31 October - Clermont-Ferrand, Walk about town

The forecast for the day was not so good, but the morning was so beautiful we decided to delay work and take a walk.  I wanted to get photos of the chrysanthemums in the planters around town, then perhaps get out of the center of town for a bit. 

By the time we left the house, it was starting to get cloudy, but that was all the better for photos.  Our first stop was Place de Salford and a monument erected in 1954 in memory of deceased war veterans.  We pass this every day on the way to school.

Place de Salford, Clermont-Ferrand

Place DeLille, Clermont-Ferrand

From there we went across Place de Lille (they have turned off this fountain now for the winter - last winter we saw it frozen)











Then we walked up the hill to Place de la Poterne with Puy de Dome in the distance.  Notice also how the hills surround town.


Place de la Poterne, Clermont-Ferrand, France



Place de la Poterne

Next we walked towards the cathedral to get photos of the "trailing" mums in these planters:

From here we could see that the hills on the edge of town are becoming quite colorful.

Clermont-Ferrand, France

We walked down hill to the next tram stop and took the tram headed north, our intent was to switch to a bus, then walk up to Chauteaugay.  Map:  Place de Lille to Chauteaugay
Chateaugay is a neat town on a hill with vineyards, wine caves, a chateau, and hiking trails in the country. 

Chateaugay, France

Chateaugay France

 Well, we did not get all the way to Chateaugay today (photos are from an earlier walk).  But we DID get to Cebazat where we had a very nice walk.  We took the tram north to Croix de Neyrat, just past the Auchan (huge supermarket).  There we were going to change to the # 3 bus, but the wait was more than 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon, so we started to walk along the bus route.


Cebazat, France

 Then it started to thunder and look like hard rain coming toward us, so we cut short our walk and stopped in the park for a snack.

Cebazat, France

Cebazat, France

Cebazat, France

While we were snacking it started raining pretty hard, so we packed up and headed home.  We put on our rain gear and walked back to the tram stop - we felt like we needed the exercise and it was actually a pretty day. All in all, we got in a couple of hours walk today.  We need to do that more often. 

31 October - Clermont Ferrand

Friday and Saturday we discussed the time change at least 5 times, then forgot (the date is different in France and the US).  We planned to go to church at 11:00 at Notre Dame du Port, about 10 minutes from our apartment.  

Just as we were finishing breakfast, we heard the bells and knew we should get going.  However, when we walked in the door, we realized it was the end of mass, not the beginning - THEN we remembered the time change.  So we walked another 5 minutes to the main cathedral and  got there on time for the 10 am high mass (the main mass for the city).

Cathedrale - Clermont-Ferrand

The cathedral, Notre Dame de l'Assomption, is a gothic cathedral, built of black lava stone.  It is also a national historic monument, as are many of the older churches in France.  The costs to restore and maintain are quite high. 

There has been a cathedral on this site since at least the 5th century.  The current building was begun in 1248 by the architect/builder Jean Deschamps. Some of the stained glass windows also date from the 13th century.  The cathedral was completed about 1884 by a student of Viollet le Duc.  Le Duc is famous for restoration / renovations of major cathedrals, including Notre Dame de Paris and fortified cities, including Carcassonne.

Some of you know I am not catholic, but my husband is. When we are in France, we go to mass.  There is an Anglican church in Royat that has services in English, but we prefer to attend in the neighborhood.  It also helps us improve our French. 

For those of you who are not Catholic, much of the service is the same or similar week to week, so it is not difficult to follow, even in another language.  In addition, we have found a small book store near the cathedral that sells a book for young people that explains the mass.  It includes the scripture readings (in French) for each week, but with some of the words defined.  We read that during the week, checking our english language Bibles if needed, then are able to better understand the service.  I recommend this when you are traveling and want to attend church. 

For this high mass, some parts of the service, including the Nicene Creed were in latin.  It is quite moving to worship in a manner and a place where other Christians have worshiped for hundreds of years.

Another benefit of attending mass at the cathedral is this:

Cathedrale - Clermont-Ferrand

There has been an organ in this cathedral since the middle ages.  According to one account, this organ was built here in 1874.  There are three keyboards each with 54 keys each and a pedal keyboard with 27 keys, The organ has 2,562 pipes. The organist has the ability to play 42 different instruments that can vary in tone and power. The inauguration of the organ was May 26, 1877.  The current organist is Francois Clement, also a professor of music at the regional conservatory of music in Clermont-Ferrand.


Francois Clement at the organ



30 October, Clermont-Ferrand

Time is going quickly since my masters classes began.  Many days we have class from 9 am until 7 pm.  Occasionally we have an afternoon off, but often we use it to meet in small groups to complete group projects.

Much of our class work is case studies, either completed individually or in small groups.  I am currently working with 4 different groups on 5 cases or projects.  We are not all in the same classes, so it can become difficult to get everyone together.  Today we met for an hour at 9 am and made good progress. 

Last night we hosted a dinner for 4 other students, which meant we had to clean house and shop first.  Chef Fred did a great job and we had a very nice time. 

