Summer 2010 part trois

Finally, we treated the whole of the Belle-famille to lunch at la Maison de la Lozere.  One thing you may not know about Jube is that he was born and grew up in Lozere, one of the least-populated departements in France.  The cuisine of Lozere is not necessarily considered the most refined food in France.  Generally it is seen as hearty peasant's fair, with the most famous dish being l'aligot, mashed potatoes mixed with tomme, a special kind of cheese.  Through some kind of Lozerian magic, the potatoes and the tomme mix together to become one seul et unique creation.  Jube tells me of his memories eating aligot, watching the gruff farmers make it by mixing and mixing with a big wooden spoon, lifting the aligot out of the dish to reveal a long string.  It really does look like someone pulling a spoon out of a dish of fondue.  It is wonderful.

La Maison de la Lozere basically serves haute cuisine, but they also bring you aligot on the side.  Jube and the Belle-famille always complain that gourmet restaurants give you a tiny dish of something - but they all like la Maison de la Lozere because if you don't fill up on your entree, you can always get more aligot!  Here are some pictures of our wonderful meal:

This was one of the first courses - I think an amuse-bouche - made with fish.

Unfortunately I didn't take any other pictures of our meal until dessert:

And, one of my favorite things about those expensive restaurants - they always give you a surprise dessert with your cafe:

Summer 2010 part deux

We also did some traditionally French things last summer.  They included:

Seeing a manifestation on the streets of Nimes;

Visiting my favorite market (aux Arceaux de Montpellier) and picking up some tasty French food;

And checking out the social commentary graffiti'd around the city.  (It says:
Vous pouvez me filmer (priorité!), mais, vous n'aurez jamais ma liberté de pensée. 1984!  Fuck you!
You can film me (top priority!), but, you'll never have my liberty of thought.  1984!)

Summer 2010

Looking back at my blog, I see it's been severely neglected!  I completely forgot to post about our time in the south of France last June!  Well, we met the newest member of the Belle-famille:

Erine!  Yes, this little bouledogue francais has conquered the hearts and minds of the Belle-famille.  She goes everywhere with them.  Luckily, she really is a sweet little dog.  Even Jube ended up liking her (although he is not quite as obsessed as le Pacha, who really got upset with us when we yelled at her for chewing on our shoes).

Roland Garros

About a month ago, Jube and I visited his family in France. We took the opportunity to do one of the things I've wanted to do since spending the last week of May with his father in 2003: attend Roland Garros in person!

We saw lots of doubles - women's, men's, and mixed. The most fun was watching men's doubles with a French team against a Spanish team. Unfortunately the French men were quite outclassed - one of the Spanish members was Nicolas Almagro, who ended up in the quarter final against Rafael Nadal, this year's (and most other years') winner.


We also watched a team with this Polish player, Agnieska Radwanska. She missed a shot and shouted at the sky at one point. Beau-papa, whose mother was Polish, told us that she was saying "oh la raquette!" Later we found out that he had absolutely no idea what she was saying.

I loved our short visit, and we all decided we wanted to go back again.

Sorties in Montpellier

Although I would love to write day-by-day posts of our outings to Montpellier, I figured I should really just put them all in one post. That way I won't forget anything! I love visiting my Beaux-Parents, and they are very kind to have us, saving us all kinds of money by making us our favorite foods, giving us free unlimited internet access, a bed to sleep in, and almost-daily laundry service. The only thing I don't like is how far away from Montpellier their town, Gallargues le Montueux, is! We have to drive for about twenty minutes on the highway (which costs something like 1€20) or take the "Route de la Mer," which (while following alongside the picturesque étangs) takes more like 45 minutes. Hey, I guess I should be happy they don't still live in Mende!

Trip 1: Okay, okay. Back to business. As you might imagine, I take any and every excuse to visit Montpellier. Two weeks ago on Monday, my excuse was: we'll check all of the video game stores in the Polygone and in Montpellier centre ville for the right version of the Xbox 360; afterwards we'll walk around the écusson, have kebabs, and then watch the France-Italy Euro 2008 game on the giant screen set up on the Place de la Comédie. We did all of this, and I took my traditional "pilgrimage" (as Belle-Maman calls it) to my favorite places in the city. Actually I was only able to do about half of the visiting I wanted, because les frangins (Jube and Le Pacha) were too tired to walk all the way to le Peyrou. So I visited St. Roch, Ste. Anne, la Rue de l'Ancien Courrier, and, between St. Guilhem and Ste. Anne, a tiny little dead-end street called Impasse Brun. This is where Jube and I had our first apartment, which we only lived in for a month while I attended French classes at the university. We borrowed it from one of his friends who was spending the summer in Ireland.

