Cassis: Sunshine Amidst a Storm

Voyage #2 with Miss Sara last weekend and we set off for Cassis, a seaside town in the South of France about 30 minutes by train from Marseille.

Excuse the absolutely horrendous quality

It was pouring rain when I set out for the train station Friday morning, but I had decided to wear a dress and sandals so I would be prepared for the weather in Cassis. After tramping through puddles of water and attracting lots of strange stares (who is that crazy lady dressed like it is 80 degrees and sunny when it is miserably storming? hey, that's me!), I made it to Part-Dieu, bought my carte jeune (a train pass that allows me to get reduced rates on almost any French train ticket) and met Sara. We hopped on our train around 10:30 am and enjoyed a fairly simple ride from Lyon to Marseille, where we semi-ran to our connecting train to Cassis.

Train ride-TGV to Marseille

Cassis train station

Around 1 we arrived in the little train station of Cassis, where we discovered the 0.84 euro bus that takes you to downtown. Down we went, after enjoying a nice conversation with a girl interviewing for a possible internship in Cassis. We then had lunch at a restaurant near the water, which was probably more than we needed but we were hungry. I had fried calamari, Sara had moules-frites, and we both had some sangria. The meal ended with some ice cream.

Colorful shutters: the tour guide told us that each house has different color shutters because the fishermen would use  leftover paint from painting their boats to paint their shutters. It also made their house easier to find at night.

First view of Cassis

Lunch!

After that, we laid out on the gorgeous Plage de Grand Mer (haha funny French people) for about an hour and took naps. We took some photos and trekked up to our hotel which was less than a mile away but all painfully uphill. With our backpacks and purses in tow, we started whining about halfway up but eventually made it there in one piece and rinsed off before heading out again.

This is what I am talking about! (Also, first sighting of a topless French woman at the beach was here!)

Around 7pm, we decided to descend again and get dinner at a place I had found on TripAdvisor. Beforehand, we walked around and enjoyed the strange lighting that the storm of the evening was bringing. It lit up the shore and the storefronts in a very cool way as you can see in the pictures. I kind of felt like I was in an Edgar Allen Poe poem, in a weird way.

Colorful houses. 

Awkward smile in front of colorful houses

View of all of the city at night—the castle on the top right

After we wandered, it was dinner time. This dinner was easily the most decadent, the most expensive, and the best meal I have ever eaten. We went to a place called La Défonce, tucked into a little side alley in Cassis. The waiter first brought us out some garlicky hummus with bread crisps, while we drank our Cassis white wine. Then we had our entrée (appetizer) plate of salad and chèvre chaud (hot goat cheese) on pieces of bread, which was AMAZING. Next up was the plat (main dish) which was spaghettoni with tiger prawns from Nigeria, cooked in Pastis (anise-flavored alcohol), tomatoes, and pepper. It had such an interesting taste with the licorice-anise flavor but I really loved it. Finally, we had the dessert—my first real French crème brûlée. It was delicious! I think it was my first crème brûlée, period. The restaurant is owned by a husband and wife and their son was our server. The woman was so so sweet, speaking to us in both English and French and treating us like family. She even told us the crème brûlée is her special recipe. I have never had a dining experience that was so pleasant. If you go to Cassis and want a really lovely meal (and don't mind shelling out some money), you MUST go here.

Santé! Ching ching! 

Chèvre chaud :) 

Sara with the shrimp!

Crème brûlée time!! Thanks to the lovely owner for the pic!

Moving on, because embarrassingly my longest paragraph is on food. We then returned to the hotel and got ready for bed, but noticed on the way that, even at 10pm at night, the restaurants were hoppin'. People eat dinner later here on average and meals can take a couple hours if you are with good, close friends. (Hence, the reason our meal took over 2 hours :))

At 5 am the next morning, we awoke to the loudest storm ever. It was raining buckets; there was lightning, thunder, the whole she-bang. Is that how you spell that word? Anyways, I felt like I was in a monsoon but luckily by the time we woke up the next morning the storm had passed and the sky was clearing up.

We checked out at 11am on Saturday and made our trek back down the hill into downtown. We grabbed Nutella crêpes and coffee to start our mornings. So, I can finally check "Eat a Nutella crêpe in France" off my bucket list. (Yes, that was on my actual bucket list). Then, we decided to spring for the boat tour of 5 of the Cassis calanques. A calanque is basically a little cove that is carved into the rocks along the Mediterranean Sea. Supposedly, they were formed over time by glaciers and then as sea level dropped you can see more of their magnificence. Whether or not that is completely accurate, they are beautiful and so huge. The boat ride was a very bouncy and we got sprayed more than once as we dipped across the water. The water was a really deep sapphire blue that is not really done justice by these photos, but I felt like I was floating on a sea of gems.

