so children in france get a mid semester break .. just like americans.. but how long is theirs you wonder? 2 whole weeks. not to mention they only go to school monday, tuesday, thursday and friday. but they get 2 whole weeks of vaca. so our host granddaughter, carla has been spending a lot of time with us. she's 6 and sassy and loves to play hand-clapping games. seriously, we probably play like 762 times a day. she also really loves watching me put on makeup and correcting my french. shes adorable and i love when shes here. my host mom calls her 'mon coeur' which means 'my heart' . its just precious.
so on my walk to school i always pass this tabac. which is a tiny little shop that can be anything from a little bar to a little cafe to a sketchy store that sells lottery tickets. they are a dime a dozen here in europe and the one near our house is called 'le dragon' and i just noticed for the first time today, after walking past it at least 18 times a week- that the gates when closed have an awesome mural on it. also, i love walking by it after school around 630 -- there is always this little group of men playing cards at a table inside. its possibly one of my favorite sights of the city.
at night, it has been custom for everyone to meet at Hotel de Ville .. which is not in fact a hotel like you might think, but town hall. Aix's Hotel de Ville is in this beautiful square near our school and we all meet up after yummy dinners. We've come to call it the wine club .. its totally BYOB and everyone shows up with some new, and extremely cheap bottle of wine. we always have contests to see who has bought the cheapest yet best wine. its very hard to find a bottle of wine in france that isnt drinkable- and for 1.20 euros.. can you really complain at all? that will certainly be at the top of the list of things i will miss about france.speaking of wine, a boy in our program's host dad plays music and one night we all met up to watch him at an open mic night (i might have already mentioned it, oops) but i wanted to put up a picture of the cool wine bar that it was at. they literally have dozens of yummy wine in this really neat system where you order on a computer screen and then they serve you delicious and refreshing roses, or beautiful whites and ravishing reds.
