If Walt Disney had created a French Village attraction, I imagine that it would have looked a lot like Sancerre.  The village is textbook picturesque, with its old buildings, cobblestone streets, planters overflowing with geraniums and ivy, and streets filled with friendly people.  My apartment is in a 400 year-old building and is beautiful and spacious.  The entrance to my apartment, pictured above, makes me feel like Cinderella every time that I walk up the stairs.

Everyone here seems very happy, and it is not hard to understand why.  No freeways, no pollution, birds singing, church bells ringing - once again I am thinking of Disney!  I was talking with another student yesterday and trying to articulate what it was like being here when she quite neatly described it for me.  "Sancerre est un rêve," she said; Sancerre is a dream. 

Last night I went out for a glass of wine with a few of my fellow students.  We were sitting in an outdoor cafe when we were approached by a group of young men, one dressed in a chicken suit, one holding a small wooden coffin, and another holding a small notebook.  These gentlemen were members of a bachelor party; it seems in this part of France the tradition is that the groom dresses up as a poulet for his last big celebration as a single man.  The groom's friends were soliciting funds for the wedding night (that was the purpose of the coffin), and also requested that the married men in our group help the groom by drawing a favorite sexual position (thus the small notebook).  A very funny British man in our group made an instructive and inventive drawing using stick figures and handcuffs, which he explained to the groom in basic, yet very effective French.  There are certain things that don't need a lot of explanation, I suppose, and this was one of them.

I absolutely love Sancerre.  I know the village can't be as perfect as it seems at first glance - but for now, I am going to enjoy the ride.