I'm finally home!! 1 plane, 2 trains and a tube cancelled but I made it home in time for Christmas. Should have been back Saturday night but my flight was cancelled because of the snow.
So I left my house in France at 4.30am and arrived at my house in Swinton at 5.15pm. One hell of a journey!
Here are the highlights:
At 5.30 in the morning I met a hilarious drunk Scottish man at Marseille airport, who followed me around until I got on my bus at Stansted! He explained to me Boob Theory, metaphors about vanilla, and he sang me a song about meeting a girl at the airport.
I had to beg my way onto the coach to London, but luckily I'm charming so I got the last seat.
I made friends with a very posh business man on the bus to London and we chatted about the wonders of Britain.
Every single mode of transport I attempted to get on was cancelled. And I didn't get one minutes sleep.
It was fun though. Another adventure.
And I am SO happy to be home!!!!
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Friday, 17 December 2010
I'll be coming home for Christmas!
Tonight is my last night in France of 2010!! I'm leaving tomorrow to go HOOOOME!!! It's been over 4 months since I left, 4 months without seeing my family or my friends, 4 months without fresh milk and Warburtons bread, 4 months of slimey French men, over priced drinks and crappy house music! And now I can not wait to go home and top up on Englishness!!! When I'm at home I'm the first to criticize England: it's weather, it's politics, the passive dispassionate attitude of the people... But now I'm really missing it. Guess the grass is always greener.
I have a hell of a journey home though. The only affordable flight I could get was to Stansted... at night. Which means there were no trains home, so I'm getting a bus into London, and then another bus up to Manchester over night. 7 hours on a bus. Hurrah. I'm also going to freeze to death because I have no winter clothes here, which is fine here because it's not really that cold. But it's snowing at home! And you know what - I'm not going to get any sleep and I'm going to be very cold, and I don't care one little bit!!! I'm going HOME!!!
This week has been spent drinking coffee with my friends and counting the days til I leave! It's been a bit difficult to find the motivation and enthusiasm for the kids but I think I pulled it off without neglecting them too much!
The family bought me a beautiful necklace for Christmas :) Its a sliver sun pendant and I actually really like it.
Oh and today was Sophie (the mum)'s birthday and we had a special dinner. It was good, for once I actually hung out with the whole family. We had foie gras, very French, followed by duck. It was tasty, but still - I cant wait to go home and taste my mums cooking again!!!! Even if it is only spam butties!!!
ETA: Manchester, 19th December 2010, 6am!!!
J'arrive!!!
I have a hell of a journey home though. The only affordable flight I could get was to Stansted... at night. Which means there were no trains home, so I'm getting a bus into London, and then another bus up to Manchester over night. 7 hours on a bus. Hurrah. I'm also going to freeze to death because I have no winter clothes here, which is fine here because it's not really that cold. But it's snowing at home! And you know what - I'm not going to get any sleep and I'm going to be very cold, and I don't care one little bit!!! I'm going HOME!!!
This week has been spent drinking coffee with my friends and counting the days til I leave! It's been a bit difficult to find the motivation and enthusiasm for the kids but I think I pulled it off without neglecting them too much!
The family bought me a beautiful necklace for Christmas :) Its a sliver sun pendant and I actually really like it.
Oh and today was Sophie (the mum)'s birthday and we had a special dinner. It was good, for once I actually hung out with the whole family. We had foie gras, very French, followed by duck. It was tasty, but still - I cant wait to go home and taste my mums cooking again!!!! Even if it is only spam butties!!!
ETA: Manchester, 19th December 2010, 6am!!!
J'arrive!!!
Monday, 13 December 2010
Mont Faron - Belgentier - Sollies - Ile Gaou
I've been a busy lady. Let's recap:
Friday I went to La Villa Bivona with all my international amigos, it's a big club at La Seyne. We danced until 5am and we bought a €70 bottle of vodka (to share, naturally). I was verrrrry drunk and wandered around a lot on my own making friends with random French firemen. One guy even thought I was French, this made me very happy!
Saturday I woke up at the boys house and got served breakfast/lunch in bed - YES! I love those little Germans. Then in the afternoon I climbed a mountain. Great hangover cure! Me Giulia, Sophia and Thuy climbed the big mountain in Toulon, it's called Mont Faron and it overlooks all of Toulon and the port and all the islands just off the coast. We went up pretty high and watched the sunset. It was stunning, and absolutely silent.
