Snowboarding in the Alps

Canadian beauty Zoe said to me, "Hey, lets go snowboarding in the Alps because we both know how to snowboard and we are in Europe for gosh sakes!" So we went. There is a program called "BusRiders" which takes you from either Montpellier or Nîmes (at 4 in the morning) to the the Alps and back, plus the lift ticket, all for 55 euros- an excellent deal. I had to scrounge around to get some waterproof pants, a coat, some gloves, and not to mention the fact that I had to rent some some questionable "expert" equipment, but we did it. Zoe and I caught the bus at 4am and headed up to Alpe d'Huez! 

As you can see, it was terrible.

And to make matters worse, we played with a puppy.

Heading up the tram to the glacier- we are completely above the clouds.

It was hard to look where I was going because I was constantly looking up. It was so beautiful!

 Then we ate lunch with our gloves on.

Way to go, fellas.

These chairs are everywhere all over the mountain. You can take a breather and bask in the sunlight whenever you want.

Après: beers and hot cocoa.

At the end of the day, the clouds below us started to rise gently as the sun was beginning to set. It was a beautiful end to an AMAZING day in the Alps.

some more food...

I am officially home now, but I still have a lot of photos I want to show off, so I am just going to pretend that I am still in France eating food...

 almond tart!

MOULES-FRITES!

These are fresh steamed mussels, served with hot crispy fries. It is 10 euros for one order (which is often enough for 2 people). It was my favorite delicacy for sure. And, you can eat them with your hands! Look at this juicy sucker:

 tasty beers:

 Hot chocolate in France is not like our hot chocolate. Instead of taking a little powder packet and mixing it with hot water, they melt actual chocolate, add some milk, and store it in this constantly churning vat to keep it from becoming solid. So when you pick your spoon up out of a French hot chocolate, thick globs of melted chocolate drip down from it. I'm a fan.

And the ender for this post:  French hot dogs, everyone. Enjoy.

Christmas Market!

Christmas markets are in every town all over France. They set up all kinds of kiosks for shopping. There's food, drink, clothes, jewelry, trinkets- everything under the sun. A specialty is vin chaud (mulled hot wine), as well as roasted chestnuts. Its a great place to go shopping or just to walk around. I cringe when I think about "the mall." Montpellier was also decked out in lights and it was beautiful all over...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Concerts and whatnot

I love music, and i've been known to frequent some music shows, and France sure had plenty to offer! 

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE in Marseille!

       Broken Social Scene is one of my favorite bands. So when I saw that they were playing in Marseille, I bought a train ticket and went. It may sound cool to just buy a train ticket to a city you don't know with no plan whatsoever, but it's really not. Marseille also has a reputation for being quite dangerous. But I got lucky, and made some friends at the concert who offered me a nice couch to sleep on. I caught the morning train back to Montpellier the next day.
       Needless to say, BSS put on an incredible show. I was soooo happy to have not only seen them, but in Marseille, France of all places! A great adventure indeed.

I came across this cathedral late at night.

 The next morning, up the steps to the Marseille train station...

CARIBOU!

 I set aside my dislike for standing up for long periods of time to hold my front row spot at the Caribou concert in Montpellier. And it was worth it. One of the best shows you'll ever see. Total face-melter.

Scout Niblett

Alright, this girl is awesome. She starts the set with very gentle, slow, methodical tunes. Then, as the show goes on, she starts hitting the distortion pedal and gets grungy and raw. I didn't know of her before I went to this, but I am now a fan.

ZAT performing arts festival... thing

This performance artist was on an elevated platform over a crowd, and he had a metal detector, and was moving different types of metal objects over it, making weird noises and mixing it all up. Unfortunately there are only so many noises a metal detector can make, and it looked a bit more interesting than it sounded. Still a very unique idea. Later on, this drag queen rock band took the stage and got the crowd moving. They were by far the best. The event was outdoors and they really did a nice job decorating the neighborhood with all these candles everywhere. It was neat.

 I saw an Opera at the Corum

The Corum is a huge (and swanky) performing arts center in the middle of town. My class got to go see a rehearsal of an opera there. Unfortunately, the actors weren't in costume, but it was still wonderful to see the orchestra and hear the singing. Plus now I can say that I've been to "the opera."

Ice Skating at Odysseum

There's Sarah and Haley skatin' it up on the rink... but then... wheres that techno music coming from?

KABLAAMM!

Other part of rink = TECHNO DANCE CLUB/ICE SKATING RINK.

This is only the tunnel. This place was very big and very loud. There were strobe lights, a DJ booth in the middle, and some young men were having themselves a good old fashioned ice-skating dance-off. It was a blast.

Avignon

Remember that song they taught in French class? "Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse on y danse..." Well, this is THAT pont (pont means bridge). It was built between 1171 and 1185, and it used to be a full 22 arches across the Rhône River, but these 4 arches are all that exists now.

The new version (1876- so new) of the song made a mistake in saying sur le pont (on the bridge), because people would actually gather sous le pont (under the bridge). If you look across the river in the photo below, that grassy area is part of an island the bridge crossed over (there's more river behind that). So that is where they would dance, or so I am told.

So here you can see what Avignon was like in 1635, on the top left you see the bridge across the Rhône and note how little is left from the original. Ancient France really liked building walls around their cities. Unlike Nîmes, much of this rampart is still standing, which is really interesting to see now.

HISTORICAL FACT: In the 14th century, the poet Petrarch described Avignon as the "most foul and stinking city on Earth." I was incredibly sick on this particular day, but I didn't want to miss out so I went anyway. Once I heard about this quote, I perked up. Though my stomach troubles were unpleasant, they were at least metaphorical and historically relevant.

Here's a view.

 Heading into the Palais des Papes (The Popes' Palace). This was the residence of the Popes from 1309 to 1377, when there was too much violence and chaos in Rome. These years are called called "the Avignon Papacy." Popes Clement V, Benedict XII, Clement VI, InnocentVI, and Urban V all lived here during their time as Pope.

(Hogwarts?!)

"Will Juliana be sick in my old house? (shake shake shake) Signs point to yes!"

(ugh, I was so embarrassed. )

Then we went to a vineyard to see the wine-making process.

That's a good donkey.

These are all full of fermenting wines.

 It was pretty.