Week 31 - The End

An emotional week of goodbyes, cards and cuddles.

That's it. 31 eventful weeks of travels, teaching and French-speaking (most of the time)...

This week has been all about making the most of the last few days and, despite the snow in the UK this week, the weather out here has been extra lovely and sunny (making it all the more harder to leave). It would have been rude to leave France without going wine tasting, so Kate and I went along to do a little degustation in the town centre on Monday afternoon. Oh, c'est beau la vie !

Mistral in full force at the weekend

My last days at school were all a little overwhelming as the kids and teachers went above and beyond to give me an emotional send-off. In the first lesson of the day on Tuesday it was one of the boy's birthdays so after a morning of English games we had a party with ridiculous amounts of cake, cookies and muffins. Meanwhile, it felt like it was my birthday too as I was showered with cards and home-made presents - one boy even wrote a poem entitled Tank You English Teacher, which he read out to the class. My next class were down the road at the circus practising their trapeze and balancing skills in preparation for a performance at the end of the week so I popped down to say goodbye. Gotta say it was pretty impressive seeing 7 and 8 year olds hanging gracefully from the top of a circus tent!

The sweets I brought in went down a little too well - note to self: never try and hand out confectionary in a primary school playground. I've finally discovered the art of bribery, never has the classroom been so quiet than when I said they'd only get sweets if they behaved themselves.

Went for drinks with a couple of friends at what I've decided is definitely my favourite place in Avignon, 83 Vernet - an über chic (but not too pricey) bar/restaurant which makes hands down the best Mojitos I've ever had. The following day we went along to Ile de la Barthelasse to start working on our tans and take some final snaps of the famous Pont d'Avignon, and I later headed to tandem to say goodbye to the lovely group of Avignon locals I meet with every Wednesday.

Thursday was yet another super-cute day at my third school, who treated me like a princess with surprise parting gifts, cake and posters. So sad to be leaving all my students, especially my CM2s (10/11 year-olds) who gave me a big group hug and are always a good laugh.

There were more surprises in the evening, as Pauline had organised a leaving party for me with apéro at the flat before we headed onto Red Sky for one more soirée (we're such regulars now, the barman knows my order).

On Friday I went for tartines with the girls at Ginette & Marcel then met up with Ghislaine for  Monacos - beer, lemonade and grenadine, we really need these in the UK - in Place Pie. Finally, it was time to say a final farewell to all the assistants over games of Picolo at Drew's house.

This morning I managed to squeeze in one more hike with the woman I teach in St Remy and afterwards she showed me a bit around her beautiful provencal village, Noves.

For my final meal in France, Pauline and I decided to be very French and had sushi together before she walked me to the station in the rain - note the sun had disappeared this afternoon, pathetic fallacy for you.

So here I am, typing away on the Eurostar probably somewhere near Paris right now and reminiscing year abroad memories with the lovely Sarah, another assistant who is on the same train.

It's been a memorable year; clubbing in a rural French nightclub, hitch-hiking in Corsica, spending New Year in Paris, skiing in the southern Alps, struggling with French administration, taking car shares everywhere from Aix-en-Provence to Toulouse, learning French slang, and teaching the cutest kids in the world the most useful vocabulary they'll need if they ever come to the UK: the weather.

Au revoir France, I'll be back before you know it.

Bisous,

Katie x

Week 30 - The Penultimate

It's been a rather eventful penultimate week back in Avignon, comprising of everything from 20th birthday celebrations, lunch with Roman gladiators and an emergency trip to the dentist.

I landed back in Marseille last week to a beautiful sunny day - classic that as I reach the end of my contact the weather starts to get really good. It was a fairly quiet weekend in Avignon as everyone was gradually beginning to filter back from their holidays. Pauline and I had a few chilled evenings at Red Sky and caught up with the girls while assessing Diane's waitressing skills at Ginette & Marcel.

Kate, Annie and I were also invited to tea by one of the ladies at our gym who put on a serious display of cakes and chatted away to us about life in Avignon with the Amélie soundtrack playing in the background.

Monday saw Pauline reach the tender age of 20, which obviously meant a night out at Red Sky with the crew (including one of their university tutors). Despite my 6am start the next morning, everyone was invited chez nous for afters - we did have birthday bunting, a slightly questionable (French flour is just not the same) birthday cake and vodka jelly prepared, after all. Unfortunately the neighbours weren't quite as keen to celebrate Pauline's birthday in the early hours of Tuesday morning and it wasn't long before we had the police knocking on our door so we were forced to relocate the party elsewhere.

After a slight toothache on Tuesday, I woke up the following morning to a stabbing pain in my wisdom tooth and a gum the size of a golf ball. This didn't seem promising. Putting on my best French accent despite the lack of ability to move my mouth, I called all 9 dentists I could find in Avignon and desperately pleaded for an emergency appointment. Just as I was about to give up hope and overdose on painkillers, I got a call back from the first dentist I called (typical) who had a sudden gap they could squeeze me in. Within 5 minutes I was in the dentist's chair and she very sweetly prescribed me some anti-inflammatorys.

That afternoon I met up with Annie for milkshakes (couldn't physically consume anything else just yet) and we had a little panic session over all the French admin we needed to sort out before we go. Phone contract has now been cancelled and packing is about to commence. Later, Ghislaine and I went for a walk to the Palais Gardens to enjoy the sunshine before heading to tandem.

