Déjà-Vu in Eze

Peur du jour: 11 Avril 2012- Climbing from sea to sky a second time around

Starting from Eze-sur-mer

So last time when I was in Nice, my favorite thing I did was a trail called le chemin de Nitsche (Nitsche's Path) from Eze-Village to Eze-sur-mer. Elyse, Lauren, and I hiked for maybe 45 minutes down and an hour back up from the old medieval fortress city perched in the cliffs to the edge of the Mediterranean sea. We got so many great pictures of le paysage (the countryside/landscape) and of us enjoying the sea and the trail. Of course, I lost all of my pictures from this, my favorite day, of travel.

The very beginning of the path, starting from the sea side.

So I was determined to do it again! This time, Marc drove me to Eze-Sur-Mer and I just did the hike up. And it was kind of a trip, because how often do you get to relive your favorite day of vacation? The weather was about the same (it was unseasonably warm in February, and it has been unseasonably cool this week in Nice) and the trail was the same and the beautiful view was the same, but the similarities stopped there. This time I was much more prepared for the hike (I had a water bottle, short sleeved-shirt, and a hair tie), and I was voyaging toute seule (though I kept imagining Elyse's laughter as we talked about how incredible Lauren was for bolting to the top).

Flowers in bloom along the winding path

And maybe I'm just being overly sentimental, but I couldn't stop thinking about how much had changed since the last time I'd walked the trail. How much my French has improved, how much more I feel at home in Montpellier, how much more I feel attached and tethered to France, how many great friendships I've made and strengthened, how much I've grown as a person, how much happier I've become. It's amazing how much can change in two months.

The rocky cliffs that overlook the wonderfully blue sea

And I was just so darn happy to be walking that path again. I think I had a big goofy grin on my face the whole time. Like a big goofy golden retreiver, bounding up the mountain side.

What it looks like from the top!- My view from Eze Village

Monaco, Au pif!

Peur du jour - 10 Avril 2012: Wandering in Monaco

Today, I took a solo-adventure to the principality of Monaco. Monaco is home to the Monte-Carol, the royal family of Monaco, and enough beautiful cars to give you a sore neck (from the head-turning, obviously). I went in the casino, walked through many beautiful gardens, saw the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace, counted dozens of sleek yachts, and even saw the beginning of the Grand Prix race track. Monaco is where you go when you want to show off how rich you are.

Now, since public displays of wealth are for me what public displays of affection are for others, Monaco wasn't exactly  my favorite cup of tea (spearmint, if you were wondering). But I definitely could appreciate the beauty and history behind it. And it was hard to not imagine yourself as a Bond Girl while walking the gardens of the casino. But I found my favorite spot in Monaco by just wandering around while searching for the Exotic Garden. I saw a trail that intrigued me, but I wasn't really sure where it led or if I should even be there.

And all of a sudden, I found myself in a grove of olive trees overlooking the city. In the country rated the most expensive place to live in the world, I was most content sitting in a bed of grass overlooking the sea.

There's something for everyone!

The Royal Palace- My view from the trail

PS) "Au pif" is a french phrase which translates to "by nose" and roughly translates to "off the cuff" especially when referring to cooking (as in, cooking without a recipe). I used it in this sense to describe my process of choosing roads/paths to walk down.

Sur la route! (On the road!)

Peur du jour- 31 Mars 2012: Orienteering

This weekend I went to Perpignan with some of my fellow Catholic students from La Source. The weekend was great, but our journey was not without its detours and scenic routes.

We traveled en voiture (by car) from Montpellier to Baixas, France (about 2 hours). All together we had four cars; I traveled with two people with whom I have fostered great friendships, Clément and Judith. Since we left at around 11:30, of course we (the whole group of about 20 people) stopped for a picnic lunch at a rest area (oh, France). It was also there that we practiced for the flashmob (more about that later!).

Clément, Judith, et moi!

After the picnic was where things started to get wonky. Because suddenly, we were no longer traveling in a caravan and I turned into the navigator. Now, normally I feel pretty confident as the navigator (my summer working as a canvasser helped with this), but there's just something different about navigating in a foreign country. Things aren't QUITE the same.

