Le Mistral and Other Sea Breezes

Le Mistral is a sharp, cold wind that comes from the north, usually in the winter, and blows through the Rhone and Durance river valleys. In Provence, the Mistral usually comes after a cold rain and clears out all of the clouds. This is partly where Provence get the reputation of being sunny even in the dead of winter. I've noticed in my month of being here that the weather typically chooses an either/or scenario: rain or sun; unlike in Vienna, there are no cloudy, rainless days; only sunny, cloudless days. I think it makes a difference in the locals' temperament.

The Mistral also has the reputation of bringing good health, because the winds are dry, which helps circulation, and they clear away pollution and other nasty things that might develop in urban areas. The winds also work similarly to the Föhn, but in the opposite direction: it can dump lots of snow from the Alps onto lower altitudes; or, the Sirocco, which comes up from Africa over the Mediterranean, rather than down from the Bay of Biscay.

All this talk about le Mistral has made me think about other types of sea breezes; or, brises marines as they are known in France. In fact, a rather funny story springs to mind. I've been having a good time interviewing my new students. Some of them have great English skills, some have mediocre ones, and some...don't get me started.

Point is this: I have a number of students who are Corsican, and one of them was telling me how much she loves crime dramas because she is Corsican, and things like The Godfather are like a slice of life in Corsica...okay...I will leave the stereotyping of italophone peoples to those better versed in Mediterranean cultures. The problem of organized crime, my student was telling me, was really widespread in Corsica about 20 years ago. The crime family brise marine controlled basically everything, but they've more or less been shut down. She didn't know how to say their name in English, so I offered: "Sea Breeze?"

"Yes," she said. "There is no more Sea Breeze in Corsica."

At face value, this is hard to believe. But in this case, it's most likely a good thing.

Marseilles in Pictures

I got another chance to go to Marseilles last Wednesday for my medical exam at the OFII - Office Français de l'Immigration et l'Intégration - not all that much fun, but necessary. 

First, they make you take an x-ray of your lungs to be sure you don't have tuberculosis (I don't); then they give you a very quick medical exam: they take your vitals, ask about your overall health, vaccines you've had, and then they hurry you out the door. You then fill out a form and get your pièce de séjour and then you're legal. 

I spent a couple of hours wandering around the city after getting my visa, and took pictures of course!

Eglise des Réformés:

Arc de Triomphe de Marseille:

Cathedral de Marseille:

Palais de la Bourse:

Vieux Port, which is currently obstructed by road construction:

What's in a Name? Part II

The name a person goes by seems to be a perennial topic for me, and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's an existential thing. Who are we? Who am I? Who are you? A lot of how we see ourselves resides in what we call ourselves.

Here in France, there is a different naming culture and naming tradition than in other parts of the world. In the 19th century, Napoleonic law dictated that children born in France could only be named from a list of 20 or so names he personally chose--most of them religious--and spelled "correctly" by a priest or other notary public. This had been common in Europe since the middle ages, but Napoleon was among the first European rulers to mandate the practice into law. To differentiate, people gave their children multiple first names. This is why the French are so keen on hyphenated names to this day. Claude-André, Anne-Mireille, and the classic Jean-Pierre, to name a few...

One thing I've noticed is that, since I have my list of students' names before I get to meet the actual students, there is a gender difference between the United States and France. There is also a heavy Italian and North African  influence in this area.

Here are some common boy's names I thought were girl's:

Andrea
Alexis
Camille
Jules-Antoine
Maxime
Morgan
Yanisse

And some common girl's names I thought were boy's:

Dorine
Laurence
Marion
Patrice
Sandy
Siwar
Valentine

I'll get the hang of it some day soon. Maybe by the end of the year.

Il était une fois...

In 1720, the bubonic plague came to Provence--but--it did not come to La Ciotat.



An oriental ship docked in the harbor of Marseille unloaded cargo and, unintentionally, the black rats (and fleas) who spread the disease. Word spread through Provence, and the administrators of La Ciotat decided to close the gates of the town, not to let anyone in or out for an entire year, until the disease had run its course. Only one person in La Ciotat died from bubonic plague: a little girl, who has a monument dedicated to her downtown.

Because only one person died, the town celebrates this historical moment every year in a celebration called "1720" and this year there was a musical as well as a medieval village constructed--sort of like the French version of Medieval Times (or Heritage Hill for those who know Green Bay). I did not go to the musical because tickets were sold out and had to be reserved ahead of time. The village was also apparently smaller than usual, because they are doing two shows next year, one in the spring, since Marseilles is going to be the European Capital of Culture in 2013.

 The 1720-1721 Peste de Marseille was the last recorded outbreak of the disease in Europe, from the original epidemic in the 14th century through the Middle Ages to the 18th century and beyond. The bacteria still exists today, and can still be deadly, but it is normally treated with intravenous antibiotics and is only spread from human to human in later stages. That is to say, modern doctors can (in most cases) pinpoint and stop the disease before it becomes deadly or contagious, but it still needs to be done in 24 to 36 hours.

