La vie provincial

I’m finally getting around to blogging my adventures in France from the first week in April.  I left Galicia and headed to beautiful Provence to visit family friends in the little village of Malaucene.  I have been so lucky this past year that we have had so many friends and relatives in Europe that I have had the opportunity to visit!  When Kevan and Jennifer picked me up at the airport, they warned me that Malaucene doesn’t have any exciting nightlife or amazing shopping, but there were a lot of great walks to take in the mountains and by the nearby cherry fields.  Perfect!  I try to avoid shopping too much in Spain since I want to use my paychecks to travel, and I wanted a break from the Spanish late night schedule.  I don’t know how the Spaniards manage to have dinner at around 10 and then get up early the next morning for work, I find it a little exhausting!  We arrived at their home, a beautiful old farmhouse surrounded by cherry fields, and had lunch in their garden. After lunch, we hiked in the nearby hills.  The views were amazing!  We ended up coming to a little pond, which not only was quite picturesque but also was of religious importance.  From 1309-1376 the Popes resided in Avignon, France instead of in Rome.  The water source of this pond was the source of drinking water for the French Popes.  I tried some of the water, it was deliciously refreshing and just in time for Easter!  After our nice walk we had a delicious dinner complete with wonderful French wine and sat in front of the fire.  It was the perfect end to my first day in Provence.

The view from our walk

Drinking the Pope water

The next morning I woke up to the wonderful smell of coffee.  I went downstairs and was treated to a homemade café au lait (unlike in Switzerland, I got café with my lait this time) and homemade granola with fruit and yogurt.  I should probably mention that they are pretty gourmet cooks and everything I ate that week was delicious!  I also got a few mini cooking lessons, it was perfect for me!  After breakfast I pored over their beautiful cookbooks while they caught up with some emails. Then Jennifer and I went for walk along the country roads along the cherry fields in bloom and I saw some adorable farmhouses, all complete with shutters most of which were painted my absolute favorite shade of blue.  After lunch, we drove up Mount Ventoux.  The road on Mont Ventoux is part of the tour de France most years and as we drove along we saw some serious bike riders zipping along.  When we got to the ski resorts closer to the top we got out of the car and walked along.  The views were amazing, apparently on a really clear day you can see all the way to the French Alps, we had a cloudier day so we couldn’t see that far.  We still had great views and I was even able to see a few mountain goats from quite a distance.  After our hike we drove to the nearby bout du monde, which means the end of the world.  It’s the end of the valley in the area, and it was pretty neat to see.  After all of our hiking we had yet another delicious meal which we enjoyed in front of the fire.

One of the precious homes

View from Mount Ventoux

Market in Vaison La Romaine

On Tuesday, after another satisfying breakfast we drove to nearby Vaison La Romaine.  The city has many old Roman ruins (another Roman ruin site I can check off) as well as a market every Tuesday.  The market was bustling, there were fruits and vegetables, there were kitchen accessories, there was pottery, there were fabrics and flowers and ribbon. Oh my.  I bought a set of patterned napkins for my eventual home, and I’m really excited to use them!  We also stopped at the cheese shop they go to in Vaison La Romaine, which in the past few years was recognized as the best cheese shop in France, and I can attest that it was some of the best cheese I have ever had!  Later in the afternoon Jennifer and I went for walk near the bout du monde at the Roman quarry which was used to build the city in Vaison in the time of the Romans.  It’s amazing to think that they hauled those stones a good 25 miles.  That night for dinner I had my first ever lamb, and I loved it!  I had always said in the past I couldn’t eat any meat that had been a cute animal so lambs, rabbits and duck were out (sorry chicken, pigs and cows).  Well, Wednesday night we had duck for dinner and it was also delicious so I think I’ll have to lose that mantra.   My last day was very relaxing.  I read through some more cookbooks and we went for a walk through the little village of Sante Marguerite.  It was the perfect way to end my relaxing vacation and it gave me enough energy to last through the next miserable 24 hours of travelling.  More on that later…

View from the Quarry

Village of Sante Marguerite

Strike 3!

You might remember that my first day in Laxe half of the teachers (and students) were not present because of a teacher strike.  The students have gone on strike on a few occasions as well, which still seems quite strange to me, I don’t think I will ever truly get used to the idea students can strike.  In the newspaper 2 weeks ago they had an article about an upcoming strike, no not the general strike in Spain, but a different kind of strike in France.  In France, the parents were having their children go on a homework strike.  Parents believed that there was too much homework being given out in the primary school, but their main argument was that homework was leading to student inequality because some students had parents who could help them and some students didn’t.  This part of their argument completely baffled me.  First of all, students should be doing their homework on their own and it shouldn’t be so dependent on the help of a parent.  Second of all, this was in the primary school, we’re not talking about high school calculus or a literature class.  It seemed like such an awful example of reducing everyone to the lowest common denominator.  Homework is an important way for students to reinforce and actually remember what they learned in class; by eliminating homework parents are reducing their child’s potential for future success.  I thought parents hope for their child to have a better life than they had and if a parent can’t do basic math, they would want their child to have that skill.  I guess I was wrong.  During one of my breaks the teachers were talking about this strike and how crazy it is.  They said it’s just another aspect of how parents do everything for kids.  The math teacher complained that one student asked to call his mother because she forgot to pack his homework in his backpack for him. He called her and she brought the homework to school for him.  I told the teachers about how Daniel rollerbladed to school one day in fifth grade and forgot his shoes. He had to call mom from the principal’s office and ask her to bring them to school for him but he had to help mom in the garden for the next week to repay her.  They laughed a lot at the story, sorry Daniel. 

Protesters in A Coruña

Thursday, March 29th was the general strike in Spain.  The huelga general, or in Galician, folga xeral.  All across the country, people went on strike to protest the cuts the government is making.  Not everyone went on strike though.  At my school only half of the teachers were planning to strike, and I was planning on going to school with the teachers who were still going.  They ended up telling me not to bother coming in since there would only be about three students in each class.  I didn’t mind sleeping in since we had just had daylight savings the past week and I was super tired.  One of my friends in A Coruna was going to the protests with a teacher from her school and she asked if I wanted to join, but I decided not to go.  Since I’m here as a guest of the government and they pay me on time each month, and I’m leaving in May, I have no reason to complain or protest.  My friend said essentially it was everyone from the opposing political party who was protesting, but that overall what she saw was very peaceful.  There were some pictures online on the website for the Galician newspaper which showed smoke bombs being thrown into cafes near the protests that had decided to stay open; or open businesses in the shopping center near my house being forced to close.  But it was nowhere near as chaotic as in Madrid where public transport was essentially shut down, and I’m very happy I leave tonight for France instead of a few days ago.  In Barcelona the police became a little violent; this is not much of a surprise since the police in Barcelona were the ones who responded to protesters with force last summer.  Happily the strike is over and hopefully there won’t be any more strikes before I leave in two months.   I had a lovely day off, I went to the gym and then enjoyed the beach, which was surprisingly crowded.  After the protests ended around two o'clock I guess everyone decided to hit the beach.