Hello, hello. It’s been a while since I’ve written, à cause de my lack of internet (yep, we don’t have internet in good old Busset town) and my general laziness.
Anyways, I’m going to tell you about Paris. Because I finally went! One of my friends from school, Melissa, has sisters there, so she invited me to stay with them for the weekend. It was all very rushed. I barely had the permission of the Rotary until after we’d arrived in Paris haha. We left by train, on Saturday afternoon (because I have school all morning…argh) and arrived 3 hours later at the Gare de Lyon. Her sister picked us up and we headed straight to her uncle’s bowling alley/restaurant. It was very flash. We played 2 games (I came second both times… they’d never played before so I was relatively awesome) and then ate a tasty dinner. I had duck with yummy potatoes. And then a fondant chocolate pudding :)
The next morning we headed into the city to explore the beauty that is PARIS! We started at the Arc du Triomphe and walked along the Champs Elysee, wondering at the bizarre people who roller skated (yes, roller skated!) by, dressed up in suits, and drinking Starbucks. There was Louis Vuitton on our left and Chanel on our right. It was all very glamorous.
Second stop, was the Eiffel Tour. I mean, it’s not that interesting, and not very attractive at all, but its Paris, so we had to go. We didn’t climb it though, because there were waaaaay too many people. C’est dommage. There were some cool buskers at the foot of the tower though. They were young, probably university students, and were dressed up bizarrely (tutus, pyjamas, etc). They all played brass instruments, except for the drummer (who has a little drum on a stand) and played everything from “Fly me to the moon” to “Help” to the starwars theme. It was cool.
After that we headed to Saint Germain for lunch. It was gorgeous… lots of little, cosy restaurants tucked into cobbled side streets. There were so many choices, so many cultures (or maybe it just seemed like that, after being deprived of multiculturalism for 10 months); Greek, Turkish, Indian (!!!), Japanese, ahhh it was lovely. We settled for a creperie, which was a tad disappointing (I would have preferred Indian) but nice all the same. We walked around a bit more, just generally gazing at everything wonderful, and then went to La Marais (or Le Marais? Je ne sais pas), which is officially one of my favourite places in the world. It was WONDERFUL. It was everything I love about everything!! There were buskers and artists strewn about everywhere, people lying around reading and talking, kids skateboarding, and cafes that tumbled onto the foot paths. We stopped at several op shops, but they were the loveliest op shops I’ve ever seen. There were fur coats, 60’s mini dresses, vintage scarves, Chanel heels, and retro Gucci sunglasses. I couldn’t afford anything, but it was nice looking :) We went to this brilliant pub. It was exploding with life and ambience… like it literally glowed invitingly on the dark street corner. The walls were covered in colourful mosaics and there were people and tables and chairs crammed into every corner. Piano accordion music with roudy French voices sung out over us, as we drank Coca Cola from glass bottles and ate salted popcorn from a big vintage circus-type popcorn machine. If I could live in the pub, I would. It was so cool. And en face there was a little shop dedicated entirely to socks and stockings!! They were beautiful, woolen, perfect socks, in pastel pinks, and mustard, and faded blue. I went crazy and spent 50 euros on a couple of pairs. I don’t think I’ll ever wear them… they are too pretty.
The next day we went to the flea markets, which was like one of my major life goals. At first I was really disappointed, because they were just those stupid stalls like at the Victorian markets, with lame Chinese cheapo versions of expensive labels, and ugly 5 dollar shoes. But then I noticed a side street, with some antique looking furniture so I went down it, and discovered the flea markets of my dreams. There were hundreds of stalls and stores crammed with richly upholstered chairs, flouncy floral dresses, beaded necklaces, old postcards, wooden 1950’s toys, and much more. It was fantastic. I bought a floral button up shirt and a leather satchel bag (1 euro each!) and some gorgeous vintage tin airplanes, one marked France, and the other marked England.
We went to Montmartre afterwards, which was beautiful, but a little disappointing. The problem with Paris is that the magic always gets ruined by graffiti, or rubbish, or tourists. It’s actually kind of more beautiful in the films then in real life. I wanted the Sacre Coeur to be like in the film Amelie, with a merry go round, children running about, and piano accordion music. But instead there were hundreds of tourists, beggars, and artists pushing their palettes in my face, asking if I wanted my portrait done. Haha I did get my portrait done, but it doesn’t look anything like me. Oh well, it was Montmartre, I felt I had to. Anyway, the Sacre Coeur was still magnificent, and I bought freshly roasted, caramelized peanuts off a little street vendor, so that was nice. And after wards, as we were descending the stairs, passing all the cute little boutiques, I noticed a vegan restaurant AND an organic foods shop, which is like a miracle in France, so that made me happy. We went and ate what was possibly the best meal of my life at this tottery, warm, wonderful restaurant. They served us these massive salads, in big, stone bowls, with melted goats cheese, and bacon, and thinly sliced fried potatoes. Seriously, it was brilliant. I will definitely be going back if I can!!
