Gavarnie (Pyrenees)

Bonjour, mes amis.

I didn't take these three photos (my camera can't capture scope like this), but I did take these.  There was a lot more snow when we were there.  This particular spot is protected by UNESCO as one of the "World Heritage" places in the world.  We hiked to the waterfall (shown here):

By the end of the hike, we had hiked for over four hours.  It was positively gorgeous, but got more difficult the closer we got to the waterfall (from the distance of the photo to the left, we still had to hike for about thirty five minutes to get to the waterfall itself.  The wind was so strong and the air was so cold, that I was drenched in less than twenty seconds when we finally got close to the waterfall.  It made for an uncomfortable walk back.  However, because I was already so dirty and wet, I didn't mind so much when I fell into the stream.  Balance never has been my strongsuit).  

I saw my first herd of mountain goats on that hike, too.  I had always had romanticized, Heidi-like images of herds of mountain goats.  In reality, they really smelled goaty.

We had lunch at a charming lodge in the village.  The chicken was wonderful and very fresh.  One girl got hers and said, slightly horrified, "I got a feather in mine."  She had a similar reaction to Roquefort, "Why did I put it in my mouth?  I knew I didn't like green things."  Not everyone is loving the locally raised/produced food like I am.  

Speaking of food, I found really great yogurt here.  It's produced by a family business in the Pyrenees, and they make yogurt (all different flavors).  There's a picture and description of the farm on the packaging, and it says that one of the brothers in the business is in charge of the milking, and the other of the actual yogurt-making.  It's unpasteurized goodness, and I'm completely addicted.  

The only bad news is that I have two finals tomorrow, and I haven't studied for either of them.  I spent the night last night at a friend's apartment, and because the buses don't run on Sundays, I had to walk home.  It took me an hour and a half, and then I went walking with a friend of mine.  I'm slightly fatigued.  

Last night was France's annual Fete de la Musique and we went dancing afterwards.  The music festival was lots of fun:  It didn't start until after nine o'clock in the evening, and went until two o'clock am.  EVERYONE attends...including families, babies in strollers, gypsies, and dragqueens. 

I had dinner with my family tonight, which was nice--I'm understanding more and more French daily.  Yay.  The little boy and I had a funny exchange all through dinner, he would say, "Merci, Madame" (funny because I'm actually mademoiselle) and I would respond, "De rien, Monsieur" (funny because he's so young).  My host dad and I are going to watch the match du football later. 

Bisous, 

Marguerite.

The most adorable afternoon.

My French class (students and teacher) had lunch together today at a restaurant a cote de campus (close to campus--you spell it with a few accents, but I can't figure out how to add them in this format).  I had an excellent apricot tart for dessert.  The apricots looked like three sunny-side-up eggs.  It was wonderful.     

There's a gentleman  in my French class who is a retired federal judge, and after lunch today, I asked him what his afternoon plans were.  He said he had to go to the train station to cancel a ticket, so I invited him to come with a group of us to the Blue Van (it's on the way to the train station).  The Blue Van, mes amis, is what I will miss most about Pau.  It sells ice cream in the town square.  Not only is it beyond picturesquely adorable, it has the best ice cream in the world. My RFJF (Retired Federal Judge Friend) and I discovered that we share a passion for ice cream and Sherlock Holmes stories, so it didn't take much convincing for him to join our group headed for the centre-ville.  I had une boule (scoop) of citron (lemon) and une boule of framboise (raspberry), and he had chocolate.  We ate our ice cream in the shade, under a huge trellis, which houses a few wrought iron benches (ils sont tres mignon--they are very cute).  After that, we left the group and walked to the train station.  We chatted about Joseph Conrad, military history, the plight of the American farmer, Dickens, and Alfred Hitchcock movies.  One of his hobbies is architecture, and he recommended the book Brunelleschi's Dome.  We also talked about some of the cases he's had throughout his career.  It was so interesting: he would give me the situation and then ask me what I thought, then I would give an answer, and then he would say, "Yes, but what's the next question?"  We would go back and forth, and then he would tell me what he ruled and why.  J'ai trouve un ami!  (I have found a friend!)  

