France: land of compliments

So, was just pondering that, since I've been here, I have actually had some fairly amusing compliments.

• On my hair, which apparently looked like doll's hair. It was having a curly day as it had just been washed, lol.
• Random (I think African) dude who I said hello to in the street in Toulouse, and who replied 'Bonjour, princesse.' Yeah, ok, that was more laughable/creepy than anything else.
• Cuban who randomly decided to tell me I was pretty. Then again, they tell every girl that, so it doesn't really count. ;p
  

Random photos

Am amused by this photo (taken in Paris, near the Gare Austerlitz)... someone has underlined 'psychologist' and written 'commit Sarkozy.' A little bit anti?


Yay for pastries... can't remember what this was called, but it was pastry, chocolate and hazelnut. And that was all I needed to know. Yum.


Random Toulouse photo that I forgot to add last time. Taken near the Pont ... euh, Saint Pierre, I think.

Nougaro: Toulouse's favourite child!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU8Tg1cRZhY

Toulousain singer who is extremely famous, singing about Toulouse. :) What a hottie...

Occitain Cross

Above, the Occitain cross in its typical red and yellow, and below is one on a door in Toulouse.
Btw, on the map, I'm in the area labelled 31, down near the bottom.


And this... just had the joke explained to me the other day. On the shirt, the EPO is for eau (water), Pastis (licorice flavoured liqueur) and olive (yeah, you guessed it). But EPO is also a performance-enhancing drug that cyclists take.

Legal Formalities and Pink Brick

... aka A Day In Toulouse.

After an epic fail in which I missed my first appointment to get my visa validated (because I got the mail telling me about it after the appointment), I was determined to get there this time. Sadly, I had a 9am appointment so had to catch a 7.05am train. Yep, I've got soft since leaving AXA.

Had been a tad worried about finding the place, but it turned out to be a case of a metro ride and a short walk. Still, am pretty glad I left myself an hour to get from the Toulouse station to the office, because I needed most of the time!

Arrived, and was directed to a waiting room... waited... got asked a few questions by a nurse... back to waiting room... chest x-ray... back to waiting room... doctor looks at chest xray and asks me a couple more questions... back to waiting room... lady puts 'viginette' (ie extra stickery thing confirming that I've completed the formalities) in my passport. Done. I swear that the Army wants to know more about you than France does. Although Mum did remind me that I had a semi-medical before leaving home. Anyhow, in sum, I think I probably spent more time waiting than actually with a medical professional. But I don't care, cos now I'm fully legally in France AND to come and go as I want (while my visa is valid!).

That done, my day in Toulouse commenced. Train ticket costs equivalent of about NZ$20 and I had no classes on Weds, so I was determined to spend the day in Toulouse and make the most of being there! Il faut en profiter! Lol, I like this phrase more in French... Also, it was a freakishly warm day (for winter): 19C. So it felt like summer. I was clearly meant to enjoy this day.

Profit, I did. Including in terms of my metro day pass. Why walk when you can metro? Well, actually it's way better to walk, because you see what you're passing AND you're not limited to going where the metro lines go, but I was still trying to get rid of a cold so therefore was avoiding long walks.

Went for a random walk in the direction of a church spire that I'd seen from the visa place, just because I could. Was trying not to make too many turns though, as my map of Toulouse didn't extend to this area, and didn't want to get hopelessly lost. Glad I did walk to it though, 'cos it had this awesome sculpturey thing on the side.



On the metro again, and went to the Canal du Midi and walked along the banks. Rather nice.



Walked right into town, and wandered a bit, looking for somewhere to sit and eat some lunch. Clearly was looking in all the wrong places, as I couldn't find any parks (and later, there seemed to be heaps around). I suppose the smart person would have looked at their map but, well, I wasn't the smart person that day.




Did see this awesome Basilisque though (Saint-Sernin). Love the way it's just kinda at the end of a street... Nothing major.

Eventually decided that there must be somewhere in the main square. Glad I headed there, as the Christmas market was in full swing. The whole place was filled with little chalets with all kinds of food (tartiflette, hot chocolate, mulled wine, savoury dishes, cheese, pastries, almond paste decorationy things...) and all kinds of goods (funny t-shirts, hanging decorations, saints etc for nativity scenes, clothes, violet products...). So, after my brief lunch, I had a wander.



Also found an advent display, where there were present-shaped boxes for each day of the advent, so checked out the ones which were open.

Next stop was the tourist office, of which the gift shop was very tempting. Bought a reduction card for Toulouse (some shops, hotels, tourist attractions) and found a brochure for a Resistance walking trail.

