Friday 18th April

Watched some weird french game shows in the morning. On question was ‘how many pates can you make with 4 sheep, 2 ducks and a pig?’ Strange. I think the answer was 62. Anyway, after a lazy morning we went shopping. Laura really liked a black, sparkly dress from Zara but didn’t get it because of money etc, so we secretly bought it for her as a thank you present. With the dress safely hidden in my bag, the rain began again and we sheltered in a coffee shop. I had a really nice iced coffee. All it was was ice, coffee and some sweet syrup stuff you put in yourself to taste. No milk or ice-cream or anything. On the way home we went to the video shop and got out ‘Paris je t’aime’. Back home we watched some Sex and the City, had supper, found Grace a possible job for the summer in the Cote D’Azur, watched the film which was 18 short stories, all by different directors, and all set in the different areas in Paris, and tried to take the whining dog out for a pee without getting our hands bitten off. Ha, didn’t work so he had to stay whining in the corridor.

Thursday 17th April

Everyone slept until late this morning except me, so I got up, dressed, read, cleaned up the kitchen and finally decided at 12 to go for a walk. I wandered for about 15 minutes in the rain (yep it rains here too) and even got asked directions for a woman in a car. I even knew where the Place de Comedie was, just not how to get there by car so I gave here a vague direction to head in. When I got back, everyonen was up but by now it was pouring with rain and it didn’t stop all day so we watched the OC, played the guitar and watched some french tv.

Wednesday 16th April

Last night we arranged to meet the Lille assistances and cycle to the beach. We all hired bikes (only €2 for the day) and headed off with a picnic. Laura had been told it would take about 30 mins but we managed to lost a couple of times so about an hour later we finally arrived at the quite chilly beach, with no accidents. There was one point where we cycled through an avenue of trees anf it felt just like we were in the Sound of Music. And all the way cars and lorries where hooting at us in a friendly way. Seeing 13 bikes cycling in group must have been quite a sight. So we spent a couple of hours on the beach, and about 30 mins of that in a cafe warming up. The wind was freezing. In the cafe I the song ‘Stay With me ‘Till Dawn’ was played which is a Wildflower song. Unfortunately I was in the toilets at the time and couldn’t hear the voices properly but I text Sam straight away anyway. I’m annoyed it came on at that time. I would’ve been able to tell straight away who was singing if I was in the cafe. On the cycle back we managed to annoyed several french men by cycling through their boules game - oops!! And I very nearly had a run in with a post. That night, Mary, Laura and I met up with Lauren, Claire, Nick, the American guy and the nameless brit for a fondue. We went to this amazing, but wacky restaurant which served the wine in baby bottles, gave all you can eat baked potatoes and bread, and served the two balls of ice-cream for pudding differently depending on if you are male or female. Boobs (with chocolate drops) or a penis (with half a banana). Mary, who asked for more potatos even though there were some sitting right next to her on the table started a long-running joke with the waiter who gave her a raw potato to take home with her. And Lauren managed to persuade him to let her keep the baby bottle as a souvenir. I found out Nick knows the chicken roundabout near Bungay and Claire has been to a Harleston, although we think it might have been the one near Needham Market. It was a brilliant evening, which ended in some games of pool at a local pub.

Tuesday 15th April

Had a nice early start this morning. We had arranged to meet at the station at about 7.00 ready for our 7.12 train, so I struggled down the 63 stairs at 6.40. I got to the station about 5 minutes early and I must say was a little panicked when the station clock got to 7.09 and there was still no sign of them. However, they appeared within a few seconds and we caught the train with about 30 seconds to spare. We had to change stations in Paris so we spent a good 30 minutes carrying our cases up and down stairs and on and off the metro, going from St Lazare to Gare Lyon in the rush hour. Never again! Once on the train to Montpellier we could relax and watch the countryside change as we headed south. One thing I have noticed is that although the majority of french toilets are bad with no paper, seats or sinks, the train toilets are much better than british ones. They have seats, working sinks and loo paper, and don’t smell too bad. Weird. Anyway, we got to Montpellier at about 1.30 and arrived to a blue sky and sunshine - bliss. While we were waiting for Laura (Mary’s friend) we watched the trams go by (they were painted in a 60’s style flower power pattern) and chatted to an english boy and an american girl who were teaching assistances from the North of france and didn’t know where to go in Montpellier. When Laura arrived she told them where to go and we went to Laura’s house to drop off the bags. Its a house on two floors with a big kitchen and a big sitting room, and had 5 people living there. We met Laura’s housemate and friend Mary, who was American, and the dog which another housemate was looking after for the week, and then had a wander around the town. Its a very pretty city, loads of cobbled streets and outdoor cafe’s. We stopped at two different cafes on our way around and had a gorgeous apple crumble at one of them. Liz and Grace have decided to go on a detox diet this week and were only going to eat grapes for the whole week. However, Mary and I managed to persuade them to have rice aswell, so now its grapes and rice for a week. Personally I think they’re rather mad. That evening we went to a party at one of Laura’s friends flats. They are all teaching assistance and there was and aussie, a kiwi, two americans, a canadian, a french and a brit. Then, a friend of Laura’s from uni, Lauren, arrived with some more teaching assistances. They were down for a couple of days from Lille. Amongst them were two americans, an english guy Nick who used to live in Holt, two english girls, Claire who lives in Cambridge and one I can’t remember the name of and two scottish girls. It was so weird being surrounded by so many different nationalities. In Rouen we have got used to mixing with the french.

