November Update

The month of November hasn't been super exciting because I've mostly just been working. Time goes by very quickly when you are just living your daily life. I am still enjoying teaching English. I taught some of my classes about Halloween since it isn't really a big thing here in France.
While I was on break, one of my teachers asked if I would want to/be able to tutor her son in English and I agreed to, so every Saturday morning I take the bus to Angoulins (a suburb of La Rochelle) to my teacher's house and help her son with his English homework. We work on reading and translating texts, which can be difficult at times because I try to explain a word or concept in English terms that he might know, but if that doesn't work and I know the word in French then I will just tell him in French, or if I don't know the word in French then he will just look it up. After two hours of working, I stay for lunch and have a really good home cooked meal with the family. It is nice talking with the family and getting to experience the French daily life.

Saturday, November 7
The first Saturday that I went to help my teacher's son (Corentin is his name) I went to Châtelaillon Plage after. Thea met me on the bus from La Rochelle to Châtelaillon since it stops in Angoulins and we walked on the beach the rest of the afternoon. It was beautiful and warm out! I couldn't believe it was November and in the 60s!

 First we got a coffee at this cute café that had tables right out on the beach!

There were some really pretty houses right along the beach! I could only image what it would be like to live here; it's so beautiful!

The sand was a little cold on my bare feet, but it was so beautiful that I couldn't complain.

We stayed until the sun started to set, but we couldn't watch it completely set because we had to catch the bus back to La Rochelle.

Monday, November 16
Instead of going to school today, I had to go to an orientation day with the primary assistants in Saintes. I took the train with a few other assistants in the morning, and it was only about an hour long ride. We started with talking about how each of our schools are going and what we have done with the classes. Then Sylvie gave us some more ideas of what we can do with the students. We had about an hour long lunch break so I walked around Saintes a little bit with the other assistants, and most of the had bought lunch but I brought a lunch, so we ate in a park by the river. Here are a few pictures that I took:

Interestingly enough, Saintes had many of these red telephone booths! I don't know why, but I don't think they worked.

I thought this was a pretty bridge with all of the flowers :)

Saintes (and something else that I couldn't read) 

Friday, November 20

HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY to me!!! Sadly it wasn't the best birthday ever :( because I had to work since I missed school on Monday. It was a cold, very windy, and rainy day. I worked my normal hours until lunch time and then the schedule changes in the afternoons on Fridays. Instead of lunch ending at 1:45pm, it ended at 2:30pm so I had to wait until then to go to my CP class and work with them for half an hour. Then they had recess at 3:15pm so I waited from 3-3:30pm to go to my last class (but they never end recess on time so it was more like 3:40), and I didn't leave school until 4:15pm. Then I waited in the rain for the bus, and a woman I had seen at the school came to the bus stop and said hello. Apparently she is some sort of substitute teacher, and she speaks fluent English because she had lived in London for 20 or so years (she's about 60 years old). We sat on the bus together, and she told me all about her life and she asked me some things. It was a nice talking with her. I didn't get home until 5pm. When I got home, things started to look up! Gabby (my roommate) said she was making me dinner and a chocolate cake, and that our friends Thea and Melissa were coming over for dinner too! I talked to my grandparents through FaceTime for a while, and I had several nice messages on Facebook from friends and family back home wishing me a happy birthday. Thanks to everyone who sent me a message or a birthday card! I felt so loved on my birthday :)

Tuesday, November 24
Happy Birthday Grandma! Not much to talk about for today, but when I opened my shutters in the morning before leaving for school, this is what I saw:

A beautiful sunrise!!

Thursday, November 26
Happy Thanksgiving! Today after school my roommates and I hosted a small Thanksgiving dinner for a few of our friends. It was a really nice evening talking with friends and eating delicious food. Since turkey is hard to find in France (at least when it's not Christmas), we just had rotisserie chicken, which was delicious. We had many of the other typical dishes: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie.

Our dinner party :)

Friday, November 27

Today I went to le Jardin des Plantes, which is just a little park close to my house. I went during the lunch hour and it is across the street from a high school so of course the park was full of high school students eating lunch and smoking (typical French). I just sat on a bench and read. It was a little chilly out but it was sunny so that made up for it. After 2pm everyone was gone so I walked around the park and took some pictures:

Walking around Le Jardin des Plantes

An interesting fountain sculpture in le Jardin des Plantes

Despite it being the end of November, there are still some pretty flowers

I can't resist taking pictures of beautiful flowers :)

I really like this little path in le Jardin des Plantes, and I can't wait to see it in the spring when there are more flowers in bloom!