We saw the first five from the right: Port-Miou, Port-Pin, En-Vau, L'Oule, and Devenson

Ruins and parts of calanques

We saw a real skinny dipper right before this, cliff-jumping!

Dog who stole our hearts

We met a couple from Atlanta and had a lovely chat with them about their daughter who also studied abroad and loves to travel and about our lives in France. We ended our weekend shopping for postcards, eating ice cream, and grabbing pastries as we made our way back to the bus and the train.

Relaxation

Cassis was like a mini-vacation from life. Something I would definitely love to see again. There is a really long and beautiful hike along the calanques, so maybe someday….

Playing a Quick Game of Catch-Up

Many things have happened in the past week. So many happy moments and cool experiences, that I don't want the week to pass without noting them somehow. So here goes nothing, a collection of memories from this week.

On Friday of last week, I spend the afternoon alone and it was actually quite glorious. It was my first Friday in the history of my school career that I was class-less. Most everyone else had SLM (i.e. French class for foreigners) so I decided to set out on a relaxing stroll around Lyon. First I went to a coffee shop that Sara and my friend from Berkeley, Danny, and I tried out last Sunday when Danny visited.

Oh, yes. That was another thing. This entry is really going to be curvy and topsy-turvy, I can tell. Danny, my friend from the Berkeley French department, came to Lyon for the weekend two weeks ago I believe. We ate lunch at Epicerie (again….) and strolled around, enjoyed the Saone, went to this café called (La Boîte à Café) and also went to dinner with Sara and ate moule-frites (fries with mussels cooked in a broth until they pop open) which was surprisingly good (I am not a fan of oysters). Danny is doing the TAPIF program (Teaching Abroad in France Program) in Saint-Étienne, which hopefully means I will get to see him again soon!!

Anyways, back to my solitary Friday. So I went to this café, proceeded to order a latte, and sat down outside to read a book for my 21st century lit class. Then, being the very American person I am, the guy made a latte and I went up and asked if it was mine. He seemed surprised but said yes, take it. Then I sat down realizing that 1) you don't go up to the bar in France to get your own food, they bring it to you and 2) I had stolen this other guys' drink in doing so. After getting up some courage, I went back in to get sugar and asked the barista if I had stolen someone one's drink. He kind of laughed and said "No, it is fine. Normally we bring it to you. But that is not a problem that you took that one." (which translates to yes you took someone else's coffee, but that is okay because I will humor your obviously foreign ways). I laughed in return and explained that I was from the U.S. and normally you go get your coffee.

After this funny encounter, I read my book for a two hours and then headed off to Vieux Lyon for no reason other than I felt like it. Once there, I stumbled upon a cute little souvenir shop (which was, admittedly a bit pricey, but where I found some possible gifts for people), bought postcards for some friends back home, and then treated myself to a Praline Brioche (the same thing my host mom gave me the first day in Lyon!). I sat in the square in front of Saint-Jean for about 20 more minutes, soaking in the rays and reading another book (the play, Cyrano de Bergerac). I realized how many young children take the metro/tram/bus everyday to school, without their parents. I saw groups of 8-10 year-olds walking home through Vieux Lyon and even some as young as 6 or 7 by themselves. To me, this is really bizarre. You can walk home if you live nearby, but in a city like Berkeley, children never would take Bart or the bus alone.

Sitting in Front of Cathédrale Saint-Jean

Vieux Lyon 

La brioche praline—PINK

After Vieux Lyon, I took the metro to Part-Dieu (which is the mall of Lyon). It is pretty crazy and reminds me of an American mall only more crazy. There are people everywhere all the time. Anyways, I looked around and found a really cute big black purse in a store called Pimkie. I decided to splurge and I am really glad I did because it helps me carry all my important stuff. I also went grocery-shopping because they have supermarkets in the mall here! which is another interesting thing.

Finally, that evening I went out with girlfriends to a club called Cosmpolitan and we had a great time dancing! We even ran into a few other Americans there!

