Visiting Giverny

So, I’ve only got an hour to write this because I’m spending quite enough on the internet café (it’s about fourteen pounds I’ve spent now) and I don’t want to be paying them an extra two euros for another half an hour. Theoretically then, this entry should be short and sweet. To those of you who know me however, you can probably already guess that it won’t be (I have this terrible tendency to ramble on incessantly).

I shall begin by telling you of Giverny. We’d originally planned to head on over to Giverny (where Monet’s house, gardens and grave is located) on the Sunday. Our plan was to take the train at 1209 and spend our warm Sunday afternoon in Monet’s house and gardens. The French rail network had other ideas. We arrived to find our train sitting at the platform in complete darkness. We sat upstairs (in ferocious heat due to the lack of air conditioning) and, after asking a French lady sitting nearby, I worked out why the train was in darkness. It was suffering from a technical failure, which was also why said train never left the station. It sat on the platform for about half an hour before we were told that it would be delayed by about an hour. This was a lie. They eventually (about twenty minutes later) cancelled the train completely. So, no Giverny. We could have caught the 1409 train and, retrospectively, we should have, but at the time we didn’t think that’d give us enough time to properly look around his house. What did we do instead? Well we went to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen because it currently has an impressionist exhibition on and it also has a rather extensive collection of permanent art. I like Monet, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t prefer some of the paintings by other impressionists. We did see one of Monet’s paintings of the cathedral though, and that is a very nice painting. He also did paintings of the same things at different times of day and it really changes the painting. There’s a very impressive collection of artwork there and a lot of it leaves quite an impression, so if you like art and are ever in Rouen, it’s definitely worth a quick look.

We did, you’ll be happy to know, eventually get to Giverny the next day (Monday), but again drama! This time the problem wasn’t so much the French transport system as the weather. It rained in the morning which made me very happy because, like the UK, Normandy has had very hot weather, so the change in temperature was greatly appreciated. What was appreciated slightly less was the thunderstorm that accompanied the rain a little later on, when we were planning on leaving. After texting Mom and Dad repeatedly to ask if we should brave the weather and go anyway, the weather did a 180°. Given Normandy weather is like UK weather, I had already suspected that the weather might very well go from rainy to sunny in a matter of seconds (so I had wisely taken sun cream with me despite the poor weather), and it turned out I was right (and Mom and Dad’s encouragement well-founded). When we were on the train headed to Vernon, the weather was glorious… though perhaps a little too glorious. I had dressed for rain, not for 30°C. To get to Giverny, you first catch a train to Vernon, and then a shuttle bus. Only, there was no shuttle bus, or, more accurately, the only shuttle bus left to arrive would take over fifty minutes to reach our bus stop. Having eventually persuaded my colleagues that a taxi might be cheaper, we were in a taxi and on our way to Giverny. (Incidentally, the taxi was cheaper, though only by about seventy-five cents).

Giverny is a tiny little village and whilst Monet’s house and gardens are beautiful, they are full of tourists. I suppose it’s to be expected, but I was a little surprised by the sheer number of tourists. I was also greatly offended by certain American tourists. Two Americans struck me as quite rude in how they approached the French staff. One walked up to a member of staff and asked (in English), “Do you speak English?” I understand that they might not have known any French but surely they should know anglais and if they know anglais, it’s much more polite to ask, “Anglais?” than just asking in English. The other American didn’t even ask the French staff if they spoke English, she just blurted out a question in English. Even though it’s perhaps ruder to ask in English than in French if someone speaks English, but it’s certainly much ruder to not ask at all. I’m not expecting everyone to speak French, but I would expect people to maybe ask, “Anglais?” instead of just assuming that everyone speaks English. Anyway, rant over. The gardens are lovely. In fact, they are beautiful and there are plenty of dragonflies zipping about the water (which I liked, because I like dragonflies). There’s not huge amounts to say about it really. It’s well worth a visit because it gives you an insight into what Monet was looking at when he was painting (it’s also just very pretty), but it is very touristic and it might be better to go at a slightly obscurer time when there are likely to be less people about. His grave is nice and quiet though, so that’s fine to visit and it’s a fairly impressive grave actually, but it is important to keep in mind that it’s a family grave, so it isn’t just Claude Monet. Oh and the grave’s a ten minute walk from the house and gardens which isn’t too bad, unless it’s hot and then it’s just a little bit uncomfortable. I’ll try and write more about Giverny when I’m back in the UK (and not constrained by money and time), but aside from uploading photos and telling you of how many Japanese paintings there were around Monet’s house, there’s very little to add, so I’ll move onto my tours yesterday.

