2 Months Later

Yesterday marked two months of living in France, time is literally flying by here and I know that when I come back after Christmas it is going to go even quicker! I thought I would do a little summary of how things are going over here.

SCHOOL

School has become a normal part of my routine now, I seem to spend my weekends lesson planning, colouring flashcards and increasing my love for my laminator – I have a exciting life I know! For some reason I don’t particularly ever like the idea of going to school, I don’t know if it is the getting out of my bed, the walk/bus journey to get to school or the masses of photocoping I always need to do on a Monday morning… but it’s never something I look forwards too. However I do always LOVE it when I am actually there and teaching! It must just be my dislike of mornings. The kids are great and write me little notes, want to hug me (feels so weird as this would totally not be allowed in the UK, but teachers here allow it all the time. How odd), are super enthusiastic, and are actually really good at remembering what they have learnt from week to week. So when I’m lying in bed, not wanting to get up I need to force myself to remember how much I actually enjoy it! On a not so great note I have spent the last week practicing my cursive writing in a bid to get one of my teachers to stop re-writing everything I write because it is too “English” for the Children to understand – I swear she babies them, every other class can read it!!

I’m getting the hang of the video conferences now, I know how to use the software and have figured out how to make it a bit more interactive for the kids. I am so lucky in that for some reason these kids are mesmerized by an English speaking girl on their screen as if they were not I have no idea how I would discipline them over a screen as I can hardly make out their faces never mind match them to names!

TRAVEL

After finding our feet in Perigueux we have been a bit more adventurous with travel! Mum and Dad Visited, William Visited, I went to Brussels and Ghent during half term and more recently to Rocamadour. The weeks leading up to Christmas are very busy and full of exciting trips! Tomorrow we are going to Limoges after seeing how nice it was when we were there for a few hours last week, plus the chips where amazing and reason enough to return. The weekend after we are going to Toulouse, and the weekend after that I am going to Paris and I could not be more excited to see Hannah (you too Sam!), Paris will also be beautifully Christmasy and wonderful. And the weekend after I am back to Paris to catch my flight home to NI with William.

We have also started organizing our 2 weeks “winter holidays” in February, and after spending what will be a wonderful Week in Paris with Ali, Claire and Kat, I am catching a plane to visit Esther in Madrid – Very Exciting. After that I am meeting up with the Peri-girls for a week traveling Strasbourg, Metz, Nancy and Dijon before starting School again! I am loving all the opportunities I am getting to Travel here, I can already see that settling back into studying in Stirling is going to take a lot of getting used to. I do think I will try to make more out of my time in Scotland though, and try to see some more of the country 🙂

FRENCH

My French has definitely improved a lot since I moved here, I can understand so much more of what I hear compared to when I arrived. I have a lot more confidence in trying, and actually speaking French and manage to have day to day conversations with people and get through life. I do struggle with more in depth or odd topic conversations and definitely have soooo much more to learn but I have felt progress which is encouraging, I am getting to the stage now though that I now I need to brush up on my grammar if I want to progress more so I’ll have to get on to that! I am also trying to incorporate French into my life more, like music and reading the news in French and all the daily things I do anyways.

LIFE IN PERIGUEUX

I love Perigueux. It is pretty great, it is a wonderful size for a city-hater like me, not too big but at the same time not ridiculously small either.  This week, once the Salon du Livre Gourmand had left town, the Christmas decorations have started to go up! I have not seen so many Christmas trees in one town – I have counted 5 so far and there isn’t one in the main Square yet! They have also started building little wooden huts for the Christmas market and oddly they have covered up some statues to make them look more Christmasy, they do look quite adorable I suppose. I have also heard rumours that there will also be a Ice skating rink, let’s hope so!

We had a cold spell a couple of weeks ago, but for some reason it has got really hot again – less than a month till Christmas and it was 20 degrees outside today. What even is that?! How am I meant to feel christmasy without hats, scarves, gloves and cold toes? I am also still wearing my “summer” coat. In November. At this rate I am not going to need my Winter one at all! Rant aside, the weather is actually pretty great as it makes travel and life in general A LOT easier, I just miss the cold a little. haha.

