Bored? No? No, Bordeaux!

It finally dawned on me that I have just over 3 weeks left until I make the journey all the way back to the great white north more commonly known as home. This made me realize just hoe quickly my 8 months in France will actually pass, so I’ve been booking in as my trips as my credit card will allow. This passed weekend my friend Zara and I took a day trip to Bordeaux, wine capital of France. Yes, I bought a lot of wine. As much as I could carry home in my arms and every second I wished I was either stronger, or had some sort of pack animal like a nice donkey that would be able to help a damsel out. Et oui, maman- I found the wine you recommended/requested and bought in bulk. Now Bordeaux was not what I expected at all. Its bigger and dirtier than the posh wine capital should be. There is way more immigration and it’s not as safe and secure as good old Poitiers. But there is something wonderful and prestigious about Bordeaux, the beautiful apartments, the Churches and arches crossing over pedestrian streets, breathtaking clock towers and did I mention all of that wine?!?! It was a wonder I had Zara there with me to guide me. She had lived there for a year a few years ago and knew her way around including all the great restaurants, cafes and shopping streets. By the end of the day I was so tuckered from the adventure I feel asleep on the train home and went straight to bed upon my arrival in Poitiers. I love being able to make little day’s trip like this one so I can experience that rest of France. Now if ever you would ask if I would return to Bordeaux that would be a no. The city itself I wouldn’t but the vineyards and chateaux around it, I would love to take a wine tasting class for sure. I’m quite happy to have gone, Zara and I had a blast and it’s one more destination I can cross off my list!

Birthweek is the new Birthday.

To most of you, the idea of birthweek may be a tad selfish and or ridiculous. But to me, the idea that we only get one day a year to celebrate ourselves and our life is just as ridiculous. So I take one week out of the year around my birthday to give myself things, do things and experience things I love, think I will love or have loved doing and all the wonderful sensations I get to experience just because I was born . Last year's birthweek included a half marathon, 21 km for my 21st birthday, an expensive coffee with my own latte art heart drawn in it, recovery yoga, a new dress and a thursden soirée with my friends. This year's celebration was a tad more exuberant due to being in a more exuberant place. For example, this year's birthweek included but was not limited to: a new and wonderfully seductive perfume, which I never buy and never would think to buy any other week of the year. I have never bought perfume and it is a luxurious and also one of my favorite indulgences. I can never pass up the opportunity to spray a little bit of perfume on! Another item was stockings, black ones with a ton of flirtacious character. This birthweek also included two trips- one in the near future- to Stockholm where I will be visiting my friend Sarah and have the luxury of re living life in Grande Prairie but also where I will get to experience the wonders that are Stockholm. Paris was me second trip concluding birthweek. And it was absolutely wonderful! Two of my closest friends made the trip with me and tromped all the way around Paris's tourist circuit. This was the first time I had actually gone into the Louvre despite actually being outside of the Louvre more times than I have fingers. It also entailed a delicious lunch on the Champs Elysees as well as visiting l'Arc de Triomphe, a monument dedicated to soldiers lost in the war only a few days after Rememberance Day. All in all, I got to do everything I wanted for one week and it was perfect. I had coffee with friends, went for long runs, cooked dinners and hosted parties, walked in parks spent extra time helping out my teachers. Anything that made me feel good, I did. This is the one week where I get to stop and enjoy everything about my life and think about how to make it better and if that's ridiculous, so is life.

I've never been to England, but I kinda like the Beatles.

