Jeudi; ou le billet de retard et Vendredi

(Thursday or The late pass)

Thursday night a few friends and I decided to go out for some drinks and so what followed could easily be the start of some kind of joke; An Australian, an Angolan, a Palestinian, a Saudi Arabian, a Russian, a Pilipino and a Japanese person all walk into a bar in Vichy… No it would never work asa joke, the situation was far to ridiculous!

Thursday morning the habitants of Vichy were greeted with a snow covered ground. When this happens the shop vendors usually put salt or gravel on the footpath. For those venturing out before the shops open; the way is treacherous! Walking to school took me 15mins longer than usual, particularly seeing that every step I took was carefully placed on the ground so as to avoid the embarrassing "glisse" on the street. I am proud to say that I did not fall but I was unfortunately late to class resulting in the infamous "billet de retard".

We spent the night drinking cocktails (for 6 euro!) and communicating through a combination of French, English and animated hand gestures that almost resulted in the loss of some of the precious beverages. Towards the end of the night a slightly intoxicated woman came up to our table and reminded us, in French, that class starts at 8:45 and we all better be there on time! As no one at the table actually knew the woman the incident reaffirmed my belief that we stick out in Vichy like joggers in France (seriously though, don’t wear running shoes in France. If you must run, do it in heels or risk seriously concerned “up and down” looks from everyone you pass. I have decided to leave the exercise till I return home.)      

As the majority of our class arrived late that very morning (yes we had to get “late passes” which were printed on angry-red cardboard) we decided we should call it a night!

Friday was, unfortunately for my beauty sleep, another late night were a farewell party for one of the Russian residents turned into a giant melting pot of students of countless nationalities, cheap French wine and cigarettes. Although I am yet to physically take a cigarette to my lips I feel that my time in France had allowed me to inhale almost a packet. Being a good girl I pulled a Cinderella and made a swift exit at midnight ready for the weekend’s adventures.

Ma semaine de neige; Lundi, Mardi et Mercredi

So my second week came and went so quickly I didn’t have enough time to write everything down; I hope I can remember everything!

NB: In amongst all the adventures, food and escapades assume that during the day I was a good student and soaked up the French language like a sponge cake in alcohol… (sorry too much food!)

Monday at lunch the girls and I went and had lunch at a little tea café where we all had cheese crepes! They were incredibly cheesy (as was to be expected) and we all felt guiltily content afterwards. After class we took the “Cavilam Vichy Tour” which informed us of the history of the region, well those who could speak French anyway… Despite my limited capacity I gleaned from the tour the importance of the town’s mineral spa resource which supposedly has “healing powers.” There are many distribution points around the town in which to collect this water for free and, as the tour was in progress, the “source” was visited by no less than 3 senior citizens of Vichy, all with their reusable bottles. Disregard my cynicism but I feel that the beneficial properties of this water need to be tested… but perhaps the fact that all three of these believers either jumped on their bikes and pedalled away or lugged 5-6 Litres of the stuff away on foot is testament enough. The rest of the trip talked about the Opera of Vichy, the royalty who used to make it their holiday destination and the war memorial monument. Interestingly, not too much was said about the German occupation of France in which Vichy played an integral role… but as it was near freezing I stopped paying attention and focused on keeping feeling in my toes so I probably missed a lot.

Tuesday night Nivek and I went to dinner and a movie. And although I say dinner I feel I must clarify; we had ice-cream and sorbet which was possibly the most amazing sorbet I have ever had! The fruit sorbet had pieces of real fruit throughout while the chocolate ice cream was littered with dark chocolate chunks. After our well rounded, nutritional meal we walked across to the cinema to watch “Raiponce,” the French version of Rapunzel. It was a great movie and, although I didn’t understand all of the dialogue it was quite easy to glean from the situation what was going on.

Wednesday afternoon is activity day at Cavilam and so we had the option of attending the weekly event, which was ice skating… Yes that’s right, bring on the disaster! When I bought the tickets I had visions of a beautiful outdoor rink surrounded by trees, Christmas lights and cheerful children however the venue was in an in closed dome and, if not for the French children and the 90’s U.S. disco music it could have been at Warner’s Bay! However, keen to make the best of it I strapped up and began my career as a figure skater. It was a career short lived as during my 7 triumphant laps (which took near 40 minutes) I hit the deck three times. With a bruised pride, wrist and knees I was relieved to hear that Nivek was keen for coffee so we took our skates back and asked for our shoes. Unfortunately we could not receive our shoes until every member of our group handed back their skates which rendered us without anything on our feet. Wishing I could argue my point in perfectly constructed sentences all I could come up with was “le system, c’est shit!” So unable to leave the rink and enter the coffee shop outside we were stranded for 1 hour in socks. Despite said events I still had a really fun afternoon with the girls  and now know that I never need to try ice skating again!

