Farewell to Tours

It is difficult to believe that I have been here for four weeks now. I only have two more days of classes and then on Wednesday I take the train to Paris for the next phase of my stay here. I have no idea how convenient (or potentially costly) my internet access will be in Paris. As a result my blog entries may be limited.

Tours has certainly been a friendly city to me...a "France on training wheels," perhaps. It is large enough, some 400,000 people, to have a critical urban mass that I like. And, the people here have been friendly, even helpful, contrary to so many opinions of France. Of course, Paris can be different and difficult, but so can NYC to the average American. My only complaint about Tours is trying to cross the streets...all streets have crosswalks but the right of way is certainly negotiable as nearly every other car will try to cut one off at the knees (while other cars patiently sit and nicely wave one through an intersection). It certainly helps to be nimble.

This week-end the Puissant family brought us students to their "country house" near the wine village of Bourgueil, some thirty miles west of Tours. Their house was part of a larger complex of buildings for a nineteenth-century factory owner who had a stable, barn, hay loft, etcetera. Over the last twelve years the family, with the help of students at times, remodeled and totally redid the some 150-year old two-story building into a lovely weekend home--it is not uncommon for the French middle class to have a second home in the country. Not only do Madame and Monsieur Puissant have a home there but so do their daughter and son-in-law in the same complex of buildings.

What is most impressive about the house are the huge oaken beams that hold up the second floor--two of them measure 18x18 inches and are twenty feet in length. Smaller beams are latticed atop the larger ones and at one point all of the smaller beams had been taken down, sanded, scraped, and refinished. Too bad nearly all the work was done by the time of my arrival! Madame Puissant has a large, open-air kitchen with a huge island where she makes her magic happen.

What made the week-end more memorable was a four-inch snowfall on Saturday. It is often cold enough in Tours for snow but usually there is not a mass of moist air to accomodate it...this was the most snow they had seen in several years. I took advantage of the occasion by a long walk through the mostly-empty village. If one took away the wires and telephone poles the village certainly would still fit in the nineteenth century. In the center of the village I found the church (foundations dating to the 12th century), the city hall, and the library. A few random cars rolled by on the icy streets and on more than one occasion I nearly took a nasty spill due to the slick roads. I certainly was not dressed for a stroll in the snow as I had either my dress shoes or my running shoes and I chose the latter. After about ten minutes of walking I may as well have been wearing sandals with socks for my feet became damp and incredibly numb, cutting off my foray. I took a lot of photos and maybe, someday, I'll be able to post them. As a result of the weather we spent a good deal of time indoors eating and drinking. I can think of worse ways to spend a cold winter's day...

Monday was back to the reality of school and the need to start packing and making preparations for Paris. I'll post my address when I've confirmed my apartment...