Today was a really special treat. I woke up around 9:15 (did I mention there are blackout blinds on the windows which make it impossible to tell what time it is!) and had breakfast with Cecile. Breakfast is generally Baguette with jam, espresso, and then I have a yogurt but that all everyone else eats. She then took me to the market down the street. It happens every Wednesday and Saturday mornings and it is amazing! Everyone who lives in their community goes and its the same vendors everytime. There are fruit and vegetable vendors, meat vendors, cheese vendors, fish, and then around the outside, there are clothes and shoes and curtains and pretty much everything you could think of. Cecile has specific vendors she goes to each time, so we just went to those and left but next time I'll spend some more time there and take pictures for you. She brought me to the butcher and introduced me to him, I can go and pick up the meat and then she pays for everything at the end of the week. And then we went to the pharmacy and she introduced me to him as well. It was great because he clearly knew lots about diabetes and he told me to come back whenever I get the chance and we will go over how to start ordering what I need.
When we came back from the market, we made "croque monsieur" which is just grilled cheese with ham but with their bread and cheese (and probably all the butter) it tastes 100x better. After lunch, the 5 of us got in the car and drove about 45 mins to Disneyland!! Its on the opposite side of the city, but instead of going around the outside, Xavier went straight through the centre and showed me the Champs Elysee, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre and tons of other sites. There is so much to see here that I am so happy I have so much time to do it all. Everything here is just so beautiful, even just the apartment buildings are so old and pretty.
Anyways once we got to Disneyland, Arnaud, Alex and I got dropped off (Cecile and Xavier went to play golf at the Disney Golf Course!) and we entered the park. It pretty much is exactly the same as the one in California, from what I remember... I was 7. All the rides have the same names and there is a big castle and different sections, like fantasyland, frontier land, adventure land, etc... Another similarity is the crowds, there were thousands of people everywhere. The line ups for rides were mostly over an hour long so after about an hour of aimlessly wandering we decided to each pick one thing that we really wanted to do and just suck it up and wait for it. Since we were in Adventureland, I chose Indiana Jones, and since it had the same name as the one in California, I thought it would be exactly the same, and from what I remember you ride around on a big truck through a cave like area. (family... this is where we got stuck with the holographic boulder). It turns out I was wrong and after a 1 hour wait, we got on a massive roller coaster with big drops and a upside-down loop. From our one hour wait you couldn't see the ride so basically all 3 of us had no idea what we were in for until we were sitting in the cart. Even though I almost lost my lunch, it was really fun. We did a few other rides as the crowds dwindled throughout the day and ended up having a really fun time. My favorite will always be the teacups so I took a few pictures of that.
We didn't get home until pretty late, so we just ate dinner and then Arnaud and I started the 2nd Harry Potter movie. It took us 2 nights to watch the 1st because I kept falling asleep! And sure enough, I fell asleep again last night! We are watching them in french, without even having subtitles! I don't know if its that I am understanding it better now, or just the fact that I have seen the movies about 8 times each and I know them word for word...?
Anyways today is Sunday and after a great sleep, I am going to spend the day relaxing, reading and catching up on emails.
Here are some pictures from yesterday, hope you enjoy.
Love M.
PS- For those of you who have not yet figured it out, if you click on the pictures, they get bigger!
