Reflections X                                                                         August, 2008

by Sandra Price

Final Editing, June 2009

(Ellie Marquez completed the editing of Sandy’s last Reflections, after discussions with Sandy and Gini Williams.  Events described took place in 2008.)

One of my volunteer activities was to read at the Geneva Library in English’s story hour from time to time.  Since I also provided the bulletin board decorations for the children’s area, I used a bulletin board I’d created with pictures from all over the world as an introduction for one of these times.  A story I discovered for that session told of a young Japanese man who’d come to the US in the 1880’s.  He fell in love with the country and brought a bride to join him and their daughter grew up in San Francisco.  But he got homesick for his village and friends in Japan; so he moved his family back there.  Later he wanted to return to the US but the war intervened and he had to settle for telling tales of the country to his young grandson.  After the war that grandson came to the US and he too fell in love with the country.  But he missed his home and friends in Japan.  So he split his time between the two.  The concluding lines said that as soon as he was in one place he began to miss the other.  That tale resonates with me as we’ve made the change back to living in the US. 

Brittany and Normandy

We arranged to meet the Borcherdings on May 31^st in Nantes on the west coast of France, in the middle of their trip that was to start with Bordeaux and continue to Le Mans and then Normandy and Brittany.   However they had to curtail their trip because of car trouble.  After some debate, we used our plane tickets anyway and spent a week in Normandy and Brittany, picking up a few departments on the way.  The first goal was to see the Bayeux tapestry I’d read so much about so we drove to that town.  What a treasure! (Even though it’s really an embroidery.)  It depicts the event leading up to and including William the Conqueror’s taking of England.  There are infinite small details to note like horses seeming to laugh as they travel by boat to England and lots of mysteries, too, including who had the tapestry made and where it was created. 

At dinner that evening we were seated next to a rather loud party of English people.  They reminded us that area has lots of English tourists and “settlers” like some other regions of France.

The next day we drove along the coast and stopped at an American Cemetery at Omaha Beach.  There was a well-done museum.  I learned that the Dunlop Rubber Company created blow-up tanks that were used as decoys to fool the Germans about where the Army was gathering. Then we walked along the beach, gaining a better sense of the challenges faced by the soldiers.  What a risky venture!

We drove through Calvados country and stopped at a distillery on the way.  There we learned the difference between  Calvados called Pays d’Auge and that called appellation controlee, which is like the difference between Cognac and Armagnac. The latter is distilled once and has a fruitier taste but is rougher and the former is distilled twice to be smoother.  Then we spent the night in Rennes, once the capital of Brittany before it was ceded to France. 

Our next goal was the island of Groix off the south coast of Brittany, where we stayed at the home of some Anglo/French friends.  Along the way, the castle of Josselin caught our attention.  It had once been a Breton stronghold but when the lord was in Paris, Richelieu sent men to destroy all but the living quarters.  What remains is still charming.

We took the ferry from Lorient (aka L’Orient when it was the center of the French East India Company) to the small island of Groix and got settled into Philip and Brigitte’s lovely house.  Brigitte was having trouble getting approval for the changes she wanted to have made to the house until the architect realized who her father was and then all was possible.  Her father was well-known in business and boating circles.  We made use of the taxis on the island to see a bit of it, walking along the coasts, and also borrowed the bikes that came with the house.  We were there before the tourist season so had a quiet time.

One day we went back to the mainland, checked out the largest open air market in Brittany and a museum to the East India Company and then drove down to the coast to see some of the stone monuments left by prehistoric peoples which are visible in many places in Brittany, including on Groix.  There were areas with hundreds of large stone markers all in lines along the roadside.  They were probably tombstones but create a remarkable sight.  Some are close to the road and one can walk among them; the more spectacular are behind fences to protect access to them. 

Our last stop was a salt works of Guerande where salt called fleur de sel is harvested from the Atlantic.    It is not an inspiring process and seems to involve scum, as far as we could observe.  But it’s an ancient tradition and seems to be having a bit of a renaissance.

The Glacier Express

Since our trip at Easter (planned to be to Perpignan and environs in the south of France) had been stymied by two snow storms, which also killed our entire cherry crop, we decided later to take another trip closer to home.  On Tuesday July 15^th

we went into the Swiss Rail travel center at one in the afternoon, and by two-thirty we were on the train to Zermatt.  Larry found a place to stay via the internet and we spent the evening wandering around the town, noting great views and lots of restaurant menus in Japanese.  Such tourists (who could read those menus) were much in evidence.  In the morning we found our seats on the Glacier Express and for the next 7-8 hours marveled at Swiss mountain scenery as we traveled east to St. Moritz in the Romansch-speaking region of Switzerland.  The weather was absolutely perfect and we also enjoyed the company of a friendly English-speaking couple from Zurich.  If you take the trip, I recommend signing up for the dinner in the dining car.  It was a tasty break from sitting in one’s seat for a long ride.  (There is also the option of going to Davos instead of St. Moritz.)

