France me manque, et un peu de Steampunk.
Oct. 13th, 2008 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laliandraIt's now just over a year since I moved to France, and just under 4 months since I moved back so I'm feeling nostalgic. And I also have some pics of crazy steampunk things for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
frantic_mice or souris_frénétique, if we're going with the theme!
Warning! There are pictures behind most of the cuts, of a dial-up killing size I would say. And some of them are a bit grainy cos they were taken on a very old camera.
I had lots of friends who went away on a Year Abroad as well and we decided at the end of the first week we would post a note on Facebook called "I am in Nantes/Munich/Reykjavik/Guadaloupe/Wherever." Which I did and here it is
This is my school, so you can see what I mean about the massive, and the amazing. Its 200 years old. Jules Verne went there!
.
A Few Notes on my Note.
The Italian guy turned out to be a girl called Amélia, but she did have big hair, and the assistants became great friends.
We didn't get thumped in the Rugby World Cup, in fact we made the Final!
I moved out of my freezing room into the most incredible appartment ever, like something out of a fairytale
.
It was the top floor of an Art School, and there were two cats. I loved it to death.
And finally some pictures of Steammpunk stuff! Just across the river from the city centre there are a lot of old boat building yards and one of them houses Les Machines D'Ile, which is partly a Nantes based company of artists and artisans and partly Les Royals de Luxe. And they make giant mechanical animals, basically. It is the main attraction of the town, apart from the LU biscuit factory.
Their crowning glory is L'éléphant
.
Its one of two elephants they made, there's one that lives in Nantes and one that travels the world. Unfortunately I only have pics of the baby one. Its still massive though!
.
And they also have giant sea creatures, which they are going to make more of and put on a giant carousel. They are clearly mad, but its my kind of madness...
.
Aaaand finally, in 2011 they are building a giant, and I mean GIANT, mechanical tree. There will be two giant herons at the top with baskets to ride it.
.
There will be 30 odd branches on the tree, they have built one as a prototype. My friend who took this picture said "It looks like you are going off into another world".
.
Of course now all I want to do is go back to Nantes and buy pastries from my lovely local bakery, take the tram and listen to people's conversations, have a coffee in the teacher's lounge and complain about the seconde (bloody 16 year olds) and buy a book from my favourite tiny bookshop and read it in the grounds of the chateau. Vive les vaccances!
A bientot chers amis
Biz! x
frantic_mice or souris_frénétique, if we're going with the theme!Warning! There are pictures behind most of the cuts, of a dial-up killing size I would say. And some of them are a bit grainy cos they were taken on a very old camera.
I had lots of friends who went away on a Year Abroad as well and we decided at the end of the first week we would post a note on Facebook called "I am in Nantes/Munich/Reykjavik/Guadaloupe/Wherever." Which I did and here it is
Salut!
Well I'm settling into life in Nantes, its pretty good here, the weather is gorgeous, lovely and warm. I start work properly next week, 8 o clock on Monday, ick...
My school is amazing, absolutely massive and very pretty. I'm using the school computer so struggling with the foreign keyboard where the whole left hand side is scrambled. All the teachers have been really nice so far, very friendly.
The city of Nantes is great, I've spent most of this week just wondering around, window shopping and eating éclairs and pain au raisins.
Met the other assistants who are all really nice, from Austria, Argentina and London. There are also rumours of an Italian guy "with big hair" but so far these are unsubstantiated...
Going to watch the rugby on the big screens in the square tomorrow. We are going to get thumped but never mind, the atmosphere should be good.
I have to move out of my room at the school asap, which is maybe no bad thing as I have nowhere to cook and its also bloody freezing... I will post my address as soon as I have one!
So far, my cultural observations are: In France everyone walks on the other side of corridors and the up and down escalators are in the wrong place.
Skinny jeans, or les ventes du slim, are just a prevalent here as in England, but there are no fat people in France, so its ok. So far I have seen 2 fat people and 1 of them was a Welshman.
Cookies here are far superieur to anything you get in England, they are thicker and have crystallised sugar.
Everyone seems to say "oui" in a different way.