Anyways, that is that. Paris was gorgeous, exhilarating, dirty, and beautiful. It truly is a remarkable place. I’d love to go back and see it all again, at my own pace. Haha that almost rhymed. Like almost almost.
Hope everything is going fabulously,
Just 6 weeks now!
Love Jess
Friday, December 3, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
The Arcachon Notes
Wednesday 29th September, 11.52am: Signs you are getting close to the sea: Boats for sale, sand instead of soil, pine trees, hotels called “La Marine” and “The Beach”, water slides, posters promoting “Crevettes (prawns) 2.70 euros/kilo”
Friday 1st October, 10.40am: I’ve taken to chatting with strangers. It’s nice, because you can be yourself, no matter how stupid or annoying or boring, and then, after 5 minutes of pointless conversation, you can just go your separate ways, forget all about it, and never have to speak to each other again. Though I must say I have a tendency to attract weirdos…old men usually. I mean, they’re not particularly dangerous. If they tried anything I’d tell them to “Fuck off, you old creep!” and maybe stab them with one of my knitting needles. But no, we just converse about stuff like Australia, France, the weather. I then I break off the conversation and ff we go, separately, never to see each other again. It’s nice. And it’s good for my French.
Friday 1st October, 2.02pm: There is sand in my shoes, and salt in my hair, and it feels great.
Friday 1st October, 6.35pm: This morning I was introduced to a dear old lady, dressed up like a duchess, with a leapord fur coat, painted red lips, and giant pearl earings. She looked me up and down, and, extending a gloved, heavily perfumed hand, exclaimed “My God! What a beautiful flower you are! The Australians are a marvelous race, all tanned and tall and blonde and sporty. You’re a lucky girl!”
Saturday 2nd October, 12.46pm: It has been a long time since I’ve felt the sun beating down on my nose, a long time since I’ve felt my feet in the sand, a long time since I’ve heard the quiet lull of the waves kissing the shore. I must admit, I’ve missed this a lot.
Saturday 2nd October, 10.03pm: He was 37 years old and handsome, in that rugged, worn in, athletic kind of way. Think Hugh Jackman in Australia, but blonder and with a surf board. He was wearing baggy khaki shorts, probably Quicksilver or Ripcurl, and a black t-shirt marked “Kite Surfing. Absolutely the wrong sport for 99.9% of the world”. He was barefoot, a tattooed sting ray swimming prettily up his calf. He took off his sun glasses to reveal a young, tanned, stubbled face, wrought with smile lines. He smiled at me, a broad, genuine smile, and asked me where I came from. At my response his grin grew even wider and he declared that he new my town very well. “Beautful beaches” he said. Yes, Captain Lau-Lau was a wonderful creature, friendly, relaxed, everything that France seems to never be. And the whole time I was there watching him, I couldn’t help but thinking, “Mum would froth over you!”
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
The Bizzare World that is France
1. They are all obsessed with peeling things. They peel apples, pears, nectarines, peaches, zucchinis, cucumbers, and who knows what else! Because there are chemicals etc etc. I'm like "Well,wash it then.." Plus, I dont peel OR wash my fruit and veg, and Ive never been ill and died. And they cook jacket potatoes, but once they have been served, everyone peels them themselves. Oh, and they cut up rockmelon and watermelon into wedges like we do, but then they cut the bit out of the wedge, so its like a skinless wedge. So there is no peel for you to logically grab onto, and you are therefore forced into cutting it up with a knife and fork.
2. They get out of the car at the drive through car wash, therefore defeating the purpose. Even if its snowing or raining outside. One day, I suggested that we stay in the car, because its warm and fun and normal, but they said that it was dangerous and that I would get hurt. Coz Ive only done it 15479875433456799007655443 times...
3.Nobody picks up their dogs, um, waste. So the streets and the parks are covered in it. Lovely.
4. A dog can enter a store with its owner. Even if its like a clothes store or supermarket. Yuck.
5. The French have a great fear of the weather. If there is a grey cloud in the sky, they declare that there will be a huge storm and hail, and everyone rushes inside and panics and switches off all the electrical appliances incase they explode. And if it rains its liek "AAAAHH! Quick!! Get inside. Close all the windows!!!" Im like "Youre not witches, your not going to melt". Its almost as extreme with the sunshine. Its a lovely 34 degree day, and the news declares that it is a heat wave and that everyone should remain indoors etc. Except that its like 30, 31, 32 degrees everyday. So its pretty much normal anyways.
6. If the french watch anything foreign, they dub it with crappy french voices, rather than watching it in the original version with subtitles (like we would, with a french film). So, there are people in france who claim to love Pirates of the Caribeann and have never heard Captain Jack Sparrow's marvellous voice.
7. Rather than using a knife, the french like to get a piece of bread and use it to shovel their meal (pasta, potato, salad, anything) onto their fork. And when that piece of bread gets too soggy and gross, they eat it and grab another.
