Howes it goin'?

Coucou tout le monde!

I had the most wonderful last two weeks for two reasons: 1. My new host family is wonderful and I think I'm going to have a great time with them and 2. My Uncle and cousin were here and it. was. AWESOME.

My new host family, the Morge-Rollets, live just outside of Fuveau in a house with a great garden (Anne (host mom) loves to garden) and my room is nice and wonderful and big. The only downfall is that when the cat goes outside she goes through the cat doors that go through my room and they make a fairly loud THAWK as they slam close. Which was very startling the first time in happened in the middle of the night.

Uncle Bruce and Vanessa arrived late Tuesday night and I went to meet them at the airport with Anne, Denis et Louis (my current and 3rd h.family) and Marielle. We all went and I was pretty calm at first but as the time of there arrival got closer and closer I got more and more excited for them to get here. When they finally arrived after an hour and a half delay we had a big ol' Howes hug reunion and it was so wonderful to see family. I totally cried but I was just so happy to see them! I introduced everyone and Anne left to go home since it was pretty late and Marielle (for those of you who don't remember she is my 1st h.mom) came with us to get the rental car because we were following her back to her house after since we were going to be staying in the apartment that she rents out beside her house and she didn't want us to get lost. We went to the rental place and of course the rental was book for the 25th and of course they actually arrived on the 26th so there was no car and there was nothing they could do for us. We had to come back tomorrow to pick up a car. And so we all piled into Marielle's car and off we went.

That night the 3 of us hung around and talked for a while catching up, eating maple cookies, beef jerky, and taking a few pictures.

 The next day Marielle dropped us off on her way to work in Aix so we could spend the day there and later on take a bus to the airport to get a vehicle. In Aix we did what all good French people do, we walked around for a bit and shopped and then stopped for coffee. Then walk some more and stopped at a bar. We repeated the same thing throughout pretty much the whole day. After our that we got on a bus to go and rent our car. Once we finally got the car all we had to do was get back from the airport. I guess I thought I knew where we were going better than I actually did and I ended up having to phone Denis to get directions...haha but we did make it back eventually with just enough time to do some grocery shopping. Just. We were finishing up our shopping as some of the employees were saying "nous fermons mainenant" "we are closing now" we'd say oui and dart quickly to the next isle to get the last of our things. It was pretty funny. That night we got back to the apartment and we didn't stay up too too late

One evening when we came back from a day in Aix we decided to go for a run, which I was very happy about specially because when I lived with Marielle I did a fair amount of running and knew of a few good trails. We even went on a pretty long run on the trail that follows the canal around into the forest a bit. It was pretty muddy but we had a nice run any ways and we even went for a pretty long time as well!

One of the nice things about having Uncle Bruce come is that he is pretty much fluent in French because when he was younger he was  an English assistant in a school here and he also went to a University in Nice. And from doing all that he still had a few connections with some of the people he met before. His timing in coming was perfect because during this time it was one of his good friends birthday's and we got secretly invited to go to a surprise party that was happening for him! The party was happening in Port du Bouc which was about a 45 min drive. Everyone arrived at the salle about an hour before Hubert was suppose to show up. We met so many new and wonderful people and I had a super nice time talking and dancing and eating some really good couscous! 

 That night we stay in a hotel because the next day we were going to go to the Feria festival in Arles (a city that's just a little farther away) to see a corida or, bull fight. For out day before the corida we went over to Hubert's and had coffee and tea then went over to his parents house (who we met at the party) to say hi and then the five of us UB, Vanessa, Hubert, his wife and I were off to the bull fight! 

Arles is a pretty neat city close to les camargues (were I went with Marielle where they make salt) and use to be inhabited by the Romans. And so, the is this big huge Roman arena there which the bull fists were held in. We arrived a little late and only got to see the last bit of the first bull fight of six total bull fights. We only stayed for 4 of them. it was really neat to go and see because it is something so cultural but I really find it an acquired taste. Watching the first part of the fight was neat but the ending wasn't as fun...

