Subject: last email from Tours

Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006

So here I am writing you all again. I don’t know when the next time will be, as I leave Tours and, subsequently my access to wifi tomorrow. At 2:30 P.M. tomorrow we depart for the jungle of Paris.

Today I received my housing assignment. I am living in the 2ème arrondissement - about three blocks from L’Opera Garnier and one km from La Jardin Tuilleries - a really great central location, in case you don’t know Paris well. How can I afford such a posh circumstance? A host family.

I don’t know anything about my host family. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Only that name on my placement card is Madame Rouge. I don’t know if she has kids or a husband or pets or iguanas that live in her bathroom. Hell, for all I know, she could be the King of Spain.

I also made a tentative course schedule today. One class on how to write essays French university style, one art history survey course on the 16th and 17th centuries in Paris with the program, one Renaissance-ish timed art history course at La Sorbonne, and one class on the international economy at L’Institut Catholic (a private university). I’m tempted to take an oil painting class as an extra class, but I currently have 4-day weekends which is GREAT for travel and I’m not sure I’m willing to sacrifice that like a lamb at a biblical alter. I’d like to have as much time as possible to explore, to be Colombus in search of far off lands. Maybe I’ll see how this semester goes and take one next semester if I’d like. I brought along some gouache to keep my art inklings satisfied.

Saturday the group took a field trip to Chambord and Chenonceaux, two of those ornate, massive buildings that people used to call homes. They are better known as chateaux. Chambord was gargantuan with multiple towers spiraling into the blue sky. Outside, filigreed stone and decadent designs cover the chateaux (at least up top). Inside was not as impressive aesthetically. The chambers in Chambord were largely bare and dauntingly spacious. Louis XIV’s bedroom, however, was luxuriously decorated and the main staircase of the chateaux is well known for its double helix configuration. Evidently, people going up one helix cannot see those going down the other or visa versa. After touring the chateau we saw a really corny, but nevertheless entertaining equestrian spectacle and then picnicked on the chateau’s lawn. Chenonceaux I found I liked better. Built partially over the river Cher on what once was a bridge, Chenonceuax has an impressive, rich exterior and an interior more homey than Chambord. Most rooms (kitchen excluded) where replete with elaborately carved chimneys, lush velvets, and paintings by noted artists (Ruebens, for example). Both Catherine de Medici and Diane de Poiters as well as many other famous royalty once lived there.

This past week, I toured the Tours silk factory on an atelier. The factory still makes silk in the traditional way, as it was made when the factory was opened in the 1800’s. Huge, wooden, room-sized looms facilitate the weaving and are operated by one worker. Stepping into the factory was like taking a walk back in time until you heard the radio of the worker operating the loom. Downstairs, velor was being woven. The man weaving this could only make 2-3 meters per day, and each meter costs, get this, 4,000 Euros. That’s no typo. Upstairs was a man making a sort of embroidered, silk velor, part minuscule loops of silk, part flat weave. When making this silk, a person can only finish about 12 centimeters (!) per day. I don’t even want to know how much that costs.

Thanks to all that have been sending me updates on your lives. Even if it’s only a few quick words, it’s honestly nice to hear from you. I can’t respond to every email and will probably have even less time to do some come Paris, but know anyway that I appreciate hearing about your lives and school, work, or lounging around, etc.

Next time, a Paris!
Hannah