Ah, Aix.

I'm back in France for a couple of weeks to finish up classes and to spend the days in France eating croissants and baguettes.  Spring has finally come to the South of France, and everything has exploded with green.  There is nothing like the diversity of plants and trees in the South, and I am trying to soak it all in before heading back to the States.  As it is getting warmer and warmer, more and more people are wandering the streets and parks.  Its lovely to finally see some color in the clothing, and, although it is not much, it is a huge change from the neutrals of the winter months.  

I had a wonderful time being in the States, but it has made me realize how much I am going to miss of France.  The food, the wine, the people, the croissants, the ridiculously small cars, the fact that I can walk all around town, the language, the diversity... I could go on and on and on.  There are a few things that I probably won't miss, but I'll think about those once I'm permanently back in the States. 

I had the opportunity to hike up Mont Sainte-Victoire the other day.  Aix is surrounded by many hills, but there is only one mountain anywhere near the city.  My friend and I took a bus out into the country, found a path, and then started climbing.  I had heard that its fairly easy to make it up the mountain, that is, if you choose the right path.  Per usual, my friend and I had chosen the wrong path.  We spent some painful hours scrambling up a few rocky paths before losing the trail and having to slide back down the side of the mountain.  After a few minutes of crashing through the brambles, we made it back onto the trail... And then went the wrong direction, not towards the mountain but towards where we had begun.  By the time we had figured this out, it was one in the afternoon, we'd been thrashing around for about four hours, and we decided to end the day with a three course meal at a restaurant at the foot of the mountain.  Overall, it was a lovely day, and maybe, just maybe, I'll have the chance to make it up there before I leave for good.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Elise

Ah, America.

For all of you who are wondering, I am back in the States for two weeks.  I have quite a long spring break, and both my parents and I felt that it would be a good chance to come home for a bit before finishing out the semester in Aix.  I had an eleven hour flight from Paris to Salt Lake City, then an hour flight from SLC to Boise.  

Once I was off my first flight, I was jet-lagged, malnourished, and my ankles had swollen to cankle (calf/ankle) proportions.  However, I was aware enough to realize the novelty of my surroundings.  After wandering around and staring at all the people for a bit, I sat by one of the concourses and jotted down a few of the things that I was first struck by as being unusual.

Here is the list:

1. Color.  (French wear neutrals or muted colors.)

2. Bellies.

3. Flip-flops.

4. Sweatshirts.

5. Sweatpants.

6. Pajamas.

7. Portion size.  (The smallest ice cream cup I could find was still too big to finish.)

9. Uggs.

10. Fake tans.

11. The Hair styles.

12. Donuts!

13. Girls wearing athletic clothing.

14. The handbags.  (French men often carry bags.)

15. Smiles. (French people don't smile at strangers.  Ever.)

The Week with Amy

Amy and I had a wonderful week of galavanting all over the south of France.  Saturday, we spent the morning on a bus to Nice, and then, once we got there, played around the beach and the town for a while.  The weather wasn't perfect, being somewhat cloudy, but it was a very lovely temperature outside and the beach wasn't crowded so we could run and jump and take silly pictures without disturbing the sun-bathers who would have typically littered the beach on sunny days.

On Sunday, Easter Sunday that is, we visited Eze, which is a very tiny town that sits on top of a hill overlooking the ocean.  The only thing of interest in the town is its perfumeries.  Perfumes are created by a master of scent, called Le Nez (The Nose).  A Nez spends years and years in schooling, teaching their noses how to identify every type of scent.  There are only 40 in the world, and the majority of those are in France.  However, because of the sensitivity of their noses, they can only work two hours a week, so it takes quite a while to create a new perfume.  Once a perfume is created, the perfumerie then sells it to a designer like Armani or Versace, who names the scent and then retails it as their perfume.  Amy and I were able to visit the same perfumerie that I had the chance to go to the last time I was in Eze.  It is a very dangerous place because there are too many things to spend your money on.  The Asian tourists, especially, seem to be overcome with the desire to buy everything in the store.

After, spending some time and money in Eze, we tried to find the bus to Monaco, but it turned out that we had just missed the it and the next one wasn't coming for another hour.  We decided to wander around for a bit, and while we were wandering, we found a sign that said that Monaco was only 5 kilometres from Eze.  Amy and I decided to be adventurous, and since we walk over 5 km on a daily basis, we thought we might as well try to walk to Monaco.  After about a half hour of walking and picture taking, we passed another sign that read "Monaco: 5 km".  Then a half hour later: "Monaco: 5 km".  This is where we started getting a little worried.

Finally, after over an hour of walking, the sidewalk ended abruptly, and Amy and I were left standing on the side of a very busy highway, apparently still 5 km from Monaco and who knows how many kilometres from Eze.  

We stood there for about five minutes, watching the rich people watch us as they passed by in their Porsches and BMW's and Lamborghini's, until, finally, a very nice taxi driver took pity on us and gave us a free ride into Monaco, which, if you were wondering, was definitely more than five km from where we had been stranded.  

Once we had finally made it to the actual city, we had a lovely time taking pictures of all the very rich men with all of their very plastic girlfriends.  Money paves the streets in Monaco.  You can name the designers of each article of clothing that the women are wearing as they walk by: Prada, D & G, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Prada, Chanel, Prada, Hermes, and so on and so forth.  Another fun game to play is to count the number of Lamboghini's that pass by, which is quite fun given you can hear them coming from a half-kilometre away (which from the lesson we learned trying to walk to Monaco, means a half kilometre plus a half kilometre plus another half kilometre...).  

