Thursday, November 16, 2017

November 3rd, a Friday?
Generally I like second hand stores because very few people shop there, but apparently they didn’t get the memo and neither did we. As we were pulling up to the area so I could purchase a suitcase, we were surprised at the enormous amount of people and vehicles coming and going. Guess we picked the wrong day; the day of the 30% off sale, and everybody and their wife was there. No, really, the line was so long to pay; you had to wait 20 minutes because the place was jam packed. It wasn’t even funny.
I did manage to snag a hard suitcase which unfortunately takes up 6 of my 20kg weight allowance and another 10 kg is designated for something that Mom and Dad bought that I'm bringing down. This leaves me with 4 kg to pack my personal belongings and presents for people. Sigh.

November 4th
It was cold as we all piled in the camping car for the drive to Hennebont, up the coast in Brittany. I was packed and with a train ticket back to Nantes on the 7th, and excited to visit more of France. Yes, I know, this sounds like the beginning of a horror story, but its not. Not yet. It was a casual road trip about 180 miles or so, and once again I was asleep for most of it. I don’t know why but every time I'm in the camper or even just the car, I get sleepy, and fade in and out of consciousness. Its weird. On the boat I’ll get seasick and I used to get motion sick in the car but not anymore I guess. Upon our arrival at Christelle and Bleuenn’s house, we met the mom’s boyfriend, his daughter, and joy, the 2 cats. I miss my cats, and yes that makes me sound like I'm going to be a crazy cat lady someday, but I don’t mind. I really like cats. The one who is male is grey and has green eyes, and is quite possibly the fattest cat I have seen in my life. When he lies on the couch he looks like someone let a silver gumdrop melt. The female is black and white, with a perpetually surprised look and enjoys snuggling under your arm. Trust me to focus more on the cats then remembering the boyfriend or his daughter's names.

November 5th
6 degrees as we ate our breakfast this morning. I would much rather have stayed in bed. We were right by the river and you could hear the birds and the joggers going by. After regrouping at the house(I spent the night in the camping car with Jean Luc and Ginette as there weren’t enough beds in the house and they weren’t leaving until midday Sunday) Jean Luc, Pierre(Christelle’s boyfriend) and I went to the forest for some mushroom picking. We recovered quite a few chanterelles, and some chestnuts for grilling.
Looks just like the ones in Puerto Rico

A little window

The entrance to the underworld, or just the beach

We actually went to Lorient, the main port town and walked around a bit.

Monday, November 6th
How do you like waking up early? How about 6.30 am? I know most of you get up every day and do the school and work thing, but I don’t, I actually hate it, but here I was, preparing to dive headlong into my worst nightmare: high school. Just the name is enough to make a person shudder.
Feels like prison bars
In a high school, you can get lost amongst the huge river of teenage humanity, basically carried along the tide to whatever direction its flowing. But I prefer to fight the current and go my own direction, make my own tide, which is why I don’t like schools, because they don’t always encourage individualism, but more about one giant workforce. At least the school lunch was decent, potatoes with bacon in cream. Yummy.

Tuesday, 7th November
Day two of school wasn’t as hard, owing to the fact that the French teacher was sick, so we didn’t have to go in to school until 11 am. English and Spanish were only an hour each and they were a breeze. The English teacher was from France, but had stayed in Maine, and learned English. After being picked up and eating lunch at the house, Bleuenn and Christelle drove me to the train station and saw me off. I was invited to stay at their house anytime I was in Brittany.
Goodbye at the train station.
They are so kind and I love their cats. The journey to Redon was only 50 minutes, and the train glided smoothly along the tracks, so smoothly in fact that I nearly fell asleep. In Redon, I disembarked, and frantically tried to locate my platform, knowing I had only 6 minutes to catch my train. I managed to catch my train and grabbed a seat next to some schoolgirls, then proceeding settled in for the hour ride. Upon my arrival in Nantes, Jean Luc was waiting for me at the platform and we walked to the car in the freezing cold. The drive back was silent, mostly because I was asleep. This seems to be a recurring theme. We drive, I sleep. Funny. But we made it home safely and I almost wept tears of joy at the sight of my bed. I was exhausted, so I slept…..

Wednesday, 8th of November
And slept, and slept, til 10.30 in the morning, at which time I managed to haul myself out of bed and eat, and then get back to a slow day. I observed Ginette and her sewing for a while, which was very hypnotizing. She’s quite good at it and the orders she fills always look great.

