Life in the French Country Side

Sancerre, France
It has been a two weeks since we arrived in the town of Sancerre for 3 weeks of French lessons. The town dates back over a 1000 years and is situated on top of a hill overlooking the Loire valley. It is home to 1800 people and is a popular spot in the summer when the population rises to 5000 with visitors and summer residents. In some ways it is like home in Norris Point, except instead of tourism and fishing here it is tourism and wine making. And as we have discovered wine is inexpensive here just as fish is inexpensive in back home. We were at the market today and mackerel was over 12 euros a kilo or $7.50 a pound! 

We are staying in a two bedroom apartment with a great view of the Loire Valley and all its vineyards. The town of Sancerre is lovely complete with narrow cobblestone streets, 500 year old stone houses with walled gardens and they look the same as the new stone houses. Last weekend we did a self guided tour of the town and got great sense of the history here. It is obvious they care about preserving the character of the town.

Over the course of the last week we have begun to step into the flow of  life in rural France. We make daily visits to the boulangerie for baguettes and croissants which we enjoy with cheese and jam and of course the "occasional" glass of wine. We have wandered through the narrow cobble stone streets taking time to enjoy a warm Saturday morning on the terrasse with a cup of chocolat chaud. We stretch our legs with explorations of the French country side, walking through vineyards, over massive stone bridges, and along the shores of the Loire River. And with so many vineyards, of course, we visited a winery and sampled some of the local vintages. With wine comes food, so we spent a morning with one of our teachers learning how to make crepes and mousse au chocolat. Aaron and Susan made the mousse and we all took turns making the crepes. As I said to Susan the other day, I am picking up the French diet faster than the language.

The boys are fitting in well with the flow of life here. They know their way around town and we let them go to school and the boulangerie by themselves. Both Aaron and Niall like visiting the boulangerie. Aaron for the croissants and Niall likes the confidence of speaking French but I am sure he enjoys the pain au chocolat as well. Niall is doing well in trying to use the French he learned last year and seems to be doing well with it. I hope he continues to use it when we travel to Paris and Carcassone. Aaron does well in French class but he is a little shy in trying to speak French outside of class. But he is getting better and he has learned it is easier to get a croissant if he asks for it in French.

Life here is very relaxed and laid back. The people take long lunches with most of the stores closed from 12-3pm and then enjoy late suppers with restaurants opening at 7:30pm. We find the people friendly and they seem to take time to enjoy life. In many ways it is a lot like it is back home. And just to make us think more of home we have actually had snow this week.