Blogs from Annecy, Rhône-Alpes, France, Europe
Annecy and a little taste of home
Published: February 24th 2012Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Annecy
February 24th 2012
I have moved further into the Rhône-Alps region and planted myself in what I assume would be considered the foothills of those enormous and somewhat daunting peaks. My village of choice, Annecy has the best of both worlds: slow flowing rivers crisscross the old town leaving old buildings to open right on the water and after losing yourself in the very medieval-feeling alleyways you exit back out into the sunlight right smackdab on the edge of a lake. You're at the head of a valley and further on to either side mountains rise, their tops covered in pure, untouched snow. I chose to take advantage of the fine, sunny weather we've been having (currently no freakish storms) and took myself on a little hike up around the hills on the lake. Yes, me, the self-proclaimed city ... read more
November 28th 2011
Thanksgiving itself was slightly depressing; the cold that bites finally decided to show up, work was tough, and I didn’t get the chance to see any of my American friends. However, I had a great chat with my sister, the first I’ve had since I left for the Thanksgivingless frontier. It’s always hard being away from family and friends during the holidays, but I’ve definitely made the best of the situation. I’ve been introducing Thanksgiving to my students (albeit the censored non-genocidal one). The class right before lunch has been my favorite because of their reactions to the images of Thanksgiving food; they tell me that it’s unfair how hungry I’m making them and expect me to prepare them a proper Thanksgiving meal… They all thought gravy was coffee, and they memorized mashed potatoes quicker than ... read more
October 28th 2011
Annecy, Great fun. Good times were had in Annecy. Not least for the beautiful food, Annecy will forever be remembered by me as somebody with a long standing addiction to cheese as the place that introduced me to fondue savoyarde and raclette. The Raclette being all you can eat to boot and a meal I will never forget. The only problem with it being that I realised my exploring of melted cheese shouldn't have been left at the processed cheese, tomato sauce, toastie, after school stage and that I had lost many good years of gourging in the meantime. Oh well I am in France so I couldn't be in better place to make up for lost time. While gourging on raclette another strange coincidence happened. We were tucked away in a restauraunt on a sidestreet, ... read more
October 17th 2011
Back to feeling like this all over again. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Centre/Tours/blog-435508.html Every single day that I am here, I am thankful. Every single day, I walk outside and a smile takes over my face. I wish I could take credit for how I ended up here, but that’s simply untrue, it was completely out of my hands. It was a one in a thousand chance that I’d be placed in Annecy, where I wanted to be more than anywhere else in the world. Everything I love about France is here. This place is paradise, and yet it still has four seasons. It’s weird to find something so perfect. You can take a look around my apartment and see perhaps why I’m in a constant state of disbelief by watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCE2Kmg1_Jg/... read more
October 12th 2011
While at Fred’s, I had come across an interesting ad for an apartment: a flat (called a colocation in French) was looking for its “third henchman.” The apartment had a name (La Coloc’ du Bonheur, “shared flat of happiness,” although it translates horribly), a websiteand a description that seemed too good to be true. I called up the contact (whose voice was so deep that I thought I had somehow phoned God) and scheduled a visit of the apartment the day I moved into Manu’s place. It was quite the process: there were a dozen inquiries into the Coloc du Bonheur, and Maël allocated thirty minute slots between visits. Mine naturally went over, and I crossed paths with some of my competition. Sounds like I beat out some pretty cool people, even some locals! I had ... read more
October 7th 2011
In many ways my life has been on pause, in other ways my life has been on fast-forward, other ways, in rewind. Somehow though, the tape in the deck keeps playing without skipping. Next up, Manu, CS host #4. I corresponded with her completely in English, but since I’ve met her, not a word in my mother tongue has been spoken. I like it like that. Manu is a sweetheart. She just has a great aura about her, really positive and helpful and thoughtful. She works at a wood factory halfway to Geneva and ensures the uniformity of every piece that is cut, as well as mapping out interior designs. These Couchsurfing people I tell you, they’re one of a kind. Manu has two other flatmates that she lives with, and they were great as well. ... read more
October 5th 2011
From that point on, life in Annecy was temporarily monotonous, peppered with ephemeral moments of beauty. They were just enough to remind me why it was all worth it. It definitely helped that Annecy was in the tail end of its prime, with copious amounts of sun and perfect temperatures. The lake was better than I had remembered. I just hated that I couldn’t take more advantage of it. From figuring out how to unlock my Iphone to getting health insurance, nothing in France was given. With nothing set up ahead for me this time around, it was a vicious bureaucratic circle: to get a bank account, you need a proof of housing. But to get an apartment, you need a bank account. To get a cell phone, you need both. But above all it was ... read more
October 4th 2011
Hi All We decided to stay at Beaune, the winery capital of the Burgundy region. Our hotel was a 15 minute walk from the centre of town - always the most interesting part of any town we have visited so far. Sean visited a medieval hospital that is currently being used as an old people’s home. I was shopping for clothes, and didn’t realise that was where he was - apparently they have some interesting surgical instruments on display from the 16th century. We stayed in Beaune for 3 days and decided to visit some Chateaux on the Route des Ducs de Bourgogne, not realising the ones we wanted to see involved a 360km round trip. Luckily we checked on the internet and found the good ones were closed on Monday and Tuesday (not mentioned in ... read more
September 24th 2011
C’est parti! The goodbyes were tough, as they always are. The voyage to Annecy was mostly harmless though, especially compared to previous experiences. I met a few other assistants in the airport in Madrid, all of us placed in different districts. One girl had never left the country before. That was me, four years ago. She was full of questions. Another assistant (one who was much more traveled than I was) turned to me and said as we were boarding the plane, “I love this moment, the first time you step outside and you breath in fresh European air.” Somehow, I hadn’t thought of that. Since Columbus, I had been inside, but always looking out; I had been breathing in stale, siphoned air for the last twenty-four hours. What hadn’t eluded me though was the sun; ... read more
September 23rd 2011
I’d have loved to have blogged sooner, but all of my intellectual capacities have been allocated to finding a place to live and navigating my way through the thousand onerous French bureaucratic tasks that I feel will never be quite complete. Can't ever remember ever having so many things going on at the same time! For weeks, all I’ve wanted to do is walk around the city and capture it into image so I can try to convey just how beautiful this place is. For now, I’ll leave you with this: Learning a foreign language has made me a much more social creature; if I can speak to someone in a foreign language, why the hell can’t I speak to any Anglophone? I used to be much more of an introvert, but through French, I’ve learned ... read more
