In Repliance to Grandma and Grandpa....

Bonjour!

So, I recieved my airogram from Grandma and Grandpa and, of course, opened it with asloute ease.. Nandi is obviously a little special.

Anyway, after reading the lovley little letter, I realised that I havent told you much about the famous French cuisine! So here I go..

Alright, so first of all, there is how much we eat aka. A LOT. Like seriously. For breakfast, I have 2 pain grilles which are like those mini-toasted-biscotte-things that come prepackaged, except, like, bigger. I usually have them with nutella (because the French are obsessed with it), butter and jam, or some honey, which is made by a little old guy a few houses down, and is soooooo different to Australian honey (its like white, and thick, and grainy like sugar. And very, very yummy). Then I have a bowl (weird, I know) of green tea, and sometimes a yoghurt or a Granny Smith apple :) Then there is no food until about midday, when lunch is served. Whether I am at school or whether I am at home, this meal is always ridiculously massive. The school lunches include a dessert, bread, cheese, a salad, sometimes a soup or bit of pizza (for an entree!) and then a main meal of pasta or rice or cous cous, with some sort of meat or fish. At home its pretty similar, though we skip the entree and the dessert... theres a yoghurt instead. Then, again, a humoungous break until about 8pm, when its dinner time. Dinner is supposedly "small", but, honestly, its like a normal sized dinner in Australia. We usually have a salad, bread (of course), and smoked salmon or fried fish (my host family cooks with ridiculous amounts of oil!! I've actually started saying "Attendre! Attendre! Un peu, sil vous plait. C'est pas bon pour vous!" They look at me like Im nuts and say that is healthy..), or sometimes a home made "pizza" which is actually pastry (with butter in between every layer... Im gonna be obese) with some tomato and onion and ham. And then a yoghurt, of course. They love yoghurt.

Okay, so, besides the norm, what else have I tried? No snails or frog legs or horsemeat yet, thank goodness (No, I wouldnt mind trying the first one). I have tried crepes though, and they are good. Very good. My host sister, Agnes, made a batch and we ate them with nutella, which was fantastic. Then I also had some at a dreperie with dark chocolate and icecream... yum. I had my first truely french croissant yesterday morning (only took me a month) and it was wonderful, far better than those in Australia, but very large. The most delcious thing Ive had so far was a chocolate tart from this gorgeous patisserie/confectionarie. It was to die for.

Today I tried a speciality of the region. It was a pastry filled with potatoes, cream, cheese and herbs, and was brilliant, though definately not healthy. Another speciality I had a few weeks ago in Millau, was this mashed potato with so much cheese mixed through it, that it actually almost stuck to the plate. It was served with an incredibly salty beef or lamb sausage and was very yummy.

I am actually getting to like cheese a fair bit, but I will never ever ever like blue cheese. Ever. All the Rotary people were trying to get me to taste it, and then I explained that Id had blue cheese many times before, and I didnt like it, and they were in total denial... like there was only blue cheese in France. They were absolutely convinced that no cheese in Australia would have mould in it or be aged or disgusting like their blue cheese. It was the first sign of that stereo-typical French arrogance I've seen since my arrival. I had some though, just to keep them quiet. And it tasted exactly like Australian blue cheese... disgusting. I do however like the yummy goats cheese. And the camembert and brie dont taste like anything, so they are good.

My favourite French food experience (besides the chocolate tart) so far, has been the raclette. I think it is the most carnivourous (sorry about the spelling), least healthy thing I have ever eaten, but the whole concept is very fun. Its basically this little stove thing that everyone sits around, and you each have a little shovel that you put cheese on, and then you put it on the stove to melt it. On your plate you have a selection of cold meats (ham, salami, prosciutto, etc) and some bread and some hot, cooked, jacket potato, and you pour the melted cheese over it and then eat it. It is sooooo good, but definately a once a month, or even once a year thing... except that Ive had it 4 times since my arrival... as I said, obesity is on its way.

