Another week has been and gone since you last heard from me, and I must say that it was glorious.

After a successful introduction with my 2^nd family on the Friday night previous (16th march), my host-sister  (Clementine) had not only invited me out to a party on the following weekend (25th march), but also to lunch on Monday (19th march) with her bro, Malo, and her best friends Antoine and Arthur, who are twins that look nothing alike.  One really tall with blonde hair and blue eyes, and the other is not as tall (but still tall) with brown hair and brown eyes. They go to a school near ours in Aix and also live in the same village that my second family live in, called ‘Rognes’. This means that we will catch the same bus in the afternoon, and Clementine has informed me I will be seeing a lot of them!  in the mornings  however, Clem, Malo and I will go to Aix in the car with Thibault (pronounces Ti-Bo) who is “le papa de Clementine et Malo” as he once described himself in a SMS to me.

Malo, Marie and Clementine! they're so lovely.

  Another of their friends also came to lunch (but I forgot his name...). we went to a really great cafe right on the Cours Mirabeau (that big ,lovely, central street with the trees in rows on either side) and I always had wondered why every time I passed this cafe, no matter what hour of the day, it would  be so full of people. Upon going there, I realised that in comparison to the cafes of equal beauty on either side, the prices of this cafe were not as daunting on one’s wallet. Par exemple, when venturing alone to a cafe on the Cours Mirabeau (La Garcons cafe) a few weeks ago, I purchased a rather scrumptious Crock Madame for 7 Euros. At this cafe (le Grillson) I got the same but meal but even bigger for 4,50 Euro! It’s crazy! It was such a nice lunch and Clementine is rather gifted at making me feel in the conversation even though I was not sure of what was happening. Every now and then she’s quickly fill me in on what the topic of discussion  was before carrying on launching French sentences across the table with all the others and then bursting out laughing. I also love this cafe because on the toilet. For starters, there is toilet paper and a toilet seat, but then it goes the extra mile by flushing the toilet for you when you are finish and seat does a 360 and gets blasted with water to clean it... I was in sanitation heaven. I usually wouldn’t blink an eyelid at this sort of detail if I were in Australia, but the public toilets here are so ridiculously bad, that I think it’s worth a mention. I might have told you this already but at school, the toilets have no seats and you must provide your own toilet paper – thus, I don’t use the toilets at school.  Back to speaking of the lunch! so yes, I ordered a Crock Madame again because they’re just so good (and also because they were one of the only things I recognised on the menu. For those who don’t know, it’s basically a ham and cheese toastie that has been severely ‘french-ified’ to become incredibly more delicious. The difference between a Crock Madame and a Crock Monsieur is that the Crock Madame has a sunny-side-up egg on top with a gooey yolk to compliment the salty cheese and ham.

Monday evening I headed off to another rotary evening with Anne, and I always look forward to these nights because I get to have a good feed with good people at a stunning venue (again I forgot my camera – but a Rotarian was there taking happy-snaps which I will track down sooner or later). It was a good night that was made even better because I FINALLY met my councillor (someone who I am meant to meet up with twice a month to talk about how I am going etc). Emmanuel Gili is his name and he’s a 30-ish year old lawyer based in Marseille) with his girlfriend who is also a Rotarian at our club and who is also studying to become a lawyer (he told me he lives 5 minutes walk from the beach!). Emmanuel has promised to take me out in Marseille soon to try some REAL pizza which can’t be found in Aix – and he would know because he’s Italian and he lived in Aix for 10 years or so. At our table during dinner we also had two older Rotarians who kept tapping their cutlery against each other or the base of their wine classes. I thought this was their way of applauding the speeches that were happening at the time until the ‘tink, tink, tink... tink, tink, tink” was competing with the poor presenter and distracting the other-wise silent crowd. Dinner wasn’t as fascinating as advanced as others they’d had according to Anne – however, it was still delicious. If I can bring myself to eat week-old rice with a can of salmon on top and some soy sauce (it was so bad...I made it for lunch sometime last week and I can’t believe ate it), then I can definitely eat the meal they brought out on Monday evening. The entree was 2 discs of goats cheese slightly warmed and sprinkles with some herbs and oil sitting on-top of two petit toasts, a role of cured ham in the centre and a small salade verte (green salad) on the side. Delicious. Then the main meal was black olive infused polenta with a grilled skewer of salmon and some sort of white fleshed fish. Then finally a coffee, a speech and off to home by 11:30. Although I was almost falling asleep at the dinner table, when we got some I stayed up on the computer until 2 in the morning which was rather idiotic of me. This led to a very sleepy Tuesday...

