Au revoir Toulouse! Xin chào Danang :)

Montpellier

Three weeks ago I visited Montpellier for a long weekend over the 14^th of July, which is Bastille Day in France and an official bank holiday!

Montpellier is a lovely city. I definitely prefer it compare to Toulouse. Guess you shouldn’t make any comparisons between them, because they are so different. However I felt like I could breath again in Montpellier with open squares and a lot of open space in general. In Toulouse it feels more cramped through all the red bricks and narrow streets. You are always in a valley and never have any point where you can have a stunning view over the city itself. This is the opposite in Montpellier. There is the beautiful “Place Royale du Peyrou”! Have a look yourself.

We visited the old part of Montpellier with the old cobblestone streets,  narrow one’s as well as wide once. 

Montpellier City Center

   

The atmosphere in the city is great!

I had a look at some French Language Schools as well as English Teaching school to see if there would be any possibility to teach there or to take another language course.

Aix-en Provence

The following day we went on a daytrip to Aix en Provence. It is a nice small city, with a lot of expensive shops and it felt like that all the people from Paris were coming down to spend their vacation in Aix. The city has many lovely fountains and some really nice squares and churches. We also found a small little garden to have a relaxing break from the packed streets of Aix. It was definitely a touristy spot and too busy for my liking. 

Back in Montpellier there was a festival on in the evening with life music and a lot of wine stalls. They had a special offer for 4 Euros, which included 3 glasses of wine, which you could choose from any stall you wanted. They had a wide variety of wines - at least over 80 different one’s ;) The glass was even included! Amazing :)

The next day we decided to go to the beach. There is the possibility to go by bus and for the last bit you can rent velo’s (bicycles) for free if you show your bus ticket :) 

It is a brilliant idea and great service I have to say.

It was nice to swim in the sea again. 

However the water was pretty cold and I couldn’t help myself, but it was not Danang. I missed the Lady Buddha statue and the Monkey Mountain on the left side!

On Sunday we rented some bicycles again to explore the outskirts of Montpellier along the river “Le Lez”. Very nice indeed!

My French course didn’t go according to plan to be honest. I just couldn’t get over the teaching method they were using. It frustrated me a lot and it also didn’t look like as if I would be able to find a job as an English teacher anywhere in the South of France. I didn’t feel like I was welcomed here really.

Tatjana from Russia & myself

So I had to figure out what I wanted to do after the 6^th of August!!!

The following weekend I decided to go back to Albi for a day, this lovely ancient city and Clara, another student from London, joined me. We had a great day out, visited the Museum Toulouse-Lautrec with the beautiful gardens behind it as well as the Cathedral Sainte-Cecile. 

We had a great rest at the lovely river “Le Tarn” with the beautiful bridges and just chatted away. 

Before we left there was an open-air theatre directly on the main square in front of the Cathedral. It was actually very nice to watch :)

Overall, a great day out!

Last Friday we went out in Toulouse for my birthday! Alice, Julia & Clara joined me and we had a great night!

Alice, myself, Julia

On Saturday I left on a two days trip to Cahors, which is just over an hour train ride away from Toulouse. I had booked myself a room in a small cosy B&B called “Chez Pierre”, which turned out to be quiet homely :)

I met up with Rick and we decided to explore the town. However the owner of my B&B suggested later on a nice walking tour, apparently 10km long. We decided to head off, discovering after 6km or so that the full loop actually will be 18km instead. Well, as we were already on our way, we also had enough water with us, so we continued. It was a lovely countryside and worthwhile scenery where the walking trail led us :)

Back in Cahors we had a tasty meal in a Creperie from Brittany. I so enjoyed my Kir Breton, a Galette and as dessert another crepe with vanilla ice-cream. Well it was my birthday at last ;)

The highlight of the day was still to come. They had a lightshow on at the famous ancient “Pond Valentre” which lasted for stunning 45 minutes. It was a combination of music and
an impressive light-show!

 

As the bridge has 3 massive pillars they projected different images on all of them, pretty fast moving sometimes. I have never seen anything so “magnifiques” as the French would say beforehand :)

 It was stunning and really awesome! What a lovely birthday present ;)

Next day we went back to the “Pond Valentre” to take some pictures in the early morning. 

We decided to go on another hike, this time only 8km long to a village next to Cahors called Douelle. 

We passed an amazing viewpoint where a lot of Paragliding took place and it was fun to see them taking off!

After a lazy afternoon with a lovely strawberry tart and a coffee I headed back to Toulouse to start my final week of studying French in my Intensive Course.

And not without a surprise on Monday morning :) We got another new teacher!! The third one in three weeks ;) We also moved up a level – from Beginners class into Elementary A2!! Not sure about that, but I liked the class today and I was not completely lost. The teachers’ instructions were very precise and clear!!! The first time after five weeks ;) Yippie!!!

I will be leaving Toulouse towards St. Foy la Grande (close to Bordeaux) on Sunday for a one week Meditation/Yoga retreat :) No access to any Internet - will be interesting shall we say!!!

I’m heading back to Germany for only 5 days to prepare everything for my trip back to Danang/Vietnam!!! Yes, I am going back :)

Well as it is the 2^nd time, so I hopefully will be quicker with packing ;) I doubt it! All these decisions what to bring ;)

I will be teaching in ELI again for another six months and then let’s see what is going to happen :) Time will tell I am sure!!!

