Pau

Hello from Pau! We have had quite a busy week and therefore have a lot to fill you in on.

A brief summary of our schedule this week before sharing all of the fun details in the following posts.

Monday
Arrival in Pau, Rotarian Lunch, Professional Visit, Winery Tour, and Rotary Dinner Presentation
Tuesday
Winery Tour, Rotarian Lunch, Industry Visit, Rotary Dinner Presentation
Wednesday
Winery Tour, Cutural/Industry Visit, Rotarian Lunch, Driving Tour, and Cultural/Industry Visit, Walking Tour of Pau, Rotarian Dinner
Thursday
Drive to Oloron, Cultural/Industry Visit, Rotarian Lunch, Cultural Industry Visit, Cultural Visit, Rotary Dinner Presentation, 1 night in Oloron
Friday
Drive to Orthez, Walking Tour, Cultural Tour, Rotarian Lunch, Industry Visit, Rotary Dinner Presentation
Saturday
Free day to explore the region, which we were all very grateful for after such a full week.

We arrived at the Pau train station around 1PM on Monday and were greeted by Francois the President of Rotary Club Pau-Bearn. He took us back to his house for a wonderful home cooked meal and great conversation.

He is a Nephrologist and his family started the first Dyalisis Center of it's kind in France. So he kindly brought us for a tour of the site. Charity was particularly interested to see the technology being used at the facility and had a great discussion about the common technology challenges between France and the United States.

Francois then took us to the small family winery Clos Huste a beautiful wine region called Jurancon. Wine is a very large industry in the Pau area. Jurancon is particularly known for its sweeter white wines while the Bearn region is known for their reds wines. We tasted many white wines but learned that the the French tend to prefer reds. The Huste family were incredibly gracious hosts, and we were delighted that their pet cockatiel not only enjoyed visiting us, but had his own wine glass as well! The Huste wines were robust and flavorful, just like their creators.


Later that night we met, presented for, and had dinner with members of the Pau Jurancon Club, who would be our guides the following day.

More from Bordeaux

Hello one and all! I apologize in advance for any errors, this is on a French version of blogger so it thinks every word is misspelled. Also it is a French keyboard, adding to the challenge of typing correctly!

We have now visited several French businesses and given one presentation to our host Emmanuel's Rotary group. The first business we visited was a bottle distribution center that uses a unique and innovative approach to organization and distribution. The genius behind the system has even presented his theories to Jacques Chirac and was featured in this week's newspaper! He graciously took time out of his day to show us all around the plant and describe what each feature was for. They distribute bottles of every shape and size around France. Most of the bottles are for the 5,000 wineries of Bordeaux, but some were for yogurt, whiskey, juice etc. We learned the bottles can only be stored for a short time before they are considered contaminated, so there is a complex system to ensure the turn around is very quick for each pallet.

Next, we visited the headquarters of Pernod, the manufacturer of several French alcohols http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pernod, including Angela's favorite, Patis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastis, which is an anise liqueur. They explained their marketing strategies to us and took us to their lounge at the top of a newer Bordeaux building with 360 degree views of the surrounding rooftops. We enjoyed getting to try a little local "flavor" while taking in the tour and views.

We have also been enjoying our host families very much. They have been incredibly gracious, from hand squeezing oranges for our breakfast, to including us in their family activities and outings. The home stays have greatly enhanced our experience here, and offer a special view into French family life.

Our third business excurion especially appealed to Charity, because it was to an insurance office. Charity works at Group Health, which offers both medical care and insurance, so Emmanuel arranged for us to interview some men in the insurance business here. We discussed the differences beween the French system of insuring health coverage, mortgages, autos, etc. and that of the US systems. It seems in France the health insurance serves to fill the gap between private and public coverage. Also, there are no foreclosures in France; if someone defaults on their mortgage the insurance picks up the tab and the homeowner keeps the house. We found the differences fascinating and the visit was eye opening!
Yesterday morning we had the unique opportunity to assist with a national blood drive put on by Rotary. They had us don bright yellow vests and hand out flyers to passersby advertizing the blood drive. There was an entire network of tents set up to handle donors, and feed them after they donated. They estimated several thousand people would come through in one day! Unfortunately we were not allowed to donate since Americans carry the threat of West Nile disease for 28 days after leaving the US.

We gave our first presentation yesterday at a lunch Rotary meeting in the hotel we have stayed in several nights. Everyone did very well and the presentation was well received. The Rotarians said they were surprised and impressed with the amount of outdoor activities we enjoy, and we showed them pictures of the northwest and the mountains which inspire all our outdoor pursuits. We exchanged flags with them and Angela received a beautiful wine glass as a gift.

Today we had the day off, and went on a walking adventure in Bordeaux. We visited a magnificent church in the center of town called St. Andre. We then burned off a fabulous French lunch by climbing the 231 stairs to the top of the adjacent bell tower. Our tour included a stroll over one of the local bridges, a ride on the solar powered tram, a visit to the botannical garden, and our first European soccer match between the Bordeaux team and another French team. It was a lot of fun to be part of the French enthusiasm for the sport, and luckily the home team won!

We take off for Pau Monday morning, and will take away many special memories from our time in Bordeaux!

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