de Malans

Well, it's day two here in Eastern France. The largest city is Besançon which I have already visited. I am in Malans right now but will be in Amancey and Etournoz (I think that's the spelling) soon. Here is what I have done so far.

The drive from Paris to Besançon was five hours, but we stopped at a historic site called Alasia. It was where the last fight between the Gauls and the Romans took place. I got to see the Roman ruins from the fortresses established there. It was pretty cool for someone interested in history like me.

The night I got here, we ate cantaloupe with forks and knives before dinner, which was normal. Weird. I also gave my dirty laundry to Pauline's mom who washed it then literally hung everything out on the clothes line outside, even my socks and undies. Weird.

The next day, Saturday, I went out with Pauline and her neighbor. We went to a cinema that shows old American movies. We watched The Year of the Dragon with Mickey Rourke. I had never seen it but it was good. Thankfully, it was in English with French subtitles. After that, we went to a brasserie, which is like a large café or a small restaurant. We only got drinks. After that, we went to get dinner. We walked a long ways, but they knew a little place that has vegetarian burgers, so we ate there. They asked me if I wanted a drink but we had just had drinks. Weird. I guess that's what French teens do.

Today, I was thinking we would go to church but I found out that there is a shortage of French priests here, so they don't go to mass every week. Instead we went to a town called Ornans. A famous painter named Gustave Courbet lived there and painted the town. It was beautiful. There were rocks coming out of the hills that looked like citadels. We also went to the Courbet museum. There is a huge river that runs through the city. The floors in the museum are glass so that one can see the river below them.

So yesterday, Pauline and her brother were showing me some card games. I asked if I could teach them how to play ERS. When I was shuffling the cards and doing the bridge thing, Aimé and Pauline were in awe. They had never seen anyone shuffle cards like that and they spent the next ten minutes trying to do it. Today between dinner and dessert, they all were trying to do it. Only Aimé was successful. It was so funny. Then after dinner, we played ERS with their dad and he was laughing like a girl. Oh, good times, good times. Probably would have been less funny in English!

Here are some pics of the last few days.

Mo and I at Alasia.

A reconstruction of the Roman defense mechanisms at their fortresses.

The actual Roman ruins.

The statue of Vercingetorix, the famous Gaul leader.

L'église St. Laurent Ornans

The view from Chateau d'Ornans mais il n'y a pas de chateau!

Me at Chateau d'Ornans

The river Loue

Un pont (a bridge) sur La Loue

Les Maréchals: Odile (Pauline's mom), Jean-Luc (Pauline's dad), Aimé (10 year old brother who is like any other American ten year old), and Pauline.

The view from a lookout point on a road "pour ta jeep."

The forests look like rain forests. It is so green here. There is moss everywhere and everything grows.

Well, thats all for now folks! Talk to ya later, unless of course you don't answer the telephone, EHEM...Ben...cough cough...Dad...ehem...achoo...Mrs. Gus!