mercredi 30 mai 2007
Friday evening we got out of Marseille as soon as possible (which was a
bout 7 pm) and drove to his parent’s house. His mother fixed a nice meal and a cake, but the nougat biscuit that I had saved especially was terrible. I guess they just don’t save well. Oh well. Will just have to order a cake or piece montee for every anniversary.
We used the audioguides, which are informative and easy to use, but detract in a way from the experience in my opinion. After the palais we went to the Pont D’Avignon, at which point it was decided that it should rain like crazy. We huddled in the tower for awhile until it let up a little. Perhaps it was the weather, but I was not feeling inspired to dance on the bridge as in t
he song. Returning to our hotel to get ready for dinner, a wedding party passed us, horns honking like crazy and people shouting. I don’t know what came over me, but I burst into tears. I guess it being a combination of it being our wedding date, and seeing how happy the guests were, I got emotional. Alain thought I was nuts. We stopped and had tea at a little english tea room.
bout 7 pm) and drove to his parent’s house. His mother fixed a nice meal and a cake, but the nougat biscuit that I had saved especially was terrible. I guess they just don’t save well. Oh well. Will just have to order a cake or piece montee for every anniversary.I also managed to grab the wrong bottle from the refrigerator, so instead of champagne we had Blanc de Blancs, which in my opinion did not taste very good. I guess we will have to save the champagne for Christmas now.
Saturday morning we woke up and drove to Avignon, which is not very far by autoroute. We managed to find our hotel without too much trouble considering the narrow one-way streets. I had found and reserved the hotel over the internet. We parked outside the ramparts, where apparently everyone parks and nobody pays. We left our luggage (one overnight bag and our jackets) at the hotel desk as it was too early to check into our room, and went exploring. We walked around for awhile, then went back 
and checked in to the room. It was a tiny room, with just about enough space for the bed and tiny little bathroom. In high tourist season and being in the center of the city, you can’t expect the Hilton. Besides, I would rather pay for a small room in the center of the city (and be within walking distance to everything) than be in a bigger (American sized) hotel room and have to take the car in to visit and go out to eat (plus it is much more difficult to roll home after a big dinner when you have to drive. And by ROLL I mean because of eating too much, not necessarily because of drinking too much.)
and checked in to the room. It was a tiny room, with just about enough space for the bed and tiny little bathroom. In high tourist season and being in the center of the city, you can’t expect the Hilton. Besides, I would rather pay for a small room in the center of the city (and be within walking distance to everything) than be in a bigger (American sized) hotel room and have to take the car in to visit and go out to eat (plus it is much more difficult to roll home after a big dinner when you have to drive. And by ROLL I mean because of eating too much, not necessarily because of drinking too much.) The hotel manager was very nice, it is a good location, not too expensive (62 € plus breakfast for two included), and I recommend it. We went to a restaurant in front of the main entrance to the Palais des Papes. We sat outside, which was agreeable until the wind picked up. The servers finally had to take down all the umbrellas because they were afraid someone would get impaled. We visited the Palais, which took about three hours.
Perhaps we are just pokey, because the lady who sold us the tickets said it would take about an hour and a half.
We used the audioguides, which are informative and easy to use, but detract in a way from the experience in my opinion. After the palais we went to the Pont D’Avignon, at which point it was decided that it should rain like crazy. We huddled in the tower for awhile until it let up a little. Perhaps it was the weather, but I was not feeling inspired to dance on the bridge as in t
he song. Returning to our hotel to get ready for dinner, a wedding party passed us, horns honking like crazy and people shouting. I don’t know what came over me, but I burst into tears. I guess it being a combination of it being our wedding date, and seeing how happy the guests were, I got emotional. Alain thought I was nuts. We stopped and had tea at a little english tea room.For dinner we ate at a restaurant called “Les Artistes” in a small square. The price was tolerable- I had the menu for 16 € and Alain for 24 € I believe. We were seated next to an American couple from North Carolina. It is always strange for me to come across other Americans just in a store or on the streets. I guess because there are so few in Marseille, that when we go visit more touristy places I am caught off guard. We had a good evening and not-quite rolled back to the hotel at around 10:30 pm.
