Staying up till almost 2AM from the night before meant not waking up until 11AM on Sunday morning. Yet, though my day was slow starting, I was able to enjoy the first sunny day (in a while) in Tours.
After eating lunch I went off on a bike ride to Le Parc Municipal de l’Ile Simon. The park is on an island in the middle of La Loire and from there, there are gorgeous views of Pont Wilson (main bridge in Tours), the cathedral, and both riverbanks. I decided to kill sometime before meeting up with Jenny, Miriam, and Emma. We were going to see “The King’s Speech” or for the French, “Le Discours d’un roi” at Le Cinema.
On the island, I managed to take my “monochrome” picture for Jenny and my photo challenge. There is a piece of public art installed on the island called “Le Pata”; it was created by Maj-siri Österling in 2001. The piece is a series of painted wooden beams that form a teepee like structure. The painted beams are primarily red, though there are some black and yellow ones interspersed as well.
I met up with Jenny, Miriam, and Emma outside of Jenny and Miriam’s place. We walked to Le Studio, which is about a 5-minute walk from where they live, to catch a 2:30PM showing of “The King’s Speech”. I am trying to see as many of the Academy Award nominated films as possible before the awards show on February 27. I am going to go and see Black Swan this Wednesday (I hope). “The King’s Speech” was excellent. I thought Colin Firth did an amazing job a King George VI, as did Geoffrey Rush (Lionel his speech coach). I hope the film wins some awards…though I have not seen too many of the shows nominated YET!
After the movie we headed to a teahouse and got coffee and sweets. I chose NOT to get anything sweet, though the tart aux fruits that Miriam got and the Mocha cakes that Emma and Jenny got did look amazing! I instead got a small coffee. We talked for a bit and then headed out to an antique market on Rue de la Scellerie.
The first Sunday of every month there is an antique market on the Rue de la Scellerie in Tours. The road is right off of where Miriam and Jenny live and in the cathedral neighborhood. The four of us explored for a bit…and found some pretty cool things. I definitely am going to go antique shopping before I head home in February. I want to get something “French”. Miriam picked up a great book on touring from Paris to Nice. Jenny and Emma got some old postcards dating back to the 1920s and 1930s. I, again, resisted! But, I will head back to the area, which is flooded with cool stores!
Well, that is all for now. This week I am having dinners with Jenna (as usual), may head to Ryan’s to finish off the dumplings from Chinese New Year on Wednesday, seeing Chantal on Wednesday too, trying to go see “Black Swan”, having a Monopoly night at my house….but with the Touraine edition (I hope….pretty please can I borrow it Chantal!?), and doing a Mexican night at Emma’s on Saturday. And, of course, among all of this, teaching! Today, I am going to start evaluations for one of my CM2 classes…
-Alex
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