In St. Moritz we learned that the whole notion of winter vacations in the mountains started there when an innkeeper challenged his summertime English guests to return in the winter.  If they were not charmed, he would give them their rooms for free.  They returned and a new tradition began, abetted later by the addition of skiing introduced from Scandinavia.  Both Zermatt and St. Moritz are obvious role models for the likes of Aspen.

The next day, following a path taken by friends, we went to St. Gallen to see the library.  Established as part of a monastery in 750, it has survived all these years intact.  Our friends were there in the winter and were offered the chance to see famous works from Galileo and the like.  It was crowded when we were there and I found the layout and displays initially confusing but the venerable books were fascinating.  Recommendation – check it out in the low season. 

On the way home we stopped for an afternoon in Lucerne, a lovely lakeside city.  Climbing along remnants of the old city walls, crossing the river on old wooden bridges, and visiting a local museum occupied our time until the train left for Geneva. 

The Book “Discovery of France”

I wish I had read this book before I started my “departmental search.”  What an astonishing collection of historical and geographical stories gathered in the service of the thesis that France only recently could be considered more than a collection of hundreds of “pays” with which citizens actually identified.  The Paris-centric culture meant that for centuries there were no accurate maps of the whole country.  Who knew, for example, that France’s “Grand Canyon” did not become known to the rest of France until the early 1900’s.  Or that from the Middle Ages through early modern times there was a class of untouchables in the far western parts of France, the cagots who could work only as carpenters, could not go barefoot or touch bridge handrails, and had to enter churches by a low door and sit along the cold north wall.  And then there were the southern shepherds who surveyed their flocks atop tall stilts and could walk 70 kilometers in a day, if the sheep could keep up.  Such interesting details. 

Language Notes

Where did the circumflex come from? 

In the 15^th century they began to combine the accent ague and the accent grave to make the circumflex.  In the 18^th century rules were applied and the mark was used for words where the “s” had disappeared.  Forêt = forest. 

An Answer to “How did Des Moines get its name?”

From Wikipedia  -- The French "Des Moines" translates literally to "Of The Monks." "Rivière Des Moines" translates to "river of the monks," known today under the anglicized name of Des Moines River. It could have referred to the river of the Moingonas, named after an Indian tribe that resided in the area and built burial mounds. Others see it as referring to French Trappist monks, some of whom lived in huts at the mouth of the river, or connected to the phrase de moyen in French, meaning middle, because of its location between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.   Now you know (or don’t).

People have often asked what I find good here and good there – so here’s a brief chart

Gym Update

I’m continued attending a spinning class in France.  One instructor, responding to criticism of the lyrics in English songs started having all-French-song days.  I can guess which songs are French favorites because almost everyone sings along. There are even hand gestures to some. But I gather that sometimes the words of the French songs are a bit racy.  Some children were waiting for their mother one day and there was a song that seemed to make everyone uncomfortable, except the instructor who did not have the presence of mind to make a quick change. 

A technique used in spinning is to hold the body steady and just move the legs.  The French word is “fixé”.  One day I was not doing “fixé” because my leg hurt and the woman next to me made sure that I got the message and followed the plan.  One instructor uses the words “Canada Dry” when it’s time to “fixé,” I guess because there was once a commercial that connected the two.

Recently there was a woman attending for the first time.  The instructor would not let her sit down when she was obviously tired.  I could see her face and that she had serious knee problems and she should have sat down.  To me, he was bullying her.  I finally motioned to her when he was not looking to turn down the tension and later I gave him a dirty look. He made one more comment and then let up.  The woman spoke some English so I shared my perception with her in the locker room. 

The Studio a.k.a. the Best Price B&B                                                                               
One of the features of our house in France is that part of the top floor has been turned into a separate studio apartment.  It has a small kitchen, bath, loft, and reasonable furnished living/dining room. The entrance is up the stairs by a storage loft, funky but functional.  Larry stayed in it when he came over in July before we moved in over in September because there was no furniture in the main house yet.  Short-term housing in is such short supply here that from time to time we’ve had, with our landlady’s permission, physicist friends stay there. Our physicist friend, J. Chapman, christened the studio “the best Price B&B” because of its comfort and affordability. This summer Brigitte’s husband is staying from time to time. It’s nice to have the extra space.