Birthday

Well, 60 years young today and hard to believe that I'm celebrating it in France - a dream I've had for a long time. I've had a quiet day packing and organising for tomorrow's departure. Danielle left for a meeting in Lyons at 5am, so Bernard came home from work to take me for lunch at the local pub! There was a small crowd of men in there for lunchtime beers and a couple of Minnie Caldwell lookalikes in the corner but apart from that, no other females. After the men Bernard knew had said their polite 'bonjours' to me, there was some laughter and I didn't hear the comments but he told us at the table tonight that by late this afternoon there were quite a few in the village making inquiries as to who the blond was that Bernard had out to lunch!
He took me into the school at 4.30pm as they wanted to say goodbye to me. The Principal had ordered a huge cake with candles on it which was very nice of him - a pineapple gateau which was delicious! They all want stay in touch and my students are going to be writing so many letters to France when I return!

                          

Later when we returned home,we had a lovely dinner after some celebratory champagne and it will be sad to say goodbye tomorrow to Bernard and Danielle who have been so good to me and we've had lots of laughs. Danielle and I will go into Bavay to the market in the morning because she says I have to try some variety of tripe that wasn't available at the market last week. The weather forecast for the North tomorrow is thunder, lightening and rain, so I don't think I'll be throwing back much of that tripe at lunchtime just a few hours before I fly to Edinburgh!

Opening the champagne

 

A birthday to remember

 

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city in the Province of West Flanders in the Flemish region of Belgium. The historic city centre is a prominent World Heritage site of UNESCO and is definitely an item for the bucket list. I thought Lille was beautiful, but Bruges is almost indescribable! It is a medieval town preserved and used as it was in the Middle Ages. It is called 'the Venice of the North' because it has canals throughout the city. The first fortifications were built in Julius Caesar's time in the first century BC, to protect the coastal area against pirates. Bruges received its city charter in 1128 and new walls and canals were then built.

 

Actually I am proud of the fact that I did find my way by myself across Belgium without mishap or ending up in either Genoa or Russia! Danielle drove me to Mons - a 15minute drive into Belgium, then I caught the train to Brussels, then later caught another train to Bruges. It was worth the effort and long day tenfold!

After walking from the train station and first arriving into the old city, I rounded a corner and an English girl was hustling a crowd of us who were walking, out of the road onto the next street saying filming started in a minute! There were men in chainmail riding up and down the street and old wooden carts on the side of the road serving as stalls. It was great and obviously a perfect setting for a medieval film.

 

 

Various dried sauages were hanging around the edge of the wooden stall on the right.

 

At the centre of the town is the beautiful old Church of Our Lady, whose brick spire reaches 122.3m making it one of the world's highest brick towers/buildings. The sculpture Madonna and Child, which can be seen in the transept, is believed to be Michelangelo's only sculpture to have left Italy within his lifetime. The interior is breathtaking with all the detail shown in sculptures and paintings and photos can't do it justice really.

 

 



 

 

Obviously this old city is a tourist attraction so there were crowds of people taking photos everywhere and for once I didn't feel out of place flashing mine around. It was also strange hearing so much English spoken around me.

The canals are very pretty and because it was a fine clear day, everything looked beautiful. The shops in this area sold touristy things but there was lots of Belgian lace of course, with Belgium being well-known for this, and also lots of tapestry - cushions, wallhangings etc. The genuine lace is exquisite and very fine and all hand-made. A table cloth for my dining table would have been anything from $800 - $1200. Nobody would ever be able to drink red wine when sitting at it if one graced my table! I bought some small pieces to remember my day in Bruges.

In one of the big squares there were a large number of horses and carts that you could hire to be driven around the city. Bicycles were also on hire and there were many of them riding on the bumpy cobbled streets as well. Of course on the canals were tour boats taking people around the city for a view from a different angle.

Canal  Boats

 



 

I filled in six hours easily wandering around looking at everything until my train left at 6pm.  I lost count of the chocolate shops but I kept clear of all of them!

A very nice Asian man asked if I'd like him to take my photo -

 sort of prove I was here!

 

 

 

I managed my first leg home (an hour)on the train OK but had an hour's wait in Brussels. By then it was freezing cold so waiting was a nuisance. I finally boarded and just before we left a lady who looked as if she was from the french Congo (does it still exist?) came in and sat opposite me. She didn't say hello or anything and was drinking from a can of beer.  She'd obviously had the odd one or two before as well! I so badly wanted to get up and look for a spare seat somewhere else but was too scared she'd make a scene thinking I objected to her!  After we took off she kept yawning and blowing her fetid breath all over me. Then she rested her head in her hands on the little table attached to the window and fell asleep, snoring like a trooper. I was willing her to stay that way but she woke up after half an hour hiccuping like mad! I kept thinking I've had such a lovely day - probably much better than her so I should be able to put up with it. I didn't dare go to sleep on any of my rides in case I missed my stop.  I was very pleased to see Danielle at the station at Mons waving to welcome me home. By then it was 9pm.  We sat down to dinner soon after we got home and then straight to bed again - 11pm! A long day but a fantastic one. Bruges has to be on the itinerary of anyone travelling up this way.