Sunday Giulia, Melissa and I went to visit Mary, she's an American au pair who lives East of Toulon (whereas we all live west). She lives in a village in the mountains called Belgentier and she showed us round. Its really small and quaint, it's famous for a door that Louis XIV walked through when he stayed there one night (woo big deal) and it also has a baseball team!! We were sat in a tiny little bar (there are only two bars in the whole village and one doubles as a burger joint the other doubles as a news agents) and we were having a coffee when the entire baseball team came in, one guy was even wearing the whole uniform, tight white pants and everything. I found it highly amusing that this little village in the mountains, with a population of little more the 1500 inhabitants, has its own American baseball team!! That's the French for ya!
Mary also took us to Sollies, another little town east of Toulon. It's high up a mountain (like so many places in this part of the world) and had really nice views.
Today, (Monday) Sophia and I skipped French class (again) to go on one of our romantic walks. We went to Ile Gaou, an island/nature reserve further along the coast from Sanary. It was lovely. Afterwards we met Melissa and Debbie and went for coffee at the port at Sanary, sat outside in the sun.
The weather has been brilliant lately, I can hardly believe its mid December, it's more like a good day in July by England standards. Haven't worn my coat all week and its been getting up to 17° during the day! Nice. Think I'm going to get a shock when I get home next weekend.
I'm still having a great time here, this weekend's been amazing, and I still get a buzz from going off exploring, visiting new places and hanging out with my friends here. However it's been 4 months since I saw any of my friends or family back home, so I'm SO excited to go home for Christmas!! 5 days to go. I'm even missing crummy old Salford now too!
Friday I went to La Villa Bivona with all my international amigos, it's a big club at La Seyne. We danced until 5am and we bought a €70 bottle of vodka (to share, naturally). I was verrrrry drunk and wandered around a lot on my own making friends with random French firemen. One guy even thought I was French, this made me very happy!
Saturday I woke up at the boys house and got served breakfast/lunch in bed - YES! I love those little Germans. Then in the afternoon I climbed a mountain. Great hangover cure! Me Giulia, Sophia and Thuy climbed the big mountain in Toulon, it's called Mont Faron and it overlooks all of Toulon and the port and all the islands just off the coast. We went up pretty high and watched the sunset. It was stunning, and absolutely silent.
Sunday Giulia, Melissa and I went to visit Mary, she's an American au pair who lives East of Toulon (whereas we all live west). She lives in a village in the mountains called Belgentier and she showed us round. Its really small and quaint, it's famous for a door that Louis XIV walked through when he stayed there one night (woo big deal) and it also has a baseball team!! We were sat in a tiny little bar (there are only two bars in the whole village and one doubles as a burger joint the other doubles as a news agents) and we were having a coffee when the entire baseball team came in, one guy was even wearing the whole uniform, tight white pants and everything. I found it highly amusing that this little village in the mountains, with a population of little more the 1500 inhabitants, has its own American baseball team!! That's the French for ya!
Mary also took us to Sollies, another little town east of Toulon. It's high up a mountain (like so many places in this part of the world) and had really nice views.
Today, (Monday) Sophia and I skipped French class (again) to go on one of our romantic walks. We went to Ile Gaou, an island/nature reserve further along the coast from Sanary. It was lovely. Afterwards we met Melissa and Debbie and went for coffee at the port at Sanary, sat outside in the sun.
The weather has been brilliant lately, I can hardly believe its mid December, it's more like a good day in July by England standards. Haven't worn my coat all week and its been getting up to 17° during the day! Nice. Think I'm going to get a shock when I get home next weekend.
I'm still having a great time here, this weekend's been amazing, and I still get a buzz from going off exploring, visiting new places and hanging out with my friends here. However it's been 4 months since I saw any of my friends or family back home, so I'm SO excited to go home for Christmas!! 5 days to go. I'm even missing crummy old Salford now too!
Friday, 10 December 2010
Partying with the village idiots.
I live in Le Beausset, a village in the valley of a load of mountains that has a population of around 8,000 people. And I don't even live in the actual village, I live up one of the mountains outside the village.
Last night Sophia, Thuy and I decided to go visit the Le Beausset at night, see the Christmas lights and have a coffee. However as it was winter and the place is so small there was nothing open apart from one hotel/restaurant...
Well we went in and I think we entered a parallel universe, it was the funniest weirdest night I've had out here so far. The restaurant was tiny and the only customers were a large group of middle aged French men out on a birthday celebration. EVERYONE was wasted, even the staff and the owner of the restaurant. Naturally we joined their party and were treated like honorary guests. It was hilarious, they weren't just pissed French folk, they were pissed French country folk - with weird accents and inbred mentality. And they were wild; dancing on chairs, smashing cups and glasses all over the show, music full blast (weird instrumental hoe dance type music at that!) I got up dancing with them all, I attempted to play the piano... as you do. They were literally queuing up to talk to us (I guess ageing country farmers dont get much opportunity to chat up a 22 year old English girl and two 19 year old Germans!) I ordered a glass of wine - they bought me a bottle!! The restaurant owner gave us each a necklace(hideously ugly), they paid for our hot chocolates and coffees, the owner gave me a postcard and we had birthday cake. Didn't spend a penny all night. The funniest was the waitress, she was coked out of her face and kept giving everyone lap dances (myself included), she was crazy, the most promiscuous French woman I have ever laid eyes on.