the theatre!

In fact I was so tired that Tuesday hasn’t really registered in my brain. I think I just went through the day with my nose in a book in a semi-conscious state... (Some time later)... so after removing all the photos from my camera, I saw that yes, I went to the theatre in Salon on Tuesday night to see a French production of "of mice and men". We were right at the top of the theatre and it was kind of ridiculously uncomfortable trying to view the stage. Not the best design!

As I mentioned previously, Wednesday has become a bit of a tradition in that Sam would come on the school bus to Aix where I would meet her at 1, and we’d go get lunch and chill out. This we did, and Sam also brought a friend too whose name was Marie. She sent me a text saying “what are you in the mood to eat? MEXICAN? Burger? Pizza? Kebab?” we’re a healthy bunch right? Without hesitating I answered “mmm Mexican”, and so we did. We came back to the flat and chilled in my bedroom with the French doors wide open onto the balcony and a cool breeze blowing through before I walked them back to the bus stop.  

Thursday, I finally made it out to lunch with Chloe who is a girl in my class. We only had an hour for lunch as we do every Thursday, and I find this a slight shame because this is the day that there is a great produce market held just down the road from the school in the city centre. I’m sure an hour would probably be long enough for me to get my ‘Julia child’ persona on and buy some French produce to make a boeuf bourguignon or whatever, so next Thursday I might go explore and see what I can find.  But on this particular lunch time break I went to a little sandwich bistro called ‘Jacobs’ and got some sort of toasted cheese baguette with Chloe and her firend. I hope that whenever I mention cheese you’re not picturing the kind that comes in the form of a large processed yellow rectangle like in Australia... gahh, those wretched days are behind me.  So, on my toasted baguette I had yummy melted French cheese. Chloe also invited me to go for a coffee after school, and although I wanted to, I was really tired from all the late nights I had been having. Our plan wasn’t set in stone, so after school I started walking the ridiculously short way home where I ran into Chloe sitting on the steps of a building waiting for her friend anyway. Fate decided I would go to the cafe after all. About 2 hours later as the sun was finally setting, we had managed to stand around in the cold without ever touching our lips to a hot espresso or sitting under a heat lamp in any cafe. I am not sure what was happing as people I had never met were coming and going from our huddle on the street, but finally I said Au revoir and headed to the warmth of the apartment. I was exhausted, so I crawled into bed and watched Sherlock Holmes 1 (a movie I had never seen) and it was bliss.

Friday and fatigued as all hell..... The weather was overcast in the morning, but by lunch blue was appearing and the sun was making me happy. Sally Bruner, an American exchanger living about 2 hours drive away, was in Aix on Friday with her previous host sister and the sister’s friend, and we decided to hang out after school. When school finished I called sally’s sisters phone because sally doesn’t have phone at the moment. I introduced myself and asked could I speak to sally, but I could not understand what she was saying. After we hung up I sent a message apologising and asking where we should meet up and I started heading into Aix. After twenty minutes of walking aimlessly, I gave up and went home. Low-and-behold (I have no idea how to spell that phrase, or even how it came to be a phrase. Low and behold... weird), just as I got home a message came through saying they were at H&M, a popular clothing store, about 1 km walk away and basically where I had just walked from. I was a little fed up so I told them to meet me at a particular fountain which was conveniently only 100m from my house! The last time sally had visited she had left her house keys on my bed, so this was a good opportunity to return them. When we finally met up, the host-sister and her friend were pretty unfriendly, and sally was keen to split up for a few hours. Sally and I went to a cafe and had a huge D ‘n’ M about everything in her world and mine which is always soothing for an exchangers soul, bought a coffee, an ice-cream (I had a scoop of rum and raisin) and then she taught me how to ask for something if I were in a restaurant because she could see that I was struggling a bit when ordering my ice-cream. I learnt (for example):

Can I have a nutella crepe?

