Adventures with Andre-Day 6-January 14th, 2018

Today was the designated day to hang out with out host families and all I knew was that we were going hiking. I set my alarm pretty early despite going to bed at 2 am because I had know idea when the day was supposed to commence. Celine, our program director, also said that big breakfasts on Sunday mornings were a thing in France and as a result, I was paranoid of sleeping through it.

Fortunately for me, breakfast was just the regular brioche and coffee. After breakfast, I took my weird-ass shower that I’m unfortunately used to by this point. I also very aggressively brushed my teeth after skipping my bathroom use  the night before out of fear. I hung out in my room for a bit afterwards, catching up on my blog posts. If you haven’t guessed by now, writing blog posts is literally the only thing I do when I’m home.

Two hours later it was time for lunch. According to my host family agreement, I get breakfast everyday and dinner twice a week. BU provides me a stipend of 120 euros a week for the rest of the meals. Today was special because I would be eating all three meals with my host family.

For lunch we had: “Omelette du fromage”, some weird pastry with something inside it, and sausage. The lunch was followed by bread and cheese of course. Then A-M brought a really good pastry for dessert (apparently lunch has a dessert course??). I don’t know the name for it, but it was like the flaky, buttery part of a pie crust and super delicious.

During lunch, I found out we would be going to a museum. Where and which one, I had no clue.

I grabbed my coat and shoes, then Andre, Jessica, and I left for the museum. I also learned shortly after that they had a garage that opened up to the street behind the house. I hopped in shotgun and we took off. Andre passed me the aux cord and said, “Yo Will, bump some fire tunes”. Just kidding, I sat in silence as usual.

While we were driving, Andre would point to a mountain range and say its French name. He talked to Jessica a bit in French as well. I just listened, doing my best to understand. Another thing that’s interesting is that pretty much everyone in France (maybe Europe too) drives manual transmission cars. I do not know why though.

We drove for about 30 minutes and parked somewhere in a little town. We walk over and suddenly this giant palace/fortress type thing comes into view. I quickly learn that this is the Chateau de Vizille, home to the French Revolution museum.

Here’s some pictures of the outside.

The chateau is super beautiful and has large grounds with hedges that accompany it. We walked around for a bit before entering the museum inside.

These swans probably symbolize something about the French Revolution.

Unfortunately for me, the entire museum was in French. It was a little annoying because I couldn’t read the signs, but it was mostly artwork so I just observed. Fortunately, I was given a single handout with a few sentences in English about each exhibit.

This handout plus some wikipedia browsing taught me the significance of the chateau. The castle was built in the 1500s by the Duke of Lesdiguieres. He also built the park like area and canal through the grounds. Later in the 1700s, it was purchased buy an enterprising commoner, Claude Perier. He put a fabric making factory in there. It went from being one of the largest estates to just a factory in two centuries, this can be credited to the rise of the bourgeoisie in France.

Later in 1789,  the Meeting of the States General of Dauphiné, an important meeting that was a prelude to the French Revolution, was held there. Essentially a bunch of notable people from the area met and agreed to call a new political order that became the French revolution. This is why the museum is located here.

That’s enough history lessons for now, so here’s a bunch of pictures of cool stuff I saw at the museum.

These section was supposed to demonstrate the differences in the way the revolution was depicted in art. It’s hard to tell, but those last two paintings are massive.

This Black Mirror-esque depicts some lady who stabbed a guy in a bathtub. 

I don’t really know what this is supposed to depict, but it was pretty metal so I took a pic.

Obligatory mirror selfie

Apparently in the 1900s, many French presidents would summer here as seen below.

There was one piece of art that made this museum trip 100 times better. While browsing a random part of the museum, I spotted the first painting I actually recognized.. The reason I recognized it was because the painting was used as a popular internet meme a few years ago.

Her is an example of the meme, a play on “Fuck Bitches, Get Money” (pardon my French lol)

Here’s the actual painting.

This is a self portrait by the artist Joseph Ducreux and it’s pretty damn baller for a painter from the 18th century. Seeing this painting legitimately made my day.

After we finished the museum, we walked the grounds for a bit. There was a big fenced in area that had a ton of deer, as well peacocks and other birds. There was a ton of pigeons and I made Andre laugh by saying I didn’t like pigeons in French.

Even though I couldn’t read any of the French signs, I would rate the Chateau a solid 8/10 and a great day trip.

We hopped back in the car and Andre began to drive us home. He took a weird turn at some point and said something in French. The only word I recognized was “Napoleon”. Shortly after, he pulled over to to some little grassy area by a lake. Right in front was a huge statue of Napoleon on horseback. Figures. Fortunately for me, the little sign in front of it had an English portion. Apparently the statue was there a long time ago, but was taken down when Napoleon stopped being cool in France. Then about 30 years ago, somebody found the statue in a garage or something and returned it to the original spot.

I thought it was cool enough to take a selfie with.

Here’s a nicer picture of the statue

After admiring the statue for about ten minutes, we hopped back in the car and headed home for real this time.

When we got home, we ate dinner shortly after. We had some variation of quinoa wrapped in ham, then slow-cooked chicken with rice. We had the typical bread and cheese, then the really good pastries again.

After dinner, I went to my room to type up a blog post and get ready for my first day of school tomorrow. The University is about 20 minutes from me and I had to figure out how and when I would get there.

In anticipation of school, I went to bed pretty early.