While I fully intended to do the Resistance trail, I was distracted after about 2 stops... by a Quick. Which seems to be the French version of McDonalds (even though they have McDonalds). It wasn't so much the food as the free wifi that I wanted, though. So, one strawberry lolly milkshake and 3 'extra cheesy' (yes, that is what they are called in French - they're bite-sized fried cheese thingees) later, I was settled in with my laptop and had a reasonably lengthy internet session. Which was nice.

By the time I finished, I had lost all motivation for the Resistance trail... however, I do intend to do this properly on a future trip, when I'm not carting my laptop and a heavy document holder in my backpack!
So, instead, I decided to go on the Metro again, and find this bridge which appears in all the photos of Toulouse. Very glad that I did this, and am sure you will understand why after seeing the following pix.





Back on the Metro and into central Toulouse to have a quick squiz in the shops. Kinda a nice change to have so many people around, and things going on in the streets (random fire-stick-twirler dude in a park, for example, or the following...).



By this stage, the thought of tomorrow's 8am class, and a good sleep to get rid of this cold, were starting to play on my mind, so it was time for a final metro trip to the station. While I was waiting for the platform number for my train to come up, a couple of policemen leading 4 or 5 armed, camo-clad soldiers came past. Just casually. Also ran into an assistante who works with Kate, the other Kiwi, so was nice to actually see someone I knew!

Oh yeah... got to love the way rugby is so engrained in the consciousness that it's used to show people how to behave on the metro.



Then had a chat with a nice girl on the train home. Happy times... even though my French is far from perfect, it is getting easier and less worrisome to talk to people. :) I'm more likely these days to just talk than to spend time before thinking about what I need to say and how to say it!

Sens-ational

Can't get these pix to move where I want, so will have to be pix first and text later. Too annoying!

Me with my 'French name': ie the French word for Libya.

Majorettes at the Sens Xmas market

Sens Xmas market

Sens Cathedral, where I finally lit a candle for the miners.

Sabrina being proud of her new town!

Sorry, couldn't resist a cheesy pun since I couldn't come up with anything original!

Day 2 in Sens started with a big sleep-in I had been pretty exhausted after the big journey, and was trying to fight off signs of a cold, so it probably did me good!

Next mission was to look at another apartment for Sabrina (which she ended up taking). A wander in town.

And then... off to the Christmas market! This turned out to be a fairly small affair, but had a look around the stalls at the products on offer. There were some rather tasty-looking foods, especially at an ethnic stall from I'm not really sure where, but possibly somewhere MIddle-Eastern?!, but we had already bought our lunch from La Mie Caline.

After checking out the market, we decided to go and eat aforementioned lunch, but didn't really know where would be a good place. Ended up sitting in a bus stop in amongst lots of HLM (more or less equivalent to state housing). I very much enjoyed my beignet gout chocolat: kinda doughnut-like thing, but without the hole in the middle. Instead, there was chocolate!!

Headed back to the Xmas market to see the marionette display (accompanied by some dude that Sabrina had asked for directions, and who seemed to want to befriend us. This was the first time we were asked if we were speaking German).. Don't know if it's just me who hadn't heard of this before but, if you're the same, it was basically young girls dancing with batons. The youngest ones were especially cute! One of the tracks was a sped-up version of La Vie En Rose, so will have to search that one out. Quite liked it!

Didn't really know what to do with ourselves after this, so ended up going to a museum. Aside from anything else, a good way to escape the cold (or so we thought, until we got down into the basement). The lady on reception asked if we were speaking German (twice in a day! Is it the NZ accent throwing them off?!) I found the museum pretty interesting, as it had all kinds of info on the area... going right back to time periods that I don't know the name of in English and have forgotten the word for in French. Go me. Anyway, iron age and before. There were old arrow-heads, and mosaics, pieces of stone facades, tombstone enscriptions, paintings... There was even a hat worn by Napoleon at Waterloo. Well, provided I understood that sign correctly. This was the one downside of the museum. Museums are tiring in another language! Took me rather a long time if I wanted to read the notices telling me what the display was all about.

Went back to the hotel to be lazy for a while, then re-emerged to get a kebab and a crepe for dinner, before calling it a day.

Day 3... well, we did a quick walk in the am. Found the pools and a game of handball (don't quite understand how it works, but it seems pretty popular over here). Also found a sign with the French word for Libya on it... this is what my name sounds like with a French accent. So much so that, when people have trouble with my name, I pronounce it the French way and say "like the country."

Then it was time to get back on the train... 1 hour to Paris, approx 2 hours break in Paris, 6 hours to Toulouse, 30 min break, 1 hour to Saint Go!

Tried to make use of my time in Paris... went between the train stations on foot at a relaxed pace, so saw a nice park, walked over the Seine, past one entrance of the national library (wow, it is massive!), then carried on past the station a bit to get some food. After Kate mentioned that she missed Indian food when we were in Luchon, I was sold on a take-away Indian sandwich. Which I ate in a nearby park, while dripping sauce on myself. Must stop doing that every time I travel.

