Monaco

Hello! This weekend I traveled to Monaco! We left Saturday morning by train and arrived back Sunday night. It was a great time!

The train we took is the TGV, which goes all through France. Our first train was going to Nice and it was delayed for about an hour. However, for our deep deep troubles, we got a free pack of food and drinks! It contained some biscuits, apple sauce, and a fruit juice. Pretty good considering most places do nothing for delays...

From Nice we got onto another train that went to Monaco. It was only a 20 minute train ride but it was great. Both trains had such beautiful views and pretty much the entire time we were parallel with the Mediterranean. The south of France is gorgeous. 

picture from the train window

Monaco was gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. Unbelievable at times. The main part of the city/country is C shaped around the main port (which has yachts on yachts on yachts....). On each side around (other than the sea), the land slopes up and there's mountains all around. It is so gorgeous. But that also means there's a lot of stairs and steep hills, everywhere. 

looking down towards the port

On Saturday, we went up to where the royal family lives, called Le Rocher. From there, you can see ALL of monaco. Like literally the entire country. We went up there a little before sunset which is the best time. We got to take pictures in the daytime and later when it got dark. 

After it got dark, we decided we'd go back to our hotel to get dressed before dinner and our plans for the night. On our way there, we saw a huge crowd of people so we decided to check it out. Turns out it was the day of the patron saint of Monaco and the way in which they celebrate is they have Prince burn a boat. It's kinda weird but it was really cool! So, we got to see the Prince and I got a picture of him from about 5 feet away! so cool. 

After all that died down, we went back to the hotel and got dressed. Then we went to dinner at an Italian place where i had pesto gnocchi  it was soo good. we decided on an Italian place since we were so close to the Italian border and it did not disappoint. Afterwards, we headed towards the Casino. I hadn't really remembered seeing pictures of the casino ever so I didn't really know what to expect. I was definitely surprised because the exterior was beautiful! It definitely felt like we were in Monaco, one of the richest countries in the world. The inside of the casino was even prettier than the outside. However, you weren't allowed to take pictures (i guess its like that in all casinos?) so unfortunately i don't have any pictures of that.

The next day we walked around some more and ate at a restaurant for brunch. All in all, Monaco was great and I loved it! Interestingly enough, today in my French press and media class my professor was talking about Monaco and how the Prince is very connected with the mafia and that everything you do there is on surveillance camera and stuff. I didn't really see any of that but it's interesting to hear. 

Til next time!!

Day trip to Marseille

Hello! On Friday the 18th, I went with friends into the city of Marseille.  We took a bus to get there and then walked around from there. It was a good time!

The first place we went to was a neighborhood called La Panier. It was interesting and different from the streets in Aix. In Aix, all of the buildings are really old and beautiful and not that Marseille isn't beautiful, but the buildings just don't have the same historical aspect to them. 

le panier

cool store that we went into

After walking around the neighborhood, we started to walk over to "Le Vieux Porte" which is just the old port. however, before we got there, we saw a bus stop that would take us to Notre Dame de la Garde, the highest point of the city. so we waited around until it came and then we went there. 

the vieux porte from a little above

most adorable girl ever on our bus. she was brazilian and only spoke portugese. she had the most adorable laugh

 Once we got to Notre Dame de la Garde, we were all so happy we decided to go there. it was SO beautiful and high up and you could see everything. We stayed there for quite a long time, going up higher and higher and taking pictures upon pictures upon pictures. 

the gate into the area

the church Notre Dame de la Garde

one of the beautiful views with mountains in the background

awkward selfie

closer view of the top

the sun beginning to set on the mediterranean

 After we finished taking our pictures, we took the same bus back down to the Vieux Porte, where we walked around and took more pictures. it was so pretty and there were fun animal statues around because Marseille-Provence is the cultural capital of Europe for 2013 and i guess its a really big deal and there's events going on all around for the whole year. there's a museum right next to my apartment and there's always people there because there's a special exhibit.

le vieux porte

elephant

giraffe

bull i think

two story carousel, though its hard to see

 After the vieux porte we were super hungry so we decided to get dinner. it took us a long time to try to find a restaurant that would be good for all of us, as two of us don't eat seafood and all. eventually we found one, though we were confused for a while bc we didn't know if we're supposed to seat ourselves or what. but eventually we figured it out and got food. i got cheese gnocchi and it was sosososososo good. like you don't even know. delicious.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

the vieux porte up close. so many boats!

a random church or something we found while walking to the vieux porte. it was huge and beautiful

so many beautiful pictures. i can't wait to go back!

Okay well that is all for now. I have more pictures up on facebook so go look there!!

Til next time! (Sneak Preview: next weekend i'm going to Monaco!)

France 1/13-1/15

Hello! 