LIFE IN PHOTOS

As always I have taken far too many photos and am awful at choosing my favourites, so here is a little large bit of my life since my 3 weeks in France post.

A visit from Mum and Dad

Bordeaux skyline

Dad and his new friend

Post from Hannah

Enjoying having a Piano in my home

Ealy morning market days

Lost in Brive

Lazy Sundays

Beautiful carparks

A visit from William

Feeling French

Chocolate in Belguim

Hilarious moment when we ask “I wonder can eat there” then turn round and see the sign

Beautiful Ghent

Maeve putting my shoes on has become a regular occurrence

Wearing my gloves made by Hannah

Tartan wins free drinks

Could I be wearing more colours right now ?!

This should not be a thing

A trip to Rennes to Visit William

We pour our own drinks now

#notoasterlife

Cutest old man using an egg box as a till

Being cultural at the food festival

Eating Veggy

Winter is coming

#primaryteacherproblems

Booked a trip to Toulouse

One of many hilarious snapchats from Hannah

Our walk to Rocamadour

Practicing cursive handwriting so kids can read my writing

Booked a trip to Paris to see Hannah

Roman Ruins in Perigueux

#primaryteacherlife

Starting to look life Christmas

Massive Parsnips

One of the Christmas Statue covers

Post from Amy

Post from Amy!

Feeling Festive

These finally work now!

Coquettes

Christmas Flashcards

BioCoop Cereal heaven

Post from Mum and Dad!

My New French Cookbook

Part 3 ~ The Train Disaster

William was coming to visit for the weekend and we had planned to meet in Bordeaux so that I could show him around there before coming back to Périgueux. My morning ended up a lot more stressful than initially planned but it’s funny to look back on now at least!

I got up at a ridiculously early hour for a saturday morning and walked to the market to buy supplies for Sunday’s dinner. I was all prepared for the first time with my rucksack so I could actually carry things – this was immediately rendered pointless when my carrots had stalks (is that the word for the bushy bit on top?!) took up my whole bag. Point to self – ask for stalks to be chopped off next time. I dropped the things of at home and made my way to the train station.

In my little headphone daze, I bought my ticket, read the board above the door to see what platform I was on, went there and hopped on the train. Then the train moved in the wrong direction. I look up at the screen at it says “Ce train à destination de USSEL.” Where the flip is Ussel?! Turns out it’s about 3 hours away from Périgueux in opposite direction to Bordeaux. So I had got on the train that arrived from Bordeaux, and not the one that was going there… but don’t worry the train man told me, you can get of at Brive in an hour and catch the next train back.

So an hour in the wrong direction, I get of at Brive and I am told there isn’t another train for two and a half hours, and that train will take a further two and a half hours to get to Bordeaux. This is when I realised I forgot my snacks, and of course, in a small town in France, at lunch time on a saturday, everything was closed. This makes for a very hungry and annoyed lauren, so instead I walked around and found the only open things – chain stores – for a place not much bigger than Périgueux they have a H&M!!

I eventually got to Bordeaux a whole 5 hours later than expected and met William who had arrived earlier. We were both shattered so just saw the Mirror and then caught the train back to Périgueux haha, I’d show him the rest on Monday.

The rest of our weekend was much more relaxed, we had indian takeaway for dinner and watched movies and ate more. And sunday morning we did the same again before taking a walk around Périgueux. The weather here is still pretty crazy and lovely, but the trees are all loosing their leaves so it makes for a nice mix of autumn and summer.

Sunday evening we got out the crazy stalked carrots and other supplies I had bought and cooked ourselves a pretty amazing dinner, definitely the most French meal I have cooked since I got here! We had come baguette, wine and cheese for starters followed by beef bourbingion, Potato gratin and some roasted veg.

On Monday we caught the correct train into Bordeaux and had a walk around, looking at the cathedral and everything else we had missed out on Saturday. We finished of by having some questionably cooked, but delicious burgers in a cute little square in the old town.

It was lovely to have him down for the weekend, there is just something so comfortable about friends from home. I love my friends here but we are still getting to know each other and our friendships are all so new and young, there is something so simple about friends you’ve already went through all that with!

I’m looking forwards to going up to Rennes soon to repay the visit!