Anyway, Id love to tell you about my experiences with African food and the abbatoir, but its getting late and this is getting long, so Ill save it for another day :)

Lots of love,

Miss you,

Jess

THE RACLETTE

Le Mont Dore

Hello! Sorry, I've apparently (according to father) been quite slack, blog-wise, so here I am, making you all happy again :)

Okay, so yesterday Koly and Francoise took me on a little road trip (well, a 2 hour drive, anyway) to the Puy de Dome, which is this massive extinct volcano in my region, Massif Central. It was gorgeous, though it was a fairly cloudy day (c'est dommage), so we couldn't actually see the entire thing. It's been really sunny here for the last couple of days (I'm even wearing a t-shirt today... it's 15°C), but the Puy de Dome and the surrounding mountains were still covered in snow. There was even a huge lake, completely frozen! It was beautfiul.

My favourite thing about driving through the mountains, were all the little, medieval towns that we came across. They were everywhere, just these small, crumbling villages, each with their own rustic chapel, a patisserie, rolling hills full of grazing cattle, and, in a few, a castle! In fact, yesterday I saw a total of 6 chateaux. They are all so beautiful and interesting, each in their own way. I wouldve loved to have actually visited one, but only a few are open to the public.

After driving around the mountains for a while, we reached this cute, not too little, town called Mont Dore. I think it is my favourite place taht I have visited in France so far. It just felt so incredibly French! It was a ski resort style village, so it was extremely busy, and full of cute little Frenchies all rugged up in coloured 90's style ski suits. After finding a park (it took forever!!) we went to the local creperie for, you guessed it, crepes. I ordered one calle 'La Parisienne'. It came with this delisciously gritty vanilla bean icecream and thick melted dark chocolate. It was fabulous. Afterwards, we went for a stroll through the town. There were little outoor stalls everywhere, selling various local cheeses and dried meats and jams. We stopped at one, and Koly explained to the little toothless cheese selling man, that I was Australian. For some reason whenever French people hear that, they get super excited, so he exclaimed "Australienne! J'adore Australie!!" or something like that, and started cutting off all these bits of cheese and shoving them at me, saying "Gout!! Taste!! Gout! C'est bon? Oui, oui, c'est bon!" It was very nice and very cute and, despite my general loathing of cheese, a lot of them were actually very good... they were like that nice strong "number 5 only" cheddar cheese that Grandpa always buys.

Anyway, it started to snow, so Koly rushed us back to the car.. I think he was scared we'd get snowed in or something, and we went home. It was a great day. I really loved Mont Dore. I want to go back and see it all in the summer. It will be gorgeous, and you can probably take little peddle boats or something out on the lake :)

Tata et aurevoir,

Jess

PS. There are photos below!!

Photos of Mont Dore

Swimming :)

Salut!!

Okay, so today I went swimming!! Despite the fact that it was like -1°C. Haha no, the cold weather had no effect on me, as the pool was, of course, inside.

Vichy's Aquatic Centre is absolutely fantastic. It is huge, with an outdoor olympic size pool (people were actually swimming in it too, because it is heated to 30°C!!), an indoor 25m lap pool, another pool for fun, a waterslide, and this awesome circular pool with a current running through it (so you just go round and round in circles). And thats just the bottom floor! For 11€ you can have access to the pools, as well as the sauna, hammen (? Like a sauna, but humid, jaccuzzi, and a great gym equiped with readmills, etc.

Today I went with my host family's daughter, Agnes, who is here for the week. She is 19 years old and speaks fluent English, so we get along really well. We spent 3 hours alternating betwwen the sauna, the jaccuzzi, and the pool. I want to make a trip to the aquatic centre a weekly thing!! Its so fun!! And you can stay there all day if you want to... there is even a resturant/cafeteria so you can have lunch in betwwen all ypur excercising.

Anyways, now I'm watching Skins Season 4 on the internet... Its not on French TV :( Its so good.

Tata et aurevoir,

Love Jess

Photos!!!!

NEIGE and other happenings

Salut!!!!!

Okay, so you know how I've been like, "oh, there is like full on snow, blah, blah, blah", well, it has all been an illusion. I thought I was seeing grand amounts of neige, but today I discovered what real snow is like.

