For Noël (Christmas), I went to Valence, France. Both my host-dad and mom's families live there. In France, it is very common to travel for Noël as it is a very important holiday. Normally, all of the family gets together.
This is my host grandparent's house. They are my host grandparents on my mom's side. Valence is in the South of France. It's not on the Mediterranean Sea, but it's about an hour drive away. It's also close to the Alps. The city is nestled in a valley between mountains. It wasn't too warm, but it very beautiful!
Valence, France
It reminded me a lot of San Francisco because there were palm trees and pine trees.
I still can't get over how classy Mac Donalds are in France.
Elise posed for this photo so I could get a photo of the guy behind her. He is the first person here that I've seen who is wearing a beret!
While we waited for Mathilde to pick out a new cellphone for Christmas, Marine, Elise, and I had fun taking some photos.
I love this photo for two reasons:
1) My host sisters are both so beautiful!
2) From this perspective, the spout of water in the fountain could make it an awkward family photo...
♪ La vie en rose ♫
Elise et moi
Valence
This is building is located behind an really old church. (I'm talking about like Medieval times). Although it's a bit morbid, I found this interesting: It was where they brought the dying children during the Black Plague to be healed. Another (not morbid fact) about this building: The wind, over hundreds of years, eroded its walls. That is what gave it its honeycomb look.
This is "La maison des têtes" (The house of heads). This house was built in 1513! You can't tell from the photo, but there are a lot of heads carved into the stone. The the highest level, there are four large heads representing the four different elements of nature.
Valence
I saw this on the street and I thought it was cute. It was a tiny christmas tree right outside of a book store. People could write wishes for Noël and New Years.
The sunset over Valence
Fun fact: the word, sunset, in french is "coucher du soleil."
"coucher" means to lay down, go to bed
"le soleil" means the sun
My host mom and Louis. My host mom and dad lived in Valence when they were younger. (In fact, they're high-school sweethearts!) Anyway, my host mom, Anne-Cécile told me that when she was little she was fascinated with this statue. She believed that the man what forever searching for a ball that was actually just at his feet.
Valence
The ruins of an ancient château
My cousins on my host-dad's side of the family. (Left to Right) Louis, Alexandre, Marine, Mathilde, Clarence, Elise, Guillaume, et moi.
My host grandmother joined us for the next photo.
My host grandparents had a pomegranate tree!
This bread is called both a "brioche de Pâques tressée" or a "brioche de Saint Genys." (A brioche is the word for any sweet bread). Inside of this brioche, there are pralines. Pralines are sugarcoated almonds. This type of brioche is a specialty of their region, called the Rhône-Alpes.
Christmas Eve
Louis made a tower of cards and was really proud of it. He insisted that he take a picture of it with my camera.
The backyard of my other host grandmother's house. It doesn't look like it from this perspective, but the house is located next to the mountains.
A crèche de Noël (Nativity scene). You can find a crèche de Noël like this in almost every home. Also as you can see from the picture, the christmas trees here are pretty small. It's rare that to find big Christmas trees in homes.
We went to a Christmas Eve mass. Elise is with our cousin, Alexandre. The little girl is another one of our cousins, Clarence.
A bidet! It's a mini toilet that people used to use instead of taking showers or baths regularly. It's becoming rarer to find them. However, you can find them in the bathroom of almost every old home.
Our Christmas eve dinner consisted of almost 6 courses and lasts until 3am Christmas morning. This is foie gras. It is a french speciality, (goose liver! yum!), that people normally eat only during Noël.
After dinner, Père Noël (Santa) came!
Christmas day lunch. It started at (13h00) 1 pm and ended at (17h00) 5 pm!
A date stuffed with walnuts and wrapped in bacon! Miam!
Bûche de Noël- a cake supposed to resemble a yule log. My grandparents made three different types: Nutella, mirabelles (type of plum) jam, and a nut paste.
Du chocolat! ;)
Playing checkers with chocolates.
A speciality of the region. It's a fried dough similar to a doughnut.
Valence
Valence
Valence
This cake is a speciality of the region. It's similar to baklava.
We took a day trip to visit Lyon. My ancestors on my mom side were Lyonnais so my family wanted to show me the city. This is Place Bellecour.
A statue of King Louis XIV.
Place Bellecour
Macarons- 54,00 euros! That's very expensive, but it's also a ton of macaroons!
This is the Rhône River. There are two major rivers in Lyon. The Rhône and the Saône. The two converge at the tip of the "presqu'île" (meaning almost island, peninsula). Where the two rivers converge is the center of the city. The Rhône River looks a lot grosser in this photo. It's definitely not clean, but it's not this green in real life.
The Rhône
The Rhône
In front of Cathedral Saint Jean
La Cathédrale Saint-Jean
One of the gargoyles of the cathedral. All of the other gargoyles look like normal gargoyles. Marine told me that this one is modeled after the architect.
A typical street in Lyon
A cute boulangerie!
Lyon
We stopped at a Bouchon, (a restaurant that serves Lyonnais cuisine). I had a quenelle, a ground fish dumpling in a cheese sauce. Tasty!
This was an entrance to a series of tunnels and chambers connecting apartments. The tunnels were built to create shortcuts as the streets in Lyon are very long.
There are openings every so often and you can see the homes you are walking under!
Inside the secret tunnel.
La Cathédrale de Saint-Jean
This is a clock inside of the cathedral. The clock was made almost 1,000 years ago but is still precise. The guy who made it also calculated so that it would point to the exact day and year. Look below.
The index finger is pointing to the 27, which is the day I visited. 27/12/12
This part is in latin, but the words in red predict things like a full moons, eclipses, etc. On the right is when they are going to happen for the corresponding year. Apparently, it was only been rarely incorrect.
This trolley goes up the hill in Lyon. It's incredibly steep.
Nôtre Dame de Fourviere
One of many statues of popes in France
The mini Eiffel Tower! Yes, there a mini version in Lyon.
The view of Place Bellecour from Nôtre Dame de Fourviere
The only skyscraper is called "Le crayon" meaning "the pencil"
Place Bellecour
Lyon!
L'Opéra de Lyon
The descent from the hill.
Louis et moi
My host family's old house. They used to live in Lyon before moving to Châtellerault.
The mini Eiffel Tower peeking out above the city.
A building near Place de Terreaux
Place de Terreaux
It's not the real "Thinker", but during the night it sure looked like it!
Place de Terreaux
Place de Terreaux
L'Opéra de Lyon
Une grande roue! = A ferris wheel
Nôtre Dame de Fourviere
Place Bellecour
Lyon during the night
Lyon at night from Place Bellecour
