Profitez!

Two weeks ago, Emily and I took a day trip to Antibes to check out our friend Pascale’s church. It was strange to see snow-capped mountains and the sea at the same time, but again made me so thankful to be here.

Thursday was Molly’s birthday and we ate possibly the best meal of my life (no exaggeration). Set in the middle of twisting and turning Vieux Nice, Le 22 Septembre is like eating dinner in someone’s front room. For 14 euros we ate a three course meal, camembert fritters followed by sirloin steak followed by tarte aux pommes. De-lish-us. Anyone who visits me now will probably have to come here, sorry! (I’m really not.)

Last Friday, the fab four (not The Beatles, but Lane, Laura, Molly and I) decided to do some exploring and picture taking around Nice. We ventured past the Port and were rewarded with the bluest sea I have ever seen. I thought the Baie des Anges was beautiful, but this was something else; rocky pools with clear, blue, water, pale craggy stones, staircases that crumbled down into the sea…it was like a ‘staycation’. Molly and I decided to profiter (my fave French word) from the Velo Bleu – a bike share hire scheme, like in London and Newcastle. For 1 euro for the whole day, we could cycle to our heart’s delight. And we did. It felt so good to be on a bike again! Just like Cambridge. Except it was warm and we were cycling along the promenade looking out at the Mediterranean sea…

To spend even more time by the beach, Emily and I had our accountability session on the beach today. So good to read, pray and worship right next to God’s creation. Awesome.I have really  felt the urge to make the most of every moment here, remembering that I am still a tourist and to never stop exploring. Profitons!

All the leaves are brown…

But the sky is still blue here! Autumn has arrived in full force this week, however. My waits at the bus stop in the morning are accompanied by amazing sunsets and thick black streaks of thousands of birds migrating west for the winter – I love how organised they are. There were a few who were like sheepdogs (or rather, birdbirds) who kept circling back to round up the slackers.

Autumn also came in the form of ‘La Fête de la Châtaigne’, the chestnut festival, which Laura and I decided to visit on a whim, not really having any idea what it entailed, or even knowing if we liked chestnuts. We do now.

We arrived to see the hustle and bustle of the festival in full swing, and were greeted with the sight of farmyard animals everywhere. We had missed the moment where the herds of sheep were symbolically herded down the mountain, but we did see this little guy, casually chewing some hay and pretending not to notice his admirers.

We split a bag of chestnuts between us, after seeing huge piles of them being roasted on every street corner in Rome, it had to be done. They were hot as we peeled off the dark brown shell to eat the pale yellow insides. I expected them to taste sweet but they were actually rather savoury. I think I like working for my food as peeling each one made it more fun. Our fingers were covered in soot and we felt very rustic/Victorian as we wandered around. The market sellers were so friendly and we basically had a meal from all of the local food we tried: cheeses, sausage, nougat, bread and olive oil, cakes…and anything you could possibly make from chestnuts, including chestnut liqueur which tasted suspiciously like Vimto. Laura bought a beautiful purple fig macaron and we wandered happily around for hours, warming our hands on some vin chaud and people watching. An excellent way to spend an afternoon!

Devenir ce que nous sommes déjà

Last weekend I went away with the GBU (Groupe Biblique Universitaire). We were supposed to leave on Friday afternoon, but the heavy rain and flooding meant that a new location needed to be found. Thankfully, we were provided with a new location and set off on Saturday morning for Aix-en-Provence. The rain continued but it didn’t stop it being an excellent weekend. I was reminded of how small the world is by the fact that the speaker became a Christian at Jesmond Parish Church!

The theme was about our identity in Christ. It’s interesting because I’ve been thinking and praying so far for what the point of this year was, what my purpose, goals and ambitions are, and the phrase ‘Devenir ce que nous sommes déjà’ (Becoming who we already are) popped up in one of the talks – this idea has been following me around during my time in France and I really think it’s applicable here. It’s amazing grace that we are loved unconditionally and beyond comprehension as who we are right now, but at the same time, as Mumford and Sons put it, ‘You were made to meet your Maker’. At the moment, I have taken a step out of ‘real life’, I’m away from my friends and family, it’s the perfect time to reflect upon who I am and whether I’m moving towards God’s good plans for me, living life as he intended it to be – to the full. Food for thought.

The intense weather situation didn’t stop over the weekend either; Tuesday night saw the Promenade des Anglais closed due to gigantic waves crashing onto the road. Whilst this was slightly inconvenient at the time (a three and a half hour journey home from school is less than ideal), it did make for spectacular viewing. The next morning was calmer but the beaches were still closed. When the sea is choppy the water becomes a great milky green colour, in contrast to the usual azure blue. Instead of extending a few metres out, it was this beautiful colour you can see in the background of the picture all the way to the horizon. Going for a run along the Promenade, watching the waves crash upon the rocks was so refreshing, and when ‘How Great Thou Art’ came on my iPod, I ran that little bit faster, reminded of the awesome power of nature and gratitude to our creator God.

Stop trying to make ‘When in Florence…’ happen, it’s not going to happen.

After Rome we had a beautiful train journey north to Florence. The colours of Autumn were all around and it was so lovely just to sit and watch them blend into each other as we moved by.

