On Tours

Now that I have settled in completely and got to know the place a lot better, my initial impressions remain true. Tours is an exceedingly beautiful town and I feel lucky to be here. The river and islands in it are beautiful, the squares are lovely, the boulageries incredible, and any town that owns wallabies and a stuffed elephant gets a thumbs up from me.

There are, however, two negative contrasts with Britain that are very striking; I think these are symptomatic of a wider problem in France and not specific to Tours. Indeed, the fact that they affect wealthy Tours as well as Paris and Marseille just goes to demonstrate how deep the problems in French society are.

Number one is the number of homeless people. I am used to seeing quite a few homeless around Oxford, but the number in Tours seems staggering. They are literally everywhere with their dogs in tow.

Number two is the numbers of mentally disturbed people. I have seen three so far, compared with only having seen one or two all the time I’ve been in Luton, and none that I can remember in Oxford. Worse, I think, is the attitude towards them. One such woman got on the bus on my way home, wearing trousers almost to her armpits and loudly singing a song. The children all started shouting “it’s the madwoman!” when they saw her. They clearly knew her and thought it acceptable to laugh at her madness. While it was funny, it was also sad. I don’t really know what should be done with crazy people – I imagine the reason I see so few is that they are kept locked away, which is as bad as letting them loose to be laughed at all day.

One positive difference, though, is the number of disabled people at work. I’ve seen three in my not incredibly large staff room: a lady in a wheelchair, a science teacher with one arm, and a man with a speech impediment probably indicative of some other problems. In England I think we would just give up on them. It’s nice seeing them mixing in the staff room and being treated like everybody else; this is, after all, the way to break down prejudices and spread understanding.

On Germans

Before I came to Tours, I did not know I loved Germans. I already knew a girl from Munich (who is actually English), a boy at Oxford who studies Maths and Computer Science, Christian (an internet friend for those who I know in real life) and an exchange student from some years back. The number of Germans I know has now doubled, and I have still to meet a German I dislike. Hooray for Germans!

Cultural Renaissance

Having a lot of free time in general, holidays in particular, and access to libraries where borrowing DVDs and CDs as well as books is free, has led to a kind of cultural renaissance in my life. The number of books I am reading, DVDs I am watching, and new albums I am listening to, is increasing at a glorious rate.

I have little to say about music – there have been no major changes in my tastes of late – or about books, as I am mostly re-reading things or reading crap at the moment (although I have just started a book which promises to be utterly brilliant, but more about that when I’ve actually finished).

That leaves films. I have seen five of late: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, 2001: A Space Odyssey, City of God, The Seventh Seal and Children of Men.

I have little to say about The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. While it was depressing, it was very artificial, with the lines clearly carefully chosen to tug at heartstrings. Still, it wasn’t bad, so maybe a 6/10.

 I don’t quite know what to say about 2001. I read the book but can’t find a blog post about it; essentially, I was quite disappointed. However, if we ignore the fact that the basic premise of the story is startlingly ridiculous, and the conclusion requires some kind of hallucinogen to make sense, the film was actually quite a lot better. The sets were amazing, especially considering the age of the film. A 7/10 perhaps.

City of God was cinematic perfection. Wow. Great acting with a gripping storyline. It succeeded in all the places Slumdog Millionaire failed, in my view. It showed harsh reality without compromise, but managed not to be crushingly depressing by showing attainable ways for certain people to escape the favela. It was genuinely Brazilian, aimed at a Brazilian audience, not at a Western audience needing reassurance of its own superiority, and therefore entirely authentic - the actors were from favelas and needless to say, the film was entirely in Portuguese. I think this has instantly become one of my favourite films – after finishing, even though I needed to get to sleep, I watched all the extras. 10/10

I expected the Seventh Seal to be one of those classics which was mind-blowing at the time but impossible to watch fifty years down the line. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was watchable, although it was definitely rather too heavy on the metaphysics. The whole focus on death, despair and apocalypse got old quickly, especially as characters sounded like they were quoting philosophy textbooks rather than speaking; I suppose this reflects the post-war mentality, although in this case it’s surprising this film should come from neutral Sweden. Anyway, the sets weren’t bad and the film is worth watching if only for the existentialist angst, so 6/10. Also, I understood several words of Swedish! I know it’s similar to Norwegian, but I didn’t expect it to sound identical to it.