Le Weekend; Quand en France!

So, after an exhausting week my first weekend in Vichy began with a sleep in followed by a late-ish breakfast before some shopping in town with the girls. We walked, talked, shopped and took in all the sights of Vichy... so that took about 3 hours!
After shopping we had a farewell dinner for Denisa we drake wine and ate cheese at Nivek's place before going out for a nice dinner at a little French restaurant avec more wine and cheese.  

Sunday I was a good girl and studied in the morning before a walk with Reiner around Vichy. We walked along the river, past the “putt putt” course which, unfortunately for Alex is closed during winter. With a map in my hand I nonchalantly guided our promenade towards the cemetery. It was amazingly beautiful! The grand, old tombstones sat weathered amongst the trees with every row housing at least one mausoleum. There were many headstones which were deemed “abandoned,” and were left to decay into the surroundings.   

We finished our walk at the Grand Marche where  we bought some chocolate, fruit and (for me) carrots from the local vendors. The people of Vichy are so lovely. Whether selling me fruit or just chatting to me on the street they take their time to ask questions and speak slowly so we can understand each other. (It must be the presence of the language school).

Sunday night I had dinner with my host family again. We had an amazing vegetable and lentil curry as well as bread and cheese (of course) and baked apples for dessert.

Les aventures de photographie

Vichy Christmas decorations

The church in Vichy

At the Fête des lumières

The cemetary in Vichy

The Christmas market at the Fête.

  One of many cruelly tempting chocolate shops  which conveniently situate themselves on my route to school. 

Vichy la nuit et the fête des lumières

So lazy posting has rendered me backtracking to last week’s events, (which I am a little hazy on!) But I will start at the beginning;

Sunday night was a night in with the family where we had soup, cheese and crêpes; oh my!!!
Monday I went for a walk around Vichy and came home for an early night.

Tuesday was [enter events here!] I think I went for a walk and a chat with my Spanish friend Beatriz but I can’t remember!

Wednesday night I went to the fête des lumières in Lyon. It was very pretty and wonderful insight into French fêtes. On the Journey I met some Australians!!! (as well as some other Anglophones) It was good to speak in full sentences after 4 days of feeling like a child, a child with terrible French skills that is!

The festival started with people putting candles in their windows and now it is a huge event. Lifting the truly accurate and historically detailed description from Wikipedia (because I am far too lazy to explain it myself);

                “The unique Lyonnaise tradition dictates that every house place candles along the outsides of all the windows to produce a spectacular effect throughout the streets. The origins of the festival date to 1643 when Lyon was struck by plague. The municipal councillors (échevins) promised to pay tribute to Mary if the town was spared. Ever since, a solemn procession makes its way to the Basilica of Fourvière on this day to light candles and give offerings in the name of Mary.”

As for the lights themselves, it was lovely to see the mix of traditional candles in the windows of the houses amidst the multiple light instillations across the town. (Yes, including a giant ‘mock’ moon which, aided by a crane, was raised above the towns buildings every 20 minutes). The church in Lyon is amazing! Its structure is so impressive, particularly the detail in even the most hidden and out of reach places.

Later in the night we found the markets where I drank a chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) while listening to a marching band play MJs 'killer' and watched a police officer have a fight with a festival goer. He was yelling something like "if you go over to them, they are going to break you head" (haha) Oh the French!  We arrived back at Vichy at 2:45am, giving me just enough time to get confortable in my bed before I had to get up for class.

Thursday night I went to the degustation at Cavilam where I ate local cheese, drank (terrible) wine and met some new friends. By the end of the meal I was playing UNO with Spaniards and Chinese students in French. After that I went to a bar for drinks with my Australian friend, Nivek and students from New Caledonia, Slovenia the Philippines and Spain. There we met up with some locals who are studying graphic design at the local university (they did not speak much English). It was funny having half the people only understanding half of what is going on but between English and French and $6 cocktails we had a great night.

Friday was another dinner with the family. I made sushi with my host mother and, if I do say so myself, it was amazing! After dinner I was quite exhausted so I went straight to bed.

(Mum; I finished Jasper Jones. I loved it! Silvey has the most brilliant ways to articulate the simplest of things)

All in all an exhausting week; bring on the weekend!

Ma première semaine à Vichy

My first week in Vichy started with a somewhat embarrassing test of my French capabilities... however after being put in the "debutant" class I felt a little more reassured that I was going to be able to understand what was going on. My class consisted of seven other people; two from Lybia, one from Spain, one from Saudi Arabia (living in New York), one from India, one from Japan and one from Angola! Because of the diversity of students (and because of our reason for being there) the classes are conducted in French. This made for some interesting moments during the week when we began trying to explain things to each other through broken French and mime. Things like "take" and "want" and "boyfriend" were particularly interesting to explain to the other students.

