YA-7: à la prochaine ma chérie France !

This is it. This is my last post of my adventures in Fécamp. How sad is it? A couple more retrospective posts might follow, involving my trip back home and me reflecting on my experience of France and Year Abroad in general so far, but this is the last official post of the things I did while I was there and, let me tell you something, la France va me manquer.

My trusty scrapbook

I have to say, when I decided to continue learning French so many years ago, I didn’t really choose to do so because I particularly liked the language or the culture behind it. I was quite ignorant of the French way of life and I pretty much went ahead because it was the third language I’d ever learnt and the one I wasn’t very advanced at. After all these years of getting better at the language and finally learning more about the French, their heritage and their country, I have learnt to love and appreciate it. There are still aspects of it that I will never understand, but living in a small town has allowed me to experience French life in my own skin. The Spanish and the French are similar and different at the same time, and all those little characteristics that unite us and divide us have become apparent to me through living in the country – and away from the capital. I really think that as a language student in particular, the diversity is one of the things I love best about my field, but also finding comfort in the similarities. I have no idea if this makes sense to any of you reading, but every time I go to a new country, I can’t help but feel excited to find out about this aspect of cultures.

Anyhow, I will probably go back to this topic in one of my future posts, but I felt like addressing it briefly here too.

On Monday the 5^th I went to my last fitness session. I must say, it has been quite a challenge to pull myself out of bed at 8 and plunge into the cold to make it to the 9am session each Monday, but I really like working out and we use equipment which I’m not used to, thus making my sore muscles even sorer… The atmosphere of the sessions has been great. Elise the coach is full of energy and so are the other women coming to the morning session. It hasn’t been the best way to improve my French I’ll give you that, but I’ve enjoyed it nonetheless. It was sad to say good-bye. After the session I ran some errands and had to cover for Monika at work. The Christmas decorations had been put up and we were all feeling festive. Manu’s yearly design this time involved one of his vintage Land rovers packed with presents and the two mannequins dressed as Mr and Mrs Santa in a winter wonderland. Plus, Christmas trees and garlands all over the centre. I’m so sad I had to leave my tacky Christmas jumper at home! It would have been awesome to wear it! That night I decided to chill and watch a French film out of the ones Manu lent us. I opted for ‘La Grande Séduction’ which is a Canadian comedy about an isolated town in an island north of Canada which needs to get a doctor in order to open a much needed factory. It was a good option because I got to hear the French accent from Quebec which is so different! I watched it with French subs just in case, but managed to follow along quite well. However, the pronunciation made me laugh a couple of times – it sounds so bizarre!

On Tuesday I was free so I decided to work on the extra lessons and then after lunch I headed into town. I had to go to the post office and to a couple other shops. The sun was so nice that I decided to go down along the bassin and to the beach. It was deserted, with no wind and no waves so I walked down to the shore and sat for a while soaking in the view and the sun. It was lovely! The pebble beach is so different from those at home, but now I will forever associate it with Fécamp and my time there. I allowed myself some time to relax and be alone with my thoughts, like I usually do before I leave a place, wherever it is that I might be. Once I got back home however, I was faced with some not-so-great news – Moni was leaving the following day. Since she’d been off work for over a week but was still coughing so much, Gill decided to let her go home earlier because it seemed like a waste of time for her to be alone in the house with nothing to do. It was quite a shock but it made total sense. It was strange to think we’d have to say good-bye that same evening! We’ve been through so many things together and have grown really close over the past few months. I will miss her tons and I can’t wait to visit her in Glasgow! Later that night we went to the theatre Le Passage to watch a play called ‘La Maison Vague’. The public was made up of elderly people, a school trip and us three, which I found quite funny. Every time there is something on in town, it is so full! I guess because it’s such a small place people make the most of any event that might be taking place (just like us)! The show itself was nice. It was a story-telling performance created around different sailor songs from Glasgow; a mix of stand-up, objects, short films and live music – I quite enjoyed it. Afterwards, we had to say good-bye because Moni was leaving really early the next morning. It was surreal but at least I know I will see her again. We’ve made such a good team that the rest of the two weeks I had left were quite bizarre because we were missing one person in our dynamic trio…

On Wednesday I woke up with horrible cramps but had to go to work anyway. Fortunately, this week Katy was around and she taught a couple of the lessons so I could still have three days off – my usual Tuesday, the Saturday I was entitled to this time and also an extra Thursday to make up for the extra work covering for Monika. I didn’t do much else that day; I popped to the supermarket to buy a couple of things to do some meal prep and then planned the rest of my lessons. I’d been quite tired but still had a couple things to get done throughout the week, especially since I’d be working full time throughout the last week.

