rugger bugger

ive been working-ish on lesson plans for my classes this week, meaning finding fun dc facts to incorporate into some kind of game or something, since i still dont know what im doing...but anyway, here are some fun facts about valence (procrastination is so much fun)...
- valence is a town situated in the Rhone Valley, in the Drome departement,in the Rhone-Alpes region (i cant figure how to do accents on this, which is merde)
- valence major (the city and the 'burbs, including Bourg-les-Valence, Portes-les-Valence, among others) has a population of about 115,000
- as far as weather goes, Valence is kissed by the Mistral wind that comes from the north, bringing pleasant summer weather and very chilly winters, but there's not usually too much snow. it marks about the highest reaches of the Med's sunniness, but may and october are the rainy months. (we're doing pretty well so far, though, with just one big rainstorm and a few drizzly days)
- there's a significant Armenian population (at least 10%), dating back to the refugees that arrived here during the armenian genocide in 1920-ish.
- during WWII, the northern half of the city was wiped out, so the prefecture and surrounding buildings are all modern.
- there are 10 colleges in town (i work at 3, and im pretty sure the others are without english assistants, quel dommage...) and the city has recently established several universities. theres also an Ecole des beaux arts...
- theres a lot of farming around here, esp apricots, peaches and kiwis apparently....local delicacies include various brioches (pralinee, parfumee a la fleur d'oranger) and this faux-gingerbread man cake, "la suisse" thats basically brioche with almond and orange flavoring. i dunno, theyre cute, but it sounds like fruitcake to me...i'll try it eventually...
- for such a small city, theres a lot of diversity, mainly north african influences, but also lebanese and turkish...we found a super sweet lebanese restaurant mmm delish hummus and baba!!