 

 

 

Vauban

I spent this morning in a College that was built 2 years ago. It is situated in a low socio-economic area and is something special to see I was told.  The Principal had heard I was in Maubeuge and asked the Notre Dame Principal if I could come and speak to their Yr 7 & 8 European section (the classes who do more hours of English per week).  Kids can't begin in a European section until they are older in other schools, so this is innovative at Vauban.

Vauban outdoor area

It was so strange to see wide open, clean and new spaces in a school! It is fantastic and the teachers all love it. Walls have big colourful murals on them inside and they have far more computers available for use and the room I used had a whiteboard as well as a  fancy data projector and lights etc so it could be used for a production. The school has 560 students.

Wall outside Principal's office

I've never seen the likes of this in a french classroom before!

The Principal was a stunning woman of about 40yrs. She was a younger, darker version of Madame Mezaour from New Caledonia! Danielle had filled me in on her background. One of the office staff left her husband and two little kids to live with her two months after the school opened!  Apparently this would never have been tolerated in a private school. The staff were so nice and I definitely recognised a few 'types' of kids throughout the morning. They have a range of problems because of the area they are in. The downtrodden-looking woman waiting at reception when we arrived was sporting a black eye and that is not uncommon apparently.

I was taken back to Notre Dame after having lunch with the staff and spent the next couple of hours with Year 7s. The french may be able to teach us a few things about history and war sites, but man could I teach them a thing or two about control of students! It's so frustrating watching them trying to get kids to be quiet and stop talking in class! It's the same in every school. These students were the worst by far and so much time was wasted while the teacher stopped and growled. I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from ripping into them because that would have been very rude and not my place at all to interfere with discipline.

I had a couple of hours to spare before my ride home to La Longueville was available so I walked into town and then around the ramparts. Maubeuge was a fortified town like Le Quesnoy, two of 50 towns in France that were fortified because of their strategic position. These two towns are near the border and Louis XV wanted to guard France from attack at these particular sites.

Maubeuge town is pretty ugly really and has none of the charm of old buildings I've seen elsewhere. The town centre was completely destroyed by the Germans in WW2 and after the war, they rebuilt it as quickly as possible with the cheapest, easiest materials apparently. The country had so much re-building to do, there was little choice. There only remains one old building and there is a war  memorial next to it.

I finally arrived home at 6pm and half an hour later was taken to an AFS meeting. It was incredibly boring but they wanted to say goodbye to me and have an aperitif after the meeting. I also received a small gift to help remember the North of France by - an address book with some of Matisse's paintings in. They are all very kind people who do so much in carrying out the AFS motto - connecting people, sharing cultures.

I eventually got home at 9.30pm for dinner and I was absolutely shot, hence the blog wasn't written last night! The Regniers had people for dinner so I couldn't just bolt straight to bed when I'd eaten. I had made a pavlova for dessert and they thought it was fabulous! So my pav recipe has been spread over a fair part of Northern France now! Danielle tells everyone about it.So...... I got to bed at 11pm. One thing I won't miss is the late nights!

                                                         Notre Dame de Grace College



Chemin des Dames

Well, another extraordinary day pour moi!  We left the school at 8.30am with rain forecast for later in the day, but cloudy and cold when we left. I just love the landscape which is interspersed with villages at regular intervals so there is always something interesting to look at. Farmers were harvesting maize but I also saw them harvesting their swedes as well. I've been told they are white beetroot, but I guess we'd call them swedes. They looked like that to me. My mother-in-law will be disappointed I've not had them dished up for my dinner! She loves them.  Some paddocks are newly ploughed, some have a crop starting in them and then there's the swedes waiting to be harvested along with the maize - such a range of colours and I'm hoping it's a fine day when I fly out so that I can see the patchwork quilt of colours from the air.

This is the other bus ahead of us. I am completely in awe of how these drivers handle them through the narrow, narrow village streets - especially on the corners!

