les rues et les ruelles

Salut! 

Joyeuse fête de St. Valentin!  Happy St. Valentine’s Day! 

For as much as France is associated with Romance, it is shocking how little Valentine’s Day is commercialized here.  Maybe it is in Paris, but not in Issoudun.  Personally, I find it refreshing to not be blinded by pink and red hearts in every shop. 

That being said, one of the neighboring towns to Issoudun is fully decked out in hearts and all things lovey dovey.  Named after St. Valentin, this little town has a “love garden” where people can get married and post their love notes to each other.  This takes the hallmark holiday to a whole new level.  I didn’t visit it, but some of the Chateauroux assistants did and I saw some of their pictures as proof that this actually exists:

Map of St. Valentin's proximity to Issoudun

The sign proclaiming that it is the "village of lovers"

"street of February 14"

Their street signs even are red and have hearts on them!

The street signs give me a good transition into a blog post that I’ve been meaning to write for a while.  The street signs in France, maybe with the exception of those in St. Valentin, are blue and are usually posted on the side of buildings.  Streets all over Europe are generally named in a logical way, but the streets here in Issoudun have particularly odd names that I find funny.  For example…

An example of a typical street sign.  This one is useful because it tells you what is there.

"the square of the post office"

Two of the oddest street names in Issoudun:

"street of all the devils"

I bet this street name really helps real estate sales.

No translation necessary.  

Hands down the weirdest street sign ever.

This one is for you, Carolyn:

"Street Saint Cyr" where the church is located 

And the most important of all...

My Street!

The winter months in France seem to be pretty low key here, but in 2 weeks I have another large vacation so I'll be traveling...this time, out of France!  Fun blog posts to come.

Until then, here's a quick inundation of information on life in France in general... It is still cold, and Celsius continues to baffle my mind.  I might have broken my toe, which does not help with half marathon training.  The French are saddened by the death of Whitney Houston, although they only know her due to her role in The Bodyguard.  Egypt is on the news every night, and let's just say that American way of censoring images has its merits.  This week is officially the last week to exchange Francs with Euros, and then the Franc will be nothing more than a collector's item.  I taught an entire class today all by myself because the teacher had an impromptu meeting, and after an hour of controlled chaos the kids could tell me all about the weather...success.

Got all that?  Good.

That's about all for now.  Keep in touch!