Les Aventures de Madame Beaubien: Down Time

After 2 weeks of language school and an additional week of immersion into France, I hit the wall. This photos was taken by a mischievous nun on a Friday night after the evening meal.

Les Aventures de Madame Beaubien: Les Crêpes

We made crêpes in school today as we learned how to talk about the ingredients, utensils, and pronoun referents.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my own camera for photos, so I'm relying on Google images.

I tried my hand at using a ladle to scoop up some batter and then spread it out on the crêperie. Not bad.

The photo at the right has room for four crêpes but ours had room for six crêpes. We had enough crêpes for all 18 of the students and a few professors who were buzzing about to have some, too.
 
Crêpe-making is a specialized art form. The chef can flip the crêpe in the pan. We did it in an easier way: with two flat, wooden tools because we were amateurs. 

We used Nutella and apricot jam for the inside of the crêpe. Delicious!!

This was a great project and I'd like to get a crêpe-making pan and learn how to make crêpe with many different things like cheese, vegetables, eggs, ham, etc. Then, of course, I'll have to learn how to make various sauces.

Being in France makes me want to do everything French, including learning how to cook French food in the French way.  

J'adore la France!!

Les Aventures de Madame Beaubien: L’École Inflexyon

Front door of the Inflexyon, the language school of not only French but several other languages

Patty and I are taking classes at L’École Inflexyon, which is near the Hôtel de Ville (a central part of the city) on Leynaud Street and near La Croix Rousse. Every day, Monday through Friday, we climb some solid and ancient steps to our second floor classroom.

our classroom with just a few of the students during a break between classes

There are 18-20 students in my class. Most of them come from Asia—Japan, Korea, Taiwan—and most of them speak English. We also have students from Colombia, Italy and then there’s Patty and me who are the only ones from the USA. This surely is an indicator of what the next generation sees as important:  all things global!

We have grammar and speaking classes in two sessions from 10-11:30 and 11:45-12:30 with an hour off for lunch. In the afternoon we have oral practice from 1:30-3. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there is an option for tutoring from 9:15-10. In this session we can ask for help on anything having to do with grammar or pronunciation. The nice thing about it is that we get another opportunity to learn the details of grammar, including some points that we may have misunderstood or forgotten from the past.

Here's the faculty office. Natalie is on the left with Hèléne and David in the back and Alizée in front and behind her not in clear view, the professor from Mozambique.

Our teachers rotate the classes so we get new ones every day. It is interesting to see that we have teachers from France, of course, but also Mozambique, Poland, Brazil. All instruction is conducted in French, so we are forced to listen and learn. The teachers have us explain words in French or they do it. Of course, there is a lot of flipping through dictionaries/cell phones for exact meanings.

some wicked stairs to climb -- keep to the right to avoid falling

Before we came to the school we took a written test of 35 questions to see where we placed A-1 or 2 (elementary), B-1 or 2 (intermediate) or C-1 or 2 (advanced). On the first day of class, Natalie, the coordinator of the teachers talked with us to see how well we could comprehend and speak French. Then she placed us in a class. I tested out at B-1 but was placed in A-2. If I want an extra push, I can go to the B-1 class, which I plan to do in the second week—at least for the speaking and listening part of class because they talk about more advanced subjects. I don’t have as much trouble writing or even speaking as I do comprehending French, so I am comfortable with A-2 AND it will be a little less stressful. One bad thing about moving to the other class, however, is that during the past week our class has developed a nice rapport.

The school also offers various events. During the first week, we had a two-hour tour of La Croix Rousse conducted by the director of the school and a Mardi Gras party where students were to wear costumes. The faculty really promoted the party. I went on the tour—all conducted in French—but skipped the second because I had something else to do that night. 

To get a look at the La Croix Rousse tour, click on this link.
 

Leynaud Street where Inflexyon resides

Les Aventures de Madame Beaubien: La Croix Rousse

Inflexyon, my French language school, held its first excursion of the month in La Croix Rousse, a famous neighborhood located on a hill (colline) very near the school.

The Croix Rousse neighborhood (voisine) is divided into les pentes (slopes) with le plateau (the top the hill). Climbing steps is part of daily life and it certainly was a part of our tour. There were so many steps that the very nice Korean women students on the tour were constantly checking to see that I hadn’t passed out or suffered a heart attack climbing the steps.

