The end of week four!?!?

I can't believe I have come to the end of four weeks of school and four weeks in France - incredible!!

I'm having a wonderful time and while my birthday gave me a brief moment of sadness missing you all, I've soldiered on with the help of wine, cheese, eclair chocolat and some lovely new friends!! Sadly most of my little school friends have finished up now too and headed off back around the world to their various countries. I hope we will keep in touch.

My new strategy?? Retail Therapy!!! I bought the coolest little handbag last night - at the artisan markets, and they are having huge summer sales over here at the moment and I intend to make the most of it buying groovy new clothes!!

I absolutely intend to spend the next 6 months in Aust saying, "oh this, yes, it is lovely isn't it... I bought it in France!!" (hee hee hee - feel free to slap me when I do!!! ;)

My birthday was lovely, we had a bbq at the polo club. An interesting mixed group... two French men who both speak english, and english woman who speaks french, an english woman who doesn't speak french, a french girl who speaks some english (is learning now) and an australian woman who speaks a little french. Great fun as we all spoke in various languages and mixtures of both and helped each other with words or phrases. I was able to test out some of the new polite phrases I'm learning so it was great. My hostess even made me a delicious cake with sparklers!!

As I was walking home that day I noticed some cars and trucks in one of the fields by the road, and one of the electrical lines was down! Also, there had been a fire in the field, but happily it had been put out before the Mistral got a hold of it and it came through the trees and across another couple of fields to my cabinon!! amazing! Was very pleased to see the French equivalent of my employer doing their thing! Also, happily, the lucern in the fields and the hay had been harvested the week before so nothing was lost!

Birthday !!

Am having a lovely birthday here today - lots of lovely messages from all over the world!! thanks everyone for the facebooks, texts, emails and blog posts. Its great to hear from everyone!

I'm having a bbq at the polo club tonight, and a yummy pasta lunch with a friend in about 5 minutes - can't wait, I'm starving!!

beautiful day here, sun is shining, sky is blue and the cicadas are chirping! hugs to all

Notre Dame du Garde, Marseilles

Marseilles and the Mistral

This weekend I went on possibly the best excursion so far. We went down to Marseille for the day and with various echos of ‘danger, pickpockets, mafia’ ringing in our ears we weren’t sure what to expect. Of course I kept my valuables close and of course we had no problems at all. It is a big city with a lot of people from all over the world, its one of the biggest port cities in the world. We played tourist all day, occasionally having to explain to people that we would actually prefer to speak with them in French as we are here to learn!

The best part of the day was a 2 and a half hour boat trip out to see the Calanques, basically huge white cliffs rising out of the sea with the occasional little cove or inlet, sometimes with a beach - absolutely beautiful!! The colours were magnificent the blue of the ocean (pale blue closer to the little beaches), the white cliffs and the green shrubs and bushes growing on the steep hill sides.

The trip was also great fun because while it was a beautiful day, the mistral was doing its thing and blowing us all over the place! The sea was pretty big after we left the safety of the harbour and we were tossed about a bit - exciting! Happily none of us were sick and we all enjoyed the ride. The boat took us past the Isle de something or other which was the setting for the famous Count of Monti Cristo. There are tall fortresses on each side of the harbour mouth to protect it from attack and a beautiful church on the hill, Notre Dame de la Garde with a ten metre tall, gold leafed statue of the madonna and child. Pretty impressive!

We also did a couple of trips on the Petit Train, up to the Notre Dame and also over into the old part of the city. It is a beautiful city in parts with tall buildings with any number of beautiful balconies. The city has been here since about 600 BC although it was heavily damaged in the second world war.

After my big day yesterday, just a quiet day at home today with lots of washing to do. Thanks Mistral - it all dried in no time!! Although, not so much thanks for the dust I had to get out of the cabinon!!

Week Three at School

This week at school has been a little quieter for me which has been nice. My extra excursions in the afternoon have finished so I generally spend the afternoons at the park, the swimming pool, or in a cafe in town. Of course my first priority (or possible third or fourth) is conscientiously completing my homework for the next day. I did another presentation for school on Friday - a brief history of Australia (1788, convicts and so forth) and a few of our better known monuments - Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House and Uluru. The talk went well, I think people are really interested in Australia as a far and distant land! There is an exhibition of Aboriginal Art here in Aix at the moment, and all year there is an exhibition at the Cathedrale d’Images in Les Baux de Provence all about Australia. In my class I have some people from the US, Sweden, Germany, Korea, Finland and Holland - not to mention the French teacher - very cosmopolitan! We all have to do presentations for school, so I am learning a bit more about the world while I’m here.