Then back into the train... this trip was a bit of a trial as I didn't quite manage to doze but was too lazy to read AND was trying to ration my tissues to last the trip! But I survived. :)

Actually saw someone I knew at the Toulouse station (amazing!)... the Bolivian assistant who works at the same school as Kate. So that was pretty nice.

Got back to Saint Go pretty late, so shoved down some food and then went to bed... back to reality!

Sens: The Never-Ending Journey

Last weekend I went to Sens (about an hour's train ride South East of Paris). It almost didn't happen, though. The day before I was due to leave, I was talking to someone who thought that I might not be able to get a train there, due to all the snow that's around at the moment. So I went on a mission down to the train station, and asked if they knew whether it should all be running, and they said yes. So I thought all was fine.

The next morning, I got up for a nice, early train from St Go... to arrive at the station to find a notice saying that the train wouldn't run that morning. Which was really great for me, as the next train got me to Toulouse too late to get my connecting train to Paris, and I had no other way of getting to Toulouse. And my ticket said non-exchangeable/refundable. Argh!

Given that I had half an hour or so to wait for the next train, I reflected a bit, and decided to note the number of the cancelled train. This was fortunate because, when I went to the ticket man at Toulouse to explain the situation, he asked for it. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, he came back with a ticket for the next train to Paris, which didn't cost me any extra. Great relief! Not sure if they did it because I had taken the annulation insurance option for the Toulouse-Paris trip or simply because it was their fault and not mine, but I don't care. After being extremely peeved at the SNCF, I was suddenly pretty grateful!

Had about an hour and a half to kill in Toulouse, then, so went for a wander and bought some lunch for later on.

Train ride to Paris was uneventful... then came the time to get from the Gare Montparnasse to Gare Paris-Bercy.Fortunately for me, there is a metro line between them; didn't even have to change. I got down to the metro, and there were big queues of people in front of all of the ticket machines. By this stage, I'd been travelling for about 10 hours (if we include waiting in the station at St Go) and was not really keen on waiting in a queue that didn't even seem to be moving. So, I was lucky that a lady came along and said there were ticket machines up one level that were completely free. The man in front of me in line and I decided to see if she was right... she was.

Paris - Sens train ride was very picturesque. Unfortunately, I have no pictures, as I was standing, and too lazy to get my camera out at this stage. Anyway, there were lots of pretty, snow-covered village views. Felt a bit like I was in a Christmas card.

Snow on the tracks at Paris Bercy.

One good thing about arriving approx 2 hours later than I had intended (with original train) was that Sabrina had finished work when I arrived, so she could meet me at the train station. Happy times!

The hotel she had booked was just across the road, so off we went. I swear the man verified who she was and asked if the room was for one person or two about 3 times! When we got to the room, we saw that it was nice, but rather 'intimate.' Ie there was only a double bed, and the bathroom only had saloon-style doors blocking it off so, if you were not in bed when the other person was in the bathroom, you would be more or less able to see them. LOL.Sometimes, French hotels crack me up.

Decided to go out and have a look around that night. Quite a lot of snow, so were walking carefully. I've seen enough people on the news slipping over in snow; didn't want to be one of them! Looked at an apartment for Sabrina, wandered through the town centre, and saw the school where she teaches.

Sabrina reckons about 30 000 people lve in Sens, so it's not huge, but it's rather nice. Lots of cute little houses, a nice town square and pretty old cathedral, river running through...

We found a good place to eat, called 'Le Frenchy' and I tried tartiflette, which was very tasty! Then we thought we had better have 'un petit dessert' so I had a banana and nutella waffle. After this, I was very happy. :)

On the way back to the hotel, we went past a bar with some music pumping, so we decided to go in... but we were the only ones, apart from some men playing pool in a corner. We were a little bit bemused as, when Sabrina asked if we could sit down, the lady indicated the far corner. And then we noticed a basket full of washing in a seat right by the door and bar. Not quite sure why the washing got a better seat than us (or, indeed, why it was on display at all) but never mind. The important thing is, I finally tried pastis: a very licorice-y aperitif which is typical of the South (but I don't know where exactly).

It's Really Happening in Saint Gaudens...

I return from Sens on Sunday night at about 10.30pm. Xavier emerges from his room.

Me: Did you have a good weekend?
Xavier: You're the first person I've spoken to since Thursday night.
Me: You didn't even go out to do your shopping?
Xavier: Oh, ok. The shop assistant said 'Good evening. Would you like a bag?'

Luchon: Départ, Bien Fatiguées!