La Croix Rousse means “red cross,” which comes from a reddish-brown stone cross that was erected here in the 16th century. 





 

This old part of the city dates back to the Renaissance. You can recognize the Renaissance buildings by their pastel colors of pink, yellow, blue, and white. 

 






The district started developing in the 18^th century when the silk workshops moved to the La Croix Rousse neighborhood from the older part of the city, Vieux Lyon. The buildings are uncharacteristically tall with large vaulted ceilings and exposed rafters because this is the area where the silk industry thrived and the silk makers needed such spaces to accommodate their looms.

Silk (silk=soie) brought great wealth to the city, however, as can be expected, the silk workers (canuts) endured extremely poor working conditions. As a result, they staged a series of Canut revolts beginning in October 1831, among the first labor revolts in the world. Their issues were salaries, the conditions of their lives and the dignity of their labor.  

Many of the interior stairways (les escaliers) of La Croix Rousse are made from very hard, fossilized stone. There are also many unique shapes and spaces that architects seemed to have fun adding to their buildings.  

Round sewer top is between the man's shoe and the planter.

In our modern cities, we have a vast network of pipes that provide us with all the water we need. Providing water to the residents of the Renaissance was a bit more problematic. Engineers, thus, devised a series of sewers that brought water to the people. With pulleys and buckets, they hoisted up the water to their apartments. You can still see the sewer tops in some areas, although they are now cemented shut. Our guide mentioned that as a young teenager, he and his friends used to play in these sewers. Wow, imagine!

It appears that very few of the old buildings in Lyon have been removed. Instead, the mayor and city folk work hard to restore as much of the past as is possible but also to build the new. Involved in many restorations is the re-purposing of old buildings. For example, this building on the right was once a convent. Today, it is a school. (St. Bonaventure near the Hôtel de Ville, a Dominican monastery originally built 1325-1327, was made into a granary after the French revolution destroyed most churches in France (1789-99). It was re-commissioned in 1806 as an active church, one of the few Middle Ages churches to survive.)

Local, home-grown food is important in the Lyon region and La Croix Rousse is no exception. Here is one neighborhood that promotes local agriculture through composting and distributing literature about the movement. 








With local food are the farmers markets.
Every Sunday, Boulevard de la Croix Rousse has a farmers market.

 Local identity is also important to the people who live here; they like to call themselves as "Croix-roussiens" (Croix-Roussians) to distinguish themselves from the Lyonnaise. Croix Rousse is a lovely part of the city, so I guess I can see why the people take an enduring pride in their "place." 

Once we walked up the last of many, many, many stairs into Croix Rousse, we reached the plateau where we saw a fantastic view of the city. Here is a panoramic view of Lyon from the hill (colline) of Croix Rousse. C'est très jolie, non?!? You can also see how high up it is in comparison to the city below. Way in the distance you can also see the Alps and the stadium (big white space).

La Croix-Rousse is nicknamed la colline qui travaille (the hill that works). This name contrasts the hill to the southwest on our right, Fourvière, which is known as la colline qui prie (the hill that prays). Notice the white church on the top of the hill: Notre Dame. The structure to the right of the church is a radio tower that resembles the Eiffle Tower of Paris.

Fourvière, la colline qui prie (the hill that prays)

On our tour we saw a typical French park that sports hard, yellowish ground surrounded by trees, benches, maybe a statue, a fountain, or some playground equipment. On the streets bordering the park is usually a church, most probably a café, un bureau de tabac (tobacco shop also with magazines, transport tickets and other small things), and maybe an epicerie (grocery store), boulangerie or patissierie (bakery or pastry shop), or bar (bar). This is an example of the French way of life that is truly an outdoor, interactive culture that values public space. I’ve even seen people take their coffee at a little table outside the café not only in sunny weather, but in the colder winter weather! 


Today, La Croix Rousse has a reputation as an art center. You can see art for sale in various shops but also enjoy a lot of free murals. much of which is either very weird or very comical.

Croix Rousse was a center of the French Resistance during World War II. The labyrinth of sewers and traboules helped the Resistance hide--just as the silk makers did during their rebellions. The traboules are covered passageways the silk makers used to transport their silk between buildings to protect it from inclement weather.

