Freedom Fries

Hallloooo! Bonjooooour! I am in France! The journey here was very exciting and involved taking a train from Vienna to Budpest (on which I got in trouble for accidentally sitting in first class, whoops), a plane from Budapest to Paris (on which I thought I was ordering an apple turnover and instead ended up with a lukewarm pastry filled with some bizarre ground meat salad, whoops), and finally a train from Paris to Bordeaux (on which I was seated next to a woman who decided it was a great idea to bring the meanest, smelliest, rhinestone-collar-wearing bulldog with her on the three hour trip, whoops). But at last I am here and I am terribly happy about it.

Mike lives in the most darling French flat with the most darling international roommates in the most darling neighborhood in all of the darling city of Bordeaux. (Side note: I am also easily charmed. Obviously.) One of my favorite parts of the apartment is the fireplace. Please be impressed by the sheer multitude of wine bottles it has collected:


Very French, no? Anyway, we have been having a wonderful time being very French for the past couple of days, so I've decided to compile a quick list of all these very French things I have done.

1. Visited important Bordeaux landmarks, like the cathedral and the bell tower and a museum or two. We climbed all 231 tiny, spiraling stone steps to the top of the bell tower and (after taking a moment to finish wheezing/stop being dizzy), enjoyed a wonderful view of Bordeaux:


2. Went to a lovely riverside market where merchants were selling baskets of fresh fruits and crates of stacked vegetables, sausages hanging on strings, crepes bubbling on skillets, shrimp and crawfish simmering away in giant cast-iron pans, big wicker baskets of bread, fresh cheeses piled on top of each other, whole fish laying open-eyed on ice, little plates of pastries... just in case we weren't charmed enough, they decided to go ahead and throw in a little man playing an accordion while gorgeous trench-coat-wearing French parents with their beautifully brown-eyed and overbundled children ambled by. I was disappointed not to see Madeleine and her twelve little boarding-school friends traipsing along in two straight lines.

3. Witnessed a student protest! Mike's classes have been conveniently canceled during my trip because the university students and teachers are striking against a new government policy about allowing teachers to conduct research alongside teaching their courses. On our way home from the store, we literally just stumbled across a huge group of tangly-haired, pea-coat wearing, freedom-loving French students waving their textbooks and cardboard signs in the air as they marched by chanting and hollering. It was quite revolutionary.


4. Went to the sweetest little antique shop in the whole wide world. I could have stayed there all afternoon-- it was tiny and narrow and just dripping with big, plastic baubles, pearls, gemstones, rosaries, and shelves stuffed with pocketknives and pipes and shoehorns, stacks and stacks of old dusty books, piles of yellowed postcards and prints and photos, baskets of little cloches and kid gloves and silk scarves, racks upon racks of fur coats and stoles... it was just wonderful.

5. Saw a woman walking a dog that was carrying the woman's umbrella in its mouth. I don't know if this is necessarily French, but it was so sweet and quaint I just had to tell you about it.

6. Went (speaking of sweet and quaint) to this little bakery in Hilary's neighborhood where there is an old grouchy mustached baker who makes these beautiful loaves of bread that are shaped like seahorses. No one else was impressed, and they insisted that we just buy baguettes instead, but I think they were the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my whole life. I didn't want to take a picture, though, because Monsieur Mustachio was so grumpy.

7. Had a wine and cheese party. I made Mike take this picture of me walking down the street after we went to the store because HELLO how French can you get? Baguettes? Check. Wine? Check. Cute little old building in the background? Check. Cobblestone street? I know you can't see it, but check. I don't know how much more French you can get without wearing a beret and speaking French (both of which I have so far failed to do. But there's still time!)


8. Greeted people by kissing them on both cheeks. YES! I mean OUI!

Anyway, hopefully I can go out and buy a striped shirt and a little red neck scarf before I leave tomorrow, but even if I fail I would say this has been quite the successful sojourn to Bordeaux and I will be sad to leave. Luckily my next arrival is Barcelona, so hopefully I will get to update you with some Spanish adventures soon. Bissoux!