After the train station, we sat outside at a cafe from about 4:30-7:00, and tried a few different kinds of beer.  He has German heritage, so he's something of a beer expert.  Though we both like to drink wine while in France, it was too hot for it this afternoon.  Here in France, it is common for beer to come with some sort of flavored syrup.  We were utterly mystified by the different (often brightly) colored drinks being served, so finally we tried a red one--definitely grenadine.  Not so great.  We had a wonderful afternoon, though, and went our separate ways with plans to search out some restaurants in Paris when we go next week (I should've known we were going to be fast friends when in class the other day, he asked if I had a Michelin guide).  We are both quite grateful for each other's company.  I think he's grateful for some companionship (he eats most of his dinners alone), and I'm certainly grateful to escape the ubiquitous presence of students, especially with someone who is such a gentleman.  He reminds me of my grandfather--utterly brilliant (but self-effacing and diplomatic so you wouldn't know it unless you engage him), excellent conversationalist, and a gentleman through and through. Spending the afternoon with him reminded me of how much I miss the wonderful men in my life--my father, uncles, and brother.  There are only a few male students studying here, and I really miss the company of men!

Tomorrow I'm hiking through the Pyrenees with our group, and will attend France's annual Fete de la Musique in the evening.   

Bisous, 

Marguerite.

 

Closing my shutters.

Bon soir, toute le monde.

My favorite routine of the day is closing the shutters and window in my room.  It gets dark quite late here (around ten o'clock), and when I close my shutters, I shut out the bruit (noise) of the day, and I have time to unwind, do mes devoirs (my homework), and maybe eat an apricot with Nutella (by the way, not all Nutella and its offbrands are created equally--I find I actually prefer Nutkao to Nutella and other brands.  It's not as gooey, so it doesn't feel as if you're eating pure chocolate sauce).  

I am constantly surrounded by people, both foreign and familiar, from the time I awake at 7:00am to the time I return home (usually after 7:00pm--though the weekends I travel and the weeknights I spend at my friend's apartment often put me in the presence of people around the clock).  I often feel like an overplayed, overwound music box...I need time to stop spinning and piping out a tune, the box needs to be closed for a few moments.  So, when I come into my room and close the shutters, all I hear is the tick-tock of my travel clock, and the time is mine.  

That being said, I've visited some interesting places and learned some useful things in the past few days (perhaps the most useful of which being that red wine is not a good chaser for a shot of vodka: we went to a bar and watched the match du football between Italy and France, and France lost.  Everyone felt it necessary to indulge in a pity party shot).  

Some friends of mine and I went to the horse farm where Napoleon sent his best horses to be trained and bred.  We didn't know it was State-funded, though, and the day we chose to go was the day of a general strike (anyone who feels like striking simply strikes, so sometimes buses run, sometimes they don't, some schools aren't in session, etc.  I kind of think it's similar to our snowdays--you know you're going to get them, but you're not quite sure when.  And when you do get them, you're never quite sure what's going to shut down).  So they wouldn't give us a tour, but they let us in and let us explore all of the grounds and barns on the condition that we "wouldn't let the horses out of the stables."  I was disappointed.  That had been at the top of my list.

By far the coolest event of the week was the cheese lecture I attended on Tuesday afternoon. Gabriel Bachelet, one of the most famous cheese makers in the world, came and spoke to us about French cheese, especially the cheese of the Pyrenees.  There was a degustation (a tasting) and he explained how different types of cheeses developed.  For example, high up in the Pyrenees, people needed to be able to store milk for more than six months.  Hence, they developed hard cheeses that could last for long periods of time, whereas at lower elevations, since there was no need for milk to be stored for such long periods of time, people developed softer cheeses.  Another cool fact: oftentimes, when you purchase chevre, the outside is coated in ash.  It used to be a way to control humidity, but now the cheese is just rolled in ash for color.  

We also had an interesting lecture at the Jurancon winery today.  Jurancon grapes are the specialty of the region, and the particular winery we visited, Domaine du Cinquau, produces over ten different kinds of wine--from relatively dry to very sweet.  They produce over four million bottles of wine per year (only ten percent of which are sent out of the country, to Belgium and Switzerland.  They are planning to begin to ship to the States in about two years).  The only downside of the outing was that I had to cart around a bunch of wine for the rest of the day.  Not fun, considering it was really hot. 

Please note that I just typed "it was really hot."  It was sunny today.  I cannot even describe my happiness.  

Good night and good luck, 

Marguerite. 

Are you listenin', Silver?

Bon soir, toute le monde.