It looks like the problem is fixed, so you should be able to post a comment again if you wish :) Thank you and the next update will hopefully be posted already from Vietnam :)!!!!

A bientot!

ALBI – What a gorgeous city!!!

My 3rd week of studies has started today and it already feels like I am here since months. Might sound odd, but all got so familiar already to me – except for the French language ;) That will take a few more months for sure!

I also got my first visitor already in Toulouse, which makes me very happy! Rick, which was teaching with me in Danang is on a European Tour and stopped by for a few days in Toulouse. That’s why we took the chance to explore the city of ALBI, which is around 1.5hours away from Toulouse (north-east direction).

We left on Saturday morning and I only had know that all the French people I had talked to already told me that this city is very cute. Indeed we didn’t get disappointed at all!

I have to say for me it was one of the prettiest small cities in Europe I have ever seen!!!

It has exactly the right size, not too big and not too small. Very cosy and charming at the same time with the river "Le Tarn" flowing through it and therefore impressive bridges indeed.

We visited the museum Toulouse-Lautrec, which is a famous painter. We even did some French exercises by using the dictionary and translating the words we didn’t know which described the different pictures :)

We had some picnic on a park bench in a lovely “Jardin” in town and after lunch we walked over the lovely bridges with a stunning view! Have a look yourself :)

We even saw a bride on a horse riding to the civil registry office followed by all the guests in their cars ;) Looked really amusing!

Afterwards we visited the Sainte-Cecile Cathedral – the world’s largest brick cathedral I learned ;) Really impressive I have to say, but almost too big and too overloaded with stuff. But I loved it from the outside for sure. It fits perfectly into this lovely town :)

It was a shame that we had to go back to Toulouse at the same day as there was a festival on in ALBI and we would have loved to stay. However that’s how life goes. I definitely will be back in ALBI!

I loved it ;)

The previous weekend I visited “Carcassonne” with my school.

Clara & myself

Very nice little village indeed too with a massive Chateau! We even got a tour through the Chateau, but unfortunately it was in pure French and as I am only in a Beginners course I maybe understood 5% ;) C’est la vie!

Ida & myself

On Thursday we have a bank holiday in France (Bastille day) and therefore we will make our way to Montpellier from Thursday till Sunday. I am already excited to see how it looks like down there and I’m looking forward to swim in the sea!

We had at least 35 degrees today and it is still 29 at 10pm at night.

So a swim will be great :)

Toulouse - Here I am!

It was a strange feeling leaving Germany to go on a trip where you didn’t really know what to expect. Some people might say that this was the same case when I left for Vietnam, but this time it was different.

Going over to France where you know that most of the people cannot speak English at all and that you need to learn French as soon as possible to find some work.

However I was stopping over in Dublin for two nights and I am so glad I did it.

Warm welcome at the airport where Marion picked me up. I felt like home almost straight away, which was not so obvious beforehand. When I learned something in Vietnam than I can say that I know that I cannot live in Germany for the time being. It just didn’t feel right somehow. However, listening to the Irish accent and hearing “for f…. sake…” felt like home again for sure ;)

And it also felt good to know that there is still a country where I feel home!

We had a lovely night on Wednesday in the 12^th lock – Thanks everybody for coming along! Really appreciated :)

On Thursday I was chatting with Marion in the morning and visited Clontarf in the afternoon for a nice walk down to Dollymount beach. It looked still all the same and it felt good :) Even sitting in the Sandbar (my favourite Italian place) having a Cappuccino and a Scone felt great!

In the evening we were heading for a girls night out – lovely food in Milano and then some drinks in Café O’Seinne!

My plane left early on Friday to start my new adventure in Toulouse! I really didn’t know what to expect I have to say.

Now I can already say that I couldn’t have gotten a better host family. They are very lovely, kind and helpful. It is even better that there is another student staying here, a Mexican girl who is studying Philosophy! She showed me around the first day in the city and we even ended up at an open air electric music festival by at least 25 degrees!

Saturday I got my public transport pass for Toulouse organized for one month and explored the neighbourhood for supermarkets & shops.

Sunday we had 33 degrees and I decided to go for a run in the morning, went to a local food market with Sylvie (my host family) and in the afternoon I went back into town to explore it further. The city is beautiful with all these historical buildings and typical French balconies.

It reminds me about a mixture of Rome, La Rochelle and Bordeaux.

The house is a typical French house which I really like :) all a bit older but very original and it has a lot of charm!

We have access to two metro lines from the house – one is 20min walk the other one 30min walk, however the metro trip only takes 8 min from one station to my school ;) So all good and a walk in the morning is also not too bad with that lovely weather indeed!

Finally I can talk about my Language School after three days of Intensive French Course. The school is located right in the heart of town in a lovely old building with a wide wooden staircase going up to the 1^st level. Have a look at the two pictures!

It was more than intense studying for 3 days, four hours per day but it is definitely working. I need to get used to the different teaching style for sure. Unfortunately it is not as active as I was used to teach in Vietnam with a lot of activities and a course book. But well, let’s give it a try! Our teacher knows her grammar indeed and that’s what is needed of course as well. Time will tell ;)

We are six students only in our class, which is a big advantage as we have more time to practise and get more attention from our teacher too! So good news.

At the weekend we go on our first excursion to Carcassonne, an old castle not so far away apparently.

I also will meet a French girl on Friday to practise French and she can practise English with me ;) So let’s see how that goes. This is organized by the school, which is a nice service for sure :)

Salut!