After leaving we stopped in a couple of stores and then we were going to go out to dinner at Buffalo Grill! Were I had some really awesome ribs. I totally enjoyed the dinner because the kind of reminded me of the ribs that my mom makes at home. That night we stayed at Huberts because the following day, Easter Monday we were invited to have lunch at Hubert's parents house. Who are, by the way, a fishing family and we were going to be having a fresh fish meal caught by Romaund, Hubert's dad. 

One of the must see things of France is for sure les calanques à Cassis. Ils sont vraiment incroyable! I really wont do them justice trying to describe them so I will just post pictures. :p  The Calanques are a wild and rugged terrain stretching from the ninth arondissement of Marseille to the east towards Cassis, spanning 20 km in length and 4 km in width along the coast. Its highest peak is Mont Puget at 565m. This is one of France's great natural beauty area. The inlets can only be accessed by boat or by hiking.

We hike up to them and of course we parked the car on the very other side of the bay to do our hike so it really was more of a walk and we didn't see all of the calanques that we wanted to see. Instead we stopped at one of the closer ones and we had lunch, sat in the sunshine, and then breeze and listened to the waves crashing up against the rocks. Day well spent I should say!


 The next day was Nice AND Daube day! Anne invited to come over to her house for dinner and Denis was going to cook us a daube. 

Daube is a classic Provencal (or more broadly, French) stew made with inexpensive beef braised in wine, vegetables, garlic, and herbes de provence, and traditionally cooked in a daubière, a braising pan. The meat used in daube is cut from the shoulder and back of the bull.

Denis actually made 3 different kinds of daubes for us. One with beef, one with taro, and one with boar. They were awesome and I probably ate way too much. 

And from Nice to add to the wonderful meal we bought a tropezienne.

The tropézienne pie is a cake made ​​of sugar brioche filled with a mixture of three creams.

And they are real yummy! 



In Nice we went to the Marché des Fleurs and then we did something that I've wanted to do forever and we rented some bikes and biked all along the french riviera. Even though it started to rain it was still an awesome time.

















The daube dinner was awesome and we all had a great time together chatting eating ect. It was an excellent evening that I don't think could have gone any better.

Marseille marsille allez allez allez!!! On Friday we went to a soccer game in Marseille and it was AWESOME! One of my goals before I came here was to go and see I soccer game so that was great. I mean, you can't come to Europe and NOT see one! All three of us went plus Uncle Bruce's friend Hubert (the soccer game was his birthday gift). We had pretty good seat almost at the very top centre and could see everything! The best part was all the crazy fans on the ends of the stadium and I know now that one day that's where I want to be because the energy is unbelievable! Marseille won 1-0 against Bourdeaux. After the game we went and bought some t-shirts as souvenirs and then we decided to go to Aix to get a drink and we had a super fun time.

Anne also offered to take us to Marseille to the cours julien in Marseille which is pretty much just a huge market in this neat, crafty kind artistic little sector of Marseille. The market was bustling when we arrived. There's people crying out prices and the street was filled with people with vendors on either side of the road. The way the market is set up is kind of like a spiral so when you go through you just continue inward and that way you really don't miss anything. Vendor wise you have pretty much everything. Produce, fish, spices, jams, honey, clothes, shoes, cosmetics, bags, jewellery  We spent the morning seeing everything and buying a few things also and then after we all went out for lunch and had a great meal at a restaurant just outside of the market.

On our last day together we went and saw Louis play in his football game which was actually really nice and reminded me of doing that at home all the time. And that night Marielle had invited us over for dinner and we had a great dinner all from produce that comes from the region.


We made a point of taking a selfie threesom picture everywhere we went. :)

 

 

Honestly I don't think I can remember everything we did for those two weeks but I know it was just awesome. From getting lost driving around, to the little cafe stop, to sitting around and chatting, to making pastaroles (pasta casserole), to going for a hike I spent a truly wonderful two weeks with Vanessa and Bruce and I'm so glad they came. It was so nice to be able to share a little bit of what I do here with them. And it really just makes me realize how much appreciation and love I have for my family. 

Gros bisous à tous,
Rebecca