I slept in on Thursday and then did some cooking, cleaning and laundry. Trust me, my life isn’t that amazing. It was a lovely sunny day so after taking a shower, I sat down to finish my previous blog post. It took me a while and as the sun went down so did my motivation so I probably could’ve finished faster but I didn’t really feel like writing. You guys, running a blog is not an easy task. After dinner I joined Liam to go to the cinema to watch Swan Lake, which Moni had got tickets for. I’m sure she would’ve enjoyed it. Ballet isn’t my cup of tea but it was the recording of the ballet in L’Opera de Paris and it was the traditional adaptation so it was really good nonetheless.

On Friday morning we were initially going to go to the Hautot chocolate factory, which was one thing I wanted to do before I left. But it turned out it was pretty far away to go walking and we’d be pressed for time as the first lesson we had to be back for was at 2 and neither of us fancied waking up really early to make it. So we bailed and decided to postpone it until we found someone to give us a lift the following week. Instead, I started my packing. Honestly, packing is one of the things I hate the most. I always stress out because of the weight limits and my suitcase is not that big either… I started sorting through my things and separating what I’d send in the mail on the one hand, and what I had to fit in my bags on the other. I finished weighing the suitcase and all on Saturday morning, not without struggle. After lunch I decided to go to the centre and pick up my things from there just to sort through those too and put them in a folder so that it would be easier to look through. Then I filled in the stagiaire questionnaire and went to work. 

After work I wanted to take a nap because despite the sleep I was still feeling quite tired, but that didn’t really go to plan. I had dinner and got ready and at 8pm I was back in the Mill helping Manu make the entry tickets for the Qasar/Marin concert that was starting at 9. Initially I was going to be helping out with the bar but in the end Liam and I were in charge of the door. Saying ‘tirage au sort’ about a hundred times is not an easy task – that ‘r’ always gets stuck in my mouth… About a hundred people turned up and it was quite a popular event. Michel Marin played his new album, which was fairly good, and there was a lot of people. Overall it was a great night, only missing Moni there! I had some good old Somerset cider and had a laugh watching the public dance and enjoy themselves. By midnight I was back home and ready for bed.

On Saturday I slept in and gave up on the idea of going to the post office – I could do that on Tuesday. Instead I woke up at 11 and made myself some banana pancakes for brunch before dealing with the suitcase. For real, so stressful. Then I did some more blog related work and after lunch decided to watch ‘Les Enfants du Marais’, another of those films Manu lent us. It was a bucolic story of a family living in the marshes between the two World Wars. I found it amusing and quite accurate – and one of the characters reminded me of one of the students! 

After that I got ready and headed out to Nicolas’ house with Salomé and Liam. We’d been invited for a French typical dinner – wine, foie gras, cheese, salmon and bouche de Noël. Must say, part of the dinner was a success, and part of it a failure but, as we say in Spain, para gustos colores which means that everbody has different tastes. It was a fun evening that we spent talking, singing, dancing… We went through a pretty large musical repertoire including French classics, old-school Brit songs, Latin reggeatón and Christmas songs amongst others. Liam learnt to master the Madison dance and a lot of idioms were exchanged. We ended up coming back at 4am – on était crévés!

On Sunday I obviously slept in to compensate for the late night, but pulled myself out of bed by half eleven otherwise I wouldn’t get any sleep later on. I made myself a nice and filling brunch and then did my laundry and went to the launderette. Once back, I Skyped with Erin for a bit (really, I don’t actually use Skype that much!) and then downloaded some music and worked a bit on the blog while I chilled in bed. 