So all in all, my first night out in my little village turned out to be much more exciting that I had imagined!!!
Last night Sophia, Thuy and I decided to go visit the Le Beausset at night, see the Christmas lights and have a coffee. However as it was winter and the place is so small there was nothing open apart from one hotel/restaurant...
Well we went in and I think we entered a parallel universe, it was the funniest weirdest night I've had out here so far. The restaurant was tiny and the only customers were a large group of middle aged French men out on a birthday celebration. EVERYONE was wasted, even the staff and the owner of the restaurant. Naturally we joined their party and were treated like honorary guests. It was hilarious, they weren't just pissed French folk, they were pissed French country folk - with weird accents and inbred mentality. And they were wild; dancing on chairs, smashing cups and glasses all over the show, music full blast (weird instrumental hoe dance type music at that!) I got up dancing with them all, I attempted to play the piano... as you do. They were literally queuing up to talk to us (I guess ageing country farmers dont get much opportunity to chat up a 22 year old English girl and two 19 year old Germans!) I ordered a glass of wine - they bought me a bottle!! The restaurant owner gave us each a necklace(hideously ugly), they paid for our hot chocolates and coffees, the owner gave me a postcard and we had birthday cake. Didn't spend a penny all night. The funniest was the waitress, she was coked out of her face and kept giving everyone lap dances (myself included), she was crazy, the most promiscuous French woman I have ever laid eyes on.
So all in all, my first night out in my little village turned out to be much more exciting that I had imagined!!!
Monday, 6 December 2010
Fête du Millésime - Bandol
This Sunday it was the Bandol wine festival, 29 local wineries lined up along the port offering unlimited free samples to celebrate the 2010 vintage. It was like a dream come true for me, you paid €4 for a special glass (that you got to keep!!) and then you could drink solidly all day.
However, it didn't work out too well for me. First of all it was pouring down with rain, which didn't put me off because I'm from Manchester, but no one else wanted to venture outdoors and/or they were busy. So I ended up going alone. I went all courageous, knowing that there was a Couchsurfing meet up there and I was all psyched up ready to mingle, talk to randoms and make friends - it's what I do best. However, when I arrived there wasn't a couchsurfer in sight [I don't know how I was expecting to identify these unknown couchsurfers but I guess I assumed they'd look a bit like me - young, random and bewildered].
The average age of the wine festival attendees was about 120, all old French couples. This didn't come as any surprise to me considering the South of France is basically one big retirement home, but I at least expected to find one dishevelled couchsurfer to tag along with. I stood in the rain for ages hoping to find a friend, desperately trying to make eye contact with anyone under the age of 90 but in the end I lost my resolve and concluded that French people are unfriendly. Still, ever the optimist I decided not to let good wine go to waste and I had a good old taste. The atmosphere was jovial (pissed), there was music, free food, people dressed up, entertainment... it would have been great had I been there with my friends.
In the end it just got too much for me and I was just sad that my friends from home weren't there with me. Jen, Stace, Nikki, Sarah... they wouldn't have been put off by the rain, world war three could break out and they'd still turn up if there was free wine to be had, and we would have made the very most of it and stayed all day. I didn't let you down girls, I held my ground, all alone, supped my free wine and silently toasted you (...whilst a lone tear slid slowly down my cheek...)
Then I went home and sulked under my duvet on the couch for the rest of the afternoon!
The Wine Festival, tasting the wine from the village next to mine, Sainte Anne
HI there! Will you be my friend?
In other news, I've been to a french car boot sale (absolute junk), to the cinema to watch Red with Quentin and Giulia, I went for hot chocolates and a visit to Sanary's Christmas lights with Sophia and Christopher, I went on a big walk around the headland early this morning with Sophia, I made a den and played hide and seek with Merlin, I've had two big mac meals in two days and I've dyed my hair bright red.
Sanary town hall Christmas lights. Makes Swinton Precinct look somewhat tacky if you ask me.
And finally, quote of the day:
Merlin, aged 4: "Ferme tes yeux je vais me transformer en crepe"
(close your eyes I'm going to turn into a pancake)
The Pancake himself in his den <3 .