Saturday (last weekend): I enjoyed the last rays of sunshine in Parc de Tête d'Or (a large park in Lyon that includes a zoo, rose gardens, and a little pond), with friends, music, and picnics. We ate à la francaise, with bread, cheese, saucisson (salami basically) and grapes. I also grabbed a drink ("boire un verre") with my mentor from my university, Lyon 2 (the mentor is called my "marraine" which means godmother in French). We had a great conversation and I successfully spoke in French and learned a new French word ("les paillettes" means glitter, if you ever had a need for that word).

Relaxing in Parc Tête D'Or

It looks like fall is coming!!

Completely unrelated BUT there is a carnival in Croix-Rousse

Sunday I got the pleasure of seeing my first European soccer match! I have played soccer games and have watched a high school game once before (go Amanda!) but I have never seen a professional soccer game. It was Olympique Lyonnais vs. Lille and Lyon won handily, 3-0. We watched one of the players, Alexandre Lacazette, score all three goals (which I learned from a fellow Californian, is called a "hat trick" and is rare to see!). He even headed one of the goals in which I found pretty awesome, seeing as my background extends to my old team, the Folsom Roadrunners from ages 10-14. We did not see many headers at all, let alone goals scored by someone's head. The atmosphere was alive and the stands were full. I really enjoyed the game and I would love to see another one. The cool thing about soccer is that it is shorter than football (haha) and so it was fun to watch throughout.

The match in action!

The only other thing to report is that today was Sara's birthday (WOOO happy 20th!!!) and, after our salsa class, we went to drink some really luxurious hot chocolate. We went to Angelina's, which is actually inside Les Galeries Lafayette which is inside Part-Dieu. It is a famous chocolate shop in France. Addie and I actually attempted to go to the one in the Louvre the one day we were in Paris and it was closed. Anyways, we also tried another hot chocolate place two weeks ago called Bernachon. It was yummy but Angelina's was even richer. We got a chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) à l'Africain (no idea what that means, but I think it has to do with the type of chocolate used, some type from Africa?), a chocolat frappé (same as the hot but iced and blended), and 4 macarons to split (pistachio, vanilla, raspberry and caramel). It was the thickest hot chocolate I had ever had and it was so rich, I felt a little sick after. I think we could have gone for one or the other drink but it was so worth it!

Birthday girl: We eat a lot of yummy things together and she is always ecstatic! 

Chocolat frappé 

Crappy picture of the chocolat chaud—SO RICH

Tomorrow, we are off to the south of France, praying that the weather holds out. We are going to celebrate Sara's birthday on the Côte d'Azur—the French Riviera. I think it will be divine. Look for more pictures soon :)

À la francaise

This entry I thought it would be fun to write about food, since I am in the "gastronomic capital" of the world. "Gastronomic capital" is a fancy word for the place with the best food. In Lyon, I have had really really yummy food and some that is just so-so, just like anywhere you go. But I have noticed myself getting more and more used to eating à la francaise.

This, for me, is a typical week-day in food:

Breakfast:

• Glass of OJ
• a small espresso (people do not really drink regular drip coffee—also, France's coffee is nothing compared to California)
• A piece of baguette toasted with butter, jam, and/or Nutella= TARTINE

Lunch:

• Bring my own PB&J (SO American I discovered, half of my host family is not too keen on peanut butter)
• Buy from the cafeteria (examples include: sandwiches with baguettes as the bread of course, pasta boxes, mini pizzas, quiches, salads, coffee, bread, yogurt, lots of choices-all not very interesting)
• If I eat with my host family, however, we have a real meal like pork chops and rice and bread and a piece of fruit for dessert-a mini dinner. (French people take lunch a lot more seriously than we do!)
• NOTE: Sundays are the big lunch day. My host family has a huge lunch around 2 pm and a little snack for dinner. 

Dinner:

• Salad or some kind of veggie
• whatever my host mom makes: quiches, tartes/casseroles, pasta, pizza, rice with vegetable sauce, etc.
• Water (without ice)
• BREAD (so much and to mop up everything)

Cheese

Dessert (eaten right as you finish dinner):

• plain yogurt with sugar
• compote (which is pureed fruit, like applesauce but there are also other flavors)
• chocolate pudding
• piece of fruit
• or a fruit crumble if it's a Friday

I almost always eat dinner with my host family around 7:30pm on the weekdays because it is free, I enjoy their company very much and I only speak French with them.

