“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sunday 18 September 2011

Fete Renaissance du Roi de l'oiseaux


Fete du Roi de l'Oiseaux

Well, this weekend might have been one of the coolest weekends of my life. One of my French friends, Romain, here in CF has a knack for finding spunkier sides of France.



So this weekend he told me about a Renaissance festival the celebrated the Bird king, thus Fete du roi de l'oiseaux, and of course I accepted. Most people at the festival were dressed up in medieval clothing...but I had the notice a little late, so I borrow this:

This festival is hosted every year in a small town called Puy-en-Velay, here in the region of Auvergne, two hours from where I live. The region is know for several scattered church and buildings built up on little mini-mountains if you will, and the city is in a valley! It's quite a unique place.


So saturday morning we hopped on a train, and headed to join the afternoon festivities. The city was scattered with shows, music, jesters, food and all other types of Medieval fun. We first stopped to get a bite of a medieval tartine, and it might have been my favorite meal in France so far!

We walked from show to show, my favorite being a redone version of Montey Python and the holy grail in French. It brough back great memories of my middle school years being only allowed to watch pg movies.

Anyways, the shows were funny, entertaining, and well a little bit inspiring. The afternoon made me realize how grateful I am for this experience in France, and also to have met some cool people to explore the world with. I got a little choked up during the flag dance, that's probably why I took 800000 pictures of it.
He had 6 flags going at once!!
There is a giant Virgin Mary, Notre dame, statue located on one of the many hills, so after a while, we took a hike up the hill.
notre dame


After a wonderful day, I was planning on heading back on the 8:00 train to CF, and Romain was going to meet some friends in Lyon on the 8:20 train. We both headed to the station, but when we got there, there was no activity. We asked around, and finally found a janitor who said there weren't gonna be any trains tonight, at all....What?

Crisis/panic Mode: For the festival, all the hotels in the city were booked. Uh oh. We were going to have to sleep in a park, or make some friends fast. Luckily, Romain knew some other people attending the festival so we called them up, and they said sure, we've got room....little did we know that that meant that they had extra space in their car where we could sleep. My parents will probably be mortified, but I guess if you come to Europe, you have to take home some great stories, and this weekend was one of them.

my bed

We slept, well, fitfully, I was sleeping in the trunk of the equivalent to nissan-something-tiny car, so well, I'm little but this was kinda like sleeping in a suitcase. But at least it was warm, and dry.

Words cannot really express the experience this weekend. It was a truly authentic French experience. I was surround not by american tourists, but rather regional locals, plus people from Italy and germany. It's a very famous event in Europe, and I'm pretty sure it's one of the most unique things I've done in France. So while i'm lacking for words, here are some pictures from the awesome weekend.

Great Costumes
more flag throwers...couldnt help it, it was sooo cool!
Show for kids, hilarious and adorable
cool show!

Friday 2 September 2011

Ode to the old Day- Dear Brownies, I miss you.


So if knew me in college, you know what Friday nights entailed...a typical american college Friday night would usually include some sort of party with boys and craziness....mine was almost always sure to include brownies, and my crazy friends, on our big green couch, watching a movie, or just laughing about nothing. I'm pretty sure that might sound lame to 95% of America and possibly 100% of France, but I'm pretty sure I have more treasured memories from that couch, than they have from a lifetime of parties.

So today was my first day back to work, so after a long hard day, I obviously needed my Friday night as usual, but unfortunately, in my new apt I traded in my oh-so-wonderful brownie-making-oven for a microwave, washer and a TV...so at I'm a little at a loss as to what to do with my Friday nights. So here's how I coped:

First, I put a mask on my face and hair (boys, this is a hair product, not something that went with your 8-year-old-self's Power Rangers costume)(or mine for a matter of fact)...

then...I ran to the store, at 9 on a Friday, which guarantees creepers lurking in the streets. I was wearing an american get-up, with my tempos and a 'killi' shirt...when a man hollas from his car, in translation ''oh, what sport do you play mademoiselle'', I know sexy right, my throughts ''exactly what makes me feel lovely and want to jump right into that car with you monsoir, watch out out for the flying jar of nutella, when I run out the door, that's what sport I'm playing tonight.''

Anyways, excuse the rant, So returned from the store with the closest things I could find to happiness and home: Box of my favorite grocery-store, 79 cent cookies, jar of nutella (obviously), anddd box of ice creamish stuff...
First, I cut my ice cream like a loaf of bread...cause it's a little weird here, then I tried heating nutella, but aparantely, she doesn't work like that...rude...but I added the overheated kinda burnt nutella to the ice cream loaf, topped off by the best cookies in the world!

While eating bowl number 2 of ice cream, and I put on a little one tree hill for the Watching (thank you Jenni Burks for me new addiction), pulled out the nail polish, and sat on my couch/bed, wishing it was green, and big!

This night might sound a little lame...although to my credit, I have a huge wedding event tomorrow night...except, I would probably be doing this either way. But welcome to my very contented First Friday night back in France! YUM

Thursday 1 September 2011

New Apartment

17 Avenue Charras n23

le Salford (AV) (LL)

63000 Clermont-Ferrand France

Well, I made it here, and am surprisingly happy to be back here. It feels like I came home, but I guess that is what happens when you spend 7 months of your life in a city. Fall is already starting in the city, and it looks beautiful...not to mention the weather beats the weeks of over 100 back in Texas.

I have a new apartment, that in total is about the same size as my room in the first apartment, but it's great! It came furnished, so no nightmare moving again! Plus...it has a washing machine and a TV, I couldn't be more happy about that!!

Anyways, here's my kitchen living room, bed, closet and bathroom all-in-one!

This is my couch/bed and table
Here's the side of the kitchen...and bathroom entrance
Table and chest of drawers

The bathroom


Went into work for a few minutes today, but unfortunately jetlag is killer. Today recovery, tomorrow, back to the work I love!