Normandy, Volume 2—A French Wedding and Mont St. Michel

*Warning, this is kind of long*

Friday, right before we left, we realized that the Citroën (the car that we usually take to Normandy) had bad breaks, so we loaded up into my host dad’s little Peugot (2 door, my backpack was in between Louis and I in the back, with a whole bunch of crap shoved in the trunk), and drove to the Country Home to spend the night. We stopped by Pizza Hut and I learned my new favorite French phrase “A Volonté” and it means “Free Refills”!!! So it was pretty joyous to not have to religiously guard my sips of Coke, I could freaking down it and no one could do anything about it. I felt American again.

We woke up the next morning at 7ish, ate Tartines (which are little toast like things, but I eat them everyday before school so I am starting to hate them) and left to go see the Bayeux Tapestry in, where else but Bayeux, Normandy! The tapestry was cool, it’s kind of weird seeing something made in the 11th century (for those of you who don’t know, it recounts, among other things, the Norman conquest of Britain), and since I love that time in history it was fun to learn about things I didn’t know before…which I guess is the definition of learning, but you get the point. We walked around Bayeux, which is a really cute little town with a sweet Cathedral and a cool river running through it. We ate at a Café and sat next to a Quebecois couple who were very nice, and we had a good conversation with them. Their accent is hilarious. I never noticed it that much, even when my good friend Jeffrey and I were in Quebec, but having the parallel of my host parents and the Quebecois really made it come out. I could understand most of what they said, but it seemed like I suddenly understood a lot less when they spoke directly to me, kind of made me feel stupid.

We then went to our Chambre d’Hôte (houses in the country side in which the homeowners rent out rooms like a hotel), and got all snazzy for the wedding. Not gonna lie, I was looking pretty hot in my suit (as always), as we rolled up to the cute little church where the wedding was being held. (See picture for both my hotness and the church). The wedding was a little unorganized (but I guess since my amazing sister-in-law Alyssa wasn’t running it, I couldn’t expect much), as in the Groom forgot something at home and drove home like when the wedding was supposed to start. It was also long, pretty boring, and pretty catholic. Although it was nice to hear 1 Corinthians 13 (which is read at almost every wedding) read in French instead of English, it didn’t feel so overused.

It lasted 2 hours, and then the real party started. We all drove to this big Mansion/Chateau type place close by, stood outside for about an hour as the Bride and Groom pulled a Miles family and took pictures in front of the steps with basically every combination of people they could (except, of course, me), although there were far fewer people taking pictures than at Miles family functions. We finally made it inside, only to eat hors-d’oeuvres for about 2 hours. I had some champagne and talked to a really funny, and old, guy named Ray. He’s from Massachusetts and is retired here with his wife, but speaks no French. So we talked in English. He’s just one of those amazing old guys who knows basically everything about everything, let’s you know fun facts about everything he knows about, and actually speaks to you as if you weren’t 5 years old. I also talked to a funny French man (in English, as basically everyone there just spoke to me in English, but I was really tired so I didn’t mind) who loves America. He told me that his parent’s generation was extremely thankful for Americans, because “without them, we’d be speaking German right now.” I thought that was very powerful, and very against everything we hear in America about how the French hate us. Although I haven’t heard anyone praise George Bush, everyone listens to American music, eats American food, watches American movies and TV shows, speaks English, and wants to visit New York. They dislike our government, not us. Remember that.

Anyways, I’ll get off my soapbox. We then moved in for Dinner, which took an obscenely long time, and I got the immense privilege of sitting at the kid’s table, which means I didn’t get to indulge in Wine or Champagne at dinner L. It was pretty awkward, although Louis’ cousins who were at our table were nice, and they knew where Colorado was because one of them loved the Denver Nuggets. I left once, went to the bathroom and then fell asleep on a chair outside. I came back in and everyone was dancing. It was hilarious. Watching half-drunk, middle-aged French people dancing to 80’s music is a memory I’ll never forget. I actually joined in for a little, and it was immensely awkward but really funny, and I had to cover my mouth because I was uncontrollably smiling at how awkward it really was. I had some more champagne, went outside, fell asleep on another chair (I was really tired). I then came in, sat down on a chair and half watched people dance and half went in and out of sleep. We left at 2 in the morning, almost 11 hours after we left our hotel.

Wow I’ve written a lot, I’ll keep Sunday short. We went to Mont St. Michel, which is this big fortified town with an amazing Church on an island in the middle of the Sea. When the tide comes in, the water surrounds it, but the tide wasn’t in today. My host mom used to go there all the time, so she gave me the whole history and it was very interesting, but I’ll save you from that. I loved getting to walk through a legitimate Medieval village, sometimes it’s just crazy thinking about what people were doing on the same street 500 or 1000 years ago. We somehow randomly ran into the Canadians again, so we had lunch with them and it was very nice. We had the special Mont St. Michel omelettes, but they kind of left something to be desired. I guess there’s a big secret about how they make it. We then went and saw a museum with a lot of old manuscripts from Mont St. Michel. In short, I loved Mont St. Michel, it was amazing and beautiful and old. Definitely my favorite thing I've seen so far. We drove home. I’m done writing. I’m sorry to write so much.

Love and Miss You All,

Brent