I've barely worked a total of 8 hours this month and already they are sending me off on 2 weeks of holidays. It was a toss up between sunny Spain and rainy England... and well somehow the rain won out. So one foggy Friday morning 3 girls piled into a car and headed down the road to the very north of France. Now to me, a 5 hour roadtrip is nothing, I wouldn't even think twice about it, but to two English girls- 5 hours can take you across britan. It wasn't the 5 hours in the car that got me though, it was the 6 hours on the ferry. I can sum up that experience in about one word: nausea. For an entire 6 hours all I could do to stop myself from getting sick was sleep and for a few days after I was still swaying as I walked down the street. It was a great feeling being in England, but not for the obvious reasons of seeing something new and being in a foreign country. What I liked most about it was being back in a family setting with breakfast and dinners, bickering and inside jokes. To be an adopted daughter for a couple weeks was the nicest thing that I could have asked for! Besides this, I was extremely lucky to be able to travel around, hitting up Birmingham where we did a massive amount of shopping and visited some of Jess's friends from her university, Chattnam where this posh little city has lovely boutique stores and and all girls college that has the nerve to refuse Madonna's daughter, Gloucester where I stayed for most of my holiday and is home to the city of a lovely cathedral that Harry Potter was filmed in, the tailor shop of Beatrix Potter, the old foundations of roman history and also a not very good but very fun to watch pro rugby team. London was a quick day trip that had my feet screaming and my body aching by the end of it, but was completely amazing as well. Even the Queen was in at Buckingham palace and I couldn't help but wonder where Prince William and Prince Harry were. After London, we headed to Bristol to visit some more of Jess's friends and had a wild night of partying where I got to show off my new dress. And all things came to a close when I headed to Westin for the night to stay with Lauren and her amazing family where we watched X-factor and had a wonderful dinner where I was questioned endlessly about Canada. I loved every minute of it. And there we are, my entire Toussaint vacation, something I'll never forget.

When life gives you lemons, opt for the wine.

Being in Poitiers has so far been one of the best experiences I've ever had. Everyone has asked me "Are you having fun?", "Yes, yes indeed I am." Some (KP) would argue I'm having too much fun and I need a little bit of stress in my life. Well as of right now, I couldn't disagree more. I work on average a max of 10 hrs a week. Say that again? Yes 10 hours. Most would wonder what I do with my time... well I write a lot, I reflect but mostly I spend a lot of time walking around Poitiers, meeting friends for coffee, shopping, laundry. Whichever. It's quite nice for your only stress to be a 30 minute lesson plan that has the sole goal of making people speak. Now one of my favorite things about France is my ability to be spontaneous. Just last weekend I had been driving around Poitiers with my girlfriends here looking for a place to go shopping, when out of the blue Jess says: " Hey! we should drive to Tours!" So that is exactly what we did. Up through the Loire Valley amongst all they greatest Chateaux, right into the city of Tours. We had a late lunch, spent our time wandering around the beautiful city of Tours and headed back to Poitiers for a night on the town. So far, this has been how my week repeats... I teach for a few hours Monday, Tuesday an Wednesday, spend Thursday hanging out with friends, going for runs, coffee, cleaning and drinks then pick a destination and head there. This past weekend, La Rochelle was picked from our hat. Lauren and I woke up Saturday morning, went for coffee and decided during coffee that we'd like to see the ocean. We picked up a bottle of wine and some peanuts and headed off to la gare. We got there just in time, there was a train leaving in 2 minutes for La Rochelle, so we sped to get our tickets and ran to the train. Needless to say La Rochelle is beautiful, even when it is getting cold in France. It was nice to be able to walk in the ocean, something I've never been able to do in Canada, and to see all the sailboats, kitesurfers and kayakers out at sunset. The best part of it, is there is always something going on in France- on this particular day was a jazz concert close to the marina where we spent a few hours sitting outside with our drinks enjoying life. There's nothing like having no cares in the world and being able to do exactly what it is you please. It's liberating to know you've always got control of your decisions, and right now I am infinitely thankful I've made the decision to come to France.

Favorite french song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSY_Jh5hiRI&feature=related

Sangria Paradise, where foreigners drink until they think they can actually speak French.

