En Provence
Hello, mes amis! Je suis en Provence aujourd'hui. Yet again, the keyboard sucks.
I have a little more time today to write. I'll start at the present, and work my way backwards, while trying to avoid words using w, m, z, q, and periods and commas.
We arrived in Aix-en-Provence today, and I immediately fell in love with the city. I am at home here, the weather feels like Scruz or Berkeley or San Josay. The walls of the buildings have that unique color yellow that seems unique to Provence. The air is clear, the sun is shining, and I am happy.
Sunday night I met my tour group, and at first I felt like killing my travel agent (now it's fine). All I could see where the gray haired bitties. Not that I'm ageist (sp?), but I had been hoping for peeps my age or something, maybe something in the male persuasion. I am the youngest, and in the small group of solo travelers, I am the skinniest. If nothing else, it's good for my ego.
It turns out the bunch are really quite fun, the first night I think I sat next to my two least favorite. Also, the first night the table got into a discussion of Medicare, I thought my vacation fun had left the building, and certainly hopes of meeting anyone. One lady eats with her mouth open and is extremely fussy and picky, maybe she shouldn't be traveling. Another lady has difficulty shutting up, nor can she listen. But everyone else is quite sweet. I just keep coming back to the idea that there must be something here for me to learn.
Today I discovered a new drink - a Monaco. It's beer, lemonade, and grenadine. It sounds weird, but it's really quite tasty, especially in the delicious sun of Provence. (but maybe, in this weather, anything tastes good)
I'm taking lots of pictures. At the last internet café, I tried to upload a photo or two, but it kept timing out. I'll try again soon, we're here in Provence for 3 days. I am very pleased with my new baby, my digital camera. I've taken a whole bunch already, and used a surprisingly small portion of my new é gb memory card.
The butter here is better than anything I've tasted. It is like the word douce, which in French means soft, but without the furriness of the f in soft. It is smooth and silky, just like the word. And I recently saw a show about French butter (Fine Living channel), and the quality of the butter is why the bread, croissants, etc are so much better here.
Parisenne women are beautiful and slim, it's probably quite a feast for the eyes for the guys. They don't wear much makeup, their hair looks natural. The men are more coiffed than the ladies, by far. The men look delicious, most of them are slim yet manly, and of course they are stylish. No silicon valley geek wear here.
There is no word for home in French, other than to refer to a specific place. You can say chez moi, but there is no way to say I feel like home here. Alors, je le dit en Français. It is sooo nice to finally be able to speak the language I studied for so long, and so long ago. I had made a promise to myself a long time ago that I wouldn't learn another language until I went to France. Now, I can learn German or something.
3 of the other solo women and I had dinner together last night, it was fun. I learned I don't like gizzards. They are kind of like paté, but, uh, chunkier. The gizzards, I mean ;-)
Paris has the worst traffic, yet people don't get upset about it. They just continue on. In New York, they'd be yelling and gesturing with their hands. I guess the Parisens are used to it. The cars are ridiculously small, where do the tall and fat people go?
I noticed this morning that I have a long way to go before I come home, it feels like I've been gone a long time already. A woman who travels a lot, Patty from Oklahoma, said that that means I'm not having fun. Sigh. I am, it just looks a lot different than I had dreamed of. C'est la vie, n'est-ce-pas? Now that I'm in Provence, I find I am much happier. I'm a country girl, I suppose.
Tomorrow we go wine tasting at Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It's rough out here ;-)
The French are infatuated with bread. I see people walking down the street, eating a baguette right out of the bag. What is it with the bread? What do I not know about empty carbs?
Breakfast has been coffee, croissant, yogurt, butter and jelly --oh, the coffee is sooooo good here, like nothing else. San Francisco comes close. Actually, Paris reminds me of San Fran a lot, except that it's flatter, is older, and has more cool statues. Oh yeah, and they speak French.
Is it a coincidence that the Rue des Invalides is right near the Rue to Franklin D Roosevelt?
I went to the 2nd floor of La Tour Eiffel, saw about an hour and a half of the Louvre. It was so hot there, that was plenty, plus my back was bugging me from all the standing around.
There is a chain of restaurants in France called the Hippopotamus. I have no idea why they think that's a great animal to eat with/around, but you never know with the French. Elephant Bar is good, but hippos? It wouldn't fly back home.
My first hotel was a two star job near the outside of Paris. Apparently, there are a lot of conventions in town right now, all the hotels are booked, and my original hotel moved me. My hotel on the tour in Paris was a beautiful 4 star, a place that normally goes for €500 a night. Right near the Champs-Elysées. Very nice, to say the least. The hotel I was supposed to have been in was in the Montparnasse district, which I really liked. Artisty, with lots of cute shops I would have liked to have visited.
The hotel here in Aix-en-Provence is also a 4 star, though not as super deluxe as Paris, but I can easily make do.
We took the TGV from Paris to Marseille, it runs as smooth as butter at about 200 mph. I love the train.
The Barenaked Ladies' new album is my new favorite on my Ipod, along with some Gotan project. The first BL song, Adrift, and one of the later songs, Everything Has Changed, resonate particularly well right now.
A few of us had a drink and snack in an outdoor cafe after getting a quick tour of the dowtown area. And when I say quick, I mean quick-- try 20 mins at an old lady pace, and we reached the end of downtown. I wished the waiter was part of the menu. The men here look more attractive than in Paris, but maybe that's my prediliction for casual wear.
Our tour guide totally reminds me of the candlestick in Beauty and the Beast. I don't think I'll tell him that, I have a feeling that he wouldn't like to know that. His job is a tough one, no wonder he smokes. There are 41 of us, and only a small handful know any French.
