surviving
Day one in France, alone, done - hopefully it will just get easier from here then! Finally made it out of bed, nice shower and built up the courage "aller au supermarchet". Thankfully its just across the road, so navigation wasn't an issue. Lovely, little, local shop - shopping in another country is surprisingly easy - things all look the same, so pop them in your basket and that's it really. Obviously there are some differences between France and England... like milk. So in England, I guess I hadn't thought about it - we have an obscene amount of milk, red, green, blue, orange, purple tops, organic etc... in France they have maybe four types..... now I was already nervous as Anne said French milk was disgusting compared to English....the choices were blue top, red top, UHT or Ribot, (all in one similar size) I went for Ribot - the smallest bottle - nope, wrong choice - a thick, yohurty, consistency (nice to drink) but curdles in tea, oops. Onto the "boulangerie" - the smell was indescribable, incredible. Le pain au chocolat,far superior to anything we have in England. Carried my baguette home, with just a small piece of paper around the middle. Later Anne took her mother to the airport and I decided to go for a "petite promonade", I found the canal, very pretty (water lilies covering it, about to come out) and decided I would walk a different way back. I quite obviously got lost and had to retreat, following my original path (tripping and cutting my toes on a stick too). I did realize if I had to ask for directions, I didn't have a clue of an address or anything.... Lazy afternoon, spoke to some of Annes friends - she's putting me in contact with them before she goes away this weekend. Anne promised to show me to the Tauvrais - the hospital I will be working at, just a ten minute 'green' walk away, looks nice. We then walked the cat. Yes, walked the cat. Phoebe hops into this 'cat-carrier' - a soft bag, Anne carries under her arm, head and tail sticking out and off we set for the park, sat in the sun while Phoebe had a wander. Spoke to another of Anne's friends, the lady who will visit Phoebe in the next few weeks - I understood a surprising amount of French, overall today... Time for tea, I made us some veggie pasta, I think the veg tasted nicer here but maybe I'm just imagining it. Allemagne Vs Argentine. Spotted a few fireworks ahead of Bastille day on Monday - celebrating the end of French reign by a monarchy. Getting into bed, Phoebe already sat there - lovely, lovely cat... but since I had this 'witch' idea I can't quite shake the idea that she's keeping check of me, watching me... & all of Anne's appliances are over twenty years old, the fridge, washer, TV etc.. - surely that needs a bit of magic!!
Spoke to Anne this morning (Monday)... she hadn't slept well... she said she never sleeps well with a full moon. Honestly.
 |
| la canal |
 |
| view from the balcony |
No comments:
Post a Comment