The Long Awaited Return

This just in, hot off the presses, straight outta the horse's mouth my return date is set: Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008. I'll be catching a plane from Paris (CDG I imagine) to London and then a long flight from London to Sydney, with a stop over in Bangkok (my second visit to everybody's favourite canvass roofed airport) then a leasurely city-hop to Brisbane. We haven't been given definite itineraries yet (not sure how I'll be getting TO Paris in the first place - EF wants to keep up the suspense!) but, given the long flight duration, time difference, scheduled flights etc... (EF flies exclusively with British Airways and QANTAS - that's what they told me anyway) I estimate an arrival time some time after 08:35 (local time) at the Brisbane domestic airport on the morning of Thursday the 4th. See you there!

Guardian of the Flame

A warm bonjour to all readers, how are we all? Hope things are heating up back in Oz as they are certainly cooling down back here in France! From lovely mid-30 degree summer days not (too much) more than a month ago to top temperatures of 22. And that's if the sun comes out...
It's started snowing more regularly in the French Alps, and at lower altitudes.
I've cracked out the winter gear and have started layering again.
Suffice it to say it is getting cold again. It came early this year, at least that's what everyone has been assuring me (it isn't really that assuring).
After freezing off our little French behinds, we decided that it was time to light the chimney. Yay! It's a brilliant idea to have a fire in you house, in a strictly non-destructive capacity of course. Since everyone went off to work this afternoon, and I was home alone (teacher strike, don't ask), they made me Guardian of the Flame. That just means putting more logs on, but hey, we don't have a fireplace at home, so this job, this mission if you like, is something really special. Plus, in french 'Gardien du feu' is a play on words (although only for those of us who live in the number 30). 10 points to who works it out.

The Summer I Enjoyed

Hello and welcome to the blog. By golly it's been a while! I've had a rip-roaring summer (do we still say rip-roaring? I believe the Spanish would say muy animado) Anyway, bit of a summary:

• My holidays actually started around June 16. School only just re-commenced this Wednesday, which means I enjoyed a generous 12 week holiday. In France there are actually more school holidays than in any other EU country (however, french students, on average, spend more hours at school during the week than other EU students... Pick your battles kids!)
• That week I went on a day trip to Montpellier, bought some sunnies and hired a bike for the afternoon. I had lunch with a duck that day too.
• My host father (who is a pilot for fun) took me on a tour of the region in a snazzy little jet. I wasn't even a little nervous. Nope. Not at all. It was a hot day, that's why I was sweating so profusely...
• June 27th went to Paris, met up with (half) the family (they came all the way out from Oz, did I mention that?) at CDG airport. We hung out in Paris for a week, doing the whole "tourist thing" Thoroughly enjoyed it I might add...
• July 3rd we trained it down to the south of France (my domain, as I've come to think of it) where we hired a car, met up with Irene (my fairy Godmother) and hung out chez Anke in Cabannes, just outside of Avignon. We also did the tourist thing down in the south too.
• Then we headed out to Greece (via London, it was 12° and drizzly, in the middle of JULY, their summer) Loitered around Athens for a few days, saw the Acropolis (thats the Parthenon, not to be confused with the fiery horsemen thing...) and then headed out to Naxos island, in the Cyclades. We stayed there for a week then Michael and Mum had to go home back to Australia. I stayed longer in Greece (wouldn't you? comment now!)
  
• Watched the Doctor Who season 4 finale, as it happened on YouTube (hey I thought it was worth a mention - Davros was back!)
  
