En Ville (in the City Center)

This afternoon I took the bus to the city center of Angers to search for the Bar au Centre and for some fabric shops. One of my professors suggested that I visit the Bar au Centre where the French people tend to be more friendly and open to conversation. Well, after asking several people on the side walks (in French of course) the location of the Bar au Centre, I finally found the place, ordered some coffee, met two French women and conversed for a couple of hours in both French and English. It gave me a good opportunity to practice my French.

En ville, there were many, many shops and boutiques, many of which sold chocolates. There is no doubt that chocolate is big business in France, and the chocolate is delicious and varied. There is chocolate to suit everyone's particular tastes. A piece of chocolate was even served on the side when I ordered a cup of coffee at a local café.

On the trip around Angers I noticed that most people here live in condominiums or apartments that are often situated in high concrete buildings. Single-detached houses seem more rare. En ville, in the window of a real estate office, I saw condominiums priced up to 500.000 euros, which translates to probably well over 600,000 dollars. Yet there were some houses priced around 200,000 euros or a little under. Houses I've seen in Angers so far tend to be attached to other houses, sharing a common wall, with hardly any yard.

Tomorrow, Sunday, everything is closed and even the buses come to a stop.

This past week I purchased a small pocket radio for listening to the local and national news in my room. The United States and Morac Obama are mentioned a lot in the news here. Also, I was surprised to hear many American songs (in English of course) played on the radio stations here. Even in the stores and the malls the French love to play and hear American music. CD's of American music and DVD's of American movies are also sold everywhere here. The clothes here are not that much different than in the states, and blue jeans are very popular here as in America. There are some bargains, but many of the clothes and shoes I've seen are expensive. There are also many books here with American themes but translated into French, such as Whinnie the Pooh.

All for now until next posting.