Would have been lazier if I hadn't known that brekky started at 8am, but headed down near 9. Started the day with juice, a croissant, bread, butter, jam, and a hot chocolate, so that was pretty positive in my opinion!

Went off for a wee mission up a walking track we'd spied the previous day. We were up in the snow (even though it was a fairly light coating) and there were some icy patches...



Had some great views over the town, even though we had to sneak over/under/around some fallen trees.



Went back to the hotel to check out, but still had about an hour before our train, so set off in another direction to get maximal exploration. Felt quite at home when we discovered the local rugby stadium... but imagine heading out to play in your stubbies (rugby shorts) during winter when you're that close to the mountains! Brr!



You can't really see, but Kingi is on the scrum machine here. Think he was keen for a game.


Found out that our train was, in fact, a bus. This turned out to be kinda good, because we went through some little towns and got some sweet mountain views. And it was so warm... Kate and I were both getting really sleepy!

Bus reached terminus in Montréjeau, where we had two hours wait before our connecting train back to our respective towns. We hadn't eaten, and had the smart idea that we could use that time for eating. Not a smart idea. Montréjeau was tiny (or, the part of it near the train station was) and the few shops near it were shut. I guess it was Sunday, and a small place, so what can you expect. But still. We were reduced to hanging out at the train station, making the most of the vending machines there, and watching a movie on Kate's laptop.

Saint Gaudens is the next stop after Montréjeau so, had I been keen enough to try, I could probably have walked home in that 2 hours. But, anyway. As I was walking back home, feeling very cold, some random dude stopped an offered me a lift, which I accepted gratefully. Turns out he spoke pretty decent English (as he was a geologist and had worked on an oil rig).

May be hard to go back to speaking French after a very English-speaking weekend...

Luchon: Forme et Bien Etre

The weekend mission started well, with a scenic train ride. Kate (fellow Kiwi assistant in a nearby town) and I were busy exclaiming over how picturesque the countryside was. Amazing how awesome a coat of snow can make everything look.



Even after an hour or so in Luchon, we could see it was going to be an adventure. Not yet being the ski season, many hotels, shops, etc here are closed so, when we went to the tourist office and asked her to recommend something not too expensive, she also suggested 'open' as a criterion. Which is fair enough, I think.

Anyway, our main criterion was actually wifi, internet-starved as we are. Which led us on a merry march around town, to many (shut) hotels. We were getting more and more desperate, and were just leaving one which had an unattended and unlit reception desk, when a man came along and said "Mesdemoiselles?" This somehow resulted in us having to go through to the attached restaurant to ask about the possibility of a room. Which was weird, because the waitress looked very surprised to see us there, so I don't quite know what was going on. Fortunately, they had a room for us.

As for the wifi, well, we couldn't get it to work from our room.

Gave up and went to lunch, as we were both really hungry. Had lunch at what I would consider to be a pretty typical French corner restaurant: both had the menu of salad, entrecote of beef with chips, and a dessert. I also was unable to resist the 'vin chaud' (mulled wine), even though it wasn't on the menu (waiter seemed a bit upset). For dessert, I heard 'fromage' and decided to order that. Turns out it was fromage blanc, which equated to plain yoghurt. Never mind. I was healthy...



Next mission was a wander around the town (without our extra baggage this time). Lots of photos were taken as it is very picturesque! Wandered pretty much up to the base of the mountains and into the snow, and noticed it was only about 8km to Spain. It was tempting to keep going, but we decided we weren't prepared enough to do an Edmund Hillary across the Pyrenees.

Chilly Kiwi...

It was with great disappointment that we discovered the spas were closed. Kate, especially, had been looking forward to a nice soak! Had we been a couple of weeks later, we would have been right for that and for the gondola thingee up the mountains, but never mind.


Luckily, back at the hotel restaurant, we were able to "remonter la morale" (get our spirits back up) with a flavoured hot chocolate (one caramel and one hazelnut) and a crepe (one Nutella and one chocolate). This was definitely worth doing! So tasty. Then, it was clearly time to do nothing for a couple of hours (once it had been established that the wifi was just not going to work).

Braving the cold, we ventured out of our hotel in search of dinner. We were slightly distracted by a patisserie, and stopped to get dessert (oh, the sugary goodness of caramel millefeuilles and whatever the creamy/moussy/pastry thing that Kate got). While trying to find a supermarket, we came across a pizza place and a Moroccan restaurant, and ended up choosing the latter. Good price, good food (Kate was stoked to have some veggies!!!) and we could eat there.

Once we got back to the hotel, we decided to go and have a drink (a blackberry Kir each) and then decided to move into the back room with these to watch the rugby. The man who was running the bar was busy explaining to everyone "they're New Zealanders." Watched the Aussies beat France, and ate pastries. Good times.