Afterwards, the food: kebabs, fries, sodas; then McFlurrys from MacDo. And then we sat down near the giant screen to watch the match. This was actually pretty fun to begin with; there were some Italian supporters who stood up and sang their national anthem to much heckling and throwing of non-lethal objects (like cigarette butts). Afterwards the rest of the crowd stood and roared out the Marseillaise (with much emphasis on Aux armes, citoyens!). Sadly, the World Cup Final rematch was not as exciting, with France losing 2-0. The crowd moped away dejectedly after it was over, and we went with them.

Trip 2: Jube and I visited the newly-reopened Musée Fabre, which at the moment has a special exhibit of Courbet. I was unfamiliar with the artist before going, but I really enjoyed the exhibition. He even painted the Roman bridge on the Vidourle that is about 10 minutes away from Gallargues, which I have visited many times (check out his route through Hérault here). That was really cool!

Trip 3: Jube and I were planning on spending all afternoon in Montpellier, but at the last second we decided just to go for a little visit and take le Pacha along with us. I decided that I wanted to see le Peyrou and the Cathedral, but fate was against us: as we moved uphill, we started hearing popping noises and shouting. We had run into a protest from the local wine producers! At first I was really annoyed, because I had wanted to see les Arceaux... but soon I realized that a protest was just as fun.
We were very close, but just as we started moving closer, the CRS (riot police) shot some tear gas canisters into the air, and all of the onlookers turned and ran. Funnily enough, it looks like blogger Joy Suzanne and I just missed each other!

Trip 4 (aka sortie en amoureux): Jube and I get to spend a long, lazy afternoon in Montpellier. After visiting the gift shop of the Musée Fabre, we had a little drink at one of my favorite squares in the city, la Place St. Ravy. I had a pamplemousse pressé and Jube had a menthe à l'eau.
Afterwards we finally made it to le Peyrou, and then headed down to the Jardin des Plantes for a little relaxation. We met a cute little cat there:
And then we went up to the Place de la Canourgue for dinner. We had a great time, and I ended with a "café gourmand" that looked like this:
That's a little tart, a cup of panacotta, and a "mint chocolate bomb." Yum!

Nîmes Encore

A couple of days after the concert, Jube and I headed back to Nîmes, this time during the day. We stopped by Carrefour to see if they had an Xbox 360 for Le Pacha, but they didn't have the right one. Afterwards, we headed into town to walk around for a bit.

We saw les Arènes, as usual, and then went to the mall (fnac for Jube and Zara for me). We visited the Maison Carrée, but half of it is covered in scaffolding. It is being cleaned, and when that's finished, it's going to be really beautiful... but for the moment, it just looks sad. I had hopes of having a drink at the terrace restaurant of the Carré d'Art next to the Maison Carrée... We've never been inside, but the Carré d'Art is a museum of modern art. It was inspired by the Roman temple of the Maison Carrée, but is very modern architecture - think lots of glass, metal, and decorative pipes. Belle-Maman hates it, but I think it's kind of neat!

Anyway, since we couldn't go in there (because the whole point was sitting where there is a good view of the Maison Carrée which is now covered in scaffolding and advertisements), I had the idea of going to les Jardins de la Fontaine for a drink! I really like the walk there. It goes by a calm canal lined with sycamores, which are reflected very green. Les Jardins include an old Roman library (called the Temple of Diana, for some reason!) and lots of 19th Century landscaping... pretty canals, little pleasure gardens, lots of staircases. This time, Jube and I climbed up the hill that usually serves as a background for les Jardins. It reminded me a bit of Barcelona's Park Güell in the way it just kept going! We climbed for awhile, and I started getting tired - remember, all I wanted was a drink at an outdoor café so we could relax for a bit! I was wearing a skirt and sandals, and we kept passing people dressed for hiking - or rather, they kept passing us.