The only reason I want to mention my tours yesterday is because it was pretty international (Australians, Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders and Midlanders (from the UK)) and I had a very strange man join half-way through a tour. I was originally just giving a tour to a mother and daughter from Shrewsbury (right on the doorstep of my hometown) and they were lovely. They were also very wary (like all of us were) of the strange man that joined us. The mother from Shrewsbury in fact warned me (like my Mom would have) to keep well away from the strange man. Why you ask? Well, for one, he asked to look down my top. In front of the rest of the tour group. The French man I was touring gave him a right earful but, sadly, the strange man was a little hard of hearing. You can imagine I wasn’t best impressed, but I laughed it off because I didn’t really know what else to do apart from keep my distance and ask Eric (one of the French cathedral workers) to remove him if he became a problem. I managed him okay and, apart from trying to invite me to his house, he left me well alone. Just to stop everyone worrying, he’s the first (and hopefully only) person I’ve guided who’s behaved like this and everyone else in my tour group were both wary of him and warning me about him (as if I didn’t know to keep the hell away from him anyway). Aside from that, the cathedral staff and my colleagues are incredibly supportive. Guillermo’s already said I should call him over if I get a creep like that (which is highly unlikely) and if worst comes to the worst, the cathedral staff would have them removed from the cathedral. So yes, I don’t want to worry anyone (honestly I’m fine and I’m not stupid enough to go within five miles of anyone like that without the presence of a small army), but it was a funny little story that I thought was worthy of sharing. Seriously, no worrying, I’m fine and Rouen is perfectly safe. It was just one strange little man from Erdington who should have kept his thoughts to himself.

So yes. This has been a bit of a dramatic entry really hasn’t it? Trains breaking down, thunderstorms, strange little creepy slightly pervy-sounding men: it’s all in the life of a tour guide at Rouen cathedral!

My First Few Tours

I tried putting the keyboard in English but it just seems to confuse me more because the backspace key’s small so I keep making this annoying shape everywhere : « * ». Stars are lovely when they’re in the sky but when they’re all over a blog entry it would just make it look like I swear prolifically, which I don’t. Except when typing on this keyboard… I hate it SO much. No words in the English language are sufficient to describe my hatred for this keyboard.

Anyway, you’re not reading my blog to hear me moan about French keyboards… or at least I hope not because you really need to sort out your priorities if that’s the case. I’m on a break at the moment (I don’t usually have one at this particular moment) and this is because there’s a wedding in the cathedral, which means no tours. It’s good for me because being a tour guide is a lot more tiring than you’d probably imagine (though it has gotten easier with each tour). I’m in here with Guillermo and Dorothea (I can say his name properly now that I’ve seen it written down). This is the only access to internet we have and we’re all on a break at the moment so all of us but Jessica are in here. The internet café’s a little bit seedy if I’m honest. Well, it’s not that seedy but it is darker than you’d want it to be and the computers are so old. One day these will be in a museum (I’m convinced they already should be).

