Le Potager du Roi

Life thus far in France has been pretty remarkable. Based at the Potager du Roi in Versailles, I've had some time to recoup from day-to-day travel and settle into a semblance of a routine. Of course, the routine is defined by a job that has me working in the fields 8-hours a day, but they're old fields and the payoffs are damn good.

So here's the low-down. The Potager du Roi, or 'King's Kitchen Garden,' is just that, the vegetable and fruit garden for Louis XIV. The Potager is located next to the Versailles Palace to the East of the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses and covers 22 acres. It was built to, you guessed it, feed the king and other occupants of the Palace. The garden was designed by a lawyer by training and was finished in 1683. The garden is still remains relatively the same, using innovative practices to produce food.

From the people I've talked to, Versailles has the reputation for being a bougie kind of place. Many people are catholic and have lots of wealth by way of property. The month of June is the Mois de Molière and there's always music, a festival or parties going on. There are also, of course many tourists. Thankfully they tend to be in predictable places and it's easy to avoid the large groups.

The streets of Versailles

Versailles Palace and it's abstract frame

The Usual Before our Train to Paris

As part of our internship with the small organization, the French Heritage Society, Melissa and I share an apartment in the Potager. The apartment's lies up a windy staircase in the attic of the old garden barracks. The fact that we only have to walk downstairs makes our 8am work-day less intimidating. Our kitchens quaint but it's not the sort of place 'The Art of French Cooking' is not about to go down.

Our Front Yard - After Entering from the Road

Plus Petit

View from our kitchen (Credit to Mel P)

In our free time after work's done at 5pm, we've been keeping ourselves occupied with trips to Paris, shopping food markets and the amazing clothing 'soldes,' and get-togethers with new friends in the Ecole Nationale Supérieure du Paysage (ENSP). Yesterday for example, Melissa and I spent the day doing watercolors and picnicking in the Palace of Versailles gardens with a small group of Formation Continue folks and a teacher from the ENSP. The experience included a very talented teacher who's primary comment was 'plus de bleu,' informal wine and food (of course), and pissing in the palace gardens. When in France...

A Classy Picnic in the Paris Tuileries
(That is a Red Cross Blood Donor Card being used as a fork)

Performers at the 'Watering Can Party'/End of the year party for the ENSP  

Iles de Paris

I grounded in Paris on June 12th and since then I've been in the process of settling into a work routine... french-style. 

First Paris. The city is a pleasant realizations of many of my expectations. For example, within 5 minutes of getting off the train from the airport, I saw a man riding a bicycle in a striped shirt with a baguette in his basket. People walk slow, dress creatively and pause often, and at every turn there's a landmark that makes you want to pinch yourself. Old infrastructure and graffiti abounds. Yes this is Paris. 

The Fete de la Musique is an international street music festival that was started in Paris and was on June 21st. We rendez-vewed with friends from the landscape architecture school in Versailles for a 'pic-nique' along the Seine, then caught some of the performances that were going on all over the city.  

The Land of Smiles

I should clarify my writing is a bit behind the times. Three days ago I arrived in France and coincidentally celebrated exactly one month of travel. More on this later.


Thailand

Where to start.

I started, like most people do, in Bangkok. It’s big, noisy and hectic at first glance. The city’s infrastructure is right there for you to see. Electric lines shoot everywhere and curl around your head as you walk down the busy streets. There are night markets, day-time markets, markets in alleys, and markets that block the sidewalk and flow into the street - you can get your anything here. Practice haggling before you come, it’s important when it comes to doing business from a tent. If Thai food, religion, and dress has been translated and used by hippy culture, Khao San Rd. in Bangkok is where it comes back together. There were some people who seemed to have come to Thailand and never left.

Tourism is one of Thailand’s top industries. In Bangkok people developed very creative schemes to make the most of this industry. Tuk-tuk (motorcycle taxi’s) rides will deliver you unexpectantly to their business partners’ shop and several others having to do with visiting a temple that go something like: ‘Happy Buddha. Only for today.’ We went to the Grand Palace, where the King of Thailand still resides. Thailand is a constitutional monarchy so while there are pictures of the king on elaborate arches all over the country, there are also candidates’ election billboards as well.

Chiang Mai and north-west Thailand is geographically and historically very different from other parts of Thailand. There are many languages spoken by Thai people that separate in some ways the cultures of NE, NW, Southern and Central Thailand. The city of Chiang Mai itself is very old. During our stay, they were celebrating the Intakin Festival and the 700th birthday of their city wall. The festival was held at a temple that housed the city pillar. Most Thai people are followers of Theravada Buddhism. Wat’s, or temples, are centers of worship where monks of some monastic orders practice.

To break the tourist circuit, Jan and I went on an excursion on scooters for a few days. The roads were a little intense and the signs less than helpful, but with help from friends we met along the way we made it to some hard-to-get-to places. Besides tourism in Chiang Mai, Northwest Thailand’s economy is primarily agrarian and we passed many farms growing rice, bananas, and beans. The tropical environment helped spawn some incredible things (to a girl from upstate NY). In general things just seemed bigger, from the elephants to the giant bugs.

Phuket, in southern Thailand, is a center for tourism. Crazy tourist beach culture can be pretty alienating and we didn’t stay long. The islands and small towns of southern Thailand are incredible with their mostly sand beaches and limestone cliffs and rock formations. Kayaking and Thai longtail boat are both good ways to explore the area from the water. Many parts of southern Thailand were devastated by the 2008 tsunami. Tourist boats were left far inland by the waves and some still remain there.