Ancient olive trees, toy shops for princesses, and the hugest pain au chocolat ever

This week is the mid-semester break, and Patricia and I went to Montpellier for a few days. Nico, a friend who lives down the hall from me, gave us a ride down because he lives there. At about 10 pm before we made it to the city, we stopped at Pont du Gard, a famous Roman aqueduct. It was a beautiful night with clear skies and a full moon, and it was cool to see everything by moonlight. The air smelled good and there were lots of olive trees that were hundreds of years old.

A building lit up on the walk to the pont

A thousand year old olive tree

Patricia and I didn't get to the hotel until late, and it turned out that the machine that we check in with would not accept American credit cards, it only accepts Carte Bleu cards. There was no other way we could check in, so the first night we stayed at the lobby waiting until 7 am when someone who works at the hotel would let us into a room. We slept from about 7 am to 11 am and then headed downtown, but getting there was a little bit of a trek. The closest bus stop to the hotel was located on the other side of the freeway and we had to do a considerable amount of walking on the median barriers while cars sped by at European speeds. I think the walk to the bus was my least favorite part of the trip.

The hotel lobby we spent all night in

Herold and I trying to sleep at a table in the lobby. It was as a long, chilly night.

But, of course, it was nice to be in the city on a Saturday afternoon. There was a Saturday market with produce, Moroccan jewelry, cheap lingerie, and various other things. The prices were pretty cheap and I enjoyed walking through it, but I didn't buy anything.

The market in the Place de Comedie
I think the fountain is really beautiful because of all the plants growing on it

An acrobatic street performer

People in Monpellier. In the evenings, the streets would get so crowded

Colorful trams; much more colorful than the ones in Grenoble

In the evening, Patricia and I met up with Nico again and we walked through some of the streets looking at the unique shops. There were stores where you could by shoes for 10 euro, and other stores where you could by a Rolex for 8,000 euro, stores selling American clothes with misspelled words and stores with hundreds of different postcards. One of my favorite stores was a toy shop named "Pomme De Reinette," which means apple of the princess. I kind of felt like Harry Potter when he first got to Diagon Alley because there was every sort of toys imaginable there. The store was set up into rooms, some of which included a game room, a figurine room, and a space themed room. My other favorite shop was, of course, the ice cream shop located outside of a little cathedral on one of the narrow streets.

One of the outside windows at the toy shop

View from the second floor

A toy squirrel on one of the shelves

The best ice cream place in Montpellier
Mmmm, so good. Banana and mango.
Buildings in southern France
Tutus in the window at a shop for ballerinas

Basement of a bookshop. Okay, I admit it was anglophone.

A very adorable page in a French children's book (obviously not at the anglophone book store)

After looking around the shops for a while, we got dinner at a little restaurant, and then saw a sort of mini Arc de Triomphe.

The restaurant we ate at outside

Patricia and I at dinner

What I ate for dinner. There was a sort of seafood mix inside.

The other Arc de Triomphe; well not quite, but it looks similar

The rest of our time was spent doing more shop, museum, food, and park exploring.

Statue against a night sky

Montpellier on the day it rained

The discovery of a cathedral out of nowhere.

A closer look against a beautiful blue sky

The plants are definitely different in southern France


My first quiche in France

Patricia and the hugest pain au chocolat ever. It was also warm.

Around Grenoble

I haven't done anything extraordinarily exciting in the last week, but I have seen some beautiful things within Grenoble. The weather has definitely gotten colder, and I bought a cozy winter jacket downtown last week.

A view of the mountains from campus

The protests and strikes have been full force, as usual, and the tram, student cafeterias, and other things have been closed for various days of the week. Apparently it is typical to have so many strikes like this in France, it's just that this one is particularity important to the French people. Also, I have not met one French person who likes Nicolas Sarkozy.

Manifestation (protest) that was blocking the tram

It was Shoko's birthday last week, so a lot of people in my class got together at her residence and celebrated.

I always happen to be wearing that green shirt when I post pictures of myself...

I promise that I have more than one shirt in France!

Food and drinks, including Coca cola, of course

D'ou viens-tu? Tennessee, Washington, North Carolina

I like food.
In France, I really like food.
This pizza was excellent.

Every morning there is a market downtown where vendors sell fresh and delicious fruits and vegetables that I would say are the same or cheaper than at the supermarket. I like to go there to get produce when I can as well as pick up a baguette from the boulangerie next to the Notre Dame Musee stop. In fact, yesterday I took the tram to Notre Dame just so that I could buy a baguette for .90 euro from that very boulangerie. I think it is my favorite, especially when the bread is warm.

When I have dinner in the kitchen most nights with people in my hall, sometimes they think what I eat is weird. I like to have eggs and cheese in a tortilla or a sort of egg scramble, but they think that is super strange. Also, tea with milk is apparently so weird, and so is cheese in soup. Today I found out that you always eat cheese before dinner and never after. Lots of people eat yogurt for dessert, and dessert is usually essential.

Part of the market.

My basket of fruits and vegetables...I think it was about 5 euro including the avocado that was a little pricy

I thought I would also include some things that I typically see around the city:

A window displaying slippers. Slippers are very important to French people

A puppet in the window at a shop in the historic district

Street corner

A very adorable book shop
Another beautiful Peugeot

Interesting restaurant/shop with Tunisian cuisine
Historic street
What would Grenoble be without graffiti?
So good.

Today I walked up to the top of the Bastille because it was so beautiful outside even if it was a little chilly. Also, I hadn't seen the view of Grenoble during the day, so I thought it might be cool, especially since it recently snowed in the mountains.

Near the base of the walk up to the top

En route, between all of the stairs

The day view of Grenoble from the Bastille

A little grotto built in the 1800s that is at the top of the Bastille

Inside the grotto

The other end of the grotto

Walking up to the very top after reaching the lower part of the Bastille
Almost to the top!

View from the top. If you look really, really hard, you can see Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe.

On a completely separate note, there is a store in France called Decathlon that sells clothes and gear for just about every sport. This week there was a winter sport sale and there was a bunch of super cheap ski and snowboard equipment.

Skis for 5 euro to 10 euro

A price tag on one of the more expensive pairs of skis, but still a lot cheaper than the original price...800 euro?!

Original price of 970 euro for a pair of skis