To the interesting bit, the tour guiding! It can be pretty tough going at times. I’ve been lucky so far in that all of my groups have been quite small (the maximum’s been ten), but Dorothea had a pretty large group today (maybe fifteen or so) and yesterday, Guillermo got a group of 30 Spanish tourists. To be fair, he did say “where are all the Spanish tourists?” shortly before and if that isn’t the kiss of death for a tour guide, I don’t know what is. They’ve all been fine. I’ve had a couple of people  tell me things or correct me, but in the cases where I was corrected, they were correcting my translations as I have been “guessing” what the English is as far as things like chapitaux are concerned (incidentally they’re apparently ‘capitals’ and not ‘chapters’ as I had been suggesting). I always point out when I’m roughly translating something, and I always point out when I’m not sure about something (such as when the cathedral and its statues lost their paint and what exactly caused it). All of my groups have been very attentive and all of them have been very good and punctual. What the English speakers do is arrive, notice our tour times, go away and come back when there’s a tour.

You’ll notice as well that I use the words “English speakers” and it’s because I haven’t just had British people, though they’ve all been English so far (no Scots, Welsh or N. Irish yet). I’ve had four Americans (one girl from Boston and a family with a quiet little nine year old from California). I’ve also had two Belgian couples (both natively Flemish speaking), two lads from Denmark and three Australians (as well as two British expats living in Australia). Most of the English people I’ve been touring have been from the South of England, but I had a couple from Manchester a few hours ago and I had a couple from Yorkshire yesterday. I had a lovely tour not too long ago with a family who had a six year old and I managed (somehow) to keep the six year old entertained for an hour (this is how long my tours typically last). I also gave a tour to a group of four Irish men and women who now live in London and that was lovely; one of the Irish women had a grandson who’d just graduated from the University of Birmingham as well. I’ve also toured a couple from Bath who I spoke to at length (as I’m a student at the University of Bath) and a father and son from Gloucester who were cycling around Normandy. It’s a small world we live in, really isn’t it?

I’d give you a tour, or a taste of my tour, but that’s cheating. I am, however, taking photos so that, when I go back to the UK, I can give friends and family virtual tours of the cathedral. It is a marvelous cathedral and it’s really nice seeing people’s faces light up when you share the cathedral’s little hidden secrets with them (though they could all afford to appreciate me taking them into the locked off areas a little more). I have already mentioned that parts of the cathedral are locked off haven’t I? They’ve had people breaking things off of the statues, so they’ve locked off three sections of the cathedral so that only people on guided tours can enter them and unless they’re on our guided tour, they have to then pay two euros for the privilege. That’s one of the sad things actually. We get a lot of tour groups coming in with their own guides, which loses us work and deprives those tourists of the opportunity to see the Chappelle de la Vierge, the Crypte and the Batistère. It can also be frustrating because sometimes when I’m giving a tour, the “Viking Cruises” tour is in my way and I have to ask my group to wait until they move. They’re generally quite good at accommodating us though.

So yes, I’m having a whale of a time. Every tour is different, even though the material is always the same. Every tour group reacts differently to what I tell them and when I ask them things, each group gives different answers (though often groups will say similar kinds of things). Speaking of which, I wish they’d stop asking me about the cracks in the ceiling. I don’t know why they’re there. If I ever remember to ask then the mystery shall be solved but until then, it’d be nice if I was asked something new that I can answer, like that time when one family asked me about the library staircase. That was nice. They’re all nice though. I thought I’d get bored of repeating the same material over and over again but I haven’t got bored of it yet, so we’re doing well! Aside from banging on again about how amazing the cathedral is and how lovely and helpful the staff are and how attentive the tourists are there’s not an awful lot left to say.

Ah no. I tell a lie. I’m actually speaking a fair amount of French (despite talking to my colleagues and tour groups in English). The cathedral staff speak French to me and I only speak French to them, so I’m getting in a fair amount of practice there even if sometimes my vocabulary is lacking in places. Then there’re the tourists. Sometimes when they  inquire about the French tours, Jessica isn’t there. In which case I speak French to them and answer their questions. I’ve also been speaking a fair amount of German, because when I work out that the tourists are German, I swap to German from French (which is causing my brain no end of confusion), but yes. I’m practicing all of my languages. Incidentally if it is ‘practising’ and not ‘practicing’, blame the French computer I’m using. It seems to prefer American English to British English. Traitorous computer…

So yes, I’m running out of time now so I’m going to post this as it is while I’ve still got the time to post it. Hopefully I’ll be able to write another entry on Monday (we have a day off), but we’ll see how it goes.