I have also spotted - two very old ladies buying very racy underwear, a massive skinhead with a tiny dog with a bow, many, many couples indulging in very affectionate Public Displays of Affection and about 5 Irish pubs!
Missing Leeds a little, and mes amis a lot, but I'm sure that I'll get many more visitors here than I ever did in the frozen north.
Bisous
Well I'm settling into life in Nantes, its pretty good here, the weather is gorgeous, lovely and warm. I start work properly next week, 8 o clock on Monday, ick...
My school is amazing, absolutely massive and very pretty. I'm using the school computer so struggling with the foreign keyboard where the whole left hand side is scrambled. All the teachers have been really nice so far, very friendly.
The city of Nantes is great, I've spent most of this week just wondering around, window shopping and eating éclairs and pain au raisins.
Met the other assistants who are all really nice, from Austria, Argentina and London. There are also rumours of an Italian guy "with big hair" but so far these are unsubstantiated...
Going to watch the rugby on the big screens in the square tomorrow. We are going to get thumped but never mind, the atmosphere should be good.
I have to move out of my room at the school asap, which is maybe no bad thing as I have nowhere to cook and its also bloody freezing... I will post my address as soon as I have one!
So far, my cultural observations are: In France everyone walks on the other side of corridors and the up and down escalators are in the wrong place.
Skinny jeans, or les ventes du slim, are just a prevalent here as in England, but there are no fat people in France, so its ok. So far I have seen 2 fat people and 1 of them was a Welshman.
Cookies here are far superieur to anything you get in England, they are thicker and have crystallised sugar.
Everyone seems to say "oui" in a different way.
I have also spotted - two very old ladies buying very racy underwear, a massive skinhead with a tiny dog with a bow, many, many couples indulging in very affectionate Public Displays of Affection and about 5 Irish pubs!
Missing Leeds a little, and mes amis a lot, but I'm sure that I'll get many more visitors here than I ever did in the frozen north.
Bisous
This is my school, so you can see what I mean about the massive, and the amazing. Its 200 years old. Jules Verne went there!
.A Few Notes on my Note.
The Italian guy turned out to be a girl called Amélia, but she did have big hair, and the assistants became great friends.
We didn't get thumped in the Rugby World Cup, in fact we made the Final!
I moved out of my freezing room into the most incredible appartment ever, like something out of a fairytale
.It was the top floor of an Art School, and there were two cats. I loved it to death.
And finally some pictures of Steammpunk stuff! Just across the river from the city centre there are a lot of old boat building yards and one of them houses Les Machines D'Ile, which is partly a Nantes based company of artists and artisans and partly Les Royals de Luxe. And they make giant mechanical animals, basically. It is the main attraction of the town, apart from the LU biscuit factory.
Their crowning glory is L'éléphant
.Its one of two elephants they made, there's one that lives in Nantes and one that travels the world. Unfortunately I only have pics of the baby one. Its still massive though!
.And they also have giant sea creatures, which they are going to make more of and put on a giant carousel. They are clearly mad, but its my kind of madness...
.Aaaand finally, in 2011 they are building a giant, and I mean GIANT, mechanical tree. There will be two giant herons at the top with baskets to ride it.
.There will be 30 odd branches on the tree, they have built one as a prototype. My friend who took this picture said "It looks like you are going off into another world".
.Of course now all I want to do is go back to Nantes and buy pastries from my lovely local bakery, take the tram and listen to people's conversations, have a coffee in the teacher's lounge and complain about the seconde (bloody 16 year olds) and buy a book from my favourite tiny bookshop and read it in the grounds of the chateau. Vive les vaccances!
A bientot chers amis
Biz! x
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-10-13 11:02 pm (UTC)The beautiful school, the apartment, the elephant!!! LOVELY!
*saves link to rec Lala-post tomorrow*
And you speak french. No fair! This is a beautiful post. Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOO much.
What do I want from Good ole England? A Lala-handmade card THANKYOUVERYMUCH! it must be HP and it must British-y and LALA-y (whateves you think that means).
*twirls you*
HAPPINESS!!!!!!!!!! :)