Rotaract Friends!

I've had a few opportunities lately to spend time with a group of French students from the Rotaract Club of Tours (Rotaract clubs are essentially Rotary clubs for university students and professionals under 30). The Rotaract students and their friends are extremely kind and very patient with my French, and they have been really welcoming to me. I appreciate them so much - it's a wonderful feeling to be included in a group of locals while in a foreign country.

The first time I met up with the Rotaract students, they showed me a typical night out for young French people. We started around 6pm at a café, where everyone had espresso (cups of coffee as we know them don't really exist here). Then, we headed down the street to a little restaurant for apéritifs and a dinner of tartines (which fall somewhere between an open-faced sandwich and a flat-bread pizza). After chatting at the restaurant for awhile after dinner, they took me to Le Paradis Vert - France's biggest billiards hall is right here in Tours! After a couple rounds of pool, we ended the night at a bar near Place Plumereau (the center of nightlife in Tours). We split a bottle of Vouvray, a sparkling wine made from Chenin blanc grapes grown right outside of Tours. (Order your own bottle here!)

My few outings with the Rotaract students and their friends have provided really wonderful insight into the culture of French youth and have also offered me some of the best French practice I've had since I arrived in Tours. Merci beaucoup!