Part 2 ~ Visitors in Perigueux

At the Start of the holidays, which seems so long ago now(!) Mum and Dad came to visit me. They were meant to be going to Egypt for their wedding anniversary but with the disruption, they weren’t allowed to, so it was off to France instead!

On Saturday evening I took the train, tram and bus to Bordeaux airport to meet them before we all headed back into the city to find our hotel. Luckily for us, a German girl overhead us talking (her boyfriend in from Dublin so she recognized the accents) and started chatting to us, she told us where to get off, which was great as otherwise we would have added more than half an hour on our journey by going the whole way into the center and back out again.

SUNDAY

After a nice lie in and breakfast in the Hostel we headed into Bordeaux so I could show Mum and Dad around. Our hotel was only a short walk from the Cathédrale Saint-André, so we went there first. We climbed for what seemed like an age to get to the top of the bell tower, but thankfully it was worth it as the view was lovely!

From there we walked towards the Mirroir d’eau and stopped for a bit on the steps. I don’t know what is going on here at the moment, but it is HOT. Like better than any summer we have ever had kind of hot, I don’t understand it, nor were we prepared so we required a lot of breaks and beverages!

We had lunch in a nice square, and had massive Pizza’s – we couldn’t even finish two between us! We then walked to Place de Quinconces, as dad wanted to go on the Tour bus but we were too late, so instead we took a trip on the Ferris wheel. I think this has better views than the tower but unfortunately isn’t here all year round. We then walked the length of the promenade and ate some ice cream before heading back to catch the next tour bus!

Mum and I at Vintage Cafe, before our Bruschetta

More huge bottles of Wine

View from the Bell Tower

Mum, Dad and I at the top of the Bell Tower

Dad and I at the Miroir d’Eau

Mum and I at the Miroir d’Eau

View from the Ferris Wheel

Looks like autumn, feels like Summer

View on the tour bus looking back at Bordeaux

Opera house

Monument aux Girondins

MONDAY

On Monday we caught the train back to Perigueux, and walked to my house. While I was away my street managed to get even crazier – when we arrived it was all tapped of by Police and surrounded by Ambulances. We made our way through all that and enjoyed some wheaten bread, rhubarb jam and cheese (LOVE home comforts) before walking to Mum and Dad’s hotel. I might have walked us there the long way, but we did get there eventually! After dropping of their things and a nice drink at the bar we had a nice walk around Perigueux. When being shown Perigueux it always seems larger than it actually is, as locals (Karine when she showed us), or people who live here (i.e. me) manage to walk around in such a way where we never return to the same point. Yet, once let loose in Perigueux alone, it is so much more obvious how small it is and how every street leads back to the cathedral, Monoprix or the tree car park. But, hey, that’s the beauty of a small town.

Mum, Dad and I outside their hotel

Mum and I at the hotel

The streets of Perigueux

Palais de Justice

Pretty Perigueux

L’isle

Cafe de la Place

Locals mesmerized by our ridiculous accent

Mum and Dad at Cafe de la Place

TUESDAY

Ever since I went to Brantome, dad has been inching to go. This was encouraged by neighbours and friends who had all travelled the south of France and been there. The difference is, is that they did it by car, whereas we would have to go on the bus. And busses to a really small village in the middle of the Dordogne just aren’t that frequent, but anyways dad came armed with timetables that would get us there at 12.30 and leave at 6pm. There are not enough things to do in Perigueux to fill that time, never mind Brantome!!  But we went to the tourist office anyways to see if they could give us any other bus options.

To dad’s delight they did, and we caught the bus to Brantome and spent the afternoon there. We walked through the streets and shops, had cakes and a good cup of tea. We attempted to get the bat tour but it was cancelled, so we ate some more!

That evening we ate pizza and drank wine (well Mum and Dad did) in Perigueux, and met the most french bar tender I have seen in my life – Complete with beret, mustache, and a cream suit.

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday morning I met Mum and Dad at the market to buy some yummy foods for a Breakfast at my house. We had cheeses, jams, breads, fruits and some lovely pastries before we walked to the train station to say our goodbyes!

