Another Week Over

Yet another chilly French week is over (in fact, the next has already started.)

Last Sunday was the final evening in the “Come Dine with Me – Chambéry” series and it was our time to cook! (‘OUR’ being Alex, Hannah, Beth, Chris and myself.) With Hannah as head chef, a feast was prepared that would have filled the largest of armies. The menu was as follows:

Entry Apéritif: Tequila Shot + Nacho Crisp
Starter: Nachos plus cheese, guacamole, sour cream and salsa
Main: Burritos and Fajitas
Dessert: Chocolate brownie and vanilla ice-cream

I think it’s fair to say that everybody loved it and as Ailie mentioned, had it been a proper competition, she said we definitely deserved to win, bless her J!
With the food theme of ‘Mexican,’ the clothing theme was naturally ‘Mexican,’ and as hosts, it was imperative that we set the standard. We all made colourful ponchos (using the sheets we had used for Pia’s toga party – 2 costumes from one sheet, money well spent!) and drew on some rather think and imposing moustaches with Charles and Lauren equally putting in great effort.

 

 

HOSTS: Chris, Han, Beth, Me & Alex

Alex and I - Our Mexican Versions

Myself & Lauren

 

Otherwise, the week was fairly uneventful. We had a Grammar test on Monday which I think went fairly well and the rest of the week was filled with lectures and not much more. This weekend, the majority of the group went to Val Thorens, about an hour away, for the opening weekend of the Ski season. I decided to stay in Chambéry and use the opportunity to do some of the pieces of work that are due in the next few weeks so that I can enjoy my friends visiting and Paris without deadlines looming over me.

 

Earlier in the week Anya and I had taken some books from the library to research and find some quotes to use in our essay. We knew it was on Napoléon and subsequently took out several books on this topic. However, it was only when I sat down to begin reading that I realised Napoléon had died before the date of the speech we had to discuss (which he had made...) We realised that the speech was by another Napoléon – indeed we’d been ignorant enough to think that there was only one Napoléon (I’d never heard of any others until now.) It turns out that the speech was made by Louis-Napoléon Bonapart, Napoléon’s nephew (and who eventually became the third ‘King Napoléon.’) So, there’ve been at least 3 Napoléons in France (perhaps even more?!) As a result, we popped back to Uni on Friday afternoon to swap the books over.

The essay was quite difficult in the sense that we had been presented with a source (in this case a speech) and that was it. No question, no guidance of what we needed to do or what was expected of us. Nothing. After spending Friday evening (and into the early hours of Saturday) reading books, selecting possible useful information and putting together an essay plan, I spent Saturday writing the essay. It was a slow, slow process. Not only did I need to ensure that the Historical facts were correct but I also had to ensure I was expressing myself correctly and using the correct past tenses. I was so pleased with the work I’d done by the end of the evening and just hope it’s worthy of a good grade. The French students have to present theirs as a 30 minute presentation – at least we are spared that task, at least!

Saturday evening, after completing my essay and having been in my room for practically 2 days, I felt I deserved a quiet drink at O’Cardinals. Ailie had a friend visiting for the weekend, Leonie, and so the three of us walked the short distance for a refreshing (in my case) Desperados. She is such a lovely and hilarious person and it was great to meet her and Alice and her boyfriend, Andrea, came to meet us there a little later. My particularly favourite moment was at the bar when Leonie ordered her drink (in English,) to the utter bemusement of the guy behind the bar. Kindly, I translated her request for a ‘diet coke’ to ‘coca-light’ and a disaster had been averted! She talked to me about how amazing it was to see Ailie living abroad and how fun we must have and what an incredible experience it must be and how everyone must want to be in our shoes. She asked me if I would recommend it. My response? Definitely. It was quite refreshing to hear this as this is now life for me and I sometimes forget that I am living and studying in a foreign language, using it to get by in life and improving it while making some amazing friends, visiting some beautiful places and having some awesome experiences.

