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 .

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!

French Ideology

French people have some really funny ideas about the world! Here are a few examples gained from conversations with real French people....

BSE
France's version: During the BSE epidemic in the 90's Margaret Thatcher intentionally sent mad cows over to France because she didn't like French people. France boycotted British meat. In retaliation to this England started embargo over France.
The Truth: Margaret Thatcher wasn't even in office when the epidemic broke out. No body intentionally tried to wipe out the French using infected cows. France did boycotte English beef. There has never been an embargo between England and France.

French Kissing
France's version: French people truly believe that only French people kiss with tongues. No joke. Any French man you meet will expect you to be amazed and in awe when he kisses you and uses his tongue, as if you've never experienced such sensual bliss before.
The Truth: Kissing with tongues is international, get over yourself France.

WW2
France's version: America played a bigger role in liberating France from German occupation than England did. I asked one English hating French lady why she likes American's and not Brits and this was her explanation. The USA helped us in the war and Britain didn't. Erm...
The Truth: The USA joined the war in December 1941 (two years after the start of the war) and only because Japan had bombed Pearl Harbour. England joined the war in September 1939 - right at the start!

Munch
France's version: French food is the best food in the world. English food is disgusting and Americans only eat cheese burgers.
The Truth: Dear France, you have great bakeries, an unnecessary number of cheeses and some very good food. However, you also eat frogs, snails and horses. You're too patriotic to your own cuisine (chinese, indian, thai food etc is good, give it a chance), I know that the concept of jelly gives you nightmares but its fruity and it wobbles, and yes I know some Americans are fat, but they have some good grub too, like Thanks Giving Dinner which I was lucky enough to sample recently!

Party Time
France's version: French people know how to party.
The Truth: French people's idea of partying is having a third glass of wine at the dinner table. French clubs are all the same, they all have a pretentious air to them, nobody dances before 2am, everybody drinks over priced mixers. The music is tame sub-standard house music with the odd bit of French rap thrown over the top. Until you've passed out in the toilets of a dirty sweaty indie club in Manchester where everybody drinks cheap beer and the dance floor is so crammed you can barely breath... don't try and tell me you're a 'crazy party animal' because I will drink you under the table mon ami.

Ne Me Touche Pas!!

Just as I was beginning to live a normal life, I had the most random day ever which started with me innocently going to visit my friends and ended with me getting molestered by two French "osteopaths"!!

I had nothing to do, so I decided to go to visit the boys, and we were having a nice civilised chat when Claudine turns up... A middle aged wreck of a woman who works with the lads and often sleeps on their sofa when she cant be bothered going home to her estranged husband. She persuaded me to help with a training session being held at the centre, they needed 'volunteers' for an osteopaths training day. And I had nothing better to do so I thought - why not.

When I entered the room however the first thing they asked me (before even asking me my name!) was to strip to my bra and undies! I politely refused, due to the fact that it was freezing and they were a bunch of randomers. They a guy and a girl started poking at my head, then at the base of my spine (lowering my jeans in the process - rude!) and I started thinking 'what the hell have I got myself into here, what are these people!!'

Things got even worse when they came to the conclusion that I had an unaligned pelvis! The pair of them were chatting away in French doctor speak and all I could understand was the mention of my vagina... I was ready for doing a runner!

They poked away at my pelvis for a bit, "aligning" it (and yes all of my pelvis, it was uncomfortable!!) they even said I had a pelvis "blockage" and asked if id had any trauma to the vagaina?!?! Errm not to my knowledge...

Then much to my relief they left my bits alone and started on my feet. Yuck. Apparently by feeling the bones in my head they could tell where I had problems in the rest of my body (bear in mind I am totally sceptical about all this, I'm fairly sure I didnt have any problems of the vagina prior to today!)

So lady doc was poking my head, man doc was poking my knees, and lady doc says "J'ai un grand silence au pied a gauche" .... silence in my left foot... okaaaaaay!

Freaky thing is, they asked me whether I had foot problems when I was very young - and I did! I was born with bendy deformed feet! How did they know?! They said the bones in my left foot were so damaged it was as if a truck had driven over it years ago. They were really amazed that I'd never had any "traumas".

Apparently, they fixed me all up, by poking me all over. And now when I'm older I wont have any serious problems. Hurrah for me! The whole thing lasted over an hour and I walked out feeling bewildered and violated!

May the randomness continue...

Le Château d'Evenos

Havent 'blogged' all week because literally nothing has happened!

Tuesday we went out for Thuy's birthday, the bar staff in Sanary are starting to recognise me (speaks volumes) and we even got a free plate of food in one bar for being such charming young ladies.