I went down to the Vieux port with the other assistants. We had a good time taking in all the sights and sounds (and smells) of the past. Food, music, and lots of townfolk, sailors, fisherman, and artisans livened up the port into a real party.

E. with donkey

There were butchers, bakers, candlestick makers...no, seriously! Plus washerwomen, glass blowers, traditional instrumental musicians, plague victims rising from the dead to dance... R. and I even got "kidnapped" by Portuguese pirates! It goes to show: anything can happen in a place like La Ciotat!

washerwomen

bakers

That's a gaita, not a bagpipe.

Meeting in Marseille*

Last week, I went with the other language assistants to Marseilles for our orientation meeting. We didn't get to see much of the city, since we were in meetings the whole day, but I met some interesting people! 

There are a lot of administrative steps to becoming the proud owner of a titre de long séjour and they're all basically unavoidable. I hate to imagine asking for a long stay visa without the help of a government institution like the regional school board (or similar). I have not had any snafus yet (crossing fingers), so the forms to fill out are less of an evil than a number of other things I can think of--like smoking in an enclosed area where there are small children (seemingly also unavoidable in France).

Marseilles has the reputation of being a rough-and-tumble sort of place. By that, I mean there is a lot of mafia and gang violence, not to mention petty thieves and mainstay small crimes. It is also one of the most diverse cities in France, as well as an active seaport. All of these factors have built the city quite a reputation! The European Commission must see the good side of all this, because Marseilles has been named the European Capital of Culture for 2013. 

Aside from running into a Nigerian woman at a bar who chatted us up and then had no money to pay for her drinks, nothing out of the ordinary happened to us while we were in Marseilles. The train ride from La Ciotat is about a half hour, which makes it quite a nice little day trip. And, since there is a lot of construction going on to gentrify the city for its honorific Capital of Culture year, I am glad I'm not living there, for the moment being. Aside from being annoying, I wonder how it will improve the city.

Pictures to come! I did not bring my camera this time, but I have a medical appointment in Marseilles at some point (immigration stuff) and will return to the city...certainly for other reasons as well!


*In French, the name of the city is written without an "s." Can anyone tell me why an "s" is added in English?

L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (1895)

For those interested in seeing the original Lumière film:

The film is in the public domain. You might remember it if you saw the movie Hugo directed by Martin Scorsese. 

PS - the train station doesn't look like that anymore!

A Look Around La Ciotat

I took a walking tour around La Ciotat a couple of days ago to get a feel for the town. As you'll see, it's quite a cute little area, right on the Mediterranean.

beach at sunrise

It is still warm enough to go to the beach. I went on Thursday. Well, it's pushing it to go for a swim (none of the locals are going in) but I went in with E., the British assistant. I guess since we're from colder climates, we're not so picky temperature-wise.

Here are a few pictures of La Ciotat:

Jardin de Ville

Cinema Lumière

La Ciotat is known as the "birthplace of cinema" because the Lumière brothers filmed here in the 1890s. The "original" cinema is downtown, and one of the very first films, Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (Arrival of a train in La Ciotat) was shown here. It was such a new and amazing technology that, according to legend, the audience thought the train was coming right at them (live) and jumped out of their seats. 

church

La Ciotat is also a resort town, and most of the downtown is either beach or harbor. There are rocky coves you can visit on a ferry, a little island off the coast (l'Ile Verte) and a hiking trail between La Ciotat and other towns, Cassis and Toulon, and Marseille. The area reminds me a bit of the Cinque Terre in Italy, which I visited in 2011.

The Phone Shop around the Corner

I never realized how convenient it was to live in a city-city until I went to three phone shops on my excursion Saturday and didn't get a phone until the third. This after I spent several hours in Paris trying to figure out how to get a SIM card. My experiences?

 1) The first one had three people working, but one was "tech assistance only," one was helping another customer, and one was shooting the breeze with the tech guy. (By the way, France, expressing poor customer service skills to an American is just going to fuel more stereotypes!) I left without being served.

2) At the second place, it was just a girl about my age who had run out of SIM cards and said her shipment would be in next Thursday. She was nice, but I figured I'd hedge my bets that another shop would still have them, rather than wait almost a week for a phone.

3) The third place is run by a young couple with a bunch of kids. They cater to a phone shop crowd, i.e. older clients from the Maghreb who use a pay phone to call home to Morocco, etc., once a week. The guy could tell I spoke English right away, so we conducted business in English. His was pretty good--he had a bumper sticker on the register that said "Don't Mess with Texas," which makes me wonder if he studied there. He thought I was Irish, which I thought was hilarious. Long story short, I got my phone.

I'm expecting things to be more expensive in La Ciotat, since it does cater to weekenders and holiday-goers who find themselves held captive in their little bourgeois bungalows. However--I know that Marseille is more working-class, and, thus, will probably be cheaper. So far, I have not been outraged at prices. But then again, I'm used to what they charge in Vienna...