Thursday, 9th
Today was a relaxed day, with Jean Luc at golf until the late afternoon so it was just us girls at the house. I betook myself to the shed and got out the bike I've been using, and then proceeded to the Place de Napoleon square in the center of town for a chocolate croissant and some people watching.
Building art
Technically its called a pain au chocolate but for the non French speakers I translated it. Before my croissant, I was at the supermarket buying ingredients for a chocolate soufflé cake for Friday, along with a few articles from the clothes section which will come into play later…
All went well and I made it home for a quiet evening.
Friday, 10th
Boy, Friday was a whirlwind.
It started normally, like it always does, but after lunch things got busy. Now, when Jean Luc and Ginette came to Flores, they had with them some relatives, called Suzelle and Michelle. Friday was Michelle’s birthday and I made a fab chocolate soufflé that’s my moms recipe, its to die for really. And after that I wanted to head back to the supermarket to return the items for a bigger size cause they were just the tiniest bit too small. So, like an idiot, instead of going the usual way, I went the back way cause I didn’t want to peddle up the big hill to the supermarket. Great idea. I took a wrong turn somewhere, ended up in a cul de sac, had to turn around, took another road, ended up outside the city limits, road 4 or 5 kilometres on the highway with my bike, trying to find a road back in, eventually finding a gravel road, going down that, it split into two, asking directions from an elderly couple on a stroll and finally ending up meeting Michelle and Suzelle 200 feet on. That was a weird coincidence, but they were nice enough to explain how to get to the damn supermarket. Upon arriving and locking my bike up, I approached the lady at the counter and asked if I could exchange for one size bigger. Her immediate response was ‘no we don’t take clothes returns’, which is a stupid policy, if you ask me. Nowhere to try stuff on and no return policy if the stuff doesn’t fit. Not fair.
Once home, we all started getting ready for the big birthday dinner out. I got my high heels on and only once we got to the restaurant realized it had been a bad idea. But hey, it was either that or my grey converse all stars so I think I picked the classier look. It was a fun night anyway though. There was no one my age, they were at minimum 25-40 years older then me, given that it was all the family and everyone was old. There were a couple of small children, but they didn’t say much. My soufflé was greatly appreciated by everyone and I was happy. We only made it home at 1 o’clock and I only managed to fall asleep at 2.30am.

Saturday, 11th
Finally, the day I had been waiting all week for, actually the day that I've been waiting a year and 7 months for: the day I got to be reunited with my best friends from England. Its been such a long time since I saw them last that I was worried that I wouldn’t be the same Anneleize they remembered, of course not, but I was nervous. It was raining when a car flashed its headlights at me and I started waving. There they were. Igal, Micha, Noga, Telem, and Matar; All the way from Portchester, England. I was so happy, and there was a round of hugs for all.
Everyone came inside to be introduced, and have some tea. Poor Igal had coffee because he’d been driving since 4 am after they got off the ferry, and it was roughly 500 kilometers. Matar told me 3 times that he’d had a double shot of espresso so he was wide awake. We all went out for lunch at a pretty decent supermarket cafeteria, and then made our way into the heart of the supermarket jungle, searching for sustenance for their apartment. The apartment was small but with enough beds, and the kids played cards for an hour while Igal napped.
Such a pretty smile
Nighttime was bowling time. After we collected my pajamas from Jean Luc and Ginette’s, we hit the bowling alley. I, having only bowled once before in my life, and then it had bars down the sides so you couldn’t gutter your ball, did abysmally, but everyone else was quite good, even Matar with his left handedness.  We didn’t sleep until 1 o’clock that night either, just stayed up and talked for ages.

