Montpellier + Pictures

Hi! It's a been a few days! I hope everyone had a great weekend and very happy 4th of July! I missed the West Michigan festivities but fortunately had a great Friday night nonetheless.  We arrived in Montpellier, a small southern French city that borders the Mediterranean Sea sometime late afternoon.  We took the tram to our hotel (Hotel Ulysse) which was only one stop away from stop from downtown Montpellier.  It was a small family-owned and operated hotel and we all got our own beds except for Stephanie and Alyssa, who had to share a queen-sized bed.

After settling in, we headed out with intentions of going to the beach and then out to dinner.  Unfortunately, we missed the last bus to the beach, so we just went straight to dinner (still in our swimsuits).  We went to this little Italian cafe with outside seating called La Piazza Papa, and I ordered a pizza au fromage. It turned out to be a wood-fired cheese pizza with black olives and olive oil.  It was DELICIOUS.  I woofed it down, as I was starving.  We drank white wine with our meal and shared desserts when we were finished with our entrees.  After dinner, we strolled around the downtown area, exploring and searching for something to do.  We stumbled across an empty retro/mod nightclub called Le Huit, or The Eight in English.

We were the only people in there for the first half-hour, but then we were joined by two women in their mid-twenties working on their PhD's.  I sat up at the bar with them and talked to them.  We asked them questions like what kind of music we should listen to and things we should do in Grenoble.  I also ordered a drink called "Blonde Ass" whose ingredients were listed like so: zubrowka (???), liquer de vanille, puree pomme verte, jus de mangue, et citron sucre.  We were intrigued by the name.  Most of us ordered it, and the bartender laughed each time we said the words "Blonde Ass" in our American accents.  We also tried some French beer and a Belgian beer called 1664 as the night went on.  We were actually introduced to 1664 by a French boy named Paul.  He stood next to me at the bar, and when he got his drink, I asked him what he ordered (I discovered this was a great way to make friends, as this was how we started conversation with two women in their mid-twenties).  He told us and then invited us to come and sit with him and his friends (William and Bertrand).  They were all cute but very young (just finished high school) and they had two adorable girl friends, Leopoldine (and I forgot the other girl's name).  We all got along great and we left the club with them and went to this huge public garden and sat around and talked while they passed around an enormous bottle of wine.  At this point, most of us were not interested in having more to drink.  The best part of the night was being in the company of actual French people who didn't speak English and wanted to be our friends.  We got back to the hotel around 1:30-2 a.m. and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up at 10 a.m. and headed downtown to pick up brunch from a grocery store.  Afterward, we hopped on a bus headed for the beach (!!!) and laid out/dipped in the Mediterranean all day long.  We bought a couple bags of interestingly flavored chips and a six-pack of Krotenbourg beer and shared it (which was perfect, since there were six of us).  When we decided we had gotten enough color (around 6:30 p.m.) we returned to the hotel and got dressed for dinner and everything after.  I wore a grey American Apparel tank top tucked into a pair of high waisted dark jeans from Urban Outfitters.  I wore my bangs down too, along with a vintage red leather bag with a chain strap a la Mommy, so I felt super French and stylin'.

For dinner, we went to a little outdoor cafe called Brasserie Chez Regis which apparently specialized in seafood.  To start, we all had some white wine called vin de pays de l'heruait.  Alyssa and I ordered two plates to share, tagliatelles de fruits de mer (seafood pasta with a cream sauce), and moules au pistou (mussels in a basil-garlic cream sauce).  Neither of us had ever tried mussels and we were really excited to but kind of scared as well! Luckily, they turned out to be AMAZING.  We polished them off in record time!

Afterward we headed to the garden to meet up with Paul, William, and one of their friends that we hadn't met the previous night.  They led us to a bar whose name I forgot to record.  The bar was really chic with huge mod black leather couches and really cool lighting.  Very sophisticated.  I ordered a gin and tonic and messed up the translation and was given a drink with MINT in it.  We all know how I feel about that!  I immediately grabbed a lemon and sucked on it really hard in order to get rid of the taste.  We sat at the bar and talked about how to say bad words in French and English and American movies that the boys had seen dubbed over in French.  We learned that basically very American Blockbuster hit is released in France in this manner.  We asked them if they had seen Mes Amis Mes Amours, the movie we saw last Wednesday, and they said that they hadn't and that no one likes French films. =(

After the bar, we headed back to the garden to meet our friend Michelle who took the same train as we did (she's in our program) but wanted to meet up with some French friends who did an exchange program in Madison for the weekend.  The boys bought beer on the way to the garden and they taught us this French drinking game called "Caps."  Basically, everyone puts the bottle caps on top of their full bottles of beer and uses another cap to try to knock other peoples caps off by throwing it.  If you knock off someone's cap, they have to drink a quarter of their bottle.  After this, we went home and went straight to bed.  By the time we were all tucked in it was 3:45 a.m.!!!!!!! We set an alarm for 10 a.m. and slept straight up until it went off.