Correction from a few posts ago: I'm an idiot.  You actually spell my favorite movie Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis, not "Ch'itis."

I had quite an eventful weekend in Nice.  I took quite a few pictures, which are in cleverly named albums, Sugar and spice and everything Nice and More Nice things.  

~Vendredi~

Our train left from Pau at 6:30 Friday evening.  It was happily uneventful until our first connection, at Tarbes.  We had a two-hour layover, and as we sat there, quietly reading our Cosmopolitan's and Glamour, une sans domicile fixe or SDF (homeless/street person) came up to us and asked, "Do you want ta hear an American joke?"  He turned out to be Irish, and told us jokes and stories for about 45 minutes.  His brogue was thick, and sometimes difficult to follow, but once in a while he would stop and say, "You're nice girls.  Thank ya for listenin' ta me."  And just when it seemed endearing, he would come up with a story like this:

"They're [I believe "they" means everyone in the world] all bastards.  Bastards.  They arrested me."  

Me, "Really?  Why?"

"Ah," he said, "I stole a car." 

His accent was quite thick, and his eyes were sad and blue.  He paused between words sometimes, seeming to grope for his next thought.  He stopped mid-story once and asked me, earnestly, "Are ya listenin', Silver?"  

Our train from Tarbes to to Toulouse went by quickly, and we boarded our night train (to Nice) around 11:30, and were assigned couchettes (basically rooms with stacked bunks).  I have to preface this by saying that I really do sleep well on trains, and prefer it to any other kind of travel.  There were four of us traveling together, and our chambre (room) had six couchettes in it.  We were assigned to the top four, and the bottom two were already assigned to two men. My friend and I needed to use the restroom, so we left.  Apparently, the French aren't that great about checking tickets, so there tend to be SDF's who ride the trains at night.  On our way back from the restroom, we were followed by one of the shadier-looking SDF's who asked us if our chambre was full.  I never thought I would be grateful to share a chambre with two strange men, but, thanking my stars, I told him, "Oui," and shut the door behind me.  Unfortunately, I didn't know how to lock the door behind me.  It was impossible to tell the difference between dangerous sounds and normal night train sounds, so after about thirty minutes of being a bit worried, I had to choose not to be frightened.  I said a prayer, stuffed my travel wallet down my dress, and slept soundly until eight o'clock the following morning.  

~Samedi~

We arrived at our hotel around 8:45am, and dropped off our bags.  Our room wasn't ready, so we walked around Nice, found a bakery, and came back.  Our hotel turned out to be a great find: two blocks away from La Promenade des Anglais and family-run, the hotel had more of a lodgey, homey feel to it, rather than a garish, touristy feel (much of Nice is too touristy for my taste).  We then changed into our swimsuits and spent the day at the beach.  Unfortunately, none of us wore sunscreen and all of us misjudged the strength of the Mediterranean sun (!).  I think the only good thing about it is that I know a new French phrase:  J'ai un coup du soleil (I have a sunburn).

Having learned the nature of French nightlife in Toulouse, we took an afternoon siesta (naps, showers, and a few rounds of euchre with cocktail hour) and went to dinner around 8:30.  We happened upon the perfect restaurant in Vieux Nice (Old Nice).  We ate outside and were waited on by really cute French men.  We spoke in French for the whole meal, and were even complimented on our French skills.  We went to a bar afterwards for a drink (my drink of choice is gin and tonic, but my friend ordered a Kriek beer--from Belgium.  Red letter day: there is a beer that exists that I actually like.  A lot.), but soon got tired and returned to our hotel.  

~Dimanche~

We checked out of our charming hotel and went to a market back in Vieux Nice.  I can't really describe it, other than to say to look at the photos I posted.  We went on a bus tour of Nice, which turned out to be great because we got to see some residential areas we wouldn't have stumbled across by ourselves.  Because Nice is very old, it houses many different types of architecture, and is often described as "eclectic."  I've decided that because I love architecture, but know next to nothing about it, it is my goal this year to read two books on the subject.  

After a quick trip to the Russian Orthodox church in town, we headed to the train station, and learned, first hand, the meaning of le systeme D.  We accidentally missed our TGV (the super fast train in France) connection, and a conductor told us to simply get on a different train (which stopped in Toulouse with just enough time for us to catch our connection to Tarbes, our last stop) and purchase a ticket when the conductor came around.  When the conductor came around, we explained to him (while looking sad and forlorn) that we accidentally missed our connection.  He simply stamped our incorrect tickets and said, "C'est pas grave."  J'aime le systeme D.

