The Town of Eternal Christmas

So it's now mid-way through January, and Christmas is still very much alive here in France! Many houses still have decorations up outside, the lights are still up in town and we still have a tree in the residence (albeit rather sparse now!). I am beginning to wonder when on earth they will bring it all down, but I'm not complaining, it is rather nice to still have lights up in town, it does make it much prettier by night.

Of course with January, as mentioned before, come the galettes des rois! Last week I had one on three occasions, two of which were very funny. One of these occasions was last Monday, when we had been invited to a galette evening by the lady who organises the town twinnings. There were about 12 of us assistants there, and according to her, the tradition is that the youngest person has to sit under the table throughout the whole process, so that they can't cheat! Of course this was me, and I also have the longest legs, which made the whole scenario even more amusing! The second memorable galette occasion was at school, when we had them for pudding last week. And I was the one who won, thus meaning that I had to wear a crown all through lunch, when I was presented it I waved like the Queen, which went down a treat! The French love all things connected to our royal family!

Last Monday we assistants were all invited to a "VIP evening" with the mayor, which was pretty funny, why we're considered VIPs I don't know, but I must say that we capitalised from the occasion! The evening consisted of a meet and greet with the mayor, who was very jolly, and provided us all with wine and nibbles. We then went into a large hall with all the other VIPs, who as far as we could tell, were mainly key business people from the town, and watched a dance display and a film about the town. Then it was the turn for the mayor to speak and he gave possibly the longest speech I have ever listened to, it makes school assemblies seem seconds long! It was all about what a fantastic town La Roche is, but I have to say we beg to differ, as did half the audience I think! Following that we moved to another room where there was a splendid buffet and more drinks, so we certainly made the most of that, well worth listening to the speech for! The French certainly do know how to lay on a good buffet.

My English club went with much more success this week than last time, not only did the original 7 come back (to my surprise!) but they also brought 8 friends with them! I had organised a British culture version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", which they really seemed to love. The million pound question was: what do the British do when they go wassailing, the options being: paint their faces yellow, dance round their houses, wear red socks or hang toast on trees. They just couldn't make their minds up which it could possibly be, it was so funny hearing them say things like "the British couldn't be that silly, could they?!" In fact, they found the real response the funniest! The problem now is finding games that they will enjoy as much as they enjoyed last weeks', ideas on a postcard please!

Last weekend I went to Nantes, where I met a few new assistants from Le Mans, only one of which I'd briefly met before, at the pre-departure meeting in London. In a one sense it was strange to be spending the day with 4 complete strangers from around the world (1 English, 1 Welsh, 1 American and 1 German) but I seem to have done a lot of that lately, I feel totally comfortable with the prospect. That's definitely one of the best things about this whole experience, meeting new people and getting along with them. I suppose also that the day went smoothly because Nantes is such a great city, really buzzing and there was so much for us to see and discuss. We had a really nice day. In the morning we did touristy things, we looked at the castle, the cathedral and lots of other beautiful buildings and quaint streets and in the afternoon we hit the shops. Such a treat to go to a town with shops other than C&A and Etam! As the sales are still going strong it was very difficult not to spend my entire month's wages in one blow, I just about succeeded!

Nantes was the start of 7 weekends worth of visits that I have coming up, I'm so excited about them all! It is going to be an expensive time, but I've decided that it's well worth it, never again will I have so many exciting new places on my doorstep. However, some of my trips are back to the UK! Of course there's my trip to York and Exeter, but I am also going on a trip with the residence to London of all places! We were supposed to be going skiing, but that was all fully booked, so when we were brainstorming other places to go, London came up and everyone got excited, so we're off! I would have preferred to spend the weekend at practically any other city in the world that I haven't already visited, but of course majority ruled and they're all so keen to visit. The slight problem is that they are all expecting me to be their guide! I'm not sure how well that will go, plus I don't think London will be quite as they're all imagining, traditional pubs and fish and chip shops aplenty! Plus it's bound to be raining, oh woe!

Talking of weather, the weather here has been at the very extremes, in the last ten days I think that temperatures have ranged from -11 degrees to +15 and I've worn every thing outside, from scarves to t-shirts! The sky is always blue here (well not always, it was grey in Nantes, which was unfortunate for my photos! But at least 6 out of 7 days a week), so it's becoming very difficult to predict what to wear by looking out of the window. Roll on the summer, I've had quite enough of winter now. I'm hoping it'll be nice again before I leave France, I rather fancy passing a few more days at the beach!

So life is ticking along nicely here at the moment, plenty to do at school, our Comenius project is keeping me busy, although I have heard enough about stones to last me a lifetime! Out of school I'm spending more and more time with the Spaniards, and it's with them that most of my trips are taking place, they're keen to visit France too. And to my disbelief, Marta has never visited Paris before, but I think they will do that trip when I'm in Britain. We're actually running out of weekends together, as she is the first to leave at the end of February. We will miss her a lot. It's funny how in a short time we have all become so close and have so many little routines and jokes. So even though we'll only have known each other for 6 months by the time I leave, it's great to know that next time I want to visit Spain or Mexico I definitely have someone to visit!

Well that's all for now, I'm off to bed, ready to rest my head on my bolster pillow, one of those French things that I never will get used to!