The Mistral has come in this week and cooled things down (and dusted them up!!). The Mistral is a really strong wind they have here in Provence - in winter it can be absolutely freezing and in summer can be quite hot, but this week has been a bit of a chill. We even had rain one day, although happily I made it to the bus stop without getting wet. Must get an umbrella... hmm...

Cassis

Gosh, once again it has been a while since my last update... where to start... I spent the morning at home on Saturday and then headed into town for some shopping. I bought some proper food and managed to get the oven working this week (the last people had turned the gas off!) so I’ve moved on from various local cheeses and vin rose for dinner each night!

Sunday was an excursion with the school to Cassis - lovely. We stopped at another couple of little towns and beaches as well. The beaches are incredible, maybe 50 metres long, stones (no sand) and about a hundred people!! I had a swim (of course) and the water was actually pretty fresh! absolutely sparkling clear and gorgeous as well. lovely! Interestingly on the beaches in France the “boobs out” option is completely fine and women wander about happily with no tops on. Not for me - all a bit confronting for this little innocent from the land of Oz!

It was a boiling hot day so I spent the afternoon in Cassis in a cafe with an Italian, a Swiss and a glass of cider!! Finishing the afternoon with a delicious gelati! Gotta love summer!!

La Rotonde, Aix en Provence

The Long and Winding Road

that leads to my door... avec une bagette!!

Food Glorious Food!!!

After our excursion I joined a group of three friends for a drink an then dinner - two of them were finishing school the next day. It was a great fun group, and multicultural - 1 Aussie, 1 Swede, a Swiss and an American. and the food.... where do I start, SO GOOD!! If you’re one of my foody friends, now is the time to look away, its jealousy time! In the evening the streets of Aix come alive with hundreds of restaurants which are hidden during the day. Tables and chairs are placed out onto the small streets and the atmosphere is amazing - it would take months to eat your way through each of the different restaurants in this one town... hmmm interesting challenge...
For Entree - I had the Rillettes de Canard Confit Maison avec espices - basically duck salad... words cannot say...
For Main - I had the Alouettes de Beouf broisees ou concasse de tomates, ecruse de pomme de Terre - rolled minced beef with mashed potoates and tomatoes. again... mmmm
For Dessert - what else? the Fondant chocolat - ahhh..!!
We had a lovely (well, 2 actually) bottle of the local rose wine with dinner and finished with limoncello - superb!
Amazing food, beautiful ambience, interesting conversation, fun people, great wine - and a wonderful time had by all!!
I spent a lovely quiet afternoon in the park chatting (in french of course) on Friday afternoon - it is one of the few cool places in town!!

Wine Tasting, Fete Nationale and the beach!?

After school on Tuesday we had a winetasting - well actually we tasted about five local wines after listening for an hour about the region, the process, the taste, the smell, and many other interesting aspects of wine tasting. Of course all this was in French, so it gets a bit hard to concentrate and understand after a long day. It was very interesting and I’ve decided I like the white and the rose the best - maybe just because it is the height of summer over here, but they are delish!
Wednesday, 14 Juliet
La Fete Nationale was a lovely day for me, very quiet in the morning just hanging around at home, and then a few quiet drinks in town with some friends. I had a dinner as a part of the “Discover Provence” course which was at the home of one of the families who hosts students. The meal was delicious, featuring pizza, olives, hommus, salads, fromage (cheese) and beaucoup de Rose! we finished with a home made cherry tart - amazing!
A few of us headed into town for the celebrations and ran into... about 20 million people!! As much as I wanted to be able to say I’d been there, it really wasn’t my scene, so given my lovely abode some 20minutes out of town, and the likelihood of getting a taxi after the fireworks - I hightailed it out of there!!
Friday brought the last of my excursions with the “Discover Provence” group, and my first visit to the “beach” in Provence... It has been incredibly hot over here (35-37 degrees C) and sadly our bus had no air con... But the trip was great, we stopped a few times to see the view over Marseilles, some lovely beaches west of there (amongst the Calangues). Finally we stopped for a swim at a tiny little beach of stones near a port at a tiny village. The water was lovely!!! crystal clear and cool. I even taught one of the other students, a young dutch girl how to swim properly - its silly, but it surprises me a little that while they can mostly swim, ie keep afloat, not many of the europeans can swim properly - laps etc. It makes me feel like a champion swimmer!! She’s a lovely girl, and she picked it up in no time at all! Another funny swimming story is that we went to the pool the other day... and the men and boys all have to wear speedos or tight shorts - basically budgie smugglers of some sort. (Try explaining that concept in French!!). My friend who was wearing normal board shorts was told to get out of the pool!?!? weird!