We started with appetizers in the living room, nuts and olives, crackers, etc, followed by sauteed mushrooms, then spicy sauteed shrimp.

Sauteed mushrooms

Then we moved to the dining room for asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, then sauteed, served along side Paul Prudhomme spiced salmon fillets sauteed in oil and butter. 

We ended the meal with strawberries, ice cream and coffee.  Fred and I had a great time.  Thanks to my classmates for sharing the meal and time with us.

17 October - Clermont-Ferrand Saturday

Saturday we slept in, then skipped breakfast, opting to eat an early lunch out.  We headed out to shop for a printer and some small PC speakers, so we can play music. 

We saw the landlord on the way out and he suggested we go to FNAC for the printer - it is in the city center, closer than other options.  It is raining off and on and if you are reading this near the time it is written, you have probably heard there are "strikes" all around France.  These protests affect transportation -  some networks shut down, and some offer reduced service.  We don't want to get stuck on the outskirts of town, carrying our purchases, so we opted for FNAC. 

FNAC sells electronic equipment of all types along with CDs, DVD, games, phones, books, etc.  On a rainy Saturday, the store in the central mall is packed!  I found an employee to help me and quickly decided on a printer - roughly equal in price to what we would pay at home.   We also got some speakers, then headed for home, purchases in hand.  It was raining harder, so we tried to walk under canopys as much as possible, but it was a long walk carrying things.
Info on Centre Jaude:  http://www.centre-jaude.com/

We got everything set up and running just in time to attend a Polish evening in the garage of our landlord.  The husband has Polish heritage and they have invited several families to enjoy a polish dinner.  
Their dining room (above us) is not large enough, so they erected a tent in the garage and have set a very nice table for us.  One of the other couples both have good English, so we sat next to them, and they translated some of the conversation for us. 

I am doing better with French, I recognized most of the words, but my mind won't work fast enough yet to really follow general conversation.  In addition, they are all neighbors and long time friends, so we don't always know the context, meaning they don't need to say some things to be understood.  

Our hosts announced that in Poland, everything is set on the table at once, even dessert.  This is much different in France, where there are typically several courses, served individually. 

Drinks included very cold vodka shots served beside apple juice, apple juice alone, or beer.

We started the dinner with cold veggies:  shredded red cabbage, carrots, and diced tomatoes with dressing.   That was followed by potato salad, much like we make at home, except with the addition of shredded cheese.  Next came Golabki or stuffed cabbage in a tomato/vegetable broth sauce. 

Golabki

After that we had Bigos, similar to the French Choucroute, with chicken, sausage, cabbage, smoked pork, apple juice and spices, cooked for a long time.  

Bigos

We ended the meal with a sort of apple pie - everything was delicious and the conversation was interesting, covering everything from the neighborhood to national and world politics. 

See this site for some recipes:  http://www.krykiet.com/polish_food.htm

Or here for a video on Polish food:
http://www.polishfoodinfo.com/

We arrived home about 1:30 am, very tired and full, but had to check the football scores from home before going to bed. 

    

17 October, Clermont-Ferrand

Friday after school I went grocery shopping.  The regular grocery stores close at 7 or 7:30 pm, so because we needed food for breakfast and for tonight, I went right after school.  First stop Leader Price - we needed some staples, then to the vegetable shop, then the small grocery down the street.  I did pretty well in Leader Price, both in terms of time and money.  At the local store, I bought some frozen salmon and some cereal, making the bill seem high for the small amount of food. 

Fred cooked dinner when he got home - I was tired after the first week of school and a whilrwind trip to the store.  He made braised chicken with potatoes, celery root, carrots, onions, garlic, and mushrooms.  He did a great job - and I must say again how much I like celery root in dishes such as this.  You get the great taste, with the texture of potato. 

We have some things to do on Saturday, but no specific schedule, so NO ALARM for morning. 

16 October, Clermont-Ferrand part 2

So the week has gone well, several days of orientation for me, as well as one French class and a couple of days of class that centers on our main project for the year.  

I will be taking French 2 evenings a week, usually from 5:15 to 7:15.  I am also going to sit in on a German class that meets on Monday evenings, also from 5:15 to 7 or so.  The schedule can be different every week.  That is not what we are used to - in the US, university classes are usually held every week and are at the same times. 

Anyway, the Tuesday French class is a regular language class and the Thursday class is to prepare us for a language test we will take in December.  It is a well known and recognized test here in France, that will give us a rating on our French language skills that other schools and businesses are familiar with.  We will have the same two instructors we had for the first month.  We will practice speaking, listening, reading comprehension, and grammar/vocabulary.

We also had training/presentations on the internship program and on use of the library/media services area, received our class schedules for the semester, and met individually with our program head.  During that meeting, we were asked to update and provide a copy of our CV (resume) and a cover letter we will use to apply for internships.  

Our Thursday and Friday class were on the DRIVE project, a small group project that we will start this semester and finish next semester.  In our groups, we will decide on an entrepreneurial project or a possible startup business.  We will fully develop that idea and present a sort of business plan for the final in the spring.  In the midst, we will have more intercultural training, and some project training related to this class.  

