So, we were bored...

Last night we decided that we needed to do something random and fun today. We decided to wander around Clermont and take pictures of the sights and then compile a video for your enjoyment....



we were soo exhausted. lisa is going to work on her photography skills because catching someone midair is clearly an art.

Since our feet hurt too bad to go out dancing, we decided to cook a nice dinner and then catch a movie in v.o. For dinner we had steak [real steak, not french hamburger steak] 2 kinds of fries, salad and vin rouge. mustard played a major role in bringing the meal together in that mustard was put on everything... its a very versatile condiment.

We looked to see what movies were playing and it was either Les Noces Rebelles [revolutionary road?] or Slumdog Millionaire. i love how translated movie titles often dont match... American films coming soon to a theater near me:

Walkyrie
L'Etrange histoire de Benjamin Button
Coeur d'encre
Sept Vies

Tomorrow we're going to Vichy since its not closed on sunday. strange, i know, but the desire to do something when everything is closed is quite compelling. does that even make sense? lets just say i miss being able to go to target when the mood strikes me. even the grocery store is closed sunday. blah.

and since you've watched the movie by now, here's some photos for your enjoyment :)

Im gonna miss...

So, we've only been here a few months but there are definitely some things that I am going to have to figure out how to import or smuggle enough in my suitcase to hold me over. in no particular order:

1. Moutarde. French mustard is dirt cheap and is more amazing than grey poupon could ever be.
2. chocolate muesli w pepites de chocolat. its chocolate granola with chocolate flakes that leaves your milk chocolate. bet you wished your day started this awesome.
3. Sirop. concentrated flavors rangeing fron strawberry to lavender these delightful additions make any glass of water, beer or perrier all the more delightful. Lisa and i are currently enjoying pamplemousse, grenadine, cassis, pêche, fraise and framboise.
4. Cheese. Daily.
5. Saveur Moutarde Chips. Casino Brand. the french potato meets its most DELICIOUS flavor yet!
6. Good wine. For under 3 euro. ok, fine, any wine for under 3 euro.
7. French bread. le sigh.
8. Pain au chocolat.
9. The Instant Coffee Dispensers at school that give you that extra kick with a café vanille for only 0,40. perfect for when you are dragging after... well... we only have 3h of class a day...so, good for the morning?
10. 7,4 and 1. TOGETHER.

greve

So, history check; when was the last time France had a huge, full scale grève [strike]? well, before Sarkozy was elected president in april 2006... which is exactly the time i was here last, jan-may 2006... and what is going to happen on thursday? full scale grève. all of the govn't workers are catching early morning busses and going to Paris to...to...hell, i dont know what they are trying to prove. the economy sucks, but it sucks for EVERYONE so there's really no need to strike. interestingly enough, france is not the nation most likely to go on strike. its the spanish who are more firey and willing to fill the streets for a just cause followed by the Italians. i think the french come in third... but they are waaay more organized so their strikes are more irritating bc they involve every sector of daily life. not just some bread factory outside madird or something.

anyways. maybe not going to spain this weekend after all. looks a weeee bit pricy. maybe switz or something like that. but cant take the train thursday bc of the strikes... so dont even get to benefit from my long weekend that starts at noon tomorrow. le sigh. les français.

mai

So lisa and i went to a little vietnamese resto for dinner tonight. it was good. service took about 2 hours... for spring rolls and beef and broccoli... oh how the french like to take their sweet time. also, sping rolls [rouleau de printemps] arent what we consider to be spring rolls. interesting how this little nuance has played out across continents. i wonder what they're called in argentina...

we were going to go out... but no one wanted to, and the usually happening bar was dead... so we decided to double back and head home. we are now planning the trip to San Sebastiàn with much more fervor than before!

Diner Chez David Marker

We had the wonderful opportunity to go to David Markers house for dinner last night. David is our American connection at ESC. He is a professor of management at ESC. he has been living in clermont for about 6? years now with his wife and 2 kids. so, we got to eat french food in an American environment... it was kinda like going to the embassy...i would imagine.

we had boeuf au vin, which is beef in a red wine sauce with mushrooms and those little baby onions. our side was green beans and almonds, and it was awesome. def my favorite thing i had that night... and then there was the cheese...











lisa is in HEAVEN. all the cheese...



we had at least 8 different kinds of cheese. soft cheese, blue cheese, goat cheese, hard cheese. it was awesome. the entire time we were eating we were like 'save room for the cheese !' my favorite of the cheeses was a small very very very strong cheese that had garlic and black pepper in it. not really for everyday consumption since its kinda powerful... but darn good. another good one was one of the hard cheeses that tasted like a cross between cheddar and pecorino romano. it was also pretty delicious.

after the cheese we had the galette de roi, which is traditionally had after the Epiphany, which is jan 6. its like a king cake from new orleans, but much less gaudy. we had 2 and leslie and emily got the feves. the feve is a little trinket and can be just about anything. it can be a little jar of jam, a stormtrooper, wiseman; you name it. i think the ones we got were wisemen...














after our delicious meal and hours of talking we crammed into davids honda supermini van and headed into town. lisa was connor and erins baby for the evening, smashed btwn the two of them. what a lucky girl....

TRAM!

