The End of a Wonderful Adventure!

So today was the day that my first year abroad adventure finished. As they say, all good things must come to an end!

The last working week on the Cote D'Azur was what you could call interesting, different, and also pretty emotional. For starters, I was unlucky enough to become unwell overnight on Monday which could have been caused by one of a number of things. However, when I woke up on Tuesday morning dripping with sweat with an overpowering sense of nausea I was horrified to see that my large collection of mosquito bites had blown up so that they looked like half inflated balloons. I therefore ended up spending most of the day in bed feeling pretty grim and unfortunately missed a concert in Nice that I was supposed to be going to see in the evening. I was annoyed to be ill on my last week in the region but I guess these things do happen sometimes :(

Wednesday was a somewhat better day as I was back on track with my course and also managed to go and visit a small town called 'Le Cannet' in the afternoon. As I was not 100% recovered I made sure that it was a calm outing and therefore controlled where I walked. At the end of the day I felt satisfied as I had seen a good amount of the area. However, it was at the end of the day when the adventures really began! I was sitting at the bus stop in 'Le Cannet' drinking a bottle of cold lemonade as I was very hot and thirsty. However, this did not last for long as a French woman started speaking to me with a slightly raised voice. As I sat and listened, I realized that she was telling me off for drinking the lemonade because it is bad for my health. I was slightly overwhelmed but thought it was very sweet of her to be that concerned. When she had told me a few horror stories about the consequences of consuming too much sugar I soon put the bottle away. When I got back to the house in Cannes I was pretty relieved to sit down and enjoy a lovely cooked meal and then go to bed after a busy day. 

Thursday was another busy day as I realized how quickly my time on the Cote D'Azur was drawing to an end. Therefore, once I had finished my lessons for the day, I went off on the bus with a friend from my course to see the Balcon D'Azur. This is a small, historical town on the edge of a cliff with a castle and breathtaking views of the French Alps and the Mediterranean Sea. We walked around the town for a bit and then went to look around the gardens of Le Chateau de la Napoule which was very interesting as the garden contained a number of fascinating sculptures and other artistic work. 

Once we had finished enjoying all that the Balcon D'Azur has to offer, we took the bus back to Cannes and had a quick dinner and shower before heading out again to a bingo night with friends from the course. This was a lovely evening as we all came together in a very informal environment and had a good laugh as we desperately tried to find some luck in the game. I came very close to getting a full house but unfortunately didn't manage to :) However, I did get lots of number practice in and learnt that Bingo in French is much more challenging than Bingo in English :) 

Friday marked the end of my adventures on the Cote D'Azur and the first part of my year abroad and therefore proved to be very emotional in many ways. It was very hard saying goodbye to all of the lovely people that I met during my placement and also my lovely French host family. Once I had finished my lessons, I went for one last walk along La Croisette in Cannes city centre and then had my last meal with my host family. I then went to bed as I was very tired and had to be ready to wake up at 7am to go to L'Aeroport de Nice for 8:30am.

I arrived back in the UK at midday today and am now doing all of my washing and sorting all of my luggage out. I miss France but am also happy to be home as it is lovely to see my family again. They are taking me out for a welcome home meal tonight which will be lovely! 

So I have come to the end of Part 1 of my year abroad. I will be going to Grenoble in approximately one months time so please keep watching this space as the posts will be starting again once I am in Grenoble. However, in the meantime I will be uploading the rest of my photos from the Cote D'Azur to the 'Photos-Cannes' page and also adding to the endless list of new French vocab that I have learnt so please feel free to take a look whenever you want to :)

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my adventures on the Cote D'Azur and I hope that you will continue to read about my adventures in the Rhone Alpes Region of France and then in Spain. I'm sure there will be plenty more exciting stories to tell! :)

A bientot!