• After travelling a bit through Greece (destinations including, but not limited to: Ptolemaida, Plati and Thessaloniki) I had to come back to France. Imagine that moment at the airport "oh, I don't wanna go back to FRANCE! I wanna stay here in GREECE" It wasn't all bad, I got to hang in Fiumicino for the afternoon as I waited in between flights (Fiumicino in Italy, I've gone to Italy again!)
• When I got back to France I discovered it was the Summer fête votive season. Basically big town parties, one town at a time, and exclusive to this region in the south. I also piloted a boat (are boats piloted? If they are, then I did)
• Then we all headed up to the mountains, to do some good old fashioned 4x4 in the brand new Hybrid Lexus with Regular Road Tyres. It was cold as Hell (again, nothing Biblical, there is a town in Norway called Hell. The mercury there regularly drops below -20: this means in Winter, Hell literally freezes over) up there, at the top of St Martin De Belleville it was 8° and foggy... Brrrr! The mountains were actually quite spectacular in summer, even without snow (although the tops of the taller mountains actually have snow all year round, such as Val Thorens and Mont Blanc. The latter peak has an altitude of over 4800 m, sorry Kosciusko)
  
• And to top it all off I thought I'd ride my recently repared push bike to the Pont Du Gard, a mean 30 km ride. Watch out for me in Le Tour De France next year...

Oooh! Dot points! Love m'dot points. That about does it for now I think, best not to over do it in one go. I'll try to post some more details up later on (and some piccys) and I WILL send another e-mail, I swear. Those "what happened to those Travel Newsletters" comments are REALLY starting to pile up ;)
FrenchSimon Out.

Oh, and Happy Fathers Day!

Travel Newsletter

This post was originally an email I sent to family and friends twice by accident. You too could receive two accidental emails, scroll down to the bottom of this post to find out how to get on this rich list.

You'll never guess what happened at school again, the Blocus. I brought my camera to take photos this time, but it was less spectacular. I was rather disappointed. What had actually happened was that Thursday was actually a teacher's strike which we were warned about well in advance so that people could stay at home. This makes the Blocus redundant and explains why nobody's quite sure why it happened in the first place. So anyway, this made me think about some of the differences between high school students in Australia and in France, how French students have the right to strike and protest and stuff like that. This is what I came up with:

1. French students don't have to wear a uniform to school:

• Upside: They don't have to muck about trying to find their tie and can concentrate on getting to that crazy 8 o'clock class
• Downside: Much more awkward if you and your best mate rock up to class and realise that you're wearing the same outfit; it's also much more difficult to get away with wearing the same thing everyday

2. French students are only assessed by exams:

• Upside: With a school day that lasts from 8 am and goes until 5:30 pm, they don't have much time to research, draft and edit assignments for the 9 or so subjects they take
  
• Downside: Exams create a stressful environment that's not great for student well-being; a lack of independent study tasks can't be great either.
  

3. The canteen here offers a hot, three course meal for lunch for only aorund 4€:

• Upside: Students can enjoy a hot, three course meal for lunch (during their one and a half hour break)
• Downside: I can't really think of one, except that it costs 4€, but it's oh so convenient
  

4. Stress: There's no difference here, everybody stresses. I know it's easy for me to say this, because I've already finished high school, but everybody needs to just chill out. Whatever happens, happens. Just do your best and have fun. Although, chilling out and having fun will not let your best be higher than a 7.

Another funny thing happened at school the other day; this group of people came into the school and started playing music and getting people to dance. I figured it must be a traditional thing, so I got up and danced too. It was harder than it looked but I didn't step on anybody's toes, so I was happy (and so were they, I was wearing Blundstones). Although I just did one dance and left (they didn't ask me to stay and do another), there were people performing all lunchtime. It was one of those nice, unexpected things that only happen in France and only when I don't have a camera.

The weather here has been grey and rainy recently in France, which is fine for me, I knew it was going to be grey and rainy the whole time in Europe, but it makes most people cranky. It's not all bad news though, with summer just around the corner (scheduled to commence June 21), things are sure to heat up and replace these pesky clouds with the scorching Mediterranean sun. We do get some nice days though and I have taken some photos to prove it. There are a lot of flowers growing around this place, I'll attach some photos to prove that too.

Oh, and I thought I'd better mention this: please forward this on to people who may find it interesting (like you good people who are reading the blog). Don't get me wrong, reading the blog is great, but you could be receiving the email, with pictures! Email me here to get on the list at emyk.nomis@gmail.com