Tuesday 6th May

English class! Well, more of a how was your holiday, here are some questions i’ve translated, and come to a gathering at 5.00pm for wine and cake. It was nice seeing some of the art students again though, even if briefly. After the short meeting Mary, Grace and I (Liz is in bed ill), went and sat by the river. It was boiling today and sitting by the water seemed to make the air cooler - or not. There was no wind at all so the heat was like a blanket. We are all a lot browner tonight. When we started to feel dizzy from the heat we went and and had a diabolo (lemonade and grenadine) in a cafe to cool down before heading over to the art school for the tea party. It was lovely. Lots of students we knew were there, Patricia and Christine. There was wine and beer and loads of cakes, biscuits etc. We had bought two meringues, five crispy cakes and 12 croquettes ourselves. Christine gave us a little present of black cat brooches and said we must go and have a cup of tea with her before we go. We will go tomorrow and take petite cadeau. As we were dispersing to go home we gave Patricia a thank you card and a present of chocolates I had bought this morning from my nearby chocolate shop. She loved them, and said we must keep in touch with her. Then this evening we had a night at Graces listening to music, eating cheese and bread and playing the guitar with the windows wide open. Back home I had front row tickets to a Muse concert. It was being played loudly in the flat opposite, and with their window open and mine I could hear everything.

Monday 5th May

Went to Cafe Cheri this morning, and met Mary and Liz. Liz has a sore throat. Then I went back to the flat and tried to do some work. I couldn’t concentrate so I ended up listening to podcasts and having a nap. My head was feeling all groggy, almost like a migraine. It could have been the weather. It was really warm and humid - the air felt heavy. At about 4.30 I decided that some fresh air might do me good and set out on a mission to find some jeans or other trousers. One pair of mine have just died. The mission didn’t go very well. Found some perfect jeans but they had them in the wrong sizes, so I ended up buying a top instead. It will be really nice for the summer. I wish i had my floppy linen trousers ad flip-flops here. Thats what I need in this heat. Back at the flat I had a light tea of veg and fruit and settled down to watch ‘Erin Brockovitch’ - oh yeah, i bought a new dvd too, and went to bed at 10, which is the earliest night yet in Rouen.

Sunday 4th May

We had decided to go and visit the Monet Gardens at Giverney today, and had arranged to catch the 10:09 train. However, Mary and Grace went to a barbecue at Guilliums last night and didn’t get home until 7.00am. Grace was up in time but Mary had slept through her alarm, and we couldn’t get hold of Liz at all. This meant we missed the first train but undeterred we bought tickets for the next train, and nearly ended up somewhere far away because the ticket lady had heard us wrong. Then we had a hot chocolate sitting outside (it was very hot again, not so sunny but really humid), and caught the 12:00 instead. It was 40 minutes to Vernon, where we hired bikes from a jolly cafe owner, who gave them to us cheaper, and we set out on the short ride to Giverney. We got lost at first, and missed the cycle path we were meant to go on and ended up heading up a really steep rock path in a wood. At the top of the path we came to a road and headed back into Vernon to start again. I’d seen a sign for the museum earlier so we followed this, but it also didn’t seem right as it was on a main-ish road. Half way there we found the right cycle path. We had probably cycled straight past the entrance. 10 minutes later we arrived in Giverney and decided to have a spot of lunch before going to the gardens. Mary chose a B+B who did lunches. It was a beautiful place. A really old house surrounded by a beautiful garden, complete with a stream and bridges, 3 peacocks (two which were white) and two wallaby’s. Mary overheard some aussies saying ‘D’you think thats a kangaroo? No, I think its a wallaby mate’. We had a lovely lunch of homemade salads sitting at a little iron table on a gravel courtyard overlooking the stream. We could have stayed there all day. However we had come to see the gardens so headed onto the car park and chained up the bikes. The queue was ginormous for the Monet stuff so we left it for the time being so we had an ice-cream and had a look in the American Art Museum. It was actually just nice to be out of the heat and in a cool building. By the time we came out, the queue for the Monet gardens was much shorter and we went in. Its very beautiful. One side is very formal, with little paths amongst rows of flower beds. And the other is quite tropical looking, with the lily ponds, bamboo trees and japanese type bridges. It was definitely my favourite of the two. After this we headed back to Vernon and lazed on a grassy bank on the edge of the Seine. Our train wasn’t until 8.45 so we had a while. At about 7.15 we took the bikes back to the cafe and had a drink and some chips before catching the train back to Rouen. Back in Rouen we all went home to drop of our stuff and we rang Liz and we all met up by the Cathedral for a walk along the river. Its very beautiful in the dark and it was so warm still. I didn’t even need a jumper. An hour later, Liz was hungry and hadn’t eaten so we went to QUICK (like a McDonalds), which wasn’t very quick and she got some food, and Grace, Mary and I got milkshakes and we went back to my room for an hour looking at photos and chatting.

Saturday 3rd May

Morgane told me that the art school was having an open day so Mary and I went to check it out this morning. Liz and Grace had gone on an impromptu trip with Mika to a house party in Paris last night! On the way there I passed some english woman who said while looking at the Gros Horloge, ‘it’s a bit like Chester isn’t it dear, only french stylie’. That made my morning! The open day was basically like any other day at the art school. Students working in their studios etc, but there were lots of people wandering about and a drinks stall in the courtyard. We had a quick look around and then decided to go and have a drink and a bite to eat, so we went to a cafe in the little square near mine and I had a Croque Madam and Mary had a cheese salad. Did I tell you it was amazingly hot and sunny today. The paper said it was going to be 23 degrees and I think it was. I ended up actually burning my shoulders. After lunch we walked down to the river and spent a couple of hours sitting in the grass sunning ourselves. And guess who appeared out of no-where. Roller boy with the foot fetish. Because he had already seen my feet (‘Ah, oui, L’hotel de Ville, non?), it was Mary’s turn. It was funny watching the change in her expression from ‘this is not too bad’ to ‘Ok, this is getting very weird’ just as mine had probably done. After a while we made our excuses, and went to a cafe to get another drink followed by a little bit of shopping. Then we went back to our separate flats to have a bite to eat and a shower, and met up again at Le Melville where we went to see ‘The Darjeeling Limited’. Yep, for the second time, but it was just as funny. And now i’m back at the flat, writing this blog having just done some guitar practise, and will probably try and finish watching ‘Howard’s End’ later. Its only taken 3 days!