Sunday, 12th   
My run in the morning was cold, gray, and windy and when I got back, Matar was mad cause I didn’t take him with. I have previously stated reasons for not running with people, but also he was asleep so that’s part of the reason. We took a passagiata to the Place de Napoleon and played with the mechanical animals in the park which you can control with levers and switches and buttons. O f course it then started to rain so we sought shelter in a café and drank hot chocolate with a ton of whipped cream on it. We raced down back streets, splashed each other from puddles,
I miss you guys so much!
and climbed on banisters and railways like groups of kids do when they’re having fun. Lunch was quite good despite the fact that it was store bought, store made food. France is good at food. After lunch we went to the rink. The last time I went ice skating was a year ago when my brother and I traveled half way across a country to surprise a friend for her birthday, but I wont get into that now. It took me at least an hour to get good enough balance, though during said hour I landed on my butt and knees a good many times. Matar and I had to go exchange our skates for bigger sizes because mine were pressing into the back of my leg painfully and his feet were too flat so they were being squished. He had to trade a size up 3 times. They cleaned the ice and then had a minute of speed racing on the fresh ice and a few games of red light green light, neither of which I participated in. I was doing really well, except that my skate kept chafing at my leg and even tucking my jeans in didn’t help. One of the guys who worked at the rink took a special interest in my case as I probably fell the most. He was also really fast and there was a competition to see who in the rink could catch him and he was right behind Noga so I shoved her towards him and said ‘touch him!’ and she did and won a prize ticket, and I take full credit for my speedy friend. The reason the guy was right behind us was because at one point a lady was trying to catch him and I tried to get out of her way but she just slammed into me and didn’t let go and fell right on top of me, HARD. So yes I am fully responsible for that bit. Yay me. We had Panini’s with Nutella in them and that may have been one of the best things I have ever eaten. After the parents were in bed, the 4 of us curled up on the couch all under the blanket, though occasionally Noga would kick it off, and watched The Big Lebowski in French. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

Sunday, 13th
Today was a sad day.
The final breakfast before the leaving part

The Baldran’s dropped me off at Jean Luc and Ginette’s at 9 because they had to get going to catch their ferry. I got hugs and a bag full of presents. And then a few extra hugs and I was waving goodbye as they turned around the corner. Leaving people is always hard for me, because I make such amazing friends with such beautiful people, and sometimes I may never see them again. However I have my fingers crossed that I will see this family sooner rather than later. It may have been a short weekend, but to me it was worth it. I have bruises, and skins been rubbed away from ice skates, and I'm sad but I had such an amazing time. It was so much fun, I wouldn’t have done anything differently except maybe wished that they had more time.     

Tuesday, 14th
Jean Luc took me to Les Sables d’Olonne, which was a pretty seaside town, much like the ones we visited in the camping car. However, there was a special alley where two specific artists had created murals with shells and sea glass and it was gorgeous.
Lighthouse








A cunning sundial.

And of course the siren.



I like this one best







The weather was a bit nippy, but nothing I couldn’t handle after almost a month of living in France. And joy, I sorted out my suitcase troubles!

Wednesday, 15th,
What a beautiful day, some photos got printed and we visited a lake. It was so peaceful, just a couple of fisherman, and planes in the sky because of course there was an aerodrome near there and the pilots were doing acrobatics with their planes. That was cool to see.

Thursday, 16th

Three days till I leave! The time has flown by so fast I cant even believe it. Jean Luc and I finalized a box that is being shipped to Flores filled with French goodies, yay! And I took the bike out and went on another Anneleize tour, though this time I made sure to check landmarks so as not to get lost. I actually ended up passing the same gravel road that I turned onto when I was lost that day, haha. I biked to the lake from yesterday, just to see how far it was, about 8 kilometers, but ended up not cycling around it cause I was losing daylight. I enjoyed driving through those little hamlets, with their vegetable patch and chickens, reminding me of Flores and how excited I am that I’ll be returning very soon and seeing Mom!

Friday, November 3, 2017

Monday and Tuesday, 30th and 31st
Monday’s generally have a bad rep, because so many people have to get up and go to work every Monday, and so it became the most disliked day of the week. Poor little guy. My Monday wasn’t bad at all, it was quiet after the big camping trip, some lying around, sleeping, and making these amazing almond cookies of Ginette’s. But around 5 in the afternoon, I was alone in the house, everyone elsewhere, so I hopped on the bike and lit out of there. Napoleons square is only 2 kilometers from the house, and it seemed like a good place to start my exploration of La Roche from. However, if you know me, you will realize that if I have a book in my bag, which I usually do, then wherever I stop, I'm staying there. It was terribly brisk in the square, so I wasn’t there for long, but I do enjoy people watching in places big enough. It’s fun to see the cultures, ethnicities, and just general personalities of people when they don’t know you are watching them, and yes I know that sounds creepy, but if you are a budding photographer like me then you learn that observing can be interesting and makes it easy to spot a perfect photo opportunity.  Eventually, I got too cold and returned home.
Tuesday is the day that we pick up Bleuenn and Christell, Jean Luc and Ginettes granddaughter and daughter, respectively. I’m not sure what to expect, but I'm sure they’ll be just as wonderful as their relatives.

