Betty's Preparation

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Bonjour everyone,

I finally am introduced to this travel blog. As you may have read, Kate has been very (tres) busy fine-tuning the details of our bookings, finances and correspondence. By-in-large, my preparations have taken a different focus.

Enchanted with the Paris of the Fin De Siecle, the art, philosophy and pleasures of romantic France I fully intend to absorb as much of it as possible. Call it a fancy, I suppose it is. But as we're floating around the hall of mirrors in the Palace of Versaille, I don't want to catch sight of myself in a red polar-fleece hiking jacket and spoil my daydreaming fantasy. Oh no. It's going to be chic dresses and groomed hair, for me. Possibly even on a mountain bike. (Not for Kate though... more the shirt-and pants combo, you know... nature wouldn't have it another way!) This girl has been hard at it. The lengths I've gone to in order to fit myself into a french frame of mind...

1) The French Lessons.
It's true, I've been attending French lessons since February. After adapting to all the spitting and impossible sounds you have to wrap your tongue around, I had a revelation. It doesn't matter if you're a perfectly groomed french woman and souffle wouldn't melt in your mouth... all French turns to food and sex. It's true.
Classmate: "So, what IS the difference between un sausice and une saucisson?"
Teacher: "Un saucise is a sausage... and une saucisson is... a hard sausage."
Classmate: "I've never had a hard sausage before!"
Teacher: "Oui.. but you have never been to France!"


2) The Diet.
As you know, we will be pedalling around some serious cycling territory in the Creuse region, so I've focussed on foods that will prepare my body for the slog.
Last night after French class, too tired to cook and with a brain so foggy it was almost too surreal to see, I took a note from the french cubist art movement and IMPROVISED. My healthy menu included... Bread ( a good start), topped with soft french brie cheese, caviar (ooh yes, I had that in the fridge... go on, I know you think I'm fancy) 2 glasses of wine and the fresh healthy snack of chocolate (or as the french say, Chocolahhhh) for dessert. I ate this in the bath. J'ai mange dans le bain. Two birds with one stone.

3) Parler Francaise?
I have been dropping french words into conversations at an annoying frequency. Normally (normalement), this is considered wanky in the extreme. Reserved for creepy internet dating geeks who seduce women with Kenny Gee CD's and spa baths. Cut me some slack, I've got some practice to do in case I have to direct us out of a country town. So for now, I'll stick to alarming sympathetic expatriates with my fragmented conversation who are too generous to dissuade me from butchering their fair language.

4) Carrying a notebook with me wherever I go.
This is in case I have any artistic epiphanies and manage to whip up an impromptu pencil sketch of Notre Dame or Mont Blanc or something of the like. I've been carrying it around the Inner West of Sydney for almost a month now and my only inspired jottings have been shopping lists. Must get more cheese. Toilet paper.
I've obviously just not hit the inspiration train yet.

Stay tuned for more french metamorphosis.

- Betty

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Comments

[Rafaele]

Bonne chance!
Salut les filles, Where are you now? Nice? Lyon? Or are you right in the middle of your bike tour? All sounds very exciting. Can't wait for your stories about the French countyside, the fresh baguettes and the numerous different cheeses that you MUST try! And the stories about communicating with the locals who are only interested in you tasting their best "saucissons"! lol Your trip sounds perfect. Don't know if your eyes will be big enough to take it all in. So many old monuments! Lyon is a beautiful old city extremely pleasing to the eyes. Visiting the Chateau de Versailles in style is cumpolsory. It is magnificent, you'll be blown away! Make sure you get there early in the morning to avoid the crowd. Please take pictures of you too frolicking in Louis XIV's bedroom! Do the French really only talk about food and sex? I guess you have one month to find out and give me the answer... I have to admit i think it might be true... i love my food... ;-) Shame our dates won't coincide. I will be in France in August. Did you say you were going through annecy? Have a lot of fun! I really look forward to your stories. And remember the most important: make sure they always know you are from Australia and the French will love you. If they think you're English you are dead! Bisous A bientot Raf