Week Three begins!!

Monday brought more classes at school and extra afternoon classes as Wednesday is Le Fete Nationale, or as we call it “Bastille Day” 14 July, French National day. We also have extra classes on Tuesday to make up for those we will miss on our day off on Wed.

Monday afternoon’s excursion was to some roman ruins, a village on a hill outside Aix. L’oppidum d’Entremont. It was interesting to have a wander around the walls of the village and see the various different buildings and houses they had. Tomorrow afternoon (Thursday) brings the excursion I have been looking forward to... Degustation de vins provenceux avec la cave de Felibrige. I don’t know anything about the winery, but its wine tasting so its a winner!!

Avignon and Pont Du Gard

On Saturday I went with some of my classmates on an excursion to Avignon and the Pont Du Gard. It was a great day out, and of course, still very hot. We went first to Avignon where we saw the bridge (no doubt mum will be singing the song by now).. danse sur le pont a avignon... or something. Of course you had to pay to go on the bridge, so I didn’t bother, but we had a lovely view from the river bank and from the top of the ramparts around the city.

I did go into the Palais du Pape - which is a huge old palace from when the popes lived in Avignon - some of the rooms are quite amazing, huge, with vaulted ceilings and it was interesting just to wander around inside. It was the festival of Avignon that day (and the week I think) so there were a large number of street theatre artists, musicians and actors patrolling the streets, putting on little performances or asking us to come to their show. I had a lovely lunch in a little cafe with a glass of rose. Yummo!! C’est bien. The rose is great, and cheap too as it is locally produced.

After avignon, we hopped back on the bus for the short drive to the Pont du Gard. This is one of the most amazing structures I’ve seen. It is a huge aqueduct built by the romans about a million years ago (slight exaggeration - google it!) This particular part was built to cross a river between two hills. It was built to bring water from Uzes to Arles or Avignon or somewhere (again, google is great for this type of info). but to me the most amazing thing (Dad will be proud) is that they managed to get the incline right over a few hundred kilometres to have the water flowing just the right amount. The Pont Du Gard, which spans this river is three floors high and is made of stones. The calculations must have been pretty impressive and they would have gone through a few slaves to get it built I think.

There were a number of people swimming in the river which looked beautiful but as we hadn’t brought togs (try translating that word) we settled for a wine in the shade, lovely!
Sunday was a very quiet day at home with washing, sleeping in, reading my book and doing a little bit of homework. I watched a practice game of polo on my private polo field (just outside the door of my cottage) replaced the divots and had a swim in the pool. Very relaxed and recharged ready for my next week at school!!

Week One continues...

Classes at school are still going really well.

On Thursday afternoon, we went on an excursion to a Liquoristorie - where they make various liquors including Versinthe - which is basically the new version of Absinthe, but one that doesn’t send you mad - hope not anyway!! We had a taste of a few different ones. The versinthe and pastis which I tasted later both taste like anis or liquorish... not my favourite - plus I was glad no one had a naked flame! phew!!

On Friday morning it was my turn to give a presentation to the class (in french of course) about something from our home country. I talked about the size of Australia and how long it takes to travel around the place and overseas, and then talked about Australian Animals. The koala, Kangaroo, Platypus and Echidna. Everyone was very interested and asked a lot of questions. I gave them all a little koala (you know the ones that clip onto things) and they were all very pleased! hee hee - just need to drag out the cute furry animals to get people on side! I was really pleased as I had bought the little koalas for my classmates anyway - so the presentation was a great excuse to hand them out.

