Bordeaux Day II

Today we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel, and then our Rotary friends Emmanuel and Sophie picked us up and we all ventured out to a nearby town called Saint Emilion. St. Emilion is surrounded by wineries and vineyards. It is a town with much history, including an 8th century wall left over from an ancient church. Most of the town was built in the 18th century, with tiny cobbled streets and red tile roofs stacked up on top of each other like a jumbled maze. Our Rotary guide, Emmanuel, got an antique key and let us into the town church tower. We clambered up a small spiral staircase (191 steps to be exact even though Damian was convinced there were 192) to the top of the tower where Damian and Emmanuel enjoyed teasing those of us with a fear of heights.

We enjoyed strolling through town and seeing the different wine shops and sampling the macaroons the region is famous for. There were two public laundry basins as well, that are now more decorative than anything. Emmanuel entertained us by singing the theme from “Happy Days” while taking our pictures. It was warm and sunny, about seventies, and we all thought of you back home in Seattle, toiling away in the cold and rain.

Currently, we are waiting to be picked up by our host families for the first time. We are all looking forward to meeting more of these gracious French hosts who are making our stay here comfortable and fabulous.

Tour of Bordeaux

This morning we met Emmanuel and M Chelle in one of the hotel meeting rooms. We quickly had to put our French thinking caps on as M Chelle insisted (with a smile) that the meeting be held all in French. We learned everything we needed to know about our schedule and the areas we would be visiting. Damian and Elizabeth did a fabulous job of picking things up and, while Angela, Charity, and Kelly's French was definitely put to the test. We were all extremely excited after hearing what the next month has in store. We had a wonderful lunch at the hotel prior to meeting Sophie, who is one of last year's District 1690 EGE (GSE) Team that visited Mississippi. She organized a wonderful french walking tour for us through Bordeaux sponsored by the Alliance Francaise. Sophie and Emmanuel accompanied us and we saw some wonderful sites including churches, palaces, and the beautiful Garonne river. We learned more Bordeaux history than we could have expected in just 3 hours and also burned enough calories to justify the naps that some of us took and the delicious meal that we had back at our hotel.

Tomorrow we will meet our guides again in the morning, spend the rest of the day touring, and meeting our first set of host families in the evening.

We Have Arrived!

Bonsoir from Bordeaux! Everyone on the team has arrived safely. Some of us are more tired than others. Kelly hasn't slept in more than 24 hours after her flight from Seattle and a fabulous migraine has accompanied her. The rest of us have had at least a few days to acclimate in France, Scotland, London, and Spain. Since the District 1690 welcoming committee was kind enough to allow us to arrive at different times, they had a full day. M Chelle picked Damian up at 10:30 am and took him to lunch at the Buffalo Grill, a very American place that served Bison, of all things. They spoke mostly in English, according to Damian, but he remarked on the kindness and hospitality of M Chelle, who was a past governor and a very traveled man. He was a brewery engineer who has seen work in many cities and countries, including Barcelona, Jarkata, Australia, and Milwaukee, WI of all places. Angela then arrived and M Chelle brought her to check in to our very nice hotel. M Emmanuel and his adorable 7 year old daughter Claire greeted the rest of us later in the day with incredible kindness and enthusiasm. The rest of the evening was spent walking around the industrial area of our hotel only to come across a random French bakery. Elizabeth quickly learned bakers don't like their wares being photographed! We then returned to the hotel for dinner and of course a great Bordeaux wine.

Tomorrow we have a meeting at the hotel at 10 and then the welcoming team will take us for a brief tour around Bordeaux. We will spend one more night at the hotel in Bordeaux before heading south and meeting our first first set of host families.

A demain.

And Away We Go!!!

The team has been hard at work over the last several weeks preparing for our departure. We have taken French classes, prepared our presentation in French and English, met with a tutor to learn more about French culture and customs, and we successfully made one of the most difficult decisions that we might face on this entire journey...selecting our team uniform.

On Tuesday we gave our presentation to the GSE committee and received some great suggestions including some tips from the India Exchange team leader. We have visited our sponsoring clubs, collected flags, printed brochures and rotary cards, finalized logistics with our employers, and the list goes on.

We couldn't be happier with all that we have accomplished and we are looking forward to seeing the benefits of our hard work. Fortunately we will get to soon as we will be meeting our hosts in Bordeaux next Sunday, March 29th. From there we we are not sure what to expect but we know it will be a full schedule and we will keep you all posted as frequently as possible.


A bientôt

Finessing our presentation

Practice sessions with our French professor