Monday 14th April

Started the day doing some packing for Montpellier tomorrow, played the guitar, printed some photos for art work. We had arranged to meet at Cafe Cheri at 3.00pm. When I arrived Grace was sitting on a boulder outside. The cafe was closed for a week. Instead we all went to Flunch for afternoon tea. The hot chocolate machine wasn’t working and only water came out so I had to try and explain what had happened and ask for another token - interesting. I think we were at Flunch for about 2 hours and then I went home, picking up a couple of things from Monoprix on the way, to do more packing. At about 8pm I went to Graces. Liz and Mary had gone there straight after Flunch, and we watched Airplane, which was being shown in english on tv. Then it was back home to finish the packing and an early-ish night. On the way I passed a massive group of tourists doing a night tour of Rouen, and I got asked directions from a french man who then began talking about London as soon as he realised I was english.

Sunday 13th April

Laura text and said that she and Adam were heading to Paris today, and that Adam had only just found out - surprise!! Its probably a good job I came to Rouen cause I nearly gave the surprise away a couple of times. Right, today was a normal Sunday really. Started packing for Montpellier - packing for a week is much more difficult than for 3 months - did some drawing, wrote to Shaun and watched Sister Act 2. Really exciting. However, in the evening the girlies came round and Grace cooked us stuffed peppers with garlic rice (my room still stinks of garlic) followed by a chocolatey, biscuity mess. Then, after the biggest wash up I have done in Rouen, we watched ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’, and just relaxed. It was nice to have an evening at home.

Saturday 12th April

Laura’s birthday. I have to confess I forgot what day was what so I only remembered when she text a thank you for her present - sorry Laura - I hope you had a good day! This morning I cleaned my room, sorted washing, got some passport photos done for the train card and tried out a new launderette I’d found just the other side of the market place. It is a lot bigger, cheaper and nearer and with about 12 washing machines and 9 dryers, and a pressing service if you want to have clothes without creases. It was such a beautiful day that while the washing was being washed I went back to the market place and read a book sitting on a bench. It was so nice and peaceful. So, after the washing was dry, I wandered home, passing at least 4 beggers (there seems to be an influx of them), to get ready. Grace had invited us round for baked potato (haven’t had one since I left england) and baked apple, followed by ice-skating with Mika. Mary didn’t come - she absolutely detests ice-skating. After a delicious meal (Mika arrived in time for pudding), we headed to the rink. Why do skates hurt so much? I was in so much pain the whole time and now have bruises on my ankles. I was really bad at first, and Grace, Liz and Mika took turns at dragging me along, but by the end I was skating pretty well, even venturing into the middle of the rink! I think what was scary by the end was a large group of drunken skaters, which I had to try and avoid. We also had ice fights, mostly the girls against Mika - I think we probably won. After the ice-skating, we went up a hill (not the one we normally walk up) to see the view of Rouen at night. Its really beautiful. And where we had parked, there was a beautiful church all lit up, a massive graveyard with whole tombs and a kind of look-out place which was all beautifully lit too. It started raining whilst there so we got soaked. We even walked past a flat where a party was going on and stood in the garden dancing to the music - no-one noticed though. It was quite surreal really. Once we were getting cold we went back to Liz’s to warm up and told really bad jokes. What’s black, white and read? A newspaper! It was a brilliant evening.