There is nothing like being able to drink openly in the streets of Paris. No brown bag, no nervous hiding when police cars roll by, no strange looks as you carry a few open bottles of wine with you onto the metro. We bought our wine for 3 euros and headed up to see Le Moulin Rouge. The sex shops, Museum of Erotica and countless female courtisans ( to put it nicely) was exceptionally impressive as were the ceaslesse amount of men trying to pick up girls on the boulevard. We got out of there fairly quickly after we politely shunned a few shady french characters. Now, I have always imagined the Paris bars quite similar to the ones of Funny Face- where discussions of politics, religion, literature and philosophy were discussed in a smoke filled, packed basement. And being a tad nostalgic, you can only imagine my delight when we stumbled onto exactly this. Of course, this was the modern version- a small basement with steep stairs, you would have trouble climbing back out of at the end of the night, leading to a small room packed full of french students chatting amongst themselves. When we sat down, we were instantly greeted by 2 groups of frenchmen, all to willing to buy us pitchers of their infamous sangria. Now when you're in Paris- it's quite intimidating to speak french to a french person, until you've had a few... and then it pours out of you like you were soo very french you'd think you were Joanne of Arc. After we had had our fill of sangria, we left for a Scottish pub near la Sorbonne, where we stayed the rest of the night until the very early hours of the morning. And if you think Paris is beautiful at night, wait till you see the sunrise slowly creeping up the ancient buildings, cafe owners opening their doors, streets been washed down on Ile St. Louis and the bells of Notre Dame chiming so magically that in this realistic fantasy, it was Quasimodo himself striking the bells at 7. This is what I love about Paris- life to a foreigner here is surreal, you get to imagine all the clichés, history, myths and fairytales as if you were walking through it. What's not to love about that?

It's impossible not to fall madly in love with Paris

“Every city has a sex and an age which have nothing to do with demography. Rome is feminine. So is Odessa. London is a teenager, an urchin, and, in this, hasn't changed since the time of Dickens. Paris, I believe, is a man in his twenties in love with an older woman"

Comme la vie est belle when you're in Paris! You feel like waking up early, drinking your coffee in silence and watching them clean the streets of Ile St-Louis. So that's exactly what I did. And it was perfectly marvelous! There is just something about Paris that you can't help but think, my god, I'm lucky to be here. After coffee, Danielle and I spent the day wandering the streets, taking it all in. We walked 20km that day, and only saw a tiny piece of Paris. We walked the Luxembourg gardens and had lunch à la française ( bread, wine and cheese) on les champs de Mars. I tell ya, at 4 in the afternoon when you see 100 other people drinking wine and picnicking in front of the Eiffel Tower, you wonder how you could be anywhere else. This satisfaction stays with you until a flock of dirty vulture-esque pigeons threaten to steal your meal or worse brush up against you. So with a bottle of wine in our stomachs and Paris as our canvas, we set out to paint the town red.

Vive la France!

As you all must know, I have made it to my final destination safely but not without headaches. On my way over I was lucky to score an entire row of empty seats on a sardine packed plane. It was obvious I was the object of everyone's envy. Travel tip #1- always ask to sit in a set where no one else is. And so I had a very comfortable sleep all the way to Paris. Once I got into Charles De Gaulle airport everything ran smoothly, except I made my very first mistake- I bought a Paris Visite for 2 days- not exactly a devastating mistake, except I only used my 28 euro metro pass twice... Travel tip # 2- Don't buy a metro pass during the summer months, you won't use it. Now I packed very lightly in hopes that upon my arrival I wouldn't be targeted as a horrid tourist, and I was doing so well until I got stuck with my suitcase in the ticket booths of the metro station. Those doors show no mercy, knocked the wind right out of me and was left with some heroic battle bruises. I would still be there if it weren't for some nice Parisien man who came to my rescue, pretty much using the jaws of life to get me out. Travel tip # 3 - when traveling with suitcases, look to the sides for booths with a bigger passage way... Finally I made it to my hostel where my friend Danielle was patiently waiting for me. And so began Lulu's adventures in Paris