Friday 28th March

This evening we had a gathering at Liz’ house, us four and Mika and Charlie. I decided to bring the pud so made some chocolate crunch, bought some meringue for Grace and took a few strawberries. At 6pm Mika and Charlie picked me and Grace up from Graces flat - Mika was bringing two guitars so he had his car, and we headed to Route de Darnétal, which is the road Liz lives on. I started getting a bit suspicious when we went on the dual carriage way and then I saw signs for Darnétal. The town! Yep, we were heading out of Rouen. No, not the town, we said, the road, and had to turn around. By this point we had actually reached Darnétal. So thats why they looked very confused when we said we could walk to Liz’ in 10-15 minutes! Anyway, we eventually arrived at the right place and ran out of the car into the flat - it was pouring with rain. I finally met the frog Liz has to look after. It is tiny, about the size of my thumb. Then followed a really good evening of acoustic and electric guitar (I learnt how to play an ‘A’ chord), a delicious meal of garlic and pistachio rice and stir fried veg with ginger. The french aren’t used to ginger at all and Mika didn’t like it. According to Grace you can’t even get ginger beer here. Which was then followed by pud - the chocolate crunch was loved by all, and more guitar. All in all a good time was had by all.

Thursday 27th March

Started the day being lazy, doing some artwork at home. It did thunder though and started hailing so i’m glad I did. Mary rang at lunchtime and said that Habib (one of the students at the art school) was having an exhibition of his work so I wandered over to the art school to meet them. It was actually his examination blanc, which is a practice exam to help the students get ready for the proper one. There were men in suits, a lady who Grace said later had been slating Habibs work big time, and he had to talk in front of about 40 people - scary. After that we went back to the studio and spent the next hour just talking, and eating chocolate and then we parted ways to go and get ready. We were meeting Quentin (aka Mika look-a-like) and some of his friends and going for a japanese meal. We met them at what was supposed to be 7.30 but turned out to be 8.45 out side the irish pub - Mika (we have decided that Mika is much better than Quentin), Charlie (who comes form Corsica) and another guy who I can’t remember the name of - oops. It was a good night. We went to the same Japanese as last time and had the same waiter who definitely remembered us enggliish girls. They all got slightly tipsy on some wine, but my tooth had started hurting again and I took some paracetamol instead. We all had a very disgusting shot of something at the end though. And they came in special glasses where when there is liquid in the glass you can see a picture of a naked man or woman on the bottom, and when the drink is gone so are they. It cause some hilarity - is that even a word? After eating we headed back to the irish pub and managed to cause some mayhem. Somehow Grace learnt to say ‘I want your body’ in french - I think t was Mikas doing, and Mary dared her to say it to the waiter. So when he came over to order some drinks he said ‘What would you like’, Grace replied ‘I want your body’. I was very funny to watch. Then he said he would give it to her for a price but none of us heard what the price was. It was either €5, €50 or €5000. Anyway it was good. Mika found some more friends in the pub and they insisted we went Emporium Galorium so we said, OK, but only for a bit. On the way Grace and Liz managed to trip over a step and both fell into a shop doorway - oh dear. Emporium is a pub with a dance room downstairs. It is really dark with red seats, wooded tables and mosaic tiled ledges. It has the kind of light that makes you want to fall asleep. They was also no-one in there apart from a really cocky french man who kept making fun of Graces french accent so we said goodbye to Mika and Charlie (the other friend had already gone) and went back to Graces for some tea. Then we all parted ways again to go to sleep.

Wednesday 26th March

Rain, rain, rain - it really does make you want to stay inside. However I made myself get out the house and checked out some more car-parking for mum. We’re going to have a big problem with little entrances and her big bus, and a lack of on-road parking. Then I went to check my emails, but on the way I got caught up in some sort of parade. Have no idea what it was for but there were loads of kids, people dressed as pirates and fishermen, african dancing, gymnastics, disco dancing, several different music groups, confetti, balloons and loads of whistles. Lots of other spectators looked just as confused as I was. I even saw the man who had been our waiter at the Japanese restaurant taking photos. Trés interessant. After that the rest of the day was rather boring. Went on the internet, did some work, updated my PdP, finished ‘The Girls’, watched ‘You’ve got Mail’ and spoke to mum.