I walked outside this morning, looked down, and found that there was a sea of white where my feet had once been! There was snow everywhere! And its still falling, thick and fast, as I type this. I love it!!! Its gorgeous, like a fairytale, and you get proper little snowflakes in your hair, and you look out teh window in class, and watch the flakes of white fall in huge, flamboyant, swirls. Its beautiful!! And there werent many people at school (the buses dont operate on really snowy days), so all the classes were a bludge.

Of course, there are downsides to snow, as well. For example, within minutes of stepping outside, the strong (or so I though) fortress that is my pair of Doc Martens, was penetrated, leaving my feet (and 2 pairs of woolen socks) wet and disgusting all day. Then there is the fact that it is incredibly cold. I generally dont feel the cold, even today when it was -9°C, but this afternoon, a misunderstanding about who was going to pick me up from school led to me waiting for an hour (an hour!!) in the freezing cold. And I felt it for once. Im still cold 2 hours later!! But dont worry mum, Im okay. Better than okay even :)

The final downside to snow is the way it makes an easy journey very difficult. Tonight I have a Rotary dinner (which doesnt start until 8!! Im ready for bed now!!! Jeez!) and was supposed to be dropped home afterwards, but because of all the snow I may have to stay in Vichy tonight, with my councillor. Its all fine and everything, but Im going to have to be an outfit repeater (NOOOO!!) at school tomorrow, and dont have a toothbrush or clean socks, so thats sort of annoying. Ah well, Ill get over it.

Anyways, Im gonna go now, but have a swell day and Ill talk to you soon.

Miss you,

Lots of love,

Jess

School is a Weird and Wacky Place

Salut!

Okay, so I thought Id better tell you guys about some of the bizarre school experiences I have had over the last few days.

- First of all, I had sport on thursday and I arrived at school to find that I actually had to walk to Vichy's gym... which was like down all these streets and back alleys and was like 10-15minutes away. It was really bizarre. Anyway, when i got to the gym, I discovered that our topic was dancing, so I got really excited... until I found out that it was contemporary... like beyond contemporary even. It was like that full on channel-your-inner-beast, intwine-yourself-around-your-classmates sort of contemporary. And everyone got super into it, even the boys. It was so weird. I did the warmups but then i just watched and was amazed/shocked to see boys lifting their best friends up onto their shoulders, and girls crawling between eachothers legs. Seriously, It was very weird. Very, um, artistic.

- Okay, secondly, I had art for the first time yesterday, and it went for 4 hours. I repeat, 4 hours!! How ridiculous is that?! Fun though.

- Today I went to school... even though it is Saturday. It wasnt actually that bad, because it was just art, but still, I am so incredibly tired. Anyways, Id been told that the art teacher was really nice, and it turned out he was, but he was also very, um, touchy. I dont know if that is the norm in France, but he was like hugging everyone and holding peoples hands when he spoke to them and breathing on peoples necks to get their attention. And he kept telling everyone how pretty I was and calling me his "Little Chicken". Everyone just laughed and acted if it was okay, but I just felt like yelling "POLICE!!! We have a pediophile on our hands!!!!"

Okay, so those are some of the weird parts of school in France. There are a lot of good things too, but those just kind of freaked me out.

Before I go, I must share some exciting news with you. Yesterday in art class, I looked out the window and saw a, wait for it, SQUIRREL!!!! I dont know if you guys knew this, but squirrels are my second favourite animal ever, after elephants. I actually stood up, pointed out the window and yelled "Oh My God! Look, it's a squirrel!!! Its soooooo cute!!!!" Haha the French kids didnt really understand what I was so excited about, because they assumed there were squirrels everywhere in the world, but when I explained that Id never seen one in real life before, they all laughed and got exctited for me. Haha.

