"Travel Weekend"

Having been given the Friday off from class creating a 3-day weekend students ventured whimsically to places like London, Amsterdam, Venice, and Avignon.  Meanwhile Dan and I used this time to take quick train trips to Golfe Juan, Monaco, and Antibes - each enjoyable in their own right.  I've already written about our first day of lounging (topless!) on the beaches of Golfe Juan and I planned to write about our Monaco experience this morning, but considering my camera's juice is completely dissipated at the moment I guess I'll just give you a little taste and divulge the full details with accompanying pictures later.

Monaco was fantastic.  I don't know if I've even visited a place where everything down to the sidewalks is so ornate.  The remnants of the Grand Prix race from a week ago are still intact in the streets.  We walked around for about five hours exploring the winding streets of the world's second smallest principality (Vatican City holds the title of smallest).  We documented every square inch with 300 pictures or so.  I promise to only post a miniscule portion of those.

Yesterday from noon to eight we journeyed through the tiny, old streets of neighboring Antibes.  I'd spent a day there before when I was here three years ago - lunching with ladies from my program and snapping goofy model-esque picture poses atop a scenic overlook by the sea.  This trip with Dan, though, was somehow different.  We took more time to notice the small things - exploring many more nooks and crannies than I had previously.  The local artists in the open air market, the myriad of hats for the taking at the hidden absinthe bar, and the rocky shoreline with white crested waves crashing beneath the walled city were just some of the things we admired.  

I'll post more in-depth stories of our adventures along with pictures later on when I get a chance.  For now we're going to grab lunch, charge my camera battery, and head over to Cannes for an afternoon of sightseeing, shopping, and maybe a movie in one of its many theatres.  I can see out the window of our rooftop classroom now that there appears to be a threat of afternoon thunderstorms as the sky goes from a light white down to a deep purple off in the distance behind the harbored tip of Golfe Juan......hopefully we can do a quick raindance to hold off the looming showers.  

Anyway - time to run.  Will report back later.  A tout a l'heure!

Danny has landed!

 After an 8-hour flight, a 6-hour layover in Paris, and another flight down to Nice complete with a 40-min delay.....Dan has made it to me in the south of France!

He arrived jetlagged, yet excited --- so we hit the ground running in my home base of Juan-Les-Pins right away in an attempt to prolong Dan's head hitting the pillow and get his body clock adjusted to France time.

Living just half a block up from the blue Mediterranean Sea makes for a lovely view from my balcony as well as easy access for strolling along the boardwalk.  Dan and I did just that as soon as we unpacked his very well organized suitcase.  :)

 

On the way to the restaurant-lined beach we made a quick pitstop for some mid-afternoon gelato (which I seem to have adopted as a daily ritual).  Dan LOVED his cone full of Snickers and chocolate goodness.  We then walked out on a rocky point to admire the distant yachts and crystal clear water just at our feet.  Dan can't get over the scenery of Juan-Les-Pins...restaurants with couches and tables that allow its patrons to dine with their feet in the sand, colorful awnings from the shops and apartments looming just behind, and not to mention topless French sunbathers as far as the eye can see.

We got him some good handmade French pizza that is as thin as our Arby's FSI's.  He LOVED that too.  We had a great (cheap!) bottle of French red wine with our pizzas which you could've mistaken for warm milk as it began to lull Dan to sleep while he was still seated at the table.  At one point during our conversation I had to inform him that only one of his eyes was still open --- I'm pretty sure he doesn't remember most of that first day/night as I've had to repeat a lot of what I said - but I can understand.  I've already dealt with the exact same thing with our 25 students when they arrived.  I'm a pro now.

The next morning we got up and went to my favorite spot for breakfast crepes - "Pan & Cake."  We enjoyed ingredients like ham, cheese, mushrooms, and egg warmly wrapped into our soft crepes.  Yum!  Grabbed two 'pain-au-chocolats' to go and headed toward the train station for a day on the beach in the neighboring town of Golfe Juan.  Below are some pictures from our afternoon - it was great and so relaxing.

                       

 

Today is Dan's third day on the ground here and the students have been given a day off class to allow time for a "travel weekend" of their choice.  We are going to use this time to take a day trip over to Monaco and hopefully stop in Eze on one of the legs of the train ride.  It's another beautiful day with a bit of a breeze so it should be perfect for walking around and exploring new areas.  I've never been to either of these places, so I'm excited to see them for the first time today with Dan.  I'm sure we'll have SO many pictures to post after today.

Okay, better go check the train schedule before the entire day gets away from us on the internet.  Talk to you soon.

-ab & dd

To all worried family/friends...

[***I tried to post this the other day after receiving a concerned gmail message from my dad, but my internet connection failed during the posting.***]

I guess I should have clarified better in my previous "French Hospitals" post that it was NOT ME who was in the hospital last week.  I was there with a student --- who is also doing fine.  All is good - just want to make sure no one is worrying because everything here is great.

Again, I am a big fan of the French medical system.  The doctors make housecalls, the over-the-counter prescriptions at the pharmacies are to die for (not to mention they cost like 3euros), the prices for hospital visits are a miniscule fraction of what they would cost in the States.....it's incredible.  I love it.  If this is what everyone refers to as "socialism," then vive la France because it is daggum wonderful!  A nurse has continued to come to our residence once a day every day since our student returned from the hospital to check up and make sure everything is okay.  We are in great hands!!

That is all.  :)

Laundering

About to spend the day washing sheets of the Juan-Les-Pins guest apartment (in addition to washing some of my own clothes for the first time since I've been here).

