July 1, 2006

A business trip to France

On the Saturday before Fathers Day I boarded a plane out of Detroit Metro and flew to Nantes in France, arriving at Nantes Atlantique the Sunday afternoon of Fathers Day.  I was heading to a small village south of Nantes called Nuaille which is near the city of Cholet, but I had the afternoon and evening of Sunday in Nantes so I caught a taxi into the city and found a nice little tavern to watch some World Cup games.  I speak no French at all really, but I have this belief that with a positive attitude, a friendly manner, and the ability to laugh at my own general dumbness that all will turn out well.  Clearly it just wouldn't do to sit around my little hotel room and miss out on French hospitality, cuisine, and of course the wine!

The tavern was a really nice little place filled with Frenchmen, none of whom spoke any English, but nevertheless just as interested in World Cup and wine as I was.  I found a seat between an elderly gentleman from Nantes and a younger guy from Chad, and we watched the Brazil/Australia match.  It was a good game and we all got along just fine even though we didn't share a language.  The wine was good, the soccer was good, and it was a lovely day in Nantes, France. 

The proprietor even asked me in French if I wanted the seat reserved for the later game, which was France/Korea.  I guess he figured I was an OK guy for a foreigner, and I was clearly getting along fine with his regulars, so I said Oui and set off to have dinner before the later match began.  I found this little place a couple blocks away and had an awesome dinner of Lotte (Monkfish) in a delicious white sauce, French bread, and vegetables.  After a truly delicious dinner I returned to the tavern and had a great time cheering for France along with about 70 other patrons.  The game got over a bit late and I ended up walking several miles to get back to my hotel, but I didn't care.  It was an awesome first day in France.

Monday morning I was picked up at my hotel by Daniel, aka L'Professor, who was the teacher for the class I took.  He drove me to Nuaille and over the next week I learned a lot from him about the vision system from Visio Nerf, the company that hosted my visit.  Danielle and I later traveled to the east side of France to work on an application for a Peugeot supplier in Nogent and we watched the France/Spain match over a fine bottle of French Medoc.  That match was truly awesome and the little town we were staying in rang with the horns of every car in town until about midnight as the locals celebrated a great win over a competent Spanish team.

After three days in Nogent, I was asked to drive all the way across France to the west coast and visit a hatchery in Laudiac, which is in Brittany near the border with Normandy.  I spent a day traversing the country again and saw a lot of beautiful country on the way to the coast.  I got to see a good portion of France due to all this driving and I even made a few short evening drives after class in Nuaille to have dinner in neighboring towns so I could experience a bit of France while I was there.

 Above is the Loire River, called the last untamed river in France because it has no dams along it's course.  The Loire Valley is famous for it's wine and it's castles.  This photo was taken on the road to Chinon, the city that Joan of Arc (Jean D'Arc) traveled to in order to meet Phillip VII to deliver a message from God that France must be united as one country again and that Phillip was the rightful king.

This statue of Joan of Arc stands in the center of Chinon, which is a lovely town on the banks of the Loire River.  I spent a Friday evening there on the way to Paris, where I met Danielle on Monday to journey on to Nogent.

Laudiac was close enough to Normandy that I took a couple extra hours driving back to Cholet and visited Normandy Beach, the site of the D-Day landings.  I walked through the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial which was a humbling experience, so many graves of good men who gave their last measure to free France.  I was somewhat surprised to see that many families from France and Germany were there with their children to show them what freedom for Europe cost in human terms.  There were also several old vets there including one really elderly man with a cap that identified him as a Pearl Harbor veteran from the USS Utah!

No trip through the borderlands between Normandy and Brittany would be done justice without seeing Mont St. Michelle, a spectacular fortress and abbey originally founded in 708 AD and substantially fortified during the Hundred Years War in 1420.  It's huge and very impressive with it's beautiful architecture and surrounding country.  Brittany is a lovely part of France.

Don't believe what people say about France and the French people.  I was treated very well in almost every interaction I had with people, and the cuisine, the wine, the many beautiful places to see and of course the wonderful French people make France an awesome place to visit.

Greg