St. Tropez reprise

A few more pretty pics. I will write a real post when I stop having so much homework, which will hopefully be soon...

St. Tropez

St. Tropez, where we went today on a group trip through the Office of Tourism. It was a pretty sweet deal because for 25 euros, we got transportation there and back and admission to the museum, and we were completely free to do whatever we wanted for the six or so hours we were there, which including getting many really incredible views. I wasn't sure if I'd be that crazy about St. Tropez since it's such a ritzy celebrity hot-spot, but the scenery is so worth a trip.
Geeez. I always upload my pictures out of order. Here's the marché, where they had everything, including the largest paella pan I have ever seen, which yes, was being used at the time to cook paella. I took a picture but didn't upload it because I figured other photos were more blog-worthy.
One of the things we were told we absolutely had to do was try a tarte tropezienne, which is two buttery sort of cakes filled with cream and topped with powdered sugar. We didn't go to the famous patisserie to get them because we were too eager, but these were gigantic and delicious, and we didn't have to wait in line.
Sidewalk artists were painting along the sea
The port
Sign for the museum--this was the first thing we did, even though it is not the first picture. The museum was small, but it had a nice collection of impressionist works. There were a lot of artists whom I'd never heard of (not that that says much about their renown or lack thereof), and a couple of Matisse paintings.
Moving onto the beach...naturalism is in full swing in St. Tropez. I had to take a picture because there were so many naked men standing on cliffs, looking meditatively off into the distance. Topless woman haven't been a rare occurrence at the other beaches we've been to, but this was our first nude beach. We all wore our swimsuits, but there was much discussion about under what circumstances, if any, we'd consider participating.
Cap Taillet is the access point to the beaches, but it's not part of the town of St. Tropez, so we had to get back on the bus for a short ride to get there. Georges, our guide, said we could either stay at the first beach or walk 30 minutes to another "very pretty beach." He totally undersold the walk. I'm having some trouble uploading photos, or I'd post more because I have so many. It was enough of a hike that I was glad I had worn my tevas, but not so strenuous that we couldn't stop along the way to take a million pictures. Savannah said the view just kept getting better and better, and she was totally right.

The beach was a combination of rocks and sand, mostly rocks, and the water wasn't nearly as salty as Nice or Cassis, but still salty enough to make floating very easy. Savannah and Claire are on the far right of this photo, trying to wade in. It was deep in some parts and suddenly very shallow in others, so swimming much of a distance wasn't really possible, but we floated around and climbed on the rocks. Elyse had me take an "Ariel" photo of her, but I accidentally did it on someone else's camera, so I don't have it to upload. It wasn't necessarily the prettiest beach, but the mountains around it are gorgeous.
Here's me enjoying the view in typical cliff-pose, except I decided to keep my clothes on. I picked up a postcard to mail to Amit. Maybe if I tell him that I didn't see any celebrities in St. Tropez and sound impressed that his mom sat next to someone famous on the way home, he'll feel like exciting things happen to him besides extra recess.

Soirée chez Mme Scott

Friday night we all went over to Mme Scott's for dinner. The Vanderbilt professor's apartment is really nice and has a great view of Mt. Saint-Victoire (Cézanne's favorite mountain to paint. I plan to hike it sometime soon hopefully). I meant to take a picture of the view from the porch but forgot. Here's Mme Scott explaining to us that it's considered impolite to chop off the nose of a wedge of cheese or to smear cheese on your bread. I have definitely been smearing softer cheeses.... Also, she said that one shouldn't take seconds but begged us not to obey that rule on Friday because there would be too many leftovers for them to handle. There was also pesto bowtie pasta, chicken, green beans, and cake and cookies for dessert. I'll take a better picture of Mme Scott eventually so you guys can see her purple highlights. They have gotten brighter and more plentiful each semester I've known her. She had to point them out to us fall my freshman year, and now they can be seen from quite a distance, except not in this really bad picture.
Some of the girls--left to right--Savannah, Claire (who was moving, I guess), Helen, Dani, Whitney, Whitney's visiting friend whose name I can't remember, and Elyse. We stuck around for several hours and had a really good time. Mme Scott's granddaughter, Destiny, was there, running around on a sugar-high after dessert, screaming "CHOCOLATE!" but in an endearing, non-obnoxious way, if that's possible to imagine.

