The First Two Weeks

It's been just about two weeks since I arrived in Angers, and as I sit here, in my ice box of a room, gnawing on a baguette and sipping Spanish orange juice, I wonder how to sum this place up. Cold, beautiful, ancient, paradoxical. French.


Angers is very French - bien sur. My host family is also very French, and my host sister intimidatingly so. She is thin, quick, and beautiful, a grad student at the Catho (my school), and she is always clattering up and down the old wooden staircase that spirals up the center of our house. I assume she's going to soirees full of cool French kids like herself, but who knows.


The weather has been very cold, which has caused a little ill-feeling between me and the town, but I hope that spring will reconcile those differences. In the meantime, I console myself with pain au chocolat, the single greatest invention, ever.

Pain au chocolat, essentially a croissant filled with melted chocolate, can be bought almost anywhere, including in giant packages at the Monoprix (my mini Walmart, which has about three aisles each of wine, cheese, and bread). However, it is best when hot, fresh, and cheap from "La Grignotine," comme ca:


And now for a random list of things I've done, as I neglected to blog about them properly. In no particular order, I have:

• Clambered about the local chateau.
• Gone to Mass at one of the many cathedrals.
• Relearned the habit of saying "Pardon!" and "Merci!" at every opportunity.
• Carried a baguette under my arm.
• Drunk wine in a park.
• Wandered through the maze that constitutes the Saturday market.
• Filled my wallet with heavy gold coins.
• Booked a flight to Rome, planned a trip to Morocco, and set to see Mont St. Michel next weekend.
• Eaten a kebab. And another kebab. And another kebab. Ad infinitum.
• Attempted to speak and understand French.