More photos!

Ok, so it's exam time and I'm naturally finding all possible forms of procrastination that there are; taking a few photos of Montyp seemed like a good enough option to me. Probably not what I should be doing given that I have 9 exams over the next 2 weeks (haven't had this many since GCSE...), but hey. We all need to take a break sometimes, right?

"Can we go see that big white church over the river?" Un weekend à Paris.

I can hardly live in France for a year and not visit Paris at least once. With the combined excuses of a national day off, an opportunity to see the Eiffel tower (for the millionth time) and the chance to spend the weekend having a good time with friends…well, I could hardly turn that down!

Paris didn’t disappoint. Keeping up with the tradition of us Leeds Frenchies going to Paris in November (for some of us, it was the third year running), the weekend consisted off exactly what I thought it would given the people I was going with…eating, drinking, walking and generally enjoying la vie Parisienne.

Naturally I had to go and pay a visit to the Eiffel Tower…

The next day was Remembrance Day – a very memorable experience. We headed up to the Arc de Triomphe to watch the service. I would love to say that I saw a great deal of what was going on, but even with huge screens attached to the Arc, I didn’t manage to see a thing – the perils of being vertically challenged. Massive thanks to Jack for giving me a running commentary of what was going on…

So after Sarkozy made his quite frankly brilliant memorial speech, the crowd started to disperse and people began to leave. All of a sudden, everyone lurched towards the barriers and I could make out the word “SARKOZY!” being called. Yup, you guessed, old Sarko was right there, casually walking past, shaking people’s hands and most likely trying to win potential votes for next year. Being the classic tourists that we are, we threw ourselves into the crowd to get our own snap of le president. Et voila…

And before you ask, yes he is really that short in real life. And he has a really big nose.

Next we headed to the “big white church over the river” (think you mean the Sacre Coeur, Jack) and had a wander round the Moulin Rouge…typical tourists much? We even did the classical annoying touristy thing, where you go into the Louvre, bypass all the great works of art, head straight to Mona Lisa, look at it for a few minutes, feel disappointed and leave. We did try appreciating other paintings…but there’s only so far you can pretend. . That evening, after a delicious meal cooked by the boys, we headed out to a club to see what the Parisian nightlife had to offer!

Saturday was a (hangover) picnic under the Eiffel Tower – perfect. The rest of the day was spent casually wandering round once again and watching Paris slowly light up as it dropped dark. 

Overall, a fantastic weekend. A l’année prochaine!

TWO LOOSE IN TOULOUSE!

Another weekend trip down (and a chunk of Erasmus money gone) – this time, Toulouse!

So after a week of the Montpellier thunderstorms, we escaped to a town where the weather was that little bit better. Lies and I kicked off our trip with a nice and early 7.40am train (it was cheap, ok) and off we headed. Slight panic on the train journey, when we saw what we thought was the sea on either side of us and wondered just what on earth the train was doing and where we were actually going… But we arrived in our intended destination, always good.

So map clutched in hand, we did the proper tourist thing and had a wander round checking out all the major sites:

Le Capitole (Toulouse's version of Comedie...)

Cathedrale St-Etienne

Our excitement at finding a huge Monoprix...

So in the afternoon we decided to do a bit of shopping, and I can safely say that I took advantage of the shops in Toulouse – Montpellier, I love you, but you don’t have a great selection of shops. Then it was naptime, ready for the night ahead!

After an exceptionally good meal (it’s amazing how delicious spag bol tastes when you haven’t eaten it in a while), we kicked off our night with a bottle of wine, some playing cards and of course, CRISPS…once we’d rescued them from the shower where Lies cleverly decided to put them down.

The next day, we had another stroll round, had some *hangover* pizza and found ourselves sitting in a bandstand (no Lies, not a gazebo), watching random people dancing to some strange swing-style music. Very, very surreal to say the least. And clearly captivating enough to keep us there for over 2 hours! Naturally, not knowing these people, we made up names and lives for them…an afternoon of free, bizarre and hilarious entertainment.

And that was the two of us loose in Toulouse!

So ten weeks ago, I was waking up to my first mornings in Montpellier, ready to face the challenging day ahead of having to speak proper French to proper French people and do all the serious stuff that needs to be done when you’re setting up a life somewhere. I quickly realised this wasn’t a holiday, and that actually bank accounts needed to be set up and the phone contracts needed to be taken out. Little did I know back then that it wasn’t going to be as easy as I had hoped. But I managed it, and I can safely say that after 10 weeks I’m as prepared as I’ll ever be for whatever the French bureaucratic system decides to throw my way. I now know that if you need to see the bank for whatever reason, you will have to go in, say what it is you want to discuss, be told to come back in another time, to then make an appointment….for yet another day. Sounds crazy? Pretty normal for round here. If you want to get a simple thing such as a tram pass, you will need 3 different types of document and probably a blood sample.

My illusion that the south of France is always bathed in glorious sunshine has been shattered completely this week; the summer clothes and the flip flops have been firmly stored away in the back of the wardrobe, don’t think they’ll be resurfacing anytime soon, sadly. Montpellier has been hit by some sort of monsoon season that has made it sometimes impossible to leave the house. I really wish I was kidding. I know that if I left the house I’d just get blown away by the wind and I really don’t fancy doing a Mary Poppins. It’s the kind of weather where you just want to get into bed and eat chocolate, drink tea and watch films all day. Shame I can’t do that, as it turns out I actually have a fair bit of uni work to be cracking on with. The closer it gets to the ends of term (only 6 weeks to go), the closer we get to actually having to do some work. I'd almost forgotten that that's what we're here to do...

Other small updates on my life…the battle between me and the supermarkets for fresh milk rages on – there are times when I’ve lost, meaning black coffee and dry cereal for me, yum. It’s amazing how such a little thing can become so important! So far this experience is turning me more French by the day. I now eat my steak much rarer than I'd ever have even touched before (in my opinion, it's raw, but damn it tastes good), I drink COFFEE and haven't had made a cup of tea in all my time here (sorry Steph), I've taken to olives (so sophisticated) and my staple diet consists of wine, bread and cheese (très française). I’ve also learnt another major lesson – the green man at the road crossing, which I’d always assumed was an international symbol for “you’re ok to cross now”, apparently does now have the same meaning in France. Cars can still go, so you take your life into your own hands every time.

One last thing. As much as I love France the one thing I have to admit that I’m missing more than I had realised…the English pubs. There just isn’t anything quite like them!