It took two hours to get to our destination. The Chemin des Dames is a road (meaning path of the women) named after two of Louis XV's daughters who used the path regularly in the 18th century. It was barely a track but because they used it so often from Paris to visit a friend living in a chateau near Vauclair, the owner, a count, had the road resurfaced for them and it gained it's name. It is famous though for a far more important reason.
Chemin des Dames formed part of the Western Front during WW1, and it's strategic importance made it the staging ground of several notable battles.  The astounding thing is, that part of it is situated above a huge limestone quarry.
There are numerous war memorials and cemeteries, German, French and British, all along the chemin.
Beneath the Chemin des Dames ridge is an almost one-square-kilometre cave network called "The Dragon's Lair" (La Caverne du Dragon). The subterranean caverns originally were a tunnel system created from excavations of limestone for building purposes in the 17th century. Huge blocks were removed for the construction of cathedrals at the time. The caves are some 20–40 metres below the surface. During World War 1, the caves were used by both French and German forces as field hospitals and command posts, sometimes simultaneously.
Unfortunately cameras were not allowed, so I have no pictures to show,but this time I did find myself well below (truly below this time!) the earth's surface experiencing something I will never forget. These huge caverns were only dimly lit, and on the 'ceiling' still visible are black drawings and writing written in candle smoke by the men working in the quarry in the 1600s! As well, are messages and little maps drawn by the Germans during WW1 (they held control for the longest time), so that soldiers didn't lose their way. All sorts of memorabilia have been unearthed and there is a very realistic creation of a trench showing how the soldiers fought from them. There were helmets, guns, bullets, incendiary devices and shovels and picks used. The Germans excavated even more to make a  bigger command post. Of course it was a perfect position so far below the surface with supplies etc reasonably safe. To keep the new excavations secret, the excavated limestone was packed back onto floors so that in some parts the ceiling is only 6ft 6" high.  Throughout our tour, fed through a speaker system, were explosions and huge bangs, replicating what the soldiers heard for days on end. Alongside our path was a continual display of all that they had found in there after the war. There was also an incredible display in glass pedestals of artefacts found down there that soldiers had handcrafted as they sat waiting and waiting.... The intricate detail in the figurines and airplanes was amazing.

 

The museum above the limestone quarry - very industrial looking.

 

150 kids to unload off two massive buses

 

After we left the museum, a guide came in the bus with us and we went a few kms down the road and took a walk into the forest a bit to what was actually part of the trenches! To see it all laid out before you was amazing. Because it was freezing cold and wet made it even easier to imagine what hell the soldiers went through. It was all once farmland but it would have been too costly to return it all to arable land after the war, so the government bought it and planted it out in trees after superficially clearing it of incendiaries etc.  They told us it would take hundreds of years to thoroughly clear out the limestone quarry of all that, so you are warned not to go off the designated path!  There is also the remains of the old town of the nearest village further up the road. It was completely destroyed in WW1 and we could just see a big lump of stone as all that was left of the cathedral and various other bits of rock protruding through the leaves and dirt. It was amazing to be standing exactly where all that horror took place and to try and imagine what it was like.

 

 

      The trenches            

By 3.45pm we were on our way home again. I was frozen to the bone and couldn't even warm up in the bus. When I walked into the house, it smelt wonderful as Danielle prepared for the visitors coming for tea tomorrow night. She plonked a red wine and a religieuse in front of me saying it would warm me up! What more could a girl want?

                                                    

                             A religieuse - choux pastry filled with chocolate custard cream - quite nice!

 

Entree later on was cucumber gazpacho in a little bowl to drink out of with pink peppercorns on top, along with an individual cheese fondue to dunk, guess what?  Yes, bits of fresh, soft baguette into!

Pork steak, cauliflower and potatoes for main, then eclairs and religieuse for dessert! I think I've mentioned that Derek won't recognise me as I roll off the plane on Friday!



                                                                    Entree tonight

 



 



Chemin des Dames

La Longueville Fete

Well today I witnessed the world's biggest garage sale, or so it seemed! I was woken at 6.30am with talking and banging on the street below my window. I looked out and saw stall holders already setting up stalls by the light of the street lamps. It was very misty but wasn't raining so that would have been a relief for many. It doesn't get light in the mornings until nearly 7.30am.

The early birds in the mist at 8am.



I had asked a couple of weeks ago what the lines and numbers painted on all the kerbs meant and was told they were for stall holders on market days. Every five meters is a line with a number between two of them. It's first in, first served, so many try to beat the crowds and get a good position, especially the 'professional' stall holders who sell new items (from goodness knows where, but I'm not complaining about my $12 shoes!), and they just travel around from market to market selling their wares.There were a few hundred stalls so there was some competition.
By 10am the sun was shining brilliantly and there were hundreds of people and animals thronging the road and browsing the stalls. One had to vie for space as you walked along!

                One of the many mini dogs out for the day (as always!) and dressed for the occasion.

 

There were little ponies everywhere as well, walking with their owners, or taking kids for rides.