8. They are very worried about being robbed, even the people that live in tiny villages, where everyone knows eachother and there is nothing worth stealing. They lock their doors and windows when the go out, even the wooden shutters, and a lot of people have those electric gates that close automatically, and that you need a key thing to open. Now, thats all fine, even if its a little, um, stuck up, but whats really weird, is that they lock their door when they are inside the house!!! So you have to unlock it simply to go in the garden or for a little walk!! Paranoid much?
9. They all eat this stuff called fromage blanc. Its kind of like greek yoghurt, kind of like cream cheese.... sour cream? Anyway, they think its like super healthy, blah blah blah, and maybe it is, but they at everyday, sometimes at lunch AND dinner, and because it tastes like shit, they have to add a mountain of caster sugar, or jam. And sometimes they mix thickened cream into it as well. And then they tell me that Im going to get fat when I eat a square of dark chocolate... yeah, guys, whatever you say..
10. The french have a strange idea of health. It goes something like this: even if you eat hot chips, bacon, and chocolate mousse, if you add some sald, some pasta, some carrots steamed in butter (go figure that one out..?) and a bowl or 2 of sugary fromage blanc, it will be healthy. Basically they think eating apparently healthy things will cancel out all the bad stuff. Even though, in reality, they just end up eating 3 times as much, all still buttery, creamy, and fried. And even at school, in the health section of my science text book, a healthy after school snack was said to be some chocolate eaten in a baguette. Hmmm, i know they are all thin, but surely they are dying on the inside.
11. Okay, so I dont wear shoes in the house, and sometimes not in the garden, and if I'm feeling really good, I go barefoot in the street. I see how the last one might be a little weird for the unaccustomed Frenchies, but they find it weird when I go barefoot in the house.. I know, right, the house!! They're like "Oh those wild Australians. They dont wear shoes and they eat fruit with the skin on! CRAZY STUFF!"
12. Okay, now this one is weird. In every car that Ive ever been in here, the doors have automatically locked when we've started driving. Like a child lock tyoe thing, but for everyone. One day I decided to ask why, and my host mum looked at me funnily and said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "We dont want someone to open the door when we are driving slowly or when we are a traffic lights. Its dangerous. They might hurt our children or steal the car". As in, they think that someone is going to want to still a car soooo desperately, that they will go to the trouble of leaping onto the road, ripping open the door of a moving vechile, and punching the driver. Ha.
Anyway, thats all of the bizarre french things I can think of at the moment. Hope you enjoyed it :)
Talk soon,
Jess
2. They get out of the car at the drive through car wash, therefore defeating the purpose. Even if its snowing or raining outside. One day, I suggested that we stay in the car, because its warm and fun and normal, but they said that it was dangerous and that I would get hurt. Coz Ive only done it 15479875433456799007655443 times...
3.Nobody picks up their dogs, um, waste. So the streets and the parks are covered in it. Lovely.
4. A dog can enter a store with its owner. Even if its like a clothes store or supermarket. Yuck.
5. The French have a great fear of the weather. If there is a grey cloud in the sky, they declare that there will be a huge storm and hail, and everyone rushes inside and panics and switches off all the electrical appliances incase they explode. And if it rains its liek "AAAAHH! Quick!! Get inside. Close all the windows!!!" Im like "Youre not witches, your not going to melt". Its almost as extreme with the sunshine. Its a lovely 34 degree day, and the news declares that it is a heat wave and that everyone should remain indoors etc. Except that its like 30, 31, 32 degrees everyday. So its pretty much normal anyways.
6. If the french watch anything foreign, they dub it with crappy french voices, rather than watching it in the original version with subtitles (like we would, with a french film). So, there are people in france who claim to love Pirates of the Caribeann and have never heard Captain Jack Sparrow's marvellous voice.
7. Rather than using a knife, the french like to get a piece of bread and use it to shovel their meal (pasta, potato, salad, anything) onto their fork. And when that piece of bread gets too soggy and gross, they eat it and grab another.
8. They are very worried about being robbed, even the people that live in tiny villages, where everyone knows eachother and there is nothing worth stealing. They lock their doors and windows when the go out, even the wooden shutters, and a lot of people have those electric gates that close automatically, and that you need a key thing to open. Now, thats all fine, even if its a little, um, stuck up, but whats really weird, is that they lock their door when they are inside the house!!! So you have to unlock it simply to go in the garden or for a little walk!! Paranoid much?
9. They all eat this stuff called fromage blanc. Its kind of like greek yoghurt, kind of like cream cheese.... sour cream? Anyway, they think its like super healthy, blah blah blah, and maybe it is, but they at everyday, sometimes at lunch AND dinner, and because it tastes like shit, they have to add a mountain of caster sugar, or jam. And sometimes they mix thickened cream into it as well. And then they tell me that Im going to get fat when I eat a square of dark chocolate... yeah, guys, whatever you say..
