Adjusting

Today marks our first week of living in France. Travelling around was a blast so there were mixed emotions about arriving at our apartment. Sad to be done travelling, happy to be in one place, sad to realize that we weren’t going home after the trip was over. The first few days were an adjustment, I’m really happy N was here with me. Now that we are unpacked and are meeting people things are settling down.

Obviously, I miss friends and family. And things from home like (cold) milk, screens on windows, my Corolla, the quick laundry cycle being shorter than 2 hours, and Starbucks. Yes, I know the coffee is good here but I’m not quite ready for coffee this strong. The French cafe employees are not quite as accommodating as Canadian ones when you try to tell them their business and customize your drink. You are going to drink what you get. But there are Starbucks in Paris...!

Our town is pretty but also pretty small. Luckily, we have a lot of farms and greenhouses around us so I can get fresh produce easily to cook with. While buying an artichoke in the produce store down the street, I asked for tips and everyone in the store had something to say about preferred cooking methods, good accompaniments etc. We also have a bakery. That’s a no-brainer. Although I have yet to try it out because the owners were on holidays (welcome to France in August) and they’ve just re-opened. It is also the ideal size to go running around, since I have yet to break the 8km mark.

Fontainebleau is nearby and we’ve gone in several times. School starts next week for N and there is quite a bit happening for partners as well. I’m looking forward to getting a bit busier and meeting some new people.

This week we visited Barbizon (pictured above), home of the Barbizon school of painting where Millet and Constable lived and painted their famous works. There are tile mosaics of their paintings around the town and the whole effect is lovely. We went to Versailles, which is magnificent and incredibly crowded. I’m looking into more day trips and weekend getaways...I think Champagne is next.

I’m driving! Not well and not yet alone, but it’s a start. N has proven to be a patient teacher and I am trying to be a better student (it has been said that teachers made the worst ones). There is a random mall a few kilometres away. I drove there today. So things are looking up!

Chocolate, and waffles and fries oh my!

Belgium was great. We had a great time seeing family, eating, visiting Brussels and Bruges, and eating (yup, it is in there twice!). Our first night we arrived in the pouring rain after a full day of driving. N at the wheel because I still can’t drive (our lessons are not going well). We found my cousin’s house outside of Brussels and then went to dinner in town. We got a mini tour of the city and were able to check out the flower carpet (above) in the main square. It was the last day of its display, so we were lucky to see it.
The following day, we went back to Brussels to see the square and to show N Manneken-pis (the peeing statue pictured above). Sadly, he was not wearing one of his little outfits - he has over 800 and is usually dressed up each week. There are a few stories behind the statue, but the one I remember involves a wealthy merchant (we're going back to the early 17th century) who loses his son in the city. They later found the boy doing the same thing the statue is doing. Everyone is glad and a statue is made. We stopped for some chocolate and a waffle and headed to the Atomium. It is a 102 meter tall monument in the shape of an atom (an iron crystal) (I wiki'ed that) built in '58 for the Expo. Yay science.
That night we drove to stay with another one of my cousins and her family near Bruges. We had a delicious meal with my family at Refter. I had rooster – it was amazing. The next day N and I went to Bruges. I was getting mighty excited for vlames frites (don’t call them French fries). In my haste and tendency to want instant gratification, we ate as soon as we got there. I decided that we couldn’t possibly share one plate of fries, N was perhaps relieved as he didn’t share my enthusiasm for mayonnaise. Then, without really thinking it through, we decided that it would be a great time to climb the Belfry (366 steps, 80-some meters high). Let me tell you, my heart has never worked so hard.

My cousins came to meet us and we went for a tour of the town and then went on a canal ride. I was so nice puttering through the canals and taking pictures (oh and it stopped raining, yay!). The one exception to it being a lovely and relaxing ride was the older French couple sitting right next to me using the time to be very romantic. Crowded boats are not the place for PDAs.

We had a fantastic time in Belgium, thank you, thank you, thank you to my family (if you are reading this)! We are looking forward to going back.

And friends, if you haven’t yet seen In Bruges, starring one Mr. Colin Farrell, I’d recommend it. The movie really shows off the city and is pretty funny. Someone scrawled a line from the movie “I really hoped I wouldn’t die...In fooking Bruges” on one of the walls in the Belfry. It was pretty funny.

Milan and the Swiss Alps

It has been a busy week since the last posting... We actually got back to Fonty today, but we’ll pretend that we haven’t to finish up vacation blogging.

We had a great time in Milan. The drive was very pretty and Italian toll roads are a bargain compared to their French counterparts. We stopped in Genova for lunch (or as I was pretending the Kingdom of Genovia...anyone? anyone?) We were getting pretty hungry so we went to eat at a seaside resto for lunch. And had amazing homemade pasta. We ate a lot of amazing things in Milan as well, it did not disappoint.

Our hotel was great, parking, breakfast and...a fitness center (a treadmill and some free weights) that we took full advantage off. The room had huge windows and as it was on the top floor of the hotel, it had the best view of the city. People would come in to look out over Milan while we were working out, it was awkward as the “fitness centre” was a converted hotel room and therefore tight quarters.

Milan is beautiful, I loved it. The Duomo is spectacular, the food delicious (pizza, pasta, cheese, gelato...yum yum yum) and the shopping is wonderful. Surprisingly, even with the shopping, Milan was one of our cheaper stops. Funny how Math works sometimes.

That night, it started to rain. And it rained...for four days.