One more thing before I go:

The French are crazy about techno music, and my host family is no exception.  The kids dance around the living room to this song and don't believe me when I say I can't dance.  Today I simply smiled and said, "Are you listening, Silver?  I really can't dance."

Marguerite.

Il pleut.

Bon soir, mes amis.

Before I drift off to sleep, I wanted to post the updated photo album for Carcassonne and Toulouse. 

I wanted to give everyone a weather update: it rained today.  

Interesting thing before je me couche (I go to sleep), full of Compote de Cerise and thoughts of my enormous to-do list for tomorrow (at the top of which is "shop for and eat picnic lunch"): In English, we use the phrase, "It's raining cats and dogs."  In France, the phrase is, "Il pleut des cordes" (it's raining cords).  Quite appropriate.  Mes chaussures ont trompee aujourd'hui (my shoes were drenched today).  C'est la vie.

Yours, 

Marguerite.

PS--problem solved about not having a train connection from Nice back to Pau.  One of my new french friends has kindly consented to pick us up from the train station and drive us home.  At 1:30 in the morning on Sunday.  He's visiting his father in Tarbes (where our train comes in), and told me, "Ce n'est pas grave" (roughly translated to "It's no big deal").  C'est la vie francaise.

The ordinary life.

Bonjour, mes amis.

It's a rainy afternoon here in Pau.  The sky is dark, complete with lighting bolts and thunder claps.  I can hear the cars swish and splash by, and the creak of bus brakes.  Frank Sinatra is playing on iTunes in another room.  

I am staying the night at a friend's apartment (and currently typing on her MacBook).  A few girls are having their twenty-first birthdays, so we are hosting a dinner.  I am in charge of bread and cheese, so I bought four baguettes and a large brie (which I'm going to bake).  The baguettes are only 36 euro cents a piece!  The only downside to the day (aside from the railway debacle) was the downpour my friend and I got caught in on the way back to the apartment from Le Clerc.  I sacrificed my raincoat to preserve the baguettes, and we had left our umbrellas at the apartment, so we arrived completely trompee (drenched).  At least the baguettes are dry.

We're excited to stay the night here because La Vague (the main cafeteria on campus) has really good breakfast: half of a baguette with butter and confiture (preserves), orange juice that they press to order, and chocolat chaud.  I think secretly we all feel quite French when we eat it.

Some of my traveling companions and I decided that a beach trip is necessary.  So, we booked a hotel (it's in a great location, and has gorgeous views of the Mediterranean) and train tickets for Nice this weekend.  Only two slight glitches in the plan: the TGV (the main railroad company en france) is on strike, and the lady at the ticket counter didn't print our tickets with the correct stops, so we don't have ticket for our connection back to Pau for late Sunday night.  Zut.

In other news, I went running yesterday, and found le chateau in Bizanos (the little town in which I live).  The grounds of le chateau are a park, and the view of the French countryside is fantastique.  I'll post pictures sometime.  Pascal practices rock climbing every Monday night and asked me if I wanted to go with him this coming Monday.  It's indoors, and he said if I didn't like it, I could just read a book or watch.  I think I will go unless I'm too exhausted from traveling.  I think it's just worth mentioning that he practices rock climbing every week.

I'm beginning to settle into the rhythm of life here in France, and like it more everyday.  No place is perfect, but the persistent presence of centuries and centuries of history gives every moment of every day a certain gravity which I like very much.  It makes me feel like I'm part of the community of the ages, and alone at the same time.  

Bisous,

Marguerite.

A bikini in my bag and a ham sandwich in my pocket.

Salut, mes amis.

Yesterday was quite an eventful day.  I posted pictures of Bayonne and Biarritz already, and I put a lot of the historical information in the captions.  

I had to catch a bus to the university at 7:24 in the morning, so we could leave by tour bus at 8:20 with the USAC group.  We drove to Bayonne, and took a guided tour of the city, which was really interesting.  Then we had lunch (salad, fish and chips, and some sort of custard cake), and then free time to shop and go have chocolat chaud in town.