Première lettre!

I got my first piece of mail yesterday--from my pen pal! It was so exciting. The stamps are all sideways and upside down. It's adorable. I thought about posting a pic of the letter, but his handwriting is a little tough to read, so here's what it said:

Dear Chelsea,
What's up? My school has started. We had [something illegible. It looks like 9cr?] on Friday (which is extra recess) and a math test and a spelling test. Nothing exciting ever happens. On the way back home a famous guy sat by Mom.

From Amit

p.s. If you don't remember me I'm the kid from the plane.

: ) I have been meaning to send him a postcard, so I better do that soon. Soirée tonight for all the students chez Mme Scott, who is the professor in residence this year, and then tomorrow a few of us are going to St. Tropez for the day. It should be a fun weekend, although we just realized today how much work we have coming up very soon...longer, more informative post later.

Goût de la France

Tonight, we had escargot chez Marchetto. A few dinners ago, Mme Marchetto asked us if there were any French dishes we'd heard about but hadn't had a chance to try, and Elyse said escargot. I was apparently the only one who knew she was joking, so we weren't too surprised when there were two snails on our salad plates tonight. While Mme Marchetto was in the kitchen, Eloise, one of the Sewanee girls who is American but has French parents, started singing "We're all in this together." They tasted pretty good, even though the thought of eating snails is weird, and they are very chewy, so actually consuming them isn't the most enjoyable experience. Also, they don't look very appetizing once out of the shell...or in the shell, really. I'd definitely eat them again, although I don't plan on scooping them out of the gutters to cook (Mme Marchetto said French people actually do that in certain areas). There was also fish in the gratin, so it was a pretty rough dinner for Elyse.

At both houses, we usually have yogurt or fruit-based things for dessert. Eloise is allergic to gluten, so that rules out cakes and pastries, etc, which is kind of unfortunate, but actually not that big a deal. One time at the Daniels', we each had a pear to eat with gorgonzola cheese, and it was awesome. I love pears.

I'm really glad we get to eat with two families because the experiences are so different. The Daniels always have a lot to say, and we often don't get a word in edgewise, but they are really generous with the food, which is really, really good. Mme Daniel always says "Tout va disparaître!" (everything must disappear!), and M. Daniel refills our wine glasses about a million times. They always drink rosé, which is the wine of Provence. M. Daniel often murmurs to himself, likes to say basic French phrases with an exaggerated southern American accent ("mayor-see-boo-coo"), and sometimes sings. Mme Daniel is usually un petit peu gaie (tipsy), according to our dinnermates, although Elyse and I usually sit at M. Daniel's end of the table, so we were unaware. One of the students who was here over the summer too says she always drinks while cooking, and then of course, she drinks while we're eating, and he thinks she has some wine every time she goes back to the kitchen to get the next course. They are really funny.

At the Marchettos', the food is delicious too, and with the exception of tonight's meal, probably more similar to what Americans eat. There are often long pauses in the conversation, but Alexia and her mom ask more questions and want to how things are in the United States versus en France. Tonight we talked about marriage and divorce, which our Contemporary France prof had said was a taboo topic--the French discuss politics and religion with anyone and everyone, but they don't like to bring up family history, relationships, etc with people they don't know well--so I was kind of surprised.

On a somewhat related note, kissing someone on the cheek in greeting (faire la bise) is actually what the French do whenever they meet someone for the first time. I had kind of assumed that it was reserved for greeting people you knew, but au contraire. Elyse and I have had a few awkward encounters with people who expected us to faire la bise after saying hello when we didn't see it coming. Hugs are reserved for romantic relationships. Oh, and they do occasionally shake hands, although usually just men. Some people even kiss each cheek twice instead of once, but I have yet to personally experience that.