However, it didn't work out too well for me. First of all it was pouring down with rain, which didn't put me off because I'm from Manchester, but no one else wanted to venture outdoors and/or they were busy. So I ended up going alone. I went all courageous, knowing that there was a Couchsurfing meet up there and I was all psyched up ready to mingle, talk to randoms and make friends - it's what I do best. However, when I arrived there wasn't a couchsurfer in sight [I don't know how I was expecting to identify these unknown couchsurfers but I guess I assumed they'd look a bit like me - young, random and bewildered].
The average age of the wine festival attendees was about 120, all old French couples. This didn't come as any surprise to me considering the South of France is basically one big retirement home, but I at least expected to find one dishevelled couchsurfer to tag along with. I stood in the rain for ages hoping to find a friend, desperately trying to make eye contact with anyone under the age of 90 but in the end I lost my resolve and concluded that French people are unfriendly. Still, ever the optimist I decided not to let good wine go to waste and I had a good old taste. The atmosphere was jovial (pissed), there was music, free food, people dressed up, entertainment... it would have been great had I been there with my friends.
In the end it just got too much for me and I was just sad that my friends from home weren't there with me. Jen, Stace, Nikki, Sarah... they wouldn't have been put off by the rain, world war three could break out and they'd still turn up if there was free wine to be had, and we would have made the very most of it and stayed all day. I didn't let you down girls, I held my ground, all alone, supped my free wine and silently toasted you (...whilst a lone tear slid slowly down my cheek...)
Then I went home and sulked under my duvet on the couch for the rest of the afternoon!
The Wine Festival, tasting the wine from the village next to mine, Sainte Anne
HI there! Will you be my friend?
In other news, I've been to a french car boot sale (absolute junk), to the cinema to watch Red with Quentin and Giulia, I went for hot chocolates and a visit to Sanary's Christmas lights with Sophia and Christopher, I went on a big walk around the headland early this morning with Sophia, I made a den and played hide and seek with Merlin, I've had two big mac meals in two days and I've dyed my hair bright red.
Sanary town hall Christmas lights. Makes Swinton Precinct look somewhat tacky if you ask me.
And finally, quote of the day:
Merlin, aged 4: "Ferme tes yeux je vais me transformer en crepe"
(close your eyes I'm going to turn into a pancake)
The Pancake himself in his den <3 .
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Winter has arrived, better get the Raclette going...
Last night we had Raclette for tea. Raclette is a type of cheese, and also a meal using this cheese a base. It's a typical cold weather dish which comes from the Alpes and it looks like this:
It basically consists of you melting cheese using a fire or special Raclette machine and then pouring the melted cheese over boiled potatoes, cured meats and gherkins. It was quite tasty.
It's December now (the 2nd according to my Advent Calendar that mother kindly send over) and today I saw the first evidence of it being winter - frost! The rest of Europe, and certainly England, is inches deep in snow, whereas down here in the South of France its still over 10 degrees during the day.
The First Frost.
I went to the Christmas markets on Tuesday and was bitterly disappointed. They're nothing like at home; no hog roast, no German sausage, no beer tents... they're was hardly anyone there and it didn't feel the least bit like Christmas. In Manchester you have to fight your way through the crowds, queue for ages for your hog roast barm and it always feels Christmasy.
And yesterday I had a nice day with Merlin. Took him to McDonalds for dinner, and then to the cinema to see Raiponce (Rapunzel) - the new Disney film, Tangled. It was in 3D and I absolutely LOVED it. It was brilliant. Merlin wasn't took impressed though, don't think he's a big fan of princesses!
It basically consists of you melting cheese using a fire or special Raclette machine and then pouring the melted cheese over boiled potatoes, cured meats and gherkins. It was quite tasty.
It's December now (the 2nd according to my Advent Calendar that mother kindly send over) and today I saw the first evidence of it being winter - frost! The rest of Europe, and certainly England, is inches deep in snow, whereas down here in the South of France its still over 10 degrees during the day.
The First Frost.
I went to the Christmas markets on Tuesday and was bitterly disappointed. They're nothing like at home; no hog roast, no German sausage, no beer tents... they're was hardly anyone there and it didn't feel the least bit like Christmas. In Manchester you have to fight your way through the crowds, queue for ages for your hog roast barm and it always feels Christmasy.
And yesterday I had a nice day with Merlin. Took him to McDonalds for dinner, and then to the cinema to see Raiponce (Rapunzel) - the new Disney film, Tangled. It was in 3D and I absolutely LOVED it. It was brilliant. Merlin wasn't took impressed though, don't think he's a big fan of princesses!
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