We went to Biarritz around 3:00, which was just about the time the sun was shining a little bit.  In case you're wondering why I'm wearing my jacket at the beach (and in all of my pictures), even when the sun shines, the wind is cold.  We went to the beach until 6:00.  There were museums and shops to look at, but they have a huge beachfront with showers and changing rooms open to the public.  It's very common for people to come here to the coast for the day, and be on the beach (there are tons of ice cream shops and panini stands that all serve excellent food) for the day, and then go home in the evening.  There are a lot of surfers because the waves are so high (due to the wind), and it makes for interesting people watching.  Biarritz is, to date, the most beautiful place I've visited.  Its natural beauty is striking, so is the historicity of the town itself.  With the little vendors and the boardwalk that lines the coast, you feel like you're right back in the early 20th century (except, of course, with a lot more sub-compact cars and Hermes boutiques).  One funny thing: the men here don't really wear swimming trunks like we do in the States.  They tend to either wear rather short, loose trunks, or tight, speedo-esque ones (I think there's an example in the last photo of the album, in the picture with the lighthouse).  

We got ice cream (their ice cream is more like gelato) on the way back to the bus (I got cafe and pistachio--I have a thing for pistachios).  We watched the funniest movie I've ever seen on the ride back to Pau.  It's the most popular comedy France has ever produced (more than a third of the population has seen it).  It's called Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis.  It makes fun of the differences between northern France and southern France (le nord et le sud).  A man who works for la poste (the post office) gets a promotion, but in order to take the promotion, he has to work in le nord during the week.  He's from le sud.  Hilarity ensues.  You don't have to understand too much of the language to laugh.  I hope I can find a dvd formatted for US dvd players.  Unfortunately, it may come without subtitles.  Because of the linguistic jokes that take place in the film, it would be extremely difficult to translate.

When we got back to Pau, I was invited to go to a Baroque concert at one of the cathedrals.  My friend and I had about 45 minutes to find something to eat before the concert started.  Unfortunately, 45 minutes is not enough time to sit down and eat anywhere, and fastfood is not as easy to locate as it is in the States.  We were racing around the downtown area, desperately trying to find something to eat.  We finally walked into a Quik (their version of fastfood), but when we went to use the restroom and saw that the sink was not working, we left because, well, if we can't wash our hands, what do the employees do...

As we walked towards the cathedral (now with about fifteen minutes before the concert started), we spotted a drugstore that was miraculously still open.  We went inside and asked if the store owner carried sandwiches.  He said no.  Then he said, "But I do have baguettes and ham, if you want to make your own sandwich."  And that is how I ended up watching a Baroque concert with a bikini in my bag and a ham sandwich in my pocket.

Bayonne and Biarritz photos

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2108768&l=5f02b&id=39112435

Le Clerc

Salut, mes amis.

I'm so excited.  I found gluten-free bread at Le Clerc today!  I didn't know it existed in France.  It's actually not that great, but with enough butter and brie, it should be fine.  I also found rice cakes and cashews (I found the "health-food" section of the store).  We also went into the bookstore, and I found a lot of books.  I'm planning on purchasing some Tintin comic books and the Beatrix Potter series.    

J'ai beaucoup de devoir pour le weekend (I have a lot of homework for the weekend), but am not too worried about it.  

Next session (after Paris), my friend's host mom offered to host a cooking class on Thursday nights in her home.  It will (most likely) be just the two of us, with her as the teacher, so we'll actually get to learn new and more complicated things.  I'll spend the night there on Thursday, too, which will be nice.  We're quite excited.

Just wanted to update everyone on these few bits of news.  I can't believe I've been here for two weeks already.  Time is racing by.  I was talking avec un de mes amis aujourd'hui (with one of my friends today) and we were both saying how we haven't slept in past 7:00am even once.  C'est triste (it's sad).  

I've mentioned before that the weathere here changes quickly.  Here is an example: this morning, the sun was shining so brightly that when I woke up, I thought I had slept through my alarm clock (this turned out not to be the case).  At the bus stop (around 7:45am), it was so warm that I had to take off my coat.  Then, it started pouring down rain around 12:45, so when my friend and I went downtown, we had to sit inside in a cafe.  Then, it stopped raining around 2:30, and the sun sort of came out, but it was windy and mostly cloudy.  C'est tres bizarre.  I've never experienced anything like it.  Currently, at 5:30, it's completely overcast.  I hope it's nice for the coast tomorrow.  

I will write more later, I am wathing the match de tennis.