Mme Marchetto asked if any of us had objections to eating rabbit (lapin), and no one did, so we're having that on Thursday. For some reason, I feel like that will be harder for me to eat than anything else--not that the escargot was really hard for me to eat--even though I had a bite of Evan's once in Italy, so I already know how it tastes. We will see.

Le week-end

We had hoped to visit either Nîmes or Arles this weekend, since both are pretty easy day trips, but we ended up staying here, which was not a disappointment at all. Friday evening I explored for a few hours by myself in the rain, and later on we went to IPN, which is a club where foreign students can get in free because they are so desperate for people. It was pretty empty at that point, but I did see Pélopidas' former student from the Office of Tourism there. Aix is a nice balance between city and town, I think. It's funny how often we run into people--I think I've seen Kevin just as many times out and about as I have in our house.

Saturday we threw a surprise party for one of our friends, which was a grand succès. He had absolutely no idea and was so excited. It was sad though because his roommate and another friend were taking him to dinner to get him out of the apartment while we set up, and they happened to walk by while we were at dinner beforehand, so he thought everyone had gone out without him on his birthday. Of course, he figured out an hour later that was not the case at all, but we felt bad about it while he didn't know. A few of the girls made a giant checklist of 21 things he had to do, like do a 21-second handstand, send his girlfriend texts from 21 French phones, get pictures with 21 natives, and there were a few Aixthemed things like jumping in a fountain and eating a spoonful of nutella (I suggested a jarful, but they only wrote spoonful on the final copy). He nearly accomplished the whole list. It was pretty awesome.

Sunday was spent doing homework and then the boys hosted our soirée (they made tacos, ha). Two of my classes are going to be very easy and two will be pretty difficult, I think. In Contemporary France and Conversation, we spend the whole time talking, and there's really no lecture at all, whereas in Art History and Maghreb Film/Lit, we are taking notes the entire class, plus those courses just have a lot more reading. I am enjoying them regardless, and I am trying to buckle down and get a bit more motivated because I have so much free time to do schoolwork this semester that it would be ridiculous for me not to take advantage of it.

Other big news from this weekend--there's this bakery I've liked from the very beginning because you can smell the pastries all the way down the street, and the women who work there are really nice, and it's actually pretty cheap. Elyse and I went there one evening (they open up a window to keep serving people from the street even though the shop's closed so they can make things for the next day), and I didn't want to break a 20, so I used the few coins I had to get a petit pain au chocolat, and the woman insisted that wasn't enough and gave me three for the price of one (about 45 cents). But anyway, this weekend we discovered it's open 24 hours!!

Also, since she volunteered to be the comic relief in my blog, I should update that the birds here really have it in for Elyse. One targeted her foot the other day while she was babysitting. She's babysitting again right now, but hopefully having better luck...

Updates en général

Here's a sort of stream of consciousness post to update about random things...So, it turns out the exposition actually wasn't on Tuesday. Pélopidas was a little late to meet me, so I asked someone at the Office of Tourism desk if he could tell me where the exposition was, and he knew nothing about it, but funnily enough, he'd taken classes with Pélopidas before! He was so excited and asked me for his phone number to call him and tell him I was waiting there for him, even though I kept telling him he didn't have to because there were a ton of people in line behind me, and I have a cell phone. Pélopidas showed up about 10 minutes late, eating a piece of pizza and apologizing profusely. He is so crazy. I think I'm going to like working for him a lot, although misunderstandings will probably be many since my comprehension is still far from perfect, and he often forgets to mention details.