But then we made it to the top, where we found la Tour Magne. I was surprised to have found a part of Nîmes I didn't know! We paid €5 to get inside, and then started the grueling process of climbing about a thousand tiny stairs to get to the lookout at the top. I almost passed out on the way, but we finally made it! The view was gorgeous - we could practically see all the way back to Gallargues! We saw all of Nîmes from above. I was amazed! I'd never even heard of the Tour Magne!

Then we made our way back down to sealevel where I finally got to have my drink! Jube chose an apple juice and I had a diabolo fraise (which is just a fancy way of saying a Shirley Temple). We relaxed in the cool of the shade, watching little kids play in the puddles. And then we went back to Gallargues, where that evening I had a horrible headache (probably from climbing a million feet in the sun without drinking any water).

It was a wonderful day, and I only regret not bringing my camera - I thought that I'd seen everything there was to see in Nîmes, and I was wrong!

Concert!

Okay, enough suspense: Jube and I did make it to the Radiohead concert! Before going, Belle-maman gave us the latest edition of the local paper, the Midi Libre, which talked about the band and gave a quick review of their show. It sounded really dull, actually, with fluorescent lights and "energy-saving" measures. That didn't really bug me, but since Jube isn't a fan (heresy, I know, but what can I do about it?) he was worried it would be boring.

It wasn't! He even admitted that the band was "tight" and "sounded professional," that Thom sang "in tune" and that he was "glad to have gone." Those are high words of praise from my husband, I tell you what! Here's a YouTube video of the concert taken from about the same vantage point as where we were standing.



Of course, I couldn't see as well as this camera, which is being held somewhere above our heads... I don't think I'm super short, and I don't have any complex about my height or anything, but I did find myself wishing I were taller...

Here is a shot from before the concert... this is actually from the night before, but it gives a good idea of how it feels to be in the Arènes de Nîmes, waiting for the show to start.



(Jube and I were down on the ground.)

My favorite songs of the night were: Just, Paranoid Android, Reckoner, 15 Steps, and, of course, Idiotheque, which was the big closer.

I don't think there can ever be a perfect night. At the concert at Shepherds Bush, when I saw Radiohead in London, one fan who'd slept all night on the pavement outside turned around with a nasty "Shhht!" while I was singing along with the music... In Nîmes, I didn't get close enough to the stage and probably bugged the hell out of the people around me by dancing to most of the songs. I also whacked someone's camera while dancing to the end of Paranoid Android... I haven't seen it on YouTube, but if you happen to see a video where the camera is nearly bashed to pieces during the last instrumental bit, I'm probably the cause.

Anyway, we had a great time, found a free parking space, and got home safely, so all in all I'd say it was a good night.

An Offer You Can't Refuse

The other day, I received these in the mail:


I bought them some time ago. Even then, I knew I shouldn't give in... I wasn't sure I could go to France in the summer, and they weren't the cheapest concert tickets I'd ever seen. But I knew they would sell out fast (they were gone by the next day), and how could I resist seeing this:



in this venue?


So if anyone wants to finance my ticket to France in the next 2 weeks, I can promise to provide you with a ticket to the show.

Vas-y, Francky, c'est bon!

Oh my oh my... I still haven't finished talking about our vacation in France, but what can I do? I'll promise a post about St. Saturnin and La Fontaine de la Vaucluse, is that all right? In the meantime, be content with this:

Once upon a time, during assistantship days...

At my going-away party, all of the English teachers and some other colleagues gathered to celebrate. We had a really fun time, eating, drinking... and someone had brought a karaoke machine! I was able to sing a lot of the English songs (one of the teachers even played "Wild World" on his guitar for me to sing), but I was unfamiliar with the old French karaoke chestnuts like "Cette annee-la." By the end of the night, we were all pretty happy and silly. It wasn't just a goodbye party for me, but one of the other English teachers had recently been promoted and was leaving the school. He was one of the best teachers and I had really enjoyed working with him.

All of a sudden, I realized that nearly everyone was in the living room listening to that same teacher boogie down with the karaoke machine, laughing like crazy. I couldn't understand many of the words of the song (which is okay, because half of them are in Creole), but he was singing the girls' part: "Vas-y, Francky, c'est bon! Vas-y, Francky, c'est bon bon bon!"* It was probably the funniest thing I'd ever heard: an older man, with stylish clothes and graying hair, simpering about how sexy Francky was in bed... He was really hamming it up, too!