Me :)

Then I went into the le Muséum (which is weird because the French have the word Musée for museum so I don't know why it's called muséum) d'Histoire Naturelle. I went because it's right on the edge of the park and since I live so close I feel like I have to go or people would ask why I never went. Anyway, I couldn't take pictures, which was find with me because it was super creepy!! There was a LOT of taxidermy of all types of animals—all birds, fish, four legged mammals, etc. I felt like I was being watched. It was just as bad (if not worse than) as the wax museums I've been in. I was the only person in there at first which was weird and the floors would squeak and I would jump. I felt like the movie Night in the Museum and all of the animals were going to come alive and attack me! Crazy, I know but that's just how I felt. There were four floors and and two of them were full of taxidermy. The top two floors had a lot of cool and interesting artifacts from all over Africa, the Americas, and random islands. But I couldn't enjoy it after all of the animals. 

There were two groups of people there with me: one was a group of people filming things (I have no idea what for or why) and the other group was a group of an older person art class. 

I didn't particularly enjoy that museum, but I would probably go back if someone asked me to go with them. I just wouldn't want to do it by myself again.

Saturday, November 28
Today I had a second Thanksgiving dinner at some other assistants' house (Kayla, Camille, and Ruth, who are all primary assistants in La Rochelle). It was a fun evening of eating, saying what we are thankful for, and sharing our holiday with foreigners (2 English, 1 Scottish, 1 Irish, 1 Australian, 1 German, and 1 French). Just as any other Thanksgiving we were all stuffed by the end! But everyone enjoyed it whether it was their first time or they've been doing it all their lives (like me :). Here are a few pictures from that night:

Starting to eat

They had two tables

The whole group! Such a fun time :)

I know this post is pretty short, but that's how I feel November went: fast. I can't believe the month of November is already over! Time is going by way to quickly! But I know I still have many more adventures coming, and I can't wait to share them with you! 

The Porcelain of Limoges and Some Old Buildings

We made it to Limoges around 9pm on Wednesday, October 28, and we picked up sandwiches from a sketchy Kebab shop on our way to the hotel. They ended up being good, but I wasn't sure about it at first.

Thursday, October 29
Today Thea and I started off by going to the tourism office to find out all there is to do in Limoges (we didn't really do our research before coming haha). The woman at the tourism was really nice and gave us all sorts of information on things to do. She gave us information on a path to follow that goes around the Vienne River and points out interesting facts and historical information on Limoges. We started walking that, but deviated from the trail a little bit to see some other things...

First we walked by this shrine to the Madonna.

Cathédrale Saint-Etienne. Probably the ugliest front of a cathedral that I have seen in France. Thea and I couldn't figure out why it would be so plain and boring. 

On the contrary, the inside of Cathédrale Saint-Etienne is beautiful and has the typical gothic style.

This is what would be considered the front of the building which is because, so I didn't know why the outside is so ugly. 

Until we noticed that it is a tower built in front of the cathedral! Who does that? Crazy French :)

Walking around Limoges, you find a lot of these beautiful, old buildings

Walking around the garden of Cité des métiers et des arts.

Jardin de l'Evêché

The medallion of Limoges that we were supposed to follow along the trail, but it wasn't always easy to find.

Rue du Rajat was part of the trail going to the Vienne River. This is where kids used to play.

The Vienne River and Pont Neuf in the background

Porcelain shop at Le Musée Four à Porcelaine des Casseaux. We were able to see the old four (oven) where they would make porcelain! It was really cool, but we couldn't take any pictures of it.

Walking along the trail by the Vienne River. It was a beautiful day out! We have been so lucky to have such nice weather during this vacation.

The porcelain fountain infront of the Hôtel de Ville. It's beautiful, but I was expecting it to be a little bigger, especially with the emphasis the woman at the tourism office put on it.

Walking around les Halles (the marketplace). We had lunch at a restaurant across from it.

The pink building is the house that the artist Pierre Auguste Renoir was born in.

Walking around Limoges. They already had their Christmas lights up! 

Musée National de la Procelaine Adrien Dubouché (we got in for free, which made it even better!). 

We learned so much about the making of porcelain during this trip I think I could do it! But it's tedious work, so I would get tired of it. 

They had models of the ovens that would make the porcelain. This is kind of like the one Thea and I saw at the other museum.

First they would hand paint the porcelain, but then they found other techniques like using metal plates that would have the pattern on them.

One of my favorite pieces in the museum. They had many examples from all time periods and many different locations in France and around the world, but I like the simple purple flower :)

A pretty lamp made of porcelain.

After the museum we walked around and found this: Pavillion du Verduier, which is a beautiful building, but it is a little hard to see at night.

This is the ceiling of Pavillion du Verduier. Inside they had many different works of art by different artists that I think they were selling.

Thea and I got dinner at Bistro Jourdan, and then split this amazing café gourmand! It had chocolate cake, crème brulée, a couple different mousses. Best dessert I've had so far! We were so stuffed after that, so we just went back to the hotel and relaxed.