At around seven I got changed back into my clothes and headed out to meet Liam for dinner. We walked along the port but then decided to go to MacDonald’s because I was really craving chips and a burger. They have the automated system like in Schiphol Airport and there was tons of people both eating there and working there. I went for a chicken burger and McFlurry. So basic but it’d been ages since I last had MacDo! We then went for a walk and had a cup of tea at home. It was good to talk about the experience here in France and what we expect of our Erasmus exchanges and all that. Everybody has such different experiences but at the same time encounter similar problems.

On Monday I woke up early for a 9am staff meeting to sort out the weekly timetable before heading out to OLVEA. We were holding a short conversation lesson in which the staff taking English lessons with my boss would swap and have 10’ conversations with us about the company and their lives and such. It was interesting to work in a business environment, having to sign in at the entrance and walk past offices and have a name tag. The conversations went well; each student had a different English level so it was quite hard to work out how to lead the conversation but everyone was super nice! After that we stopped by La Foir Fouille to buy a couple things we needed and I managed to find a light garland with my name – me, the kid who never found anything with her name until she moved out of Spain! After lunch we had work and it was bizarre to think I was having my last lesson with all these people. I mean, this whole last week has been “my last week”. Realization really sunk in that it would be my last lesson with all the students I’ve met and got to know since I’d arrived in Fécamp and I will miss them.

On Tuesday I had to run a couple errands so I got up early. I went into town to buy a couple of things including the box for my parcel home (legit, I’ve had to send a parcel because I was going over the weight limit) and some ingredients for dinner at Liam’s host family’s house the following night. I was so chuffed when I finally found Norman’s DVD in Intermarché! I’d had my eye out for it since he announced it would be sold in supermarkets but it has taken a good month or longer for it to arrive in Fécamp, just in time for me to get it before I left. I can’t wait to watch it! Once back home I cooked the tortilla and chocolate cake while I spoke to Lara on the phone and watched some French television and then I took a shower and dealt with the contents of the package to fit it all in. It just about fit, and I got the largest-sized box… I then went to work because we were having a small Christmas party with the adults. Christmas hats for everybody, crackers, Xmas-themed exercises, carol singing and drinks. It was a fun night in which we ended up showing our newly-acquired Madison skills and taught everybody an ‘English dance’, the Hokey-Cokey. It was hilarious to see the adults dance that to say the least! After the party Liam and I darted into town to St Étienne because there was a Christmas Concert going on and some of the students from the Centre were singing. It was nice and festive. They played the organ and had various different choirs from the local music school singing carols. The whole thing reminded me so much of back when I used to go to the music school in Tegueste. It used to be so much fun!

On Wednesday we worked all day – including glitter crafts with 6-year-olds which is one of my worst nightmares because that stuff gets EVERYWHERE. And then I came back home, showered and got ready to go to the Michaut’s. They are a pretty busy couple with four kids so dinner was quite an experience – I can now understand how tiring it must’ve been for Liam at the start of the placement to follow all the French they speak! Dinner went down really well. We had crackers, my tortilla for starter, Liam had prepared a shepherd’s pie and then there was my chocolate cake as dessert. The whole evening reminded me so much of my sister and her kids – same crazy exchanges at the dinner table!

