Cannes

Hello again! Sorry for lack of blogging but I was busy basking in the sun in Cannes. Vivien and I left Friday afternoon, and because we failed to take into account the sun setting at 6:30, it took about 6 hours to get there from Grenoble. It is a very rare occasion when I get car sick, but by the time we arrived I felt really badly. The road consisted almost entirely of hairpin turns and it was worse in the dark, so all in all I was relieved to finally get out of the car.

We stayed with Viviane's parents in their very small apartment. There was a living room, bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen, which was the size of a closet. Vivien and I slept in the two beds and Mami and Papi slept on a pull-out couch in the living room. Their apartment was right across from a major highway so I slept very little thanks to the numerous sports cars that went past late at night.

That night, we were so stuffed after eating all the food that Mami forced down our throats that we decided to take a walk along the waterfront. I have never seen so many steamliner-sized boats in my life. The entier pier was filled with enormous yachts, some of which were decked out with helipads and underwater lighting.

The next day we walked around town and gawked at the prices in the windows of Chanel, Rolex, Versace, and many others. Just a few of the cars that we saw included Porsche, Ferari, Bentley, and Rolls Royce. We didn't see anyone famous, but it was the off-season and not very many tourists were there; however we walked past the place where the film festival takes place, and it looked very ordinary without the red carpet that it usually there. The market in Cannes was also really exotic; there was a bunch of seafood I hadn't heard of before and a type of salad called musclin that we ate a lot while we were there.

Saturday was Halloween, obviously, which I was excited to see French style. In short, it's not very widespread. I saw of couple of kids dressed up, quite a few broken eggs, and a lot of drunk 20 somethings at the bar we were at.

Sunday was the 23rd birthday of a family member, the primary reason we were there, and it was great to the sister of Viviane and her children. The birthday girl celebrated with lots of food and drink. The apero at the house was champagne, followed by some wine. We proceded to eat at a chic restaurant where I had tons of seafood and an ile flotante (I think it was egg whites on vanilla sauce but whatever it was, it was delicious). Of course the meal was accompanied by several bottles of red and white wine. When we finally rolled ourselves out at 3:00 in the afternoon (we started at 12), we had glasses of cidre and then three hours later, we had dinner with more wine.

I need to add that there was about four hours between lunch and dinner, some of which was spent at a casino. We each bet 10 euros which was gone in approximately five minutes. Definitely not my cup of tea; I don't feel like handing over my hard-earned money, and on top of that, the casino was full of senior citizens who looked like they hadn't left the slot machines in 20 years.

Side note: this day was really difficult for me because, although I enjoyed the company of all the family, it's obviously not the same as my own family back home. Everyone has included me into their family, but there are certain things that it's impossible to be included in.

Bref, the next day we slept in really late and then headed out to the beach because it was the first nice day. I decided that I had to see how cold the Mediterranean was, and if you could see my expression in the pic, it was fairly brisk. When we left two hours later, my shoes were full of sand and my pants were soaking, but it was so worth it.

The next day we headed out at 11 and got back to the house at 5:30 or so which isn't bad considering we stopped for a long lunch and a cafe along the route. On the way back, it was very lightly snowing in Grenoble. Beach and blizzard in the same day...only in France.

Package! and Lyon

Let me just start off by saying that today was not the best. I woke up an hour and half later than I should of and had two excruciating hours of translation and then I got back to my room and saw a package. Inside I had letters from 60 of the best girls at Albion--it made my day! Thanks so much!
As I explained earlier, my parents were here last week. It went really well; they enjoyed it here and the family and I enjoyed having them here too. Wednesday they visited the cavern where Chartreuse is made and they bought some bottles to take home and Thursday we visited some markets and had lunch at my favorite cafe. Friday morning we took off for Lyon which was about an hour away by train. I really liked Lyon, not as much as Marseille, but not bad at all. The hotel that we stayed at was in the shopping mecca of the city. I think the store right next door was Gucci or something like that, and we walked by the windows with our mouths open at the prices.

Just across the river was the Old Town of Lyon which was my favorite part of the city. It was all old alleyways and buildings-so cool. We wandered around town and went up to the cathedral that sits above the city and then headed back to the hotel early because we were so tired. Saturday we took a tour of the passageways of Lyon, which was not worth it because there were at least 50 people on it and you could barely hear the guide. We spotted a creperie while we were still on the tour and afterward I insisted that we go there for dinner. I had a spinach crepe and it was the best I have had in France! At night we walked along the river where the all the buildings and bridges were lit up.

The next day my parents took off and I checked out the Museum of Lyon, which was pretty good (and free), and some different parts of town. As I was waiting at the train station, I saw something very interesting. I have seen a great number of men of all ages pee on the streets so it doesn't shock me anymore, but for the first time I saw a female do it. There was a mom and her 7 year-old daughter walking along and then all of the sudden the mom stopped and pulled down the daughter's pants. The daughter held on to her arms and the mom grabbed the back of her legs so that she was suspended while she peed in the middle of street. I was thinking of taking a picture because it's hard to discribe, but I thought better of it.

When I got back from class today I was reading my letters and I heard something. I looked over at the wall ad there was the body of a mouse sticking out of a hole. It's head was stuck so it was squirming around and squeaking. I was contemplating smashing it with a shoe, but I'm a little squeamish about blood, so I went up stairs to get a bag or something to put it in. When I came back, it had just gotten it's head out and it was running around my room. By this point I was yelling and jumping around so Vivi and Cyriel came running down to see what was the matter. We managed to trap it in my cupboard, where it still is as I write this, while they are looking for the cats. I think I'm going to leave for that part.

Oh, I also had another adventure in food: yesterday we had eggs filled with chocolate. They were real eggs that had the yolk removed and then they put in milk chocolate. No one really liked it and it took way to much effort to get the shell off. Antonin tried smashing his but then all the chocolate had eggshell in it, so the rest off us had to pick it off little by little. The French are so inventive with chocolate-it's amazing.

This weekend I was planning on going to a rugby game, but a couple days ago Vivien asked if I wanted to go to Cannes with him to celebrate his cousin's birthday. Of course I said yes, so I will be doing that Friday til Monday. I am very much looking forward to warm weather (there's snow on the mountains here) and maybe some celebrity sightseeing!

I think that's about all the news.
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