France <- Home

My Life in France

(skip the babble, David, and show me the Pictures!)

We arrived in France on September 4th, 2003. Sasha did classes at the Ecole des Chartes (school of charters) for the first six months, and then began working on her dissertation, which examines perceptions of mad people in the middle ages through the use of criminal records. I, meanwhile, found a job with an international organization as a statistician, which kept me fairly busy.

We had two apartments while living in France. The first apartment was small but quite nice, with a well appointed kitchen which worked hard the whole year. The neighbourhood was not terribly loud, although there was a busker who played the trumpet (badly) who tended to set our nerves on edge. It does have to be admitted that he got better, although his sense of rhythm never worked itself out. We later determined this was a common phenomenon amongst French buskers.

We then had a wild adventure trying to rent our second apartment, in the suburbs of Paris, but it eventually worked itself out and we spent the second year living in Chatou, France. Chatou is a quiet town (village?) about 25 minutes by train from Paris, and was a pleasant place to live.


A History of Events:

In July of 2005 we took two weeks off our respective works to travel up to Denmark, where Sasha's family had rented a cabin. We spent a week at the cottage, and then headed to Copenhagen for a week. Many photos were taken.

We rented a car and took a trip to the Yonne region of France, which includes the Chablis vineyards and a plethora of medieval towns including Auxerre.

To celebrate Bastille Day (fete national) the eiffel tower was rigged with a slew of fireworks. Some friends of mine camped out for much of the day, guarding a great spot, and in the evening I practiced my firework photography on the Eiffel Tower.

In mid-June, I took a couple of days off from work, and we took a train down to Blois, in the Loire Valley. We rented a car and for four days drove around seeing all the castles, and even managed to stay the night in one. Needless to say, many pictures were taken.

There was a free concert under the eiffel tower in early June, with lots of big names, so we headed down, and I took several pictures.

In early May all of Sasha's family came to visit, and there was much random wandering around Paris and France, and I took lots of photos.

In late May we went to see the French Open (Roland Garros) while our friend Jason was visiting. Sasha wrote a letter to a friend, describing all the action, and I put them together into a sort of story of our Roland Garros 2005.

Between March and June, 2005, we had visitors almost straight through. As such, we did a whole host of trips, both in Paris and around. One of the more extensive trips was a visit to the beaches of Normandy, to see some of the sites and learn some of the history of D-Day.

We took a palm sunday trip down to Fontainebleau.

Finally, finally, I managed to sort out the photos from when Fin and Misty visited us over Valentine's day. From 500 photos taken I managed to whittle it down to 129.

We took a quick little day trip to Arras one snowy Saturday in March. It's a small town located near the Belgian border, with some interesting architecture as a result.

Well, we're definitely committed to returning to the US, now. We have rented an apartment in the university town of Ann Arbor, so Sasha can finish her PhD. I've posted a photo and description of the house. We'll return in late August, early September.

The superbowl explained. In French.

Well, it may not be an amazing vacation in France, but we bought a new table and a new floor lamp, and a new vase.

The Louvre recently re-opened the Gallery of Apollo, after a decade-plus restoration. We popped in to see it, and I took a short (1 minute) video of the interior. If you want to know all about the restoration, the Louvre has a 4 page press release which details the restoration, and has photos of the room and some of its treasures (specifically, the crown jewels).

The photos are finally up from our trip to Venice!

And, of course, all the other photos I've taken in France.




France <- Home