He ended up sounding (and acting) like this girl I just saw on YouTube:



If you'd like to hear "Fruit de la passion" in its entirety, feel free to watch Francky Vincent get it on. My favorite line? "Il n'y a pas que la fesse dans la vie... il y a le sexe, aussi!"**



*Go for it, Francky, it's good! Keep going, Francky, it's good good good!
**I'm not translating that for you ;)

The Zoo and the Aquarium

You may remember that on Christmas day, when le Parisien was in town, we tried to go to the new aquarium in Montpellier, "Mare Nostrum." Unfortunately they hadn't published the right holiday schedule and it was closed. Finally we all headed back one day to check it out.

When we got there, the line stretched across the parking lot. Parents yelled at kids who ran away, heading toward the streetcar tracks or the movie theater. Le Pacha wanted to brave it out, but the rest of us decided that it would be too annoying to wait for over an hour to get in. Instead, we went to the Zoo, with its new greenhouse/Amazonian rainforest exhibit.

This was a great choice, since there were about two people ahead of us in line and it was a lot cheaper than the aquarium. It was warm in the greenhouse and there were plenty of interesting animals. Afterwards we watched the lemurs fight over their food before going back to the car.

We decided to check the aquarium one more time before going home. Since we arrived around lunchtime, the line was cut in half. We waited for half an hour or so, our stomachs grumbling, and then explored the aquarium. It was very nice, complete with penguins, sharks, and a little girl who wiped her nose on Belle-Maman's hand.

Afterwards we went to the nearby China buffet, making le Pacha's day complete.

La Maison de la Lozère

One of the most amazing gifts that Jube and I received was lunch for two at la Maison de la Lozere. Jube and I have been to some nice restaurants, but we aren't usually able to afford the really really nice ones. (One exception, of course, was the Manor House Restaurant where we had our wedding!) I was getting over my cold and Jube had just caught a watered-down version, but we were both able to smell, taste, and see. We were in for a treat!

We both ordered kir royal for our aperitif, which came with two plates of mises-en-bouche. The first plate was a savory trio shaped like desserts. They were: one cream puff with a vodka cream filling (chou a la creme a la vodka), a dark chocolate bonbon with leek filling, and a little hard-candy shaped mozzarella treat with poppy seeds and herbs. The three were served on an inch-thick rectangle of Plexiglas. The second plate of mises-en-bouche was a bit more substantial, including one salmon sushi and one carrot gelee. They were both very tasty!

By this time, though, Jube had begun to worry that we were only going to be getting tiny portions for lunch. Our first course proved him wrong. It was a marinated tuna steak served on top of a citrus gelee, with a small salad on the side, a candy-like rectangle of seaweed, and an "emulsion d'eau de mer" (a small amount of what looked and tasted like sea foam). The food was wonderful, and I was getting excited about our main course.

Jube chose hare, which was served wrapped in ham. His sides included a "croustillant de tete de veau" (a 3-d rectangle of fried meaty goodness) and a poached egg. I chose the fish, which was served with a sweet corn mousse and tempura-fried leeks.

At la Maison de la Lozere, every main dish is served with aligot. Aligot is a mixture of cheese (tomme de Lozere) and mashed potatoes. It is the regional dish of Lozere. (We actually made it once, and you can see the picture here.) Jube happened to grow up in the region, and he was used to eating aligot made by the peasants of Lozere: in a big pot with a huge wooden spoon. When the aligot would stick to the spoon, the peasant (probably smoking a cigarette with dirt under his nails) would push the aligot back down into the main mixture. It would be served by slapping the aligot into the bowl or plate that was offered.

It is served a bit differently at la Maison de la Lozere. The waiter or waitress picks up a serving of aligot held between two spoons. He or she then twists the aligot into pretty patterns while placing it into our single-serving bowls. Jube and I were both reminded of a Japanese steakhouse where preparing the food is as much fun as eating it. The aligot filled up any holes we might have had from small portions, and we were offered more (and we both declined).

For dessert, Jube had a plum crumble (mirabelles) and I chose a small turnover filled with bananas and mangoes. Both were served with sorbet, and mine was served with a sweet avocado puree. (In fact, the avocado puree was part of the reason I chose my dessert. In Nice I fell in love with the avocado ice cream sold at several of the artisanal ice cream stands. I have to say that the avocado puree was almost better!)