After sitting around in the park all afternoon (it was about 35 degrees!!) we had an afternoon of Petangue (the provencal version of boules or boci) which, as the title translates, means you have to stand with both feet planted... in a circle on the ground from which everyone takes a turn. We had two teams of three - noir and blanche (black and white) and sadly for me the noir team did not go home victorious. Lots of fun though. We finished the evening with apertifs (pastis) and a bbq with a bunch of students from the school.. Great fun! even when one of the swedish students was laughing at my Aussie accent. That, and the fact that I kept throwing in the occasional english word (with Aussie intonation) in amongst a french sentence. hee hee

It is particularly hilarious when we all raise our glasses before we drink.. “Salud! Slante!! Bottoms up!! Cheers mate!!”

Le Cabinon - the cottage

This little table is where I do my homework each evening... it stays light until about ten pm!!

Le Campagne - the countryside

The views from my little cottage - mon petit cabinon

School and the first few days

On Monday morning we started with a test, both written and oral. I’m pleased to say I surprised myself and found my way into class number four. (ie not the basic level). We had our first class, at which we all introduced ourselves in French, and I did two walking tours of the town - one with the whole group and an extra one as a part of the “Discover Provence” course I’m doing for the first two weeks. It was really interesting, although it was about 35 degrees celcius... Il fait tres chaud!! We were all exhausted after our first day of learning, walking and concentrating!! I finished the day with supper at my hostess’ home (lovely) and got to bed at 11pm. Je suis fatigue!

On Tuesday we had two classes in the morning, and spent the afternoon learning about traditions and specialities of Provence. On Wednesday, after morning lessons and lunch, we went to see the shop/factory where they make Calissons - the petite bonbon which is a speciality of Provence. They basically crystalise various fruits (takes a long time soaking in sugar) - mix them with almonds, cut out little biscuits and ice them. They are tasty but not too sweet. All of our tours and excursions are delivered in French, so I won’t be able to share all of the information wiht you in detail... Je ne comprends pas!

I spent the afternoon shopping - the supermarket is a bit of a challenge - but I have found everyone to be very helpful and friendly when I speak to them with my slightly dodgey french. I open with “J’apprende le Francaise ici en Aix” (I am learning French here in Aix). I used to throw in “Aujourd hui est ma premiere jour” (Today is my first day) but I can’t get away with that any more.

Dear readers - please don’t feel the need to correct my french spelling or grammar - I am typing this at 9.30pm after finishing my homework!! I hope to upload it tomorrow at school - free wifi - or as we say here “wifi gratuit” (pronounced weefee).

Arrival in France

How to describe my first few days in France...? So many challenges, emotions, new experiences all packed into just a few days.

I flew from London to Marseilles on Sunday afternoon after a lovely breakfast at the Bluebird in Chelsea. The flight was uneventful and I passed through customs and sought out the bus and bought a ticket with no problems.

The plane was about an hour late so I arrived in Aix at about 7pm. Of course it is still full sunlight at 7pm over here, and pretty warm. I caught a taxi to my cottage (40 E - gulp!) and was met by my lovely hostess. The cottage is just as picturesque as I had hoped and I have spent each evening so far sitting out on my little terrace looking at the view over the polo field (including my neighbour Netty the horse) and doing my homework - yes I really am back at school!
It is a ten to fifteen minute walk down le petite “Avenue Brigit” (yes, I named it myself) through the woods and past some fields (champs) to the main road where I catch the bus into Aix. The bus takes about 25 minutes and drops me in the south of the Centre Ville. It is then just a ten minute walk (promenade) to l’ecole (school).

At school the students and teachers all speak French (some better than others!) [A l’ecole, tout les etudients et les professeurs parlons en Francais]. (my spelling is not that flash...) It is actually amazing how well we get on chatting away in broken french. We all help each other and I am having a lot of fun in class, at lunch and during our excursions. Yes, I have even made some new friends. (I’m playing nicely with the other kids) ;)

I’m even starting to think in French, as I sit here and consider what to write, half of it comes to mind in French... tres bizarre!

Bonjour France

Hi Everyone

Apologies for the lack of updates in the last few days - everything is going really well, school is fantastic, but busy. A bit hard to get onto the internet and the keyboard is different, so that is a little frustrating too...