My teachers are lovely and I think I am learning French quite quickly considering it is my first week of speaking it! The classes run from 8:45 till 12 and then lunch is from 12-2 then the afternoon classes are from 2-3:30. The day, although not long, is quite exhausting! I spent the first three days speaking entirely in (terrible) French with my class mates during lunch and after classes. Thankfully though a lot of the students speak a little english so when French fails, our common language becomes english.  

On Wednesday night, when boarding the bus to Lyon (more on that later) I heard Australian voices so I asked; "is that an Australian voice I hear?" Turned out it was and I now have two gorgeous Australian girls from Melbourne to spend time with.

The walk to and from school is about 10 minutes past the main shopping area which is good for local business, but bad for Margaux's budget. There are bread shops every thirty meters and cake or chocolate shops every ten. The town is all dresses up in Christmas garb and the shop windows all have a Christmas theme so it is a very nice way to start/ finish my day. After school I usually go for a walk around the town which consists of me walking for thirty minutes or so until I feel completely lost, getting out my map and then working out how to get home. After four day of this however it is getting hard to feel lost as I think I have covered every street in the town.  

I set myself a little task everyday whether it be buy something from a grocer or ask where something is or order food in a cafe. All tasks, I am pleased to announce were a success however nine times out of ten they notice my accent (or my terrible French) and ask me where I am from. Today however a woman carrying her daughter stopped me in the street and asked me where the cinema was. I replied that I thought it was around the corner in the building next to us but I was not sure because I am Australian and only visiting Vichy. The little girl said "Merci Madame", I replied "de rien" and the whole affair was delightful.  

I have been eating so much food! I have had crepes, baguettes, salades and copious amounts of bread! And everywhere I seem to go people want to give me chocolate. Perhaps it is because of the Christmas season? 

Anyway I will post my "adventures by night" tomorrow as I am about to have dinner with my family (on Friday night I made sushi with Murielle, my host mother so I am excited for dinner tonight)

xxx M 

Bienvenue à la France

[I have been writing but not posting these so here is the first week of my adventures all in one go!]

The Journey; Day 1
(I say day but it seemed closer to a week)

Waving a sad good bye to the family I boarded my Etihad Airways flight to Abu Dhabi (17hours) connecting to Paris; Charles de Gaulle airport at 4pm... but not before some quick duty free shopping! [Dad; thought you would be happy to know that for the first time ever I was not “randomly selected” for further bomb testing at the Sydney airport!]
Trudging the distance back to seat 45C I passed the ridiculously luxurious first class seating equipped with full length day beds, massive entertainment screens and gold encrusted sliding door. 
I spent the 17 hours watching no less than 5 movies, sleeping for two hours and eating for the entire duration. Looking around at the screens of the three Middle Eastern men who surround me; I was amused/delighted to see that they were watching Hannah Montana, Eat Prey Love and Eclipse; the Twilight saga...
After two hours wait in Abu Dhabi airport and then another 7 hour flight to France I arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. No less than two minutes into my Parisian adventure I make my first faux pas; I pressed the emergency stop button on the revolving door! (Don't ask why because I couldn't tell you! Perhaps my subconscious wanted the world to stop for just a moment so it could catch up).After the security lady scolded me, but not before a queue had formed behind me the door was reset and I was on my way. 

As I approached the information desk I ran through everything I was going to ask; "Où est le bus à destination de Paris Gare de Lyon s'il vous plaît?" [Where is the bus to Paris Gare de Lyon please?]  but when I opened my mouth all that came out was a meek "Parlez-vous anglais?" I did however manage to buy my bus ticket in French (albiet it isn't that difficult howeverone small step for man, one giant leap for Margaux!)

I spent my time at the train station (4hours) people watching, drinking expensive tea (3.50 euros!!), and courtiously accepting the copious amounts of chocolate covered almonds the waiter kept giving me; in the  end I had to say "pas plus s'il vous plaît!" [no more!]

I would like to take a moment now to acknowledge the crafty begger woman who watched me buy a baguette (because I am in France!!) and, as I was receiving my change, pounced on me with her puppy dog eyes. Needless to say, I donated 40 centimes to the "homeless Parisienne food fund."

After three hours on the train, making a combined travel time of about 35 hours, I arrive in Vichy! Thierry, my host father picks me up from the train station and takes me for a tour of Vichy (he speaks some English so I am quite relieved!) Murielle, my host mother made dinner for us so I had soup, bread and cheese for my first night in Vichy followed by home made crepes!! (Dad Thierry loves the book you gave him and Mum the scarf was a fantastic idea!)   

So after an exhausting trip I collapsed onto my bed hoping to get a good nights rest for my first day of school!