It's Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Christmas...

Everywhere you look Christmas lights now decorate buildings, trees, fountains, and streets. It is absolutely beautiful! The Christmas tree in Place de Jaude is decorated and the Ferris Wheel is up and running. Late this afternoon, Matthew and I decided to walk to Jaude to see the decorations just as it was getting dark. Like little kids, we couldn't resist riding the Ferris Wheel. Although, as we sat swinging at the top of the wheel while they loaded more cars at the bottom, I was questioning our decision...
Here are some pictures of Jaude. The view was amazing from the top of the Ferris Wheel. However, the swinging of the car made the pictures a little blurry- but I think you can get the idea. The Christmas Market also started this week, so there were lots of people enjoying downtown Clermont tonight.

Isn't It Ironic

I find it very ironic that when I need someone to speak English (in a store, at the bank, in the supermarket), I rarely find anyone. However, in the rare occasion where it would be beneficial not to speak the same language, THAT person always speaks English. For example, there have been times when I need to ask a question of a sales person or grocery clerk, and I don't know the right vocabulary to ask my question. We both usually end up staring at each other in awkward silence trying to decide which would be less painful, me continuing to try to speak French, or her trying to speak English. Then there are times when I pretend I don't speak any French, like when the homeless people ask me for money. On my way home from French Class the other day I saw a guy ahead of me in front of a restaurant. He did not look homeless, but as soon as I saw him, I just knew he was going to ask me for money. I had it already prepared in my head that I would do my worst "southern" french so he would leave me alone. Sure enough, as I walked past he asked for money. So I responded, "Je...ne...parle....pas....le............francais." And I kept walking. So he says, "English? You speak English?" Well shoot! There went that plan!

Place de Jaude

Place de Jaude is the "downtown" of Clermont-Ferrand. It is a very busy place, just about anytime of day, and any day of the week. I found a link that has a webcam showing Jaude:
http://www.clermont-ferrand.fr/Webcam-de-la-place-de-Jaude-Haut.html
During the Christmas season they put up a very large Christmas tree as well as a carousel in the middle of the square. I am really excited to see all of the lights! It is a gorgeous place at night anyway (there are a lot of fountains with lights, and several of the buildings have colored spotlights on them), but I can only imagine with a big tree and a carousel what it will look like!
Today, Matthew and I headed to Jaude to explore some more. Jaude is also the home to the famous Clermont cathedral. Anytime you search for Clermont, the image of the large, black Cathedral will show up. The color comes from the volcanic rock it is made from. The cathedral sits at the top of a hill, so as you are driving into Clermont, it appears to be sitting on top of all of the other buildings. We wandered through the little, brick-paved streets that surround the cathedral. There are a ton of little shops and restaurants. For lunch we stopped into a little bistro where the lunch meal included a salade de chevre chaude, poulet et ris, et tiramasu (salad with warm goat cheese, chicken and rice, and, well I am sure you already know the dessert). It was a very charming little restaurant and everyone in there were couples, so it was very romantic. I took the point-and-shoot camera along this time, so here are some pictures of the Christmas tree going up, as well as some sights we saw along the way.

Cassoulet Party

Thursday night Bertrand and Claire invited us over for dinner. We were told that we would be having a very traditional French dinner. There was a couple from Holland there, as well as another friend of Bertrand and Claire. The dinner that Claire prepared was Cassoulet. I did some research on Wikipedia so that I could accurately describe the dish for you.
Cassoulet (from Occitan caçolet [kasuˈlet]) is a rich, slow-cooked bean stew or casserole originating in the southwest of France, containing meat (typically pork sausages, pork, goose, duck and sometimes mutton), pork skin (couennes) and white haricot beans.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassoulet
Wikipedia also said that cassoulet has been made in Eastern Europe using a farm animal that had to be put down (old milking cow, horse, etc). The long, slow cooking tenderizes the meat and is a sign of respect for the hard work of that animal. Luckily for us, Bertrand and Claire had not recently put down any animals! So we just had pork in our cassoulet. Claire also served a sauted duck with the cassoulet. Then we had a cheese course, THEN we had dessert. I was stuffed by the time we left. Everything was delicious and we also met 3 really great new people! Here are some pictures from Bertrand's camera- again, I forgot mine, so "Thanks Bertie!" (Bertrand, Matthew told me to call you that, not sure why!)
Here are some pictures of the night:

What was left of Claire's Cassoulet (the whole dish was full when we started!)

The girls cleaning up, but where is Kim...
Oh, yeah! She got locked in the bathroom. Don't worry, Claire got a very large butcher knife and jimmied the lock! :)

Un Gigantesque Vide-Grenier!