Tata et aurevoir,

Jess

Faire du Shopping

So, seeing as school finishes at a lovely time of 11am on Wednesdays, I decided to walk into Vichy and go shopping! Unfortunately, I soon found that my gigantic Australian body literally doesnt fit in cheap French brands (made for tiny French teenagers) so I had to turn my shopping elsewhere to the more universal and more expensive stores, like Esprit, Levi, Pepe Jeans, and Roxy. I ended up spending about 180 euros (thats like 350 dollars) on some black dance pants, a striped knitted sweater, a grey hooded over-the-head jumper, and an awesome Pepe jeans London tee with the UK flag on it. I also bought some gifts (in the form of magazines) for mes amies in Australie. All in all, it as a rather successful shop, though I really must try and find a jacket that will fit... I really want/need a trench.

Tata et aurevoir,

Jess

Millau

Salut!

So, on the weekend I had my first Rotary camp in a beautiful town called Millau. Its about 3.5 hours south of Vichy and about an hour north of Montpellier. Its also where I thought I was going origionally, so I was very excited to see it.

On Saturday morning Maria and I went and explored Millau. it really is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It was all very old, with those wonderful cobbled streets, lane ways lined with cute boutiques, an old bridge arched over a river full of swans and pretty wild ducks, and a beautiful church. We chose just one of the lane ways to explore and were more than pleased with what we found. I discovered this fantastic book store and bought my first french possession: Harry Potter and the philosophers Stone... in french. Its my goal this year to read the whole series in french :) I also went looking for a jacket, seeing as I have literally run out clothes (my host family only washes once a week), but I dont understand the sizing here! Either their sizing is stupid, or I am just too massive to fit in French clothes. I found this lovely red trench coat with huge quitky buttons, but the largest size (in the entire store, seriously) was a 4, which fit around everywhere except my gigantic shoulders! It was so annoying!!! But it was just the jackets that I had trouble with, and I ended up buying a red roll-neck sweater dress, a beaded necklace, and yet another long sleeved top.

The actual Rotary camp was brilliant. It wasnt at all like the ones we had back in Australia. It was more like a social gathering than a billion lectures in a row. There were about 20 or even 30 inbound students from all around the globe, but they had been in France for 5 months already, so they knew eachother and spoke French the whole time, etc, etc. The only new kids were all Australian, meaning I already knew them :) there was Meg, a girl from Melbourne who I caught the traun with on our first day in france, and a girl called Melissa, who remembered me from the plane (Meg and I didnt recall having ever met her). They were both really nice and I hung out with Meg alot because we were the youngest, most immature, loudest people at the camp.

My french is really bad, so I stuck to talking with English speaking people at the camp, including a lovely boy, James, from Missouri, USA, a Canadian girl named Brianna, and 2 French kids who went to australia last year on exchange. It was great talking to them and I must say they are the first people I have spoken to since my arrival in france, that have known where Ballina, Byron Bay, and Brisbane are! Amazing, I know.

Alot of funny things happened over the weekend, but Im just going to name a few in some good old dot point form:

- Meg, Melissa and I were talking with the kids from USA about terrible last names.Meg told us that her mum's maiden name was Whore and Melissa and I were like "Haha! OMG!", but the Americans didnt get it at all. When we explained to them what a whore was, they replied, "Oh! You mean a whooorrrrreeeeeyyyyyy". They didnt understand half the stuff we said, because our accents were so "weird".
- The mexican boys invited Meg, Melissa, and I to play volleyball and so we went outside to play, but it wasnt real volleyball-there was no net. They were just passing it around- and we were absolutely terrible. After about 10 minutes, they just stopped and said "You're Australian! You should be good at volleyball!" I explained to them that not all Australians are good at volleyball, particularly not us, and so we started playing soccer instead.
- Meg and I were bored so we went onto the basketball court and started kicking the volley ball around. Meg was seriously the worse soccer player I have ever seen (and thats coming from me... I totally suck at soccer!) and somehow she got the ball wedged between the basket ball hoop and the basket ball backboard. Skilled, I know. Anyways, I thought Id get out my inner genius, and broke a branch off a nearby tree, then tried to use it like a spear to knock the ball down. We got some weird looks from passers-by, but eventually Meg managed to hit it and we got it down.

Anyway, Id better be going,

Miss you,

Love Jess

PS.Sorry, Grandpa, but it was impossible to get a photo of the viaduct bridge thing because we were on it! And you couldnt see it from the town, just occasionally on the road.