We waited a few more minutes for one of his friends to show up, and then we walked over to the Cité du Livre, which is a "cultural center." Apparently, it's an old match factory that now has a library, a press room, a dance hall, a cinema, several theaters, and a studio, I believe; basically, all of the arts are represented, which is pretty awesome, I think. Here's a picture of the empty hall where an exposition for Ainsi de Suite's current play, Duo pour un mur, will be held in November. Pélopidas tracked down the technicians to ask how they can arrange things while I talked to his German friend who offered me some sort of internship doing research for his travel agency? I didn't entirely understand, but I told him that if I had extra time, I'd give him a call. Pélopidas is supposed to call me in the next few days so that I can hopefully attend a few rehearsals next week...
Here are the promised photos of our room with decorations. My bed's on the right. We just got those tables today. V-i-F keeps giving us things we don't really need, like place mats and silverware, although the couch-covers were much-needed. Almost everything is bright red too, in everyone's apartments, not just ours.
Elyse's side of the room
Renaud's "truc." He is gone for the night, so I took this picture.
And his van. Elyse and I thought it was so funny he drove this because it doesn't really fit him at all, even though it does make sense for him to have something he can use to transport his bike. He has another car too, but we haven't seen that one.

Kevin showed up today for the first time since the day after we moved in, although he promptly left again. Our other housemate still has yet to arrive. He was supposed to move in yesterday, but apparently there was some sort of trouble with his visa. We're excited for him to get here, even though Elyse and I have liked having use of his room (it's attached to ours) since it has its own staircase leading down to the front door/bathroom. I'm sure we can learn to live without that though.

The past few days here have been rainy. I am so glad I brought my rainboots, even though they took up so much room in my suitcase and weighed a ton. I wasn't sure the French would wear them, but they do. One lady even asked me today where I'd bought them. I think the perfect, sunny weather we've been having is supposed to be back in a few days though. Plans for the weekend are still up in the air...I will post again soon.

Stage!

Sunday we stopped by an exposition held along the Cours Mirabeau to promote all kinds of groups and activities. There were a lot of demonstrations from salsa groups, martial arts groups, musical groups, etc. There was even a booth for nudists ("le naturalisme"), but of course they could only hand out pamphlets.
Our Contemporary France prof told us it's a once a year thing, which explains why it was so crowded. We spent a long time on Monday discussing the fair, so I guess that's one thing we did in that class.

I went because M. Pelopidas, the artistic director who I met last week, was going to be there at his theater's booth. We set up an appointment to discuss an internship ("stage"), so I met with him today. After much difficulty (big surprise), I found the theater, which is actually very close to where I live. He gave me a brief tour, and then we went to a café nearby since they were about to have a class in the space. It is TINY, probably the smallest black-box I've ever been in, but it's really adorable. He described how they'd staged a couple of productions, and clearly they have everything they need, although he was bemoaning the fact that they can only seat 50 people, so they hardly make enough money to pay for the productions.

Their big show for this season is already underway, and the company is very small, so even though the V-i-F program director told me it was possible I could be in a play, I haven't gotten my hopes up about that because I figured it wasn't likely. But, kind of the next best thing, I guess, is that there's a sort of improvisation class Monday nights for students. I'll probably be in over my head, although maybe not because it's advertised as being for foreign students as well as French. So anyway, there's that, and then he tossed out a variety of things that I could do during my almost entirely free Tuesdays and Thursdays--helping to take/choose photos for the website and expositions, locate/decide upon props (thanks for the suggestion, Alex) and scenery, and perhaps most exciting, sitting in on rehearsals. Vanderbilt students have had internships here in the past, but they've always worked in the administrative side of things, and that doesn't really interest me, so I told him I'd do whatever as long as I got to be around the production itself.

I really hope it all pans out. He's supposed to get a rehearsal schedule to me soon, and then we'll kind of go from there. The improv class doesn't start for a few more weeks, which is nice because I'd like to have a bit more French practice before jumping into that. Tomorrow, they've got an exposition at the Office of Tourism, so I'm going there after class to check it out, but generally, I'll just be working Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Here's a link to the theater's website. If anyone has the time/interest, it's pretty cool. There are clips from past productions. woohoo