Un Gigantesque Vide-Grenier
"A Giant Garage Sale"

Saturday morning, Matthew and I headed out prepared to fight the crowds at a HUGE indoor garage sale/flea market/antique sale/loads of junk sale. Last year over 15,000 people attended this sale. Although we could barely move between the tables and the people, we managed to find a few things. Matthew was able to find a gift for his dad (which I can't say anymore about) and I found a set of three Indonesian woven baskets, all for great deals. When we finally got tired of being pushed, bumped stepped on, etc we decided to leave. As we were headed out, I noticed a very old flag stuck in a pot. We realized it was an old American flag. We decided to fight our way back to the table to ask how much. "Huit euros" was the reply. Eight euros?!? Surely not. The man realized we were Americans and asked if we were buying it to celebrate Obama (everyone in France is REALLY excited). We decided for 8 euros it was worth it. As Matthew was paying the man asked if we had seen the blood stains on the flag! We headed outside laughing that we must be Americans- we go to a French flea market and leave with an American flag!
Matthew counted and there are 48 stars. After some research we found out that the flag had 48 stars from 1912-1959 (which would include both world wars). I found a website run by vexillologists (flag researchers). We emailed the USA buff for the sight, who forwarded our email to a friend, Mr. Artimovich, who is a long-time antique American flag collector. Here is his response:
"...forwarded your message to me as he knows me as a long-time collector of antique American flags. 48 star flags were used from 1912 to 1958 in the USA. While the materials and methods of making flags changed over that 47 year period, the various commercial flagmakers changed over at various times, and very often offered flags of cotton, wool, silk, rayon, nylon, nylon/wool, etc, at the same time, so it could be very difficult, if not impossible, to pin down the date of manufacture of your flag. If it was home-made in France to celebrate liberation by American troops, then you would have to research the origin of both the fabric and sewing thread and perhaps even the different dyes used, but that would analysis would cost far more than the value of the flag. If there are any labels or manufacturers name on the heading or other distinguishing features about the flag, that might help. But all in all if the flag were used to welcome American troops I think it would be hard to tell whether the flag is 1918 or 1944 vintage - flag materials and methods did not change radically over that 28 year span. If it were a US made flag I could offer a fair guess that a flag made of wool bunting was more likely (i.e. 60-40) to date from WWI while a cotton bunting flag is more likely to be WW II."
Matthew and I studied the flag more closely, it is made of cotton, and it definitely seems home-made to us. It even appears to be made "backwards" so that the front of the flag would have the stars on the right side. Still, it is a pretty cool find, and for eight euros! Here are some pictures:

Play Date with Lisa

Bertrand had his little girl, Lisa, this weekend. This afternoon, Bertrand, Claire, and Lisa came over to our apartment. Lisa is about a year and half old, and she is adorable! We walked to a park that is close to our apartment. It was about 5:00 when we got to the park, but because of the time change it was already getting dark. We still had a good time watching Lisa play. It was especially funny watching her try to play with little boy that was also at the park. She kept touching him and poking his cheeks. She could not understand why he wouldn't play with her, or why he wouldn't go down the slide. Lisa doesn't say a lot of words yet, but her favorite word to say is "Papa". Everytime she sees a motorcycle, a bike, a man, or a tree (etc) she would say "Papa!". She also says "encore! encore!" (again!again!) everytime she goes down the slide. When we came back to the apartment, Lisa took Matthew's Braves hat. Of course we had to get a picture of her in a Clemson hat too! Here are some pictures of our play date with Lisa.

Apartment

Matthew and I worked really hard this weekend trying to get the apartment "finished". All day Saturday was spent hanging kitchen cabinets (which included drilling holes into cement walls!). Today Matthew build bed risers for the guest bed so we could store stuff under the bed. All of the work was well worth it. This is the first night that I have sat in our living room and not looked around and seen boxes everywhere! Here are some pictures, but there is also an open invitation to come see it for yourself!

We have INTERNET!!!!

We finally are connected to the world wide web! I posted some new blogs, but I wanted them to stay in order by date, so you will have to scroll down to read about our move and Bob and Colette's Wedding.

Update

For those of you wondering why I haven't posted anything in a while, it is because we moved into our apartment in Chamalieres 2 Wednesdays ago. While it is still a walking distance to come to the McDonalds in Place de Jaude to use wi-fi (which is where I am right now, unfortunately...) it is not a quick walk as it was before. I also have been very busy unpacking boxes and haven't found the time. We have ordered internet, and have gotten word that it has been turned on in the apartment, however we have to wait for something called a "Live Box" in order to use the internet.
So here we are, back at McDonalds. To make things so much better, in addition to the annoying music coming from the various play things in the kids' area, today is All Saint's Day, so as Matthew is straining to hear his parents through the headset, there are about 20 kids having their faces painted behind us. Apparently, having your face painted in France means screaming at the top of your lungs. Remember what I said about how cute French kids were??? I take that back. Now the yelling children are all dragging their chairs across the floor to get them in a circle to play a game. :/
I have been typing blogs on my computer of what has been going on the last 2 weeks, and as soon as we get internet I will be posting them, along with pictures. In addition to moving, we went to my uncle's wedding in Lyon last weekend. I have lots of pictures to post, so keep your fingers crossed that the Live Box comes next week!!!!
We miss you all a lot! We are really looking forward to having internet at the apartment so we can start calling everyone!
Much Love,
Kim and Matthew