I took the long way home from school tonight, that is, bus to the chateau and then walking the rest of the way home. If I could just time it perfectly for catching the bus, and if I didn't wear heels on the cobble streets it might not be longer, but either way it's a nice option if I don't bike. Especially on an evening like this with a pretty sky and warm temperatures.
It's gonna be an early morning so bon nuit!
I have the day off, so here is a little taste of la douceur angevine I was experiencing today.. Oh wait, what's douceur angevine you say? This "Angevine gentleness" or sweetness is a cliché, for starters, but I think there's plenty of truth in it. Part of it concerns the weather. Even in the winter the weather is mild [entry titled Part 1 so that come January or February I can verify.] I noticed it a little myself the other night. It looked so blustery outside after I went to my first French yoga class(!) and I was bracing for the worst. When I stepped out, it just wasn't so bad, and my friend said, "That's la douceur angevine! It can look awful out, but it's never as bad as it looks." It's also a little bit of the territorial identity for people from the region. One Frenchman, Eric Groud, describes it like this, "a historic richness, an agreeable climate, a grand attraction in the university, an economic fiber, industrial, the very diversified agriculture, a region at once both traditional and turned towards the future..." And if you haven't gotten enough of an idea, a French film director, Jean-Pierre Mocky says, "La douceur angevine? If it's the wine that gives it, then with pleasure! There is in Anjou a convivial side, the people are laid-back. It is a welcoming region where there isn't excess. One senses a sort of harmony, of serenity, of calm. The Loire that snakes, and the troglodytes, that is the surrealist side. In other places, the contours are more delicate. More than the gentleness, I will speak of calm. Here everything brings quiet. The gastronomie, too, is sweet."
Too much typing for one day! That was a nice little exercise in translation to renew my appreciation for translators... so keep in mind my translations above lack a certain something from the originals.
Bees. Daisies. And the Maine.
An archway leading to my favorite square, favorite for it's sun-drenched buildings and openness, and being right next to the old Tour St. Aubin.
Below, Rue St Aubin, a street since Roman times.
I stopped at Cafe St Martin to write postcards. The sweet rosé isn't too sweet, but light and fruity. Perfect day off!
Then back chez moi in the evening, fall is slowly arriving outside the kitchen window.
After a week or two of cloudy, cooler weather yesterday's warm sunshine came as a surprise. So I called up my friend and Angers expert David to say we had to go on a ride somewhere. He suggested, because I haven't gone yet, a bike ride to the Loire river. So we met at his place, where I snapped a pic of the jardin that is perfect for nice days like this.
And then we were off, leaving Angers and headed for Pont Cé. We went through a nice little village or two and some long stretches of road.
And then we made it to the Loire, after just about a 20 minutes ride.
Next we needed to find a sanwich, which was surprisingly difficult. All we crossed were chacharcuteries and pâtisseries. I guess everyone makes there own sandwiches at home around there... But we biked on, over the Loiret river and found a boulangerie at last. There the lady told us there's a place to eat down by the river so we followed her directions and found the quirkiest guinguette where the bar opened an hour later. So we waited around, and another friend drove over to join us, and we had a beautiful, relaxing afternoon where everything looked a little bizarre at first. For the record, the French love guingettes, which are open-air cafes/restaurants by the river.
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| The tents are supposed to harken a nomadic lifestyle at L'embarquement |
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| kind of like a community garden, according to the sign, an idea originated in New York apparently |
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| David ordering local beers. Everything is local and vegetarian, they just use solar power... There's not even running water in the toilets! (cedar chips instead) Hippieees |
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| a tree table with a bike for a centerpiece |
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| I just found an app for making Titles that I didn't know I had. I hear N'importe quoi all the time (whatever) and it seems fitting here. |
Biking back home!
Ok that might be a slight exaggeration (maybe?), but the last trip I was amazed how big the Saturday morning market is, and now I'm even more surprised because I ran into the meat wing, and then the seafood wing. I had figured I had seen everything there was, but boy was I wrong. Once I saw the seafood and fish I finally had to take out my camera.
Not feeling so adventurous, I came home with this-
With sheer blind luck, I picked out this honey that is so, so good. And now I'm afraid that with everything I eat I'll be asking myself, could I put some honey on this?
A few days a year France opens all its doors to the public for free. Museums, historical sights, governmental buildings, the president's house, all are open and free for the journée de patrimoine. So in Angers last Sunday I checked out some of the sights and was fascinated to learn about the Roman history still evident in the Préfecture building.
In what is now the basement, you can see walls and sarcophagus from different points in history. The red line in the wall is evidence of a fire. In the picture below you can see in the corpse of a young individual who was clearly someone important given the person's final resting place. It was so odd to think of all the government officials working up above everyday.
This is right above that ancient basement. The prefecture is a massive building that was continuously added onto throughout history.
Since it's not every day your average Joe can see important meeting spaces and offices of their government officials, people really seemed to be into it.
Here is a ballroom from another wing of the Préfecture from a more ostentatious era.
Next we went to the gallery of David d'Angers, a famous sculptor from Angers who lived from 1788-1856. It is a beautiful space in an old abbey in the center of town that houses his work both in original and duplicate.
From there we went to the abbey of the Ronceray and the Church of the Trinity both seen below.
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| These are dorms today as the abbey has turned into a college. |
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| A picture from the basement of the Church the Trinity. |
Our last stop was the l'hotel des Penitentes, which includes many fine examples of constructions from 1490-1580. It was a lot of history for one Sunday but a nice and educational day, too.
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