10. The french have a strange idea of health. It goes something like this: even if you eat hot chips, bacon, and chocolate mousse, if you add some sald, some pasta, some carrots steamed in butter (go figure that one out..?) and a bowl or 2 of sugary fromage blanc, it will be healthy. Basically they think eating apparently healthy things will cancel out all the bad stuff. Even though, in reality, they just end up eating 3 times as much, all still buttery, creamy, and fried. And even at school, in the health section of my science text book, a healthy after school snack was said to be some chocolate eaten in a baguette. Hmmm, i know they are all thin, but surely they are dying on the inside.
11. Okay, so I dont wear shoes in the house, and sometimes not in the garden, and if I'm feeling really good, I go barefoot in the street. I see how the last one might be a little weird for the unaccustomed Frenchies, but they find it weird when I go barefoot in the house.. I know, right, the house!! They're like "Oh those wild Australians. They dont wear shoes and they eat fruit with the skin on! CRAZY STUFF!"
12. Okay, now this one is weird. In every car that Ive ever been in here, the doors have automatically locked when we've started driving. Like a child lock tyoe thing, but for everyone. One day I decided to ask why, and my host mum looked at me funnily and said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "We dont want someone to open the door when we are driving slowly or when we are a traffic lights. Its dangerous. They might hurt our children or steal the car". As in, they think that someone is going to want to still a car soooo desperately, that they will go to the trouble of leaping onto the road, ripping open the door of a moving vechile, and punching the driver. Ha.
Anyway, thats all of the bizarre french things I can think of at the moment. Hope you enjoyed it :)
Talk soon,
Jess
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Hello World!!!
Okay, so I am incredibly sorry for not writing for aaaagggggeeeessss but heres a little update on life at the moment:
Its the summer holidays at the moment. I swear they go forever. I started on May 31st and dont go back to school till early september!! There has been a few troubles with finding host families for me, so I've been moving around a lot. I am on my 6th family now! Actually, they are the same host family that I satyed with in my first 3 months in France, the Kante family. It wasnt too interesting the first time round, but both the kids are her for the holidays, so its all good. The daughter, Agnes, is 19, and the son, Francis, is 17. He just got back from a years exchange in Australia.
Before the kantes, I stayed with the Suchet family, just for 15 days. They have 2 children, an 8 year old girl and a 15 year old boy. They also had a labrador, a massive pool that was always at like 34 degrees (I was like "Yuck. Its too hot." And they were like "Ah, c'est parfait"), a home gym, and a lot (and I mean like 25) of Louis Vuitton handbags!! The kids and I went and stayed with their grandparents in the countryside, near Cluny. Its about 2 hours away from Vichy. The grandma was hilarious, very cynical. She was also obsessed with bread and made sure we ate at least one piece wiuth each course. We went and visited a lot of religious things, because thats what the region is known for, including the cathedral at Paray-Le-Monial, and the amazing abbaye at Cluny... which was built in 900 and something!! There was also this huge religo festival in these big white tents, and I went to masse with my host family. I'm pretty sure I will have nightmares for the rest of my life. There were like 500 frenchies, all in this big tent, with like 20 priests, all chanting along robotically to some melancholy choir. And then people would just randomly get down on their knees to chant and pray, even little kids (and I mean, without being asked by their parents). It was WEIRD. Like cult-worthy stuff, to my untrained mind. We also went to a huge cattle market which felt very much like the EKKA :)
The family before Suchet, was the Voison family. They were fantastic. They are young and cool, and have a gorgeous daughter, Juliette, who is 10. They gave me the nickname "No Stress Jess" coz I tend to just agree with everything or let them decide. Haha, the mum, Fabienne, made up this whole song about No Stress Jess, No Problema Jessica, No Soucy Jessi, and we walked down the street singing it. They live in this lovely old apartment in the centre of town, and I got to sleep in the massive attic. It was cool. We went to Clermont-Ferrand for a few days and went shopping and went and visited the volcanoes and a cave, and went for my first french bushwalk. It was only 3 hours long,and not very tiring, but they were all saying that they wouldnt redo it for 500 euros, haha. And then I saw a snake, but it was dead, so I just said, casually, "Oh, look, there is a little dead snake" and they all ran off screaming. Gotta love the french.. they are so... outdoorsy.
I havent got anything planned for the rest of the holidays. I've tried asking if I can visit some other aussie rotary students in france, but my club is very strict so it hasnt been possible. I have, however, started going o the gym everyday, because my host siblings are very sporty. So at least I'll lose some weight over the holidays. And my french is really starting to improve. I understand pretty much everything (except for weird french slang...), and I am starting to speak more.
So yeah, everythings good. Hope its all fab in Oz as well, and I'll try to put up some photos soon. Oh and if Jaiden could show Grandpa and Grandma my euro tour photos on facebook, that would be good :)
Lots of love,
Jess
Its the summer holidays at the moment. I swear they go forever. I started on May 31st and dont go back to school till early september!! There has been a few troubles with finding host families for me, so I've been moving around a lot. I am on my 6th family now! Actually, they are the same host family that I satyed with in my first 3 months in France, the Kante family. It wasnt too interesting the first time round, but both the kids are her for the holidays, so its all good. The daughter, Agnes, is 19, and the son, Francis, is 17. He just got back from a years exchange in Australia.
