Arrival

After the long journey I am finally in my new home! The sights and sounds of  Paris again were wonderful! We stayed one night in the Quatier Latin, just a block away from the Notre Dame. I was with two other teachers who have won an LIA award too, but are going to different areas of France. We spent ages in the market just down the road with our senses being assaulted by the vast array of aromas from great buckets of every imaginable type of olive,baskets of dried fruits, spices and herbs, the usual enormous display of cheeses, and of course the warm smells of fresh bread.

We stayed the night in a backpackers which was built long before lifts were invented obviously and we were on the sixth floor!  A very kind young man also staying there, took pity on me and carried my bag for me up those dreaded stairs. They were almost identical to the staircase in the lighthouse at Phare Amedee!
the next day I took the metro to the Gare Nord - the big train station to head north of Paris.
The two hour train ride from Paris to Maubeurge, the nearest city to La Longueville, reinforced that I'm living in a rural area of France. We travelled past field upon field of crops and sometimes cattle. They were all a black and white breed called Holstein. No sign of sheep anywhere!
Maubeurge was one of the many cities overtaken by the Germans during the war and the whole inner city area had to be re-built. It is a city with a population of about 300,000. I was eagerly greeted at the airport by two ladies from AFS and driven to my hosts 15minutes away in the village of La Longueville.

 

A typical house in the town with window boxes of flowers to brighten the austere exteriors.

 

All the buildings are built of the same red brick and are very very old.

 

 

My home which  was built in the early 1800s and has a small farm behind it. It has been in my host's family since then.

 

Looking towards the town square.

 

Danielle is a retired secondary school teacher and Bernard is a farmer. They are both lovely and have made me feel very welcome. Tonight after dinner, Danielle is taking me for a 'girls' night out' to meet her friends and for me to give them an English lesson. She said I need to like le vin rouge if I was to come! Sounds as though the English lesson is secondary!