Marguerite.

Approaching the weekend...

Bonjour, mes amis.

Yesterday, my friend and I had dinner with un de notre amie de francais (one of our French friends).  We picked up dessert from Le Clerc (Grand Marnier cake) and headed to her friend's house.  He made cuisine de asiatique (Asian food) and we played games.  It was so much fun!  We played a game that had three rounds.  Everyone wrote words or actions on cards and put them in a hat.  We divided into teams, and in the first round, we had to describe our object/action to our teammate, and they had to guess it.  For the second round, we had to mime it, and for the third, we were only allowed to say one word.  We played once in English, and once in French.  It was such good practice!!  

Today we went to a spa in Pau for the afternoon.  There were steam rooms and saunas, and three different pools.  I divided my time between the sauna and the steam room, mostly.  The outdoor pool was great, too.  It was wonderful to relax and be warm for a change!  

Tonight was our second cooking class, which was really fun, and I have a new recipe that is absolutely amazing: Roti de porc--sauce Roquefort (Roast pork with Roquefort sauce).  Basically, we cooked a pork roast, and cut it part way into slices.  Then, into the slices we placed hunks of Roquefort, covered the roast in creme fraiche, and put it back into the oven.  C'est tres delicieux.  Our entree (appetizer) was Oeufs Mimosas (we hard boiled eggs, removed the yolk, filled the whites with tuna and mayonnaise, and then grated the yolks back over the eggs).  For dessert, we have Crepe poire--sauce chocolat (crepes filled with vanilla ice cream and pears, covered in chocolate sauce).  Our side dishes were zucchini and onions, and fresh pasta.  The whole meal was good, but the main course was my favorite.  Je pense je vais prendre le meme cours semestre prochain (I think I will take the same course next semester), if it is offered.  

Alors, I have a big test tomorrow in my language class, so I hope that goes well.  I also have a lot of homework and a paper.  However, after class tomorrow, my friend and I are going to do a bit of grocery shopping (mainly snack food so we don't starve on Sunday), and then go downtown to spend the afternoon in a terrace de cafe (an outdoor cafe).  We will probably eat some pistachio ice cream (I think it's one of the best things Pau has to offer), and do homework.

Interesting fact about France:  Coca-cola is wildly popular here, and one of the most common sights is someone sitting at a cafe, drinking a Coca-cola or a "Coca-light" (diet coke) and reading a book, or talking with friends.  The soda comes in a glass bottle, which they pour into a glass over ice.  Coke products are quite expensive here, though--three and a half euros (approximately six USD) to order one at a cafe or restaurant.  However, in France, you can buy one drink, and sit in the cafe for as long as you want (often for hours at a time).  

It is raining (again) tonight.  We are headed to the Basque coast on Saturday, and then on Sunday my friend Frederike and I are going to go with a group of cyclists on a biking tour of Pau, and will have a picnic afterwards.  It should be fun.  It will be challenging, though...we're in the mountains, so it's not exactly easy cycling!  

Tomorrow night I will babysit for my host family...that will be nice because I will have a quiet evening (the kids go to bed early). 

Bisous, 

Marguerite.

Le Chateau de Pau

Hi, everyone. 

Just thought I would do a quick post to give you the link to the photos of the castle here in Pau.  We toured it today.  It's really beautiful.  Well, I'm off for a bike ride (my ankle is feeling better but I don't want to risk a whole run.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2108334&l=42679&id=39112435

Toulouse et Carcasonne

Salut!

Before I write about the weekend in Toulouse and our visit to Carcasonne, I have to give one bit of advice:

If you go running in a town you're not familiar with, taking only les cles (the keys) to your house does not make any sense.  Taking only the keys assumes a) that you're sure of your way back, b) you're sure you won't injure yourself, and b) you're sure it's not going to rain.  May I suggest a cell phone and some sort of rain protection?  I went for my first run after dinner today.  In the first twenty minutes of it, I sprained my ankle, got lost, almost got hit by a bus (this time, I was glad to "miss the bus..."), and it started raining.  I hope my ankle isn't hurt too badly...it didn't hurt on my run, but it's kind of sore right now...merde (I'll let you look up that definition...).