Afterwards our waiter offered us coffee, but neither of us took it. Mistake! I thought that our lunch was over, but how could I forget that sweets often come with the after-dinner coffee in France? Luckily, we were still able to eat the after-dessert dessert. It included a small glass of chocolate ganache, one coffee-flavored macaron, and one white-chocolate truffle. The macaron and the truffle were served impaled on sticks that protruded from another inch-thick slab of Plexiglas.

The food was wonderful, and I only wish that someday I can go back - and get coffee!

(Yes, I know there are no pictures! Jube and I were too embarrassed to get out our big digital camera. Rest assured: the food was beautiful, as was the restaurant. It is located in one of the medieval buildings in Montpellier, with vaulting stone ceilings and a view on a private terrace.)

Christmas (the 24th and the 25th)

The next day, after waking up late, we headed to Montpellier for some last-minute Christmas shopping. We had already gotten gifts for everyone, but we wanted to add an iTunes gift card to le Parisien's bounty and pick up some wrapping paper. And of course, I wanted to visit my favorite town, get a crepe from my favorite crepe stand, and take some pictures.

Les Trois Graces, looking as beautiful as ever.
L'Opera.

After we got home, Belle-Maman made us put on nice clothes for Christmas Eve dinner. Although Jube grumbled a bit, we dressed up and waited around for his relatives to arrive. They are always late, and everyone teased Belle-Maman for having told them to arrive between 8:30 and 9:00 - we knew they wouldn't get there before 9:15.

We had a wonderful Christmas feast, which included homemade foie gras (gorgeous and tasty); oysters (ick); little "oriental" (middle-eastern) meaty appetizers with salad; and fish wrapped in crispy ham with an orange cream sauce. Everything was wonderful except for the oysters, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them!

After dinner we opened up our presents. Le Pacha was initially quite disappointed... For some reason, he was convinced that "le Papa Noel americain" was going to bring him an iPod, when in reality the American Santa Claus brought him a polar fleece from Old Navy. He was further disillusioned when he unwrapped the package my mother had sent from the US to find an Xbox 360 - a box that turned out to be filled with food and candles. Happily, le Parisien had given him a brand new cell phone that triples as a camera and an mp3 player, so he ended up with at least a little bit of the electronics of his dreams.

The next day we woke up late again. As I stumbled downstairs, I noticed that the table was set with the nice china and silverware. That was when I remembered that Memee was coming for Christmas lunch, and we would have more gifts to open. I quickly dressed and was presentable in time for the aperitif - Beau-Papa's delectable pate en croute:
(How delicately he cuts it!)

For this meal, we had turkey with chestnuts and the Belle-Famille's favorite mushrooms, cepes.
As our first course, we had more of Belle-Maman's foie gras - you can see the only remains, the yellow fat, on our plates.

We ended the meal with a homemade buche de noel.
After lunch, le Parisien decided to take us to Montpellier's new aquarium, le Mare Nostrum. We checked online to make sure it was open, and then headed out. When we arrived, we discovered that there had been an error on the website, and it was actually closed. Many families stood around the door, complaining about the misinformation. We headed back to Gallargues, a bit disappointed but with the knowledge that leftovers awaited us at the house...

Uhh..

Today while browsing an online newspaper, I saw the following headline:

Chirac opens among cheers and protests

What is this? What is Chirac doing in the news? Who was cheering? Who was protesting? What the heck was he opening? The one-line summary was obscure as well, something about fetuses and boos. I clicked on the link. I then realized that I had misread the title. Instead of Chirac, it was "Clinic opens among cheers and protests". It makes more sense, except... am I really that obsessed with France? I didn't use to think so...

Memories...

I just realized that it's been about a week since I last posted. Unfortunately there is nothing going on around here that might possibly be interesting! I figured I might post one of my memories from before the beginning of time (i.e. before I began my blog).

In May, 2005, I had just finished my 7 months of French assistantship and was ready for some vacation! Jube was nearing the end of his stage (as a student teacher), and we knew we would be moving to the Nice academy in a few months. I really wanted to go to Roland Garros, which was being held the last week of May and the first week of June. Le Parisien's girlfriend at the time was a posh commerciale at Todd's, and she could have gotten us tickets. However, my brother and his girlfriend had already bought their tickets to visit us on exactly the same dates! I decided to put my dream on hold for another year. [They broke up a week later.]

