Talloires and Annecy!

Hello again! I won't spend too much time talking about this week, as I got sick with a pretty nasty cold and spend a lot of the time in bed (18 hours on Wednesday, as a matter of fact). However, this week I did attend my first classes in the French university system. I tried one on contemporary Arab history and one on the contemporary history of sub-Saharan Africa, and have decided to go with the latter. (Part of the reason being that I don't have to wake up at 5:45 on a Wednesday morning to get there). The structure of the class is very different from what I'm used to, though. It meets for 3 hours straight once a week, and for about half that time you just sit there and copy what the professor says. Most French professors don't entertain questions or general interaction with students, but my professor seems one of the more engaged ones. In addition, modern technology hasn't really entered the French classroom yet. From what I can tell, all my class has is one of those projector things that uses those transparent papers. Not the one that hooks up to a computer. In addition, there are no reading assignments, you pretty much decide what to read on your own based on the syllabus. I'm not the only foreign student in the class though, which is nice, and I think this subject will be great to learn from the French perspective as they have had such a long and complicated history in Africa. I also had my first art history class this week, which is through the Tufts program and held at the Tufts offices. I'm really looking forward to this one because each week we meet at a different museum. First stop is the Louvre to look at medieval art! 

Let's see, this week we also went on a tour of the Bercy quarter, which is on the edge of Paris and where the shipments of wine from all around France used to come in on barges on the Seine and be stored in huge warehouses. This area is also home to the French equivalents of the Federal Reserve Bank and the Library of Congress. On Thursday I got to meet up with Claire and Marine, who were French exchange students living with me at the Maison Francaise at Tufts last year and are now my very good friends. We went to a creperie and chatted for about 3 hours. It was great to see them again and I can't wait for them to show me more of the "real" Paris. That night the Tufts group also went to the Theatre des Bouffes Parisiens to see a play, Le Quatuor. The theatre is a great little gem hidden in some back alleys, and was once the frequent hangout of the famous French film director Jean Cocteau. He's most famous for directing La Belle et la Bete (Beauty and the Beasty) (1946). It's hard to describe the play, but I guess you could say it was a musical comedy played by four guys with violins, who preceded to mock other cultures while playing different genres of music ranging from classical to traditional French, to American southwest to the Spice Girls. I didn't understand all of it, but I laughed so hard I cried. 

Now, what you've all been waiting for. This weekend we traveled to two towns in the southeastern department of Haute-Savoie, Talloires and Annecy, which are right next to the borders of Switzerland and Italy. The Savoie only became part of France about 150 years ago, and has still maintained it's distinct cultural identity to a large extent. It takes about four hours by TGV train to get there, and it's really a whole other wold compared to Paris.

On Saturday we went on a six hour hike into the mountains, which I'll call the Alps but are technically the pre-Alps. This was lead by Bernard, a resident of the Savoie region (or Savoyard), and his sheepdog Gypsy. Our first stop was something called the Devil's Bridge. Legend has it that a long time ago, a guy and girl fell in love with each other, and came every day to a spot near here to meet. Somehow, the Devil also fell in love with the girl, and asked her to marry him. She refused, and the Devil got so angry that he punched a huge hole in the ground between the girl and guy's houses (this abyss you see in the picture) so that they could no longer reach each other. Undeterred, the couple built this bridge stone by stone so that they could be reunited. 

Here's just a great view of the mountains in the morning.

And here you can see a bit of the village below. This weekend was the Festival of St. Maurice in the village, as he is the patron saint of this town. Apparently, every town in France has a patron saint due to the Catholic heritage here. Paris's patron saint is St. Genevieve.

This is a cross situated at a fork in the path leading up to the mountains. It was put there in the 19th century, probably by the Jesuits on one of their faith missions. However, it became useful as a landmark for those traveling in the area. 

There are several houses/barns like this scattered throughout the valley and higher up in the mountains. They all follow this basic structure. The tree to the left is an ash tree, one of the most common trees up there along with pine and maple. A lot of the houses are situated next to an ash tree, as local legend has it that they bring good luck.

This is me posing near where we stopped to have lunch. We also learned that this area played a very important part in the French Resistance during World War II. Apparently, a small band of about 300-400 French people fended off some Germans that were coming over the mountains through Switzerland to invade France.

There are a lot of these flowers in the Savoie. When the government was building the railways through the region, women would pick huge bundles of these flowers and give them to the conductors, who on returning to Paris would give them to flower merchants who would then sell them to fashionable ladies going to the Opera to pin onto their dresses. 

This rock formation is called the Three Towers. Each has a name. The big one is Saint-Jacques, the middle one is Saint-Philippe, and the small one is Tour Fine. Apparently they are situated on a mountain that has a fair bit of gold in it, and was used by the Templars upon their return from the Crusades as they transported the treasure around France for the King. They say that the Templars hid the treasure they had collected in a cave in the mountain, and that if you go into the cave at midnight on Christmas, the rock wall will open and you'll be able to take all the gold you want. However, upon exiting you'll start to hear all these whispery voices and strange sounds, and if you turn around to look all the gold you gathered will disappear.

This is the cute little hotel we stayed at. There were a lot of British people there too. Apparently it's a popular thing for posh Brits to go to the Alps on the weekend. Some of them even had campers. 

This was the view from our hotel balcony. Behind the houses is Lake Annecy.

This is just an example of the architecture of the region, and what I thought was a really cute house.

This is the graveyard of the village of Talloires.

A lot of people come to the region to go hangliding. If I had had the time I would've. I'll have to come back another weekend.

This is just a pretty view of the village in the evening.

A view of the mountains from the street our hotel was on at sunset.

The fondue we had for dinner, made with the regional cheese Reblochon. With this type of fondue you only dip the bread in it, but we also had a little plate of some ham and salami, and a salad. 

This is the blueberry tart we had for dessert. 

This is me by the lake on Sunday morning. A couple minutes after this photo was taken a swan came up and tried to bite my toes.

 A view of the mountains across the lake from the dock.

This is the castle on Lake Annecy, which is now a private residence. 

This is a view of the town of Annecy from the ferry. In the background is a different castle, which was used by the Duke of Savoie and is now a museum. 

This is me with some funky cow in Annecy.

We went to Annecy on Sunday, so the farmer's market was in full swing. Here are some of the fresh cheeses that were on display.

And here are the sausages. 

A view of the canal dividing the city of Annecy and the mountains in the background.

This is the former prison of Annecy, built on a tiny island in the canal. It's pretty grim in there, and I think during WWII it was used to house arrested resistors/Jews. 

More of the town of Annecy.

A view of the rooftops of Annecy from the road leading to the castle, which is on a hill.

Part of the castle as seen from the inner courtyard. The town of Annecy bought the castle from the French government for an equivalent of about 1.50 euros. Seriously.

Well, as it is raining in Paris today I think I will go see a movie, perhaps "Camille Redouble". I'll post again next weekend! Or maybe sooner is something super exciting happens. A bientôt!