A very busy and exciting third week!

Bonsoir!

It has been a while since I last posted so be prepared for a lot of stories in one go!

The third working week on the Cote D'Azur was another productive and interesting week. As I continued with my course I gained more confidence, met more people, and most importantly learnt more French :) But the excitement doesn't end here!

Alongside my usual routine, I found myself having a picnic on the beach on Thursday evening with some of the other people on my course and also some of the teachers. It was an absolutely wonderful event as it was boiling hot (even as the evening progressed) and the scenery from the beach was gorgeous!  We spent the evening eating lots of nice food such as pasta salads, cake, bread, pizza and much more. Whilst eating, I got the chance to talk to lots of people who I had not yet had the chance to get to know well which was lovely. At the end of the evening we were all very happy and I went home feeling very privileged to have had the opportunity to meet such lovely people.

Once the working week had finished, I yet again jumped on the opportunity to squeeze some travelling into my busy timetable as I am coming towards the end of my time on the Cote D'Azur and therefore want to see as much as I can before I leave. I fancied visiting Monaco so I set off early on Saturday morning to take the train from Cannes Gare SNCF to Monaco Monte-Carlo Gare. I found the experience at the station in Cannes rather stressful as I did not really understand what to do with the ticket machines and also where the correct platform was. However, I was EXTREMELY lucky as a train came to a halt fortunately on the platform that I was currently on and happened to be going to Monaco. So I got onto the train and enjoyed a scenic hour and a half journey along the coastline.

When I arrived in Monaco, I spent the whole day walking around the town and taking lots of pictures (as you can see on the 'Photos-Cannes/Cote D'Azur' page of the blog. It was very hot so I often had to have a rest on a bench but I was very satisfied at the end of the day as I felt like I had seen most of the city. However, the day did not end there! When I returned to Monaco Monte-Carlo station I was horrified to hear that my train was going to be delayed for at least one hour. I was very tired so was finding it difficult to understand the announcements on the train but a kind French woman luckily explained slowly what was going on. It was sad because I found out that there had been an accident elsewhere on the train track. In total it took three hours to get back to the house in Cannes La Bocca and I was exhausted so my level of French at the dinner table was very limited. However, it was a very good day all in all and I am very glad that I went to see Monaco. I highly recommend it to any of you thinking of visiting it in the future.

Sunday was a more relaxed day as I stayed in Cannes. However, I visited the Vieille Ville which was very typically French with the narrow streets and shuttered windows. In fact, it felt like I was Vianne from the film 'Chocolat'. Very French indeed! When I had finished looking around the old town, I met up with a friend from my course and we went to see 'Malefique' at the cinema. It was very good for us to watch a French film without subtitles as we could really focus on the language. Another very enjoyable day!

So that was my weekend! As I said in the title, it was a very interesting few days and I feel like I got to see and experience a fair few things. I now only have five days left on the Cote D'Azur so my aims are to eat as much Socca as possible (A traditional and very tasty dish from Nice) and to visit the beautiful village of Vence which is located in the Alps. So I will do the fourth and final week in style!

A bientot!