Our DRIVE project class is only the students in the IPM program (International Project Management).  So now, there are 6 of us, all women, 2 from China, two from France, one from Spain, and me.  They say we expect a couple more.  There are another 16 or so students in the finance program, but we are small group and have been able to get to know each other pretty well.  

In the DRIVE class, we also di personality inventories, knowing each other made it easier to be open about our goals, our strengths and weaknesses. 

16 October, Clermont-Ferrand

I haven't been here for a while, we have been very busy.  Two weeks ago we went home to the US for a week.  Fred had classes and meetings and I had to sit with the furnace repair folks.  But all that is done and we have returned to France, a week ago today.

Our travel went well both to the US and back, no real delays, and we made all of the legs of the flights.  We arrived in Paris at 7:30 Sunday morning, then took the Air France bus (as we usually do) to Gare de Lyon to catch a train to Clermont.  We arrived at the station about 10 minutes before the 9:00 train, and thought the turnaround to buy tickets and catch that train would be too tight for us.  Reserved seats are required on this train and it is often quite full, so we can't really buy tickets before, because if our flight is late or traffic is heavy, we might miss the train.  

Anyway, the next train was at 1:00 pm, so we found the luggage check, left most of our bags, and went for a walk.  We walked over to the Seine River and stood on the bridge for a bit, then followed the Canal St Martin, which leaves the Seine near Gare de Lyon, leads through locks up to the Bastille monument with park on one side, then goes underground for roughly one mile.  Then it surfaces to pick up the Seine again on the north side of town.  It is a very pretty park and the canal is home to many houseboats, some quite large.  From the Bastille, we walked back to Gare de Lyon, ate an early lunch, picked up our bags, and made for the train.

Normally we try to stay awake all day, but I was just too tired.  We flew through Houston this trip, and it is a 10 hour flight from Houston to Paris, but I only slept for about 3 hours.  That is NOT enough for me.  

When we got back to Clermont, it was just a short walk to our apartment.  We unpacked, then went to 1513 for dinner.  We had salad and dessert, then headed home.  

We both had a long week ahead, Fred teaching and for me - the first week of my program, so we both need to be ready to go on Monday.

Saturday, 25 Sept - Orcival, Murol, Vallee de Chaudefour, Farges

On Saturday the school sponsored a trip in the country for the international students.  We have been on this trip before, but not with fellow students.  Fred and I were both able to go.  The first stop was in Orcival, site of a 12th century church, famous for its statue of Mary, which is said to be quite old (older than the church).



Chateau Murol



From Orcival, we went to Murol, where this is a 12th century fortified chateau on a hill overlooking the town.  The chateau is in restoration, and during the summer there is a group of people who dress in period clothing and present shows.  It is always an interesting stop with great views of the countryside from the chateau, but it is a long climb just to get to the gates.

Village of Murol from the chateau

View from the chateau

Upper walls of the chateau

My colleagues

Beekeeping at the chatear

After Murol, we went to lunch at Le Buron in the Vallee de Chaudefour (valley of the hot oven).  This is a small restaurant in a regional park, where hiking is common in summer and skiing  or snowshoeing is common in winter.  At this restaurant we are always served truffade, and traditional potato dish of the region. 

It is potatoes, cheese, and garlic, made in a large frying pan and is wonderful.  It is always served with green salad and slices of air-cured ham also of the region.

After two hours for lunch, we went to Farges, near St Nectaire, where there is a working dairy farm and where St Nectaire cheese is made.  There are also caves where the cheese is aged that are open for tours with historical programs about the history of the place and the making of St Nectaire cheese. 

 St Nectaire cheese can be either Fermier or made on the farm from unpastuerized milk or industrially made from pastuerized milk.  In order to carry the St Nectaire name, the fermier cheese must come from a single herd of cows.  This cheese has been made in this area for hundreds of years.  The original aging was in caves like this on rye straw.  Now much of the cheese is aged on wooden shelves at the farm or at a location specializing in aging.

St Nectaire cheese is aged for about 2 months. During the process, it is turned and the furry mold is brushed off. 

We had not seen this presentation before and it was very interesting.  The farm and cheese fabrication are operated by an association of local people making the special cheese that only is made in this area.  They have 100 dairy cows and make and sell 45 metric tons of cheese per year (about 99,000 lbs), most of which they sell on site to tourists and locals.

Equipment on the dairy farm

 

Cows wear bells



The barn at milking time

The cheese is made twice daily, morning and evening.  The milk is put in a vat with starter culture and rennet.  The milk is heated, but not cooked.  Within 15 to 25 minutes, the milk curdles.  The whey is then drained off, and the curd is put in molds and pressed.  The cheeses are again turned out of their molds, salted, wrapped in cheesecloth and put back in molds and pressed for 24 hours.

  

Making St Nectaire cheese

Flowers on the path to the barn

When we got back to the bus, we met a goup of antique car collectors who where on an outing.  Saw some great cars!



We returned to Clermont about 6 pm and were tired, but had a great day learning about the area.