fabienne goes abroad

Sunday, 9 February 2014

Views of Lake Annecy

Date: Friday, 10th January, 2014

Earlier on in January I decided to take a walk by the edge of the lake since I had the Friday off; I randomly met one of my friends, G, on the bus so we walked together and here's some of the photos! It was a really beautiful evening too.

Tuesday, 4 February 2014

January Update 2014

Saturday, 25 January 2014

Ski Day #3 at La Clusaz

Visit Date: Saturday, 11th January, 2014

So I had been trying to prepare myself to go on a blue slope for the Full Moon Party (18th Jan), and I did a few green runs on this day and then I went and tried a blue with my more advanced ski friend, H. It was a disaster if I'm honest. The slope was too steep so I just got terrified and slid down most of it rather than skiing, and it really knocked my confidence on the slopes. By the time I got down to where the blue slope joins the green I was that tired I could barely control my skis, and as a consequence I fell so badly that I twisted my already injured knee (from a bike accident 2 years ago). I'd paid 30€ for the pass up the mountain and had time to go again but I really couldn't face it. I was a little defeated, but at least I got a great view from the top.

The Full Moon Party got cancelled in the end due to avalanche warnings, but I will try to get back on the slopes sometime soon!

Ski Day #2 at La Clusaz

Visit Date: Sunday, 5th January, 2014

I stuck to the green slopes this day but didn't have any lessons. My friend G and I are both beginners (on skis for me but snowboard for G). It was a really nice day until G fell off the button lift and hurt her shoulder. We ended up spending a good 3 in the medical office trying to see what was wrong; turns out she's torn some of the ligaments in her shoulder. I did a bit more skiing after she got out of the medical office and then we faffed around trying to sort out insurance stuff. It cost her a lot of money (somewhere between 250 - 350 I think!!) but the insurance should cover most of it.

Friday, 10 January 2014

December Update 2013

Wednesday, 8 January 2014

Grenoble

Visit Date: Friday, 20th December, 2013 - Sunday, 22nd December, 2013

My plan was simple: Go to Grenoble for the weekend and fly from there to England on Sunday. If only it could have been that simple! I got to Grenoble on Friday evening after having a surprise visit from Ca as she was passing through on her way to Annemasse. It was really nice to see her again before the holidays so I'm glad she thought to text me when she realised she had a 1.5 hour stop in Annecy! I made it to my hotel and was that tired that I just stayed there all evening watching telly. There was also a 10% discount for guests for the restaurant downstairs which I took advantage of.

On Saturday I had a look around Grenoble but I didn't find it all that interesting. There just wasn't as much to do as I'd expected and I was really tired so I wasn't up to exploring that much. I did see the Bastille and the view from the top!

Mont-Blanc from a distance!

On the Sunday it was a lot more stressful. I missed the bus to the coach station by about a minute, then the next bus was 5 minutes late, when I was already going to be pushed for time. I made it to the bus stop and had to run with my suitcases round to the coach station. The bus was due to leave from bay 6 or 7 but there were no buses there, so thinking I'd missed it I started to panic, wondering what I could do, when I heard someone call out my name. Luckily the bus driver had just moved to an empty bay and waited for me; I was incredibly grateful! I made it to the airport only to find that about 6 other flights before mine were running incredibly late. Luckily again for me, all the planes that were late took off about an hour before mine, meaning mine didn't get pushed back. Safe to say though, I was incredibly stressed, and I hate flying as it is, so I cried like a baby during take-off and landing. I made it back to England though and had a great time at home with my family!

Ski Day No. 1 at La Clusaz

Visit Date: Sunday, 14th December, 2013

I finally got to go skiing for the first time in a very long time (10+ years)!! I had a 2 hour lesson with a friend and her boyfriend, and it was incredibly tiring but I really enjoyed it. I got the hang of the basics quite well but my muscles weren't all that overjoyed by the experience. I'd driven us to La Clusaz, which is about 45 minutes away from Annecy and we stuck to the green slope (easy one) but I had a great day!

Friday, 13 December 2013

Lyon: La Fête des Lumières

Visit Date: Saturday, 7th December, 2013 - Sunday, 8th December, 2013

Every year in Lyon, there is a festival known as the Festival of Lights (fête des lumières in French). It is held on December 8th every year and the tradition dates back to 1643. The festival is a way of showing the town's gratitude to the Virgin Mary for saving them from the plague. Every year since 1643, a procession has made its way to the Notre-Dame de Fourvière on the 8th December to light candles and give offerings in the name of Mary. Families are supposed to put candles in all the windows of their houses for the 8th December, and nowadays the city council puts on professional light-shows (most of which can be seen in my videos at the bottom of this post!). Around 4 million people visit Lyon for the festival every year, and it's safe to say when I was there, there were a lot of people. Some of the places had barriers to create a funnel and restrict entrance into certain areas, but when you're stuck in a crowd of people trying to get to Place des Terreaux it can be a bit overwhelming. You don't so much as walk to the square as you get carried to it.

Myself and 4 other friends went to the festival together in my car. We went on Saturday morning and came back Sunday night. Luckily, one of T's teachers has a friend who lives near Lyon and who was willing to let us stay the night for free, which was great for us and we were very grateful! It was a little way out of Lyon but there is a metro park and ride that we left the car at during the day. I had a slight accident in the car park and managed to scrape the side of my car across a wooden barrier! Not exactly my proudest moment and I was rather upset with myself. Luckily the car came out looking better than the barrier... I have a few dents in the passenger side doors and I've scraped a large chunk out of the sill under those doors.

During the time in Lyon we had a little bit of a look round during the daytime too. We saw Notre-Dame de Fourvière and the large squares, such as Place Bellecour and Place des Terreaux. We also visited the Christmas market which was much bigger than Annecy but a lot of the stuff was kind of same-y. We met up with some friends for the light show, which was really nice. I even got to see J, a friend from my French class back in Sunderland! Trying to get back to where we were staying was a bit of a nightmare though; I'm not sure I've ever been quite so stressed behind the wheel! We got out of the car park alright, but when we got near to the house there were barriers on pretty much every road back to the house. It turns out in the early morning of the 8th December, there is a night-time marathon where runners run with miner lights on their head and wearing high-vis vests... And that really isn't a joke; plus this was around 1am. Yes you heard me right, one o'clock at night/in the morning! The race is called the Saintélyon, and if you click on that link you'll got to the website for the race. The drive back to the house from the metro park and ride should have taken around 30 minutes, in the end it took nearly triple that. My TomTom (lovingly known as John because I have John Cleese as the voice) kept trying to take me a specific way that led me to more barriers. In the end it was a question of trial and error, going left enough times that John eventually found a route that wasn't blocked and we finally made it to bed!

On the Sunday we did some more exploring and stayed just long enough to see the light show in Bellecour, which some of us had missed the previous day. And then we headed back home. It was a long weekend but well worth it, and I may even go back next year!