I've lost 100+ pounds over the last few years, and am now enlisting a personal trainer and a team of doctors, specialists, and other experts to help me get to my healthiest. If you're interested in that kind of thing, you can find it - and me - at thehealthkick.com.
What's your favorite foreign accent?
French or Welsh. English accents are no longer foreign to me, which may be why I prefer Antoine to speak to me in French.
Flying to France was such a joke that I probably should not even think about it. But for the sake of helping others: Despite what they tell you, do not show up three hours early for your flight if you're flying on a low-cost airline. Because if you do, you just have to stand around for an hour with your thumb up your ass, waiting to find out where you can check-in - at the standard two hours prior to take-off. Luckily, I had a book to see me through the ridiculous wait for every single thing to happen. But...let me just skip over the flight, because it's pissing me off to remember it all.
When I got off the plane at Grenoble, I was surprised to see Antoine's parents standing pretty much on the runway. Okay, there was a little gate between them and the plane, but it was weird all the same. I was only mildly embarrassed as they snapped pictures of me walking from the plane and into the terminal, and yet more pictures inside as I waited for my bag. It was quite sweet of them, really.
We went into the centre of Grenoble for lunch. I should have ordered the raviole with foie gras, but didn't. Big time plate envy of Antoine's mother.
Claire (A's mother) and I went to have a nose in Les Galeries Lafayette while Alan (A's dad) had his watch battery changed in the same store. I paid 20 Euros for a new lipstick, a new high for me, though I rationalised it by telling myself that, since most of my make-up comes to me for free via PR people these days, I was entitled to splurge.
We then got in the car and drove to the family house in a small village called Upaix, in the High Alps of Provence. The cool thing about the drive is that it's through the mountains. The sucky thing about the drive is that it's...through the mountains. Great scenery but slow going, especially if you get some dickwads in front of you who think it's cool to let a line of cars dawdle behind their caravan-towing asses. ESPECIALLY if you get behind three such dickwads. It should only have taken us two hours, tops, but instead it took three. Thanks, dickwads.
It was an overcast day and evening, but even so, I fell instantly in love with Upaix. The place is just so pretty and so remote. There are basically no cars, save for the occasional resident (I don't think a car ever drove past the house in the three days I was there), and a view that overlooks the surrounding Alps and the farms all over the mountain.
We started a fire (in the fireplace - don't worry) when we got home, and I unpacked, and then I read while Claire made dinner. It was so perfect; the only thing missing was Antoine.
I went to bed pretty early, reading for a bit before falling asleep in the bed that Antoine's grandfather used to sleep in, in a room which consisted of the whole top floor of the house. I have rarely been so comfortable and content as I was there.
In the middle of the night, one of my favourite events of the whole trip took place (and not for the last time): Near the winding staircase that leads up to the room, there is a little screened-off area with a sink, mirror, and toilet. It's a bathroom, basically, but with no real wall between it and the bedroom area. Anyway, the toilet is right next to a window, which I had left open but with a screen inserted to keep out any bugs. So I woke up in the middle of the night, thanks to the copious amounts of water and wine I consumed over dinner (if you must know), and as I'm sitting next to that little window, the view outside is just beautiful. It's pitch black, of course, but punctuated by lots of little lights from down below, of the towns around the village. It is breezy and cool, but not cold. And the only sounds I could hear were from the wildlife - no cars, no stereos, no trains. It was so peaceful that I almost did cry right there.
Did I mention that I'm a country girl? Well, sometimes I forget. And sometimes I remember.
Day two coming soon.
What are your plans for the holiday weekend?
Erm, this assumes one is in North America, which...no. Funny to see such a US-centric question on here.
Our holiday weekend was last weekend, which was blissful and sunny and active for us. I had hoped for a similar two day respite upon my return from France, but no such luck. The weather here is rainy, grey, horrible, and depressing. I have spent all Saturday catching up on email and RSS, and feeling torn between going out tonight and staying home. Looks like home wins, with a Scrabble game the big treat of the evening.
Sigh. It's far too early in the year to be developing Seasonal Affective Disorder.