We were supposed to meet the boys at a lake somewhere but were running too late and we decided to cancel.  Instead we went to a little cafe and got lunch and iced coffees and then went shopping at this store called Kookai.  It turned out to be a major hit with us, and we all walked away with a few items (sorry, parents! but don't worry, it was my first successful shopping trip in France).  I snagged 3 cute tops and an amazing brown taffeta NICE dress all for a very modest price.  J'aime les soldes!  I also found a really gorgeous yellow patent leather clutch with a pouch for coins (coins are used way more frequently in Europe, so this will come in handy from now on) at this store called Minelli, which is known for its shoes, or maybe just its leather in general.

Copy and paste (ATTENTION MOM! THIS IS EASIER THAN TYPING THE LINK LETTER-BY-LETTER) this address into your browser to view pictures of our trip: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003585&I=909&id=1263930046

Some things I noticed about France in general while in Montpellier:

-Loose dresses/tunics made of light material, worn with leggings, and belted liberally around the hip are very "in"

-Bathrooms are unisex.  I found this out the hard way when Paul followed me into the bathroom at the bar and I freaked out, thinking I was about to be abducted.

-There are lots of Arab people in France!  I met an Algerian girl and her boyfriend while swimming in the sea, and two guys (one Egyptian, one Moroccan) were harassing us while we sunned ourselves.  They even tried to find out what we were doing after dinner!

-French men are surprisingly more chauvinistic than we previously thought.  We were asked many times on our vacation for directions to the kitchen.

I arrived back at chez Cottave-Fabert around 7:20 p.m. this evening, just in time for a quick shower before dinner.  Apparently, there are two new people who have moved into the house in the place of Pierre-Eric who left early last week.  They are two Polish people, a kid and his mother, and they speak really good French.  I wonder where Mme. finds these people... does she put ads in the paper?

P.S. I sent you all postcards and you should all be receiving them within the next week or so! My parents have already gotten theirs!

Vercors

So today we went to Vercors, which is a mountain range that makes up part of the French Alps.  We had lunch in this town called La Chapelle en Vercors (http://www.vercors-net.com/lachapelle)  in a really adorable, family owned restaurant/hotel called "Hotel Bellier" (see picture).  Ahead of time, we were given the choice between two meals: traditionally prepared trout (a plate they specialize in preparing on the mountain) and a vegetarian option.  Although I have tried to force myself to like fish many times, I really don't unless it's in sushi, so I chose the vegetarian option which turned out to be really good.  It was a squash/cheese casserole-type dish with a side of a cooked tomato stuffed with seasoned bread crumbs.  We also had le gratin dauhpinois which is a plate that the region of Dauphine specializes in.  It involves lots of cheese and potatoes.  Second, third, and fourth servings are difficult to refuse.  Desert was called profiterole, I think, but I'm not sure if I spelled it right.  The best way to describe it is an empty cream puff cut in half with a ball of ice cream in between, drizzled with chocolate...sounds disgusting, right? Ha. It was sooo good. Be jealous!

On our way up the mountain we also stopped at a little monument called "Les Pionniers du Vercors," which was a small graveyard which marked the graves of those who died in the Maquis du Vercors which was a battle between the Germans and the French resistants during World War II.  The French resistants had taken up weapons to deter the Germans from going on to Normandy and blocked the only possible route up the mountain only to be surprised by German parachutes and motor-less gliders.  The Germans raped and tortured the entire town.  A lot of civilians were killed.

On a happier note, we also saw Pont-en-Royans, which is a small town famous for its houses, which are suspended high above a river.  We continued onto the mountain's famous tourist site, Les Grottes de Choranche, or the caves of Choranche.  The caves are famous because they are full of rare stalactites that can't be found anywhere else on earth.  I think.  I should check my facts, probably.  It was about 30* cooler in the cave than outside, so I think that was my favorite part.  Also, I'll be sending you all postcards of it, so you can see just how pretty it actually was (gorgeous!) Speaking of postcards...I'd like to shout out to Erika, who is now my favorite friend because she sent me MAIL! Which I received today! Love you! And thanks for the celebrity gossip update, it takes forever to load on my BlackBerry!

So, on the bus home, this girl Ralanda, one of the like annoyingly obvious American people in our group, was preaching to the girl she was sitting next to about how gays shouldn't married because bla bla bla the Bible says so. And marriage is like, so sacred. Or whatever. Right? And then next thing I know, she's going on and on about her casual sex with some guy back home and how she hates him but she just loves having sex with him, etc.  I'm like, k so marriage is too sacred for gay people but sluts can partake in the misogynistic fun? Cool. But count me out!