http://www.ainsidesuite.com/

La routine

Elyse is continuing to make her mom proud. We just went to the market down the street to stock up on groceries, and she invested in the French equivalent of Swiffer. Renaud has this suitcase-like grocery bag with wheels that's covered in flowers and birds. I wanted a picture of him with it for my blog, but he refused. He claims it was left here by our house's previous occupants, so now he just uses it. The French use the word "truc" all the time--during one dinner, I swear Mme Daniel used it in four different contexts--and we never knew what it meant but finally looked it up and discovered it means "thing" and is often used for things one has trouble naming, which explains a lot. Elyse referred to Renaud's bag as son truc. I'll try to get a picture of it because the story would be much funnier that way.
We threw the first Sunday dinner party last night, which went over pretty well. Everyone brought/made a dish, so there was quite a lot of food--tortellini, green beans, tomatoes with cheese and capers, meats from the charcuterie, and crepes with nutella, bananas, and vanilla ice cream for dessert. And of course, bread, cheese, and wine. I meant to take more pictures, but I guess I got caught up in eating and such.

There's the table before the guests arrived. We were pretty excited.

Today marks the beginning of our first full week of classes. I am afraid the time is about to start going by very quickly. Twelve weeks seems so short when I think of it that way! So much to do before then....geez

Very Nice

Yesterday, all of the Vandy students took a day trip to Nice. Evan and I were there for a few days on our Eurotrip, but I liked it a lot, so I was happy to go back, especially since we did different things this time. First, we went to the Chagall museum, where we had to check our bags but were allowed to bring in cameras. I left mine in my bag because I'm so used to not being able to bring in a camera, but then I kind of wished I had it because some of the art was so cool. I love the colors in the set of biblical paintings he did and also in the series for his wife (as would you, I think, Mom). They're all huge tableaux, and they're really bright, so being in a room full of them was pretty exciting. We got a guided tour of that part of the exhibit and then looked at the other works on our own. The Matisse museum was optional, and it was also kind of out of the way, so we decided to forgo that for the beach. It was a good decision, I think, although those who went liked it.
Pretty sure I have a picture just like this from the summer before last, minus Claire's head in the corner. (Sorry, Liv)
We walked around Vieux Nice (the historic district) for a little while, where there were still a few markets going on, although the food vendors were closing up shop early. This market was for clothes, jewelry, etc.
One of many fountains all over. This pool of fountains is in a big park that's pretty centrally located.
A few of the pretty orange-colored buildings that are also typical of Nice
La Plage! I think France has been the first time I've been to rock beaches. Unlike the sharp pebbles at Cassis, these rocks were larger and flatter, so they were easier to walk on, although still kind of difficult. One of our friends apparently has a really funny video of Elyse trying to get into the water, which was cool but not cold and very, very salty.

The weather was perfect. It started to rain just as we were gathering our things and getting ready to head back to the bus. We did take the time though to find this gelato place I've been going on and on about because it has over 200 flavors, including cactus, which I didn't get even though I always consider it. Given my sense of direction, it's a pretty big deal I was able to find it again, although I guess I made Evan go there enough times to remember how to get there.
ha, here's Elyse hiding behind Lindsay, who goes to Barnard. She's one of the three girls in the program who don't go to Vanderbilt. It's cool there are a few people from other schools here, and I also like getting to know people from Vanderbilt whom I probably never would have met otherwise.

Homework today for the first time in...3+ months. It shouldn't be too bad, but I'm going to try to knock it out before our dinner party here tonight. Pictures of that to follow.

Les dîners

Last night we had dinner with our second family--one of the tutors (the first one I met who is in my picture of the outside of the center) and her mom. There was so much good food. It seems kind of sad to describe it all and not have any pictures to show, so I guess I won't go into detail, but Elyse said she wanted to lick the vegetable bowl clean. They were that good.

