Culture Shock!!!
From Asia where everything is shiny and new to France where everything is old and cultured. From the heat and humidity to cold and rain. From cheap cheap to Tres expensive. From happy loud people to quiet reserved, miserable looking folks, from tight and sparkly New Years Eve daytime dresses to black and navy wool skirt suits - In June!!!! From three inch sexy shoes to everyone in matching ballet flats or Tods driving loafers. From glass and steel sky scrapers to ancient stone churches and castles everywhere, from $2 street food to $8 baguettes........such culture shock!! Mostly it was the cold......very very cold. This has been a very cold spring in France and I have been so cold since I got off the plane. My first introduction to France was my tired and cranky time in the Paris airport. Then a two hour train trip from Paris to Tours in the Loire Valley that cost as much as one week accommodation in Laos.......I kept comparing everything to Asia and still can't seem to stop doing so.
The first four days at Clem's I just slept and slept...and ate. The mega hour journey really caught up with me and I was really grateful to have a nice comfy bed and a lovely huge room chill in. Clem opens her house to the world - she has a revolving door of international high school students - and some very funny stories to go with them, and international Grad students and just about anyone who needs a port in the storm. Her hospitality and curiousness about the world is truly remarkable and she has a real survivor attitude. Her life has not been easy yet she has an immediate energy that draws people to her. Add to that - she is a passionate semi professional chef who loves to cook - all day and night.....what a mix. I love to eat and she loved to cook!! Amazing meals - so different than I am used to - their style of food prep and ability to source incredible fresh everything makes for a different lifestyle when it comes to eating. Every meal was a ton of work - I did manage to learn a few things but don't think I would ever be prepared to spend the kind of time she does to make a magnificent dish that is gone in 15 minutes. She has her two youngest boys, Arthur and Thomas, at home, 14 and 17. Also there was her step son - 28 and her husband Benoit. All the boys/men blow in for a meal and zap - inhaled and all that work gone in sixty seconds practically. Then on to thinking about the next one..... I guess that is what mother hood is about and I am glad I didn't sign up for that stuff. Just not my thing. Her boys are so much like her - loving and gentle and a joy to be around. The kids' command of English is pretty good and they obviously benefit from all the exposure to people from all over the world that their mom finds to bring home. Special, special boys.
Literally - the weather was pretty miserable - except for the day we went out to Amboise Castle - about 20 minutes down the road. So so beautiful. A medieval town, in the midst of the famous Loire Valley - famous for vineyards, wine and castles - seems many of the Kings of France chose this neighborhood over the years. I found a suitor there - he lives in a cave house just beside the castle. Seems he took a shine to me and yes, another port, another sailor!!!
Clem lives in a little village - St. Avertins which is a suburb of Tours - the city in the middle of the Loire Valley. It all is very very beautiful in a really simple way. All of the houses in the area are made out of a local stone - a white or off white stone and they have a very similar style - extremely elegant. So not Asian!! And the castles.....beautiful!!!
It was such a privilege to be able to live in a regular house in a different country. Culture is so nuanced that to really see a different way of life you have to spend time in that world. Thanks Clem.