At the end of our tour is St. Polycarp, a church completed in 1670 just outside La Croix Rousse. On its facade are the marks of the French Revolution: a big gouge from a cannon ball on one of the pilasters (to the right of the clock) and the decapitation of  some de-bas figures over the front portal. Ouch!

Finally, as another mark of the past, I found a building that used to be the “silk condition building” where the relative humidity of the silk was measured to avoid fraud in the weight of the silk. The Chamber of Commerce commissioned the building that was completed in 1814. Today, the building is a modern library and social and cultural center. On the outside of the building is a memorial plaque of Louis Pasteur (1822-95) who discovered and treated maladies brought on in silk manufacturing. 

By the way, Lyon has long had a reputation as a city dedicated to health since the 6^th century when a bishop requested that a hospital be built. It has one of the highest concentrations of hospital beds in Europe and people go there as they do the Mayo Clinic for the best in research and medical care around. The World Health Organisation [WHO] chose Lyon for the Cancer Research International Center in 1965.

Les Aventures de Madame Beaubien: Le Ventouse

Toilettes are an important part of life wherever and whenever you travel. Knowing how to use them, how they work and where they are is ESSENTIAL when you are living in France.

One thing I learned about the toilets--at least in LePuy and in Lyon--is that they flush with a vengeance and that it’s best to put on the lid to prevent the water from splashing all over you AND the seat.

Another thing to know is that toilets are not readily available in France as they are in the USA. Thus, you have to plan both your timing for use and the quantities of liquid you consume. Cafés and restaurants usually have a facility, but you must be a customer to use them. I haven't seen any gas stations in the downtown area where I live and go to school, so it’s important to plan ahead when I'm en route.

Unfortunately, the two toilets for women at school aren’t always functioning and there is usually a long line to use them. One usually works and the other either lacks paper or a light—and there are no windows. Only the cold water for the sink works and the hand dryer doesn’t stay on very long, so I resort to drying my hands “camping-style” on my pants.

I learned another hard lesson after just two weeks of too much gourmet cheese and tasty French bread and not enough water: they are gastronomically binding. This can make flushing the toilet problematic and cause and also cause an overflow of water on the floor. So a handy mop, bucket or a supply of sop-up towels is useful to avoid seepage in the apartment below. 

Recently I had the unfortunate experience of an overflowing toilet and fortunately, my apartment copine (mate), Marie Therese (M.T.) was there to help me. Even though it was a little difficult to understand her French as the water started to overflow, I did manage to understand her to say: “What did you do?” I was at a loss for words except for “où est la mop?” Fortunately, she understood me when she saw what was happening. She quickly gave me some sop-up towels and a bucket because she didn’t have a mop. I scurried as fast as I could to clean up the water.

After I finished cleaning the floor, I took a bit of a rest but was concerned that the toilet wasn’t yet ready for use. I needed to use the toilet again, but was afraid it might overflow, so I went upstairs to use the one in the Cinquième (the other sisters’ apartment on the 5^th floor). M.T., Rose and Marie Phillippe were entertaining another sister, Cristianne, who was visiting Rose for her birthday celebration. (We had just returned from a Lebanese-style meal at a local restaurant.) When M.T. saw me, she asked me what I was going on.

“I’m afraid of the toilet on the Deuxième,” I said in my broken French that could best make my point. “Do you have a plunger?”

M.T. didn’t have a plunger (ventouse), so she asked Rose if she had one. Meanwhile, I’m sure that Marie Phillippe and Cristiene wondered what the heck was going on with all this whispering.

Humor did not escape either M.T. or me as we laughed throughout this whole situation. Fortunately, I was successful in my use of the plunger. M.T. congratulated me that I both knew how to fix the toilet, that I quickly cleaned up the water, and that I was willing to do it all. Well, c’est pratique!

M.T. went back up to the Cinquième to be with the sisters and later told me that during their prayers in the afternoon, she couldn’t keep from giggling about this latest aventure de Madame Beaubien.

La vache!!

Les Aventures de Madame Beaubien: Three Sisters -- and I Don't Mean Chekhov

Sisters Marie Phillippe, Rose and Marie Therese receive a gift book on Michigan

I am now in Lyon and living with three Sisters of St. Joseph of the Lyon, France federation. They have made me very comfortable as I move into my new home for the month.

Marie Phillippe and Marie Therese are both retired teachers. Marie Phillippe taught the little ones while Marie Therese taught in grades pre-school to 12. Rose was a parish minister. 

