France, October 2012

The original plan for this holiday was: Take French lessons for 1 year; learn as much as I can; go to a French-speaking country; see how I do.  After a year of classes, I packed myself into an airplane en-route to Lyon.

My first test was sitting down in a stylist's chair for a haircut - I'm pretty sure I missed that lesson, but left with a nice new cut & style...... to match my day-old airplane clothes & my big backpack.

It was mid-afternoon when I checked-in to my hotel.  I promptly fell asleep, waking briefly around 10:30, then settling back in for another 7 hours.  Refreshed & hungry, I left the hotel & immediately found myself in the middle of a Sunday market.  It seemed to go on forever & was absolutely overflowing with fruits & veggies, fresh breads & pastries.  Not a bad place after fasting for almost 24 hours!

After a day of exploring Cathedrals & Roman theaters, I took a train to Roanne, where I spent the next week at École des Trois Ponts, where there were 13 of us studying at this French school for the week.

Every morning we had 3 hours of French class in a small group & every afternoon I had a 3-hour cooking class - in French - in which we made whatever the group was having for dinner that night.  The specialties were really the desserts, with crème brûlée & chocolate lava cake topping the list!  We had a night of wine tasting & plenty of time to wander the town & practice our French.  There was always a teacher at the table during meals, correcting our grammar & making sure we didn't speak English, making this a pretty intensive learning environment.  That said, it was a lovely school, with a good formula for learning & an excellent place to meet fellow travelers & Francophiles.

My next destination was Grenoble for a few days to do some hiking & see the mountains.

It was a happy coincidence that there happened to be a music & wine festival that weekend, so one night after a full day of hiking, I found myself walking around, glass-in-hand, learning what I could learn about French wine - I think I'll have to plan a trip to Bordeaux next time I visit France!  I made a short trip one afternoon to the caves of Chartreuse, where I discovered the elixir of life - not a bad souvenir!

On to Nice, I spent my birthday with Katia, wandering the alleys & gardens of Eze, exploring the piers of Monaco & drinking kir in a cafe outside the Monte Carlo casino.  The next day was all about Matisse.  Starting with the museum contained in his old home, flipping through hundreds paper cut outs & sketches, and standing back to view

some of his completed works, including an entire wall covered in flower shapes of all colours.
I then headed to Vence, where we found Matisse's Chapelle du Rosaire. It is one thing to see a great artist's work, and one thing if it is a self-proclaimed 'master-work'.  It is a whole other thing to sit inside that piece of work & experience it - Amazing.

The final stop on my trip was Marseille to spend the weekend with Aude, a good friend from when I lived in Australia.  She took me to see the Moroccan market, drove me around town pointing-out her favourite spots, and she cooked fabulous food - of course with ingredients from those wonderful French markets.
The weather turned while I was there & the winds were extremely strong, but it didn't matter at all.  One night, we attended a birthday party, where everyone dressed-up as a villager from 1972.  Following non-English conversations in a house-full of party goers with loud music was hard work, but I had a lovely time.  A weekend of fabulous food and excellent coffee with a very good friend - I couldn't have found better way to finish a trip!