Before the kantes, I stayed with the Suchet family, just for 15 days. They have 2 children, an 8 year old girl and a 15 year old boy. They also had a labrador, a massive pool that was always at like 34 degrees (I was like "Yuck. Its too hot." And they were like "Ah, c'est parfait"), a home gym, and a lot (and I mean like 25) of Louis Vuitton handbags!! The kids and I went and stayed with their grandparents in the countryside, near Cluny. Its about 2 hours away from Vichy. The grandma was hilarious, very cynical. She was also obsessed with bread and made sure we ate at least one piece wiuth each course. We went and visited a lot of religious things, because thats what the region is known for, including the cathedral at Paray-Le-Monial, and the amazing abbaye at Cluny... which was built in 900 and something!! There was also this huge religo festival in these big white tents, and I went to masse with my host family. I'm pretty sure I will have nightmares for the rest of my life. There were like 500 frenchies, all in this big tent, with like 20 priests, all chanting along robotically to some melancholy choir. And then people would just randomly get down on their knees to chant and pray, even little kids (and I mean, without being asked by their parents). It was WEIRD. Like cult-worthy stuff, to my untrained mind. We also went to a huge cattle market which felt very much like the EKKA :)
The family before Suchet, was the Voison family. They were fantastic. They are young and cool, and have a gorgeous daughter, Juliette, who is 10. They gave me the nickname "No Stress Jess" coz I tend to just agree with everything or let them decide. Haha, the mum, Fabienne, made up this whole song about No Stress Jess, No Problema Jessica, No Soucy Jessi, and we walked down the street singing it. They live in this lovely old apartment in the centre of town, and I got to sleep in the massive attic. It was cool. We went to Clermont-Ferrand for a few days and went shopping and went and visited the volcanoes and a cave, and went for my first french bushwalk. It was only 3 hours long,and not very tiring, but they were all saying that they wouldnt redo it for 500 euros, haha. And then I saw a snake, but it was dead, so I just said, casually, "Oh, look, there is a little dead snake" and they all ran off screaming. Gotta love the french.. they are so... outdoorsy.
I havent got anything planned for the rest of the holidays. I've tried asking if I can visit some other aussie rotary students in france, but my club is very strict so it hasnt been possible. I have, however, started going o the gym everyday, because my host siblings are very sporty. So at least I'll lose some weight over the holidays. And my french is really starting to improve. I understand pretty much everything (except for weird french slang...), and I am starting to speak more.
So yeah, everythings good. Hope its all fab in Oz as well, and I'll try to put up some photos soon. Oh and if Jaiden could show Grandpa and Grandma my euro tour photos on facebook, that would be good :)
Lots of love,
Jess
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Finally...
Dear People,
Firstly, Id like to say how I incredibly sorry I am for my slackness over the past few weeks. I have been quite busy, plus I know longer have a computer, so its been a little difficlt to find time to write. But here I go. Ill try and make it longer than usual, to make up for lost entries :)
Okay, so lets start back at the holidays. The first week kicked off with La Cavalcade in Escurolles. It is the annual fete of my little village and is a very important event for them. EVERYONE in Escurolles comes out for the cavalcade weekend... I never knew there were so many people living here.. and so many children. Anyway, La Cavalcade involves the main street of Escurolles being over taken by gypsies, with there mini rollercoasters and crepe stalls set up all along the street. Its so colourful and ambient and wonderful, especially from about 9pm onwards. EVeryone comes out then, even little 3 year olds, and go on the rides and eat waffles with nutella (YUM!) and dance drunkedly (word??) to traditional music. Agnes and I hit the town, just walking up and down the street really, eating the occasional waffle or crepe (with nutella of course). The next morning I wen to watch the parade. There were all these.. um..floats..? Like cars all decorated in crepe paper, with little kids standing on them, throwing confetti at the crowd. C'etait tres mignon. All the floats were pretty well done, but my favourite would have to be the gigantic Bob Marley head. It was HUGE and made out of papier mache, with bulging eyes and a glowing cigarette sticking out of its mouth. And the guys in the car (painted in rasta colours) were all dressed up with baggy pants and sunnies and dreadlocks, and had "3 Little Birds) playing very very loudly. Ill add a photo. It was fab.
Anyway, Agnes went bck to Lyon and I spent the first week of the holidays doing nothing really.. walking around Escurolles, taking photos of flowers and then deleting them.. exciting stuff actually.
