i finally went to montpellier, one of the largest university cities in France, and a place i've been wanting to visit since i was here for study abroad. Mandy spent a semester there and has kept in touch with her host fam. She had asked them if we could stay at their house for the weekend of the 22nd, not realizing that it was easter weekend, but they are super awesome and invited us to stay anyway. it was a full house, though, what with their children and cousins in for the holiday. more on that later, though...so mandy and i drove down to montpellier on friday afternoon with her flatmate, Aziza (who is a little awesome and definitely a little crazy. she talked about how to improve traffic flow and avoid bouchons (traffic jams) 1h45 of the 2h ride. buut it was nice to take a road trip.
we arrived at Montferrier sur Lez, the village just outside Montpellier where we were going to be staying, around 19h. so the host parents - marc and clothilde - have 3 daughters and one son, from my age up to early 30s, as well as a hilarious dog, Toby, who likes to jump all over you and try to sit on your lap, never mind the fact that he is like, as big as me. highly entertaining. anyway, friday night the son and his girlfriend (and their toy poodle sheesps (?)) were staying there, as well as clothilde's sister. over the next two nights there would be additional cousins, daughters, i dont even know...but the house is huge and gorgeous and there was plenty of room and food and homemade breads and jam for breakfast (miammm)...friday night we just chilled with the fam, had aperos, homemade yogurt, these amazing olives from spain that tasted like berries, talked about our astrological signs, played with the dogs, and generally relished being in a house that actually felt homey.
saturday morning mandy and i headed into the city early, to profiter bien from the day. a few other assistants had randomly decided to come to montp. for the weekend, as well (jessika, shazz and andrea), so we planned to meet them in the afternoon when their train arrived. so sidebar: mandy is obsessed with this city (and understandably so, after having visited and met her host fam and all that) and has some pretty sweet stories, one that includes
Charles, her french grandpa. she apparently met this gentleman randomly on her bus - he advised her to put her purse messenger-bag-style so someone couldnt run off with it, asked her if she liked coffee, and pulled her off the tram and into a cafe. they had coffee dates whenever they happened to run into each other, Charles would give her his chocolate, it was all very cute and au hasard- and as such, she never had the chance to say good-bye when she left at the end of the semester.so ive heard this story, i know about Charles, and we get on the bus and there he is!! so of course she had to catch up with him, and of course he was heading into town, too, and of course we went for a coffee and he gave us all the chocolates he'd saved but hadn't eaten...and he recounted the local history of every stop on the tramway for me (...in one ear, out the other...), took us to see the highlights in the old town, told us local fables, off-color jokes, treated us to lunch (mmm crepes and cidre). it was an intense morning of french and grandpa-ness. quel coincidence!
after lunching with Charles, we went to pick up the girls and settle them in their hostel. unfortunately the afternoon was incredibly windy, with bursts of sun alternating with drizzle and grey. we buttoned up our coats and made the best of the afternoon, though, with mandy leading us to some of her favorite spots (and of course we doubled back to some of the sites Charles had taken us to).ooh and we had amazing coffee at Soho (?), it was wonderful and kitschy and all love. i have to admit, though, that after hanging out with Charles, the highlight of my day was dinner at the greek pite resto. ooooohhhmmmyyygod, hummus-baba-falafel pita with salad and tahini and eggplant and this spicy olive oil sauce for 5E. haaaaaappiness. we stocked up on easter chocolates and gourmandises, then went out to a few bars. ahh the novelty of seeing people our age out and about and people in the streets after 20h will take a while to wear off. the first bar was pretty sweet - Barbe Rousse: pirate-themed, specializing in fruity shooters and a bizarre mix of music (from disco to justin timberlake to latino). we met up with bill, a fellow assistant in perpignan who was in mandy's study abroad group, and one of his friends, too...sadly we were trop fatiguees after walking all day and a lot of people were out of town for the holiday, so we didnt stay out too late. the cabby on the ride back to mandy's house was fantastic though, he was totally entertained when we told him we were vegetarians (bc he was asking about american stereotypes, ie macDonalds etc, and as part of our cultural outreach we told him about vegetarianism....this is what we do...), but we reassured him that we would still be eating a lot of chocolate for paques.Sunday was just chill, two cups of tea in the morning, catching up on our vitamin D while dog-walking, then warming up from the wind next to the fire, while watching Ocean's 11 and Shrek (VF, sadly). we had a traditional, multi-course french dinner to celebrate marc's birthday and easter: champagne, olives, homemade bread and pate for the apero; salad fresh from the garden with shallots, grapefruit slices, and a balsamic dressing; sanglier et pommes de terre (wild boar and potatoes; apparently one daughter's boyfriend had caught the boar...i dont know...) for the main course - and zucchini tart for me and mandy; fromage; homemade bread; wine; fondant de marrons (chestnut cake), les poissons chocolat.....ohh man it was trop bon. everyone was super friendly, we clocked some significant french minutes...good times.
monday morning we went back into town to hang out until we had to meet Aziza to drive back to Valence. everything was still closed for easter, so we chilled in some parks, wandered around monoprix, and went for coffee once we'd had our fill of the wind. the drive back was longer - there was lots more traffic - but we had andrea and jessika with us, and we managed to keep entertained, mainly making fun of the people in the cars around us.
umm voila, c'est tout. i finally managed to catch up on my sleep this week - last week i was super insomniac (sendoug out cover letters...uugh), so it was nice to unwind over the weekend, but the house was noisy and i didnt sleep much, and then i had morning classes all week and went out every night (il faut profiter!!), and donc ive been quite sleepy. oh and theres this extra (loud) girl living with us for the moment. she's karine's friend, apparently her fam lost their apt somehow, so she's staying here until things are sorted out - but of course no one told ME anything, so it's just been a vrai bordel over here with all these screaming girlies running around and im all awkward and hating this place. it's been 3 weeks, gah! but we're finally on relatively friendly terms, i mean last night there were about 10 ppl over fir dinner and Anais (the girl) did ask if it was ok and they weren't being too noisy. i mean, not that i'd've said anything, but it was nice that she asked at least. meh. im outta here in a month OMG that's soo weird. i dont want to leave yet. i might switch my ticket. or 'miss' my flight. i mean, i love that it's 2 weeks and counting teaching-wise and this-house-wise, but of course it seems like all the fin things are happening now. new french friends. warmth to go hiking. festivals. warmth to take cafe outside. and im speaking so much more french now, i cant go back yet!!!!!!
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