Rochefort

Well hello again everyone! I passed a very wonderful weekend in Rochefort and I thought I'd share with you all how much fun I had! One of the teachers in my school, Gwenael, invited me home for the weekend with his family in Rochefort, a neighboring town about 30 kilometers away. Rochefort is inland a ways, but it lies on the Charente, the major river in the region (the region is named the Charente-Maritime). The Charente connects to the ocean. So, Rochefort was an important military arsenal and shipyard during the 17th and 18th centuries when the French were fighting the British (when were the french not fighting the british?). The entrance to the Charente is guarded by several forts in the channel between the Ile d'oleron (the island off the coast) and the mainland. So...I met Gwenael at the bus stop to go to a french market. These occur once or twice a week, and all the producers from a weekend converge and sell their produce. The market in Rochefort is particularly reknowned. We then met Gwenael's family, his wife Dominique, and his three daughters, Emma, Angele, and Apolline. They were so cute! Aged 8, 6, and 3...I had so much fun this weekend! Anyhoo, we walked around Rochefort together and I took all the requisite pictures...I particularly was struck by one church in particular...I'll put up pics later. We then went down to the corderie, a building in which they used to make ropes for ships...is a very, very long building so that the rope could be stretched out and wound up and all sorts of other things you do with rope when making it. Later that afternoon, Gwen and I took a tour of the Hermione (pronounced air-me-own in french, not her-my-own-knee, harry potter fans). The Hermione is a historic ship that they are reconstructing. It was amazing! The Hermione was General Lafayette's flagship, the one he took to America when helping us in the American Revolution. This ship was beautiful...a frigate, with three masts, entirely in oak and pine. It was huge! Nearly the size of the Star of India...much bigger than the Bounty or the Surprise. They have just finished the middle level...which is historically accurate in size...meaning you have to hunch over like Igor just to move about. They started building in 1998, and they expect to finish in 2011...they will then sail to Boston, just as Lafayette did. She will return to Rochefort and will become a floating museum. Sigh...it was so beautiful...what I wouldn't give to sail on her maiden voyage!
After the Hermione, We met the rest of the family for a ride on the Pont Transbordeur. I guess there are only 8 of these types of bridges left in the world. This bridge was built in the 1900s to solve the problem of tall ships not being able to fit under a standard bridge. So, they built two tall steel towers, suspended cables between them, and engineered a ferry that crossed the river suspended from cables. It was pretty cool. We then went back home for dinner, which was amazing. Quiche Lorraine...with fresh strawberries for dessert...mmmm....
Sunday morning we were going to go the musee de beaux arts, but it was closed, so we took a walk around the old arsenal instead. After our walk, we returned for Sunday lunch...my favorite thing in the world! It was sooooo good! They didn't make me eat salad! Yay! We had duck with roasted apples...mmmm...and potatoes of some sort too. We also had pate for an appetizer. For dessert, after the cheese course of course, we had fruit salad with some delectable french biscuit that melted in your mouth. I adore Sunday Dinners in France! Afterwards, the girls played me in Mario Kart on the Wii and spanked me. Of course they would put it on the hardest level and laugh hysterically everytime I fell off the course...oh well. Gwen and his wife lent me several "bandes dessinees"...or french comics. The tradition of reading comics in France is very healthy, very much like the Japanese read manga. So, now I've been reading French comics for the past couple of days. They're actually pretty hard! But its a good way to improve my french. Well, I've probably rattled on long enough...and I'm hungry, so I will talk to you all soon!