Children of Men was amazingly bad. I was fairly fond of the book, although critical of certain aspects, such as the ending and the speech. The film, on the other hand, quickly descended into sillyness with a full half hour of the main characters calmly walking though gunfire and coming to no harm. There were also some instances of characters quoting from the book, which of course sounded ridiculous. It’s a shame that such an interesting idea and such a good book should result in such a poor film.Credit where credit is due: on a visual level, the film was bordering excellent for its visual portrayal of future-Britain and refugee camps, with some great sets. That pushes up the final score to 3/10.

Poitiers

On Monday I went to Poitiers, the administrative capital of the neighbouring Poitou-Charentes region about an hour away by train, to meet up with Ella, a French student from Hertford who is a language assistant there.

As a town, Poitiers is immensely dull. In size it is smaller than Tours, which is about the size of Oxford or Luton, with few things to do in the city centre. On the other hand, it was great meeting up with Ella and chatting. We were never more than acquaintances at Oxford: the amount of time I spent talking to her on Monday was probably greater than the amount of time we’d ever talked to one another before. However we did get along well; we would exchange small talk before classes and I could always count on Ella to sign a few letters for Amnesty. She seemed reasonably content overall in Poitiers, except for a few minor issues such as we all have on our year abroad. I was also immensely jealous to learn that she was accommodated by her school in a spacious room with a large common area and kitchen for a mere €135/month! Although the furnishings are a little weird and she has no internet, this is amazing.

I got home from Poitiers, ate, then went out to the Cafe des langues, where we assistants usually meet each Monday evening. However, as it was the holidays, nobody I knew was there! Initially I was disconcerted but then the whole point of the night is to meet new people. I ended up talking to a Libyan with a crazy accent about Gaddafi and then met a young French-Pakistani woman who knows one of my students. Overall this was pretty brilliant.

Nantes

Yesterday, I went to Nantes with two German assistants. Nantes is quite a bit further down the Loire, nearly on the Atlantic, and took about two hours to get to by train. It’s also the sixth largest city in France and as such made a very nice contrast with Poitiers; it was very lively, and we actually didn’t have enough time to see everything we wanted. There’s a Chateau there where the Dukes of Brittany used to live when it was independent, which we visited, before heading to “The Machines of the Island”. This is a fantastically innovative development taking place on an island in the Loire. There are three parts, of which one has already been completed: a GIGANTIC MECHANICAL ELEPHANT. Yes, you read that right. It is three stories tall, moves it trunk and ears, and even has eyelashes. Furthermore, about forty people can sit on it at once and it takes them for rides around the island! I am so fantastically enthralled by this elephant that I can barely express myself. All cities have become so similar, with such similar attractions, that something extraordinary like this really enthuses me, and perhaps even makes me feel brighter about humanity in general and our capacity for invention and fantasy in particular. Unfortunately we couldn’t go on a ride because of the nasty weather – lots of wind and rain – but we still saw him. The two other parts of the island should be ready by 2010 and 2016 respectively; the former is a GIGANTIC carousel with several levels composed of various sea creatures, the latter a GIGANTIC metal tree covered in plants with two metallic herons on top which visitors will be able to sit on and, allegedly, fly around the tree on. So, Nantes is definitely worth checking out in the near future.

I also had a delicious Nantais meal – some regional fish for the main and something called crème nantaise which the restaurant may have invented.

The last thing we did was go to a chocolate exposition which was random and a bit of a rip-off, although we did each quite a bit of chocolate.

So yes, despite the quasi-tempest, I really enjoyed Nantes, as did the two girls (who, tangentially, sang Ode to Joy for me). We didn’t have enough time there though, so I will definitely have to go back some time.