Dîner chez Marchetto is very different from dîner chez Daniel, so I'm kind of glad we get to eat with two families. At the Daniels', we sit boy-girl-boy-girl, and I think Mme Daniel might invite a different male student each time just to balance the table because we only have one Vanderbilt guy in our group (there are only 3 in the program). Also, all the women have to be served before the men, so the dishes make two rounds before everyone has food, which seems sort of silly to me. It's funny because they are really formal about some things but not others. Wednesday night a bee landed in my soup, and I just scooped it out with my spoon and put it on the edge of my plate, and Mme Daniel crushed it in her napkin, gave me her clean plate, and wiped off the soupy one for herself, all at the table.

Besides Elyse, the other girls in my group are from Sewanee, and they know Louise pretty well and have actually met Evan! kinda crazy. But overall, the dinners are awesome. I don't think we've had a disappointing dish, and we've only been a few times, but every meal's been at least 3 courses, so that's a lot of food.

Apparently, another group had sting-ray last night. I'm kind of jealous even though it doesn't sound too tasty. I didn't even know people ate sting-ray. They all said they liked it, but they're glad they didn't know while they were eating it. Their hostess speaks no English, so she looked it up in the dictionary.

Today after class, we all went to the Musée Granet, which is next door to the V-i-F center to check out the Picasso-Cézanne exhibit. We took a tour and then had some time to wander around by ourselves too, which I always prefer anyway. It was cool. Tomorrow we're going to Nice for the day, so that should be nice.

I promise to try to stop making bad word plays on my blog.

Les cours

I signed up for Nineteenth Century Art and Literature, Contemporary French Society, Film and Literature of the Maghreb, and Advanced Conversational French. I had the first two this morning, and I'm really excited about all of them. I'm not entirely sure what we are going to do in Contemporary France because the first day was very vague, but it should be interesting, and I think I'll like the Art/Lit course a lot. Elyse happens to be in all of them except Conversation, so that's nice. Each class meets twice a week for one and a half hour blocks but never at the same time, so my schedule is a little bizarre. Some days I'm up early and done by noon, and others I won't have class until late afternoon/evening. Unfortunately, I've got two classes on Friday, so weekend traveling won't be quite as easy as I'd hoped, but I can still leave in the early afternoon.

It also possible that I may be able to have an internship of sorts at a theater here in Aix. We had a reception last night to meet the professors, and I met the owner of the company, who teaches a political science course at V-i-F too. I'm supposed to meet with him sometime this weekend or early next week to see if it'll work. I don't want to jinx anything because plans are tenuous, but that'd be awesome, and I'll be sure to post about it if it comes to fruition.

In other news, Renaud made a "that's what she said" joke yesterday; I said, "It was good" en francais in response to his question about my nap, and apparently "c'etait bon" is reserved for describing food or sex (c'etait bien for everything else). I wonder how many French people have wanted to make that joke to me because I have definitely described many things incorrectly in the past week or so. There is a French version of FML (vie de merde), which he showed us last night. He had to explain some of the jokes, but we were able to catch a fair amount. I had no idea it existed in France also, although I am not surprised.

There is supposedly a yoga studio nearby, so Elyse and I are going to check that out tomorrow morning since we have the whole day free--just one class before dinner with our second family. yuppie!

Les autres choses

Here's a picture of the V-i-F Center common room, most of it anyway, with Elyse in the corner eating a croissant. I'm standing in the door of the classroom, which looks like this
Most of the classes take place in that room. There's also a kitchen, an office, a tiny, adorable alcove with two computers, and two bathrooms, and then the "dungeon," a basement with Wi-Fi, is around the corner.

We spent beaucoup de temps with our roommate/housemate (I am using the terms interchangeably, I guess), Renaud, yesterday. He is soo funny. I ran into him in the kitchen, and we ended up talking for an hour and a half or so, during which I discovered that he rides motocross professionally (that explains all the exercise paraphernalia), and when I told him I'm studying theatre, he got really excited and said I should be an actress no matter how impractical it may seem. Motocross is not very popular in France, so it was hard for him to break into it and start making money, but now he is living "la vie de ses reves" (life of his dreams). It was great. His English is very good (he claims he learned mostly from American movies), and he says he has to force himself to speak French to us because he loves speaking English. I told him we need the practice, but maybe we can take turns. He often says English phrases (This sucks! What the f---? It's creepy) in a very high-pitched voice. It's really funny.