Florence was by far my favourite city we visited. It reminded me a lot of Cambridge, with a pretty river and lots of bridges, not to mention bikes everywhere! We didn’t really have a plan for Florence, except to maybe eat some gelato, so we really had the chance to explore and do things on a whim.

The water was really still that day

Florence was the city of art for us. On our first day we stumbled upon ‘The Masks of Prof. Agostino Dessi’ – doesn’t it just sound like something from a film? The shop was filled with masks of all kinds, and the Professor himself was at the back of the shop making a mask. He showed us his favourite, a leaf mask he made for Helena Bonham Carter. He gave us all a postcard with a picture of his store on the front. The weird thing was that it was a painting, but it matched exactly what the shop looked like when we were there, down to the young girl there for a mask making workshop wearing similar clothes…

He also gave us a card for another exhibition in Florence, so we wandered over there (probably via a pasticceria). I can’t remember this artist’s name but she did lots of delicate drawings made up of thousands of tiny circles, so the finished product looked like lace. She also did a series of works on Absalom, David’s son in the Old Testament, whose hair is definitely his downfall. It was strange because she talked about this, and her hair was really thick and past her hips!

Because we had so much time in Florence, we took a day trip out to Greve in Chianti. It was so beautiful and a completely different pace to what we were used to. After wandering round some amazing little shops and being confused by the maps being printed the wrong way round, we climbed to the top of the hill overlooking the village and sat for hours on the edge of the vineyard, eating pizza, sipping some local wine and listening to the roosters. It was lovely to just stop and appreciate everything that was there for us to look at, smell, see, taste, touch and hear. (Just did 2 lessons on the senses, might be the reason for that list)

First impression of Milan

After the leisurely, getting-to-know-you period in Florence, Milan came as a bit of a shock. Though our hotel was affectionately nicknamed ‘the dungeon’ the city was big and vibrant. The streets were wide and sprawling, filled with traffic and fog. Thanks to a friend of a friend’s recommendations we were able to sample apparently the best ice cream in the world (I had salted caramel and crema come una volta, which was their speciality flavour and resembled a lemon custard). We tried to see the Last Supper but they had sold out tickets (who knew you could do that to art?) and we spent some time window shopping, as Milan has all the big names.This is how we stumbled upon our next accidental gem, which was the ring which broke the world record for having the most diamonds in it. We also saw some sculptures made with precious jewels, including a massive Topaz one (November’s birthstone, hint hint – though I think it would weigh me down as a piece of jewellery, to be honest).

That was the end of a lovely, whirlwind tour of Italy. The places were amazing but the company definitely made the trip as memorable as it was.

Next entry will be about the weekend away with the GBU, which was much needed and appreciated!

When in Rome…

For the Toussaint holiday, 3 other assistants (Molly, Lane and Laura) and I headed over to Italy for a 10 day trip. We started off in Rome and stayed in a really nice hostel. I’ve already visited Rome so I’d seen the major sights before like the Coliseum but it didn’t stop it being pretty impressive the second time around. We also visited the Vatican, which leaves me filled with awe every time as it’s just huge! That people would build something like that to worship God is pretty cool.

Inside Vatican city

Whilst the Basilica was enjoyable, the Sistine chapel was less so. Like the last time, I found the corridor leading up to the chapel more impressive than the chapel itself! There are tonnes of paintings everywhere and there is so much detail. In one section there are old maps painted on the walls and we managed to find Nice on one (or Nizza, as it’s called in Italian). The chapel was very full of people and we just kept getting herded in while they shouted for everybody to be quiet (slightly counterproductive…)

We also went to the opera one night, saying as we were in the country where it was invented! I love being in old theatres with red velvet and chandeliers everywhere. We saw a revue instead of an actual opera, so we saw lots of songs from various ones, which was good as we don’t really speak Italian or Spanish (there was the odd French one!) It was fun to see all the costumes and to see how much the opera singers ham it up – you can kind of see the origins of pantomime right there.

Italy wouldn’t be Italy without the food, and in Rome we had lots of it! From pasta served by white-haired men with red bow ties, to pizza topped with persimmon (after I led the group on a 45 minute detour due to a lack of mapreading ability), and to basil flavoured gelato. The gelato shops vary from being cheerful places where the gelato is displayed in brightly covered mounds, to the more clinical looking shops which serve artisan flavours and keep silver lids over their gelato, to be removed with a flourish.

A street painter's paint pots in Piazza Navona

Whilst the main tourist attractions are eyecatching and worth a visit, one sight which is an ABSOLUTE must see if you are in Rome is the Torre Argentina. From a distance it just looks like another Roman ruin (you tend to get blasé about such things after spending any length of time there) but as you approach you see are actually hundreds of cats roaming around. The longer you stand there, the more you see. Molly described it as like looking at a Where’s Wally picture! I thought it was amazing that the cats all decided to gather there as if there were some ancient cat homing device, but it turns out there is a small cat  sanctuary in the corner of the site, and the cats hang around because they will get fed. Still clever of them but not quite as impressive.

Spot the cats! This is just a tiny section of the site!

After a long weekend in Rome, we were ready to take the train  to Florence.