Yesterday I visited the Mediterranean Sea. It was even more beautiful than I had imagined (which is what I've been saying for just about everything here), and I was able to meet my host-aunt Noelle, who we stayed with over the weekend. My host-mom, Jeanne, and I left the house Saturday afternoon after my long-awaited haircut scheduled that morning. I was able to successfully communicate what I wanted done with my hair. Though it's simple to ask for a straight haircut at your shoulders, it was still a small language accomplishment, just like being able to ask the librarian for an Italian textbook alone (which I managed to do last week). We stopped at a pâtisserie in Cadenet to buy some baguettes and desserts to bring to Noelle, before driving for about an hour or two towards the coast. We stopped at Aigues-Mortes to eat some of the baguettes with goat cheese while walking around the town. In the middle of the city there was a village enclosed with castle walls. It was filled with shops, bakeries, and some tourist shops. We had to drive for another hour to arrive at Noelle's house in Sauvian.
Noelle is my host-mom's older sister, and she was super nice. She has since then added me on Snapchat, which shows how different she is to my host-parents who don't have phones or a tv. Noelle and her husband Alain live in northern France where they own three boulangeries (bakeries), but they have their second house on the southern coast in Sérignan. We ate some fresh fish from the sea and ratatouille for dinner, with the cakes we brought for dessert. Jeanne swam in their pool while I was talking with Noelle, Chantelle, and my host-mom while snacking. Noelle's daughters are in their twenties and apparently have always wanted to visit America. She invited me to go stay with them in Lorraine, a region in Northern France over break, which I hope I'll be able to do. Jeanne and I shared a room while my host-mom and aunt shared the other room, and we ended up talking and snacking until 2am.
Because Noelle owns bakeries, and I never get to eat buttery foods with my healthy host-family, I was excited to eating croissants and pain au chocolat for breakfast. I felt a bit guilty after eating two pains au chocolat, but the others did too. I love pain au chocolat. After breakfast we went to the beach and although I didn't swim, I was happy just walking along the water in my shorts. I have a jar filled with shells on my desk right now, which I brought back from the Mediterranean. All of the stores, houses, hotels, and restaurants on the coast are all pastel-colored and it's really pretty. The weather was perfect and the water was warm but there weren't many tourists because of the time of year. It's supposed to be insanely crowded in the summer, and most of the French people avoid visiting the coast until fall.
We went back to the house for lunch. We had ratatouille, chicken, and apricot tart for dessert. Jeanne and I walked to the neighborhood playground then got picked up from their to go to a town called Béziers to see "les neufs écluses", which are apparently called "locks" in English. I didn't know about them until this weekend but locks raise and lower boats to get to waterways or canal on different levels. I had some fresh-squeezed peach juice and we walked around the area. The region is called Camargues, and it's known for having wild flamingos (which I saw in the water and I'm in disbelief). We had to leave around 5pm because it takes about three hours to get back to Lauris. Jeanne and I slept in the entire ride with the exception of snack breaks. My host-dad had to stay at the farm to take care of the goats, but we returned in time for dinner. We ate seafood paella and I went to bed early because I got a cold (my second time getting sick within a month). Also, I've officially been in France for over a month. It's surprisingly October as of today and the other inbounds will relate with the indescribable passing of time as an exchange student.
תגובות