Friday, October 30

Today is our last day in Limoges and we kind of ran out of things to see. We just walked around and tried to find things to do, but we were also kind of tired of exploring. I was ready to go back to La Rochelle and be home, which I did later today. Here are a few things we found that we hadn't seen before:

We walked through the park, Champ du Juillet, which is right next to the trains station.

Thea and I thought it was hilarious that the train station is the number 1 thing to see in Limoges according to Trip Advisor. We were joking that people could just pass through Limoges on the train and just see the station and then leave. Really there are other nice things in Limoges, just not a lot.

Place Fontaine des Barres. This square dates back to the middle ages! The pyramid in the middle was built in 1615. Walking on history!

The carrousel in Limoges. Every town has one :)

Thea left before I did to go to Paris for Halloween and I left around 8pm to return to La Rochelle. Thankfully the trip back wasn't eventful. That's it for my fall break. 

Now I'm back to work and the kids tire me out, but they are always excited to see me, which makes me happy. :)

Every Day is an Adventure in Rocamadour

Thea and I left Bordeaux around 6:35pm on Monday, October 26. We first took a train from Bordeaux to Perigueux, which was fine but it did leave 5 minutes late and our next bus to Brive La Gaillard was exactly five minutes after our arrival, so we were a little worried about making it in time. In fact the bus waited, or was just running late, and we made it in time.
Then we had about 40 minutes in the Brive train station waiting for what we thought was another train to take us to Rocamadour but instead it was a bus. While we were waiting in the tiny station we tried calling a taxi to get us at the train station in Rocamadour when we were supposed to arrive, around 11pm. No taxis answered our call, so it seemed like we might have to walk the 3 miles from the train station to our hotel in Rocamadour.
We got on the bus around 10:30pm and the driver said we would be in Rocamadour between midnight and 1am, so even if we did have a taxi for 11pm, he probably wouldn't stick around to drive us at midnight or 1am if he didn't know it was a bus instead of a train. We made it to Rocamadour around midnight and a man and a woman both got off as well, but they weren't together because the man started walking down the street and the woman stood in the lot obviously waiting for someone to pick her up. Thea was asking if we should start walking, but I went up to the woman and asked if she knew of any taxis and she said there wouldn't be any at this hour, but she is getting a ride and she could ask him if he would take us to our hotel. Thank God he said yes and we didn't have to walk in the middle of nowhere in the pitch black. I offered to give him money for driving us, but he said no.
Before we came to Rocamadour, we emailed our hotel to let them know that we would be arriving after check-in hours, which ended around 10pm, so they gave us a code to get into a side door. The problem was that we were walking in the dark so it took us a while to find the door with the keypad on it. When we got in, a woman came out of her room, and she was the owner, and she led us to our room and told us when breakfast was.
Thea and I were so glad to finally make it to Rocamadour and to a bed! It was so stressful trying to get here and not know how exactly we were getting here. Of course God always works it out for the best. He is so good to me!

Tuesday, October 27
Today we had all day to walk around and explore this tiny town. Instead of talking all about it, I will just show you the beauty of this town in the Dordogne Valley in the Midi-Pyrénées region.

We woke up to this beautiful sunrise outside our window. First view of Rocamadour is pretty great!

Our hotel is at the top of the hill, so we walked down le Chemin de la Croix (the trail of the cross), which told the story of Jesus having to carry his cross to be crucified. This gave me a chance to share with Thea what I believe and find out a little more about her beliefs.

Château at the top of the hill, our hotel is just down the street from it.

Looking down at the main (and only) street of Rocamadour and the valley below.

At the bottom of the Chemin de la Croix was les sanctuaires, which is where there are a several chapels. This is Porte Sainte Martial, which led to les sanctuaires.

Les Sanctuaires and a gift shop :)

In the chapelle Notre Dame is the black Madonna, which is very famous in this area.

Inside La Basilique Saint-Sauveur. You can see that it was built into the stone of the mountain from the back wall.

This is where the remains of Saint Amadour were found and where his grave stays. This town was named after him and started because of his body being found and then "miracles" happened so of course they attributed it to him (really it was God).

It is amazing how the buildings were built into the rock. Such a beautiful area to draw closer to God.

Beautiful views of the mountains and a pretty bridge.

Porte Cabilière. Warning: there are a lot of portes (ancient door ways) in this town and I took pictures of them all!

The Grand Staircase where pilgrims would walk on their knees up to the sanctuaries as a way of paying penance. We walked down the stairs because we were coming from the top :)

Walking down the street of Rocamadour. Such a beautiful, old town!

Another porte (door)

Porte de Figuier and a really cool view of the château!

We just kept walking up the hill and would turn back and find even more beautiful views of the château and town.

I couldn't get over how beautiful it was! Coming during the fall was the perfect time with all of the trees changing, but it was still beautiful out!

