OK, so I haven't been too great about updating the blog over the last week, but things have been relatively slow around le France. I'll condense all of the week into one entry so that it sounds like I did a few things… but really, not so much.

On Wednesday, Sharon and Paul organized a cheese-tasting night at their local Fromagerie. For €5 we got to taste 12 of the shop owner's favorite cheeses and a white or red wine that complimented each one. Until you go to a small cheese shop in France you will never fully appreciate just how proud these people are of their cheese. Unfortunately for me, the owner overheard that I very much preferred the brie in America and I thought the man was going to cry. Naturally, I felt awful and praised the next round of cheese as though I had never tasted anything better in my life. I did write down the names of several of my favorites and bought a few at the end of the night; many of them were very good, even some that are illegal to export and others that smelled pretty terrible.

Friday was uneventful, except for the unbelievable apricot croissant I bought at a pastry stand in Bellecour. It was so good that I looked up a recipe so I can make them when I get home. I can't make them here because the French don't equip their apartments with ovens, but you should all start a countdown until I get home and can make them for you.

Saturday and Sunday made up Integration Weekend for CEFAM students. 160 French and 20 Americans piled on to three buses and we went four hours south to the Ardeche for a glorified camping trip. I'm not going to elaborate on this too much because I didn't totally love it, but it did give all of us a good chance to meet the French students and a lot of our teachers. Also, I've determined that the French kids are insane. I survived the rowdiest dinner of my life this weekend- there were people jumping up and down on tables while singing French songs and throwing bread and potatoes across to other tables who thought their song was better than the other… we Americans were caught off guard and could only respond by standing and singing God Bless America (which was received with a huge round of applause and some more French patriotism).

So, that was that.

In other news, my Mom has decided to come and visit! She is coming to Paris on November 1 and then meeting me in Lyon the day I return from my week in Italy (Nov. 3) and will stay until the 8th. It will be really nice to have her here- I'm glad she has recently discovered that pairing Xanax with alcohol is the perfect way to survive a plane ride.

Finally, for those of you who check my pictures, my super-smart boyfriend (who is also visiting in November) has created an excellent website for me to upload and organize photos. It still needs some aesthetic modifications, but you can view my pictures easier there. Also, if I ever upload almost 200 pictures into one album again (like Barcelona) and you don't want to see them all, Chris's site has larger thumbnails and you can scroll through faster. Oh, and you can view pictures in their original size if you want because they don't get resized in uploading. All in all, it's a pretty good page.Bookmark this!

http://clipsnag.com/Caitness/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=31

Paris this weekend!