Most people reading this probably know, but in French, there are two ways to say "you." "Tu" is more familiar--for babies, animals, family members, and friends. "Vous" is for strangers, professors, people of authority, etc. I kept vous-ing Renaud out of habit, and because I just met him, and he thinks it's hilarious and keeps insisting I use tu instead, so I'm working on that.

I can't believe we didn't notice it sooner, but after a few days of living here, Elyse pointed out this hanging on the wall of our living room.
Upon closer inspection, I realized it was one of the creatures from Ice Age. We asked Renaud about it, and he said it was his. He thinks its name is Scrat. (Caroline, I'm sure you know?) I told him one of my friends loves it, but I've never seen it, and he was very disappointed.
I have un rendez-vous au Centre in a little bit to meet with an advisor and pick my classes. I'm still hoping an internship is possible, but I don't really know. Classes start tomorrow. I'm also going to sign up for the wine-tasting class (not for credit), which meets four times, but I think I'm going to skip cooking. They're pretty expensive, and I think I'd get more out of the wine-tasting class. Plus, Mme Daniel is the cooking teacher, and I already get to eat with her twice a week...so that's what I'm thinking about all of that. I'll post about classes soon! and also put up a picture of our newly-decorated room. Elyse is designated decorator, and I'm designated blogger. It seems to be working out pretty well, I think. She said she's going to tell her mom to read my blog since she hardly ever writes on hers.

Quelle bonne chance

With the exception of the oiseau, we are lucking into "so many good things." Last night we had our first dinner with our French families (my group actually has two--an older couple Mondays and Wednesdays and one of the tutors' mother Tuesdays and Thursdays), and on the way there, one of the guys who did the summer program said this lady was the second-best cook, and apparently, the woman whose house we go to the other days is the best. Besides that, everyone talks about how great Bellegarde is, although I've been to several of the other apartments by now, and they are really nice too.

Anyway, dinner was really, really good. I've just realized there are almost no pictures of food in my blog, and I'm in France, so I should do something about that. Peut-etre I will take some pictures at our next dinner. We had un gratin (oui, potatoes au gratin that had beef in the middle), une salade of vegetables in vinaigrette, and compote de pommes, which is sort of like applesauce with larger pieces of apples and is served cold. I guess it's a fairly common French dessert because it's the second time I've had it while here. And of course, beaucoup de pain and beaucoup de vin. and sangria as an aperitif.

It was kind of funny because the couple never even asked our names until two courses into the meal. That's a French thing, I assume, mais c'est interessant. Mme Daniel said she didn't ask us because she knew her husband would, and sure enough, he did. They also didn't ask many questions about the program, etc, which was nice on one hand because we weren't bogged down with questions about ourselves, but it was also difficult to just jump into the conversation, especially since the French student sitting between Elyse and me was impossible to understand. I'm sure we'll be able to converse with them more as time goes on though. We do spend several hours eating dinner together twice a week. oh, ha, their dog is named VHF, short for very high frequency, and we ate in their garden, which is beautiful.

I've been thinking this is the best set-up because we get to live on our own but still interact with a French family fairly often, and Mme Daniel said the same thing last night. We've been kind of worried about not getting as much practice with our French as we'd like because most of the Vanderbilt students speak in English to each other, but I think that between dinner, classes, roommates, and day-to-day interactions with French strangers, it will still make a difference. We will see...

Quelle mauvaise chance

One thing I forgot to include about yesterday--although Elyse says it deserves its own post, so maybe it's better I forgot earlier--is that last night while we were on our way to our friend's apartment with some French people who we had just run into and don't know very well, un oiseau a chié sur la tête d'Elyse. The Frenchman thought it was hilarious. So did I, although I also tried to help her get it out of her hair. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture. Zut

Ahh, Cassis!

