How to Fill a Friday

Last week I won a free ticket from my program to go see the Salon International de l'Agriculture.  The Salon is basically a ginormous fair at which all regions of France (métropole & outre-mer) are represented and showcase their food, wine, livestock, etc.  France, being the second most agricultural country in the world, is extremely proud of its agricultural diversity, wares, what have you.  Everyone that I talked to about it described it as being like a state fair, which got be super excited because who doesn't love a good fair? The more I thought about it, though, the more I began to doubt the French's ability to throw a state fair.  People have to be nice and talkative and friendly towards strangers at fairs.  The French avoid being all of these things towards strangers, so I was pretty skeptical.  But, I had a free ticket, I've always wanted to pet a cow, and I wanted to sample some free food, so I went last night.

It. was. awesome.

There were thousands of people, ridiculous amounts of food and drink, live regional music every time you turned the corner, and tons of animals.  Everyone was singing together around the live musicians, dancing around, talking to the vendors, and being extremely social.  There were stands were farmers were selling their specialties, entire restaurants were set up all around the edges of the pavilions, and if you looked longingly at something or asked nicely, you'd be offered a free sample of something they were selling.  I tried duck sausage, saffron honey, tome cheese, lavender honey ice cream, and the most delicious candy covered almonds ever!  Also, I finally pet a cow :) Actually, I probably pet 5 different types of cows.  And lots of goats, sheep, pigs, horses, donkeys and puppies! This place was packed! My housemate and I only visited 3 out of the 7 pavilions because they're all so huge and there simply wasn't time to see them all.  But only going to 3, we still experienced a lot of this fair.  The animals were probably my favorite part.  Either that, or the section of the Régions françaises d'Outre-mer that was dedicated to Tahiti and Martinique because it was basically one huge loud party!

I'm pretty sure this is a yak of some sort.  He had an itch :)

Cheese and ham on a baguette.  Called a Lorraine Navette (I think...) 

Served hot.  Delicious :)

It was huge (this is after I ate half of it) and only 2,50!

Colorful dried sausages

Proof that there are poodles in France!

Note: these are the first poodles I've seen here...

Crêpes: what the French do best!

Rough night, but the kids are sleeping and mom has her comfortable bucket pillow.

Sorry for the largely yellow quality of the photos.  I didn't want to use my flash and get on everyone's nerves/scare the animals, and the light quality is always fairly yellow sans-flash.

While at the Salon, I of course did not fail to notice two large oddities:

1) When we arrived, Anna still had to buy a ticket.  There were HUGE lines, and none of them seemed to be moving.  We got in the shortest one that allowed you to buy from a machine, but soon figured out that it only took cards (which in France usually means that it only takes European cards that have the special chip in them).  I decided to do some research on the entrance that was further down the street.  There was a massive line and only one gate open.  Clearly not a good option.  But then I noticed another gate...open...5 people in line...moving quickly...I asked a street food vendor who was selling something that smelled vaguely Indian and very good if there was a difference between that line and any of the others.  He said no.  So, I go get Anna, we get into that line, and within 2 minutes, she has a ticket and we're walking into the Salon.  Haha! I'll bet there were hundreds of people who waited for at least an hour to get a ticket in those other lines last night.  We got there waaaay after they did, and we got in waaaay before they would hahaha! Still have no idea why no one else was in that line...

2) When we were leaving, the Salon was closing down.  Therefore, everyone else that was there was leaving too.  We made our way to the exit were we saw a crowd of people that didn't seem to be moving.  Why weren't they moving? Well, there was only one very small door open in the gate to let people out.  One.  One?! You're telling everyone in this huge facility that they have to leave and you give them all one measly door to squeeze out of? Since that was the only way out, we went up and joined the crowd.  Five minutes, a lot of pushing, and stroller wheels in my heels later we made it out.  None of that made sense to me, and after sleeping on it, I still have no clue why they thought that was a good idea.  It's not in the least bit efficient.  But then again, not a lot of French things are.

But wait! My day was even more eventful than that! I went to the basalique St. Denis with my history class in the morning.  It was absolutely beautiful, we had a great tour guide (though he talked to us more about architecture than history...), and I learned a lot.  What I will remember most from that visit though was how absolutely freezing cold it was inside that church! It was an absolute ice box!!!

Me in front of the basalique St. Denis

This church was the first to start using what we know as gothic architecture (flying buttresses and all that jazz).  The black on the stone around the doorways is from pollution, and they're starting to clean it.  It's a slow process, but you can see little specs of white in this picture where they took a block out and restored it.  Fun fact I'll bet you didn't know: if they were to fully restore these churches to their former glory, they'd have to paint all the little figures around the doors.  That's right! Back in the day, churches were colorfully painted! None of this dull, sad-looking grey-ness.

Gorgeous rose window

The sun came out while we were inside and lit up all the stained glass.

Unfortunately it's pretty hard to tell how beautiful the colors are in a picture.

Testing our knowledge of arch building: we had to figure out how to construct an arch using wooden blocks.  The key is that contraption that our tour guide is holding in his hand.  It's made of wood and gets constructed underneath the arch, perched on the columns, before they put the stones in.  When it is removed, the stones settle into place.

And, and, AND! I went to the Panthéon and l'eglise Saint-Etienne-du-Mont with IES later in the day.

Panthéon

l'eglise Saint-Etienne-du-Mont

It has purple doors!

Inside l'eglise Saint-Etienne-du-Mont

This is probably the most beautiful eglise I have visited so far, which means a lot because I saw St. Denis in the same day, and that one is incredible.  I guess St. Denis is more impressive, and this one is more intriguing.  It's certainly not as big, but it has those amazing spiral stairs and such detail in the stonework.

Ok, I promise I didn't go anywhere else yesterday! It was a long day full of walking, but completely and utterly worth it.