The three sisters have lived together since 2012. They have one apartment on the 5th floor where two of them live and another on the 2nd floor where one lives. I am residing on the 2nd floor. Their kitchen, TV and community room are on the 5th floor.

On Saturday, Rose took me shopping for an Internet connection, which took an odd turn. The 5th floor has the Internet, but the 2nd floor connection is less dependable. Then we looked for a cell phone that texts and allows me to call the USA. This little shopping trip took three hours and I was fortunately able to keep up with Rose, who is 76. She spoke to me in French most of the time and by some miracle I understood beaucoup! 

Hôtel de Ville

Opera House

The sisters live in the Part Dieu quarter of the city on Chaponay Street, which is near the Foch-Roosevelt quarter where a friend and I stayed last summer. The school for my French language classes is near the Hôtel de Ville--a huge, majestic building that we circled several times when we were lost. There is a square behind the building where people gather for various rallies. The Opera House faces the front of the Hôtel de Ville and people hang out there a lot, too. (Europe is definitely an outdoor culture. People even take their coffee in outdoor cafés--during the winter.

I feel fortunate to be in familiar places for this trip. It makes it a little easier to travel and begin this language experience. The last time I was here I was driving a car. Driving in Lyon is NOT a good idea by any stretch of the imagination. Too many cars, traffic jams, one way streets, and bicyclists who have no fear. It seems that my summer 2016 trip was a premonition or intuitive leap into the future since I am now here again.

On Sunday, Rose and Marie Phillippe helped me find the school and navigate the bus system. It's a 10-minute walk to the bus stop followed by a 15-minute bus ride and another 10-minute walk to the school.

Of course, I didn't have the address with me so the three of us went searching for the school. The sisters had the street name, so they knew where to go, it was just a matter of finding the right address and bus stop. Je m'ais senté mal! No big deal, Rose said.

On Sunday, we went to Mass and then had a dinner of vegetable soup, cooked endive, canulle (Lyon favorite) and a small container of goat cheese. I told the sisters about my time of working on a goat farm where I milked 9 beautiful goats, cleaned the barn, walked the pregnant does, and even caught a couple babies during delivery. The sisters were amazed. The farmer who I worked with has since expanded his hobby farm into a commercial dairy for cheese. In fact, he just sent his cheesemaker to Lyon to learn some new techniques. 

Lyon has a reputation for fine French food. The sisters at LePuy told me that we would get real French food with the sisters in Lyon. We've had some delicious meals--which included fish soup. Aounsa horrid but it has 2 or 3 different flavors that were VERY satisfying. I'm just waiting for the snails, but I hope they don't tell me what they are until AFTER I eat them.

Marie Therese and Marie Phillippe and I relax a bit with good and lively conversation--in French

Dessert--French style: bugnes.

  

Les Aventures de Madame Beaubien: Ride the French Train

If you want an experience of public transportation, you can't miss the French trains. Look at this sleek machine!!  Beautiful, clean, smooth ride, efficient....and they run all times of the day. The French train is NOTHING like Amtrak. I love Amtrak as I love trains, especially when they crisscross the country. But Amtrak is limited by poor tracks and it is secondary to the freight trains. Just one more thing that makes America NOT great. 

I met, Henrik, a young German college student who is traveling in France to visit a friend who is in his "gap year" between high school and college. This young man (sorry I didn't take a photo of him :( ) is studying geography and politics. He conducted a research project in college through the Erasmus Program (European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students), a European Union (EU) student exchange program established in 1987 for education, training, youth and sports.

Henrik is preparing himself for professional leadership positions that will have a global focus. He seems to be a very serious student aware of the importance of climate change and peace among nations. It is young people like him who will make the transition into the future of a new world that Baby Boomers can't even conceive. Henrik reminds me of the fine young people I worked with at Kalamazoo College and Western Michigan University. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Patty and I left LePuy on Saturday to head for Lyon where we will take 4 weeks of classes at Inflexyon, a language school. Line drove us to the train station and took our picture--two happy women on their way to French language nivana, the ultimate purpose of this trip to France. We will live im separate convents where the sisters do NOT speak English. The advantage to this arrangement is that we will not be tempted to speak English to one another and we will be forced to communicate in French. This is, really, the only way to learn French--or any language.