During my last week or so in Paris I had very mixed emotions and I felt funny. I feel like there is a lot of stuff in Paris that I haven't seen and a lot more that I want to do. I am very excited to go back to Canada but I will miss my friends from Paris tremendously. So, I'm excited to see my Canadian friends...some of the best friends a person could ask for. But, I will miss Paris - the sights, the baguettes, the grilled nutella sandwhichs, the freedom you get from the metro (the list could go on for a very long time) but, most of all I will miss the people. At some points all I wanted was to go home. But, there are definatly points where I feel like I don't want to leave. Right now I feel like that.
We had our exams and our last class. Its a relief for that part to be over. I did not enjoy my class too too much and two hours of grammar a day is a bore. But, its done now. We finished class on Friday and wrote our final exam on Saturday...not much time to review so that was a bit of a challenge. Then on Thursday I had my oral exam. That went pretty well, as far as I can tell.
Packing was a whirlwind...I'm not sure where my clothes are, or my books or my souvenirs. I don't even know where my important stuff folder is, which is very strange. I know its in one of my giant suitcases somewhere I'm just not sure where. This made packing rather difficult (I mean for my trip with my parents) But, a big thank you to Debora, Simona and Hannah who helped us a lot with our cleaning. They cleaned our kitchen. Which was a big help. So, merci encore mes amies!
The South
Right after our exam on Thursday me, Hannah and Sarah headed to the south of France. First, we went to Nice which was nice. It was a beautiful city. We just walked around a lot here and did some shopping. We spent a little bit of time on the beach. We learned how to change into and out of our bathing suits on the beach. We observed some other people doing it before we attempted it. By the end of the trip we were pretty good at it, not experts but pretty good.
A word about our hostel. It was really special. We're pretty sure there were bed bugs. I had mysterious bumps, that thankfully weren't ichty. The shower curtain had holes in it, so water leaked onto the floor. Which leaked onto the floor beneath us. I think my favourite part though was the two broken bathroom door handles in the bathroom. And, it was on top of quite a sketchy looking restaurant. Oh, it was interesting.
Next we headed to St.Raphael. It was a smaller city. It was a beautiful day that we had there. We spent a large part of the day on the beach, but I didn't get that burnt...actually, not really at all. That night we headed to Marseille.
Once in Marseille we walked around the same restaurant probably 3 times. But, we made it to our hostel, which was much nicer than our hostel in Nice. In Marseille we didn't really do too much. We tried to make it out to Chateau d'If (from the count of Monte Cristo) but, unfortunatly the wind was too strong and we were never able to make it out. We went to the beach on one of those really windy days. There might still be sand in my ears. We met some new friends from our hostel and we went with them to the Calanques, which were beautiful...they're the pictures on all the postcards. We saw those cool rocks with that beautiful aqua blue water. And, its so clear...you can see the bottom of the ocean floor from the surface, which is just amazing. Then we made haste back to Paris for our last night (well, the last night we'd all be together in paris). And, we enjoyed our short evening before separating ways for the summer.
I headed back to Debora's place (merci encore!) We unfortuantaly missed the last metro and we had to take a night bus and then walk. In the rain. But, it was a bonding experience.
While its getting late so an update about the trip will have to wait...
In short:
I've been to: Amiens, Giverney, Vimy, the D Day beaches, St.Malo, Dinan, Mont St. Michel, more D Day beaches, Burgandy and Beanue, Annecy, and Chamonix (though we didn't do what we wanted to there) and now we are on an unnamed road somewhere in the alps.
To come: Antibes, Provence and Paris
Highlight so far has been Vimy Ridge and D Day. We met Guy. D Day is his hobby, especially Juno (he was liberated when he was 6 by Canadians). Imagine our luck when he offers to take us on the path of the North Shore (New Brunswick) regiment - whom my great uncle Alvin was a part of. We were even parked beside him. Quelle chance! It made our trip and we discovered and saw things we didn't even know about.
