Why hello everyone :)
I hope that you are all well and enjoying the Canadian spring :P
So, I wanted to do a special post announcing that I had officially graduated... but that did not happen. Anyways, as usual I will do this post in point form to save time in my heavily occupied emploi des temps.
1. Graduated! WOoooaaaahhhhHHh
Wrote my last exam at UJF... yeah, most definitely failed. But hey, maybe I will surprise myself.. who knows? Either way I am done and it does not stop me from graduating! Thank goodness!!! Before I knew this I was having a bit of a heart attack.
2. Brangelia
Yeah, so while I was writing my last exams some of my friends went to the cdz (côte d'azur) earlier to visit Nice and Cannes. They hit up the film festival and say Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt among other stars. They also checked out the Monte Carlo...hmmm the mathematician in me wants to make a joke about the Monte Carlo Algorithm...but I just couldn't think of a good one. O well.
3. Rugby team lost :(
Les COXS are done the season, as we were defeated by Castes in the 1/2 final game.
4. OK, CDZ....break down.
I woke up at 4am in the morning and my German friend Max and I started out on the long journey in his Twingo (Renault Car) to Hyeres. It was quite cold (less than 20 degrees) in Grenoble that day and we were worried that it might be cold at the French Riveria as well. But luckly that was not the case. It was beautiful and sunny for almost all of our time in the South.
Hmmm.... I am a bit lazy and a picture is worth a thousand words right? So that means I am about to write more than 10 00 words??
The beach 5 min walk from our campsite. We swam out to the island in this pic.
We hiked around to find different beaches.
A kayaker.
It was pretty rocky in some areas.
Stopping for a little break.
Another break.
This was one of the beaches we were at. The sand was little rocks, a bit rough on the feet at times (especially on the morning when we jogged down the beach... my feet were killing me afterwards, but I guess it was like receiving a free pedicure)
Another Beach that we stopped at.
My friend Martina walking on the beach.
We took a ferry across to an island called Porquerolles.
We stayed at this beach on the island for a day. Absolutely amazing.
We visited the near by city of Hyeres.
Me beside a giant aloe plant at a public garden in Hyeres.
Beautiful flowers growing everywhere in Hyeres...and delicious creme glacé :)
We also visited a Chateau on a peak in Hyeres. This is the view of part of the city and the next picture is the view looking in the other direction.
5. Aix-en-Provence
Really cool name for a city and an even cooler place to visit. There were really neat fountains everywhere. Also, I found that there was a higher ratio of fountains that I normally came across in the cities that I have visited in France. Also, they have great sales, check out the pic below... what a steal.
My friend Micael cooling his feet in a fountain.
Really cool fountains in the middle of the road. It was hard to get a picture with out a car or motorcycle in it.
A sale at Aix.
6. Les Georges du Verdon
We decided to take the scenec route and stop off at a lake in the mountains a couple of hours away from Grenoble. It was crazy!!!! Some people we met at our campsite told us about it. They refered to it as the grand canyon of France! It was amazing. Malheureusement, a thunderstorm followed us on our entire way home from Aix, but we made the best of it and dove into the lake anyways. It was amazing. We were getting poared on while swimming in the canyon/lake. Unfortunately, this magical moment was cut short when we heard thunder and all booked it back to the shore (all of us except my crazy Dutch/Portuguese friend who is an extremely good swimmer and decided to swim across the lake). We were worried but we met him on the other side (no reference to the Red Hot chill pepper song here). Anyways, we were soaked and piled into the car and continued our epic journey home.
check out this website for more pics and info:
http://www.provenceweb.fr/f/groupes/verdon/pays.htm
7. Drive hommmmmmeeeee.
There are so many wild poppies in france. I always think of the poem " In Flander's Fields the poppies grow..."
Getting stuck behind bikers.
Taking a pee/smoke break at the side of the road.
The view during another pee/smoke break (we were much closer to Grenoble at this point).
I was going to the washroom and thinking....hmmmm this is a pretty sweet view, I should probably get a pic of this.
I am really really going to miss it here.
Randomness during the trip:
- learned a German lullaby (Natasha I will serenade you with it next time we speak)
- catelope in Europe is really really small.
- aprox 15 mosquitoe bites (not too shabby compared to what I am used to in Canada)
So you must be thinking...
Vanessa you are done school, so what are you doing now?
..... well....
I am chill'n!!!!! It is great. We played tennis for a couple of hours yesterday with numerous intermissions for water fights. We go to the park, play some frisbee, have sketchty people join us in our frisbee game, slowly try to escape them... and then head to the grocery store to buy some food and wine for dinner.
One really cool thing about France is that you are allowed to drink anywhere (well not anywhere, but you know what I mean). Not that I want to do that... but it makes for a nice atmosphere when you can have a bbq in the park and have a glass of wine with it. You can even drink on the tram! I have not done this, but my friends were and I got all worried (from my Canadian habits) and asked them if it was legal and they laughed (because they thought that it was so ludicrous that you would not be allowed to). So, yeah it is neat. Although, you do get some sketchyness in some of the parks. There seem to be a lot more beggers and homeless people here. Even in a smaller city like Grenoble.
OK, well I have to go an run some errands now. So I will post again soonish I hope. Maybe after I get back from Germany.
Cheers :)
Miss you all :)
As much as I love Grenoble and the Alpes it will be very nice to see you all when I am back home in Canada!
<3
Van