Est-ce que puis-je avoir une crêpe au nutella ?

It’s pretty obvious how confusing it must be when 6 English words turn into 10 French words! But hey, its progress and I understand so I am happy. After a spot of shopping, I walked Sally back to meet up with her friends and with a huge American/Australian hug, I trotted off homeward.

Saturday morning I had my usual glorious sleep in, but only until 10 because I had something on today – something very fun indeed.   As I mentioned earlier, Clementine my second host sister had invited me to a party on Saturday night, and it was a fancy dress masquerade. Heels and dresses were to be worn, and definitely no jeans. I threw together a bag for over-night and took my rather ridiculous dress off its hanger from the first time. It’s a short, black dress with chiffon sleeves and a little row if diamonds down the front. I bought it in a vintage store in Alstonville called ‘Ginger lily’ because I thought it looked French! I would also wear black stockings and my red heels, which were also getting their first use since being in France. However, I was dressed in my beloved jeans and  a t-shirt for before the party. Thibault came and picked me up at 12 p.m. with the youngest of my second family, Louise, who is 9 years old and very cute. We also picked up Antoine and Arthur who had a morning class at school and set off on a really beautiful drive through the country side to their village about 15-20 minutes away. The scenery is truly exquisite on this drive, so one day soon I will make sure to photograph it for you. It turns out that I was going while the whole of my second family (Thibault, Marie, Clementine, Malo and Louise) to their friend’s house for lunch along with 21 other people. The lunch was so amazing! I think I ate for about 5 hours solid. When were first got to Katie and .... (I forgot the husbands’ name), there was beautiful rosé and vin rouge flowing from every direction along with a selection delicious spreads on petit pieces of bread. Such as, roast red capsicum and soft white cheese sprinkles with chives, a creamy parsley and tuna spread with slices of radish, and some others that I don’t know what was in them. Then when we all sat down to eat, a huge platter of smokes salmon covered in dill was passed around the table which we ate on pieces of buttered baguette and drizzled with lime juice. After that came the main meal which was bbq’d pieced of duck back (huge pieces with a layer of fat over one side that had turned golden). The outside was nice and brown while the inside was red and juicy! OH MY! We ate this with some grilled vegetables (red and green capsicum, onion etc.) and some potato bake. And when I though I withstand no more, out came the darn cheese platter with more varieties then I could count on my fingers. We ate this with bread and butter also. Ok, I was about to burst... I was genuinely frightened that my dress wouldn’t do up that evening (and trust me, it almost didn’t) but then out came and FREAKING BAKED CHEESE CAKE (made my Marie with a chocolate crust) and home-made raspberry and lemon sorbet made by a guy called Terri. How could I not.....

After we were all uncomfortably full, the dancing began. All the men (who had been childhood friends) jumped up, merry on wine, and started dancing to “it’s raining men” aided by the kitchen mop which served as a dancing partner and an electric guitar. This fiesta carried on long after Clem, Malo and I had to go and get ready for the part at 7p.m. at 8, Marie chauffeured us down to pick up Antoine and his little sister, Anouk 15, who looked very dashing in their suit and dress.