Friday 2nd May

The weather was beautiful today. Really warm and sunny, so I did my chores, photos at FNAC and water from Monoprix (which took ages because the girl on the cash desk was learning), and then took my sketchbook and sat by the river, doing some work while watching roller bladers, cyclists and passers by. When I felt like I might get heat stroke, I went back to the flat for a bit and played the guitar, and then took my book and sat on my wall in the square. The kids were there again with the tiny dog, which nearly got run over by a van. Back home I had supper and then got settled with a cup of tea and began to watch ‘Howards End’ again. This time I managed to get about half way through when Morgane knocked on the door and said would I like to join her party. The film would have to wait! She had about 10 people there, some who i’d met at the last party and some who I recognised from the art school. One, who i didn’t recognise but goes to the art school, did an exchange to Norwich last year so we had a chat about city. At 11.40, the new neighbour came and knocked on the door and said could we turn the music down because they were trying to sleep. They are probably the only ones asleep at that time in the whole of Rouen. I also had a nice chat with Morgane and she told me about the trip to New York. Apparently they went into the Apple store drunk and one girl was sick on the security mans shoe. They blamed it on a dodgy burger! I finally gave up trying to stay awake at 2am, but I think the party continued for a while after that.

Thursday 1st May

Only 15 days till I go home. Half of me is happy and half of me is sad. I’ll miss my room, even if it was awkward, I will miss living on my own and the laid back culture, and Cafe Cheri, but I will be happy to see everyone again and not have to think about what i’m saying all the time. So, today I woke up late. Not surprising really and tried to do some critical studies. Then I ventured out thinking i’d pop into FNAC and print some photos and check my emails at Cafe Cheri. Ha, forgot it was a bank holiday. Yep, on a thursday, how weird is that? Everything was closed. However I remembered the power boats so I had a wander down to the river. Woah, I think everyone in Rouen was there. The quays were full of people, food stalls and fairground rides, and the two bridges were covered in people. On one bridge there was a big screen and a commentary was being played out over a big speaker. I got there at the right time and saw the end of the race, which was 24 hours round and round the island. I don’t know who won but at the end all the team members sat on top of the boats and did a slow lap waving flags and with everyone clapping. Then, because I had my laptop with me I went to Flunch, which was open, and checked my emails over a fruit salad. Back at the flat, after getting soaked by a downpour, I settled down to an evening of art. At 9pm I decided to watch ‘Howard’s End’ and had just got settled with a cup of tea when Liz phoned and said that they were going to the cinema at 9.30, would I like to join them. So I gulped down my tea and headed into the night to meet Mary, Liz, Grace, Mika, Charlie and Timotei. The film, we found out, didn’t actually start until 9.55 so I could have had a bit longer at home but oh well. We saw ‘Iron Man’ which is basically across between Transformers and Power Rangers, where a man who is very technological, creates a suit of iron and tries to save the world by ends up fighting his buddy instead. Apparently according to Charlie it was quite funny, but seeing that it was in french I didn’t get most of the jokes - will have to watch it in english. Outside the cinema we said goodbye to Mika and Timotei and Grace decided have a piggy back ride on Liz. It was all going well until they both fell backwards, Liz landing on Grace and Grace hitting her head on the pavement, ouch, and then laughing hysterically. It was time to go home!

Wednesday 30th April

Started today doing a lot of work. Doing more if the photo book and reading some critical studies texts. All morning though, I could hear an annoying buzzing sound which to me sounded like the speed boats you get on Oulton Broad. At lunchtime the others phoned and asked if I wanted to join them shopping so off I went out into the rain - yep, its raining again. After a little wander, and a bit of decision making outside Claire’s Accessories about ear piecing we went to the Tarte Tatin for a spot of lunch, forgetting we were going out to supper later. Apparently while I was in the toilet, Mary and Liz had dared Grace to put whipped cream on her face - and she did! Very full, we had another look around the shops before realising the time and rushing home to get changed. We all met at Grace’s at 6.30 (well, Mary and I did) to help clear up and get out glasses etc. After the meal we were coming back to Graces for a little party. Mika, who was meant to arrive at 7 eventually came at about 7.30 and we went to meet Charlie and a friend I had met yet lauren (?). Mika told us that there was a 24 hour speed boat race on the river - so I was right about the noise! We had supper at an Italian, where I think we made most of the noise, mostly made by trying to teach each other how to pronounce french and english words properly. Back at Grace’s, after I had attempted to talk to Lauren in french, some more people arrived. Timotei, Henri, and Jean-Philippe (J-P) who brought along a friend, a cousin and the cousins girlfriend, and it was basically an evening of guitar playing. Liz, Mary and I eventually left at about 4am, leaving Grace with Mika and J-P who were still playing the guitar. The power boats were still going so I decided to walk to the river and have a look. All the lights are so pretty on the river at night, the bridges turn blue. Couldn’t see the boats very well but I could see their lights and it was pretty noisy. I really like being out so early in the morning. Eventually got home at about 5am, to find party going on in the flat below - nice!