i did a cover of my new obsession.

SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW- GOTYE

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written, and this one may be riddled with type-os (although I’ll probably correct them) because French keyboards are annoyingly different than American ones.

Anyhow, the past 4 days I was in Normandy, in a small town called Bayeux.  The day we arrived, Saturday, was the first day of an enormous (it took over the entire town) MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL!!!  It looked something like this:

In the background of that picture is the gorgeous cathedral that lies at the center of Bayeux.  The building of this massive building (as large as Notre Dame) was finished in 1077, making it nearly 1000 years old.  So yeah, nice church, but the festival was definitely the most entertaining part of Bayeux.  Me and Megan hung out, drank beer, ate a ton of food, and watched the crazy parade all day Sunday.  There were people on stilts, everyone was dressed up, there were all kinds of booths selling goods that would’ve been sold during Medieval times.  It was interesting to think that these people were actually celebrating their history.  It’d be like a town in America having a Pioneer Days or something…

The next day, we went on a D-Day tour.  It wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.  Sure, it’s super important in the history of the world, liberating Europe from Germany, but I have never really been particularly interested in war-type things.  The coolest part was going to Point du Hoc, a point of US attack on D-Day.

This point, which used to be flat farmland, now “it’s cheese,” as our tour guide said.  It has all these enormous (like 20 ft. deep) craters in the ground from the bombs dropped on it.  It was fun running down into them and then trying to get out, but the best part was that there were a bunch of remaining bunkers and gun encampments.  They were really dark and creepy inside (I couldn’t even see my hand right in front of me).  I made my dad go in ahead of me, haha.

Today, we woke up early, and hopped on the train to Paris! Yay! Finally, the part of the trip I’ve really been looking forward to.  As we stepped off the train into the city, I felt my mood lift quite noticably.  It’s been wierd being in little towns for the past week and a half, not to mention that in small towns very few people speak much English at all.  Anyway, I am my families designated public transportation guru, as I use it everyday in San Francisco.  So I’ve been figuring out how to get around for them.

Today, we went on a “Historic Walk” through Paris, navigated and narrated by Rick Steves, via podcast on our iPods (my mom discovered it before we left for France, she loves Rick Steves, and I can’t blame her, he knows whats up). 

We walked through Notre Dame, checked out the Deportation Memorial (from the outside, it was closed), walked through the Latin Quarter, and then I got tired and a little bored by Rick Steves. So me and Meg took this boat back to the apartment down the Seine River.  It dropped us off at the Eiffel Tower, which is very close to our place, but we hadn’t really explored the area yet, so I had no idea where the two were in relation to each other.  I had some fun freaking Megan out by convincing her we were totally lost (even as we were standing directly beneath the Eiffel Tower), and then I asked some cops where to go, but they didn’t speak any English…I finally gave up and took out the map that I had in my bag the whole time, and we came home.

Tomorrow should be a fun one.  I am so happy to be here, and I am even more happy that I have a whole 10 days left of Paris goodness.

6/30/10 Wednesday 4:55pm

Ohhhh France, I love you.

Yesterday, I went to Maussane to get a cappuccino in the morning, and I went shopping for soup ingredients.  Then I came home, made soup, had a lazy day (I found out you can’t watch Netflix or Hulu if you are outside of the United States), took a 4 hour nap.

When I woke up, there was this chef here named Ronald Guillaume.

He was busy cooking us dinner.  He got here at 2:30pm, to prepare for our dinner which started at 7pm.  While he was cooking, me and part of the family were playing this awesome French game called Pétanque.  It’s just like Bocce Ball, but it’s French, and it’s played in a smaller area, with metal balls.

There were so many mosquitoes out there when we were playing because it was the perfect temperature outside for them (mid 70s, nice and humid, ugh).  So we showered ourselves with bug spray and powered through it.  I spilled everyone’s drinks at one point because I made a really good shot and knocked the bench over…and my beer and 2 others along with it.  Oops.

Then, it was time to eat.  Ronald made us a HUGE feast.

1st Course- Colors of Italy: Veloute of arugula, tomato gazpacho, whipped cream of mozzarella, parmesan shavings.

2nd Course- Halibut steamed in lettuce leaves, stuffed with fresh greens and served with Provencal beurre blanc sauce.

3rd Course- Assorted Cheese Platter

4th Courses- Tom’s Cake: Ice cream cake flambe with Grand Marnier

(I’ll add a picture later of him setting it on fire at the table, if I remember).

So, obviously, it was quite an amazing dinner, not to mention, there was a different wine served with each course.  My aunt said she had a hangover this morning. haha.

After dinner, me and my cousin went for a swim in the pool.  It’s really nice, and doesn’t have much chlorine in it, so we found a couple little frogs swimming in the pool.  We had frog races and swam for a long time, before coming inside and going to bed.

Then, today, we all woke up bright and early to go to this huge market in a town called St. Remy de Provence.  All the streets were lined with tents selling everything from fish to dresses.

I got a hat and an earring…I think I look pretty cool. Haha…

(Meg snuck in there…i told her to.)

We sat around at St. Remy for a long time listening to this really great jazz band.  The singer was from New Orleans, and moved here about 11 years ago, so he was singing in French and English.  It was great.  I asked my mom to get me a pizza, and there was only 1 left with anchovies…I tried to eat it, but it was disgusting.

Alrighty, I’m gonna go play some Pétanque. Au revoir!

I’m getting used to the weather here, kind of.  It’s still really hot, but I’m finding that as long as you stay indoors or in the shade with shorts on, it’s okay.