It was lovely to have them here, and to be able to show them around where I live and work, makes all the pictures a little bit more real!! Sorry that this has been such a long post but it is as much for me to remember it all as for you to hear about it!

Part 1 ~ Les Vacances

Today marks the end of a blissful, 17-day long, too good to be true, holiday. And tomorrow, the start of 7 full (well if 12 hours is full…) weeks of teaching that will bring us up to our Christmas holidays. I feel like this is going to be a huge shock to our systems as we have been here over a month now but I have only really had to teach for about 5 hours in total… Heres hoping that France will be typically french and give us some nice unexpected days off.

Anyways, I thought I’d fill you all In on what I got up to during my Holidays.

The short version:
1. My parents visited and we spent a few days seeing Bordeaux, Périgueux. Also managed to fit in a long awaited trip to Brantôme for Dad.
2. I had a wonderful 2 days of absolutely nothing bar watching tv and lying in bed in my pjs. Sounds sad I know, but I haven’t had a lie in since I got here and I had a LOT of TV to catch up on.
3. William visited which also consisted of being rather lazy, but I did show him the (few) sights of Périgueux. In the bid to be a good, on time friend I managed to get the wrong train, in the wrong direction, with none back any time soon, but that is a story in itself.
4. I went to Brussels and Ghent with William, Maeve and Steff. We stayed on a boat. That sums up the awesomeness of the trip perfectly.
5. It all came crashing back to earth with a weekend filled with lesson planning and drawing pictures for flashcards of witches, pumpkins and all things Halloween-y as I have no access to a printer/projector.

For the more interesting parts I’ll write a little bit more about what I did and add in some pictures, but for now here is what I have spent the weekend doing, I’m very proud of my wee Vampire, but I think my “monster” looks more like a robot…

Bordeaux

With Perigueux pretty much shutting down on the weekends, and Bordeaux being only an hour away on the train, Meg, Maeve, Steff and I booked ourselves a place in the Auberge de Jeunesse in Bordeaux for the weekend. After more training for school on Friday, we all caught the caught the train through to Bordeaux. It only costs us 11€ with our “Carte Jeune” which is isn’t too bad, and it’s a pretty easy journey. We arrived in Bordeaux and had some Kebabs for dinner on  our way towards the hostel where we relaxed and enjoyed the WiFi for a bit.

Some other assistants came through from Perigueux as well, so we met up with them, along with some of the Bordeaux Assistants in the hostel. We then walked to the Miroir d’eau to meet Susan, Maeve’s friend and the rest of the Bordeaux assistants. Bordeaux is so large compared to our wee Perigueux and the Miroir was surrounded by young people drinking and relaxing with friends.

Miror d’eau with the other Assistants

Miror sans Assistants

We relaxed by the Miror for a bit before we were all desperately needing the loo, so headed in the direction of the pubs.

Maeve, Steff and I in the Pub

Had to walk home at 4am which should have been fine as its only a 20 minute walk but we detoured for sandwiches and got lost so it was more like an hour .. Haha.

Maeve, Steff and I huddling for warmth on the way home:

We got back are rolled into bed only to be woken by a fire alarm at the hostel at 9am. Fun times.

We got up the next morning and ate some sketchy sandwiches and did some sightseeing in Bordeaux.

Rue de Sainte Catherine, longest shopping street in Europe:

Cathédrale Saint-André:

The Cathedrale Saint Andre

Minature Bordeaux

Steff, Maeve Meg and I at the Cathedrale Saint Andre

The Miroir d’eau is definitely the most impressive sight in the city. And even more so during the day. It alternates from being a very shallow pool of water that you can run through to a super thin layer of water that acts as a mirror, the most impressive though is the mist – looks amazing! No matter what time of day you are here it is surrounded by people, there were even children in swimsuits at one stage!

Bordeaux is one of those cities that is just beautiful to walk through, it is contemporary, yet full of old architecture. There are large shopping streets, cute little alleys, huge parks and beautiful statues.

Monument aux Girondins

Opera House

French flag

Statue at the cathedrale

We had a chilled evening with some amazing Vietnamese food followed by drinks in the hostel. We had no fire alarm this morning! So we enjoyed our free breakfast and headed back to Perigueux.