Overall, we had a very fun weekend getting stranded, watching the rich people, and spending time on the beach.  The Cote d'Azur of France is unlike any other place in the world, and once you get over the overwhelming sense of inadequacy that you feel being surrounded by that much wealth, you can generally have a good time.  It is a very beautiful area, and it is no surprise that the rich and famous flock there for the holidays.

Lesson from the weekend: Never trust road signs in France.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Elise

Monaco

Pictures from Monaco and Eze

More pictures from Nice

Amy and I were trying to jump by the ocean, but it was surprisingly difficult to get any height off the rocky beach.

Pictures from our first Day in Nice

Rooftop Barbeque

Pictures from a lovely day and evening in Aix.

These are pictures from our lovely day at Cassis.  Its a wonderful town, made even more wonderful by the beach, the market, and the overabundance of gelato shops.

Amy, Aix and Cassis

Life has once again become exciting.  My friend Amy, whom you might all remember from the Paris trip, is visiting me in Aix for the week.  We have already had some extremely fun adventures.  The first night she got in, we went to a rooftop barbeque for the university students at church.  There was an amazing view of the rooftops of the city, and we had a very good time playing games and sharing kabobs.  The next day we spent wandering around Aix and having some extremely yummy gelato.  Tuesday night, there was a very exciting football (that's soccer in the States) match: Manchester United vs. Portugal.  We were lucky enough to squeeze into O'Shannon's Pub, which has an amazing widescreen that is perfect for football matches.  We were also extremely lucky because we had with us a British guy who could explain every nuance of the game to those of us who had grown up watching American football (which most Europeans consider a terrible name for a sport that barely involves the usage of that certain appendage).  He gave us a very complete outline of British football teams, the highs and lows, his preferred teams, and the general outlook for the next World Cup.  Its very exciting to be sitting in an Irish pub in Aix, with a cold pint, watching some extremely talented footballers.

Today, due to the fact that most of my friends in Aix have friends visiting them this week, we decided to take all of the new comers to Cassis, a small coastal town about an hour from Aix.  Although we nearly missed our train and then had to walk for a half hour in search of the actual beach, we had a lovely time playing in the water and eating some extremely buttery croissants.  Tonight, we are too tired to head out to another pub with the English chaps for another match, but we've had a lovely time so far.  

This weekend we will be heading down to Nice and Monaco for a couple of days, which should be a very trip.  I will let you know how it goes!

And even more from Paris

More from Paris

Just found some more pictures of Paris that I thought I should share.  The first picture is of Amy and I at the Centre Pompidou, which is a very modern building that houses Paris' post-modern museum.  The weird things behind us are the fountains outside of the museum.

  

The second picture is of the grounds at Versailles.

The third is of us eating the best crepes in Paris.

Next is a picture of me staring at my favorite painting in the Louvre.  I have seen it plenty of times, but I still love it.  Its called La jeune martyre by Delaroche.

And finally, the Louvre at night.

Spring in Aix

Spring has almost made it to Aix, but as you can see in some of the photos, the weather hasn't been the clearest or the brightest.  Yesterday, I walked into the grocery store with my coat off and my sunglasses on and came out ten minutes later to find the streets nearly flooding with a freak downpour.  But even though unpredictable, spring is transforming my usual walk into a new adventure of color.

Another trip to Marseille

Here are some pictures from my latest visit to Marseille.  The weather was dreadful, but we were able to walk along the beach, which was a first for me in Marseille.  We all also witnessed two protests, one (as pictured) was focused on freeing Tibet (I think) and the other was protesting the actions of the Israeli government against Palestine (there is a very large Muslim population in Marseille).  

Oh, and that's not me in that picture, I was the one taking it...  I thought it would be simpler if I clarified that fact...

Spring has finally come to Aix.  Everything is blooming, and the sun is always shining.  It has been a beautiful week, and nearly the entire population of Aix has spent the majority of the day lounging around the parks.  The one cloud on the horizon is that the situation at the university has not improved, and in fact, may have worsened.

Monday, no class.  Tuesday, no class.  Wednesday, no class.  The reason for this can be seen in the picture at the right.  The students on strike have taken the chairs and tables from the classrooms and barricaded the doors and the halls.  This is a picture of the main hall in my university building.  The students in the picture are from my class.  It took us a while to decide what to do with our days, since we had planned on spending most of the time learning.  The sign says "The struggle is class against class."  (This meaning class as in upper class and lower class, not class as in under-water basket weaving.)  There are always students hanging around the barricades, making sure that no one tries to sneak through.  It's quite intimidating.  

Sarkozy is trying to make the French university system more competitive, which includes some major reforms that no one seems to like.  All the students who are trying to go to class, mainly the international students, are hoping for a quick resolution.

In the end, the question is who is the strike actually hurting?   

Even more of Paris

We got to see a very interesting sight while under the Eiffel Tower.  This model was trying to do a shoot under the tower with the tourists just grouping around her.  I felt so sorry for her because 1) it was freezing out and she must have weighed a hundred pounds, 2) the men kept trying to get in the shots with her, which would make her laugh, and then ruin the shot, and 3) everyone was trying to get a picture of her so there was a huge mass of people that she had to try to work around (including my friends and I...)

More of Paris

Very small door in the Louvre that had been removed from some building and placed against a wall.  Its purpose?  I obviously do not know.

Very nice shot of the Seine with Notre Dame in the background.

Amy and I jumping for joy.

Shot of the very modern pyramid that sits outside the museum and serves as the main entrance.  There was a decade of debates over whether or not that pyramid was a disaster or a triumph.  I haven't decided because I'm afraid a French person will ask my opinion of it, and then I'll be told, in very strong language, exactly why I am wrong.