Unrelated note... dinner was so fun today! The food was questionable (I ate a chunk of light pink sausage with strange texture) but the conversation was great.  And then Mme. busted out a couple pints of that liquor from Chartreuse which apparently is 50% alcohol.  Then she had us all doing shots toasting to our good health! It was hysterical.  I was obligated to whip out the camera.  Anyway, I'm about ready to go to bed.  La Bastille tomorrow! Finally.  Have a good rest of the weekend everyone!  

Weird Art People Are Taking Over My Life

I slept really well last night! I went to bed around quarter to 1 and basically slept straight through until quarter to 10 this morning.  Yup, I missed breakfast again. It's only served from 7-9 a.m. What a joke! I got up, got ready, took the bus and then the tram by myself to the University.  When I got there, I had a sandwich and did my homework for tomorrow.  We have a paper due Friday that I wanted to start today but probably won't...

This girl named Sonja who's in my program sat at the table with me and we started talking.  She seems cool and she wanted me to come to a museum today but I already promised Wendy I'd go downtown with her.  I would've rather gone to the museum, but I had to bail on Wendy the other night when she wanted to go out because apparently, I have a 10 o'clock curfew and it takes about two hours to eat dinner in France, which takes places anywhere from 7:30-9 (7:30 chez Cottave-Fabert).

Anyway, I picked up some flowers (pink tiger lilies) for Mme. Cottave at a market after class, brought them back to the house, dropped off my book bag, and headed downtown to meet Wendy and some other girls.  They were shopping at this store that did not suit my taste at all, but I waited for them to finish.  Afterwards they stopped in another store that was equally tacky and I decided I wanted to go to Mango (where I bought two cute going out tops, one for me, one for Anna) and have them meet me instead of stay in that disgusting store (think Apple Bottom-type clothes).  Jennifer, this Asian girl from New Jersey who I vaguely remember from Intro to Poetry last spring (she was in my class) volunteered to go with me.  We hit it off pretty quickly.  She told me that the other girls think I'm weird because they saw me wandering around alone yesterday! Haha! We made plans to have a picnic at La Bastille on Sunday.  We're going to take the gondola thing up and climb down.  I'm excited!  Later we met back up with Wendy and sat down for [non-alcoholic] drinks at a little cafe.

I can't believe I'm legal in Europe and I haven't had a drink yet!!! It's killing me!!!  Apparently a bunch of people are going to a discotheque on Friday around 10 but I have yet to break the news to Mme. Cottave.  I really don't know how to deal with her saying no.  It's just bizarre! I am a grown woman, she is not my mother, and I should be able to go out if I want to, n'est-pas?

When I returned home, I asked Mme. Cottave if she found the flowers and told her they were from me and she kissed me on both cheeks! I wasn't expecting such a strong reaction! I just thought I should bring her something because I know that the other students in the program brought their host families gifts.  After she thanked me, she asked me if I'd like to go in the pool before dinner.  Considering it's 90* out, I agreed.  I sat in the pool for about a half-hour, BBMing with Lana and Anna (HI GUYS!!!!!!!), then went upstairs for dinner.  I'm still lovin' that red one-piece.  I really think they're 10x sexier than bikinis...they leave more to the imagination and you don't feel like everyone's looking at your FAT!

For dinner, we started with a green salad, a Chinese cabbage salad, and a tomato salad.  I really wanna ask her how to make the dressing! It's so good.  Then she brought out two type of omelet, one with an herb similar to spinach, called sorrel in English.  I Wikipedia'd it and apparently it is commonly used  as a laxative, which would explain the last few hours... Also, it tastes like moulokheya, which is a traditional Egyptian dish that I happen to hate (although many people love it)...  The other omelet we ate had cheese and a more common herb that I of course forgot the name of already! She also made these really good potatoes.  Dessert was the same as always: cheeses, fruit, and yogurt.

After dinner, Jessica and I followed Mme. Cottave to her basement where she was holding what she calls an exposition.  All her artist friends come and do art with her in commemoration of her mother's life.  Her mother was a locally famous artist. Mme. Cottave herself is an artist as well...I just can't seem to get away from these weirdo art people.  Is someone trying to send me a sign?  Anyway, back to the story, Jessica and I went to the basement and found Mme. Cottave and her colleagues drawing these two little girls who were posing for them.  We walked around the other rooms in the basement, which were filled with art from past expositions (it's annual, I guess).  We stumbled across a book Mme. Cottave herself wrote about her mother.  It was really nice! We were surprised to see how dedicated she was to keeping the memory of her mother and her mother's art alive.  We were heading back upstairs and saying "Bon Soir" to Mme. and her friends when suddenly, she asked me if I would like to pose for her and her friends next week! I was flattered and I agreed... I mean, porquoi pas?/why not?  It'd be kind of cool to check off a list of things to do before I die (which, unfortunately, I do not have)...  Hopefully there's no catch, like, "Oh, we wanted you to go nude s'il vous plaites!" HA. Anyway goodnight! Je vais faire mes devoirs (do my homework) and go to bed.  A bunch of us are going to a public pool tomorrow to take a dip before class... Bon soir!