I have typed up a long message on my laptop at home and will bring it into school to load up tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for the comments on the blog and for the emails - its great to hear news from home!!

a bientot

Art, History, Sport, Food and Beverage

My last day in London had a tick in every box!

After a luxurious sleep in, we headed on the train to Waterloo and a short walk to the Tate Modern Gallery on the London South Bank.

We saw an exhibition called "Exposed" showing photographic art. Across the river we caught a glimpse of St Paul's Cathedral - once the tallest building in all of London.

Lunch in a pub called the Founders arms overlooking the river and listening to the roars from inside as the Germans had a convincing win over Argentina in the FIFA World Cup. (We're watching Spain v Paraguay as I type, and stayed up last night to watch the devastating defeat of Ghana by Uraguay...sigh!).

Lunch was a delicious cheeseburger with chips and a couple of ciders for me - Bulmers Original Apple Cider and a Swedish Strawberry and lime cider - delicious.

Had a ride home in a London taxicab and a lovely arvo nap!!

Off to France tomorrow... yay! eek! Bonjour?!!

London Bridge is NOT falling down...

And I know this because I walked across it yesterday - with my sister-in-law, niece and nephew.

We went into the Tower of London and had a look around - the crown jewels are pretty impressive - one of the diamonds is enormous - of course it would be heavy to wear, so I left it behind!!

We did the guided tour with the yeoman (beefeater) which was really interesting - boy oh boy, the English had a bloody history of executions... blerk. Beheadings, hangings... hang drawn and quartering... ger-ross! And some of them so young when they were killed. sigh!

My niece loved the crowns and jewels and my nephew was right into the armour - their purchases in the gift shop reflected this.

Had a great view of the Tower Bridge and walked over it on our way home for a lovely bbq dinner in the back yard at her brother's place. yay!

Friday was sociable day - spent the morning with a friend from school having brunch and wandering around Notting Hill and Portabello Road markets - lovely, so good to catch up and chat!

The afternoon involved picnic and wine with friends in Battersea Park, a beautiful afternoon of sunshine and boules!

Greenwich

I caught a ferry on the Thames on Wednesday down to Greenwich where I had a quick look around the maritime museum including an exhibit of toy boats (they've got nothing on the one my daddy-o is building!).

At Greenwich, I also had a look around the Queen's House - part of the old palace that was built by Henry the VIII. Elizabeth I was born here and Henry VIII was born in the palace that was on this site before this one. There are a number of portraits in there of the Tudors and various maritime heros. The famous "Tulip Staircase" (spiral) is pretty impressive, as is the grand hall and the room with a painted frescoe ceiling.

Up the hill through part of the extensive park brings us to the observatory and the meridian line - the point where the east meets west - 0,0 latitude.

The park land is lovely with extensive lawns, rose gardens, a band stand and even a deer park. This little squirrel was even happy to come and say hello!

Its London Calling - or is that shopping!?

So far in London (arrived back on Monday 28/6), I've spent some time in the shops.. Day one back here was spent in Carnaby Street and Oxford Street and Soho browsing around shops and happily making some 'independent purchases'. After some serious mentoring from some card carrying shopping experts before I left Brisbane, I have graduated to successfully shopping solo - ready to hit Europe by storm. Purchases so far? Tommy Hilfiger Skirt, little red singlet from United Colours of Beneton and top from New Look!

I've been into Harrods and Selfridges (day two) - Overwhelming!! more glitz and designer glamour than you can poke a stick at and lots of other customers who just scream "wealth"! I had a coffee and chocolate croissant at the icecream parlour in Harrods (omg the options for ice cream sundaes...!) and then lunch in the selfridges food hall. I guess my favourite parts of both shops - while Bulgari etc were options - was really the confectionary sections... lollies every which way - lolly pops, butterscotch... yum!! I managed to refrain from purchase - amazing.

Im loving the buses (19 from Battersea Bridge to Picadilly Circus) and the various underground lines (Jubilee, Central, circle lines). With the octopus card, the world really is my oyster and I can go wherever I please!

Brunch with an old school friend and a wander through the markets at Portabello Road have rounded off the shopping experience and I bought a cute little pale pink top at one of the stalls. Luckily I'm sending home some of my warm clothes (haven't needed those!!) so I have room in my bags!!