My brother, JW, and his girlfriend arrived late on the day they were supposed to get there, causing us some logistical problems. See, we only had one car, and Jube had to work in Clapiers (a town near Montpellier). He raced to the airport during his lunch break, gave JW a twenty-Euro bill, and wrote our address on a piece of paper. The two jetlagged first-time out-of-the-country travelers managed to find a taxi. Unfortunately the taxi had some problems finding our apartment. Granted, it was on a very small street, but seriously! He left JW at the end of the street (a street of about 10 meters) because he couldn't find our number (number 2!!). Sweet little brother tried to give him a tip, but their taxi driver must have felt bad and didn't take the naive American's money. They finally made it to our apartment, safe and sound.

I think they had a good time--we even took a trip to Barcelona!--but one incident will always stick out to me about their visit. Jube and I used bikes to get around Montpellier, and we decided to rent a couple of bikes for the Lovebirds. We decided to bike to the Zoo one day. Jube told us it wasn't far, but we shouldn't have trusted him: as a child he was in the mountain biking club of Mende, and his parents still take Sunday bike rides from La Grande Motte to Palavas. It wasn't impossible to get to the Zoo, but we were out of breath when we arrived--and the poor little Miss (JW's girlfriend) had fallen twice, once in front of a bus when she tried to dismount!

By the time we reached the Zoo, la Miss was ready to relax--but first she had to find a bathroom. Luckily there was a public toilet right next to the Zoo entrance. To our surprise, she reappeared nearly as soon as she had entered. "There are no toilets there," she told us, seriously. Upon further investigation, we discovered that there actually were toilets--des toilettes turques*. La pauvre! I think she must have used them, but I'm not sure... she might have held it during the whole visit.

We made it home safely, with no traffic accidents, but I think she was happy to see our bathroom!




*Basically a hole in the ground with some hand supports (if you're lucky). I know I shouldn't be mean--once, a couple of years earlier in Saint Jean du Gard, I had refused to use some of those very same toilets... but it was because I had a UTI!

La Chandeleur et ses affinites

This weekend was really crazy and fun for us. It all started on Thursday, when one of my profs cancelled class for "inclement weather" (a few snow flurries that quickly turned to rain). Since I don't work on Fridays it was the weekend already!

We woke up late on Friday and cleaned the apartment a little bit, because we were celebrating our first Chandeleur ever. La Chandeleur takes place on February 2, and the French tradition is to make crepes and eat them. While making the crepes, you should flip them left-handed with a coin in your right hand behind your back. If you succeed in this difficult task, you will be prosperous for the rest of the year.

We invited 7 of our friends--8 showed up. That was fine, since we had made tons of crepes, and we even had enough batter left to let our guests flip some themselves. Everyone should be making lots of money, judging from their successes in crepe-flipping. After our meal, we decided to go do some Karaoke at the Darkside, which was really fun. Lorene fell over during the second solo in "Nothing Else Matters," I sang "Creep" with the wrong lyrics, and everyone had a great time.

On Saturday Jube and I went to the MacArthur Center, the mall in downtown Norfolk. Belle-maman has these really cool plates that she uses for the cheese course in France. They are dessert-size plates with little drawings of different kinds of cheeses and their animal of origin (sheep, goat, and cow are the main donors). Le Pacha has been known to pout until he gets his favorite, Reblochon. ANYWAY, the plates we found are not exactly the same. They have prints of vintage cheese packages on them. The coolest part is that they came in a box that looks like a big camembert:



Pretty cool, huh? The only down side is that when I see it, I get hungry for some tasty ripe camembert...

Ache

Jube left yesterday in a rented minivan to pick up le Parisien and his girlfriend at the airport. Today they are going outlet shopping and eating lots of good American food.

I, on the other hand, am still in Norfolk, trying to finish my homework for the next two weeks. I'm going to be getting married, going to a conference in DC, and (supposedly) reading for the next week's worth of classes. I don't know how it will all happen, but I'm trying. Right now I'm lying in bed with my books scattered around me. I have started a paper and am doing research for another. However, in the course of my research, I stumbled upon this blog. My chest aches because I miss Montpellier so much! It reminds me of when Jube would leave and go back to France while I continued studying at Wittenberg. Maybe it's because he left yesterday and brought those memories back, but I don't think so.