Then, on the Friday, I caught the train to Lyon to visit Agnes for the weekend. She lives in la place Bellecour , which is like famous apparently, though I dont knwo why... its pretty ugly. Anyways, I love Lyon. Like absolutely. It is beautiful! I cant really explain it. And maybe once Ive seen Paris, I'll find it less amazing, but for now I just think its spectacular. My favourite things about Lyon were:
1. How all the people acted like it was a summer in, I dont know, Byron Bay, not semi-winter in a city. At 10pm the riverbank was bustling with people. Serously, just hundreds of groups of young people preparing for a night out. They were all lolling about in the grass, with barefeet and cigarettes, lots of beer, and the occasional guitar or tambourine. I dont know why, but thats just my picture of perfection, ambience wise. Perfection.
2. The markets. I am not even going to bother explaining. I just love markets. Surely you know that by now.
3. The little cobbled streets, lined with cute fashion boutiques, cosy book stores, and weird hippy shops over flowing with Indian jewellery, hemp balloon pants, and herbal remedies..and its really cool because there are these doors you can find, all over the city, and they take you into a "secret" passage, that is sort of withing the apartment buildings, and you just follow them, not knowing where you'll end up.
4. The Roman Theatre. Not only was it old, and crumbling, and cool, but there are occasionally rock concerts there. How cool is that???!
3. Okay, my favourite thing about Lyon was definately the massive park. Seriously it was huge. There was a lake, and a sort of zoo thing (big cats, elephants, giraffes), as well as huge, early 20th century (I'm thinking..) glass greenhouse. Again, the atmosphere was just amazing. The park was packed with people studying, sunbaking, excercising, drinking, playing music.. packed, and yet not stressful.. I love the park. If I lived in Lyon, I would spend my entire week there, lazing about in the grass, drinking Vitamin Water and listening to my ipod, and eating Granny Smith apples. Its the perfect place for people watching. There is such a variety of people and all off in their own little worlds. Its gorgeous. It was a really beautiful day too. We just lay about in the grass for a while and laughed at the little kids playing hide and seek by the statue, and the show off footballers playing noisily. There were coloured kiosks filled with sweets and crepes and icy drinks and fairy floss. There were clowns handing out outrageous balloons to children who passed by. There were families roller blading, side by side. There were groups of teens, drinking beer, and orange juice straight from the carton, and laughing over a game of cards, and juggling. I even saw a guy walking along with a live cat perched on his shoulder.
GOSH! I LOVE LYON.
Okay, so after Lyon, Agnes and I caught the train back to Escurolles and spent the week talking crap and chilling in Vichy, and watching Skins, and taking ridiculously difficult bike rides up ridiculously long hills, and babysitting (on one occasion). It was great, and on the Saturday I changed families. Goodbye Chez Kante and hello Chez Rozier!
I love the Rozier Family. I live on a little farm just outside of Escurolles. Its gorgeous and green and surrounded by green wheat fields and yellow, floral canola fields. Oh, and my neighbour is a castle... Anyway, Im living with Madame Monique Rozier and Monsieur Jean-Jaques Rozier. They are 60-something, very talkative, very interesting (Mr. R works travels lots for work so the house is full of stuff from all over the world), and very very nice. They have a daughter, Anne, who is 35 but still great company. She is super lovely and very involved in all the charity events in the area (for countries like Columbia and Mali) as well as the cultural and musical festivals in the area. I've already been to a festival at Montlucon avec elle to help out with her Mali stall. It was really fun. We hung out in this massive tent, which was completely decorated in African ornaments. There was a Tunisian/Morrocan stall sharing the tent with us, so half of the tent was full of wooden, Malian statues, and the other half was set up with little poofs to sit on and pretty luxurious fabrics. And there was a lot of delicious Morrocan food.. for free! And Morrocan tea. YUM.
Okay, I'm running out of time so here are some dot points of things Ive done lately:
- I went to the theatre with Mrs. Rozier and saw this french comedian guy, in a one man show. It was really interactive and quite funny.
- I went to this beautiful flower place.. like where they grow flowers and then dry them and make pretty dried bouquets. We went there for a concert (strings)and it was beautiful, lying about, listening to cellos, and eating crepes.. we always eat crepes.
- I discovered the French version of Aunty Leisey. Seriously. She was a semi hippy, listened to a lot of Neil Young and other 1960's cool music, had cool books about art and the environment and music lying about everywhere, and lived in a house where BBQs and beer and socialising are everyday things. It was so nice being there. It felt soooo Australian.
- I went to a Star Wars convention. There were Darth Vaders and Obi Wan Kenobis everywhere. And a little eewok. It was incredibly daggy yet incredibly cool :) And for some reason there was a guy dressed up as Doctor Who and he came up to me and asked if he could have his photo with me. Sure, he wasnt David Tennant, but almost!!