The town closest to the house is called Maussane and it is so picturesque and adorable.

We went there on the morning of Day 2, wandered around through all the shops, got some produce and some cigarettes and some bread.  Then we sat in the town square by the fountain and got coffee.  I really wish I had a bike!  There are a lot of cyclists around here, and there are no hills at all.  Although the roads are super narrow, in a lot of places its really tough for two cars to drive in opposite directions past each other, but the French do it, and they do it going like 90km/hr.  It’s insane.

After visiting Maussane, we went to this place called Les Baux. 

It is a cliff top town that is built into these super old ruins dating back to the 5th century.  We walked through the ruins and took a lot of pictures, but didn’t go up to the castle because they were going to close soon and my mom wanted to have enough time to do the audio tour. Haha.  So I think we’re gonna go back today.  It’s crazy though, how these shops are literally inside buildings that have been there for like 1,500 years.

Yesterday, Day 3, we went to the Pont du Gard, which is an aqueduct built by the Roman Empire in 19BC in order to transport water across the Gardon River valley.  We made the drive to Collias, which is several km up river from the actual Pont du Gard.  Then we rented a bunch of kayaks and our group of 11 paddled our way down the Gardon Riviere, under the Pont du Gard, and down to a small beach where the kayak people picked us up.

It was so beautiful, and the water felt amazing.  We were messing around a lot, and I kept jumping out of my kayak into the water, and exploring the small islands that were in the middle of the river.  Going under the Pont du Gard was AWESOME.  It is really big, it looked smaller in the pictures I saw.

After the kayak people brought us back to our car, the owner of the business, this adorable French man gave us a recommendation for where to eat.  It was his friend’s restaurant right across the river, and we had to go across a bridge, through a gate (he gave us the code), and down a dirt road to get to it.  It was really good, and it was right on the river with a perfect view.  We all got pizza (I think it was the best pizza I’ve ever had), and beer and pain perdu (aka-bread pudding).  Then we drove home and I passed out immediately.  I was soooo tired.  Now I up again at an obscenely early hour (I woke up at about 6:45am)…onto another day in France!

Pictures of the house in Provence.  GORGEOUS.

5/27/10  Sunday- Provence, Fr.

6:45am

Traveling with a group of 12 people is so ridiculously frustrating.  We landed in Paris at about 9:30am yesterday.  We went through customs, got our bags and walked over to the TGV train station.  Our group of 12 people has an age range of 7 years old to 77 years old, so maintaining a comfortable speed, while keeping track of everyone is extremely difficult.  We waited an hour and a half for the train.  I wandered around and got a sandwich with my mom, while my dad and uncle were standing at the bar, drinking beer, and being completely ridiculous (Why does my dad always speak Spanglish, no matter what country we’re in?)

The beer’s called 1664.  I’d say it’s like the equivalent of PBR or something, but not quite as cheap.  It’s really common though, I’ve already had a bunch of ‘em and I’ve only been in France for a day.  Also—there is only light beer in France.  No Ales or anything very interesting.  I guess this country is known for its wine, not its beer.

So, we took the train to Avignon, and most everyone slept through the whole 3 hour ride because we’d been up  for such a long time (nearly a whole 24 hours by then).  We got to our stop, rented cars, and took off.  Woah, driving in France is crazy.  My dad did a pretty good job, considering that he had my pissed off sister and my know-it-all grandma sitting in the back seat.  My mom did a really good job navigating too, considering all the street signs are totally different looking and in a different language.  Still though, we had to flip a U about 3 or 4 times before finding this AMAZING house.  In Europe, it seems the 4-way stop doesn’t exist, only roundabouts, which for some reason are very confusing for some people.

So, I’d say the temperature here is about 90-95 degrees Farenheit.  It’s HOT, especially considering I live in San Francisco, where when it hits 70, we all slap on shorts and go down to the park.  We have a pool, but I’m gonna get burned to a crisp unless I bathe in sunscreen.

This house is sooo cool.  It seems super old, I wanna find out about it’s history (Update: it used to be a farm house, built in the 1600s).  The walls are really thick, so it doesn’t get too hot inside, and there is air conditioning, but only in the bedrooms.  There is a big entry room, which is also a living room area with a TV (although every channel is in French), and a bookshelf full of books.  That enters into the dining room, which leads into the kitchen.  Then there are these awesome stone steps leading to the second story which has 6 bedrooms.  I’m not quite sure how, but I have the most beautiful room of all to myself.

Last night, I organized a game of monopoly between me and the kids (except Megan, she was sleeping).  I beat the pants off of all of them, but I guess that’s not fair considering my age advantage (Update: I have proven my monopoly ability by winning again today against adults).  We sat around playing + watching the world cup (U.S. vs Ghana) after dinner.  It was nice :)

I have a bunch of mosquito bites already from sitting outside for dinner last night.  Everyone went to bed super early (cause of the jet lag).  Me and Amanda were up last watching the game and we went to bed at 9:45pm, hence me being awake so early.  I just don’t get why more people aren’t up, only Kathy and Jack were up when I just went down to get coffee, cereal, and yogurt.

Anyhow, I miss Bailey.  Not badly, just in the way that I wish she could be here to take part in how beautiful it is here, and share the experience with me.  I know she would love it, and I have a king bed all to myself.

awesome jam sesh.

those involved:  CESAR CORTEZ, TRACY GREGORY, me, paul, lindsay, iris, kayla, jessi, jessica, sam

cover of “With Arms Outstretched”