Normandie

Sunday began with a visit to the American War Cemetery in Normandy. This place was eerily quiet, especially when the soldiers were raising the flag. The rows of graves seem to go on forever, and with bagpipes playing and soldiers saluting all around me I had the worst bought of goosebumps I've ever gotten. The Cemetery overlooks the ocean and is surrounded by gardens, pools, statues and plaques, all commemorating those who served or died at war. It's a very powerful and emotional place. The memorial museum, which I saw on the way out, is a smaller museum featuring photos of young soldiers and videos telling their story. 

9, 238 American soldiers buried here

Some soldiers raising the flag (this was accompanied by bagpipes)
 

"The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves"

"Here rest in honored glory, a comrade in arms, known but to God"

Next we went to Omaha and Utah beaches, "Les PLages de Debarquement". It's hard to imagine any sort of war on these beaches now, but the pictures we saw showed what seemed like an entirely different place. The beach was covered in soldiers, tanks, canons, equipment and bunkers. Now everything is serene and seemingly untouched, but for the few bunkers that remain intact, a single rock memorial, and the bomb holes that cover the ground. 

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memorial

one of the many bomb indents

german bunker

They were pretty far away from home...

After this we went to see the Bayeux Tapestry. This Tapestry, made as early as 1077, stretches 230 ft long. We had an audio tour of it, which told us the story of the tapestry. I won't bore you with it, but basically it tells of the Norman conquest of England. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it looks something like this:

Caen

This saturday we took a bus to Caen to see the war museum and Pointe du Hoc. The museum was great, on the outside it looks like a big hunk of concrete that says "La douleur m'a brisee, la fraternite m'a relevee, de ma blessure a jailli un fleuve de liberte" (The pain broke me, the fraternity lifted me up, from my injury a river of liberty flows.) Inside it's broken up by war, starting with WWI, then WWII, then a brief September 11th memorial, then Vietnam and the Cold War together. Each section had videos, lots of artifacts and propaganda and plaques explaining everything. I posted a few of the pictures I took, the ones that I thought were the most interesting. 

A Flag from the site of 9/11

A wedding dress from the WWII era made from a parachute

WWII artwork....haunting

After the museum we went to Pointe du Hoc, a beach used for receiving good shipped in from the US or England. You can still see the remains of the man-made harbor that ran in an arc along the coast. 

Cointreaupolitan!

Today we visited the Cointreau Distillery, and for any of you who know your liquors, Cointreau is  an orange french liquer, and is the real deal. The distillery in Angers is the only place in the world that makes the liquer, 50 million bottles a year! And guess what their #1 consumer country is? Yep, the U.S. We had a tour of the whole process, from the orange peels to the fermentation tanks to the bottling process and all the history and advertising that come with it. Then we got to sample a Cointreaupolitan in the swanky bar in the facility. (Ok I know what you're thinking, it seems like we do an awful lot of drinking during class, but I promise, it's all for the sake of our education!). A Cointreaupolitan is Cointreau's version of the cosmopolitan, but without the vodka. Very good, but very strong, especially when had with an empty stomach that isn't used to sipping on hard liquor to begin with. Mais ca c'etait tres cool!

Then we came back for a little student barbeque put on by the student organization at ESA. Had un hotdog (that's french for "hotdog"). It was good, but very different, more like a sausage and we had it on a baguette! I also met a couple of french ESA students who will be studying abroad in Madison this fall, which was exciting! That's it for my first school week. We head to Normandy tomorrow morning until Monday, and then start our focus group classes on Tuesday. 

Salut et Je vous aime!

Sarah

Mon Anniversaire

Birthday Dinner!

In France it is customary to treat the birthday boy or girl as royalty on their birthday. They aren't allowed to lift a finger and can command everyone to do whatever they ask. Soooo Marie and Romu were nice enough to make me a big birthday dinner party, complete with singing me  happy birthday (in english!) and a candle to blow out. Their friends Rachel and Jeremie came over and we all had dinner together and drank wine and played texas hold'em poker! 

Also that day we visited the Chateaux D'Angers. Very old and very cool. 

En Angers!

Arrived in Angers on Sunday evening after a long 2 days of travel. From Chicago to Toronto to London-Heathrow to London-King's Cross to Paris-Chunnel to Paris-Train and finally to Angers!! But even after 24 hours of traveling and only 3 hours of sleep, the excitement and beauty of Angers managed to keep me awake for another 4 hours! My host family, Marie and Romu, are a young couple living in a flat across the river Maine, which runs through the middle of Angers. They speak some english, so we converse in that a lot, but also sometimes they speak (slowly!) to me in french and I speak (slowly!) to them in english. We agreed that we could teach each other. The school I attend is L'Ecole Superieur D'Agriculture D'Angers, or ESA. There are about 40 some other students from different colleges across the US (Minnesota, North Dakota, Texas, Maryland, Illinois, Wyoming, etc.) and everyone is SO nice. We started of the summer Monday with an orientation and a "welcoming glass" which was some champaign (not sparking wine!) and crackers, cheese, chocolates, etc. Then on tuesday we had a class on wine history and tasting (yes mom, we had drinks at school!). We are split into 2 groups by area of focus. I chose the Viticulture, Horticulture, Tourism and Gastronomy route, as opposed to the Agriculture/Agribusiness choice. Basically they go to a lot of farms and I get to go to a lot of vineyards, bakeries, and a chocolate factory(!!). We all have a french class 3 or 4 times a week, and take lots of field trips. This week we're all going to a distillery, and this weekend we'll be taking a bus to Normandy for a 3 day trip. 

More about the city: Angers is a very old town built around Le Chateau D'Angers, a castle constructed in the 1200's. The city was basically built around the castle, which I'll put up pictures of tomorrow, and has functional buildings that were built as early as the 1500's (that building is now a bar, go figure!). The city is GORGEOUS. Most everything is stone and kind of falling apart, but in a good way. There are cobblestone streets, fountains, and parks, but the best and most beautiful part is the landscape. Everything grows so well! You can see by the pictures what I'm talking about. 

Thats all for now, more updates soon! 

Avec tout mon amour,

Sarah