I've finally uploaded/taken a bunch of pictures of my apartment, so here they are! I absolutely love my apartment. The rooms, ceilings, and windows are gigantic and it's so beautiful. This morning when we woke up, there was a thin layer of snow on the ground, which doesn't happen often in Aix! From anywhere in the apartment you can hear when someone else is talking because the walls echo so much, but it's okay. The other day I was taking a nap in the Penelope Room (the living room) and even though my eyes were closed I could feel that I was in such a big space. Definitely not something I'm used to!

 These first pictures are of the kitchen. The kitchen doesn't have the high ceilings of the living room/bedroom/ballroom but its still pretty big! Our french roommate has her room/bathroom above the kitchen which is why the ceilings are shorter. The spiral staircase to get up there is awesome!

wall of the kitchen facing the church

the lit up door in the background leads to the bathroom which leads to our bedroom

the wall facing rue Cardinale. the little thing under the microwave is our oven...

The staircase to Luana (our roommate's) room

The next room is what we like to call the Grand Ballroom. It's a huge room with tall ceilings that has an open space in the middle. The apartment I live in is in the same building as the Vanderbilt-in-France center, so this room is sometimes used for meetings and receptions by Vif. We don't mind though, because we're told we get the leftover food!

part of the Grand Ballroom. the door on the left leads to a lobby with a stairway where you can get to the Vif Center

another view of the ballroom. It's difficult to show in pictures just how large it is

a view from the ballroom to the Penelope room

Our apartment has 1.5 bathrooms, which is really nice. One of the bathrooms is on the left right when you walk into the door. It's not too small, but the sink doesn't work which is too bad. But we have another bathroom so no worries. Also it's really funny because there's a bathroom right next to the toilet, looking onto the church. We're thinking about buying a curtain...

the half bathroom

 Our main bathroom connects from the hallway and also to our bedroom, so there's two doors you have to close when you use it. The sink is fine, the toilet's fine, but the shower is very frustrating. It only has the shower nozzle but there's no where to put it up so you have to always hold it. Also there's no shower curtain so it's a big challenge to not get the entire bathroom wet. The bathroom also has a huge shelf which is really convenient because we can put all our bathroom stuff and towels there.

the bathtub's spray just laying there...

our hugeee shelf, clearly being used

The next pictures are of the bedroom. Me and my roommate Emily share it. It's not bad, but the configuration of the room means that the beds have to be pretty close together. But the ceilings are huge and the window is beautiful so there's a trade-off. Our bedroom also has a marble fireplace. It's gorgeous. 

the window in the background leads to the garden, the door on the left leads to the Penelope room

my bed and the bathroom in the back

our marble fireplace

our closet (kinda blurry whoops)

Now i just have some random pictures from stuff. Whenever sometimes looks beautiful on the street I take a picture so I have so many pictures on my phone. 

le fountain de quatre dolphins. there's 4 "dolphins" around this fountain but they look like weird sea creatures...

a view down rue Cardinale (my street) looking towards the church

A cat named Moustache that i found in Monoprix, which is like Target

the table before one of our soirees. baguette, cheese, nutella, and chocolate. delicious

the first cheese I bought. camembert is good, but I like my cheese more salty

our first homemade dinner. pasta with tomato and another sauce, chicken, and  asparagus. also delicious

the church

the view from the penelope room today, yay snow!!

snow!

A few days ago I was with my roommate Emily and another girl from the program, Kayli. We were sitting on a bench as we had just bought a slice of pizza. We were sitting near Roi Rene (the picture below) when we saw a group of 3 teenage guys walk up to the statue with a case of beer. They kneeled in front of Roi Rene and began like worshiping and blessing their beer. It was honestly hilarious. (this was also at like 8pm). 

roi rene

Cours Mirabeau in the snow

 Today we went on a "Taste of Provence" tour. It was led by a lady named Jennifer who is from San Francisco  but she married an Englishman, lived in England for a few years, and then for the past ten she's lived in Aix. She has a very American accent when she speaks French which a girl from our group said made her want to claw her ears. But she was very easy to understand, which is nice!

On the tour, we visited the market, a cheese shop, a chocolate shop, and a cafe. The lady was pretty much showing us her favorite places that have good food. And we also got free samples which were delicious! At the chocolate shop we got macaroons and mine was caramel flavored. It was so so so delicious that i NEED to go back there. After that we went to a coffee shop where we had hot chocolate, which is made from two ingredients  milk and chocolate. It was so creamy and delicious; it tasted like you were drinking liquid chocolate. The coffee shop had coffee everywhere, and a section of teas. It smelled so good!

jars of tea I think

coffee beans

our chocolat chaud (hot chocolate)

coffee beans spinner thing

city hall

the market

a fountain in the market square

a few minutes ago it was snowing huuuuge snowflakes. it's stopped now and it's sunny

Ok well that is all for now. Til next time!!