Last week was the week I had been eagerly anticipating from the second I arrived in France – meeting up with the JPC class on their trip to France! In order to see them, I had to catch a train from Bordeaux to Les Sables D’olonne. Alone. Now, for those of you who don’t know me too well, I am probably the most geographically challenged person you will ever meet, so travelling across France is never the best idea. I had to change trains midway through the trip, and surprisingly it all went very smoothly and I didn’t find myself in Hungary or something! On the second train I met this nice lady sitting next to me with a cute little dog ( called moustache) sitting in her expensive Chanel handbag – it was just so stereotypically french I couldn’t help but to laugh. Anyway, turns that this women went to NZ 3 years ago and worked on a farm in return for a place to stay for 3 months as a sort of exchange thing, the farm she stayed at was just out of Edgecumbe – about 10 minutes from ours! Small world ay?

I was picked up from the station at Les Sables D’olonne by the school’s English teacher (All the JPC kids were staying with host families from the students of the local school). It was about 4pm when I arrived so we had heaps of time to kill before I was meant to go to the family who was hosting me for the weekend. The teacher showed me around the town and we ate ice cream on the beach, she was super nice and we had a good nanna nat about the difference of french/english grammar and verbs.

I briefly met my host family for the weekend before being whipped off to a party at the school to say goodbye to the JPC students. In my host family there were 3 people – Pierrot (the father), Coline (the mother) and Louis (the son), and the turtle called Onesime, despite the short time I met them, I could already tell I would love them – they seemed like such a genuine and kind family. When we arrived at the school, I was a little nervous to see the others, I was scared seeing familiar faces would bring on homesickness or something – but thank the lord above I was totally fine! When I saw Anna, we had a typical movie moment where we ran towards each other like it was in slo mo – it made me think of Alex and Marty in Madagascar.

I spent the night catching up with Anna, the odd thing was we had so much to say but we didn’t know where to start so we kept opening and closing our mouths like fish out of water 😉 I found it so weird to speak in English, and for the first few days it took me a while to realise that if I spoke english they could understand, and I could understand them – I’d become so used to being confused in conversations! I also met some of the french students who were really great and took us all to the school hall where they had a disco thing going. As well as being geographically challenged, I also suffer from a sever condition doomed to ruin all teenagers party and ball experiences – not being able to dance. I have to hand it to Anna though, she didn’t give up on me and held her ground, trying to teach me to dance when we all knew I was a lost cause with my two left feet.

I spent the weekend with my host family, who planned to give me the ultimate cultural experience by making a traditional meal to the region each day. On Saturday morning Louis took me biking through Les Sables D’olonne and showed me the harbour which was within spitting distance of his house. Speaking of their house – Peirrot had decorated the inside of the house to look just like the inside of a ship, it was actually amazing! We met up with Jacques and his host family to go to the market afterwards. Les Sables D’olonne is split into two parts by a harbour and in order to pass by foot you have to take the water bus which was pretty cool. The market was nothing like I’d seen in Baza’s, this was totally focused on sea food – there were differences like aquariums of fish, lobsters and crabs, and then there were similarities- cheese and bread stalls. For lunch Peirrot served me a whole crab, which was surprisingly delicious and I actually had another!

After lunch 7 JPC kids, their host families and mine went on a yacht that Louis’s family owned. It was such a beautiful yacht, and if I could marry it, I would 😉  We spent the afternoon on the ocean, got to know everyone better and recreated the Titanic Rose and Jack scene half a million times. That night all of us went to one of the french students houses and had dinner and mucked around playing settlers of Catan, it was a good time.

On Saturday morning I was introduced to one of the most heavenly pastries ever, made my Louis’s grandma, it actually had four names but I only know two- bottereaux and tourtisseaux. It was soooooo good, and when I asked for the recipe his Grandma immediately started making it. She was a bit like a wizard in the kitchen – just a whirlwind of flour and sugar, and Louis and I were scared of getting involved in fear of getting hit in the head by saucepans. I will definitely be using this recipe in New Zealand, ZOE – be prepared for diabetes 😉 The day was pretty chilled out, once again JPC kids and their host families came and we played lots of games and just relaxed. Once everyone had left Pierrot, Coline, Louis and I sat down and played traditional french card games, my favourite was Carrot Navet, it was a good laugh. I taught Louis speed and we got so into it, and I hate to say it, but he won. I was shocked because I never loose at speed! Well done Louis.

We had a terrifying looking fish for dinner called a Merlu that I swear was staring me down, but it tasted incredible. After dinner Pierrot whipped out his accordion and started playing it and singing along, he was amazing!! Coline started dancing with me (well tried… we’ve already established I can’t dance) while he sang jolly sea shanties, it was honestly so much fun, and one of the highlights of my week.

I think I’ll finish this post here even though the week isn’t over, just because it’s sooo long and I don’t want people to fall asleep. I’ll put the Monday and Tuesday into the 17th week 🙂

Differences:

1. The scenery in this part of France was nothing like the part of France I’ve been living in. I’ve been going to school in a small medieval fortified town and have to walk through streets because they are too small for cars, and the country side is as flat as a cat run over by a logging truck. Les Sables D’olonne was like a fresh of breath air with it’s modern buildings and hilly seaside, but it still had characteristically french features (window shutters, cobbled streets, shop owners living above their shops…)