The End

I finished the journey home and it's all over. It was so so long but uneventful. Excellent turn of events: I flew home with Zoom, a new discount airline between Canada and England and Paris. I had decided to bump my ticket up to a premium one (sort of like business class) for an extra 80 euros to get 10 kilos more in luggage allowance and more leg room. Such a good decision!! I still had ended up being about 15 kilos over the premium weight allowance of 30 kgs but they didn't make me pay any overages fees. It usually costs 8 euros per kilo so it really could have been expensive for me but I guess since I was 'premium' they didn't charge me. So good. :) It's great to be home...I love Victoria. It's strange being gone from Narbonne too. I miss my friends from France already. The weather seems so chilly here too; altough it is sunny it's clearly a long way from swimming weather. Narbonne was averaging late 20s celius before I left. Thanks for reading along with me...It was fun having my place in this online community. Maybe I'll start another blog sometime soon, who can say. If you'd like to reach me at all, just email me and if you don't have my email, drop a comment here and we'll get in touch. Lots of love, jessica

Stress, Stress, Stress

I hate this time of an overseas stay, the end. There's so much going on...Last minute bills, finishing things at work (you never complete everything you wanted to do), packing!, organizing what's being left behind, preparing for my return to Victoria, saying goodbye to friends in Narbonne. There are so many emotions and thoughts constantly going through my head and never enough time...even though I've known I'd be leaving all along. One of my adult students, Morgane, invited Steph and I for a hike in the Pyrenee Mountains this weekend. It was SO long....6 hours. But it was great to spend the time together and see something new of France. Compared to when I lived in France as a nanny at 18, I've seen a much more beautiful side of France this year. There are truly some gorgeous natural areas in the south.

I loved France's Basque Country

at St Jean de Luz
Cheese!!

le Pays Basque is an unique part of France and Spain along the Southern Atlantic coastline joining the 2 countries. While Spain's Basque country is quite political, and desirous of independance, the French side of the border focusses on on its great cultural heritage. We saw great traditional costumes and dancing in a parade and festival, ate delicious chocolate (a regional speciality) and enjoyed some serious beach time. More photos to follow once Allison and I exchange photos.

France in a nutshell

This weekend was a long weekend for us in France so Allison and I decided to make the most of it and go to Basque Country on the Southern Atlantic coast of France. I have some really nice pictures I'll put up soon. We had a blast and were on the return journey from Bayonne to Narbonne. It's necessary to change trains in Toulouse so we ended up with a one hour stop over in the Toulouse train station around lunch time. The dining options aren't inspired (actually maybe not too bad for a train station) and although we both never eat fast food (me for vegetarian and health reasons; Allison prefers not to mess with happy food memories of how it tastes in the States), we decided to eat at Quick, the French version of MacDonalds.

We had to pay for ketchup for the french fries which was definitely a French oddity but that wasn't the astounding thing. We decided to have a caramel sundae afterwards, with nuts. Now, I did pay extra for the topping on the sundae, fine, no problem. The problem was we wanted small sundaes...the large were twice as big, too much to eat. Apparently nuts are only served on large size sundaes. I explained I was more than willing to pay for the nuts on the small sundaes. So, my server consulted her co-worker and manager. Absolutely not. scandalous idea. The rule is pecans on LARGE sundaes. Logic and reason be damned. How perverted to wanted pecans on a small sized sundae. So....no nuts for us.

Ardeche pictures

Pont d'Arc, a natural bridge created by an ancient terrible flood. Notice all the people swimming; the water was great!
Watching the kayakers crash and burn through some rapids
Allison, Steph, Her friends Dave and Sally
The birthday girl at the top of a viewpoint
A view down after hiking part way up the gorge.
We actually started down at the river and climbed all the way up the gorge in the boiling heat
Me at the top; I made it!

Camping in the Ardeche

Hey, sorry for the little absence. I was camping in the Ardeche region of France all weekend. The weather has officially exploded over here. It feels like August. It was 31 to 34 degrees all weekend. We got so much sun. Steph got to reunite with her people, ie, the uber-fit and outdoorsy, as we visited a children's summer camp where she used to work and still has friends, so that was good. This was a special birthday celebration weekend as Steph's turned 29. They had to calm down the original planned wilderness trek for Allison and I but we still hiked for hours along the river gorge of the Ardeche river and camped Saturday night. We sweated buckets and stopped several times to swim in the river which was gorgeous. I'll post some pictures soon. I think Steph had a good birthday (best weather she's ever had for it apparently) and it was really cool seeing a new region of France. In the other fabulous news category, Aston has found us the most wonderful apartment ever to live in once I'm back.. 3 weeks til I'll be home in Victoria.

Beach Day