Soiree with Stephanie Lecocq

It has been a marvelous week thus far; Stephanie Lecocq invited me out for an evening with her and to spend the night at her house. We started out by walking through Old Lille and let me just say, it makes such a difference when you have a native pointing things out. I had walked through before and thought it was beautiful but in reality, had missed half of the neat things! She took me to Lille’s oldest bakery Meert and told me that this is the only place General de Gaulle would buy his bread and pastries from. Today, the tea room and bakery have not been changed and they sell the specialties of Lille. Stephanie bought me a gauffre, what Meert is most known for; it’s like a waffle pressed very thin with ground up vanilla beans and cream in the middle. As we walked on there were gorgeous stores that sold everything imaginable! She started chattering on about how since I don’t drink alcohol she had come up with the perfect place to take an ‘apperatif’ (before dinner drink). So we continued on to a little café/bar called the Voltaire. She must be a frequent visitor because the three old men there and the bartender all stood up to greet her and kiss her cheeks and were all very kind to me as well! I had a grapefruit drink and we sat and chatted. I realized I didn’t know much about her and that she’s had some rough things happen in her life. Last year, her husband of 15 years decided he preferred men to women and it has been an expensive divorce and her best friend died in March from Celiac disease. She is a great mother of two kids, Roméo and Jeanne, and loves them dearly. She has her doctorate degree and works very hard. We had a good talk then kept walking around town while she showed me the Artisan Parfumeur, a perfume shop that creates some of the purest perfumes in the north. I got a sample and should have bought a bottle, it smells great. She showed me where Louis the 14th made his mark: every time he visited a city he would construct a sun symbol in the center of it. He was known as the Sun King because he thought that daily life in France depended on him rising each morning. Yes, a pompous man he was. There was a fabulous guitar player in the square while we crossed it, I’ll try to upload a video to give a sample of it, I hope it works. We passed a unique wedding dress shop where the styles do not conform to the norms; black lace gowns and short frilly frocks are all the rage for the eccentric modern bride who shops here. Around 9 we got hungry and Stephanie treated me to an exotic Korean place where they bring out marinated raw meats and vegetables and you cook them yourself right at your table! We had a fun time talking and cooking; the fish was one I didn’t know the translation for and had never had but tasted great and so did the sauces. Though we ate Asian food we still ate in lengthy French style; we left the restaurant at nearly 11 pm. The drive to Stephanie’s home in Villeneuve d’Asque was nice and she showed me the British music she likes. She asked me if the words were good and I told her they were actually kind of stupid, the song we were listening to was called “if I was a hobo.” Haha, we both crashed into bed when we arrived and when I woke up in the morning she had walked to the bakery to get me breakfast. Also, she got me a loaf of yummy grain bread to take with me back to Lille. She was such a sweet hostess. She has vertebrae problems in her neck so she always wears scarves to keep the muscles warm. The picture of her and me is taken across the street from her house and the building in the background is the town castle. We both looked a little tired from little sleep but we zoomed off to work early anyway.
Work itself went well yesterday; I had my first interview with a student. Elyse was her name and she was quite nervous in the beginning. I gave her 20 minutes to listen to an English text and prepare a synthesis and commentary and then for 40 minutes she talked to me and I asked her questions while noting her mistakes and making suggestions. Once she calmed down she improved significantly. We worked on the ‘th’ sound which seems to be a problem for most French people just like their R sound is for us. We went over some grammar rules and scheduled another interview for next week. Last night after work I went to an orchestra/choir concert that took place in the theology chapel of our university. There were so many people there I had to sit on a table because the chairs were filled. I cannot describe how the sound resonated off the stone walls and ceilings; it was inspiring, to say the least.
I have been so preoccupied I haven’t even taken pictures in my apartment yet so I’ll start doing that. I live on rue de la bassée and the mural is one that one of the students did and hung in the building. He actually did several; this one is just my favorite since I pass it every day. Finally, the library is the only modern building at the university so it sticks out quite a bit :) I snapped a picture while running in yesterday.
Well, my train for Paris leaves in a couple hours so I’d better finish throwing my things together. I feel like I am going home in a way :), it’s funny. A bientôt xo