Hi guys!!! It’s the 24th ... Christmas eve morning and im in les avenieres – it is the little village that my french exchange family lives ... about an hours drive from Lyon (second biggest city in france) – it is south east of paris and is near the Alps
On the night of the 22nd I met the girls from the hostel – all really lovely girls ... but everyone was so wrecked we ended up chatting a bit and just gong to bed ...
I woke up at 6ish and went down to the Gare de Lyon – my train wasn’t until 754am but I wanted to be there early and didn’t want to rush or worry id miss is ... plus I had to wait in a line to validate my eurail ticket and wasn’t sure how long it would take ...
Everything worked out well ... I validated my ticket waited in the line ... had halfa to spare and then went n got c croissant n coffee for breakkie ...
My hostel was only 50 metres from the station which was great ... it meant less lugging of heavy bags
Now that im in aux avenieres im really glad im leaving my laptop and some bags n books n clothes here while I do the rest of my travels because it will be soooooo much easier to lug my stuff around ...
Train ride was two hours and I just spent the whole time reading – finished reading Nana by Zola --- yayay that’s 2/4 books from my reading list that I have finished ...
The best thing about ths holiday is how much reading I can do!!!
I got off at lyon and my French sisters Maud and Margot met me!! yay because they helped me carry my bags ... then we caught another train which took halfa to their closest station, and maud drove us home (about another 20 minutes) to les avnieres!! Maud just got her license because she turned 18 n june
It is SO nice to be here
Here are the members of my French family
Patrice – my French dad
Sophie – my French mum
Maud – the older daughter
Margot – second oldest daughter
Clemence – youngest daughter
Echo – the dog
they have mice as pets too
Yesterday was Sunday and when we got here I had lunch
This is what ate:
a whole tomatoe (YUM YUM YUM YUM) with lots of salt hehe ... nici im keeping up our salt habit ...
some cabbage thing
some brie cheese and some yummy garlicy/herb cheese
dauphin gratinois (its this scalloped potato dish native to the region which Is cooked with cream and cheese)
AND they had desert ... UNE BOUCHE ... une bouche is ths cake which is frances Christmas cake ... france has diff cakes for different times and a bouche is this round log roll and it is like a butter cake with this thick icing which is butter icing but sort of like mousse ..it comes in heaps of variations and some have ferrero rochers chocolate inside
The we visited this little market and I gotttt some nice goodies to brng home .. just some things from the region but I cant tell u what they are or I might spoil some presents ...
We spent lots of time just sitting around the fire and talking and drinking hot chocolate ... watched shrek and harry potter at night :D
For dinner I hate SO MUCH BROCOLLI YUM YUM YUM YUM I love broccoli ... and zucchini soup but yummm broccoli ...
A whole two bowls yummmm
Its lovely just sitting around and doing nothing and talking .. my French family because they are from a country town is very family orientated so they spend lots of time together talking ... and watching TV together ...i like the talking part, it reminds me of home!! ... I talk to Patrice the dad lots, just like I talk to my real dad at home ...
Its nice to just be in a family environment and it will be really good at the end of the trip, spending more family time wth auntie Suzanne and uncle joh n.. and then my French family ..
Aurevoir for now ..
Im off to bum around a bt more