Tuesday 25th March

The day of the dreaded presentation in French. Got all worked up this morning worrying about it but in the end it was fine. I managed to distract them from me speaking by handing round photographs and the drawings for ‘One Orange Octopus’, so I was kind of talking to myself. I also didn’t need too many corrections which was good. Merci Ségoléne! Oh and my tooth isn’t so sore. So here is my speech:
Mon travail est totalement différent. Je fais des illustrations, du textile, des photographies et des bijoux, et d’utilise différent matériaux. Maintenant, mon travail principal est l’illustration. J’ai juste fini un livre de conte pour les enfants qui s’appelle ‘One Orange Octopus’. Dans les illustrations, j’ai utilisé des peintures, encre, couture, papier, feutre et couleurs vives. Les pages deviennent grosses, alors le nombres devient gros. Toutes les page contiennent un nombre caché et un rimer quel utiliser mots cela commencer avec le premier lettre de le chiffre. Par x, numero un = U. Numero deux = D. Lauren Child, une illustratrice qui ecrit ‘Charlie et Lola’, m’a donner l’inspiration. Dans ses illustrations, elle employe des medias melangés. Un jour, j’aimerais que mon livre soit dans une librairie ou une bibliothéque.
Maintenant, je fais aussi papier images. Je employe des motifs tout autour moi. L’artist Justine Smith m’a donne des inspirations.
After we had finished, and Patricia had given us some dates for private views etc we spent the rest of the day wandering really. First we went to the body shop for Grace and had a chocolat chaud in Flunch. Then we went to Marys flat so she could put some photos on her memory stick. This was the first time i’d been to Marys, so it was really interesting to see another flat. It had a big living, sleeping area, a small galley kitchen and a small bathroom. Spent a while just talking, quite a bit about aspirations actually. Then Grace had the idea of massage by walking on each others backs. I declined and Liz and Mary were worried about breaking some-ones neck by standing on the wrong bone, or simply hurting them but Grace was fearless. Next we went and got some canvas for Liz and Mary and then headed to the big supermarket to do a bit of shopping. I had nothing in my fridge except for a chocolate chicken, some water, half a lemon and some ketchup. After stocking up on food, and some mouthwash for my tooth, we went our separate ways and back at the flat I have basically been writing my blog. I’ve had 4 days to catch-up on. I did find a bit of time though to read half the book Mary had lent me earlier - ‘The Girls’, by Lori Lansens.

Monday 24th March

There was no snow on the ground. Was very disappointed as Mum sent a text saying England had loads. My tooth is still hurting so asked Anne for some more paracetamol, and then I showed her how I do my cut-out pictures. Her craft knife was really heavy so I have a bruise where I was holding it, but I was pleased with my picture. Then we had a really nice lunch of different salads and salmon steaks. It was torture though, as the eating made my tooth ache worse. I just hope its not my dead tooth wanting treatment, not sure I coul face going to a french dentist. Had a couple of hours to kill after lunch so I checked emails, Anne showed me how to cross Paris on the metro and then showed me some photos of Lavendu, museums etc. At 4.30 I said goodbye and caught my train to Paris. Actually it wasn’t my train because they were running late so it was the one which was meant to leave at 4. This meant there were two lots of people wanting to get on and the train was packed. I was standing squashed in a corner. At the next stop, loads more people tried to get on and the train was halted for about half an hour because there was too many people on board. Then another train pulled into the station and several people go off our train and headed to the other one. I didn’t understand properly what was going on so I bravely turned to a nice looking woman and her son and said ‘Vous parle anglais?’ Luckily she did and explained that the other train was also heading to Paris (I think it was the one I was originally meant to get), so I swapped trains. Finally I was on my way to Paris, but running about 45 minutes late. In Paris, I pushed my way through a gigantic mass of people and headed to the RER, which is like a double decker underground train and finally I was on my way to Gare St Lazare. There were two American women next to me and one had definitely had loads of plastic surgery. She looked a bit like Jackie Stallone. At this point it was nearly 6.30pm and my train was leaving at 6.50 so I was very doubtful of catching it. I was right, I missed my train by 5 minutes and ended up catching the next one at 7.30. It was a really nice train with squashy seats, clear luggage racks, curtains all in a pale greeny blue colour and that was 2nd class. In all the trains I’d been on I have learnt that red = 1st class, green/blue = 2nd. I was worried about my ticket though, because it had the previous trains' time on it but it doesn’t seem to matter in France. The conductor looked at my ticket and said merci and that was that. I had planned on visiting Monoprix on my way home because I had nothing in the fridge, but I arrived back in Rouen too late so I settled on McDonalds for supper. Could only manage about half though because of my tooth.

