le sud: jeudi et vendredi.

thursday, i woke up refreshed and feeling better. we woke up early, disturbed by the cries of young emma. i headed downstairs in my pajamas, wanting to be there for breakfast. breakfast was very relaxed, everyone was left to fend for themselves. that morning, we went to a french open market, which is like a huge collective yard sale. i found an old tobacco pipe with the a carving of a round-cheeked gust of male wind, and a pocket watch that wouldnt open. i didnt buy them, as i had no cash. but it was still really interesting to see the things people had collected over the years, then randomly decided to get rid of.

after the market, i showered, got ready, and went back down, prepared for whatever the day would bring. it didnt bring much, just hours of sitting around speaking french, which is much more exhausting than you would expect. romain and i gardened some, lay by the pool, fooled around with his camera, and played some fighting video games. [i won, as always.] it was this day when his family begun to try to get me to stay in france. romain's belle sœur even begun trying to get her baby to say "tante anna", claiming if she said it i couldnt on good conscience ever leave france. they also referred to romain's mother as my future mother-in-law. however, i think that was just cause they didnt know any other words or the meaning attached to it. they also kept using the phrase "what's the hell??", which i absolutely loved.

as romain is a photographer, his idea of complete entertainment happens only with a camera [or techno music]. these are the result:

and my personal favorite:

he also adores taking videos, here are a couple:


 
hear the french in the background??



for dinner, i got to experience true french wine. they dug deep into their cave de vin [wine cellar] and pulled out a bottle from the late eighties. it was good, i was suitably impressed, yet i am not a big fan of wine. never have been. everybody said that would change once i got into france. i think i like it less, cause i am surrounded by it and have no other affordable options. for dinner, ro's mom made enchiladas. he had told her i like them. they were good, but they made me miss home, where they are exceptional. again, we stayed up talking but not as late as the last night. the exciting charm of reunion had worn off, and people were just tired.

friday, after much delibaration and arguing by the family, we decided to go to the beach. we went to cassis, ate in  fancy restuarant, played in the waves, and laid in the sand. we didnt go to the coves, but it was still an amazing trip. i ate at my first fancy french restaurant, each course was around twenty euro. now, i am not classy. i am an artist. this was a huge deal for me, one i was not comfortable with. romain has spent too much money on me, as has his family. but my complaints were ignored.

it was weird, being with the frenchies at the beach. not a single one had any desire to go anywhere near the water. they sat on the edge of the beach, in their tights and shoes. it took a lot of prodding to get romain down to the water, and even more major convincing to get his shoes off.

after the beach, we went home and ate dinner. this time the wine was from 1978! a full ten years older than me. i didnt like it, but neither did romain, which made me feel better. i guess some wines age well, and some dont. there is no way to tell. romains mom had mad chicken, and placed barbecue sauce on the table solely for me. now i dont really like barbecue sauce, but apparently, its the american thing to eat!!

after dinner, we ironically enough watched an american movie about a country singer in arizona. it wasnt very realistic of my life, at all. it made us all seem like backward rednecks. romains family was amused by this portrayal, especially romain. he vowed jokingly never go to flagstaff. the movie was the first true english i'd heard all weekend, and it felt very weird to hear it. i keep thinking the phrases over again in french. i'm at that point in between languages. im definitely not comfortable hearing french, but im no longer completely comfortable hearing english. its a very odd place to be. 

i found an aerial view of romain's house on his camera, dont ask me how he got it. ill leave you with that. i am off to uni!