So I made two mistakes:

1) we missed an exit because the number on the paper and the number on the sign didn't match up (silly, Kathleen, expecting things like that to line up). In France, you more follow the town names on the signs than the exit numbers or route numbers. Il n'y avait pas mort d'homme (it wasn't the end of the world), but we did have to drive around for a little bit before we could get back on the same direction

2) I had us get off too early (trying to compensate for my previous blunder). This one was slightly more problematic, because after we got back in the right direction, we were completely turned around. Roundabouts are quite disorienting. We soon found ourselves pulled over on the side of the road with the tank nearly empty. After a quick phone call, we got some directions for the backgrounds and were on our way. But there were a few stressful moments thrown in there.

But sometimes the scenic route is better. Especially with views like this:

My view of the Pyrénées while walking through vineyards at sunrise the next morning

And we decided that you can never go wrong when you're being guided by the Saint Esprit.

Another awesome weekend

Okay, so je suis crevée after this weekend and I cannot bring myself to stay awake to blog about it. I promise blog posts in the days to come! I went to Perpignan for a Catholic conference for the youth of the region and it was just fantastic. Two things:

1) This weekend I had a lot of people say "I just love your accent" or "I find your accent so endearing" which kind of broke my heart. I was so hoping to not have an accent.. Ca arrive... (it happens...)

2)  Sneak peak!

Baixas, France by sunrise

This is what to expect from "une grillade" (a cookout) in France: grilled sausages on baguettes and muscat wine.

A tout!

PS) It can't seriously already be April, right? Is that the April fools joke? That it's not actually April yet?

Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert

Peur du weekend- 9 Mars - 11 Mars: Weekend retreat

I just had one of my favorite experiences in France thus far!

This weekend, I went on a weekend retreat through the Eglise Saint Bernadette where I participate in the youth group that I go to each Thursday night. We went to Saint-Guilhem-le-desert which is an INCREDIBLE town perched in the "high valley" of the Herault region. Our group of 10 (of whom I knew only the priest) stayed in a Carmelite Monastery in this small pilgrimage town. It was the first time in my life I'd ever been on an overnight retreat and I'm so glad I made the decision to go. I was nervous because I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into on a lot of fronts, but, as is often the case, everything turned out even better than I expected.

Here are some highlights:

1) Spending a whole weekend (except for a period of maybe half an hour) speaking in French! Nothing beats being surrounded with native speakers and not even having the option of speaking in English (though it seemed like some of my new friends liked to throw out the English words they knew every once in awhile). It's also really encouraging that I had three different people on three different occasions tell me how impressed they were with my French. I even made witty in-the-moment jokes (hey, it's hard when you do a grammar check on everything you say before you say it). And everyone laughed!

2)  My first car ride in France. Maybe this isn't that exciting... but it was pretty cool to watch the French countryside rolling by with my hand out the window (in the wind)!

3) My first traditional French meal experience. So a lot of the other American students here live with families that like to feed them a lot EVERY night. You've got the entrée and then the salad and then the plat and then the fromage and then the dessert. I've heard stories about where some of my friends have just had to go lay motionless on their bed after dinner because they were served so much food and their host families encouraged them to eat all of it. Luckily I was not rendered immobile by any of my meals, but I did have an oh-my-gosh-when-is-this-meal-going-to-end-?!?! moment (and laughed silently to myself when it happened). It was a good cultural experience eat the French way, even if it was just for a weekend. Here's a rough outline of how nearly every French person eats:

• Breakfast: tartine (bread with butter and confiture), coffee or tea or juice, fruit
• Lunch: Appetizer, main course, cheese course, dessert
• 4pm snack: fruit, yogurt, etc.
• Dinner: ...this one I'm a little confused about because I had always thought French people ate lighter for dinner, but our dinner on Saturday night was just as large as the lunch.

4) My first French "jeu de société" (board game). I am such a board game-a-holic. So when the first night I realized that playing a French board game would be our getting to know you activity I was INSTANTLY hooked. I tried to politely veto anything that was American ( they love Monopoly and Scrabble and all the stuff that we play) and we finally landed on something called Le Village. The premise is that a small village is infested with les loup-garous (werewolves) and you are trying to figure out who is who. It was really super fun (especially because we were playing in the dark with only the light of a crackling, cozy fire). I was even elected mayor one round and successfully found out the werewolves in two swift turns (because my powers of deduction and perception are excellent) with no accidental villager casualties. Bravo is what they said to me.

5) Making animal friends. I don't think I've ever seen so many friendly animals in a town ever.

Exhibit A (this looks like my kitty!):

 Exhibit B (this little guy followed me around for awhile and is perched on my leg in this picture):

 Exhibit C:
Saturday night we went to evening prayer with the Carmelite nuns in the main Church in Saint Guilhem. In the middle of the whole thing I hear this pitiful yowling coming from behind me where the main entrance is. Sure enough, a little orange striped cat wanders over to me. I can't help but pet it which I guess was an instant invitation to jump in my lap. I've never had a cat purring in my lap during church before. It was kind of awesome.