Hope to also get some sun by the pool and write some postcards (and maybe a better blog post) this afternoon as well.

A tout a l'heure!

More Cannes Blogs

Click on the following links to check out blogs from some of our students over here.  

http://angeyang.blogspot.com/

http://lindseybrooke.tumblr.com/

http://sarahwalpert.blogspot.com/

http://georgefrance.blogspot.com/

http://www.bryceincannes.com/

http://grino-grino.blogspot.com/

I love looking at these although I tend to find myself getting jealous of their fun adventures.......which really makes no sense since I am here in France with them.  I think seeing their experiences through posts and pictures vividly reminds me of (and makes me miss) the camaraderie I shared with my fellow classmates when I attended this program as a student back in the good ol' days of college.

*P.S. -- If any students see this and want me to add their blog to this list just let me know.  I only posted the ones I knew about...  :)

I booked my hotel in Paris the other day

The only reason I am devoting an entire post to this is because:

 (a) I am spending more money on this 3-night, post-Cannes program hotel stay than I ever have on a hotel visit in my life.  Granted, in my past hotel-booking experience it has often been with the mindset of: "Can I cram fourteen of my other friends into this standard 'double' room conspicuously enough after a night of one too many games of beer pong or bar shots in (fill-in-the-blank) college town?"  In those such cases the rate usually ends up being no more than $10/person, so my Parisian booking this time around is certainly a shock to my poor credit card's system.

(b) The hotel was chosen from a long list of potential venues after some meticulous Google-searching on my part.  I reviewed the list thoroughly and repeatedly, considering factors such as location and decor with price being very low on the list of considerations because, 'Hey, when in Rome (er, Paris), right?'  Besides, by the time this Parisian getaway takes place I will have been housed in the south of France on UGA's dime for more than a month...so to justify my frivolity once more, I guess I just feel like I can finally 'splurge' a little. 

The hotel is called HOTEL A LA VILLA DES ARTISTES.  The aspect I liked most about this hotel is the uniqueness of each "Arty" room as shown in the website's pictures and descriptions:

"  The “Arty” Rooms have been entirely renovated and dedicated to 

the modern arts. Each room has its own special atmosphere of different 

artistic periods such as Fauvism, Cubism or Surrealism.  " 

The location of this place is also ideal because it is situated just south of the gorgeous Luxembourg Gardens directly adjacent to the iconic Latin Quarter, the arrondissement in which I spent most of my time during my 4-month period of studying at the Sorbonne back in college.  Four years have passed since my semester-long stint in Paris and I cannot WAIT to get back to my old stomping grounds.  Paris is, after all, my absolute favorite city in the world.  

It was also my first love.  No really.  I fell in love with that city when I lived there.  Returning to school in Athens, GA after my time abroad in Paris if ever I saw photos of the city on tv or in books my heart and stomach would drop as if I was seeing an ex-boyfriend with a new girl.  Call me creepy or weird, but Paris has this lasting affect on people - it certainly has with me.  Ha - sidenote - a actually read not too long ago about a woman "legally" (in the loosest sense of the word, I'm sure) married the Eiffel Tower, changing her last name to 'Eiffel' and all.  I wouldn't take my obsession with the city that far, but apparently this woman did.  Anyway, that's neither here nor there...

Now that I have this glorious place booked I am left with the task of trying to figure out who I can show Dan, a European newbie, all that Paris has to offer in a mere three days.  I'm up for the challenge...

French Hospitals

I have been absent from my blog, my email, and normal life as we know it for the past few days as I was spending some (unexpected) quality time getting to know the French medical system --- particularly the hospitals.  My observations are as follows:

- The exterior of a French hospital may appear to be a rundown "Jefferson's"-esque apartment complex from the '70s, but this is misleading because the interior has definitely "moved on up to the Eastside" and is far more in line with our 'American standards.'

- If you are a visitor accompanying a patient in their room for the night the bed you are issued by the nurses might turn out to be a stretcher...like the one on wheels used in ambulances.  If you enjoy sleeping on a permanent incline and if you don't mind lying on a surface where a dead body may have preceded you then THIS is the bed for you!

- Your single room will be very nicely accommodated with a patient's bed, window, desk, chair, and private bathroom with accompanying shower (i.e. a drain in the floor next to the toilet with a handheld shower thing mounted on the wall).  However, be prepared when you ask for the accessories needed to shower -like a towel, some soap, and shampoo- as this hospital is not a hotel and does not have such things.  Instead you will be issued a hospital bedsheet for drying, some gauze dressings to wash your face, and a mystery murky fluid in a dixie cup that may or may not be turpentine and molasses with which to wash yourself.   Use on private parts at your own risk.

- Nurses changing the IV's of a patient are not concerned with the IV fluid OR the patient's blood splattering onto the bed, floor, or visitor's feet below.  Once finished, their concern level does not waiver from the aforementioned when it comes to to cleaning up said splatterings, thus leaving the visitor to clean off the blood from their own feet with a towl...I mean sheet.

- As a guest of a patient, you can occasionally be served food (pending the patient you are

 with is temporarily not allowed to eat per doctor's orders).  This is good.  You may, however, be given a beet salad for your lunch.  This is bad.  The only halfway decent thing about a beet salad is that for one brief moment it will remind you of Dwight Schrute from "The Office."  Then the smell and appearance of the beets will once again overtake any remotely entertaining thought you may have had for the remainder of its presence in the room. 

*These are key observations that I have been fortunate enough to note firsthand, so I felt it essential to share with any and all of you who may find themselves one day in a French Hospital.  Now back to my regular updating of this blog...