When we arrived at the prestige golf and tennis club, tea-light candles guided the footpath to the main entrance where were greeted and had our names marked off the list. Before we got to the entrance however, we put on our masks (I had a fox... because I’m a foxy woman) as that was the theme for the night. We got a group photo with our masks and then headed into the function room which was really nicely decorated!  it was modern and not trashy and had mirrors and a bar and cushioned places to sit. We went to the coat (which was another room with a bar that wasn’t being used that night) room to take off our jackets and masks which we had on for a total of 30 seconds and went to join the party! The fete is put together by a group of doubtlessly wealthy group of older individuals once a month to allow us youngin’s from 14-18 to come along, have fun, eat, drink and DANCE. Not dirty dancing like you find in nightclubs, but the old-school partnered dancing where you swish each other around the room a-twistin’ and a-turnin’ to modern music that you probably would find in a night club. Of course not everyone was dancing with a partner thank god, so we all got up and were dancing in big groups and it was just heaps of fun. There were trays off food everywhere with all kids of stuff, but I was so full after lunch that I didn’t pay much attention. There was punch and coke and water and other stuff to drink, and the atmosphere was really great! Everyone was done up, and I was happy to see that there was as many guys as girls up there on the dance floor. There were about 80 of us all together from all different schools around Aix.  Both Chloe and another girl, Solene, who is also in my class, were also there so that was really nice to see familiar faced amongst the crowd. I talked to Solene here heaps over the night (or should I say yelled! Not only was it difficult to understand each other because of the language, but we were SCREAMING OVER THE DJ) and met her two older sisters who were 17 and 18. They said I was welcome at their house anytime for dinner. Ain’t that lovely. I also met a girl who is going to be in the class I am moving to this week (premiere L) and she has been to Australia and said I can sit next to her! She speaks really good English so that’s going to be good and bad. Ahh well. It finished at 1 And I fell asleep the instant we got home, with a good couple of millimetres taken off my pinkie-toes thanks to my shoes.

Sunday morning I woke up from my dream about the rainforest  to the booming sound of birds tweeting, wind blowing and leaves rustling it was to loud and close to be real, and I realised that it was some sort of alarm booming out of malo’s speakers on the bed side table (Malo had lent me his room as was in with Clem). In fact it was so loud that I had no doubts it would wake them up to, and it a matter of seconds Malo came stumbling it, turned it off and slunk back to bed, looking the same way I felt.  I was woken up at 12 by Marie (who was not feeling to sharp herself after yesterdays fiesta... hehehe) and Malo was woken up too so I wasn’t the only one to sleep in!

le pâté

it might not look at that appealing...
BUT IT TASTES SO GOOD.

hahaha. it looks live someone has aready eaten it... <3

the trusty baguette. and in the back ground is a bpttle of badoit (sparkling water)

i think this was an accidental photo,
but you can see Malo, louise and Thibault!

I watched as lunch was prepared and I helped set the table outside in the delicious sun. It was a beautiful day.... and another feast was on its way... oh lordy. Phase one of the meal to come was an appetiser: spicy and really moist red sausage, some green olives and a glass of rosé. Then we had 2 types of pâté. On was made from the liver of a goose, and the other was made from pig liver and figorella (I think that’s how you spell it) which is a type of pork sausage made on the French island in the Mediterranean. They were so great, and you eat them with buttered bread. After that came two whole roast chickens, with basmati rice and a stir-fried zucchini and onion dish which was really delish. After that... more cheese. I declined desert without asking what it was because I knew that would be a dangerous and fatal move. I literally finished lunch, helped clean up, and crawled back up the stairs to the nice warm DOUBLE bed, with the shutters and door closed - my little nocturnal cave – where I slept until 5 in the afternoon. What a great day. After checking for eggs in the chicken pen with Louise, and eating a slice of nutella toast with Malo, it was time to go home to jean and Julie. Anne and Charles were at Pourcieux, so it would just be us three tonight.

how cute are they

In fact here I am, sitting in my bed at 1:25 am writing this dedicated blog for you all. I love to blog. I just relived those meals and that party, and I thank you for reading it, because to see that 100 people are interested enough in what I have to say, to read my blog, makes me really happy. Thank you and good night, or as Julia child would say, “Bon appétit!”. 

I would have posted last night, but I didn’t get to add all the photos! So I have dragged this blog on one more night to make it just right xx

Lots of love xxx

dont forget the cheese x