Learning a new language

Trying (being the key word here) to learn a new language is something that I'm finding to be a really strange concept. It's got me thinking a lot about how I learnt english in the first place. It's reminded me that learning a new language is not (sadly) something that I can take a few classes in and become fluent overnight. I hadn't thought about it before, but all the pointing at animals and things while naming them, and sticking names of things on objects that your parents do when you grow up is how you learn to speak, by copying them. Not rocket science I know but i've never given it any thought before. And all the times people correct you when you say something incorrectly is how you learn too, when your growing up everyone is your teacher.
It's also got me thinking about when I was learning German and school and how about about 6 years I was still clueless. Now I look back what an unproductive 6 years that was, but at least its given me the basics to build on - the lack of basics is what is stumping the french language process.

It's strange listening to how people speak and how a language sounds rather than what people actually say. It's the kind of thing you only truly notice when you don't know what people say, you just sort of tune out and listen to the sound it makes. The sound of French being spoken isn't nearly as graceful and gentle as I expected it to be. The way French is spoken is with a very flat tone, with the only tone change being at the end of the spoken phrase. For me it makes it harder to pick things up because it all sounds very similar when it's spoken in their fast native accents.

I hate to be the unromantic pessimist but I actually don't know, and can't work out why French is dubbed the 'language of love' is it more to do with the setting than the language itself?

This is just what I think....

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This deserves a post of its own...

Just looked in the mirror and discovered i'm a little bit sunburnt - its March!....I now understand why people come to France for their holidays and i'm not even in the south (even though that is something i'm dreaming of)

Genuinely didn't think I was going to need suncream whilst I was here.

I LOVE SUNSHINE!!!!

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I can feel spring springing

Well yet again Sunday has not failed in being a beautiful day. The whole week has been really nice, a little bit hazy but lovely and sunny.

I toyed with the idea of going to Lyon or Vichy this weekend but I was so tired I decided I needed a lie-in instead.

So instead I strolled around in the sunshine investigating the parts of the town I hadn't seen yet.

I hadn't realised how many Cathedrals this town has, and they are all pretty impressive in their own ways.

Today I walked to the part of town I haven't been to yet and I came across the Michelin factory - that place is and operation and a half! Also turns out if I get really desperate there's a Michelin Museum to visit....

 If I didn't know it already, I discovered today that i'm clueless about art

 The rugby stadium where the famous Clermont Team play, I had to settle for watching amateur rugby in the park today, but they weren't bad

 Montferrand - I think I liked the old buildings here more than in Clermont.

Montferrand Cathedral - I love how grand cathedrals are squashed in amoungst little houses and streets

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Feeling sorry for myself

Well i'm sad to say that they even have the common cold in France, I think I looked like some kind of watch list candidate in the chemist the other day. So this weekend with the beautiful sunshine has seen me doing a lot of hibernating inside due to my nose feeling like its on fire when I go walking (due to having to breathe) and my eyes feeling like sandpaper - not even sunglasses are helping that one!

So sadly no new photos from this weekend, but its the uni holiday next week for the university (for those that are in classes anyway - so not me) so I don't have any French evening classes so I can spend my evenings exploring to make up for this wasted weekend. On the plus side i've got lots of sleep because the accommodation is DEAD, I think everyone has gone home for the week, makes up for half of them coming in VERY noisily at 6am on Friday morning - its a bummer some of us are in the labs 9-5 - I'm not going to lie I wish I knew enough French to go and shout at them like the old lady I felt like - I think it's time to locate some ear plugs.

But I did venture out to buy a baguette (i'm pretty sure there's some healing power in those things) and the sky was really pretty this evening.

I don't know if i've ever seen a purple sky before....

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French supermarkets

This self indulgent post is basically so that I can show you these photos:

Surely this is just the best way to buy wine - A barrel and a four pack of wine! No wonder the forward thinking French are famous for the stuff!

This little lot is festival friendly already being in plastic bottles, it was only about 2,50 euros (i hate to think what it tastes like).

There are a few other things i've noticed about french supermarkets, I do deviate from the wine aisle every now and again -

- They don't have sweetie aisles like the UK, don't get me wrong there is A LOT of chocolate, biscuits crisps etc on offer but they all seem to be in large bags or multipacks I haven't really noticed any single buy items.

- They also don't have diluting juice, they have flavoured syrups that you put in water (I think) but they just look like a giant bottle of sugary food colouring.

