after a week of no clothes, they finally arrived and i was able to settle in. i'm living in a small town called Laon, population 30,000. it's a very pretty town from medieval times that has expanded over the years (le duh). the original medieval city is located on top of a hill, still surrounded by the defensive walls from long ago, while the rest of the town is located below. this means that there is a 'la ville en haut' (upper city) and 'la ville en bas' (lower city). you can get from one to the other by climbing a number of stairs (which i have not done yet) or by taking the POMA which is a tram, one of the last ones that work in France. for your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures:
on the left it is a picture of the wall (rémpart) that surrounds the medieval city. above is one of the 4 doors through the wall, though only 3 remain in existance.
if you're interested in more pictures of Laon, you can look at the facebook album here.
in Laon, i'm living in a highschool called Julie Daubié which is a professional highschool, meaning that all the miscreants wind up here. the students here will all wind up working blue collar jobs. at school they learn such things as how to sew, vacuum cars, answer the phone etc. no kidding. and they ALL smoke because they're bored out of their minds and have a small salary (due to cleaning 'internships') which allows them to afford cigarettes. however, having said all that, the highschool is very nice! i live in a dorm like area for teachers or transient people that work for the school. i have a small room with a desk and small kitchen. other than the fact that the heating works only twice during the day, i am quite content here. the highschool is located in the medieval city (right from the big cathedral in the picture above) and is therefore close to everything worth doing in Laon. there's a church right next door so i get the charming benefit of ringing bells from time to time.
though i spent the summer fretting about being able to teach properly, things are working out all right. but, i will write about that a little later. it deserves a post all on its own :)
à bientôt!
though i spent the summer fretting about being able to teach properly, things are working out all right. but, i will write about that a little later. it deserves a post all on its own :)
à bientôt!
4 comments:
i was just looking up where laon, france was, and comparing it to the places i've been - turns out you're relatively close to one of my favorite spots which is etretat. (ok, the "relatively" is a bit of a stretch here, but, hey the french train system is good.) anyway it is rather touristy but it's full of gorgeous pebble beaches and white cliffs and more creperies than you could shake a stick at. just a suggestion if you want to get away sometime. looking forward to more blog posts.
I'm looking forward to the return of le blog.
Je t'aime
wow, etretat looks amazing! you know, i work 2 days a week on tuesday and thursday which leaves me wonderfully long weekends. i do believe that i will be going to etretat for at least one of those.
ps- thanks for the suggestion! let me know if you have any more :)
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