My first four days in Rouen

Well I’m off to a flying start. I’ve left my diary (as in the day-to-day diary I use to keep track of appointments and special dates and stuff) in the accommodation. Guess I’ll have to do this off the top of my head really.

So yes, I’m in Rouen. It’s not a massive city, but it is pretty large. I only know my way around certain bits of the city centre and that’s basically from where I live to the Cathedral. In case you weren’t aware, I’m volunteering for ARC. This essentially means that I provide free guided tours in English of la Cathédrale Notre Dame de Rouen. If you’d like the English translation, the guidebook given to me by the amazing Véronique assures me that it’s “The Cathedral de Notre Dame de Rouen”. Having read bits of the guidebook though, I’m fairly convinced it wasn’t translated by a native speaker of English. (If I remember to bring the guidebook with me to the internet café next time, I’ll try to quote some bits for you).

The city’s lovely. There are probably more old buildings than new and Rouen has a frankly unnecessary number of churches. Véronique was telling me that the city is known as the ville de cent clochers (which is something along the lines of “the city of a hundred bell towers”) and given the number of churches in the city, I can see how it got the name! I’ll have to upload photos when I get back home because I trust this internet café computer about as far as I can throw it and given how old the thing is, I doubt I could throw it all that far. You could always Google Image Rouen until then, I suppose, if you really can’t wait for the photos. On a fairly related note, the keyboard for this internet café computer is driving me mad. The “A” is in a different place, the “W” is in a different place and don’t get me started on the punctuation. I’m missing English keyboards already!

Anyway, so what have I been up to? Well the whole of Saturday I was travelling to Rouen and it was actually going fine until I arrived in Saint-Lazare. The journey I took, incidentally was a flight from Birmingham Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle, then a train from CDG to Gare du Nord, then a taxi from Gare du Nord to Saint-Lazare and that’s when the difficulties began. I’d already bought my ticket via Europe Rail, but when I arrived in the station I noticed that there was no train leaving at 19:20. The train on my ticket was supposed to be at 19:20. So I went and spoke to a man at the Information Desk and (refusing to speak French to me) he told me that the ticket wasn’t valid and that I had to buy a new one. You can probably understand that at this point I was quite stressed and quite annoyed. There is, however, a happy ending! The woman I spoke to in the SNCF ticket sales (who was nice and only spoke in French to me) sorted it all out! She spoke to her boss and he signed the ticket to say I could travel with my ticket on the 20:20 train, because the train I’d bought the ticket for didn’t exist. So it was all good in the end, but I was glad I spoke French! The whole thing would have been much more stressful if I didn’t. So yes, it was all okay in the end. I arrived in Rouen, met Véronique (the person looking after all the ARC volunteers) and William (the Spanish volunteer who’s not really called William, but he lets me call him William because I can’t properly pronounce his name) and headed over to the accommodation.

The accommodation isn’t what I expected at all! I was expecting it to be a flat of some description but we’ve been placed in student accommodation. The massive upside of which is that we each get our own rooms and the rooms are huge! The room I’m in now is bigger (probably nearly double the size) than the room I had during my first year at University. It really is quite big and it comes with its own sink and a fridge that doesn’t work. It’s very cool though, and it’s nice to know that I can lock my stuff away in my room and that it’s as safe as it can be. It’s practical, the accommodation but the toilets. Those toilets. “Leave them in the state they were in when I went in” you ask (in French), I don’t honestly think I could do anything noticeable to them. They’re not very pretty (not that toilets ever are), but the one toilet doesn’t flush properly. So yes, the toilets aren’t particularly fun. The showers are though. Gotta love a power shower. As for a kitchen, well there isn’t one in the accommodation as far as I’m aware, but we’ve been given access to a kitchen which the parish of the cathedral use. It’s nice enough and we’re quite used to eating breakfast, dinner and tea there now. So yes, all is good, especially since I located this internet café. €3 an hour isn’t too bad, it’s certainly less than it’d cost me to try it on my phone!