Sunday morning we had a continental breakfast (croissants, baguettes with jelly, orange juice, and tea or coffee), then checked out of our room, put the luggage in the car, and continued exploring. Alain wanted to see the Museum Lapidaire, which was archeological artifacts, mainly Celto-Linguirian, Roman, and Egyptian. After that, we visited the Museum
Calvert. They were having an exposition on Northern Masters, I guess artists from Germany and the Netherlands mainly. We had another audioguide for this. We then spent 15 minutes dashing through the rest of the exposition before it closed at 1 pm. We could have returned with the same ticket after lunch, but we didn’t feel like it.
Sunday morning we had a continental breakfast (croissants, baguettes with jelly, orange juice, and tea or coffee), then checked out of our room, put the luggage in the car, and continued exploring. Alain wanted to see the Museum Lapidaire, which was archeological artifacts, mainly Celto-Linguirian, Roman, and Egyptian. After that, we visited the Museum
Calvert. They were having an exposition on Northern Masters, I guess artists from Germany and the Netherlands mainly. We had another audioguide for this. We then spent 15 minutes dashing through the rest of the exposition before it closed at 1 pm. We could have returned with the same ticket after lunch, but we didn’t feel like it. We had lunch at the Place de l’Horloge, then walked through the gardens of the Rocher des Doms. Around 2:30 we decided that we were tired and had seen enough for one weekend. We walked back to the car (eating an ice cream along the way- good but not as good as the Italian Gelati in San Remo), and returned to Marseille, stopping again by 
his parent’s house for a bit. I also needed to return the sweater I had borrowed from Josée. I hadn’t brought one, as I figured I would be sweating and in shorts all weekend. Wrong! All in all, it was a great weekend. Avignon is a clean and nice place to visit, and depressingly less expensive to buy an apartment than in Marseille. Alain says that he wouldn’t want to live there, because once you have visited all of the museums, what is there to do? I would be slightly more open to living there (once again, CLEAN) but in a way he is right. You would be invaded by tourists with the city practically unlivable 4 months of the year, there are no real non-touristy jobs to speak of, and at least Marseille has other attractions, such as the sea and Calanques to go walking. But it is close by, and one can always pop up to visit for a day or so.
his parent’s house for a bit. I also needed to return the sweater I had borrowed from Josée. I hadn’t brought one, as I figured I would be sweating and in shorts all weekend. Wrong! All in all, it was a great weekend. Avignon is a clean and nice place to visit, and depressingly less expensive to buy an apartment than in Marseille. Alain says that he wouldn’t want to live there, because once you have visited all of the museums, what is there to do? I would be slightly more open to living there (once again, CLEAN) but in a way he is right. You would be invaded by tourists with the city practically unlivable 4 months of the year, there are no real non-touristy jobs to speak of, and at least Marseille has other attractions, such as the sea and Calanques to go walking. But it is close by, and one can always pop up to visit for a day or so. 
jeudi 24 mai 2007
Tomorrow, May 26th, will be our one-year wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we are opening a bottle of champagne (left over from the reception), eating the Megan & Alain biscuit (I don't know how to describe it, it was part of our chateau piece montée wedding cake- couldn't save the top layer, so I saved that). It is hard to believe at times that it has been a year already. Then I look back at all that has happened- finishing my french courses, buying our apartment in November and moving in, being faced with sudden and unexpected renovations, going to Colorado for Christmas, starting a job. Wow. The year went by quickly but the months were long. Kinda like what they said about 
VMI- the days go by slowly but the weeks go by quickly, which was totally FALSE in that case. The only thing that went by slower than each day at VMI was week after endless week. Anyway, back to happier things.We are going Saturday to visit the city of Avignon, about an hour and a half north of Marseille. Neither of us has visited it before. We will visit Saturday and Sunday, then drive back Sunday evening. It should be a fun time. Hopefully it won't be too hot.