Sunday 23rd March

Got up late this morning. Didn’t sleep to well - I never do in strange beds. Had a breakfast of brioche with a sugar crust and pear jam. The jam was lovely, but I still haven’t worked out how the french eat so much sugar and fat and hardly ever get fat themselves. Then after a shower and a check of emails - I have finally learnt how to get the third symbol on a key. You have to press alt. €€€ - we had a lovely easter lunch of tuna casserole, rice, bread, cheese, and mushrooms followed by a chocolate fondue and fruit. I haven’t eaten that much in all the time i’ve been in Rouen and I was so full. Anne also gave us some easter chocolate - I got a chocolate chicken. In the afternoon we went to Château du Chamerolles. It is a very beautiful but small castle. It looked like it had come out of a fairytale. Inside was a history of perfume, with how they were made, the intruments used, the changes throughout time and finished with a collection of perfume bottles and posters advertising them. Some were very beautiful. Outside was a moat, a little lake, a mini maze, a well with no water, a vegetable garden, a beautiful iron gate, and an arch of roses which I imagine would be amazing in couple of months. After we got back we went straight out again. Anne and Didier were going to supper at some friends and were going to drop me and Ségoléne in to town to go to the cinema. The film didn’t start till 7.30 so we had an hour and a half to wander around. Ségoléne showed me the Cathedral, the old town, the river where we saw a really old boat, and the main shopping street. Then we got a bit cold so we went for a drink in a pub called L’Hendrix Pub. It was really nice, with pictures of Jimmy Hendrix and other famous musicians and singers on the walls, the cocktails all had names like ‘The AC-DC’ and ‘The Joni Mitchell’ and the music was a selection of oldie stuff from Jeff Buckley to Blondie. If only it was in Rouen! At 7.15 we headed to the cinema. It was tiny, and really old looking and suprisingly, twice the price as the one in Rouen. I really like the screen room though. It was long and thin and gave the feeling of sitting in a tunnel with the screen far away at the end. We saw ‘Autumn Rush’ in french. I understood the story but of course didn’t understand most of the dialogue but I really enjoyed the film. Definitely one to see in english. The only bad thing was my tooth started to hurt, and by hurt I mean really hurt so I was in pain for most of the film, but took some paracetamol and by the end it had calmed down a bit. After the film we went to get some food at a lovely restaurant with purple and red chairs. We had to run though because the rain had arrived. I had a gorgeous pizza with parma ham and which was gigantic. Even bigger than Pizza Express pizza’s. Had to eat it really carefully though, only chewing on the right side of my mouth in case I made my tooth worse. And Ségoléne taught me how to ask for the bill. When we came out of the restaurant, it was raining, but really big drops and as we walked it slowly turned to snow. Soon we looked like snowmen and we called Anne to come and pick us up. There was no way we could have walked home.

Saturday 22nd March

Caught the 8.40am train to Paris this morning. It was a double decker which was very cool, but there was an annoying bar across the window at eye-level so I had to either duck or stretch-up to see out of the window. Not that there was much to see, it was pouring again. There was an english family sitting behind me which was quite funny. They kept having arguments and at one point the Dad said ‘I am the head of the family so you have to listen to me. We are not equal.’ And there was a little french boy who kept walking up and down the corridor and falling over when the train jolted - very cute. At Gare St Lazare, I was met by Anne and Ségolène and we went to meet Didier who Anne said was going to be our taxi driver for the day. First stop was the Petite Palais where we had a look at some art. I think my favourite bit was actually the bannister of the staircase. It was beautiful with flowers and swirls all out of black iron. Drove past the Diana memorial, on top of the underpass where she was killed and then we visited the Musee D’Art Moderne. I really liked this museum. There was an amazing room with a massive illuminated painting by Dufy, which I think was 6 metres tall. It was produced for the 1937 World’s Fair and was originally installed in the Pavillion of Light and describes the history of electricity. We also looked at an exhibit who I can’t remember by but will look it up. Some of it was really weird like words made from photos of poo, sculptures made from toffee and stuffed toys, a toilet cubical, and a very large foot which I think was made of cheese. What I did really like though were some pictures made from plastecine, faces, flowers, patterns. They were very cool and could be something you could display in your house rather than a large cheesy foot. By now the weather had brightened up so after having some lunch in the museum cafe we went on a boat trip down the Seine. It turned out the weather wasn’t so nice after all and we got caught in a hailstorm, so we sat inside most of the time, hopping outside to take photos. At one point (luckily at a point when we were inside) a large wave splashed over all the people who were standing at the front of the boat! After the boat ride we drove around Paris, past the Eiffel Tower, a building all covered in plants, the government buildings, where the President lives and finally the Arc de Triomphe. As we were going around the Arc de Triomphe we drove past a yellow mini parked on the side of the road with a couple snogging inside, and Didier honked the horn. The faces of the two people were hilarious and we didn’t stop laughing for a while! And then on the way out of Paris we drove past a large group of tourists posing for a picture and Anne opened the window and shouted the equivalent of ‘Chheeessseee’ and the tourists all cracked up laughing. We then past a petrol garage which was under a block of flats - I have never seen anything like it, and we had a quick look in the Jasper Conran home shop which was amazing and amazingly expensive! There was such a nice desk.
Back in Orléans we had a gorgeous supper and Ségolène and I went to her friends house to a party. I still can’t get use to how much the french smoke (Ségoléne was not I am pleased to say), even the younguns. When I asked it turns out lots of people party smoke, but don’t normally. I tried speaking some french but they told me not too because they could understand me better in english - great! A guy had bought his violin and was fantastic, the girl whose party it was did a bit of piano and lots of them danced so I got taught a bit of ceroc dancing. And then when one of their friends phoned they threw the phone at me and said ‘speak english’. I sorry to say whoever was on the other end put the phone down when i said ‘hi, how are you?’ All in all it was a slightly mad but a good evening.