France

I took my first final last Tuesday, May 24, and the following morning I was off to France to meet up with Lauren and her sister, Sam.  Sam is living in Tarbes (southwest, near Spain, right outside of Lourdes) for the year teaching English and graciously hosted us until the 31st!  It was so much fun and such a good excursion from Cardiff!

Because of my final on the 24th, I couldn't get the direct and cheap flight right into Lourdes with Lauren so I flew out of Bristol the morning of the 25th.  After a longgg day of traveling (1 hour bus to Bristol, 1/2 hour shuttle to the airport, 2 hour flight to Toulouse, shuttle to the Toulouse train station, and a 2 hour train to Tarbes) I made it to Tarbes around 8 pm.

An hour to kill in Toulouse.

I immediately met up with Lauren, Sam, Regis (Sam's boyfriend), and Regis' friend at Sam's apartment for dinner.  Regis and his friend cooked us some savory Breton crèpes for dinner (a crèpe made with a special kind of flour, filled with ham, cheese, and egg) and they were so delicious!

Thursday was pretty relaxed.  Lauren and I explored the Tarbes market in the morning and got some take-away filter coffee (very rare in France!) while Sam taught in the morning.

Tarbes market--so French!

After a great 3 course lunch out with Sam and Regis, we accompanied Sam to her afternoon class, which was 10 year olds.  We got to introduce ourselves to the class with simple English vocabulary and then got beat in a game of "Simon Says".  That night we made dinner for Regis and his 8 housemates (very simple baguette paninis and soup) and then got to meet a bunch of their other friends who came over later.

Friday was another lazy morning, while Sam worked and Regis was in class.  That afternoon, the four of us went to Lourdes (only 20 minutes away).  I have always learned about Lourdes in religious ed, since St. Bernadette is the patron saint of our church (Mary appeared to St. Bernadette at Lourdes), so I was very intrigued to see.  I was totally not expecting what Lourdes was like.  The town, itself, looked like a religious Las Vegas--neon signs illuminating streets and streets of religious souvenir shops, jugs of Holy Water everywhere, and light-up Virgin Mary figurines.  I was also surprised to learn that Lourdes is the second most visited destination in France after Paris.  It was so crowded with people from all over the world, which was just so unexpected in middle-of-nowhere, France.  The pilgrimage site, itself, is centered around the grotto in which Mary appeared to St. Bernadette and a basillica is now built on top of the grotto.

Me and the basillica.

Grotto.

But there were 2 things that really struck me about Lourdes.  First, the amount of Holy Water.  Next to the grotto there are countless faucets of Holy Water where people were filling up jugs upon jugs to bring home.

Holy Water fountains.

Second, the amount of sick people.  Lourdes is a very popular pilgrimage site for people seeking miracles so there were so many people there in wheelchairs and stretchers, clearly in very bad conditions.  We were there at 5 pm, which is when there is a daily service of some sort so we saw a procession of people in wheelchairs and stretchers being wheeled around the square in front of the basillica and into the service...a very weird sight.

The procession of sick people.

That night we had another amazing French meal at Regis': raclette, which I had never heard of before.  But its a traditional French meal where you melt raclette cheese on a special heater and pour it over potatoes and cured meats.  Yummy.

Raclette.

Saturday was the first nice day, weather-wise, of our stay and we definitely took advantage of the weather by going wine-tasting.  Lauren, Sam, Regis, his friend, and I drove out to the Madiran vineyard region and visited 2 vineyards.  But first we stopped for a delicious multi-course lunch of salad, duck confit, espresso, and crème brulée, at the cutest restaurant ever in a tiny village.

Lunch

 The first vineyard, Chateau Laffitte-Teston, was really fancy and straight out of a painting.

Me, Lauren, Sam.

"Comme un tableau" (like a painting) --the vineyard owner

Cheers.

The second vineyard was totally family run and we did the tasting in their garage, but the vineyards, themselves, were equally beautiful.

Vineyard 2.

We had a delicious end to our day when Regis cooked us some incredible Filipino food, chicken adobo (he is half Filipino).  One of my all-time favorite dishes.  Lauren and I made an apple crumble to top off the perfect meal.

Sunday was also a gorgeous day so we (me, Sam, Lauren, Regis, and 2 of his friends) went hiking in the Pyrenees.  We drove out to the village of Gavarnie (only 13 km from Spain) and hiked up to the cirque de Gavarnie.  I'm not going to try to explain other than saying it was the most gorgeous place ever.  So here are some pictures.

Start of the hike.

French-style picnic on the cirque.

Cirque de Gavarnie.

After the hike, we took the most gorgeous drive up and down the mountains, on a road they ride on in the Tour de France (we saw many "Lance"s written in chalk all over the roads).

Such a pretty drive.

We stopped in Giborre at a thermal spa called Aquensis where we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the huge thermal pools, hot tubs, and Turkish bath.

Thermal bath time!

This awesome day was capped with homemade pizza with the best homemade whole grain dough ever.

Unfortunately Sam had to work and Regis had class all day on Monday but Lauren and I still had a great day exploring Tarbes.  We had a super French cafe breakfast of chocolatines and cafe cremes, met Sam for her lunch break, and then met up with her for coffee after work.

Last day in Tarbes.

But dinner is what I really want to talk about.  Definitely one of the best meals I've ever eaten.  Regis' housemate was home for the weekend and brought back duck (he killed it on the farm himself) and made us duck confit.  It's a really, really long and involved process to cook duck confit so I was really impressed with this college boy's culinary skills.  He served it with diced potatoes and green beans, both also cooked in the duck fat, and homemade bread.  But it was SO good and SO fresh yummm.  In all, a perfect last night.

The trek back to Cardiff was soo long (1/2 hour to Lourdes airport, 2 hour flight to London-Stansted, 1.5 hour bus to London center, 3.5 hour bus to Cardiff center).  But all in all, I LOVED my French experience and I'm so happy we were hosted by people who know the area so well!  I also learned I like a lot more cheeses and meats than I ever thought I did (although I still HATE goat and bleu cheese).

Au revoir, France!

Tomorrow marks the start of my last week in Cardiff!  Time to cross off everything on my Cardiff bucket list and squeeze in a bit of studying for my last 2 finals!