The sunday after Annecy we had a scheduled trip with the whole group to go see the Monastery of the Chartreuse up in the mountains and the chartreuse museum/factory down in the valley next to it, all of which is only an hour away from where I live. For those of you who don't know (as I did not before coming here) chartreuse is a yellow-green liqueur that is made exclusively by the monks from this monastery. You may have surmised that the color chartreuse in English is named after it. It is made by steeping a secret mixture of over 130 herbs and flowers in pretty much straight up rubbing alcohol for an extended period of time. I don't drink, but I understand that it is very very strong, in taste and alcoholic content. An acquired taste for sure.
The monastery was absolutely beautiful. It was cloudy and drizzly that day, but still we were right up in the middle of the alps, and there was a museum about monastic life so it was awesome.
The following week was good, very very hot. The weather here has been either chilly rain or sweltering humid heat. But it hasn't been bad, a little nice to have some variety at least. But there is one thing that I'm mystified by, and that is the complete lack of A/C throughout the entirety of France. Houses, schools, workplaces... the only places with A/C are restaurants and retail stores. My little loft is at the very top of our building and I die of heat on the hot nights. I have a great window I could open, but after doing that for the first two nights here I was covered with about 25 mosquito bites. Even on my face I had a couple, you can see them in the pics in Paris. So much rage.
But now I've gotten at least a little accustomed to it. Still mystified as to why there's no A/C though. Seriously. Everywhere is so hot.
This past weekend I considered not going anywhere, because I am pretty exhausted of traveling everywhere. But the prospect of swimming in the Mediterranean on the Côte D'azur was enough to get me down to Marseille for two days. I cannot tell you the number of people, French and American, who told us that "there are no beaches in Marseille." While there are many other things to do in Marseille, let's just clarify that there are indeed beaches. The water was turquoise and there wasn't a cloud in the sky the whole of our trip. We stayed in an amazing house just south of the city, right on the edge of the BEACH. I was with Kendall, Brand, Elli and Ana, and it was a much better group than the Paris trip. Although unfortunately there was still some puking involved, Kendall got food poisoning. It was still a great time.
It was a lovely weekend. Despite that the traveling was still exhausting. I love it here and love going to all these cool places, but I'm pretty tired, and am looking forward to being home. So I'll be seeing all of you very soon!
Á Bientôt!
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