Interlaken, Switzerland was the next stop. Traffic was really bad on the highway, so we turned off and took the Susten pass in the Swiss Alps. We were on tiny roads (notice a trend here?) weaving up and down the mountains in the rain and mist. It was beautiful (I took a lot of photos) but also a little bit terrifying because of the weather and the height. Don’t look down!

The small villages we drove through were very cute and some were not any bigger than a few streets. I was surprised that Interlaken was so big, comparatively, when we finally rolled in, 7 hours later. We went for a romantic dinner to try regional food. No fondue though. And no horse either...Cough... That was a bit of a shock to see on the menu! N did get to speak some German (to a gentleman with a curly moustache no less!) which I found quite impressive (both the German and the moustache).

Since the drive there took so long, we didn’t have much time to see the city, which was a shame. We had to get up early for...

The 8 hour drive to Belgium!

Jen

Nice

Hi Friends!

Thanks for all your emails and comments! I'll be trying to post every few days to avoid mammoth ones like todays...

N and I decided to take a road trip of sorts before settling in in Fonty.

We foolishly made the decision to try to make it to Geneva the same day we landed in Paris, last Friday. It was a long day. A day of that magnitude will never happen again. It took a good 4 hours to drive to our hotel, on top of the flight, train and bus rides that day. Our hotel was right by the airport. It’s a good thing that planes stopped flying at 11 pm because we could hear every take off and landing. That’s going in their Expedia review.

Geneva is beautiful, really clean and extremely expensive. But it made for an enjoyable day. There was a city festival on, so we walked along the banks of Lake Geneva and then made our way to the city center. Downtown was an assortment of banks and watch stores. I have never seen so many purveyors of time pieces in my life. You almost expect the bankers walking down the street to stop and push up their sleeve to reveal a forearm covered in watches, set to New York, London and Tokyo times. They’ve probably mastered simple addition and subtraction though. I still can’t manage to figure out what time it is at home.

An aside, they too have a Swiss Chalet restaurant. It’s not the same, but still.

Sunday , dubbed “Toll Day”, we drove to Nice. The drive was supposed to be about 5.5hours. After about 4 hours and 70 Euros (about $120 Canadian) worth of toll roads we decided to take a secondary highway. Secondary indeed. We wove in and out of France and Italy. The roads got narrower and windier and a lot slower. But you take the good with the bad because the views were amazing. Our drive was prolonged further by my frequent bathroom breaks. Without a doubt, the nicest stop was Cuneo, a small Italian city near Torino. I wish I could tell you more about it, but I was single-minded about my purpose there. N parked and I did a mad dash into the streets, sticking my head into every shop with an open door (it was a Sunday, so there wasn’t much open) trying to find a bathroom. I finally found one of those self-cleaning robot toilets and was terrified, TERRIFIED of getting locked in. After doing what I needed to do in record time, I ran back to the car but stopped for a gelato, since I had felt traumatized enough to deserve a treat. And so we got back on our way and made it to Nice about 3 hours later.

Nice is, well, nice (a ubiquitous yet apt statement). We spent time at the beach (not so Nice...rock beaches), wandered the boardwalk and ate (our faces off). We are staying at a B&B and are treated to lovely breakfasts in their garden, Bambi the kitten keeps us company. The owner makes me a giant cafe crème each morning. This benefits both N and I, I am much more agreeable after some caffeine in the morning. Yesterday, we were treated to the most delicious and buttery croissants we’ve ever had. (The former probably had something to do with the latter). I think we might eat more that their other guests. Cough. Today we had crepes, croissant and a baguette. So, I’ll be avoiding jeans for the next little while here.

We took a trip to Monaco on Tuesday. On the bus, for one Euro! It is a very pretty city but was incredibly hot and crowded. The Palace is beautiful and it was fun to see the changing of the Monegasque guard in their white uniforms. These guys aren’t getting dirty. (It is supposed to be one of the safest places in the world). We also went to check out the casino in Monte Carlo. It was quite something to see all the Bentleys and Ferraris parked in the front VIP section. There was a Rolls Royce jam (yes, a traffic jam caused by and involving other Rolls Royces). Not to mention all the yachts docked outside. High Rollers. I was constantly on the lookout for celebrities. Fail.

Milan tomorrow!

Jen

So we’re moving...to France! My fiancé, N, is about to complete the last half of his MBA program at INSEAD, in Fontainebleau, France. After spending the first 6 months of the year apart, I took a year long leave of absence from my job as a teacher so I could move to France while he finishes his year.

We will be living in a small village close to Fontainebleau. I’ll be about 60kms outside of Paris; I’m hoping the two of us will become well acquainted. In terms of the plan... we’ll be temporary Belifontaines until the end of December. Long enough to get a library card over there. Woot woot.

Fontainebleau itself is beautiful. Check out the link. Famous residents? Just Napoleon. No big deal.

So he is going to school and I am...I don’t know yet. Probably some combination of biking around with baguettes under my arm, wearing sailor shirts, eating white carbs, cooking, shopping (although not having a job might put a damper on that, wahhh waaah) and speaking French. And...sigh... learning to drive a standard in Europe, which, if you know me at all, ranks so very low on my list of things I want to do. I’m sure that will make for an interesting post. Watch out France!

We’re travelling around for a bit before we settle before the end of August. My travel picks revolve around food and sun (French Riviera, Italy and Belgium). His revolved around money and mountains (Switzerland). Will post when I can. I’m looking forward to sharing a bit of my experience and news with you and hopefully you will all keep me posted about what is happening at home.

Jen