Today marks the final weekend of my 3rd stretch of 2 week paid vacations by the French government. Now that I've almost forgotten the actual reason that I'm being paid to be here, it's time to remember it again because class starts bright and early Monday morning! In the meantime, oh dear, I've fallen really behind on my blog updates!
Spring has just about sprung here in Valence, and that always means that people start buzzing and things get busy, especially for me because I've just had 2 HUGE weeks! In order to spare you from a blog entry that is a billion miles long, I'm going to reflect on the past several weeks in installments, so check back in the near future.
First, I have to issue a retraction: In my last post, I said that Valence doesn't do anything to celebrate Valentine's day, and I was wrong. Just a few days later, the entire Champ de Mars was decorated with red heart balloons, and the town government hosted Le Grand Baiser des Amoureux (the big lovers' kiss) at Kiosque Peynet. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, all the lovers in Valence gathered at the Kiosque and kissed at exactly the same time. Participants (which I was not) were all awarded a certificate of love.
Which leads me to some very exciting news about the past weeks: Alex came to visit France!! And since it was his first trip to France EVER, we had to do it up big. I don't know if I can adequately describe the anticipation that goes into a trip like this. After inter-country dating for 5 months (that's right, no big deal), this trip when he would finally be able to see where I live and meet my friends was a BIG DEAL. Much planning and preparation went into it on both our parts! Just about everyone I know in France knew about it and had taken to asking me about it on a regular basis before it happened. This trip was very rewarding for several reasons: 1. Alex and I got to play in France together 2. It'd been 2 months since we'd seen each other at Christmas 3. We'd gone 3 months without seeing each other before Christmas 4. It's only about 6 weeks until I move back to America. Hopefully this information helps set the tone!
Ok, THE TRIP!
Alex arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on Saturday, and we had arranged to meet at the revolving doors of the Sheraton Hotel located inside the terminal. I rode the train up from Valence and arrived an hour or so early and posted up in the lounge to read and look up at the door every couple of minutes. He finally arrived in great shape with all of his bags! We took the RER straight to drop off the bags at the hotel and get freshened up before hitting the city!
We spent his first afternoon in France walking around the Latin Quarter, visiting Notre Dame Cathedral (which was in the middle of a service with organ music and incense!),
And going to the top of the Eiffel Tower! This was a great way to see all the city lights from above! We rode the metro over to the neighborhood by the Louvre and had a delicious traditional French dinner at one place and delicious French desserts at another place just down the street.
On Sunday morning, we got on a train to head towards our second destination, skiing in Chamonix! We stopped in Annecy for an hour and a half, so I got to show Alex the beautiful town and the lake around which I'll be running a half marathon on April 17th! I accidentally overestimated the amount of time we had in Annecy, so our lunch was cut dramatically short as we had to run out of the restaurant, pizza flopping in hand, to catch a cab back to the train station. Oops! But we made it.
We spent all of the next two days skiing in Chamonix! Now, Alex is a really strong skiier, and I am really stubborn, so we managed to make it down the runs unscathed! Well, at the occasional expense of my pride and any unsuspecting younger people that my have been in my way. All told, we had a fantastic time!
The mountains in Chamonix are amazing! Really, the scenery was just too much to take in. I couldn't believe it the whole time I was skiing down runs. We were so thankful to have some good snow because it's been a bad year for snow here in France!
After 3 nights in the mountains, we hopped on the train to Valence! It was surreal to finally have Alex walk the streets of my hometown for the past 5 months! After seeing a little bit of the city and after all the skiing and travel, we relaxed on Wednesday night and made a pizza and watched a movie at my apartment. Alex got to experience 2 of my proudest accomplishments during my stay in France so far. 1: I finally like cheese, so I bought some really nice Compte (my favorite) at the market for him to try! 2: I've learned how to cook, so I actually knew what I was doing when we made dinner together!
The weather was really pleasant, so on Thursday Alex and I had a picnic in Parc Jouvet with some kebabs, and then we headed over to the Ardeche side of the river to hike to Chateau Crussol!
That night we got dressed up and went to dinner at the Sept Bistro at Maison Pic to sample such French delicacies as "vélouté d'haricot blanc" and "poitrine de cochon," (I'll let you wonder at what those beautiful words mean) then we went to a little pub near the esplanade and Alex got to meet some of my Valentinois friends!
On Friday morning, we got on a train headed back to Paris. On Alex's last afternoon in France, we saw the Louvre and walked all the way through the Tuileries, down rue de Rivoli, past Place de la Concorde, up the Champs Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe! It was a beautiful afternoon and sunset, and we had fun playing on the Champs Élysées before a delicious steak dinner (which I devoured because I never get red meat here!). I saw him off at the airport early on Saturday morning, and, after a perfect week, we said goodbye until the end of April!
Then I got on a plane to Spain...
To see all the pictures of Alex and my trip, click this link!: https://picasaweb.google.com/mary.a.hollis/MangePrieAime#
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