Normally, I'm not one to do the traditionally "touristy" things. It took me nearly 9 months to go to the Xiangfan museum when I was in China, and it was free. But today, I did some of the more touristy things that there are to do in Arras.
Along with two other assistants who live in town, we went up to the Hôtel de Ville (which just happens to house the office de tourisme. It was amidst the (very large) saturday market - I can't wait to go when I have some actual money so I can buy things there. Apparently there's a Christmas market too, starting in November, which ought to be good fun. There were some other foreigners abound - mostly British and German. We even got shanghai'd by a couple of British mormons (I swear they are everywhere. The same thing happened to me in South Korea).
We bought a City Pass, which basically is a ticket for all the different things to do in town, including the belfry, les boves (which I'll explain in a minute), the art museum, and the cité musée. It was only 10euros with the help of my old student ID. The great thing about my Cat Card (UA student ID card) is that there is no date printed anywhere on it. It's becoming faded after six years, but hey, I've still got it, and it gets me discounts! We went up to the belfry, which offers a 360 degree view of the city of Arras, particularly cool on the market day when the market surrounds the entire thing.
Afterwards, we went a-wandering amongst the many vendors in the market. Actually, we went to find one of the girl's landlady who has a stall selling yarn. I occasionally knit, although I didn't last year at all, and I've bought some yarn to see what I can do. It's not as if I don't have a lot of free time.
We wasted a bit of time in the Furet de Nord bookstore, where I did see all of the Harry Potter series books. If you don't know, I have a 100 Things to do Before I Die list, and reading all the HP books in French is on this list. So far, I've only read the first in French. That's one of my goals to get through this year. I should start on that considering I'm bad at making time to actually read things.
As to touristy things, we also went to les boves, which are underground quarries under the city of Arras, once used to excavate limestone to build the churches and other buildings in town, starting in the 9th century. In WWI, the caves were used to house British soldiers, who then launched a surprise attack on the German line, who had no idea the caves were there. They also used them to cross into the no-man's land. In WWII, the residents of Arras used the caves to hide in during the bombings. Ingenious, isn't it?
I realize I've said nothing about actually teaching yet in this journal. But it's a travel journal, right? Plus, I'm not sure who's actually reading this (if anyone). I have gone to school and things have been slightly shocking and jarring in strange ways. Paperwork has been done and procrastinated and pushed around by various French government agencies, so we'll see how that all goes in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment