Last Good-Byes and Getting Ready

Today I got my haircut since my hair was a little longer than I liked it. Rose and I walked to the hairdressers. We walked backed and around 12:00PM Caro, Gab, Rose, and I all went to Granpere and Mamy's apartment to have lunch. I was really happy to go since Fred and Flo were there.

For lunch there was me, Gab, Rose, Caro, Fred, Grandpere, and Mamy. For dessert, Flo joined us. It was lots of fun because we talked a lot and joked around. We all sat around and chatted some more while Rose and I looked at old albums. After the albums, I took some pictures and Caro took pictures of me and Rose.

After we were done with pictures, we all said are good-byes since Grandpere and Mamy were leaving to go somewhere and I wouldn't get to see them again when I got back. Also, I wasn't going to see Fred. We had to leave quickly since Rose and I had to go back into Lille to get a few things. We got home, went to Lille, and got back in less than 2 hours. Now, everybody is packing and getting their stuff together for the trip. Tomorrow we are leaving at 5:45AM. The trip is going to take about 9 hours to get to the house we are staying at.

I'm not sure yet if I will have internet connection over there so I might not be able to update my blog daily. If I don't post anything, then do not be alarmed! I just don't have connection!

Back to Lille...

This morning I woke up at 6:30AM so Sean, Clarisse and I would be out the door by 7:20AM. Our plan was for Clarisse and Sean to take me to le Gare de Nord so I could get my train ticket. We got to the train station around 8:10AM. The departure I chose was 8:58AM so I didn't have to wait very long. Once I found where I was going to stay and wait, I said good-bye to Sean and Clarisse. They then left for the airport since Sean had to be checked in and through security by 10:00AM.

While I waited, I read my book for school. I kept checking the boards to see if the platform number for my train was going to show up. Around 8:45AM, there was an announcement that said my train was going to be moved up to 9:20AM. I wasn't too happy but what was I going to do. So I waited and read my book a little more. Right at 9:20AM, another announcement said that my train was going to be moved up to 9:40AM. Now, I was just mad because it kept changing and I never thought it would come.

When the trian finally came, I got on and found my seat. I left Paris around 9:47AM and arrived in Lille around 10:50AM. Rose was waiting for me at the station. Since she originally though my train was going to arrive at 10:00AM, she waited for me for 50 minutes. OOPS! I arrived at the house and unpacked. Right after I unpacked, we went to the bank and to the optician to fix my sunglasses.

We went home to have lunch and after lunch we went straight out to go see Florence and her new house. Mamy was there when we arrived. It was a very nice house except it was in the middle of being redecorated. The plans she had for the house are going to look great. After Florence's, we left, made an appointment at the hairdressers, and then went home. We all grabbed our money and left to go see a movie. The movie we chose was the new "Wanted" movie with Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. It was a really good movie.

After the movie, we left to go home and had dinner. At dinner there was Christophe, Caroline, Rose, Gab, Sabestian (Christophe's nephew) and me. We had crepes with egg, cheese, and ham. It was delicious. Now Rose, Gab, and I are watching "Amelie" which is actually a good movie.

L'Arc de Triomphe

Today Sean and I woke up around 10:45AM and got ready. We left and began first by going to l'Arc de Triomphe. On the way to l'Arc we passed by the French embassy or something of that sort. While we passed we saw tons of cops and news crews everywhere. We found out that the reason for all of this was because le Ministère de l'Intérieur was arriving. We decided not to stay and watch since we were already on our way to l'Arc. Once we arrived to l'Arc we bought tickets. You had to be 18 or older to get on. If you were younger than 18 you would have to be accompanied by an adult, but I just said I was 18 so Sean and I got our tickets. We got to climb to the very top which was really cool. I got to take lots of really nice pictures and also got to see ALL of Paris. I even got to take some pictures through the telescope that they had. I put some change to take a look through the telescope, located what I wanted to capture, put my camera up to the eye hole, and snapped the picture.

After l'Arc de Triomphe, Sean and I decided to go to la Tour Eiffel to get some more pictures and just see it one last time. We took many pictures and walked around for quite awhile. When we were done we headed home. At home, we dropped off our stuff we bought while in Paris and then went right back out to go rent a couple movies. Now Sean and I are packing and later at 6:45PM we are going to meet Clarisse at her work. We are going to have a picnic near the Seine River with some of her friends. Tomorrow, home for Sean and Lille for me.

Back in Paris

So I had a stressful night/morning.

After talking with Jenny & Kevin, I decided it was late so I went to my room to go finish packing and get to bed. Once I had finished packing I checked if I had the tickets in my backpack. At dinner that night, I told Françoise that the train to Paris was leaving at 11:58AM. Fortunently, when I checked the tickets right before bed, I read that the train was actually at 9:43AM! So since I didn't have an alarm and Sean unfortunently didn't have his cell phone (which he uses as an alarm), I decided to stay up the entire night so at 8:00AM I would be able to tell Françoise and also wake up Sean. At around 5:00AM I was searching on my iPod and saw that I could set an alarm to go off and the alarm would still make a noise if the iPod was in sleep mode. I set 3 alarms on my iPod so I was sure to wake up at 8:00AM in case I didn't wake up to the previous ones. Right before bed, I put my sound to full blast so that I would wake up to the music.

Right at 8:00AM, I jumped out of my bed and ran down the stairs to go tell Françoise that are train left at 9:43AM. She woke up Mathieu since he was taking us to the station. Sean and I got ready and brought our stuff downstairs right away. I had said my good-byes to Marc the night before since he left early this morning for work. I said good-bye to Géraldine and Françoise and I thanked her so much for everything she had done.

Mathieu had dropped us off and I waited for the train. Once I got in the train, I slept the entire way since I was exhausted. Once we arrived to Paris, Sean and I too the metro to Clarisse's work since she had the key. Sean stayed in the metro station with the bags since we didn't want to have to take the bags everywhere. I found Clarisse's work but unfortunently she had just left for lunch. I called her and she ran over from the market to hand me the key.

I rejoined Sean at the station and we headed for Clarisse's apartment. Once we had everything into the room and we had relaxed a little, and then Sean and I left for Champs Elyées. We looked at stores and thought about what we could do tomorrow. We decided on going to the top of l'Arc de Triomphe. After Champs Elyées, we went home and met up with Clarisse and ate dinner. Now Sean and I are going to go get Matrix 3 since we have watched the first 2 so far...in English.

Camus

This morning everybody woke up around the same time. I got ready and ate breakfast. Mamy showed me some albums of the Salomon ancestry and some of her ancestry. It was interesting to know where I came from.

After the albums, Sean, Malena, Chloe, Julia, and I went out to Saint Remy. We parked and walked around. We took lots of pictures of the scenery, especially on the drive to Saint Remy and on the drive back home. At Saint Remy we stopped at a little café to eat. I had steak frites and I got to try some escargot that Malena chose from the menu. It was actually very good until I thought about what I was chewing. Bad choice on my part. But none the less,it was tasty.

We then continued around and saw le Chateau des Baux. It was very neat. Since most of us were very tired, we decided to go home. Before we went home though, we stopped by the Lourmain cemetary to go see Albert Camus' grave. It was tough to read the tombstone since it was sort of old and faded away. We then headed home. Sean and I packed once we got home since Geraldine was coming to see Mamy with her husband Mathieu. Since Geraldine wanted to go see Mamy and we were going back to Costefrede, Geraldine and Mathieu just brought us back home. I was kind of bummed to leave so soon since I know I won't get to see Mamy, Malena, Julia, and Chloe again for quite a while.

Now I'm back at Costefrede and Sean and I are going to play some pétanque!

Lavender In the Air

Once again, we woke up at 11:00PM today. I got ready and went downstairs. A few hours later, some friends of Malena came to have lunch with their 2 kids that are around Julia's and Chloe's age. We had lunch, cheese, dessert, and then talked a little. After lunch, we all went swimming. It was lots of fun. 

Then, everybody left so Malena, Chloe, Julia, Sean, and I all left to walk around the village a little. We went to the little toy shop that I remembered when I was very little. I can't believe how much I still love that little toy shop. It's just so fantastic. After the toy shop, we got into the car and left for a little road trip around random little villages around 4:30PM. We took many picture which will be posted later. We stopped in this one little village that had red clay. It was very interesting. After looking around, we had some ice cream. We then left and continued on our road trip. We happened to see lavender fields so we stopped by, picked some since they're were abandoned, and took pictures. It was lots of fun. We continued and got sort of lost on the road in this valley. It was nice, but extremely long! We finally got back to Lourmarin around 8:30PM. 

Malena dropped me and Sean off in front of this little pizza restaurant to get pizza but they had too many people at the restaurant so we couldn't order any takeout. What stunk even more was that we had tried to order from this other pizza shop but their pizza oven was broken. So for dinner we ended up having frozen pizza and pasta. Now the girls are in bed and I'm about to crash as well.

The Clock Is Ticking

The sun was once again, slowly roasting me in its rays. I woke up and had a quick brunch. Then right away, Marc took us to Alan & Veronique's house so Sean and I could go bowling with Alan's nephew, Dorian. Sean, Carla, Dorian, and I all waited at the bus stop for about an hour. We finally arrived at Aix en Provence and began walking to the bowling alley. On the way there we met up with some of Dorian's friends. I was the oldest one there since everybody was either 16 or 15. The bowling was lots of fun. 

After the bowling we went to go play some air hockey. Then we left the bowling alley to go to the long road that is in the center of Aix en Provence. We walked along the road and stopped by this little restaurant to get some drinks. We then all got some ice cream which was absolutely delicious. After the ice cream. we all walked around some more and went to this electronic superstore. Everybody just browsed around and then left. It took another hour to get onto the bus. I don't understand why it's took so long. I was sort of anxious since I was supposed to be home around 6:45PM and it was 6:35PM when we got into the bus. We arrived back at Alan & Veronique's house and Alan took us back home. Since I wasn't going to see them again before I left, I gave them all big hugs and said thank you very much for everything. 

We arrived home and as soon as I arrived home, Marc drove us to Lourmarin since I was staying the night at Mamy's house. We left from la Domaine de Costefrede around 7:45PM and I was supposed to be at the house at 7:00PM! When we arrived there at 8:00PM, I talked some with Malena, Chloe, and Julia. The girls were going to bed so I read them a book. After they fell asleep and Mamy had arrived from church so she could keep an eye on the girls, we went to dinner at this very nice little restaurant. We met Malena's friend, Marie Ange, there for dinner. Sean and I both had 2 egg, ham, & cheese crepes which were delicious. We talked for about 2 hours and then headed home. 

Now, I'm the only one awake.