The F word - FEBRUARY!

Milestone! Exactly a month. Well, a month in 3 days time. N'IMPORTE QUOI!

Firstly, and most sadly, the snow has melted. A minute's silence for Pascal (below).

R.I.P. Pascal. You will be missed.

Well, it's February now! And you know what THAT means... FUTUROSCOPE! FOUR WEEKS! FUN!

February also means J as well as F, because I saw J. Edgar at the movies with my friends from school. They wanted to see it cos it has Leo DiCaprio in it... but he was old and NOTHING like he was in Titanic/Romeo and Juliet. Plus I didn't have a clue what was going on - if only there were english subtitles! So a disappointing movie all round. But a fun night!

And I had goat's cheese tourteaux! Burnt on the outside, cheese-flavoured cake in the middle! It hits the spot.

Tourteau-fromage! Goat's cheese flavoured.

Futuroscope is AWESOME. It's a futuristic (hence the name) theme park with 4D short films, a rollercoaster-esque rides and even a magic show! Click here if you don't understand what I'm talking about: http://en.futuroscope.com/ (It's in english, don't worry).
By the way, 4D is a step ahead of 3D because rather than have the movie APPEAR to "leap out of the screen", it actually DOES, ie. when a character on screen sneezes or splashes into water or something, water sprays out from the seat in front of you and your face gets wet. And the seats move, as the films are designed for action scenes so you are thrown around all over the place (and there are seat belts so you don't fall out in all the excitement).

Marie-Anne (Jade's mum, and my second host mum) had free tickets for the afternoon, so we spent the day at Poitiers (nearest biggish city, an hour's drive from Loudun) because Futuroscope is right next to it. All the shops were closed cos it was Sunday, but we went window-shopping and had lunch in a restaurant at the square in the old section of the city, where the, um, political building is. I don't remember exactly what it was.

The political something at Poitiers.

We had french pizza (naturally!) and crepes for lunch. I know I keep harping on about the food, but it really is SO GOOD that I can't HELP IT!!! I'm just letting you all know what you're missing out on.

The biggest pizza in the whole of France. It's
even bigger when you have crepes to follow.
*Don't ask me why it's sideways, the picture
is refusing to turn. But it doesn't matter, it's
a pizza! It's round however you look at it!

YUMMAAAY!!! Crepes with Nutella! And chantilly!





Then we went to FUTUROSCOPE!!! All the buildings and stuff were really awesome. Not to mention the 4D rides!!! The first one attraction was a magic show, where the magician levitated a woman and did tricks etc. There was a little boy who volunteered, and the magician kept pulling coins out from behind the boy's ears, in his t-shirt, up his nose and everywhere - but it was hilarious cos this little kid kept checking his shirt and grabbing his ears! Comedy gold, he was adorable.

Cool!


Because this year was the 25th anniversary of Futuroscope (that was also why we had free tickets), the region of Vienne (which includes Poitiers and Loudun) made a tourist movie to show off some of the cities and towns - featuring Loudun! It was also in 4D and I think Marie-Anne nearly wet herself cos she was so terrified.

A big organ-looking thingy! Also cool.

Then there was an Arthur and the Invisibles adventure - in 4D again! Marie-Anne almost did her back in just by watching the movie! Hahaha!! But to be fair, it was a bit jolty and insane.

The giants playing golf say sorry about the roof.

Then it was chill-out, philosophical time at "Le Petit Prince" show. I really have to read the books, they're really famous - they're about a boy who dreams about a prince who lives in space, and visits all these different planets, such as the musical planet, the cheese planet (owned by me), the chocolate planet (also owned by me), the sheep planet, etc.

This building looks much better with snow on it, I think.

Me with the stalagmite building and a plane!

Anyway, it was an awesomely fun day and I have to go back again and spend the entire day there. I didn't get to do all the rides (Marie-Anne was a bit of a chicken... and her back was sore)! I bought some pins for my blazer too - it's FILLING UP!

Out the front of Futuroscope (ans = years)



Hurts your eyes a bit, doesn't it? I like it. (Not the eye-hurting bit - the photo.)

 Went the (ahem) SCENIC route home... but managed to get home after consulting five or six maps.

Also went for another 2-hour walk, this time with Caro - there's just so much to see!!

The Mayor's house/office in Loudun.

All the streets in Loudun look like this - old-fashioned and not really changed since...hundreds of years ago?

The famous Loudun battlements - the picture on all the postcards!

Was impossible to get a photo of the whole church because it was so big, and there was a fence in the way.

Was incidentally, also where I FINALLY found the devils of Loudun!

Found an old bell next door.

Testing out camera settings...

Spontaneous cat photo!

 

Similar? Yes, I think so. I JUST FOUND LE CHAT NOIR!


 And of course, the most important event of the entire year...

THE FIRST CHOCOLATE CROISSANT!

And just so you know, it's NOT A CROISSANT. We non-Europeans have been wrong all these years - a chocolate croissant is not actually croissant-shaped. It's a rectangle. It's called "pain au chocolat" - chocolate bread. Anyway, it was the most delicious thing EVER, and everything a rectangular, chocolate-filled pastry should be.

The photo's fuzzy because the steam fogged up the camera lens, but those yellow blobs are CHEESE.

TARTIFLETTE. Potatoes, bacon, Reblochon (the cheese), onion... don't worry, the recipe is coming home with me. Along with the Reblochon.


Went to Marie-Anne's (Jade's mum) house today for lunch, to meet her nephew and his family. They were all really nice and Jesse (the nephew) was hilarious. And it's interesting seeing how lunch (and just meals in general, although lunch is the main one) are eaten - there's a specific order!

First is salad, with bread/baguette. That is cleared away and then there is main course - vegetarian lasagne! Oh, that's the other thing. Marie-Anne (actually, Jade's entire family) is vegetarian, so when I move in in April...I will be vegetarian too. Bring on the TOFU!
After main course is cheese (on bread, of course). NEVER, under ANY circumstances (unless you're a foreigner like me who lives in ignorance of the lunch menu and makes fatal errors like this), is cheese eaten AFTER dessert. Cheese is ALWAYS the course before dessert.
So I had cheese! And then a scrumptious apple crumble that I helped make a few hours earlier! (By "helped" I mean I peeled two apples.)

The one with the blue shutters!

After lunch, Marie-Anne and Helene (Jesse's wife) and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood. Marie-Anne actually lives a few km's out of Loudun, in Les Trois Moutiers (the three muskateers, I've been told). This is PROPER in-the-country and I LOVE it. It's right in the middle of farmland too, so there's goats and horses (well, the horses aren't being farmed but it's the COUNTRY) and vineyards all over the place.


About 2 minutes walk from the house



Couldn't decide which photo to add so I mashed them into a panorama. Purrrrfect.

When everyone was having siestas or lying around recovering from lunch, Marie-Anne tried to Skype with Jade - so the WHOLE family could be there! In the end everyone got a chat (even though it was 1am in Australia).



You can't really see him, but two-year-old Pablo is at the very front, saying hello to Jade. When he walked away afterwards he said "voila!" and he was so funny. Most ADORABLE boy ever! I learnt french baby talk today!

 That's been the last few weeks of France for me! My french has definitely improved - although I can't really tell, everyone tells me it has. And it was pretty great that when I told Jesse and Helene I'd been here for four weeks they were shocked, because they couldn't believe I could understand and speak so much french! Continue the good work, my little brain.

This will be my last post before I go to PARIS and BARCELONA on the 29th, so expect a looooooot of photos and stuff after the 7th, when I get back. Hola! (Spanish for hello...the only word I know.)