 

Leonie, Me, Alice & Ailie

 

 

Outside O'Cards :)

 

I did another piece of written work on Sunday and a few History notes, but felt quite mentally exhausted from the previous two days History. That afternoon, Ailie, Leonie, Sarah, Lauren and her boyfriend Jake decided to go to the patinoire (ice rink) for an hour. As I have mentioned numerous times before, nothing ever opens or goes on in Chambéry on a Sunday. Well, it does – EVERYONE seems to go to the ice rink! The place was ridiculously busy with some people clinging in terror while other Olympic-standard individuals glided across the ice and through the tiny gaps between the multitude of people. Sometimes there was a loud announcement (which I couldn’t understand) and everyone would suddenly change direction. Seeing 100+ people coming towards you at speed can be.. daunting. Like last time, there was music and lights (as if it were a night club... on ice) and sometimes songs would come on and several people would stop in the centre of the rink to dance – Lauren, Sarah, Ailie and Leonie joined in with ‘The Macarena’ – OIF! (Only In France!)

 

Lauren & Sarah showing the French how the dancing is done

 

This week will be another where I’ll aim to do some work, mainly revision notes as exams are only a matter of weeks away. However on Friday afternoon 2 friends from home, Rach &Beth, will be coming to visit for the weekend and I’m soooo excited to see them and show them my little French life! I have an itinerary of places to go, things to eat and things to see and I think it’ll be a beautiful weekend! It hasn’t rained for weeks here until this evening, I just hope the weather isn’t too bad for the weekend J

 

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The Clock Keeps Ticking

Bon après-midi à tous J

Yet another week of Savoyard life is over and with less than 5 weeks left until I return home for Christmas, it is becoming ever more evident that the French half of my year abroad is drawing to a close. Something I read on Anya’s blog earlier this week struck a chord with me:

“The time here has already gone by so quickly and will doubtlessly continue to do so. So I guess it is a lesson to seize every opportunity and make the most of the next few weeks to come, because after December, it is literally exam period and then SPAIN!”

 

As a result, this is exactly what I hope and plan to do.

 

Last weekend was, for the most part, uneventful. On Friday evening, Alice invited Beth and I for dinner – some beautiful Italian meats and baguette to start followed by pasta. For dessert we took along some cake and ice-cream which seemed to down well with everyone!

 

I got up at 6.30am on Saturday morning to walk Alex to the train station as she was returning back to England for her grandfather’s funeral and on my way back to Arpej, I stopped at the Saturday market to buy some apples, peppers and a baguette – it was incredibly busy for 7.30am. I spent the rest of the day researching, reading and making notes for my ‘History of the French Language’ essay due in the following week plus writing my presentation that I would present with Jaime and Sarah on the topic of ‘malnutrition,’ and also a little grammar and translation work. Saturday evening there were celebrations for Catrin’s birthday but I had to be disciplined and stay in to write my essay, knowing I had many things planned in the coming weeks and so this had to come first – Anya, Hannah and I ate dinner together and went to see Catrin and the others for half an hour before essay writing continued – I finished it in the early hours of the morning, it felt like a success! It wasn’t very complex language-wise as I had to recount events which had influenced the French Language which can’t really be dramatised, but hopefully it’s good enough! Sunday was another day of work until the third instalment of CDWM (Come Dine With Me.) The theme was “all around the world” with everyone dressing up as someone from another country or culture. I’d been busy working and so wore my ‘déjà vu’ t-shirt, being “French.”

The food was so good! – A pasta dish to start along with baguette and various meats, several main dishes (Spanish paella, a vegetable curry and Chilli Con Carne) and a dessert with meringue, a fruit coulis, ice-cream and squirty cream! Tomorrow (Sunday) will see the fourth and final CDWM evening which I will be hosting along with Beth, Hannah, Alex and Chris. Our theme is ‘Mexican’ and we bought a TON of food on Wedesday – an update to follow!

On Tuesday I gave my presentation with Jaime and Sarah which went quite well (I think?!) and on Wednesday, I saw my first ‘Grève’ (strike/protest) which was part of a wider protest taking place across several European Countries against austerity budgets to help cut deficits and end the recessive nature of the economy. France is infamous for its strikes – there always seems to be one somewhere! – And so it was quite nice to see one in this little town where suddenly at least 1000 people were marching through the streets shouting and protesting.

Strike!

