To the Sea!

Bonsoir all!  I am beginning to feel more comfortable in my living accommodations again after that terrifying evening, which is AWESOME because I might start sleeping again soon.  Here’s to hoping!

I was here yesterday:

Gwenola’s teacher, Ilka, took us to the seaside town of Saint-Valery-sur-Somme.  It’s at the mouth of the Somme river and has been around since before the 600s(!!) so needless to say it has some cool stuff there- for example it’s medieval ramparts, its abbey, and its gothic church. It has some crazy history!  It was under Roman control for awhile, William the Conqueror assembled his fleet there before sailing over to England and dominating, when Joan of Arc was captured by the English she was detained there before being sent off to Rouen to be burnt at the stake, and at one point Victor Hugo, Degas, and Jules Verne had houses there   It’s also just generally really pretty being on the water facing a small island that serves as a bird sanctuary.  

Bird sanctuary across the way

Tiny house!

We wandered about on the beach a bit, had some tiny coffees, and then wandered through town.  I walked through the original entrance of the town’s walls, the very same entrance Joan of Arc passed through and it was just mind-boggling that this kind of stuff is still around.  In town we looked at some very strange antique shops and then stumbled upon a small, local market.  There was a little bit of everything locally made in Saint-Valery-sur-Somme- some local spice bread, some sausages, wine, cheese, liqueurs, fish, and yes, escargot.  I had wandered off from the group at this point to check out the various colored liqueurs at the next stall over, when I came back though my friends were talking to a very nice lady at the escargot stand.  They had tried the traditional escargot- in its shell with butter, garlic, and parsley.  When I walked up they were getting ready to try the other type of escargot- still with the butter, garlic, and parsley but with the addition of chevre cheese and in a shell-shaped cracker- and I was offered one.  Needless to say I was hesitant, not just because it was a snail, but because Gwenola had had some at her prof’s house a few weeks prior and had been ill the next day because they hadn’t sat well with her.  I was reassured that it was good, just maybe a little rubbery.  They smelled good enough so I gave it a go.  OMG IT WAS SO GOOD!  It was nothing like the typical Hollywood interpretation of the bizarre, chewy, slimy, and too fancy for its own good hors d’oeurves.  There was so much flavor and zero rubbery texture.  I really wanted to buy some after this delicious revelation, but I don’t have a stove for heating them up.  Phooey. 

Portion of a strange antique shop- boar's head anyone?

Escargot!

We rode back to Amiens after the tasting and thanked Ilka for her hospitality.  Then our Halloween festivities began! 

So, Halloween isn’t really celebrated here.  I saw a handful of shop windows decorated and three total people in costume, with one of them being a lady trying to sell candy at a grocery store.  So, it’s basically used as a marketing gimmick with none of the celebrating.  We used it as an excuse though to make a yummy meal of tacos and watch horror films.  The tacos came out perfect!  They really hit the spot too since I have been missing Mexican food here.  We watched Poltergeist, which was less scary than anticipated (this is a movie that would benefit from a remake I think, special effects-wise), and Red Dragon.  We also continued our pig out on popcorn (something that has only caught on recently here and was tres expensive at the store) and candy.

It was really an excellent day.

Cheese Thief

            So Amiens is a pretty cool place.  I adore food shopping here.  There is a supermarket within walking distance I did eventually find, no less than three “Bio” grocery stores (biologique=organic), a large, local market called Les Halles downtown that is even open on Sundays (that is a huge deal because only Mickey D’s and kebab shops are typically open on Sunday), and there is even a bio co-op!  My little hippy heart is all a-flutter!

            Oh sweet baby Jesus, the food.  Not only can I get my hippy-dippy stuff I’m used to (quinoa!) but now there is ever-plenty, deliciously produced, French style dairy products.  It’s not just the cheese people!  The butter, the milk, and oh god, the yogurt!  It’s like they’ve been brought down from on high by bovine angels.  My vanilla yogurt has real vanilla in it-little delicious flecks throughout that not too thick, not too thin work of dairy art.  The wine is also dirt cheap.  You can get a decent bottle of table wine for a euro.  A euro.  Are you listening?  That’s less than two bucks!

            Anyways, I have had to put off buying things that spoil because of my lack of fridge situation.  But we’re in France and my roommates and I want to eat all of the delicious goodies that France has to offer us.  Our solution?  Well, since it has cooled off here significantly recently, we decided to leave some cheese and yogurt on the windowsill in a feeble attempt to keep things cool.  For about a week this worked.  We are on the first floor and when this first started happening I just knew that some punk high school kid would find it funny to steal it or chuck it a his friend, or something.  I wasn’t entirely wrong, but what actually happened was scarier.

            I was reading in my room minding my own business when Gwenola comes bursting in all of a sudden, flustered, saying that there was a man who was stealing our food. I got up and followed her into the kitchen.  There was, in fact, a young man just munching on our camembert just outside of the window.  We opened up the window and asked, “Why are you eating our food?”  He replied, ever so nonchalantly, “Oh this is your food?  M’excuse.”  To our disbelief he continued to eat the cheese.  We were utterly confused.  It wasn’t even the fact that he was stealing, but that he was so friggin’ cool about it.  Well that and also he was essentially eating a strange bit of cheese found on a windowsill.  Gwenola, puzzled, asked again, “Well yes, but why are you eating our food?”  And what did this young man do, ladies and gentleman?  Come to his senses, apologize profusely and offer to replace the cheese? No.  He threw the cheese at us and said “If you are going to talk to me like a dog, you can have your ***** cheese back and if I ever see you outside I will punch you in the throats!”  You know, a normal response when caught pilfering from others. 

          We called security and they just told us to call the police if we saw him again.  I wasn't too rattled as he looked like he was probably on drugs and just wandering through campus on the weekend, but Gwenola and Marilyn were concerned.  We used this in our favor though.

After already having had to wait about two weeks for a fridge, after this incident, we demanded and received our fridge over the next few days.  Victory is ours!