Wednesday I went on a massive bike ride with Barnabe and was so tired by the end of the day I went to bed at 9 o'clock!

Thursday I over slept and did not get up for work! Then had a pretty disastrous day!

And today, Friday, I went to visit the Château d'Evenos. It's a 10th century castle on top of the mountain close to where I live, and I see it every day because I have to drive through the mountains to get anywhere close to civilisation! I drove right to the top of the mountain - it was high, my even ears popped. At the top there's a tiny little village and the castle and it's the most amazing view I have seen since I got here, even beats the Beausset Vieux and Cassis mountains!! It was beautiful, you can see all of the towns and villages along the coast. Here are some pictures...

Tonight we're having a 'party' because my beloved Lisa is leaving tomorrow! So gutted, she's crazy and I love her and I'm going to miss her!!!

Avignon

On Friday 12th November 2010, an English girl, a German and an Italian squeezed into a 20 year old Volkswagon Golf at around 9pm, with 3 back packs, 3 blankets and a whole load of sweets.

Destination: AVIGNON!

After a smooth drive of about an hour and 45 minutes, we were inside the old city walls, lost in the intricate maze of narrow streets. Parking was a nightmare. We ended up leaving the car illegally parked miles away from where we were staying (a decision we would later live to regret!) And we went to meet our COUCHSURFING host Anna. Anna was lovely, friendly, open minded and funny - in other words, nothing like your typical French person! But then again my opinion of French people is constantly changing.

We dumped our stuff and went to Anna's local for a late night drink and to meet her friends. The bar was called Zebra, and appropriately there was a giant zebra statue sat at the entrance. It was a cool bar, much more my cup of tea than the pretentiously chic bars around where I live, it was quite grungy and alternative, the kinda place where it doesn't matter what you wear and you don't get funny looks for being a girl drinking a pint of lager! We were the last to leave.

Back at Anna's we sat around chatting about how each of our nationalities are perceived by other nations, it was funny, and a truely international conversation! Apparently the French think the Brits are dirty and the Germans think we smell. Charming...

Our first job on Saturday morning was to find where we'd left the car and to move it to a more suitable place. But we were too late, we'd already been issued a ticket! A €35 fine for our disgraceful parking! Buggar.

After we'd moved the car (to a semi legal car park outside of the center) we decided to climb the city walls! They're high, I'd guess at about 30ft, and your not supposed to climb them, there are no steps... I got up there ok thanks to my lanky legs and Giulia and Lisa did impressively well with a bit of pushing and pulling, and we walked along the wall, stopping to explore the nooks and crannies and hiding places which I assume were once used to shoot arrows from and what not.

We then took a walk along the river Rhone, to the famous Pont d'Avignon. I'd never heard of it before, but the story is that originally it had 22 arches and separated France from the Roman empire, however due to the force of the Rhone it kept falling down and now only 4 arches remain and the bridge stops halfway into the river. There's a well known children's song about the bridge that has been in my head since about Thursday, each time I told someone I was going to Avignon they started singing it! It goes like this:

Sur le Pont d'Avignon
On y danse, On y danse,

Sur le Pont d'Avignon
On y danse, tous en rond....



It's VERY annoying!

At dusk we arrived at Le Palais de Papes (The Pope's Palace) It's a huge building on the main square and there's a church up a hill to the right. The square was full of life; the terraces of the cafes & bars were all full of Frenchies drinking coffee, there were some ghetto kids attempting to break dance, and of course lots of tourists taking pictures (I was one of them!) We climbed the steps up to the church and sat there and watched the sunset over the moutains and forests in the distance. It was very serene. Then, being so typically French, we had hot chocolates and nutella crepes in the main square in front of the palace. Avignon is very medieval, the streets are narrow and cobbled and the buildings are tall and beautifully scuplted - it made a refreshing change from the land of square concrete blocks otherwise known as Toulon!

We went home via the main shopping street where I was thrilled to find H&M!!! (There isn't one within a 50 mile radius of where I live, and I was having withdrawal symptoms!!)

Saturday night Giulia made us some homecooked Italian food for tea, which was delicious, we watched a French telethon on TV, polished off two bottles of wine then went out. Went to a few bars, and two sweaty little clubs, danced, then got extremely lost trying to find our way back home at 3.30 in the morning!

On Sunday we headed home, but stopped off at Cassis for yet another hot chocolate. I took this picture which I really like, I think it's very representative of French cafe culture!