In the meantime, I leave you with some pictures. The first shows the piece montee (you can see the Megan & Alain thing in front) and one picture from the place where we had most pictures taken, plus a link to Avignon on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avignon
For more wedding recap, click on Weddings either below or on the right.
mercredi 23 mai 2007
This morning I had an appointment at the US Consulate to renew my passport. It actually expires next March, but with the name change and the fact that I need proof of name change on my passport to change it other places (taxes, Social Security, etc) I decided I might as well do it. There are lots of automatic photo machines here in France, so I went in one at the train station in Aubagne while waiting for my train (thanks SNCF! still lovin' ya!) Some stupid teenagers (side note: why are teenagers universally awful?) must have removed all of the signs showing how to operate the machine. There were four buttons blinking happily at me, and I had no idea which button was for which set-up- portrait (yeah, because these machines take such great portraits), 4 ID photos, or 16 small photos to attach to resumes (can you imagine how quickly a US company would be sued for requiring candidates to attach a photo? It would be breathtaking). So anyway, I had no idea which format I chose, so just pushed a button at random. I was hunched down, looking at the screen rather puzzled when it took this picture. Fabulous. The machine kept blinking at me, so I didn't know what was cancel or OK. So I pushed, and out spit the picture, sixteen tiny pictures of me looking puzzled that no way I would ever attach to my resume. 
Sigh. I decided to try again this morning, so went in the same machine at the Metro station. There the coin slot seemed to be broken, so I took the Metro to my stop and tried again. This time I finally managed to get it to work, and so got four rather bland photos as follows. Do not smile! It didn't help that we are now entering muggy season.
So I arrived at the Consulate, whereupon the guard immediately said, Oh no, those aren't the right type of photos. Sigh. After turning in my paperwork for the new passport I went to find a photographer able to take US passport pictures, 2 for 5 €. These pictures were only slightly better as by now I had done quiet a bit of walking in the heat. Sure glad these passport photos will haunt me for the next ten years! Ten years pass quickly right?
Returned to the Consulate, gave the guard my photos and self-addressed stamped envelope and continued on my way.
Total money spent: 13 €
Total number of pictures: 22
If anyone would like an official bad photo of Megan autographed on the back, let me know.
Lessons learned:
1) next time, read the fine print on the Embassy website
2) don't push random buttons on photo machines randomly
3) take pictures only in winter
mardi 22 mai 2007
Well, despite a lack of the official cheese book, we will have to just forge on ahead with the Year of Cheese. If I find it later, I will make updates where necessary.
First up: the Chamois D'Or
"Who doesn't know the cheese "Chamois d'or" ? At least the name! It is a cheese soft and kids love it. I advise you to try it by letting it melt in the microwave or in the oven, on a piece of break. You will see, it is delicious."
Not my words, they have been stolen and translated from a cheese message board by some Cheese Monster.
I don't know, it seemed rather bland to me. I guess it is in the Camembert family. I found some listings saying that it was a good Vegetarian cheese, which left me rather stupified. I thought all cheese, except perhaps those with bacon wrapped around them, were vegetarian? And if not, then hey, I don't want to know.
Not my words, they have been stolen and translated from a cheese message board by some Cheese Monster.
I don't know, it seemed rather bland to me. I guess it is in the Camembert family. I found some listings saying that it was a good Vegetarian cheese, which left me rather stupified. I thought all cheese, except perhaps those with bacon wrapped around them, were vegetarian? And if not, then hey, I don't want to know.
All in all, a mild cheese, good for basic spreads.
lundi 21 mai 2007
I am not sure if these exist in the US or not, but over here in France there are a lot of these automatic video machines (not sure what the real name is). Sometimes they are independant and sometimes they are attached to a walk-in video store (for after hours use and adult videos I suppose). They usually don't have a huge selection, but are pretty easy to use.
First you insert a credit card (carte bleu) or the store card (which is usually cheaper). Then you scroll through the menus, choose a video, type in your code (hopefully correctly), and out spits your video. For the machines above, you have to choose your selection from the machine on the far right, then go to one of the ones in the wall to get and return the video. If a different one comes out than what you wanted, you are SOL.
There are normally different prices depending how long you want to watch it- less than six hours, less than twelve, less than 24. At our old apartment, there was one in the building next to ours, so we usually managed to return it in under six hours. (usually I made Alain go return it 10:30 pm). Now in our new apartment, the closest one is across the street and down a block, so we are usually too lazy to return it before 24 hours. The fee is usually 4.50 €. I would still prefer Netflix though. There are some French companies that are starting to copy Netflix, but they don't have much of a selection and the shipping takes a long time. We used to have a subscription, but stopped after a few months.
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