That one time I was in France for the holidays

Bonjour!!! Ooooh lalalalala, these past few weeks have been so amazing. I feel like I've been living in a dream! I am one lucky fille to have this experience. So here's a recount of my Christmas and New Year in France - j'ai beaucoup à dire!

To begin with, my mère came to visit me for Christmas! We had a wonderful time traipsing around Paris and Bordeaux. It was really nice and comforting to see her, especially for the holidays. Living so far away can be hard sometimes, so being able to spend time with my mom was awesome. She arrived in Paris, so I met her there and we spent a few days soaking in the beauty of Paris at Christmas time. I also made a new Parisian friend :) and I got to ride on the back of his motorcycle !!! That has been one of my French cliché dreams for so long, and it was finally fulfilled. Besides my girly dreams coming true, my mom and I did lots of fun things in Paris. We ate at really nice restaurants, saw the Eiffel Tower at night, visited the Musée Rodin AND the Musée D'Orsay, and re-visited the Notre Dame (one of my favorite sights). We were very tourist-y looking, but I had to take pics:

The Thinker by Rodin

In front of Notre Dame!

It was very cold and gray, but we still had a great time.

After our little séjour à Paris, we headed back to Bordeaux. I had lots of things planned to see and do, but we kind of took the relaxing route and just chilled at Erika's a lot of the time. That was fine by me! However, I did show my mom the must-sees of Bordeaux, like the fountain at Place de Quinconces, the St. André cathedral, and of course Rue St. Catherine. We even got a drink one night at Charles Dickens (and got harassed by drunk French mecs) ! All part of the experience though. Erika and her daughters left for the campagne for Christmas, so the Americans had the house to ourselves. It was really nice- my mom cooked a delicious dinner on Christmas Eve which we spent  with my roommates Laura, Deyuanne and her sister and brother, and our friend Hannah.

Our American Christmas dinner in France

It was really sad when my mom had to go back to California, and I was a little nervous she wouldn't make her way back home without my French-speaking assistance, but she is an intelligent and capable lady so there were no problems :)

The next exciting thing that happened was that I moved into my new house!!! It is so amazing. It's right down the street from Jardin Public, my favorite spot in Bordeaux. The weather is ugly right now, so it's not at its prime, but I'm still enjoying the fact I can walk 5 minutes and be in this huge beautiful park. Can't wait for spring time, when I'll be pique-niquing there every day! This picture doesn't even do it justice, but take a look:

Also, the house is really really cool. I wanted to take pictures but my camera is currently dead and I'm too parasseuse to charge it. More pics will be posted soon. But it's very modern, with a metal grate-type winding staircase and a spacious living room. My room is awesome too, and my colocatrice Arielle is so nice! I'm really happy with my situation. And I'm finally walking distance from downtown, so no more worrying about catching the last tram. Oh and I'm learning to cook! So far I've made spaghetti and an omelette! I know I know, I'm no Rachel Ray yet...but you gotta take baby steps. Anyway, I love living on my own, and life is good :)

Next order of business: I went to Nantes with Edouard, mon ami francais, for New Year's!! It was a blast. His family is so nice, and let me stay with them in their cute home. I was spoiled with delicious home cooked meals grâce à Ed's mom. She is Australian so we spoke English with each other, but I also spoke a lot of french. I can tell my speaking and comprehension is improving, albeit slowly.

Ed took me around the city of Nantes, which is very modern and artsy. First we went to super cool graffiti exposition at a contemporary art museum, called Faire le Mur, which means to sneak out. They had quite some interesting and unique pieces.

Apres, we saw a real castle from around 1400, complete with motes and everything! (no alligators though).

We also visited a beautiful cathedral. Downtown Nantes is really nice too, it reminds me of Bordeaux a bit. Oh, and the coolest thing was this giant moving mechanical elephant! The city just decided to build it for no particular reason, but it was truly amazing. It was like a sign :)

Really made an impression on me.

The highlight of the trip to Nantes was that I got to go to a classy French new year's eve party! Ed's sister Claire invited us to her friend's apartment, which was la classe. Unfortunately I don't have pictures (or maybe it is fortunate...) but it was really great. There was foie gras, saumon, champagne...everything to make a true soirée. We rang in 2012 in style (sort of) and I get to say I spent new years in France :) The next day Ed and I went back to Bordeaux and I began the process of moving into my new place.

Since then, things have been easy breezy... school starts the 16th so I have a nice long break. Most of my friends are traveling or back in California for the holidays, so i've kinda been extremely lazy. I'll be taking psych classes this semester though, so that's probably gonna kick my fesse... gotta gear up for school mode soon!

Well mes amis, that pretty much sums up the recent happenings of my vie francaise. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday wherever you are! Happy New Year, I miss all y'all more than I can express in a blog.
Gros bisous :)