On Thursday I was quite tired but I got ready and went into work, to find out that my student had cancelled so instead I went back home for my parcel and headed to the post office to send it off and got some cards on the way for Liam and my hosts. I then showered and chilled for a bit before I went back to work. Fortunately, my last student of the day didn’t come either so I managed to get off work slightly earlier and have plenty of time to get changed and relax for a bit before dinner. At around 8 my hosts picked me and Liam up and we went to Le Vicomté for dinner with Manu’s parents too. Le Vicomté is quite a small restaurant that looks like something taken right out of the inter-war period with tons of photographs, tacky curtains and old bottles. The combination somehow worked though. It is run by an old couple - she cooks and he serves – and, I must mention, he looked so, so like a cliché French waiter with the apron, glasses and a walrus moustache, it was so funny! Their menu is made with fresh ingredients and so varies each day and is composed by a starter, main, cheese and dessert, with two options for each – fish or meat. In my case, to accompany the rosé and white wine, I went for a super tasty salad with prawns, avocado and blood orange which was amazing! And then for the main I was torn, because I didn’t fancy the pork with Roquefort since I knew I wouldn’t like it anyway, but I didn’t really understand what the fish option was, “matelote de roussette”. I decided to take a chance… And there comes the waiter with something that looked like ribs and potatos… All the information I was given was that a roussette was a “long fish” and when I saw that all I could think was ‘omg I’m eating eel?’ It was super tasty though, I really liked it. Later on, however, I decided to google it… Turns out that ROUSSETTE IS A SMALL SHARK WHAT?!  I guess you learn/try something new every day, right? Anyhow, instead of cheese Liam and I had a yogurt which made me laugh so much that I cried because of Liam’s face judging the texture… We had such a fun night, not just because of this but because of the family anecdotes we were told – my hosts are a family full of surprises! And then for dessert I had coffee mousse which was superb. After dinner, Manu took us to this random blockhaus in Côte de la Vierge at the end of a dead end in the middle of the night which was decorated with drawings on the walls and random and creepy sculptures of bones and dolls. I swear, I can’t understand how he found out that was even there! Hidden gems of Fécamp I guess! I couldn’t take any pictures myself due to bad phone camera quality and lack of lights, but here is what it looks like: http://www.dado.fr/blockhaus-fecamp The artist is called Dado and he finished the installation in 2006. It is now still there and closed with bars and a glass panel, but you can still see inside with a flashlight – so eerie!

On Friday we decided to visit the Hautot Chocolate Museum on the way to Valmont. Since we had to walk there Liam and I met at half past nine and proved ourselves right that it takes 40’ to get to the museum, not 15 like they’d tried to convince us… The chocolate museum was super small and eclectic. The best thing were some mechanical otter stuffed toys that looked like Oompa-Loompas making chocolate. There were a couple posters explaining how chocolate is made and an assortment of objects related to chocolate, plus a video on the process and the chance to see the staff actually filling the moulds and working the chocolate to be sold later. We bought some chocolate and came back. It was an average museum, but I am happy that I went! Later that day I had work and then took a shower and did some more blog work. Saturday would be a long day so I had to get a good night’s sleep!

I spent all day Saturday at work. It was my last day of placement and it felt so bizarre! I really couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I was done, that three and a half months of placement had gone by so quickly! The day wasn’t as tiring as I thought it would be. We were in the Christmas spirit with our tacky jumpers and Santa hats, doing crafts (yes, glitter) with the children. After the usual work day was done, we saw the Santa motorbike parade drive down the road and then we held a Christmas workshop. We had around 15 kids from ages ranging 2 to 11, so it was quite varied. We did crafts, sang, played games and were visited by a fat and inflatable Santa delivering presents… It was a lovely way to finish the placement! I’ve had a great time!

After work I came back and took a shower and then while I was having dinner Liam joined me and we went to O’Bailly for the last time, to meet with Salomé for drinks to celebrate the end of the placement. We played darts and Liam left early because he was catching an early-morning ferry. I stayed with Salomé and we were joined by Mathieu and Adrien for a couple more drinks and darts. I both suck and am good at the game, depends on the luck! At around one the bar was closing so we said goodbye and I headed home.

Today I slept in and then finished packing my suitcase. It is a miracle I seem to have been able to fit it all in! I went out for my last walk around Fécamp. It has been quite foggy and cold but I wanted to have one last look around before leaving, and fortunately it didn’t rain. I’ve grown to love this place and will miss it and its people; I’ve made so many memories while I’ve been here!

Once back home I had something to eat and took a shower and here I am finishing the blog. I will see my host in a bit to say good-bye and print my boarding pass and will attempt to go to sleep early because tomorrow will be a long day! Wish me luck because I have to take two buses to get to the airport and then the flight to Madrid and stay over the night. I will arrive back home on Tuesday. Hope my baggage isn’t over-weight and the trip runs smoothly!

France, you’ve been a treat. À la prochaine!

Zoe