A bientot,
kimberly
I have a little more time today to write. I'll start at the present, and work my way backwards, while trying to avoid words using w, m, z, q, and periods and commas.
We arrived in Aix-en-Provence today, and I immediately fell in love with the city. I am at home here, the weather feels like Scruz or Berkeley or San Josay. The walls of the buildings have that unique color yellow that seems unique to Provence. The air is clear, the sun is shining, and I am happy.
Sunday night I met my tour group, and at first I felt like killing my travel agent (now it's fine). All I could see where the gray haired bitties. Not that I'm ageist (sp?), but I had been hoping for peeps my age or something, maybe something in the male persuasion. I am the youngest, and in the small group of solo travelers, I am the skinniest. If nothing else, it's good for my ego.
It turns out the bunch are really quite fun, the first night I think I sat next to my two least favorite. Also, the first night the table got into a discussion of Medicare, I thought my vacation fun had left the building, and certainly hopes of meeting anyone. One lady eats with her mouth open and is extremely fussy and picky, maybe she shouldn't be traveling. Another lady has difficulty shutting up, nor can she listen. But everyone else is quite sweet. I just keep coming back to the idea that there must be something here for me to learn.
Today I discovered a new drink - a Monaco. It's beer, lemonade, and grenadine. It sounds weird, but it's really quite tasty, especially in the delicious sun of Provence. (but maybe, in this weather, anything tastes good)
I'm taking lots of pictures. At the last internet café, I tried to upload a photo or two, but it kept timing out. I'll try again soon, we're here in Provence for 3 days. I am very pleased with my new baby, my digital camera. I've taken a whole bunch already, and used a surprisingly small portion of my new é gb memory card.
The butter here is better than anything I've tasted. It is like the word douce, which in French means soft, but without the furriness of the f in soft. It is smooth and silky, just like the word. And I recently saw a show about French butter (Fine Living channel), and the quality of the butter is why the bread, croissants, etc are so much better here.
Parisenne women are beautiful and slim, it's probably quite a feast for the eyes for the guys. They don't wear much makeup, their hair looks natural. The men are more coiffed than the ladies, by far. The men look delicious, most of them are slim yet manly, and of course they are stylish. No silicon valley geek wear here.
There is no word for home in French, other than to refer to a specific place. You can say chez moi, but there is no way to say I feel like home here. Alors, je le dit en Français. It is sooo nice to finally be able to speak the language I studied for so long, and so long ago. I had made a promise to myself a long time ago that I wouldn't learn another language until I went to France. Now, I can learn German or something.
3 of the other solo women and I had dinner together last night, it was fun. I learned I don't like gizzards. They are kind of like paté, but, uh, chunkier. The gizzards, I mean ;-)
Paris has the worst traffic, yet people don't get upset about it. They just continue on. In New York, they'd be yelling and gesturing with their hands. I guess the Parisens are used to it. The cars are ridiculously small, where do the tall and fat people go?
I noticed this morning that I have a long way to go before I come home, it feels like I've been gone a long time already. A woman who travels a lot, Patty from Oklahoma, said that that means I'm not having fun. Sigh. I am, it just looks a lot different than I had dreamed of. C'est la vie, n'est-ce-pas? Now that I'm in Provence, I find I am much happier. I'm a country girl, I suppose.
Tomorrow we go wine tasting at Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It's rough out here ;-)
The French are infatuated with bread. I see people walking down the street, eating a baguette right out of the bag. What is it with the bread? What do I not know about empty carbs?
Breakfast has been coffee, croissant, yogurt, butter and jelly --oh, the coffee is sooooo good here, like nothing else. San Francisco comes close. Actually, Paris reminds me of San Fran a lot, except that it's flatter, is older, and has more cool statues. Oh yeah, and they speak French.
Is it a coincidence that the Rue des Invalides is right near the Rue to Franklin D Roosevelt?
I went to the 2nd floor of La Tour Eiffel, saw about an hour and a half of the Louvre. It was so hot there, that was plenty, plus my back was bugging me from all the standing around.
There is a chain of restaurants in France called the Hippopotamus. I have no idea why they think that's a great animal to eat with/around, but you never know with the French. Elephant Bar is good, but hippos? It wouldn't fly back home.
My first hotel was a two star job near the outside of Paris. Apparently, there are a lot of conventions in town right now, all the hotels are booked, and my original hotel moved me. My hotel on the tour in Paris was a beautiful 4 star, a place that normally goes for €500 a night. Right near the Champs-Elysées. Very nice, to say the least. The hotel I was supposed to have been in was in the Montparnasse district, which I really liked. Artisty, with lots of cute shops I would have liked to have visited.
The hotel here in Aix-en-Provence is also a 4 star, though not as super deluxe as Paris, but I can easily make do.
We took the TGV from Paris to Marseille, it runs as smooth as butter at about 200 mph. I love the train.
The Barenaked Ladies' new album is my new favorite on my Ipod, along with some Gotan project. The first BL song, Adrift, and one of the later songs, Everything Has Changed, resonate particularly well right now.
A few of us had a drink and snack in an outdoor cafe after getting a quick tour of the dowtown area. And when I say quick, I mean quick-- try 20 mins at an old lady pace, and we reached the end of downtown. I wished the waiter was part of the menu. The men here look more attractive than in Paris, but maybe that's my prediliction for casual wear.
Our tour guide totally reminds me of the candlestick in Beauty and the Beast. I don't think I'll tell him that, I have a feeling that he wouldn't like to know that. His job is a tough one, no wonder he smokes. There are 41 of us, and only a small handful know any French.
A bientot,
kimberly
posted by Kimba | 8:03 AM
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