I failed to fully realize that it was Halloween until the doorbell rang the first time. Now, in France, it’s not as big of a holiday as in the US of course, but there were a few small kids who came trick or treating.

The main thing, the kind of “Halloween” for the French people, is on November 1st, when they buy flowers, get in their cars, and go visit the graves of their family members. It’s not the most joyful thing, but as far as I can tell it’s a tradition that they uphold without fail, every year.
Graveyards aren’t the best places to explore, what with the visitors throwing you dirty looks, and shushing you, but its actually quite interesting, the huge tombs with the whole family, the graves with no flowers, ones covered in moss, weathered from standing so long, from years like 1880 to the turn of the century, to the time of the second world war. Stuff like that really interests me, especially WW2, history is what interests me, I guess. After visiting the house of Ginette’s sister, which included the kind of creepy child’s bedroom with the omnipresent  doll on the bed; the one that looks like it will happily murder you in your sleep, we drove home as night was falling, singing the songs on the radio.

Thursday, 2nd November already!

As some of you who have had the utmost pleasure of meeting me know, I am not a big ‘shopper’. I greatly prefer say, a bookstore, or a second hand shop to hitting the shops or the mall. However, the girls in the Pollaileau (that is their last name) family love shopping. So away we go. Do you know how exhausting it is to traipse back and forth between the stores? After the first couple stores, I just decided screw it, I'm trying something on; so I grabbed a dress and headed to the changing room. Apparently my brain is really good at eye coordination, because it fit, and really well too. And that is how I ended up with an Italian made dress purchased in France, by a half American, half South African, living in Portugal. How’s that for a little twist in geography? By the time we left, everyone was happy with their purchases, and it was freezing outside. Already the temperature average is falling down to 14 degrees Celsius on a reasonable day. Good thing I have some warm clothes! 

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Wednesday, October 25
There’s a certain magic in second hand and vintage stores. It’s like knowing that someone before you owned this article and maybe it was their favorite, maybe someone they love gave it to them. You can see years of history or find quirky things tucked away in the corners. It’s always fun and I love surfing through the stores. However I must admit, the one I went to today is by far the largest second hand shop I have ever been to. It was the size of a warehouse, I’m not even kidding. I spent an hour and a half just in the clothes area; I didn’t even make it to the rest of the store. There was so much to see. 
Of course the shoe racks took full priority. What's life without a few shoes? But the darn French women have tiny feet! I swear, I couldn’t find anything that was larger than 38, and if it was my size (40) then it was so ugly you just wanted to shudder. Oh the joys of large feet. (For those of you who didn’t catch that, it was sarcasm) I probably spent 20 minutes looking at the shoes, picking a pair up, going “Ooh these are cute, oh wait there's a 6 inch heel on it, guess I’ll just break my neck” or “I like these, what's the size? 35? Are you KIDDING ME?!”

Sunday, October 29th  
So, here I am, back again after my camping trip. Can I just say that I’m a little overwhelmed right now? I was going through my photos from Thursday till today and wow, we sure were busy.

Let’s start with our drive from La Roche sur Yon to our destination. A beautiful drive through the French countryside with stunning views of the flat plains, all of which I was asleep for. Go me!
 Honestly, I fell asleep sitting up Your Honor, I don’t know how I ended up lying down with my limbs everywhere, my seatbelt unclipped , and my shoes nowhere to be found. Really, I believe the alarm clock is definitely guilty. He deprived me of sleep, oh and while you’re at it, I believe the lulling effect of driving is to blame as well.  Anyhow, upon our arrival in what I now know as Ile de Noirmoutier, the camping car (and us in it) took a stop at what is known as La Gois.
This is La Gois at high tide, in the distance you can see the far coast.
It is a road that becomes submerged at high tide and is the only known road like it in the world. At high tide, its impassable, under at least 9-10 feet of water, but at low tide, well, that’s when things happen. Its about 4 km long and runs from the island to the far coast. During the low water, people come from all over the island to harvest clams and mussels, by digging in the mud. But more on that later.

