So here I am...in beautiful, beautiful Provence. Quick recap: I was a French (and theatre) major in school and studied in Strasbourg, France in fall of 2008. I applied for this program - the Teaching Assistantship Program in France - through the French consulate towards the end of 2010, was accepted into the program mid-May and arrived in France last Tuesday, September the 27th.
The adventure began with a hellacious 24 hours of travel. Upon arriving in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, I took a tgv (super, super fast train - pronounced tay-jay-vay) to Marseille. Then a regular train from Marseille to Aix-en-Provence, the city in which I now work and live.
I wish I had been awake enough to take pictures of the countryside on the way to Marseille. It was so beautiful. It was just after dawn, so there was a beautiful thin fog over much of the land that we passed. There were vineyards covered with muslin to protect them from the rain. This made them look a bit ghostly and poetic from a distance. The architecture was wonderful as well. Aged villages, crumbling at the edges. Bits of Roman ruins here and there (the south is full of them). And when we passed through larger towns, there were interesting modern buildings.
Anyway, since then, I've been getting acquainted with the family for whom I'm au pair-ing, finding my routine for everyday life and trying to make it through the mountain of paperwork I still have to complete in order to be able to live and work here legally.
Well, more on all of that later. For now, here are some pictures of the house where I'm living:
The view from my window.
Look at those lovely blue shutters.
There's a terrace too! - Grapes and passion fruit grow on the frame. We had lunch out there today - it was wonderful.
À bientôt,
M
