Friday I came back to Cavalaire after spending five days in Paris with Lauren, Lucie, Dad, and Mom then five days traveling around Provence with Mom, Dad, and Lucie. I have much to tell about the Paris trip and seeing many towns all around Provence, but I plan on posting those tomorrow because this post will focus on when Lauren came to Cavalaire.
Saturday, March 6th seemed like a rather long day. Lauren's plane from Munich, Germany did not get to Nice until around three that afternoon. My first host mom, Laurence, drove Cara and me to the airport to pick up Lauren. Cara was leaving the next day to go skiing with her class so she only got to spend a little time with Lauren. We get to the airport, right on time I might add, only to see that Lauren's plane was delayed an hour. As if it wasn't hard enough to wait until three! Now, I had to wait until five! Finally, it landed. Whoever designed the Nice airport was just mean. The baggage claim is separated from the waiting area by automatic doors that only let passengers come out. Cara and I paced back and forth trying to locate Lauren while the doors momentarily opened to let someone through. At last, we spotted Lauren with her red backpack. Excitedly, I waved and screamed her name. Of course we had to stand there waiting and waiting until her bag came out. I was so happy to hug her when she walked through those doors. As we walked to the car Lauren told us about her flight... apparently Germany wasn't her favorite country. She was amazed at how much the scenery changed from cold, gray, snow in Munich to sun, palm trees, and bright foliage in Nice.
Two hours and much conversation later we arrived safely in Cavalaire. We were greeted at the house by Paul, who was equally anxious to make the acquaintance of my sister. After a moment of byes from Laurence and Cara, I showed Lauren the house I've been living in since the beginning of January. The tour didn't take too long; it is a European house-everything's smaller here. A quick dinner of baguette and cheese-never gets old- and it was off to bed to ease Lauren's jet lag.
Sunday, after eating several pain au chocolat (I think Lauren would have braved the international travel just to have these... it's ok, I understand) we got ready to go eat at my host grandparents' house just like every Sunday. Paul ate over there with us as well. It was good to have him to translate with me, that way Lauren got to follow the conversation as well. The food was delicious (as usual), and Lauren got to try a little foie gras and rabbit. Welcome to France! Oh and for dessert it was a delicious pound cake type cake with mousse au chocolat. mmmm!! These Frenchies sure can cook. We walked downtown to show Lauren Cavalaire in the daylight. She had no luck with the weather the whole time she was in the south with me. The week before was beautiful and the week after she left was too. What she got was wind, cold, and a bit of rain; it was still better than Munich though. After seeing the grand sites of Cavalaire- which included my host parents' pizzeria, several bakeries, the little bookstore, and the few number of boutiques- we went back to the pizzeria and eventually came back up to the house to eat a pizza. What a hard life!
Lauren and I had planned to make a trip over to my high school on Monday. We got all ready to go down into town so we could catch the bus, go to the school, have lunch at a restaurant nearby, and then head back. However, I did not pay attention to the fine print on the bus schedule saying that the 12:30 bus only ran during holidays. Typical. Our plan ended up falling through. Instead, we had a sandwich in a restaurant on the seaside, and then we walked over to Carrefour (the local grocery store/hang out for Paul, Cara, and me). Lauren and I had a nice little moment sitting on the bench that Cara, Paul, and I frequent. We waited there for a while until the bakeries opened back up- they close everday from 1:30 to 3:30. The long wait was payed off as we ate our pieces of apple pie and tarte tropezienne (something everyone must taste at least once in their life). The rest of the day was spent just hanging out and being together once again.
My current host mom, Christine, took us to the market of St. Tropez Tuesday morning. It wasn't as hoppin as it can be in the summer, still a bit too chilly for tons of people, but it was quite adequate. We walked around listening to the rapid speaking salespeople pitch their advertisements as to why we should buy their products. It seems to help that they call all the women Mademoiselle and Princesse. We continued by walking through the market and over to the port of St. Tropez. It is quite a beautiful town, especially when it's not so crowded. The downside is that a lot of stores are closed. After admiring the beautiful boats, views, and gigantic yachts, we sat down to have a coffee at Senequier, a very well known cafe right on the port. The three of us had a relaxing moment looking out over the water sipping our little espressos, well orange juice for Lauren. We left St. Tropez, and Christine drove us by some other close by towns. Port Grimaud is a mini Venice not too far from Cavalaire. The roads are canals and one can park their boat right by their house. We didn't get the chance to walk around, just drive by, but I plan on going back once it gets a little warmer. It seems like a beautiful and interesting little place.
That night we went over to Laurence and Christophe's house (my first host home). Lauren has spent a good amount of time with Deborah, Laurence and Christophe's daughter, who is in Tupelo. It was exciting for Lauren to meet Deborah's parents and see her house/room because she knows Deborah and also because I am so close to her parents now. I feel that her house is my house too. We had a crepe party. (Again, welcome to France!) It was quite scrumptious. The conversation worked out well seeing as Laurence speaks quite a bit of English and then of course my translation. I know Lauren had a wonderful time getting to know them a bit and seeing where I've been. We watched Mean Girls that night (in English) before heading off to bed.
The next day was picture day around Cavalaire. Thankfully, we had some nice weather. My friend Eva from school came to Cavalaire that afternoon. She was so excited to meet my sister, and the two of them seemed to get along quite well. Lauren, Paul, Eva, and I walked around Cavalaire (especially on the port) taking pictures and just having a fun moment together. It was great to have Lauren, who plays such a huge role in my life, meet the people that have impacted me so much throughout my exchange this year. The bonds I have made with my friends over here is something that can never be broken, and it's rare that people from my life in the states get to meet the people I've become so close to this year. I'm definitely grateful for this fact.
The next morning started off at 5:30 so that we could get to the airport on time for our Paris flight. We would soon discover that this early morning was only the beginning of our Parisian adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment