Sad Times.

A sad thing happened yesterday – I bought my ticket home. On the morning of the 8th of May, I will arrive in Paris, climb aboard a Eurostar, and reluctantly return to England.

I really don’t want to, but it’s got to happen. If I could transport family, Frida and friends (‘the three Fs’) to France, i’d be happy to live here long term, but that’s not entirely practical. Besides, England needs me - I leave for a few months, and the country falls into disarray, with elections, and new Prime Ministers popping up all over the place.

So, in a nice end-of-France post, I thought I’d make a list of some of the things i’m going to miss about France. It’s difficult to think of them all off the top of my head, as i’ll probably only realise a lot of them once i’m back in the UK. Still, here’s a few:

• Fresh baguettes - stereotypical, but true
  
• Trams. I actually love them.
  
• Ordering food in a restaurant, and not being entirely sure what it is until it arrives.
• Complaining about the lack of bacon.
• Being a foreigner.
• Learning a few new words every day. Forgetting them the next.
  
• Getting lost in the city, and simply wandering around until finding out where I am.
• Being able to understand people, when they think you have no idea what they’re saying.
• Being a ‘celebrity’ in school, and having every pupil saying “Good morneeng, Gaveen” as they walk past.
• The more relaxing speed of life. England is too fast, busy and grey. France is the opposite.

Also, i'm not sure what is going to happen to this blog once i've left Nantes. I'd like to carry it on, but my life in Reading tends to be fairly dull. It'd just end up being hundreds of Airfix Models and Fimo Fires. And let's face it, who wants to read about that!

Last Week of Lessons.

So, it's over. Today I had my last-ever class. The seven months have gone incredibly quickly, and I don't really want to stop teaching!

A lot of pupils had made me 'goodbye' cards and posters. Some of them were cute and well-written, some of them were a bit last-minute, and simply a scrawled poster. I have a few favourites, though, such as this one, which was done by a particularly inventive pupil. Apparently it shows the Conquistadors invading South America and the Aztec people fighting them off. An obvious choice for an English assistant.


That's maize they're growing in the fenced-area. This is going on my wall when i return to England.

This one, however, is the best of all. It's a joint effort from a class of 10-year olds. It's not artistic, but the message they wrote on it is the best thing i've ever read:



You can zoom in to see the message, which reads:

"For Gavin I go missed you
A feeling which is down at the bottom of l'heart at the bottom of the eyes a good qu it is necessary to have a good qu it is nessecary to give a mistery which give l'friendship. It adore Gavine passes a good voyage."

It does make me wonder if they've learned a single thing this year. Never mind.

With my two favourite classes, it was not a proper goodbye, as i'll be meeting up with them in a couple of weeks in London. They're all going to be there on a school trip, and i'm going to accompany them for a day around various tourist attractions. Apparently they're looking forward to seeing me in my 'native habitat'..!

Spitfire Stop-motion.

A while ago on the BBC, there was a series called James May's Toy Stories, which basically made giant versions of childhood toys. One of the episodes involved building a huge Airfix model. I'd pretty much forgotten that Airfix existed, but felt briefly inspired to build a Spitfire, before quickly forgetting once again.

Then, Frida sent a parcel to France containing an Spitfire Airfix kit for 'a boring day in the shed'. Today, being Sunday, was that day, and so I made my Spitfire. Not content with simply making it, I decided to make a short (very) stop-motion film of the model, complete with authentic Spitfire engine noises.



Like I said, Sunday + France = Suddenly taking up weird hobbies. Probably need to get out more.

Nantes Carnival.

Last Sunday, there was a carnival in Nantes. A french friend reliably informs me that it's the beginning of a festival-week where Nantais people celebrate the end of the winter, and the beginning of the spring. All I know is that it involved an unhealthy amount of confetti, squirting-string and bizarre floats.

There were all kinds of strange things coming down the road, such as a troupe of Sarkozys, Noddy and friends, and some robots with whisk-hand. People were spraying the ones they didn't like with the squirty-string stuff, so the Sarkozys were covered pretty quickly.


Noddy, PC Plod and Big Ears. Interestingly, in French Noddy is called 'Oui-Oui' (yes-yes), and Big Ears is 'Potiron' (pumpkin).


Some of the eleven Sarkozys (Sarkozi?)


Whisky men.


A deep-sea diver with a spider as a hand acting as a puppeteer to the mayor of Nantes. Obviously.