 All main roads were closed for the day. The village square had a carousel for the little ones and there were dodgems and a small indoor rollercoaster for older kids. Music was blaring out, and with the smell of abundant candyfloss, and deepfried Ch'ti specialities, crepes and belgian waffles, there was certainly a festive atmosphere.

All manner of food was for sale.

 

 And all manner of things.

 

Even plumbing bits....

 

and tools and weapons!



 

 



Horses of course play a big part round here and there was a showjumping event on just down from the square on one of Bernard's paddocks. That was a novelty for me to watch as I've never had anything to do with horses. There was also a dray ( cart?) being pulled by big clydesdales around the town as well.

 

I can imagine that these market days are important to many people who don't have much to spare. You could certainly clothe your family in decent attire and buy a huge range of toys etc for children. Furniture was also available and I suppose stalls vary from town to town.  The majority of people looked like ordinary village folk and I saw some women overweight!  French women always seem to be slim and it's a mystery how this can be with all the bread and cheeses consumed. Obviously some people around here don't monitor their intake of Ch'ti foods, especially the deep fried ones and les frites! (chips).  I must say that I didn't see many of Danielle's elegant friends striding up the road trying to sniff out a bargain, but I think that was probably because the majority of today's market was second hand goods and not much in the way of produce.

It was great to have a day with no rain, although the cold had settled in by 5.30pm. I have my bus trip with the kids tomorrow so hope it stays fine!

 I took my photos before the crowds arrived. Am definitely the only tourist around here and very conscious of it!

 

 





Polish Birthday Party

I woke this morning to the all too familiar sound of rain! It was a lazy morning catching up on emails and skyping Derek, Ben and Yvette who were sweltering in 30+ degrees in Hong Kong!
At midday we left for the 70th birthday celebration of a good friend of the Regniers. Their daughter and son-in-law from Dunkirk came as well and they have a beautiful two month old daughter.
The family friend is Polish and although he lives in Louvroil, just out of Maubeuge, he loves his homeland with a passion and obviously keeps traditions alive and well.
It was such a wonderful celebration with his close friends and family and I was so lucky to be part of it. We arrived at about 12.15pm and aperatifs were being served. I was offered a glass of what looked like orange juice and took a sip. It was the most foul drink that I can only liken to a glass of meths with a dash of orange! It was so strong and I just surreptitiously put it on the table and poured myself a water! After some time the serving tables were laden with charcuterie meats. A charcuterie is a specialist butcher shop which sells cured meats, pates and a whole range of delicious smoked and dried delicacies.

My plate!

 

The selection included various pates, little 'boats' containing half a boiled egg, a prawn, a slice of fish terrine, and a little vegetable salad . There were cornichons (little gherkins),  and little dishes containing minced something  or other, and two huge cold salmon. It is the strangest thing eating food that you have no idea of what it is! I ate the boiled egg first because I was confident about that, but then after swallowing it, pictured the variety of birds that are on display in shops here. At the market yesterday, Danielle wanted to buy pigeon and quail for me to try, but one look at those pathetic teeny little quail bodies was enough for me. There is no way I could eat one of the lovely little creatures I love seeing in my garden - those or pigeons! The boiled egg I ate was quite small upon reflection so goodness knows what sort of bird laid it! We were at a table with other people and I didn't want to appear rude, asking what everything was so I was 'eating blind' today. I have yet to find out what lies in my stomache tonight! I thought that this was the meal, but a couple of hours later, out came the main course! It was a selection of four different types of ham, a huge mould of what I think was brawn, a plate of rare beef (or maybe horse!), and a range of saucisson. There was a big potato dish and a pasta dish to go with it. By this time it was about 5pm. There had been polish music playing in the background all afternoon but it cranked up a notch after this course. They were all so happy and started singing traditional songs loudly together and then dancing. It was great to watch. I was dragged up on the floor for what looked like a version of the conga except everyone waved their serviette in the air as they danced around the room!

Me waving the flag for Poland!

 

Danielle with baby Elise and Bernard

 

There was a Powerpoint shown of the birthday boy's 70years and then his three daughters spoke, moving many to tears. It certainly was a special family occasion for them all.

By 7.30pm, there was still the salad course, the cheese, and then dessert to come! Talk about a marathon! Elise was tired and hadn't slept much throughout the afternoon as the hearty cheers and singing kept waking her up. Noamie and Christophe decided to come back to La Longueville to put her to bed so I returned with them. Goodness knows when the meal will finish and Danielle and Bernard return!

 

 

Playing Nana 

 Tomorrow is a big fete day in La Longueville. Apparently all the square and main road will be lined with market stalls. Emma, Danielle's grand-daughter is riding in the gymkana on one of Bernard's paddocks so we are all hoping for a fine day.