This morning, we took a bus to Cassis, a village right along the Mediterranean, about 45 minutes from Aix. It was at one time a Roman city, although Mme Scott (professeur en residence this semester, with whom I've taken several classes at Vanderbilt and really, really like) said that there aren't really any ruins because people have always lived here and built on top of them.

This is a picture of Mme Scott's granddaughter, Destiny, who came with her to France and is going to school here for the year. For some reason, she really took a liking to me, so we sat together on the bus. J'aime Destiny.

Here's a view of the water


There was a parade going on in Cassis, which a pretty happening little town. There were lots of shops and such, although we didn't spend a ton of time walking around because we wanted to go to the beach.

We took a boat tour of the calanques (inlets), for which Cassis is known

The coastline is so rugged because, apparently, all of the building in Marseille were cut from these rocks. In some places, there are chutes of a sort cut into the cliffs so that rock could be cut and easily dropped into boats to transport
The water is so blue because all of the cliffs are limestone. Si jolie!
Then we went to the beach...the water was freezing, but we went in anyway, and I even ran in and went under, which my friends thought was crazy. The beach is made of tiny rocks, which were pretty painful when we were walking back on nearly numb feet. You'd think it'd hurt less that way, but it doesn't. Still worth it though.
Elyse and the shoulder of Danielle, another V-i-F student, who I knew vaguely before this trip from a class and like a lot.
Just a couple of pics of the city. I have way more, but I thought so many shots of calanques might get tiresome even though they're pretty, and they take a while to upload.

When we got back to Aix, the once-a-month antique market that we had seen that morning was still going on, so we checked that out. Elyse was psyched since she had just asked one of our tuteurs (French students who are helping to orient us and also do tutor students who need the help. Did I explain this? can't remember. They're mostly our age or a few years older) last night if there would be an antique market. All in all, it was a very good day.

Oh, and Mme Scott wants to go back to Cassis to do a hike that leads up to the most impressive calanque, where you can jump in to swim! I definitely plan on participating. It'll probably be the weekend after next, since we already have a trip to Nice planned for next weekend.

Premier jour entier

To begin, here's a shot of Elyse with nos premieres bieres a la Belle Epoque, un cafe/bar on the Cours Mirabeau, Aix's main/most famous street, which Dad remembers fondly.
And our view from the cafe...I should figure out how to do all the accent marks so my franglais can be correct...

Until just a few minutes ago, we had only met one of our apartment-mates, Kevin, who leaves a little to be desired. He arrived shortly after Elyse with his girlfriend and asked our names and if Elyse needed help carrying her suitcases upstairs, although as she pointed out, he seemed disappointed when she said yes. That was all we saw of him until that night, when we spent about ten minutes trying to get our door unlocked, and he just yelled something in French before finally coming down and opening it for us. He was throwing a party of sorts that I think was just him, his girlfriend, and another friend, who was way friendlier and came upstairs to meet us, since we weren't really invited to the "party."

We did run into him last night with some other friends, and he was a little nicer, although he doesn't seem very interested in getting to know the people living with him. Besides that, he cooked some sort of fish on Friday night and has left the kitchen a mess since then. Elyse just manned up and cleaned everything. I've just been staying away from that room and eating elsewhere in the house...like in the garden.

Then Elyse went on a cleaning spree, and Renaud (other French housemate) walked in and started talking to us, asking if the place hadn't been clean when we arrived since Elyse was vacuuming. Funny thing--Renaud looks A LOT like Kevin, whom we haven't seen enough of to be able to recognize that well. She shortly told him no, it wasn't clean and went back into the kitchen. I started to realize it was Renaud when he said that he had been on a motorbike tour, so we chatted a bit (he's really nice), and when he left, I told Elyse it was Renaud, and she felt bad for being impolie. Then Renaud came back in a few minutes later wearing different clothes, and I could only see him from behind, so when Elyse asked me if it was Kevin before calling out to him, I said yes. He laughed a little and said Kevin was the other one. I really wish they didn't have the same hair-cut.