Two of my classes were cancelled on Thursday because the Romans of Vaison-la-Romaine were visiting school! This just meant I got to spend more time with my favourite CM2 class where we basically spent the lesson playing the celebrity guessing game. The three 'Roman soldiers' ate lunch with us in the staffroom which was quite entertaining - they were fully dressed in gladiator sandals and body armour.

Fair to say it's been quite emotional going into work this week and preparing to say goodbye. I've armed myself with several giant bags of sweets ready for next weeks classes. Going to miss my kiddies.

Friday night was DJ Vessel's final Pub Z with all the assistants so was a great chance to see everyone again and start saying our goodbyes *sob*. Ghislaine and I headed to Brian's for his famous soup (butter is the secret ingredient) after tandem, followed by pres before we headed to Pub Z and obviously ended up in Red Zone at the end of the night.

Another 3 hours sleep - this seems to be becoming a habit out here - then an early start this morning to go for a hike/take an English lesson in Les Alpilles with the sweetest local woman. After the hike we popped into the Saint-Paul Asylum in Saint-Rémy for a look around at where Van Gogh was a self-admitted patient back in the late 1800s.

Now time to finally get down to doing some uni work that's due next week - we do have some assessments to do on a Year Abroad, promise!

Bisous, Katie x

Weeks 28 & 29 - Easter Holidays

For the Easter holidays I went off skiing for a week with my family in Les Deux Alpes, followed by a lovely week back home playing tourist in London:

Cece came to visit so I showed her around on Boris' Bubbles

Katie x

Week 27 - Easter in Marseille

Easter in France: Champagne, soirées and classroom Easter Egg hunts!

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.

On Easter Monday I got to try out Marseille's metro (city life is exciting) as we went down to South Marseille to her sister's for lunch. Yes, more wine, cheese and chocolate - it was a very happy Easter. In the afternoon we made the most of the fact we were by the seaside and had a trip to the beach, followed by drinks at a beachside bar with her friend before heading back to Avignon.

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

Week 26 - Quick trip across the Channel

A weekend back home and dishing out British chocolate.

My interview on Saturday was the perfect excuse for a quick trip home over the weekend. I had a lovely time catching up with Sarah on the Southbank (although the weather was a little colder and greyer than the sunshine I left behind in Marseille) and also managed to see Katie, my roomie from Study India last summer, for cocktails in Brixton. One of the best things about being home has got to be the food - I finally got that roast dinner I'd been craving and stocked up on Creme Eggs and Easter chocolates to bring back to France and give to my favourite classes!

The time went all too quickly and before I knew it I was back at Gatwick Airport early Monday morning for a flight to Lyon. France being France, there was an air traffic control strike this weekend although I was fortunate to only suffer from a minor delay as opposed to an entire flight cancellation.

Annie, Kate and I went to the cinema on Wednesday to see Chocolat (nope, not the Johnny Depp film). It stars Omar Sy (the guy from Intouchables) and was all about the first black clown and actor in France so touched on some interesting films. Being a French film and based on a true story we were also left with a rather deflated, unhappy ending. Later we went on to tandem which was really busy this week!

At school on Thursday the teacher announced to the class that this would be my last day. I looked round confused - my contract doesn't end for another month! Turns out she'd got confused as German assistants finish at the end of this month so we reassured the class I'd be there again next week that they were happy about (phew). The addition of British chocolate to the classes mean my students love me.

Had a soirée at our favourite Avignon haunt, Red Sky, on Thursday night with Chelsea, Amy and the French squad. Our nights out seem to work inversely here - starting at the bar and heading back to our apartment for post-drinks and games of Je n'ai jamais... (Never have I ever).

Happy Easter / Joyeuses Pâques !

Katie x

Week 25 - St. Patrick's Day

I'm writing this with a bit of a headache today, entirely brought on myself after last night's festivities for St Patrick's Day (I blame the leprechauns).

Niamh came to visit over the weekend which was lovely and I enjoyed showing her around Avignon. We made the most of the sunny weather and had a very French picnic of Brie and baguette in the park next to my apartment, then walked across to Ile de Barthelasse and visited the Palais gardens. She also got to make the most of my oven (not all that common in French apartments) as we made banana bread. Looks like we'll be doing a lot of baking in our house in Exeter next year! On Saturday afternoon we met up with the family I used to au pair for who were in Avignon for the day. They took us out for tea at Simple Simon, an amazing restaurant with the most incredible tea and pudding selection. It's probably a good thing for both my waistline and my bank balance that I didn't hear about this place sooner.

On Monday I walked over to Les Angles with Annie and Kate, another town just across the bridge. I can't say it was quite as pretty and tourist-friendly as Villeneuve but we still had a good walk.

One of my teachers was ill this week which meant I just had longer with my other classes. This can happen quite a lot when you turn up and get given a class to teach that you might not have prepared for, but somehow I managed to keep 25 8-year-olds entertained for an hour and a half (pro tip - Simon Says is always a good fallback).

There was loads going on for St. Patrick's Day in Avignon - the French do love their Irish bars. Rue de la Republique was packed with people drinking Guiness outside O'Neils. We had a few drinks at Brian's beforehand which was very festive thanks to all the hats, flags and face paint he'd brought with him from Ireland.

Off home to London now for an interview tomorrow but am also so excited to catch up with friends and family who I'm going to see for the first time in 2016!

A la semaine prochaine,

Katie x