Alex returned on Wednesday evening and myself and Hannah surprised her at the train station :) That evening, the two of us and Anya prepared a tapas meal to welcome her back and have a catch-up on all things French and British – it was incredible! We made Spanish tortilla, patatas bravas, chilli prawns, nandos hot chicken, chorizo in red wine sauce, chorizo and chick-pea salad and humous/pesto/cream cheese baguette slices – some topped with salmon and others with Italian hams and a bottle of wine to wash it all down with. We had made so much that we also had it for dinner on Thursday evening, plus crêpes with ice cream and M&Ms (Hannah had a crêpe sandwich...)

PLENTY of Food!

Following the 8am ‘Histoire de la langue Français’ class on Thursday, I had  haircut and did a little Uni work. Another OIF (Only In France) moment I saw from my balcony was a pink van driving around, towing a trailer with a statue of an elephant while playing circus music and announcing the arrival of the St Petersburg circus. As I said – OIF!

 

Only hours later, there was another OIF moment – I popped to the big Carrefour supermarket to print some photos of my time here in Chambéry. While there I saw a display for honey accompanied by some sort of dome/biome which contained hundreds of bees working away, demonstrating how honey was made. Crazy!

 

 

GRENOBLE

Yesterday seven of us (Beth, Sarah, Alex, Hannah, Jaime, Lauren and myself) went on a daytrip to Grenoble, a city an hour south of Chambéry on the train. The morning was cloudy, misty and incredibly cold as we wandered around the city visiting churches, monuments, walking along the river and stopping halfway through to warm ourselves with a chocolat chaud. In one church I lit a candle for Alex’s grandfather and my grandfather who had died 2 years ago this week, which was a nice to do. Later that morning we visited the musée de Grenoble which eld ancient art collections up to modern day pieces along with exhibitions on the Egyptian civilisation, among others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we left the museum, the skies cleared and the mountains that surrounded us became visible which was great for what we’d planned after lunch! We found a beautiful little restaurant which served steak and chips (and proper homecooked chips, not French fries!) which was delicious and at less than 12eur including a drink, was by far the best value for money meal I’ve had since I’ve been in France!  That afternoon we all caught the little cable car (known as ‘les bulles’ due to their appearance as little round balls) to ‘La Bastille,’ a series of forts which sit on a hill overlooking Grenoble. As soon as the cars had reached the rooftops of the buildings on the ascent, snow capped mountains became visible all around. We spent some time at the top taking photos of the incredible scenes – this truly is such a beautiful region of France!

 

 

 

After descending, Beth met with a friend from University who was in the area while the rest of us did some more exploring and some shopping. We then met back up with Beth for dinner and we went to a lovely restaurant where I had a Caesar salad to start followed by a delicious duck and mushroom risotto – I love risotto and haven’t had it in so long! The others were adamant to visit the Häagen-dazs ice-cream shop before we left – incredible! (Though I only had a hot chocolate as I was so full after dinner!) No sooner than had we arrived, it was time to catch the train back to Chambéry – However it was a beautiful day full of laughs with some wonderful people and it was great to get out and see another part of the Rhône-Alpes region!

 

This week our Erasmus grant finally arrived which means I have booked travel and accommodation for Paris in two weeks time – I AM SO EXCITED! Cat, a close friend from Cardiff will be coming down from Wales while I travel up from Chambéry and we’ll spend the whole week doing plenty of Touristy things and without doubt the area will be beautifully decorated for Christmas! Next weekend, the majority of the group are going for the opening of the ski season at Vals Thoren – A few of us, myself included, are not going and so there’s the prospect of a daytrip to Turin, Italy in the pipeline! The weekend after two of my friends from home, Rach & Beth are coming to visit too so I’m currently planning what I can take them to see. Clearly, there’re lots of good things to anticipate! With this however, comes the realisation that exams are also drawing ever closer and so I need to schedule time aside to work on my notes, and later, revision.

 Although there is still no snow on the lower ground, the temperature is definitely falling further (highs of 8 degrees are wonderful!) and hopefully we won’t have to wait too long until the morning we wake up to see everything blanketed in snow, though I don’t know how the walk to Uni will be!

 

Another Savoyard week complete,
Over and out!