There was a lot of confetti on the floor by the end of the parade.

Now for a blog-first - there should be a video just under here. Apparently Noddy and crew enjoy listening to Muse when they are in procession. How odd.

Salmon Shenanigans.

My trip to Geneva was cancelled, due to an certain Icelandic volcano. This means i've got a whole week to fill. Today, I passed the time by making an overly-extravagant lunch.



I don't know what they're actually called, but never mind. I made a dill sauce out of oil, vinegar, cream, lemon juice, salt and sugar and left it for a bit to make it all dill-y. While I was waiting, I prepared some cucumber, salad, and smoked salmon on a plate, then poured the dill sauce on top.

I'm thinking of trying to make sushi next, but i'm scared I might poison myself. I might wait until i'm back in the UK, where i'm certain of my fish-vocab.

Paris with Swede.

For the first week of my Easter holidays, I met up with Frida in Paris. It's conveniently halfway between Nantes and Reading, and so provided a convenient place to see her.

Bear in mind we're both students, so it was Paris-on-a-budget. The hotel was fairly cheap and cheerful, but it provided a bed and a bathroom, so we can't complain too much.


Frida had a new digital SLR, and thus had to take a photo of everything. Including my camera.

We'd already been to Paris in February of 2009, and 'done' most of the touristy things, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Musée D'Orsay, the Louvre etc., so we tried to find some different, less touristy things to do. The only problem is that the less-touristy things are that for a reason - they're not as good.

Int he five days that we were in Paris, I reckon we walked about 25 - 30 miles. And i'm not even exaggerating. Every morning we woke up at 09h00 and left the hotel, never with any real plan for the day. This resulted in us walking a lot. The weather was amazing for the whole week, and it felt a shame to spend it racing around undergound in sweaty trains.


Spring in Paris means a lot of flowers, most of which Frida has captured on film (/SD card).

We'd already been up the Eiffel Tower in the daytime and at night, so the only time that remained was at sunset. We didn't know it at the time, but the redness of the sky was die to the Icelandic volcano eruption filling the sky with volcanic ash. This meant that the sunset looked unusual, but it also made it very hazy. As we were standing at the top of the tower, they turned the lights on. They have a mix of normal floodlighting and flashing strobe lights. The strange thing is, when the strobe lights are on, there are just as many flashes coming up from the ground level as everyone takes photos of the lit-up tower.


Volcanic sunset over Paris. I never thought i'd type that sentence.


The Eiffel Tower in the evening sun.

Once the sun actually set, it got dark pretty quickly, so we walked by the River Seine for a bit before getting a bit cold and retreating back to the hotel.


A carousel by the Eiffel Tower


A couple were having their wedding photos by the tower. I thought i'd join in.

On one of the days we went to Montmartre, and waled around for an afternoon. I like Montmartre, as it feels a bit like a village within a city. The cobbled streets are narrow and winding, and every corner brings an interesting house, little vineyard or shop full of tourist tat...


A view from Montmartre across a, once again, hazy Paris.

In the five days we were in Paris, I took 384 photos. I reckon Frida took even more. Maybe slightly excessive, but it was such a nice week that it felt necessary to document every single bit of it!

Day at the Beach.

Last time I went to Pornic, it was the 14th of October, a couple of weeks after I arrived in France. I remember the place being nice, but it was a bit cold for too much beach time.

This time, however, it was much better. The weather was nearing 20°c, and it was sunny all day. One of my French friends has a static caravan by the sea, so a few of us went down in a couple of cars for a day-at-the-beach.

The main area of Pornic is a fishing port, but either side of the port are 21 small beaches, varying in size from 500m long, to a few feet wide. As it's still early April, there's hardly any tourists invading the coast yet.


The view from some of the rocks beside the beach.


The marina at Pornic.

We arrived at the coat at about midday, and ended up staying there until midnight. Unfortunately, I spent the majority of the time sitting in one direction, which has resulted in only one half of my face being tanned. Not a good look.


Possibly the world's smallest beach. I could actually touch both sides at the same time. We had to paddle to get to this one.


A view across the beaches to the town.


Deliciously warm sand.

I took a photo looking down onto a beach from the cliffs, where there were a few groups of people sunbathing under parasols. I thought it made quite a nice picture, until I zoomed in on the picture, and realised it was a 'plage nudiste'. I'm thought i'd best leave that one off of here...