Just chilling in Rocamadour

Looking up at the château from the main street

Still climbing :) We really got our work out for the day with all of the walking.

We are making our way around to the other side of the town to see all of Rocamadour

Almost made it to the view point at Hospitalet 

Who knew that there are prehistoric caves in Rocamadour! We found out and went to see the cave drawings! The cave was much smaller than I had expected, but it was still really cool and interesting to see. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures inside, so I can't show you. Sorry :(

After our tour of the cave, we walk around some more and sat by L'Hospitalet (chapel of the small hospital)

While we were sitting this cat came right up to us and kept wanting us to pet it, but I resisted.

Porte de l'Hôpital

Walking around Rocamadour, enjoying God's creation

I couldn't help taking more pictures as we got farther away from the town. Are you sick of the views yet?

We sat waiting for the sun to set over Rocamadour, but it clouded over right when the sun was setting

It was pretty watching the town light up as it got darker.

Rocamadour at night. We went out for dinner and there was lightning the whole time we were out, but it didn't rain until after we got back to our hotel.

Wednesday, October 28
Today we took a taxi to les Gouffres de Padirac, which was about a 20-minute drive from our hotel. It is a subterranean river.

There was fog all in the valley this morning. It was crazy to see!

Les Gouffres de Padirac. It was like being in Jurassic Park or something just without the dinosaurs 

We got to cross the river in a boat!

There is a natural dam in the river underground.

We had about a 30-minute walking tour that led us around the caves and we ended up climbing 300 stairs. It was very beautiful down there.

The taxi driver took us back to our hotel after the tour of the caves, so we walked over to the château since it's really close. You had to put 2 euros into a machine to make the revolving door move. I put in 2 euros and at first it just spit the money back out, but then it accepted it but didn't move, so Thea put in her 2 euros and we squeezed in the door together. It was a little adventure since we can't go a day without having some sort of adventure. :)

We couldn't go inside the château itself but we were able to walk around the top and see the beautiful views of the surrounding area.

Enjoying the views! I will miss the beauty of Rocamadour!

We walked around some more and found this beautiful cross at the top of the trail of the cross (le chemin de la croix).

Another view of the château

Espace Saint Hubert et son chien

Walking in the beauty of God's creation

After lunch we went to the Forest of Monkeys.

We got to feed the monkeys popcorn

A monkey climbing a tree

A baby monkey: so cute!

After walking around and seeing a bunch of monkeys, we went back to our hotel and waited for the same taxi to pick us up and take us to the train station. Since it was so dark when we first got to Rocamadour, I didn't realize how small the train station is. Typically train stations have screens that indicate what platform the train will come to and if it is running on time or if it's going to be a bus and not a train. This station had nothing but a few signs and one with a phone number you could call to get more information about your train.
Our train from Rocamadour was supposed to leave at 6:15pm and take us to Brive La Gaillard where we would switch trains at 7:05pm and go to Limoges. 6:15 came and passed and no train had come. Thea and I knew it might be a bus so while we were standing on the platform, we were looking out to the street to see if a bus came by but nothing came. Luckily for us a french couple was also there waiting for the train to Brive, so they called SNCF (the train company) and asked what happened to our train. Apparently it was cancelled, so they made some more calls, trying to find out if a bus or something was coming to get us. They were nice and told us everything that they found out. SNCF said that a bus had already passed by, but we said it couldn't have passed without us seeing it because we were here early and looking out for one. They said another bus might come around 7pm. Thea looked up to see if there was a later train to Limoges because it was looking like we would miss the first one. There was a second and last train to Limoges at 8:09pm, so we were hoping to make it on that one. We talked about getting a taxi to take us to Brive so that we could make our train, but we didn't get one.
We did call the taxi who had driven us here asking if he could drive us to Brive, and he said he would call us back; we think he was looking for someone else to do it. Thankfully a bus came at 7:10pm so we called the taxi back and told him the bus came. The bus driver said it would take about 40 or 50 minutes to get to Brive, so we were praying to God that we would make it in time.
It was very stressful and we were very anxious as we waited to arrive and it got closer to eight o'clock. Thea had looked up online the platform the train would be at so once we got there, we were the first ones off the bus and ran to the platform. By the will of God, we made it, and even though our tickets were technically for the earlier train, the conductor scanned them and didn't say anything about needing new or different tickets.
While we were on the bus stressing about making it in time, we agreed that if we didn't make it that we would pay a taxi to drive us from Brive to Limoges since it would have been around 45 minutes. We were sure we would have to pay extra at some point to get us out of Rocamadour and into Limoges, but we didn't!
God was so good in working out the timing just right so that we could get where we needed to go without having any real problems.
Even though I loved Rocamadour, I wouldn't go back there unless I had my own car to drive because it is much to hard to do anything and get anywhere without one.