We haven’t had a complete tour of the cathedral yet, just a small informal one. The big one’s today at 14:30 and it’s in English. That’s another thing, when we’re in our group, we speak English. Dorothea (the German) and Jessica (the Frenchwoman) both speak English, French and German like me, but William only really speaks English and Spanish, though his French is far better than he claims. So we speak English. The tour we had yesterday was in French, which was good for me, particularly because I was interpreting for William when he couldn’t follow the French. I am glad the tour today’s in English though because Véronique has been telling us all the terms in French and I’m not 100% sure what the equivalent words are in English. One example is clef de voûte. I know what it is and what it looks like, but I haven’t the foggiest what it is in English and I can’t be sure it would be a direct translation either. This English tour’ll prove quite useful I think, if only for the vocabulary.

Incidentally, the cathedral is fascinating. There are so many tiny little details that you just wouldn’t see if you didn’t have a guide who knew where to find them. There are lots of little connections between the cathedral and the UK as well. The UK made some stained glass windows for the cathedral and there’s a memorial to the Commonwealth soldiers who fought and died in France in the First World War. That and they’ve got Richard the Lionheart’s tomb. Regardless of how long he actually spent in England, he was an English King, so that’ll be an interesting thing to point out to tourists (particularly tourists from the UK). I’m quite excited about today actually. There’s so much to learn about the cathedral and there are so many tiny intricate little details! I don’t think I’ll ever want to go to a big cathedral again without a guided tour. Oh and did I mention the cathedral maps out the development of Gothic architecture from the 12^th Century up to the 16^th Century? There’s even one bit of the cathedral from the 18^th Century which is in the Gothic style. On an unrelated note, when Véronique was giving us a tour of the surrounding monuments, I noticed she has an accent. When she says “la gothique” it sounds a bit more like “l’argotique”. I was initially quite confused, but yeah so, the cathedral’s amazing particularly and especially if you like Gothic architecture (who doesn’t?)

What else? Well we visited the nearby monuments and there’s this one place and it was basically a cemetery for poor people. It goes way back to the 1300s and what they basically did is dug a massive hole in the ground and shoved people in it, put a layer of dirt on, put more people in it (by people, I do mean dead people; they didn’t just throw healthy, living people into graves) and when the hole was full they’d dig another one. When they got desperate for space, they started removing the bones from the graves and used them to make the buildings that surrounded the cemetery. It’s had a long long history since then. The bones were moved outside the city (due to a law introduced in the 16^th Century), the site was used as a school several times throughout the cemetery’s history and it became a monument in the early 1900s. It’s a pretty important site because it’s the only example of a cemetery like that, which is in such a good state, in France and even, the tour guide Guillaume suggested, the world.

I’m trying to think of if there’s anything else I should mention… I can’t really think of anything… no wait, I’ve remembered some stuff! We’re starting our tours tomorrow and Dorothea and William are convinced that me and Jessica (as the French and English guides) will be busier than them. I hope I won’t be too busy because we have a small issue regarding keys. Three of the areas we can take our tourists to are locked off and normal tourists aren’t allowed in them. One area in particular has to be locked with a key (the others can simply be pulled to) and we only have one key between us. It’s going to be chaos, I can see it now. Oh well, it’ll be a fun kind of chaos. What else? Nothing really, just that the group I’m with are fantastic and that the cathedral’s brilliant and that I’m really excited about starting tomorrow.