For Easter weekend Pauline (my lovely flatmate) invited me to Marseille to spend it with her family. We both stayed in Avignon on Saturday, since she had work at Just Coffee Shop and I had tutoring, and took the TER that evening. My tutee was a lovely lady who lives in a local village so I took the bus to meet her and she drove us to Les Alpilles for a combined hike and English lesson. It was probably one of the sunniest days we've had out here so the weather was perfect for it.
In the evening Pauline and I headed straight from the station to her friend's birthday celebrations in Marseille. Although perhaps a little daunting at first walking into a room of French strangers, we quickly got chatting and had a fun evening. They introduced me to a super-shot - take a slice of lemon and coat one side in sugar, the other in coffee granules, then bite into it after a vodka shot. Lethal, but also definitely needed for a caffeine/sugar high at the end of a long day!
We had a chilled Easter Sunday morning before a wonderful lunch with her parents. In true French style, there was of course apéro, wine, bread and cheese. Plus, since it was a special occasion we also popped open a bottle of champagne. Bliss.
Pauline had uni work to do so I went along to the Vieux Port to see some of my assistant friends who were also visiting Marseille that weekend. Unfortunately the sunshine hadn't quite held out for Easter Sunday but the Vieux Port was still looking pretty. Later that evening Pauline and I met up with some more of her friends who were all really friendly and we had fun hanging out and playing Picolo.
The sun was shining again on Wednesday so I met up with Ghislaine from tandem for Monacos in Place Pie where we soaked up some rays and Brian joined us later with his old housemate (they were late after having a few admin problems at uni, classic).
Once again, the ever-reliable French transport system decided to go on strike on Thursday which meant an even earlier start for me. School was fun though, especially with it being the last week of term so everyone was in a good mood with the holidays in sight. This time of year the primary schools have a thing called Carnival where all the children dress up in fancy dress and parade the streets throwing confetti. Unfortunately I missed out on seeing it as it happened on the days I wasn't working but the teachers were quite jealous of me - turns out the teachers had to dress up too and they weren't quite so excited about it as the children were!
Over lunch, my head teacher brought in some Kinder eggs and Shoko-bons for us all. Once she'd realised Alex (another teacher) and I hadn't been on an Easter Egg hunt that weekend she declared we'd have to do one, so we were sent out the classroom as her and another teacher hid the eggs for us to find. Have to say is was one of my more amusing lunch breaks!
I'm currently in Lyon where I'm impatiently waiting for my family to arrive as we're off to Les Deux Alpes tomorrow for a ski trip. I do love school holidays.
A bientôt,
Katie x
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