostly in French though Vero is half-Scottish, half-French and is bilingual, as are all of her children. Today, Saturday, company came over to celebrate Vero's husband's birthday, and they had a barbecue. Again, another example of how nice everyone has been to me here!

One of Vero's daughters, Pansy, who is 11, took me on a walk over to the castle in the afternoon. Apparently she loves walking over to the castle and always volunteers to take guests over to see it. She was a funny character, and we had a good time chatting as we walked over to the castle. She gave me lots of words to practice my French accent - she also found it hilarious when I butchered a few of the tougher ones. My French-speaking friends, there's a 90% chance you are saying the word brûler wrong, I assure you. Also, say this: turlututu chapeau pointu. IT'S NOT EASY. (You're probably saying tourloutoutou chapeau pointou.) Clearly she was giving me words with "u" in it because the French pronunciation of "u" does not exist anywhere in the English language, so it's a tough one to grasp. I've been getting people to help me with it lately cause I want to improve my accent!

Anyway, this is the walk to the château and the château itself that Pansy took me to see:

A pretty stone house we walked past as we walked over. We walked through vineyards and down some little country roads. Wow.

Vineyards next to the château. The wine that grows in Monbazillac is a sweet white wine. I tasted it once when my family was here - but I really hate sweet wine, so I didn't like it. But it's good if you like sweet wine!

Ta-da! Pretty cool castle, right? It's just a very typical French countryside castle. It's very, very cool that they live a short walk from here, right?

The old well by the castle. Pansy threw rocks into it to show me how deep it was - it was pretty deep!

Grassy area next to the castle and the view beyond (a very gorgeous view of the countryside and the town of Bergerac).

Looking back at the castle from that gazebo in the above picture. 

And looking back at the castle and some of its vineyards - SO cool!

It was a nice little weekend - which isn't over quite yet! I just hung out in my apartment this evening though there is apparently a Medieval festival of some sort in Périgueux tomorrow. I have no idea what that is going to entail, though the flyers indicate food, games, and sword fights. We're going to go check it out because, hey, why not? Hopefully I'll have some funny pictures to report back with tomorrow.

I'm down to my last week of teaching and about nine days in Périgueux, which is very strange. It absolutely has not sunk in yet. I'm neither excited nor sad at the moment because I just haven't processed it yet (and then I'll be both of those things). But this week I need to figure out some of my itinerary details and start packing so I'm ready to clean next weekend. Crazy! Hopefully it won't be a difficult process!

Hopefully more tomorrow. Meaning, hopefully tomorrow I'll have pictures of corny knights.