The perfect spot for camping cars was at the very end of the island and that is where we went.
Beans, baguette, and a roast that Ginette made.
Lunch had a magnificent view of the ocean, with the sun shining and the water glinting.
A lighthouse point.
After a nap, (those are pretty popular round here) we were ready for a bike ride. The path took us through La Herbaudiere,
I want to ride my bicycle.
to the next town, though I cant remember the name, through trees and across rocky paths, and I could feel every rock,
Lots of trees.
let me tell you, because my bicycle shocks were terrible. Finally we arrived in Noirmoutier en l’Ile,
Ginette and Jean Luc

Boats at low tide in Noirmoutier canal.

The church.
which, besides being the name of the island is also the name of one of the towns. Hooray for complicated! But it is so beautiful. All in all, our bike trip was probably 22 km,
He reminds me of my one cat, Aladeen.

And his brother, Atlas.

Just relaxing on hay bales.
which isn’t bad at all, though my but was so sore, you don’t even wanna know.
22.02 kilometers to be exact.

And a beach sunset to top it off.


After La Herbaudiere, we moved to La Guerniere, and went out to explore that area too. I had also gone running that morning, a fabulous, rainy, gray beach run on a deserted beach, which I loved. I like to run when there aren’t people watching. I like running with my family, but when other people are there, looking, I feel like I’m being judged and I don’t like it at all. So I run where there aren’t people, even if it means taking off my shoes and running barefoot in the sand, with my feet frozen to the bone by the time I get back, its worth it. 

As I mentioned my butt was sore, the bicycle ride on Friday was not gentle on my poor hiney,
To La Gois.

Just a seagull on a post.
but (no pun intended) it was interesting to see La Gois at low tide.
1701 is when it was first mapped, but Jean Luc said its been there as far back as people can remember, because people from the island always walked across the dry area to get to the main land, before the highway on the other side.

Timeline.

The tidal chart
We even biked along it a ways, and naturally I climbed one of the towers
The tower. You can see the seaweed on the foundation.

Up we go.

Barnacled steps.

Higher still.


Clam digging.

Towards the mainland.

Geese flying to the oyster farm to seek unlucky morsels.
that were built so that if you happened to be an idiot and came with your car during the rising tide,
Yes the water really does get that high, and sometimes even higher still.

you could escape up one of the towers until the water receded because otherwise you would drown as your car would become submerged under 3 meters of water.
The tour de France actually crossed La Gois in 2013, I think, and there is a running  race that starts when the water is rising, about by your ankles, so by the time you reach the other side you're pretty much wading through calf high water. Sounds arduous. That particular bike trip was only a measly 17 km, but we were all exhausted by the time we returned to the camper.


Saturday was on to another place, this time St. Jean de Monts, on the mainland again, with one of the longest beaches I have seen in Europe
Empty in winter.

A little mosaic.
(not counting Morocco because that’s just unfair) and of course the boardwalk. We then entered the innards of the city to purchase churros, which are little dough sausages, these ones made of potato, deep fried and of course, COATED in sugar.
Pretty sardine cans.

The weirdest pumpkin shapes and colors at a Halloween exhibition

I mean really.

And so it sets.
By the way, the two things about Noirmoutier that it is well known for, number 1 is salt, which they dry and sell in huge quantities, and the other is potatoes, which only become available in April-May, unfortunately, but interesting all the same.

Today, Sunday, before returning home, we betook ourselves to Sainte Gilles Croix des Vie,
I am being judged. Thanks cat.

Old style Chrysler, with California plates!

This little girl had hair and eyes to make Danerys Targerayen jealous.


And this one with her scooter and glasses was just adorable.
another small town on the coast, and went to investigate the market. My favorite smell is when its cold, a fresh cold and then you smell that fragrant smoke from a woodburning stove, and it smells like winter. (Winter is Coming Jon Snow) However, in the market, there was the smell of roasting chickens and meat, with a large truck standing there, turning them, the sizzling spit of fat hitting the fire, the bustle of the market place, the cool air nipping at your face, and the excitement for the new season.
Lots of chicken

And meat too.
After our purchase of a duck and chips, we returned to the camper and went to our seaside stop to eat lunch. Naturally it started raining but we didn’t mind, because it was warm and we had yummy duck and chips. And after that wonderful experience here I am, attempting to convey it all to you!

Hope you enjoy the photos, and Jabez, the GoT references were for you.

Driving North

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