vignettes: Toulouse

12:00 A.M.

Whew! Well it's been a busy (almost) two weeks since I've arrived in France. I'm currently sitting in le salon of my new apartment, sipping my favorite infusion (Lipton Maroc, it's kind of like Moroccan mint tea). I wasn't feeling so well this morning, so I spent my day mainly lounging around, although I did meet up for a drink with one of the other Metz assistants. So far, I really like Metz. It is a bit cooler than the south of France at the moment, but at least it's still sunny outside. It's a small city, but it has everything found in a big city: plenty of cafes and restaurants, a park, a giant cathedral, museums, and lots of public events. There will even be the first Nuit Blanche that's coming up in a few days, where museums are open all night for free and there are all sorts of art displays all over the city.

I've been in Metz for about 3 days now. I've spent most of it wandering around, grocery shopping, meeting my roomie's friends, and have even opened up my bank account with the help of my landlord. I was so relieved that I sort of side stepped the complicated bank process by having him accompany me. It made the process a lot easier to understand and complete. I'd have to say that the apartment was a great find (thanks to Andromeda!). It's spacious, has WiFi (wooh!), and is nicely located next to la Cathedrale Saint-Etienne and la Moselle river. I have two room mates: 1 French/German girl (she speaks German, French, and English! So jealous) and 1 French girl (who I have not met yet since she's on vacation). My French/German room mate is so nice, she took me on a mini-tour of the city and introduced me to some of her friends. We went to her friend's party last night, which is why I think I wasn't feeling so great this morning...

My first week in France was amazing and relatively relaxing, considering I'd worked all summer and have lots of paperwork to do within the first month or two here. Laurent picked me up from the airport :) For 4 days, he took me on a tour of Toulouse, while I adjusted to the time difference and speaking French. I definitely felt weird the first few days. We went to Casino and Carrefour and it was strange to see all my favorite products from when I studied in Lyon. Everything is tiny! I got a new SIM card for my phone, which cost about 20 Euros. We spent most of our time walking around Toulouse, hanging out in cafes/restaurants, going clubbing with his friends (complete with techno music, of course), and sleeping in late.

On the 5th day, we drove to Pau, where we had dinner with his friends. Pau is gorgeous as well. There's a huge chateau with a view of the Pyrénées Mountains. I think it's smaller than Metz, but again it has the feeling of a city. After dinner, we drove to his parents' house, which is about 20 min away in a tiny town. His house is amazing! It dates back to the 18th century, in the years before the U.S. even existed, AND it has stayed in his family ever since it was built. Craaazy. The next day, I had lunch with his parents, which was the first time I ever met them. Meeting the parents = me being extremely nervous and making horrible grammar errors, but overall I think it went well. Unfortunately, I had to meet them all alone as Laurent was at school for the day. His mom showed me around Pau and we even sat down at a cafe on Boulevard des Pyrénées, which has a view of - surprise, surprise - les Pyrénées. Later that day, Laurent and I drove to Biarritz, which is about 2 hours by car.

Biarritz is beautiful and reminds me of a classier version of Nice. It's right by the ocean with expensive hotels and shops spread throughout the city. We, however, stayed in the cheap and cheerful Hotel Palym, which was well located down the street from the ocean. He took me to Chez Albert for dinner, which is supposed to be the best place to go for seafood in Biarritz. I had sole, he had a huge seafood platter on ice, and we both drank sangria. I could see why it was so well known as there were no free tables (we had to wait 15 min, even with reservations) and the food was excellent. The service was a little iffy. Granted, we were probably the youngest people eating there by at least 15 years, so maybe the waiter thought we weren't going to spend a ton of money. But still... I hate when people judge you on how much money it seems you're going to spend.
We spent one night in Biarritz and returned to his house the next day. We took the long way, stopping by Spain for about 30 minutes to buy cheap alcohol and gas. It's strange, you just drive across a small bridge and BAM you're in Spain.

Two days later, I took an early morning train from Pau to Metz. The entire journey took about 9 hours, with a 2 hour transfer in Paris. I think I might take the plane for future visits... In Paris, I had to change from Gare de Montparnasse to Gare de l'Est. I took a taxi, since I did not want to carry my two huge suitcases around with me on the metro. It was nice because I got a quick glance of Paris, we even drove by Notre Dame and through the Latin Quarter. Strange thing I spotted: Dan in Real Life just came out in France and it's called Coupe de foudre à Rhode Island (Love At First Sight in Rhode Island). I watched that on DVD like 4 months ago!

Anyway, this was a monster of a post and it's now time for bed. We have our first assistant meeting ont Oct 1, so I'm going to keep spending the next 2 days getting myself aquainted with Metz. Enjoy the pics below!