Over the weekend I'd originally be planning a trip to Lyon for the Fête des lumières, however unfortunately in light of the Paris attacks the event was cancelled this year. Instead, I organised a spontaneous trip to Montpellier to visit my buddy Niamh and check out the amazing Christmas market!
Niamh met me after work on Friday and took me to her super-cute French apartment. It's an adorable quirky and typically French layout, complete with a ladder to get to her bedroom and stunning views of the city. The plan for the evening was to hit up Montpellier's nightlife and make it to Panama, the only place to be on a Friday night. After a delightful vin chaud at the Christmas market, Niamh and I met up with her friends and headed to pres before a night on the town. We had a hilarious night and it was safe to say we were feeling a little worse for wear the following morning after one too many Desperados.
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| At the Montpellier market |
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| Things are a little blurry in Panama |
On Saturday, Megan, Kate and Annie from Avignon took the train over and we went ice skating at a huge rink at the edge of the city. The ice rink was a lot more extreme than a conventional ice rink, complete with flashing lights, club music and a disco tunnel! Being a Saturday, it was of course ridiculously busy, which was slightly terrifying as tiny French children were literally whizzing round and pushing people out the way. After a few circles round the rink we did manage to leave the sides and channel our inner ice princesses. The afternoon was spent at the Christmas market, stocking up on Christmas presents and crêpes before getting the last train back to Avignon.
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| In the rave tunnel |
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| Kate, Megan and Annie |
The Avignon Christmas market has also opened here so we spent the rest of the weekend seeing what our own town had to offer. Although it's not as big as in Montpellier, there are still some great stalls, especially the place that serves everything chaud, including wine, beer, cider and apple juice! The Christmas lights here are also beautiful and there's even been Christmas music playing in the streets so everyone's been getting very excited.
With only two weeks left of term, this week's lessons have been all about Christmas too. I remembered to pack my collection of Christmas hats when I visited home last weekend so I've been using them as teaching tools in the classroom - the children were very over-excited to dress up! I also introduced stickers into the classroom this week which was hilarious at first as none of them knew what to do with them. However it wasn't long before the whole class was desperately trying to answer a question to earn themselves a sticker.
On Wednesday evening we had an assistants meal out for cheese fondue at La maison des fondues and I'm pretty sure we all went into a cheese coma that evening. As if I hadn't had enough melted cheese for one week, at school on Thursday it was the staff Christmas meal: raclette! The teachers put on an impressive spread of cheese, meats, potatoes, homemade brioche and brownies and even wine (they decided they'd have a relaxed couple of lessons that afternoon).
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| Cheese fondue |
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| Staff raclette |
I'm staying in Avignon this weekend for my last week here as I'm off home on Friday for the Christmas holidays!
Bisous,
Katie x
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