Okay. I have just arrived at the flat. It’s extremely boyish with random posters everywhere. The toilet seat is broken and the table is adorned with flowers, morning their own death... (Placed in an old jar of “compote de pommes” bien sur. Yum. BUT...I am in Rouen!! I can’t actually believe it!!! Its soooo beautiful. It reminds me a little of the streets in Portugal. The weather is fantastic- the second floor flat has HUGE ceiling to floor windows, overlooking the street....perfect...I am just about to go to ‘visit’ Mary, but first, I must write all about my day....
It was a good journey...arrived at Luton airport at 4am...all good so far...I check in my bag, and it is 6kilos over weight...I have to pay £40.00!!! EEEEEEK! Whilst I’m handing my card over...Mary is stooped over her suitcase, emptying it as much as she can...she has also packed a little too much!! Finally we get checked in, and after a full on body search, (and the removing of all my four jumpers), we make it to the waiting lounge. We are just about to check in when I look at my boarding ticket, and realise I have been given a reprint of Marys ticket! Hum...after proving that I was actually Grace Da’Silva, and not Mary Heaney in disguise, we troop onto the plane. Mary and Liz soon reveal that neither of them like planes, as they suffer from sickness...so to distract them, during take-off I tell them all my gory stories about various scars on my body.
We arrive at Paris airport and catch a taxi to the station. A grand total of 46 euro’s! (Tourists price!!) We find a ticket box, and buy tickets to Rouen, departing from platform 24, a la 12.04pm. The views are absolutely amazing...we make it to Rouen....we now had to find Cecile’s petit amis, who was waiting going to meet us...so armed with the knowledge he had a beard, (une barbe), we set out to find him. Did you know there are a LOT of men with beards in Rouen...anyway; we came across a guy holding up a sign saying “Erasmus”...our guy! After a few awkward exchanges, we all squeezed into a tiny car and drove to Cecile’s, (aka Mary’s flat) I said au revoir to Liz and Mary and followed one of the guys to my place, about a two min walk away. Handy! (I don’t think he felt too awkward carrying my massive bright purple suitcase!!)...we let ourselves into the block and after clambering up the spiral staircase we arrived at the right door....then I was left on my own...
And this is where it all starts...
Although my first impressions of the flat were not good, due to the condition I found it in, the flat itself is lovely. It has a good size kitchen, a small bathroom, and a bedroom/living area. I nip o the local shop and buy the basics...mainly cleaning stuff! After spending about an hour cleaning, I pop over to see Mary and Liz. We have some lunch and chat for a while...then I descend back into my cleaning for another four and a half hours...by the time I have finished, I have 15 mins to spare to change before meeting Kevin, (Simons best friend) for the other set of keys, we arrange to meet later that night for drinks. Kevin is rather lovely. Liz and Mary come over and we drink wine, play guitar and sing American pie. (We now have formed a mini band called “the donuts”-because we’re jamming (HA!!)......we will be touring by the end of the month...) Kevin arrives and we drink more wine...play more cards, sing more American pie...et speak French bien sur! Actually, Kevin turns out to speak amazing English with an Irish accent...(his ma’s French, and his dad Irish)-an Irish English speaking French man...hummmm....anyway...he humours us, and we all speak a mixture of French, English and irish....everyone goes home...and i sleep for the first time in...50 hours!!
Bourjour! Today was really productive...after breakfast we all head into the city to explore! We go to see one of the many cathedrals, and sit on one of the walls-perfect photo opportunity...only to evacuate quickly as a crowd...yes, a crowd, of policemen head towards us...after thinking about it... I don’t think we should have sat on that wall. ! Right...after asking a couple of people, we find le centre du torisme. We find a cinema and decide to go and see Sweeny Todd later tonight. We find a bank to get some money out and eventually find a phone shop, (although Rouen is twinned with Norwich, it lacks the abundance of phone stores!) There’s only one assistant in the shop who cannot speak a word of English...eventually I manage to communicate that I don’t want a contract phone, and I want a cheap pay as to talk with a sim card. –which is a lot harder to say than it sounds! anyway..Absolute bargain... 39 Euros for a phone. Pas mal! So armed with a new phone we get some food shopping done and walk home. Liz and I make dinner and Mary pours the wine...we rush back into town to watch Johnny depp sing his heart out and skip back home singing “Johanna” in appreciation of Mr T. A fantastic first day...with beaucoup of sunshine! I so could live here! I’ve quite taken to watching French TV...its amazing how much I can understand! –even now, I’m finding it difficult to stop thinking of random French words! –maybe that’s a sign that I need sleep...d’accord, le plan is to meet Liz and Mary at the end of the road a 10am...so sleep time now, methinks!
Okay...I have two things to confess...the first...this is now the third time I’m attempting to write this paragraph, as it keeps deleting on me!...the second...it is actually the 16th...okay, I know, I know...vie been abandoning my blog...take me out to the pastures and shoot moi! So...what did you miss...ah...Thursday night we almost went out...we got to the end of the road to the nearest shop and went back to mine, ate junk food(sorry ma!) and watched family guy...allllllllllriiiiight! oh...Happy Valentines Day!!