 

 

 

A Return To French Life

Bonsoir à tous J

After a fantastic Toussaint week at home, I am back in France where the temperature continues to drop and all of the mountains are capped by snow – this can only be a good sign! Firstly, I have to say I had the BEST time at home – I ate so many foods I had missed, visited places and people, had some great nights out and generally enjoyed being with friends both old and new! The evening before I flew back my friends had even bought some sparklers for us to use as they knew I was sad to not be around for Guy Fawkes Night!

Myself & Kelly

 

Surprise Party!!!

 

Myself, Ashleigh & Danielle

 

Jo, Myself, Jiusi

 

Enjoying The Beach!

 

Alex & I - Halloween (I went to find her in Cardiff!)

 

Myself & Kelly - Halloween

 

Beth, Lauren, Kelly & Myself - Halloween

 

Myself & Holly with Sparklers :)

 

 

 

Sunday morning began with a 2.30am wake-up call to leave Swansea at 3am for Bristol for my flight back. I met with Alex and Jaime at the airport, cold and exhausted yet the day was just beginning! While waiting for the screens to display where our flight was taking off from we came across Hannah! She had been due to fly back 3 days earlier but had changed her flight date so she could spend some more time at home – it was good to have another one on board with us! While waiting to get on the flight, a girl asked us if we knew a girl called Naomi... this happened to be Naomi’s friend Sonia, who was flying out to visit her and so we took her ‘’under our wing’’ (excuse the pun) and she spent the rest of the journey with us, particularly helpful as she didn’t have a bus ticket from the airport and she doesn’t speak French, it’s a good job she recognised us from photos J

While it was great to see everyone, it was very surreal to be back in France after having only just adjusted life back in the UK and speaking English and not coming out with random French phrases – Some of the others had gone to Paris and others had visited Amsterdam. Sunday evening we all seemed depressed being back in little old Chambéry after such wonderful times away knowing that we had to go back to University and had exams and assignments due shortly. I don’t think it helped that we were all exhausted from travelling either but by Monday we were all feeling a lot better.



Following ‘perfectionnement’ on Tuesday Evening, everyone from Cardiff met up with Cathy, our year abroad co-ordinator and French lecturer from Cardiff, who was visiting students around France for a few days. It was so lovely so see a familiar face and to all chat together about our experiences so far, what we liked and disliked and she said how proud of us she was to see how far we had already come in such a short space of time. Following this brief meeting we all went for dinner at a restaurant called ‘La Taverne de Maitre Kanter, recommended by Alex. The food was DELICIOUS and the company and conversation was equally lovely! To start I had saucisson with charlotte potatoes followed by ‘confit de canard’ (a leg of duck served with vegetables) and to finish was a delicious ‘Moelleux tiède au chocolat’ (a chocolate cake) served with cream and caramel ice-cream. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S.  Naomi has an ENORMOUS pot of mussels and ate them all – good effort! It was great to be able to spend time with the Cardiff gang and is definitely something I hope will continue in 4^th year when we’re all back in Wales. 4 hours later we said goodbye to Cathy.

Naomi and her enormous portion of mussels!

Worth the Price! (and not bad for 10 people)

 

This week has ended early as our 8am ‘histoire de la langue’ lecture tomorrow morning is cancelled which means... FOUR DAY WEEKEND! Unfortunately this weekend I really have to sit down and do some work – my histoire de la langue assignment is due next week and I have to give my perfectionnement presentation on Tuesday, plus exams are only a few weeks away! It’s scary to think that I am going home in 6 weeks for Christmas, and we have exams both before and after!

 

We’re all veryyyyy poor now; France has emptied our bank accounts! Hopefully our Erasmus grant will come through any day now and that’ll allow us to book travel home for Christmas e.t.c. We are planning to go on a day trip to Grenoble next week for the day to see some other parts of the Rhone-Alpes region. Two friends, Rach & Beth are coming to visit me in three weeks and the following weekend I am planning to go to Paris – As a result, if I want to do these things, I need to get my work done now while I have the chance! Therefore, it will probably be a quiet weekend on the social life side but then I’ll be able to make up for it in the coming weeks J

 

Short and sweet this week folks!
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