6) Hiking to somewhere that seems inconceivably high.

This is my view from above: (you can see part of the foot trail winding down into the village which is on the left)

This is me, perched in the ruins of an old castle:

 I saved this for last... do you see that tiny castle-looking thing on the very last cliff (roughly the center of the picture)?

Yeah. I climbed there. And there wasn't really a path. And I did it in oxford flats (which was stupid, but I got locked out of the monastery because I was REALLY late coming back from personal prayer time, so I couldn't change my shoes).



I have so many more stories to tell, but I feel that this has reached a sufficient length. The last thing I'll say is that this weekend was so much more than just a weekend of cultural and language growth and getting to see a cool little French village. I grew so much spiritually and was really happy to devote an entire weekend doing nothing but praying and reflecting and reading the Bible and devoting my time to God. I'm so delighted to haven partaken in this and can't wait to put into action everything I have learned!

My week in Provence

Okay, so basically I've been procrastinating with a blog post because I have no idea where to begin. Should I talk about fears? Funny stories? Life changing moments? My many firsts? A blow-by-blow account of the whole trip?

I've decided to share with you some of the biggest lessons I've pulled away from my first solo (as in without the company or planning of any "adults") journey in Europe (or anywhere for that matter).


1. I'm going to get the mushy gushy things out of the way and send a huge shout out to my travel buddies. I think we got each other through a lot of sticky situations, made each other laugh, and just soaked up everything good about France together.

Our first day in Avignon was miserably cold and windy, but that didn't stop us from profiting from the city! Two thumbs up for positivity. (Avignon, France)

Missing your train and having to pay out the ear for a slower, later train is pretty sucky. But here we are with smiles on our faces! (Marseille, France)

Lesson # 1: Things definitely don't go as planned, but you just have to rant about it, laugh about it, and push through.

2.  I feel like all of my senses came alive for the first time on this trip. My nose detected the scent of blackberry in red wine and the hints of jasmine from the perfume capital of the world (Grasse, France). My ears delighted the sound the Mediterranean waves make as they pull back against the rocky beach--like the crackling of fireworks or the popping of a campfire. My tongue swam around in all sorts of wine as I went on my first vineyard tour and lavished in the sweet and savory specialties that I explored. My skin rejoiced in the French sunlight, the smooth pebbles that cover the beach in Nice and Eze-sur-mer, and the salty feeling of sea water as it dries and mixes with your sweat as you hike back from the sea into the mountains. Sight is the only sense with which I can indulge you:

Une papaline (like "pape" the French word for Pope), the candy of Avignon. It is a ball of chocolate with Oregano liquor on the inside. (Avignon, France)

Enjoying a glass of rosé in the town where it was first made in France (Tavel, France)

Orange trees at the International Museum of Perfume (Grasse, France)

The beach on a peaceful, mid-morning walk (Nice, France)

Bouquets of Lavender, a flower associated with Provence, at the largest Fruit and Flower market in France (Nice, France)

Some incredibly fresh fish at the Fruit and Flower Market (Nice, France)

Lesson #2: Appreciate every taste and sense and smell. Think about all of the work and passion that is behind a bottle of wine or perfume, a piece of chocolate, a silken scarf. Appreciate the God-created world around you. 

3.  This trip also just reminded me how important it is to enjoy life. I have a tendency to get caught up in checklists and deadlines, but I am making so many efforts in France to savor the world around me (see lesson #2). One thing I'm realizing is that God doesn't just give us the bare minimum, he provides for us in abundance. I have an abundance of love, laughter, and joy in my life, and I praise God for it every day!

Dancing on le Pont d'Avignon (Avignon, France)

Goofing around at the TGV station (Avignon, France)

Candid shot of some French people shooting us with silly string as we were taking a picture (Carnaval @ Nice, France)

Lesson #3: Live your life. Love your life. 



PS) If you'd like a blow-by-blow account of my trip, try looking at the blogs of my other friends. I thought I would use this space to reflect on the bigger picture of my trip (because, of course, I took copious notes in my journal each day). Maggie and Michelle had pretty detailed accounts (note: Michelle's name has two links associated with it). We didn't do all of the same things, but still shared a lot of experiences!

PPS) Also, one of my friends wrote an article for her university's newspaper about carnaval!