Now, let's move towards the big cahuna. Lyon has many specialities! And the Lyonnaise people are very proud of their specialities, which I think is really cool. People are more proud of their city here, maybe it is because most people grow up and go to school near or in the same city. It is more unusual for kids to move away from home for college, and a lot of students live with their parents. These are the Lyonnaise specialities that I ate but there are many more.

1) Les bouchons: A bouchon is a special type of restaurant, only in Lyon. Les bouchons lyonnais are basically restaurants (normally with terrace seating) that serve traditional Lyonnais food. While I am not still entirely sure what is Lyonnais and what is just French in general, I have been to two in Lyon. They are normally higher-end and have a lot of interesting meats on the menu.

2) Quenelles-I have actually eaten quenelles at my host family's house but I don't know much about them other than they are made of couscous. However, upon looking it up, this is what I found (on wikipedia): Lyon and Nantua are famous for their quenelles de brochet (mousseline) (pike quenelles), often served with cream sauce and run under a broiler. 

3) Coussin and quenelle (chocolate)- Chocolates that are shaped like a coussin (pillow) and a quenelle, respectively

4) Brioche Praline: A piece of brioche bread made with the Lyon pink praline (almonds cooked in pink sugar so that it crystallizes)

5) Saucisson Brioche: A sausage inside of a brioche, as simple as that.

6) Saucisse Pistachié: Sausage I ate at Brasserie Georges made of pork and pistachios

There are many more specialities and yummy things to try. I suggest you just come to Lyon and give it a go!

Beaujolais: a Joyful Afternoon

Last Saturday, my UCEAP group had the pleasure of visiting a farm/vineyard in the Beaujolais region of France. For those of you who are as ignorant as me of French regions, Beaujolais is shown on this map. As as Wikipedia tells me, it is an area of France to the north of Lyon. It only took us 45 minutes by bus to get there.

After we arrived on the scene of this charming farmhouse, we were greeted by the couple who owns the vineyard. They were so sweet and gave us a quick history of their lives and their vineyard; they both grew up in the rural Beaujolais region and studied agriculture in school. There was also the cutest dog. He kind of looked like a huge rag; he was so scruffy but adorable and everyone was instantly distracted.

The vineyards! 

A little cute pathway within the yard

Francisco with the dog. Look how cute the dog is!

After the talk, they led us into the "cave" which is a big wine cellar, where we had a huge French-style lunch. We started off with apértifs—we tried their rosé and homemade bread, along with a light salad, terrine (kind of similar to foie gras) and a tartine (slice of toasted bread and cheese). Next, the man explained to us the pleasure of doing a real wine tasting. He talked about tasting the scents underneath the wine—fruity, spicy, floral—and explained how these scents should remind you of a memory close to your heart. He also talked about the legs and color of the wine in the light. We, then, went back outside where Marie (the lady!) showed us the loaves of bread that she had been letting rise and she showed us the grand oven that she puts them in. Afterwards we returned to the cave and our lunch, with the promise that the meal would end with an "interactive" portion, in which we would be able to take the bread out of the oven!

The next leg of the meal was the main dish: some type of beef stew with potatoes and (more) bread! The French eat a lot of bread and use it to sop up their dishes. This part of the meal was accompanied by one of their vineyard's red wine. After this course, we went back out and got to help Marie take out the loaves of bread. I used a large spatula thing and successfully retrieved three loaves. Finally, we went back for dessert. We drank a dessert wine which was very sweet and ate small pieces of sugar brioche bread, shortbread cookies, and a bar-type thing with chocolate chips in it. The meal was finished off with a small cup of espresso. All in all, it was a lavish meal.

La dégustation du vin (the wine tasting)

Friends at our lovely lunch table-I look a litttle loopy.

The bread before it went in the oven!

Wine and jam for sale

Entrance to the cave where we ate

The bread makes its way out of the oven!

Afterwards, we got to take home a loaf of the bread that Marie made on the spot and her husband moved us to a different room where he explained to us the process of wine making, and he showed us wine all in varied states of readiness. Lastly, we did what any normal college student would do and took tons of pictures in the vineyard. The lighting was so perfect, as it was almost dusk, and we all frolicked (or if you are me, moved about much less gracefully) through the vineyard. Then, we bussed home, groggy and tired from all the food.

pretty friends

just hanging in the French countryside

More friends!

YAY <3 

Beaujolais!

I really loved this excursion with EAP and I am very happy that this lovely couple let a huge group of Californian college students crash their vineyard; they were so welcoming I felt right at home! Till next time Beaujolais.