Okay, now last thing. Wooh, I made it.. are you proud? So this weekend it was the second Rotary camp. I was so syked to see Meg again. Shes my aussie pal, from down near Melbourne.. I caught the train with her on my first day in France :) Anyways, we were soooo excited. We even pre-planned what we were going to do for the "spectacle". We did an attempt at a corrobary, and before you go "God, Ive given birth to a rascist" please understand that we did it completely seriosuly and to show Aboriginal culture, not to pull the piss out the Aborigines. We even youtubed it and learnt actual Aborginal dance moves. We decided to talk about reconciliation and explain abit about Aboriginal culture, because it really is unknown here in France. The dance ended up being ok, though I think they all found our wallaby and emu impersenations a little wierd... It was vair embarassing to find that only one other person had prepared a performance though. We'd gone to all this effort because we thought it was compulsory! Oh well, still fun :)
After the spectacle, there was a sort of dance thing, like a mini club, where everyone went and pretended to be ragers. It was really fun, but all the music was in Spanish because ost of the students are from Latin America. And they are all amazing dancers, moving their hips all sexily and doing like full on tango and salsa and stuff. Meg, Mel, Kim, and I (aka. The Aussies) were trying to do the whole Australian "lets-get-into-a-crowd-and-jump-up-and-down" thing but it didnt really work to Reggaton. Thats why we got so excited when Jets "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" came on. We started screaming "JETTTT I LOOOOOVE YOOOUUU" and "WOOH! GO AUSTRALIA" and did full on slam dancing and air guitar. Haha it was so fun. And dont worry, it wasnt embarrassing, coz alot of the French and German kids danced reeeeaaaaalllly bizarrely. The Rotarians came and stopped our little party at 1am, so we moved into this different hall and Meg and I set up her Ipod with some speakers and had an Australian slam dancing sesh to the Hottest 100 2010. It was so fun :) We went to bed at a lovely time of 5am :)
Write again soon
Firstly, Id like to say how I incredibly sorry I am for my slackness over the past few weeks. I have been quite busy, plus I know longer have a computer, so its been a little difficlt to find time to write. But here I go. Ill try and make it longer than usual, to make up for lost entries :)
Okay, so lets start back at the holidays. The first week kicked off with La Cavalcade in Escurolles. It is the annual fete of my little village and is a very important event for them. EVERYONE in Escurolles comes out for the cavalcade weekend... I never knew there were so many people living here.. and so many children. Anyway, La Cavalcade involves the main street of Escurolles being over taken by gypsies, with there mini rollercoasters and crepe stalls set up all along the street. Its so colourful and ambient and wonderful, especially from about 9pm onwards. EVeryone comes out then, even little 3 year olds, and go on the rides and eat waffles with nutella (YUM!) and dance drunkedly (word??) to traditional music. Agnes and I hit the town, just walking up and down the street really, eating the occasional waffle or crepe (with nutella of course). The next morning I wen to watch the parade. There were all these.. um..floats..? Like cars all decorated in crepe paper, with little kids standing on them, throwing confetti at the crowd. C'etait tres mignon. All the floats were pretty well done, but my favourite would have to be the gigantic Bob Marley head. It was HUGE and made out of papier mache, with bulging eyes and a glowing cigarette sticking out of its mouth. And the guys in the car (painted in rasta colours) were all dressed up with baggy pants and sunnies and dreadlocks, and had "3 Little Birds) playing very very loudly. Ill add a photo. It was fab.
Anyway, Agnes went bck to Lyon and I spent the first week of the holidays doing nothing really.. walking around Escurolles, taking photos of flowers and then deleting them.. exciting stuff actually.
Then, on the Friday, I caught the train to Lyon to visit Agnes for the weekend. She lives in la place Bellecour , which is like famous apparently, though I dont knwo why... its pretty ugly. Anyways, I love Lyon. Like absolutely. It is beautiful! I cant really explain it. And maybe once Ive seen Paris, I'll find it less amazing, but for now I just think its spectacular. My favourite things about Lyon were:
1. How all the people acted like it was a summer in, I dont know, Byron Bay, not semi-winter in a city. At 10pm the riverbank was bustling with people. Serously, just hundreds of groups of young people preparing for a night out. They were all lolling about in the grass, with barefeet and cigarettes, lots of beer, and the occasional guitar or tambourine. I dont know why, but thats just my picture of perfection, ambience wise. Perfection.
2. The markets. I am not even going to bother explaining. I just love markets. Surely you know that by now.
3. The little cobbled streets, lined with cute fashion boutiques, cosy book stores, and weird hippy shops over flowing with Indian jewellery, hemp balloon pants, and herbal remedies..and its really cool because there are these doors you can find, all over the city, and they take you into a "secret" passage, that is sort of withing the apartment buildings, and you just follow them, not knowing where you'll end up.
4. The Roman Theatre. Not only was it old, and crumbling, and cool, but there are occasionally rock concerts there. How cool is that???!