I love Cassis. There was an Italian market there which Giulia was very excited about, and she did a great job of chatting up all the stall holders to get us freebies!!

Another fantastic weekend!

French Scran

So for a change, instead of writing about my antics & adventures with my international band of au pairs and German civil service boys, I thought it might be nice to write something about the French side of things, so naturally I'm going to focus on one of my favourite subjects;

FOOD: Living with a French family is great for the taste buds, I've tried loads of new foods, and we eat really healthy (or we do at least until I finish work and go into my room and binge on chocolate & biscuits). I tried coing (quince) which I've never had before - its like a cross between pear and apple, and I know it exists in England but in my house we're not exotic enough to venture beyond apples and oranges, the same goes for figues (figs) which grow wild here on the trees and I love them, although they're going out of season now so I can no longer pick them to munch whilst I'm out with the boys. I like dried fruit now (even raisins and currents, mother will be pleased), and I occasionally drink the odd expresso (French coffee is definitely an acquired taste). We had pot au feu the other day, which is typically French, it's something between hotpot and a both, it was very nice and reminded me of home a lot. We eat ratatouille at least once a week, and I didn't know this before but apparently its a regional speciality from the region where I'm living (PROVENCE-ALPES-CÔTE-D'AZUR), I find it a bit bland to be honest, I prefer to add a bit of cheese and salt to liven it up. Which brings me on to the most famous french food of all - le fromage!!! We eat cheese EVERYDAY, sometimes twice a day! We have a huge tray which at any one time has at least 8 different types of cheese to chose from. And I am widening my appreciation of the smelly stuff, I've tried lots of different types but I'm still not brave enough to go for the green mouldy stuff! I think I'm going to make it my mission to try some Roquefort before I leave... but I'm too scared!!! Breakfast in France is very chocolately, almost all the cereals are chocolate based, and they love their nutella, and then of course there are pains au chocolat, croissants, pains au raisin and all the other wonders of the boulangerie, my all time favourite though is the pain au suisse it's filled with chocolate and custard, yum! French bakeries are one of my favourite things about France!

And now im feeling rather hungry, good job its nearly tea time!!

A Dummies Guide to... COUCHSURFING

Rule 1: Join in all the activities



Rule 2: Make new friends

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Rule 3: Bond with your travel pals




Rule 4: Be sure to set aside some alone time



Rule 5: Get plenty of rest





Rule 6: Dont drink too much




Rule 7: Bond with your host




Rule 8: Make sure you look presentable



Rule 9: Dress accordingly


Rule 10: Help clean up



Rule 11: Sight see





Rule 12: Be really happy


Rule 13: SURF THE COUCH!!!!!

Bonfire Night & Coudou Park!!

This weekend has been AMAZING!

On Saturday morning I went horse riding, then in the afternoon me and Giulia hiked up the mountain to Le Beausset Vieux (the old church on top of the mountain in my village), took us an hour to get to the top and we had a really good chat. Was really nice walking through the vin yards, they're all yellow and orange and red now and it's really pretty! I like autumn here, it's still warm and sunny and the colours are lovely, not like at home where it just rains all the time.





In the evening I'd arranged to have a bonfire, because Halloween had been a total let down, and I was determined to bring some sort of English seasonal fun to France. So me and Melissa went to Carrefour and bought looooads of sweets, chocolate, biscuits and beer (a 12 pack of Stella was less than €5), and we went to Portissol beach to make a bonfire! It was such a cool night, everybody turned up and we sat round the fire all night drinking and chatting and munching. I taught everybody what Bonfire night was about, and Melissa taught us about s'mores! [They're an American thing, melted marshmellow, chocolate and biscuits - yummy!]






On Sunday, with a rather impressive hangover, we all went to Coudou Park! It's the same as GO-APE in the UK; tree climbing, zip lines, rope ladders, that kinda thing. And it was brilliant. 8 of us went [me, Giulia, Melissa, Gloria, Thuy, Fanny, Debbie and Lisa] that's 7 different nationalities! Fanny turned up looking as glamourous as ever in skinny jeans and a boob tube with pretty little pumps! Whereas the rest of us were in our scruffs (I wore my sexy Carrefour trainers!) and for some reason we started with the second most difficult course! It was hard work but such a laugh and so much fun! We were there for three hours and the guy gave us discount because we were such charming young ladies :)






Afterwards we all went for a hot chocolate (apart from Gloria who had a beer because she's diehard!) and then we got pizzas and ate them at the port.

Such a brilliant weekend, although today considering I did surfing, horse riding, hiking and tree hopping - every single muscle in my body is aching! I am not used to this much exercise!!