Un beau week-end

So according to the Manassero family a good weekend is one where you have good food, travels and sex. It’s too bad I had only the former two this weekend. They were joking obviously because in the south, just like in the US, they are more conservative and religious. Or that’s just what I tell myself. I am currently on the train coming back to Paris from Aix-en-Provence, which I don’t know why I didn’t stay down south: its warmer, better wine, and talk about being spoiled. Anyway I arrived in Aix-En-Provence at night this last Thursday having just barely made the TGV train by 3 minutes. Damn metro stopped about 4 times as I was making my way to Gare de Lyon, which knowing me, I go down to the wire with everything, almost made those few minutes a hell of a difference. I was picked up at the station by Dr. Daniel, Mara, Nicolas, and Frederic. The last time I saw Frederic he was 7/8 and the time before that about 3 or 4, so yeah it made me feel old to see him grown up. About the whole down to the wire thing again, my battery is dying, I guess I will finish this when I get back to my apartment tonight…if I make it back quickly meaning the metro is still open when I get into Paris. My train gets in at 12:15 and it closes depending on the stop somewhere between 12 and 1. Story of my life….

For any of you that care, I actually made my train, so I now I won’t have to walk all the way back to my apartment. So I will recommence with Thursday night, which they picked me up and after showing them pictures from what has happened to me in the last 4-5 years, we went to sleep. I know didn’t take very long…actually they were overwhelmed with the number of photo albums. I went to sleep thinking to myself, damn who knew I would be here in Nans-Les-Pins with this family a third time in my life after visiting it in 5th grade. I guess some people get lucky. I woke late, which they allowed me to do every morning, to some coffee and brioche. Amazing and was exactly what I wanted before we embarked on our six hour hike along the coast of the Mediterranean through what are known as the Massif de Calanques. I would say that hike with Fred, Nicolas, and Daniel was exactly what I needed for not only was it beautiful weather, I got to see a Mirage 2000, we actually did some freestyle climbing (no ropes), and I was able to keep up to the point where I wasn’t really tired after. I felt it the next day but I guess all of that walking from the strike actually paid off. Look above for some pics. That night we had a traditional French dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I think they decided to go there after I dropped a hint that I loved Chinese food. I forgot to mention that moment I got to their house they gave me a Guinness and pretty much an abundance of alcohol the whole trip.

I slept in again the following day and actually did not get out of the house until 1 or 2. They wanted to take me to a new chain restaurant called Flunch that is pretty much like an American buffet restaurant without the buffet. You have to pay for your meat or pizza or whatever and then the sides are free. Although I don’t know if I translated the instructions badly because I was the only one to have more than 2 plates and to go up for seconds. We dropped Fred off at a birthday party that actually had mini motor bikes and atv…not too bad for that age. Upon driving around some more, we ended up at a vineyard called Château La Grande Bauquière. It’s like I died and had gone to heaven. Well the only thing that was dead were all the grape plants because it is winter, but I was still given a tour by the régisseur of how the wine is made. I got to see all of the modern machinery they use now to compress the grapes and to allow them to ferment after they have been purified. Also I found out some things like that each year the wine is different (obviously) but never thought of it; the wine gets its tastes naturally like strawberry or banana which the guy didn’t give any other explanation; and if you want to buy a chateau like that with about 80+ hectares of land its 10 million Euros. We ended up tasting the white and rose of 2007, while the red was from 2004. To get the new year’s wine, he went to this big kegerator to put it in college terms and then just twisted a spout and out came this delicious wine that I have to say was some of the best I have had. And I am not even a fan of white wine. My French family ended up buying a case of each of the three because they ended up loving it as well. I left the vineyard with the régisseur’s card because he said it’s hard to sell in the US and if I wanted to or knew anyone I should call him. After leaving with a car filled with alcohol, we returned back to the country house in order to get dinner ready which lasted the rest of the night. We ended up having lots of wine, foe gras, pizza, and chestnuts roasted on a open fire…No joke…I ended up teaching Fred some Chess and watching the Simpsons in French. I couldn’t believe that it was a whole family affair.

I went to sleep after staying up going through jokes on the internet about Belgians, French, Canadians, and women. The latter was the funniest for me but I certainly cannot repeat anything that I read…it’s too hard to translate. Woke up late for three times in a row, which was fine because we still made it to St. Tropez in time. Again beautiful weather and we ended up walking around the harbor that I certainly visited many years ago. I was able to take so many nice pictures of the water and all of the yachts. The best name was “Don’t Touch Me.” We continued to drive on after staring at all the Porsches and Maseratis. On the way back to Nans, we stopped to visit a relative at a hospital where I was able to take tons of sunset pictures. I actually forgot the camera after climbing three flights of stairs and seeing this view outside the window. Had to run back to the car and get it before the sun went down because it was too hard to resist. Was even better 10 minutes before I took the picture above.

It was hard saying goodbye to Mara and Fred not knowing the next time I will see them. Although I told them that they should make it out to Chicago in 2008 and that we as in my family would come and travel with them to Corsica in 2009, just in time for my graduation. Perfect present idea….Apparently Fred cried when I left which to me was touching because I never had a little a brother no matter how much I tried to mold my sister into a boy. Daniel and Nicolas took me to an American restaurant, Buffalo Grill before going to the train station. Talk about your typical Chilis or TGIF Fridays, but this is France and they served Canadian Bison and Alaskan salmon. That’s better than a lot of restaurants in Naperville. It was so nice to have a big old sandwich with fries and BBQ sauce so that I could feel my arteries hardening and my death clock setting itself a few seconds earlier. But hey it was an experience, the menus, waiters, and whole décor of the restaurant was American. Had I known any better with the amount of flare and cowboys and Indians, I would have said we were in Texas. What was the most humorous to me was watching Daniel cut his burger with a knife and fork and then eat it the little sliver he cut off. When I started to laugh, he picked his sandwich back up and ate it like a true American. The two things that killed the ambience of the restaurant was when I ordered my meal in English which was written on the menu and the server didn’t understand me and 2 when I got up out of my chair and had to get past Nicolas to go to the bathroom, I realized they didn’t make the restaurant big enough for Americans. No matter how homesick I am, I am still in Europe…..