3. Okay, my favourite thing about Lyon was definately the massive park. Seriously it was huge. There was a lake, and a sort of zoo thing (big cats, elephants, giraffes), as well as huge, early 20th century (I'm thinking..) glass greenhouse. Again, the atmosphere was just amazing. The park was packed with people studying, sunbaking, excercising, drinking, playing music.. packed, and yet not stressful.. I love the park. If I lived in Lyon, I would spend my entire week there, lazing about in the grass, drinking Vitamin Water and listening to my ipod, and eating Granny Smith apples. Its the perfect place for people watching. There is such a variety of people and all off in their own little worlds. Its gorgeous. It was a really beautiful day too. We just lay about in the grass for a while and laughed at the little kids playing hide and seek by the statue, and the show off footballers playing noisily. There were coloured kiosks filled with sweets and crepes and icy drinks and fairy floss. There were clowns handing out outrageous balloons to children who passed by. There were families roller blading, side by side. There were groups of teens, drinking beer, and orange juice straight from the carton, and laughing over a game of cards, and juggling. I even saw a guy walking along with a live cat perched on his shoulder.
GOSH! I LOVE LYON.
Okay, so after Lyon, Agnes and I caught the train back to Escurolles and spent the week talking crap and chilling in Vichy, and watching Skins, and taking ridiculously difficult bike rides up ridiculously long hills, and babysitting (on one occasion). It was great, and on the Saturday I changed families. Goodbye Chez Kante and hello Chez Rozier!
I love the Rozier Family. I live on a little farm just outside of Escurolles. Its gorgeous and green and surrounded by green wheat fields and yellow, floral canola fields. Oh, and my neighbour is a castle... Anyway, Im living with Madame Monique Rozier and Monsieur Jean-Jaques Rozier. They are 60-something, very talkative, very interesting (Mr. R works travels lots for work so the house is full of stuff from all over the world), and very very nice. They have a daughter, Anne, who is 35 but still great company. She is super lovely and very involved in all the charity events in the area (for countries like Columbia and Mali) as well as the cultural and musical festivals in the area. I've already been to a festival at Montlucon avec elle to help out with her Mali stall. It was really fun. We hung out in this massive tent, which was completely decorated in African ornaments. There was a Tunisian/Morrocan stall sharing the tent with us, so half of the tent was full of wooden, Malian statues, and the other half was set up with little poofs to sit on and pretty luxurious fabrics. And there was a lot of delicious Morrocan food.. for free! And Morrocan tea. YUM.
Okay, I'm running out of time so here are some dot points of things Ive done lately:
- I went to the theatre with Mrs. Rozier and saw this french comedian guy, in a one man show. It was really interactive and quite funny.
- I went to this beautiful flower place.. like where they grow flowers and then dry them and make pretty dried bouquets. We went there for a concert (strings)and it was beautiful, lying about, listening to cellos, and eating crepes.. we always eat crepes.
- I discovered the French version of Aunty Leisey. Seriously. She was a semi hippy, listened to a lot of Neil Young and other 1960's cool music, had cool books about art and the environment and music lying about everywhere, and lived in a house where BBQs and beer and socialising are everyday things. It was so nice being there. It felt soooo Australian.
- I went to a Star Wars convention. There were Darth Vaders and Obi Wan Kenobis everywhere. And a little eewok. It was incredibly daggy yet incredibly cool :) And for some reason there was a guy dressed up as Doctor Who and he came up to me and asked if he could have his photo with me. Sure, he wasnt David Tennant, but almost!!
Okay, now last thing. Wooh, I made it.. are you proud? So this weekend it was the second Rotary camp. I was so syked to see Meg again. Shes my aussie pal, from down near Melbourne.. I caught the train with her on my first day in France :) Anyways, we were soooo excited. We even pre-planned what we were going to do for the "spectacle". We did an attempt at a corrobary, and before you go "God, Ive given birth to a rascist" please understand that we did it completely seriosuly and to show Aboriginal culture, not to pull the piss out the Aborigines. We even youtubed it and learnt actual Aborginal dance moves. We decided to talk about reconciliation and explain abit about Aboriginal culture, because it really is unknown here in France. The dance ended up being ok, though I think they all found our wallaby and emu impersenations a little wierd... It was vair embarassing to find that only one other person had prepared a performance though. We'd gone to all this effort because we thought it was compulsory! Oh well, still fun :)
After the spectacle, there was a sort of dance thing, like a mini club, where everyone went and pretended to be ragers. It was really fun, but all the music was in Spanish because ost of the students are from Latin America. And they are all amazing dancers, moving their hips all sexily and doing like full on tango and salsa and stuff. Meg, Mel, Kim, and I (aka. The Aussies) were trying to do the whole Australian "lets-get-into-a-crowd-and-jump-up-and-down" thing but it didnt really work to Reggaton. Thats why we got so excited when Jets "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" came on. We started screaming "JETTTT I LOOOOOVE YOOOUUU" and "WOOH! GO AUSTRALIA" and did full on slam dancing and air guitar. Haha it was so fun. And dont worry, it wasnt embarrassing, coz alot of the French and German kids danced reeeeaaaaalllly bizarrely. The Rotarians came and stopped our little party at 1am, so we moved into this different hall and Meg and I set up her Ipod with some speakers and had an Australian slam dancing sesh to the Hottest 100 2010. It was so fun :) We went to bed at a lovely time of 5am :)
Write again soon
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