French outdoor market?

Six out of seven days per week, we have the absolute luxury of buying fresh food and flowers from one of the local French markets. You name it, they have it. Rebecca and I are attracted to the breads...& cheeses....& wines &...just about every food item sold. From our current perspective, France really does win the contest in the bread, cheese and wine departments.


Oh yeah baby... 

This picture gives a small flavor of the market. This is one of many fresh vegetable vendors. The gentleman in the picture is loud and friendly. His personality would fit in at the fish market in downtown Seattle. To say this outdoor marketplace is popular with the locals would be an understatement. It is packed with shoppers picking up their food needs until the next market day. This market is in downtown Fontainebleau, near the chateau.


Bonjour Madame! 

Dinner in Grez

One of the highlights of our entire time in France was a wonderful dinner with our INSEAD friends who live in Grez sur Loing. In the picture below on the left are our Australian friends, Paul and Gemma. In the center is Guillaume and on the right is Guillaume's wife, Anne, and ma femme, Rebecca. If you can't tell from the picture, Guillaume and Anne have a lovely French cottage. Our evening included foie gras and champagne for the apertif. Dinner was roast chicken with vegetables and a selection of French red wines (vins rouges).


Inside the lovely home of Guillaume & Anne. 

As we are learning a bit about French culture (Guillaume is French), we went from dinner to the cheeses. Done properly, you really need to progress from the weaker cheeses to the stronger cheeses. With Guillaume as our guide and the use of their special cheese knives (good Christmas present...hint hint) we sorted through the cheeses rather quickly. If you notice, the brie cheese appears to be melting away. In fact, this is when brie tastes best. All of these cheeses came from the local market in Fontainebleau where you can find quite a few frommageries. C'est bon!


Frommage pour tout! 

Our first visitors, Cathy & Dorothy

The web journal entry is to give "souvenir" to our first visitors in France, Cathy Warner and her Mom, Dorothy. Proper French custom, in the days of royalty, would be to establish a room or garden area in honor of our visitors. Since we are on a student budget, we can only dedicate this blog entry. In French, the word "souvenir" means memory and this is our picture souvenir of their visit.

Unfortunately, my INSEAD studies did not allow me to join them in Paris but Rebecca spent the day with them. I've heard a few rumors about navigating the underground metro system and great times at Musee de Orsay.


Welcome Cathy & Dorothy...from San Diego! FYI: Cathy is Rebecca's stepmother. 

INSEAD parties...

INSEAD parties are excellent so the rumor goes. Each weekend does in fact bring a new party with a new theme. Many of the students live in one of the many small chateaus and have the latitude to use them as they were meant to be used; host fairly tame MBA parties with loads of soda and popcorn.

While I can't find a single non-American that has even heard of Animal House, this weekend's party was at Chateau de Villecerf and the theme was toga. Driving up to the chateau involved a long winding road through plowed fields and forest areas. A quick left on the D22 led to a stone gate, dried moat, and voila - a chateau housing INSEAD students. Past the cool torches and into the garden area was a multitude of intelligent MBAs wearing togas, drinking a range of beverages, and dancing like mad in the reception room.

We joined the dancing towards the end of the night. Rebecca had already removed her "nordic toga" since we were no longer outside in the cold weather. A nordic toga simply requires finding a big wool blanket and wrapping it around your body in a way that sort of looks greek...sort of.


Toga... 

The dance floor / living room.


Euro-toga, INSEAD style. 

Finally, a visit to Paris.

In reference to the intensity of INSEAD and frequency of my studies, Rebecca and I finally found some time to visit Paris together. Rebecca went with another INSEAD partner on Thursday for the opening of an art exhibit in central Paris. I labored in the library. :(

But, I managed to skip the optional Saturday classes and we went into Paris to enjoy the sites with some fellow students and partners. It is fair to say that fall is here as the temperature abruptly changed on Friday night. We are now wearing sweaters and thinking about sock hats. Saturday was sunny and crisp and we reallly enjoyed our fall day in Paris. We set our rendezvous point at the Eiffel Tower.


Finally, a day in Paris. 

This weekend is called "mon patrimonie" and is the one weekend of the year where France's government opens its doors to citizens. So, we went to the Hotel de Ville, near the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was worth the tour.


hotel de ville 

A bit more Grez & WA

We've become friends with two other INSEAD couples that live in the town of Grez sur Loing. Gemma and Paul are from Melbourne, Australia and live in a cute apartment right next to the bell tower of the church. Anne and Guillaume are an American / French couple that just moved from Manhattan. Everyone is great and we are sorting out car pooling to and from the INSEAD campus.

So what is WA? Our Aussie friends refer to Western Australia as "dubuyah a". We are quite keen on that term so we've adopted it. We met up with Gemma and Paul for some kayaking along the Loing river. Though it rained steadily the entire time, we really enjoyed seeing rural France from the riverside.

We close this log with another picture from the town of Grez...sorry, we did not take pictures during the kayaking adventure.


The bell tower keeps the time and adds lots of charm to Grez. 

INSEAD begins...

Tomorrow is the first day of official classes at INSEAD. Last week was orientation week at INSEAD. It was a tough week adjusting to the student life. All 290+ students in France have been split into sections and teams. I am on a team of five with the others from Spain, Turkey, India, and Belgium.

Fortunately, the partner (a.k.a. spouse) community at INSEAD is quite active and inclusive. Rebecca is entitled to join the clubs, gym, cafeteria plan,...everything.

The best thing about our first days at INSEAD: the cafe. INSEAD subsidizes the cafe and serves very high quality food at an affordable price. It is great, really great. Perhaps I love it so much because of the not so nice & expensive institutional cafes in my past...


Near the library on the INSEAD campus. 

Grez sur Loing

This small French country town probably has less than 1000 inhabitants. It is very quiet. We wake up to the neighborhood rooster each morning. Today, a Frenchman walked back into town with some fresh gourds picked from the nearby fields.

First, the main street in the town.


The main road in Grez sur Loing... 

Across the cool bridge leads to a nice park and cozy sitting spots along the river.


Within a short walk from our house, this lovely park by the river. Yes Carey, there are tons of trout in there. 

About 100 meters from the river is the park area. Two nice soccer fields and an open space for hot air balloon launching.


Would it really be a Hindman blog without a Land Rover? No. Nothing like using the 110 as an anchor for the hot air balloon. This field is just 100 meters past the bridge. 

Our Home in France

We've arrived to our final destination. For the next 10 months, we will be living in Grez sur Loing, France. First, let us introduce you to the place we will call home. For the friends and family members planning to visit, we have a spare bedroom. A brief tour....

From the gate...


Our new home in France. 

Inside the gate, the doors to the converted barn. Solid stone walls and lots of stairs...


The entrance to our place.  

Inside the doors, our kitchen...


Voila, the kitchen! 

Upstairs in the barn, our barn door.


We love this door to the upstairs bedroom.