I really fell in love when I moved to France. Of course being with Jube had a lot to do with it, but it wasn't everything. I had never known what it was like to be attached to a place until I lived in Montpellier. I loved waking up and riding my bike through town to the train station to go to work. I loved exploring the city, alone and with my friends. I really loved it when my family came to visit and I could share my favorite places with them. I hope that someday I can recapture those feelings. I loved living. Sometimes, walking home from the nearby grocer's, after a long day at work and annoyed because I had to go shopping before I could cook dinner, I would just stop and look around and realize how lucky I was. Simply smelling the Mediterranean heat or hearing the lives of the other inhabitants of the city could make me feel calmer.

Maybe someday I'll feel the same way about another place, but right now I can't. I'm jealous when I read about someone else discovering my city, my Montpellier. And even though I know I have 5 papers to write, and la belle-famille's visit to plan, and menus to translate... I can't stop thinking about the one glorious year I spent in Montpel'.

Ho(s)pital

I haven't written much about my job this summer in Nice, because I don't think it is appropriate. I did, however, spend my first night in a hospital, ever. The kids attending the summer program were . . . well, let's say they liked to have your attention. All the time.

So when you get sick and throw up, you think you have appendicitis, and you drag your counselor to the hospital. In the US, if you have appendicitis, they rush you into the operating room and cut that baby right out! In France, as I learned, you are taken under continuous observation for 12 hours. Since we arrived at 3:30pm, that meant we got to spend the night! Oh, yeah. I slept in the room with my charge, since she couldn't speak French very well. I wasn't thrilled about it, but I'm sure it was better than leaving her alone, since we were woken at 1am to get a sonogram and again at 6am for a blood sample... and again at 8am when a whole troupe of doctors and interns walked in to practice their English and diagnosis skills. We slept on the emergency ward, which meant we got to hear a patient moaning all night long. My poor girl was really scared (and I was kind of freaked out, too!) until I heard the nurses arguing with him. He kept asking for methadone, and they kept saying no . . . "and if Monsieur doesn't quiet down, we'll tie him down!" After that we slept well, knowing that the recovering drug addict would be a bit calmer with the nurses watching over him. That night in the hospital cost 900 Euros.

I went to the hospital one other time in July. This time it was more serious, although we didn't spend the night. Another girl had an athsma attack, so we called the ambulance. I rode with her in it, and when we arrived everything had passed. We did have to wait in emergency room admissions, though, and saw a couple of people who had been in a car accident walk by us, bleeding from the head. We spent about three hours at the hospital this time, enough to see a doctor who asked if there was carpet in the dorms where we slept. And--it was totally free, since we only used the ambulance resources!

Although I didn't go to the doctor very often in France, and never to the hospital, I miss the health care. Ahhh well! At least I get cheap dental cleaning from the school of dental hygiene here at ODU!

My Nice Vacation by BB

This is my last day in France and I finally sat down to write an entry. For my vacation this year, I decided to visit Gem and Jube in Nice. I could not have asked for better hosts. For my first trip to Europe, they have spent a lot of time, money, and patience on making me enjoy my visit.

One of the things I noticed was the number of English t-shirts. The best one I saw said "I want your skull". The second best was probably "Guns and drugs will get you 5 years, guaranteed". This t-shirt was worn by a waiter at the cafe where I had my first taste of Desperados, a beer with tequila. I also have plans on making a "BB de Menton" t-shirt (It's funnier if you actually know me and it's even funnier if you've seen the movie Brice de Nice).

I enjoyed going to my first topless beach. Your first time is always special. I think I only made one girl nervous by talking about her within earshot, since she probably understood English.

I had a lot of good food. The mussels I had were great. Un-bearded ones are the best. I even had two at once a few times. My first time with mussels came late in life, but I think I made up for it by eating as many as I could in one night.

Last Saturday, Jube and I went to Thor, a viking bar. After the World Cup game, a band called Karma started playing. They were pretty good. http://rocknkarma.free.fr/. Make sure to check out their Dates page. Despite not being played on the radio a lot, hard rock and metal (read: good music) are well represented in Nice. Half way through playing A.T.W.A., a bunch of guys came in and started grinding on everyone, but mainly with each other. They were pretty obnoxious and were blocking everyone's view. Jube leaned over and said, "They must be from Paris".

Today, Jube and I went to Cannes and hung out on the beach. Later, while at home and talking over a pizza royale from Pizze Leo, we saw Toad the cat, a huge lizard, and a lightning bug. I have not seen any lightning bugs during my time here, so I'll take this a goodbye from the wild life of Nice.