Back to the weekend.  We left Saturday morning with our friends from their apartment at six o'clock am sharp by taxi.  Because of the Grand Prix, it was difficult to get the le gare (the train station), but we managed it.  Also, when I made the reservation (in French) the previous night, the man I had spoken to had not given the memo to the taxi driver that we needed space for six passengers, so he only had a Mercedes station wagon instead of the minivan (taxis are expensive in southern France, hence the nicer vehicles).  We eventually convinced him it was okay to illegally take the sixth person...

We switched trains at Toulouse, and went on to Carcasonne. (I've discovered I really like train travel...it's easy, smooth, and it puts me to sleep).  Carcasonne is a small, historic town, home to a medieval castle.  When we arrived in the downtown area, there was a huge farmer's market in the square.  I was so sad I couldn't buy anything--I would have had to carry it around for the entire day.  I did take a few pictures, though.  We went to the castle.  It's like a city...you go inside of the stone gates and explore.  Now it's filled with tourist shops and really good restaurants, whereas I'm assuming there were blacksmiths shops and apothecaries centuries ago.  Eventually you get to the center of the city where the castle is, and you can tour the actual castle.  I decided to do some exploring by myself while my friends toured that.  I found an ancient cemetary that's still in use today (very cool).  

We returned to the downtown area of Carcasonne and sat at une terrace cafe (an outside cafe) where the farm market had been set up earlier.  It is really fun to people watch.  Some of the girls ordered crepes and my friend Metta and I ordered milkshakes (quite different...they aren't thick and creamy like they are here.  They are basically sweetened milk).  

We took the train back to Toulouse, where we had booked a hotel room for the night.  We were quite nervous because we weren't sure what it was going to be like (and it was really inexpensive), but it turned out to be just what we needed.  We were in a great location (right down town, practically on top of one of the nightclubs which had been recommended to us) and the hotel was old (in a historic, quaint way), in good condition, I could stretch out in the bed, and the shower was hot...my hair felt clean for the first time in days!  I told Metta, "If travelling on the weekends means we get a good night's sleep and clean hair, we need to travel a LOT."  

Toulouse is France's fourth biggest city, so it was a really good experience to see what big city life is like in France.  We went out to dinner around 9:00 (people here really do eat late--between 7 and 10 or later) at a really cute restaurant.  I ordered the grilled lamb that came with French fries.  It was really good.  We then walked to le capitol (I can't really describe it, but I think I have pictures of it).  It's like a big square, and the hotel de ville (city hall) is there.  It was the strangest thing...people had set up couches in the middle of the square, and you could pay to sit down (for the leather couches it was about 1 or 2 euros, for the cloth ones it was less).  The only thing we could conclude about it was that since the nightclubs don't open until midnight or later, people must just mill around until then.  We went to a spanish-themed night club and watched some of le match de football (soccer game) between France and Paraguay.  It was a tie.  We ended up not really going out to a discotheque, because we had walked around all day.  It was sad, but now we know to nap after dinner (or pay to sit on a couch) and then go out.  No one gets home on the weekends until 5 or 6 in the morning!  

The next morning, we walked around Toulouse, and walked by the river.  We went to a beautiful park, and to some cathedrals.  There are parts of Toulouse that are quite livable, once you get away from the touristy areas.  We had lunch at a cafe and sat outside and people watched for quite a while (we were back at le capitol, and instead of couches, there was a huge cultural fair going on).  

We came back Sunday night, and did homework (nothing is open on Sundays, so we were all hungry and couldn't do a thing about it...definitely a strange experience, given our easy access to fastfood stores and twenty-four hour drug stores).  It was a good weekend.   It's really difficult for me to be a tourist, because I dislike it so much.  Despite the fact that I'm living with a family, it's difficult to get a sense of what French life is really like, especially since I'm here during the summer. Student teaching, maybe?

I had language class today and my French Cinematic Comedies class, after which Metta and I went grocery shopping (more like toothpaste and Febreeze shopping for me...their washing machines are quite hard on clothing, unlike my gentle one at home, so I've resorted to chemicals in order to hopefully keep my things in better condition).  I also bought a swiss army knife thing with a corkscrew--Metta and I have decided to have picnic days a few times a week, and we found out the hard way that there is really no possible way to open a corked bottle without un tire-bouchon (a corkscrew).  It's also difficult to cut salami.  

Anyway, here's the link to the album for the weekend (I will post more pictures in it of Toulouse, but they're on a different camera): 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2108205&l=1b52e&id=39112435

Love, 

Marguerite.