-Shops open here at 8.30am and close at 8pm, and on Sundays its 9-12 - I really can't get used to the place being a ghost town on Sundays and evenings - maybe its because i'm used to spending all hours working in a shop.

The British section in this supermarket entertained me, I didn't realise cheesecake and Fray Bentos pies were such integral parts of our culture, the shortbread and cranberry sauce I get though:

Also they are called supermarkets but they are just large shops, Tesco has nothing to worry about - not that i've seen a Tesco...

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Life without a fridge

So for some reason, here they don't feel the need to give student's a fridge ANYWHERE in the accommodation. There isn't even a pantry so alternative solutions have had to be found.

My solution was to create a cool(ish) box out of a cardboard box and some tinfoil - it seems to work ok but the broccoli quickly became a victim. I genuinely considered making a clay pot contraption - but that required sand and I didn't want to be the weird foreigner digging up the grounds on my first weekend here.

Others have come up with more gravity defying  methods:

 Keeping milk, yogurt, i think may even some mustard on this windowsill in a bid to keep things cool.
Not quite sure what happens when the sun shines.

And if its windy I'm keeping well away from the buildings - not sure if yogurt on my head has the same lucky properties as bird poo or not.

By the way, that picture is 3 floors up...and since I took this there are windowsill fridges cropping up everywhere.

Hell need must. You've got to love the imagination of students. WE ARE THE LEADERS OF THE FUTURE - clearly we have a solution for any problem life provides.

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Keeping up with the timeline

OK! We are up to date with the pictures.

This weekend I decided to go for a walk, but this time I was aiming for higher ground to see what the view was like and what gems I found.

Life lesson : always walk up the hilly street - you never know where its going to lead

 I just really like this bridge, the stonework was really pretty

 p.s. thats me

 Check this out for a train station

 I just had to walk up this street

 I really want to live in this town but at 95,000 euros for a bedsit maybe not.

 This green tiled building stole the show

 I loved this mini turret with the old rusted staircase inside

 This one is a bit of a family reference - We needed this mini boat on the Aigas burn all those years ago

 This is the first time i've seen open water whilst i've been here - there are no rivers, streams, seas to be seen anywhere.

 I loved this old building

 How opulent does this look....

 The front door

 They like painting scenes on buildings, this one went one step further with the scene setting out front, they even had a water rippler.

 Apparently it was 24oC....i'm not convinced I reckon it was closer to 18oC - i'm Scottish I KNOW when its 24oC.

 I decided to walk up this hill, theres a tower on top thats been taunting me for weeks

 Again really i'm just doing it for the view

 The ruined tower

 An old school selfie - got to love a bit of the old self timer and a mad dash to the photo spot

 The hill from half way up

 Basically, I want this car

 Beaumont - I couldn't decide if these bollard things were deliberately needle shaped or not.


So I did quite a lot of walking this weekend and I loved it...

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2 weeks ago

Ok catching up now...
these are from 2 weekends back:

 It was such a beautiful day, I just had to take a picture of the sky

 Inside the very distinctive Cathedral in Clermont

 I'm a sucker for stained glass

 The view from the front door

 Outside view of the Catherdral. Its built from volcanic rock and stands out against everything else because everything else in the city is a completely different colour to this.

 I turned the corner and found this - it screamed 'quintessentially French' to me

 My favourite mountain in the background

Night view, you can see the cathedral in the background

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Oops.....

OK, i'm clearly not very good at keeping this little thing updated - time for some photos again. OK this first lot are from 3 weeks ago. They are all just from gandering around Clermont mostly at the weekends - the sun seems to shine especially bright on Sundays - i'm banking on that being a regular thing.

Time for some very overdue  pictures....

I just loved the colours...I think its my dream building facade

I think every chemist should look like this

 I just liked it -  how could I not?

This is in the Jardin Lecoq in the centre of Clermont - its like a fairytale

Evening light across the city looking at the Puy-de-Dome

 looking across the city in the opposite direction

Another of the Jardin Lecoq

 The old (and pretty magnificent) Post office building

 I loved the colours on this little guy - Hes in one of the many fountains in Clermont (apparently there are 40 different fountains in the city; F.Y.I. there's even a tour just for them)

 My nod to Valentine's day

 Just look at the colours!

I take pictures of that mountain when ever I can - I think i'm obsessed

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