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Published: August 14th 2007
Hello all, looks like traveblog is up again so I am going to take my chances - this is being re-sent with photos. Enjoy!!
Hi all,
Thanks for your condolences about my blogs!! For the time being I am going to use email for my blogs. There is a way to see if you can retrieve your lost blog entries but it takes time and I dont have that right now. My granny (who I think I got my hoarding genes from) has thankfully saved every entry mum has printed off and sent her so I will get back the hard copies one day...........thanks Mum & Granny!!!
My photos are massive and I cant find my cord to attach them at the moment so I will send some photos soon.
So I have been in Aix en Provence for the last 10 days. I came here originally for a week to live with a family & take french lessons at a school for 'etrangers' - foreigners. I quickly realised that most people were here forat least 2 weeks learning the language, that there is heaps to do and see here and changed my plans to stay here
for 2 weeks!!
In fact it is not a family I am living with, but a retired lady. She is nice but quite quiet and stays home each night watching telly. I have a big room however which is a bit of a luxury after months of backpacking!! it isn't too far away from Centre Ville but I hired a bike to makle the trip to school in the mornings a little less stressful. It has been great- am loving being on a bike and have found some quieter roads so I am not battling traffic all the time!!
The first day of french school we had a test to determine our level of french. It was a bit nervewracking but ended up being ok. They pulled a hge group of us together for the test & while they were marking the test we got taken on an orientation tour of Aix by Georgze, a local tourist guide. It was great to orient ourselves in the new town, hear a southern accent (it was totally in french) & meet some of my new classmates.
I have made a great group of friends, everyone here is mainly on
their own with classes in the morning & free afternoons, and as everyone is on holidays there is amways someone to do something with. I have become particularly good friends with a girl called Nina from Ljublijana as well as Lotte from Amsterdam & Martina from Zurich. I met up with a bunch of girls on the first night for dinner in a restaurant in Place verdun and had a great meal accompanied by a bottle of rose. They say that rose was born in provence and it is everywhere, particularly at this time of year when it is hot!!
The days consist of school in the mornings and getting up to an alarm clock each day sucks big time!! We have a break for morning tea and everyone rushes to the local patisserie for a coffee (the one where Angelina & Brad were) and we finish at lunch, and often go to a nearby cafe for lunch and a chat.
Highlights of my time so far have been:
* Last Friday night the school organised a petanque night & bbq and I am now 'le prof' of petanque.... we play it at our place at Xmas
and havent been using the proper rules! It was fun tho as I was paired up with a spaniard called Rafa who was heaps of fun.... we lost twice tho!! The BBQ was also fab with lots of rose which is obligatory in Provence as I think I have already mentioned!!
* Musee Granet which is the local art gallery in Aix. Aix was the home of Cezanne for a few years They have 8 Cezanne paintings here but sadly they are all small and not his most well known works. There was a large exhibition until this year in Aix but it left as it was only temporary, luch to the chargin of locals as it brought the tourists in. I tried to use my student card from the language school and they asked me how old I am, and when I told them they laughed and said I couldnt use it. I wasnt too impressed!
* Being in france I am immersing myself in the language and reading the paper each day as well as french magazines - Cosmo is easy to understand in French as its pretty similar to english. They use phrases like 'chic
alors' which I love too! I'm now attemtping a french book (actually an english book translated into french) so wish me luck!
*Its also been really interesting being here andlearning about current affairs and about the country, people, culture etc. In class we speak often about education, family, politics, etc. Of particular interest at themoment is of course the new president. I am not sure how huch press coverage Nicholas Sarkozy is getting where you are but he is totally milking it for all it is worth and I believe that is quite new for France - he seems to be everywhere! Giving his advice to the french rugby team, commentating the Tour de France and appearing at the opera in Orange! Now I believe he is on holidays in some luxury villa which is causing much controversy.
*Ive also seen a couple of movies in French including Harry Potter - my school friends invited me along and I thought we would see the version in english subtitled in french but no - they wanted to go to the dubbed french version with no subtitles!! it was actually fine as I have seen all the other ones so
knew what to expect and I understood most of it. We did go with a swiss guy who has just begun to learn french & who hadnt seen any of the other films so I felt lucky!! The funniest bit was Harry's wand is called a 'baguette magique' in french - haha.
* Last night I saw 2 Days in Paris which is half english half french, with subtitles on the english bits (in french - quite hilarious at times) - its a great film if you get the chance to see it. I have also seen the American film Interview as I needed to see something in English, but again it had french subtitles which didnt always exactly translate.
* Last Saturday I did a tour of the Gorge Verdun which is the largest gorge in Europe; 2nd to the Grand Canyon. On the way we visited lavendar country to learn how they cultivate and extract lavendar oil which I thought very interresting. Most of th lavendar had already been cut but there were a couple of fields left which I got some great photos of - the typical provencale landscape!!
We also stopped at a
village along the way which is classified as one of the most beautiful villages in France. Mind you, there are over 100 other villages in this category!! it was lovely tho and nestled into the side of a mountain. There was a church you could climb up to and george our guide said that miraculous things had happened to french students when they went up there - they came down being able to speak fluent french!! We gave it a go...but it didnt quite work!
The gorge itself was spectacular and there is a man made lake at the bottom of it which was great as it was stinking hot and we needed a swim!!
* Last Sunday I went for a 'petit voyage' with my friend Nina. She has huired a car for the 3 weeks she is here which is a great idea as there are plenty of places to visit and a car makes it so much easier; Instead of going to Cassis on the coast which is uspposed to be touristy we decided to go to a small stretch of coast west of Marseille which had been recommended to us. We stopped at the
Another cow!!
Festival of the Cows, Marseilletowns of Carry- Le Rouge (for the art market & morning tea), Sausset les Pins for the market & beach and finally ended up at La Couronne & Cap Carro which was amazing. I highly recommend this if anone is ever here!!
* Wednesday last week Nina and I also took the bus to Marseille for the arvo. There is an express bus here which takes only 20 minutes and leaves every 5 mins. We got dropped off in the middle of Marseille and walked down to the Old Port. We quickly found the tourist train and wanting to make the most of our time, hopped on it for a tour up to the cathedral at the top of the hill. It is one of the most spectacular cathedrals I have ever been in and is byzantine in style. It resembles a candy cane inside, having red & white striped pylons and every facade is covered in specatular mosaics. It is topped with a huge statue of Christ which is gold and overlooks Marseille and the surrounding countryside. I was stunned by how big Marseille is, it is the 2nd largest city in Paris and massive. it is quite
different to Aix, with a lot of middle eastern & african immigrants and a lot of beggars whereas Aix is spoken about as being a mini Paris with beautiful tree lined streets. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed Marseille as there was loads tro see there and I was happy to be by the sea again!! There were also some fab middle eastern cake shops for tasty snacks!!
This week on the agenda is going to a maroccan tea house tonight, a big farewell dinner tomorrow night with our group (one is leaving on friday) and on Friday I am visiting Atelier Cezanne, where he painted for the last few years of his life.
On Saturady I head to Avignon for 4 nights, and then onto Spain & Portugal for my last month. I am very sad at the thought of leaving France but excited about new adventures!!
Love to all,
Anj 😊
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