The Past Month...

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I’m not even going to try and think of an excuse for why this has taken me so long...

So February 7th was the last one. That was the start of my last week of work before the holidays, and I was invigilating exams, in the cold, cold corridor, and reading Sarraute. The rest of that week was lovely – I had long dinners with Lyosha, and it was nice and sunny so on the Friday I had lunch in between classes outside in a cafe by the canal. On the Thursday, though, there was a strike, except of course the teacher I was working with wasn’t striking, so I was at work! It was really nice actually, there was hardly anyone there so I chatted to some of the other teachers.
That weekend was the start of the holidays, and Dad and Joanna came to visit! So of course I was horribly ill. I think the cold corridors and early mornings and holidays had something to do with that. I spent Saturday in bed, hoping I would get better, then picked up my visitors from the airport and took them to their hotel and caught up a bit, which was lovely. On Sunday we went to the Louvre and I pointed them to the Musée d’Orsay then went back to bed. That evening we went to a seafood restaurant right next to chez moi which is AMAZING, really good food and lovely staff (who complimented my French  ) It’s called La Criée – be prepared to be taken there if you come to visit!
Then on Monday I was supposed to be working on the holiday ‘stages intensifs’, but really couldn’t go, so eventually sent Lenore in in my place. The boss was mean about it, but there wasn’t much I could do! There was a lot of hassle about whether I should call a doctor or not – apparently Lyosha doesn’t have a family doctor so only calls somebody when she actually can’t leave the house, and then calls the ‘SOS’ doctors! So I didn’t, in the end, call a doctor, and just drank a lot of Lempsip equivalent and slept. Long live the NHS!
Monday was actually really nice – Dad and Joanna and I played cards and I took naps, and then we went out for dinner again (to the Bastringue  ) before they left. The rest of that week I clearly did nothing except look after myself, although Lenore came over for lunch on Thursday after her last class, which was lovely. I was mostly better by then!

On Friday (February 18th) I went to Oxford! It was very surreal – I pretty much got there and immediately put on a pretty dress for formal hall. We have become the obnoxious finalists, as a group, but formal was really fun! And both Sophie and I had brought proper French wine to share around, which was great. It was quite a weekend, actually – Saturday was Kate’s birthday, Sunday I went to the session, I did lots of socialising and got a job at the library before leaving on the Wednesday! It was a bit of a whirlwind visit but really good fun.

After that I had about 24 hours in Paris before going to visit Tony and Michèle Grimsditch, my dad’s cousins who live in the Aquitaine region (north of the Dordogne). I took the train to Brive La Gaillarde, and it’s nearish to Bergerac, if you want to Google maps the general area. It was lovely!! I arrived in the dark, so the next morning it was just amazing, proper countryside and a beautiful house! We did a lot of wandering around and looking at things – a medieval town, several pretty villages, a ‘maison forte’ with ruins and museum exhibits from prehistoric, medieval, and even 19th century times. And it was on the side of a cliff! Thank you again, Tony and Michèle, for the wonderful weekend! (and their cats Roméo and Juliette...)

On Monday 28th February it was back to work. I’ve spent most of the past couple weeks working, sleeping and going to museums during the week, and having a bit more of a life on the weekends. I’ve discovered and completed the Pompidou Centre, and just about gotten my head around cubism among other 20th century –isms with help from the audioguide. I also spent a sunny afternoon at the Rodin Museum’s garden, eating a muffin and drinking tea and looking at sculptures. At some point I should go to the actual museum, too! I’ve also been swimming most Saturday afternoons (ie the past two..)
The weekend of the 5th/6th I went to the birthday party of a friend, which ended up being a lot smaller than planned, but it was fun and we went out afterwards. The next day I got lost in a posh bit of the city trying to walk home, which was actually really nice, and stumbled upon the Place des Voges. And eventually found my way home, of course!
Lenore and I spent one of my unexpectedly free Friday afternoons at the parc de Vincennes, to the east. There’s a pretty Chateau and a bigger park, but we were in the bit that used to be the royal gardens, I guess. It was a lot less warm than it looked, so after sitting on the grass for a while we found a series greenhouses to sit in, with cactuses and other exotic plants, and peacocks!! It was a great afternoon, in general.
Last week some of my classes had exams, which I was once again invigilating – but this time they were their real exams, not that anyone told me that beforehand! So I thought they were mocks, still (partly because it was the usual class teachers who were examining). Ah well – I was just making sure they didn’t cheat, and re-reading Toni Morrison! I got through the whole novel, that day...
Last weekend (the 12th/13th) was brilliant. I went swimming again on Saturday, then went to Lenore and Mahmoud’s for dinner. They have such a lovely flat! It’s the next size up from a studio, but felt really spacious. They fed me a partly Moroccan, partly American meal: roasted veg and feta salad (after which we could have just stopped, to be honest!), then a long pause, then a chick-pea and veg dish which I’m afraid I can’t remember the name of! Then we had pumpkin pie for dessert, which was great. Then we got very into a Moroccan comedian on YouTube and I almost forgot that I was supposed to be going to stay with my friend Anna that night before going to La Rochelle in the morning!
Anna also has a lovely apartment – with the stereotypical balcony with little metal table and chair, and a view of the Eiffel Tower!! It was lovely. We had to get up at about 6am to get on an early train (we both slept most of the way there). When we got there, the tourist info people were very helpful, and we took our map to the nearest cafe, where we had a second breakfast and the woman serving us brought us leaflets and information booklets and told us of a boat ride we could take for 2€! People are so NICE outside of Paris!! 
After breakfast we went for a wander, saw the medieval towers and the boats, so so many boats. We perused the many restaurants by the old port, then took a bit of a wander through the town itself – being Sunday it was silent! Except for the market, which looked lovely. Then we went back to the waterfront and had lunch. I struggled through complicated crustaceans and sauerkraut, which was great once I’d shelled everything!
We then went to find the boat, which took us to the beach!  We sat and watched the sea for a long time, it was lovely. There were some very energetic wind-surfers who looked very impressive, and a sailing race in the distance.
We walked back from the beach, had a cup of tea in the sun and almost both fell asleep! It was beautiful, and we went for another little walk but when we sat down near one of the towers the sun went in. So we had an earlyish, longish dinner and got back on the train home – my first ever experience of a French train being late! It was about 15 minutes late, and it was fine once it started. I got back home about 1am, and was knackered the next day. But it was worth it, it was a nice peaceful day by the sea 
Yesterday I was planning to go to the ‘Espace Dali’ to try to get my head around surrealism, but ended up doing constructive things like buying guidebooks, arranging to renew my American passport, buying sunglasses and food and a new skirt instead! (The new skirt is the most exciting part, I’m wearing it today, it’s lovely.)

From here on out I have pretty much constant visits, from Dave later today until next Wednesday, then from Jane, Morag and Sarah, then I’m going to Belgium, then from Lauren and a friend, then from Mum and Joanna and my uncle John, then it’s the holidays again and I@m going home to Stirling! And then coming back for a week, going travelling for a month before going back to Oxford for most of the summer. I’m almost finished!

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