So...the 15th...we decided to go on a mission...I was late getting up...I blame it on the bed-its just too comfortable! Our mission is to find the train station. Mission accomplished...and it only took two bars of chocolate, a bag of nuts and two hours later. Not bad! Anyway...so the girls go off to their place, I watch Helen et les garcon, followed by superman and the pimp my ride, (en francais, bien sur!) have a bath and wait for the girls to come over for dinner. Mary’s cooking tonight....we have some kinda risotto slash curry invention which tastes rather yummy. (Bon effort Mary!) We have arranged to meet a Friend Mary and Liz made on my doorstep qu’ill s’appelle ‘Pap’ at 10.00pm. Its 11pm now, so we head on down to club emporium galorium (!!!!) sans les garcons. Pap arrives, about two hours late with his partner in crime ‘Iddi’. We laugh at them trying to speak English and they laugh at us trying to speak French. We all get on really well...by the end of the night Liz is known as “le German girl”; as she knows more German than French, Mary is “la fille fatigant et timide!” and I don’t have a name. It’s all good. So...we head to a boit de nuit (aka.club) at about 1am...called ‘R-night’. Its a really good night...I have discovered something new...one cannot say plus beaucoup, or tres beaucoup, as you are actually saying ‘much much’. Not overly interesting, I know, but I thought id share it with you.
Where were we? Ah yes...so...the French (in Rouen), cannot dance. I’m not exaggerating....they really cant, unless making butterfly wings with your hands and jumping around like a monkey is some wacky new routine....and the music....mon dieu. –I’m not even going there. SO...it’s the end of the night/early morning...and we’re escorted back to my doorstep...we all say goodbye to Pap et Iddi, and i desperately fight with the keys as Pap declares his true love for us all. Merci Pap, mais, non-merci. Its about 5am and the girls have just left...Good night Rouen!
So...Saturday night....the plan is to go out tonight...lizz and i leave mary writing her blog a la cyber cafe, and head to the shops! Theres actually not that many shops in Rouen...but we manage to find a few bargains! One thing that all us girls have noticed is that everyone in France looks sooooo smart! How the guys dress during the day is how English lads dress to go on a night out....the women, even the younger girls look so fashionable....putting my oversized baggy jumper to shame! So....a good enough excuse to go shopping! We go to Zara first...and find a little black dress...under 5 euro’s...its extra small...we spend about three days and four nights getting it on me...waallaaa! its on....it looks okay...you couldn’t smuggle peanuts though...theres only the one small problem...i cant actually breathe....hummmm...maybe not. We leave the dress and find some clothes which actually fit. (always good!)
Later....the girls come around for dinner, we have the left over’s from mary’s rice dish avec la salad and cheese. Yum! It actually tastes better cold! We decide to go out after all...so we get ready and trek to the an “irish pub” at about 11pm. Its not so busy...but apparently people normally go to Paris on a Saturday night! So...we find a table...i find my sparkling water costs the same as a glass of wine! –i stick with the water! A French guy asks if i can speak English, (err....yes!) and if i can speak to a couple at the bar...turns out they’re from essex..its sooo weird to be talking to English strangers...i find it really easy to talk to them..but difficult to form English words! – i think its cause when ive been talking to Mary and Lizz its a mixture of English and French! Its about 2.30am and we are just leaving the pub when two guys, (old enough to me our dads), stop me and ask if we can all meet them next Friday in the pub to exchange languages-we teach them English and we teach them French...hummmmmm....bon nuit!
Sunday...slept in till quite late today...we met at 12pm at mine and walked into town to watch le Simpsons, le filme! It was really good to see the film in French...i actually understood most of it! (oooh yeah!!!) we headed back though town...singing “spider cushion...spider cushion”...all the shops are closed here on a Sunday...so the streets are filled only with couples wondering hand in hand wearing long coats, scarves and big dark glasses. Tres chic! We go back to mine and have a late lunch/early dinner –rice and salad, again(!!)- and wait for Orida to call Lizz...turns out Orida wont be meeting till tomorrow...soo...we work out how to play/sing “Rock my wagon wheel”...then to bed!
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Hi Grace
So you are there, I checked out you blog and my god, something of brain splurge I think! But fantastic anyway. I'm replying by email, but could also copy my comments into your blog, so you have a record. What do you think? Do you want to keep your blog just for you, and the critical studies bit via email? Or have the blog as both? Let me know what you want to do.
There is such a thing as the blindness of familiarity - you are in a new place, new surroundings, each view that meets your eyes is a new one, and so in your heightened state of visual sensitivity you are seeing absolutely everything. They are unfamiliar to you and so you are noticing them more. When you are in Norwich everything is familiar to you, everything has its place and because of this familiarity they disappear into the background. Ii am constantly surprised when I show people around Norwich, they are struck by how beautiful it is! Yet, I have ceased to notice. Not only is this the case with the architecture etc. but also peoples behavior, cultural differences, social situations etc.
It's all new and so its all significant - it would be interesting to see if you feel the same way after a couple of months.
And so you feel compelled to take photographs, why do people do this? Are they afraid that their memory will fail them that they must take a record of the view - to capture the memory. That way the photograph will act as a trigger, a key back to that particular memory? Maybe, certainly Roland Barthes thinks so. Or is it about ownership, they take a picture of that view and that view becomes theirs. That memory is theirs? You might take a look at the 'Tourist Gaze' in this respect, particularly the bit on Photography, and let me know what you think. This might be a spring board into a discussion centred around photogrpahy.
So is Rouen, is France living up to your expectations? What were your expectations?
I'm glad you are settling in Ok. Take care and speak soon
Shaun
PS I've posted this as a comment on your blog as well, as I say let me know what approach you want to take.
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