The last couple days have been fascinating, especially today and yesterday were incredible.
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| La fromage de la région Rhône-Alpes |
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| Tomme de Savoie |
But let me start with Friday. With the cours linguistique we visited a fromagerie (cheese factory). Typical cheese for this region is Tomme de Savoie, Morbier, Reblochon und Bleu de Bresse. I smelled in there like on a farm, so just like home ;), but it was very interesting to see how often the cheese needs to be washed and salted until it can be sold. The people there work 365 days a year; whereas fresh milk is delivered twice a day into a 22000 L tank. After the cheese tasting I have to say that Tomme de Savoie is my favorite.
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| The beautiful city Annecy |
However the excursion was not over yet, because we went to Annecy, situated about 45 min North of Chambéry. Since we only had a 2.5 hr stop we decided to be really French, get a baguette and lay at the lake of Annecy. It is so impressive to see such clear water and the mountains in the background again.
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| French intro CRAZY |
We spent over an hour in the narrow water just enjoying every bit. In the meantime we also observed a French introduction for this semester. I really thought Dutch people are crazy when it comes to that, but the French ohlàlà ;). Apparently every group received a dead animal (we've seen chicken, fish and octopus so far...), which they have to carry around during their whole intro. Somehow they also love to have weird games that have to do with water and flour.
The day ended with a wine tasting. No worries, just three small glasses and I ended up only buying grape juice; it is SOOO good. Yeah, one little story on the side, for those of you, who know me and my clumpsyness well. We had to wait for the other group to finish so I thought I could sit down again. Apparently there was a big old, empty barrel standing in front of the building. As I pushed myself up to sit on it, I fell into it, because the wood was rotten from the weather. It was h.i.larious (...embarrassing)... oh well ;)
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| What a great day! =) |
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| Le Lac du Bourget |
The weather here is still great, sunny and warm (about 25 degrees) always with a little breeze. We took our chance and went to Le Lac du Bourget on Saturday, where I went with Linda last time. With about 12 people it was even more fun. Originally, we wanted to rent a bike and ride up there, but it would have taken us 2 hrs and the weather was just too good to waste the time. :)
Oh yeah before we went to Le Lac du Bourget I went to the market (yeah yeah I love it) and bought sooo many veggies and fruit, even a slice of Brie and "
homemade" Ravioli (a dozen for 70 ct.) for 17 Euro in total.
Take a look! Awesome, he?
(2x 500g tomatoes, 6 bananas, 500g grapes, 8 mushrooms, 3 kiwis, 5 bell peppers, 2 zucchini, cauli flower, 5 negatrines, parsley and chieve, ravioli and brie)
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| Start at 11.30 |
Today it was supposed to rain, but we had already planned to hike to La Croix du Nivolet (The mountain cross of Nivolet) in about 1700m height. The better the surprise this morning, when it was very sunny and warm again with a little breeze, just the perfect weather for a hike. By car it is about 20 km until we reached the buttom of the ski resort area Le Féclaz, from there it was about 2.5 hrs back and forth. Since Simon brought his friend we were a big group with about 14 people and had so much fun and just a great day! I cannot even describe how amazing the view is from the top.
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| A lot of rocks! |
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| Simon and his friend, José and I |
The way was very rocky and sometimes challenging, but with proper hiking shoes not a problem... happy I brought them :)
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| Le Lac du Boruget from the top |
Not only the top had to offer panoramic view but also several way points in between. It is astonishing to really get a full picture of the Le Lac du Bourget from up there.
Basically we joked around the whole time. It is terrific when so many different nationalities create one experience. Although some cultural humour might be unlike another, but a smile is always understood equally. In fact today was the first time I hung out with Belgian people and they are not as bad as the Dutch they ;) even though they sometimes do not understood whom to take a picture of. ;)
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| La Croix du Nivolet |
It was a very good feeling when we were finally on top. This is the cross you can also see from our campus - never imagined it that big. All the sudden you see about 150 people here (on the way we maybe met 30); all of them enjoying a solid lunch, some even had a bbq. Nevertheless we all had one thing in common enjoying a wonderful view and the thought of muscle pain when returning.
This was definitely not the last time I was up there...
Nevertheless I am in a very good mood :) In about an hour I will visit the Château de Chambéry with a new French friend, named Émeline. Pictures will follow no worries...
Never mind, I was not able to finish the blog before so here are some pictures from the castle. Today is "jour de partimonial" (cultural heritage day) so we could visit all cultural sites for free. However, the line to get into the castle was too long, so we decided to not go in ;) 
Time flew and it was time for dinner. Since we only had a couple of hours left we decided to take the next restaurant, where we also, by conincedence, met the rest of our group. Honestly, I have never eaten in such a bad restaurant before. We waited almost 45 min to order, because only one waitress was allowed to take orders. Moreover the silverware was dirty and my food (Tilapia fish with Ratatouille) was cold and not seasoned a bit. We were quite pissed and left without a tip. The better was the last hour which we spent at the Saône (Saône and Rhône are two rivers marching in Lyon). We just enjoyed a beautiful sunset and chatting together.