Today it was bitterly cold again, like yesterday... actually, it wasnt quite as cold, maybe we are getting used to this; i hope not! we decided to wake up 'early' and hit up day 2 of the soldes. headed out just before 11 and made our way to G. LaFayette [to check on my longchamp bag] and then to Zara. we each got a couple things at zara, but it was such madness we were forced to leave.







we decided to take the tram to this place the Fnac lady told us about the other day. in search of a curling iron we went to Fnac, which has SOME appliances, and were told to take the tram and go to "ocean". so we got to the tram, and got our money out to buy a carnet [book of 10] tickets, 10,40. well damn, the machine doesnt take bills. so we scramble to find 10euro of change as the tram is coming. it stops we get our tickets and then try to cram on, but its obvious that we BOTH arent going to make it. so we decided to just wait for the next one.

we made it to our destination and discovered "Auchan" the french wal mart. they had everything you could ever want. so we made only a few purchases since we didnt have our bags with us. i got hangers, dish soap, sponges, detergent and chips for 5,53! wooop wooop

and lisa got her curling iron. on sale.

the end

ITS COLD

Yes, it is snowing and COLD here in Clermont... Maybe we should've done Portuguese or Spanish... it looks warm there...

Clermont, Day 1

long story short we made it to our train moments before it pulled away from the station, although im convinced that if we missed it we could have chased after it since it was going soooo slowwww... lisa and i were seated next to eachother in a row of 3 facing 3 strangers with a tiny table to separate us. the guy across from lisa kept staring at her, and the kid next to me had a black eye and more scars on his hands than i could count. needless to say, if there was an altercation, we wanted him on our side.

we arrived in clermont, and, like paris, it was freezing cold. we shuttled our luggage down the stairs under the tracks and then back up. made our way to our hotel and called it a night.

the next morning [monday] we were supposed to move into our residence and then go to school, but at 9am we received a call from Gaetan telling us we were to leave our luggage at the hotel and go to school and we would move into our residence at 4pm.

we had our tour of the city, which we covered in under an hour on foot, and then talked about classes. we had a mini class on advertising which wasnt really interesting enough to keep my mind off the fact that i didnt really have a home yet and had been living out of a suitcase for over a week at that point. we excused ourselves at 4pm and raced to the hotel to get our things and wait for gaetan.

he arrived, punctually french, and about 10 minutes late. we loaded our suitcases into his tiny car and the car of his friend and drove around the corner to our residence. we then walked through about 3 buildings such that the back door of the residence was across the street from were we had just left... they should us to our rooms and then we signed our names and wrotr "lu et approuvé" at least 12 times. apparently the french like to have you sign the original and the copy, not make a copy with your signature. oh well.

6pm, we have finished paperwork and now need food and other room essentials: sheets, pillow, towels, comforter, blankets etc. we head out into the city only knowing the name of a cheap store and generally where it is... we managed to find it and i bought a comforter and pillow which i had to lug all around town and to the grocery store to buy staples for the next 24h.

did i mention clermont is situated on an old volcano with the cathedral at the top and everything else around it... this means that to go anywhere you have to go up the hill and then to get home you must climb the hill again... with all your purchases. quite tiring to say the least.

made it home, tucked into bed, plugged into the internet and good to go by 10pm. and that was only the 1st day....

More

After an uneventful new years we attacked the city full...half force. each day started about noon and we were in bed by 11pm, after an hour of interneting. on our travels we visited the Louvre for free [lisa, 6euros], dined on kebabs [again] in the latin quarter, enjoyed a fine meal at Moliere by les halles and witnessed a 21,000 person demonstration that turned violent!

the top of the Galeries LaFayette is a terrace that gives a beautiful view of the city. it is not to well known so its not completely clogged with tourists. while atop this famous 'grand magasin' we heard chanting and loud voices.
we looked over the edge and saw what looked like a march. thinking nothing of it we continued to take pictures of the city and then went down to the cafe below to enjoy an overpriced coffee while gazing at the sunset out the window.




at about 6pm we decided to get back to our hostel, but when we got outside we realized the march was blocking our route home... we braved the masses and pretended not to notice the israeli flags with the star of david replaced with swastikas...

we made it to our hostel safely and did some more interneting before packing our bags for clermont. the next morning we checked out at 930am but stayed around to play online until calling a cab at 11 to take us to gare de lyon to catch our train. whilst perusing the news lisa discovered that there had in fact been a march the night before and at 6pm 500 youths turned violent burning cars and smashing store windows. what fun.

we then got our cab [read; minibus for luggage] and headed to the train station. we got there and waited for the other 2 students to join us, but the line was kinda long so we figured we should just get our tickets and they would do the same.

Paris

The city of lights on new years... one would expect a better fireworks display than what was provided... i thought they were kids in the park behind the eiffel tower shooting off roman candles... oh well, we can teach the french a thing or two.


lisa and i basically froze to death waiting for midnight. we indulged in 6,90 pizzas and a pitcher of tap water for our new years meal. we looked all over for a supermarket to buy champagne but failed to find one. on the metro to Champs de Mars, where the eiffel tower is, we saw one and when we exited we made our way back to the tiny store. after paying waaay too much for champagne and beer we headed to the tower. we werent sure if it was ok to drink in public, but after we saw the Gendarmerie [police] hassling people with champagne we decided it had to be a covert operation.



we went in search of cups since there was a mini fair going on, and the best we could find was 2 euro cups of tea which we swigged and promptly used the cups for champagne. we found a bit of land near some english speaking folks and set up shop. not dressed for the bitter cold we huddled and sipped champagne to stay warm. it was nice having your beer not get warm...



the stars on the eiffel tower were a countdown to midnight, which was kinda cool. so we shouted bonne annee with all the locals then headed back on the [free] metro to find a kebab joint in the latin quarter. staggering home we passed some old church and posed for photos and then promptly returned to our hostel at about 3:30am. no wonder we didnt wake up until at least 12 the next day...




Posted by Liz at 1:13 PM 0 comments
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Address

Elizabeth Grabenstein
STUDEA Clermont 1
Appt 5.3 C
25 Rue Delarbre
63000 Clermont-Ferrand FRANCE

my little home for the next three months... it will encourage me to get out and do things instead of being all alone!!