This has been a perfect vacation, I loved seeing France and Italy, and I hope to see Jube and Gem again soon!

Some Interesting Stuff

Looking back on my entries, I see that I haven't written... well... ANYTHING of what we've been doing. The short version is: we went to San Remo, watched a lot of World Cup games, swam in the pool, watched Some Kind of Monster, and stayed out until 2am celebrating the Fête de la Musique. The longer version might be written by BB later; I'm just going to talk about some highlights here.

First, we went out to have pizza and enjoy the ambiance of the France-South Korea World Cup match. It was great when France scored about 10 minutes into the match. Everyone in the bars around us jumped up, screaming. We could barely give our orders to the waiter. After we finished our meal, we walked along the Cours Saleya looking for dessert, when we heard two small voices screaming. We looked over at them, and they seemed to be the only South Koreans in the area. All of their barmates looked at them a bit quizzically, but not at all aggressively. We found some crepes to eat and listened to the French fans groaning about the tie with South Korea. As we walked along the Promenade des Anglais, we heard someone shouting Allez les bleus! I thought it was kind of odd to be shouting for the team after they had effectively lost. We all looked around, and finally found the supporter neck deep in the Mediterranean, with two friends holding his clothes and laughing. When security showed up, complete with a big German shepherd, the laughing bet-loser climbed out of the water and flashed all of the spectators a quick view of his thong.

Then, on Wednesday, for the Fête de la Musique, we headed out to centre ville. It was packed with people dancing, singing, eating, and (above all) drinking. We went to an all-you-can-eat mussel restaurant where Jube and BB packed away 3 1/2 bowls of mussels (I had another 1/2) and then walked around trying to find a rock band. We listened to two or three (one of whom played Master of Puppets, which Jube and BB both sang), passed a few of Jube's students, and then saw something we had never before seen. A young boy sprinted across the road into the Jardin Albert I followed by two policemen. He circled around towards us again when a police car tore into a U-turn and blocked his escape. Finally he was led out of the garden with his hands behind his back to join a group of youngsters already being held in custody by the policemen. We don't know what they did, but they were definitely caught. In fact, the whole centre ville was full of police officers. We saw them simply patrolling, listening to the music, but also jogging in formation towards an unknown emergency. Luckily we weren't caught rocking out! Well, that's because we didn't really rock out, although Jube did dance with me twice and BB sang most of the songs he knew.

Finally, on Thursday night, we invited Jube's colleagues to come over for a barbecue at our house. We are the only members of the group with a yard, and although I sometimes wish we had a larger apartment or lived closer to town, it's nice to see our apartment through other people's eyes; I realize that our little garden is just what they want. I made big juicy hamburgers, deviled eggs, and fresh spinach salad. Jube grilled it all up and had also bought shish kebabs, but my hamburgers were so American almost no one could eat more afterwards. Some even turned down dessert! We invited four friends, and two of them really made the effort to speak English with BB, which was really nice. He basically followed along with the conversations until we started talking about politics, which I didn't bother to translate. I don't think he knows who Sarkozy or Royal or Hollande are, and since we only talked about Chirac in relation with them... well... I didn't translate.

Today I start my job in town. I'm a little bit sad, because BB doesn't leave until Tuesday and Jube doesn't really start vacation till then (he's been grading the Bac since last week). I'm going to be living with a group of high school students and arranging all of their evening programs for them. It really ought to be interesting, and it's certainly well paid and a good experience... but I can't help thinking about how little time I have left with Jube and (more generally) in France. I'm leaving on August 3rd to start grad school in Virginia, and I'll have to wait at least another month before Jube comes to join me.

That worries me too. I haven't talked about it on my blog because I've been very stressed out about it, but we applied for a visa for him, and we haven't received any news about it since mid-May. We haven't received much mail for the past two weeks, either, though... we're hoping that it's just another example of slow post office service. I'm feeling more stressed since yesterday Jube received word that he has been granted a leave of absence from his job for a year... more pressure. I'll be sure to update you when I know more.

And now I'm going to leave you. I'll try to write more while I'm at work, and I'll force BB to write a nice entry about France before he goes.

A Quickie for My Dad

Last weekend an automatic radar caught a British man speeding. He was driving at 250 km/h (166 mph) on his way to Le Mans.