New Year's on the Côte d'Azur

The day before New Year's Eve my host family and I packed up the car and drove  to their apartment in Fréjus on the Côte d'Azur. There was no need for me to listen to my iPod to occupy myself on the three and a half hour drive because of the beautiful scenery that we passed. I'm used to small trips from my house in the suburbs of Minneapolis to my grandparents house 3 hours away in northern Minnesota but the scenery stays pretty much the same, on this roadtrip however, every hour we spent in the car the landscape would change, I had no idea such drastic differences in landscape could exist in such short distances. When we arrived in Fréjus my host family said "It's still there, it didn't move!" and it took me a while to realise they were talking about the sea! After we got to the apartment everyone unloaded the car, had a little snack and then we drove to Saint-Raphaël which is right next to Fréjus to walk along the coast.

On the coast of Saint-Raphaël with the mountians of Agay in the background.

The ocean! The rocks and dirt are all red because the area is around an ancient volcano.

More incredible scenery.

Agay.

My host family and Vidocq.

Maneuvering the rocks.

My host mom, Sarah and me.

Taking photos.

New Year's Eve we started our day with a trip to the bakery and then a walk along the beach.

Starting my seashell collection.

The port of Saint-Raphaël.

Every town in France is lit up with tons of lights for Christmas and since Saint-Raphaël is a tourist town, they went all out and put up a giant Santa.

Sarah and me walking on the boardwalk.

Near the boardwalk there was a Christmas market and at the end there was a sort of "Winter Wonderland" with a nativity scene, a polar bear, Santa's workshop, a yeti and a lot of Christmas trees with fake snow. I really like this photo because you've got palm trees and christmas trees right next to eachother.

The nativity scene.

Notre Dame de la Victoire in Saint-Raphaël.

My host mom, Sarah, Vidocq and me looking at the amazing desserts.

You would look too, wouldn't you?

Sarah and me getting dinner ready.

For New Year's Eve dinner we had salmon and ham with cheese, foie gras, bread with a salmon spread, coquilles St. Jacques, baguette, cheese and yogurt. The photo above is of my coquilles st. Jacques and rice.

That morning when we went to the bakery, we all picked out three little desserts to eat with dinner.

Here are the ones I chose; a mille-feuille, a hérisson (which in French means hedgehog) and a sort of raspberry tart.

Enjoying our meal and the TV.

After we had finished eating we waited until it was around eleven to walk to Saint-Raphaël to see a fireworks show.

Christmas palm tree.

Sailboat decoration on the John F Kennedy roundabout.

Sarah and me in front of the port. Can you spot Santa?

A few of the buildings next to the port had lights shining on them, with images that varied from everything from pictures of old buildings of Saint-Raphaël to colorful flowers.

Taking photos!

A close up of the huge Santa.

Santa's reflection.

Alex trying his luck at the casino.

Everyone watching the fireworks show.

Happy New Year!

After everyone counted down from 10 and we rang in the New Year, everyone cheered and then we did the bise and wished everyone meilleurs voeux, and bonne année et bonne santé, which translates to best wishes, and good year and good health.

New Year's day we went out to eat, walked on the beach and benifited from our last full day in Fréjus.

Le Jardin de l'Arena, the restaurant that we ate at.

The menu.

A donut, foie gras, mango and Caramel.

Lobster with fennel in a bisque sauce with sweet spices and coconut milk.

A filet mignon with some "forgotten vegetables" and truffles in a civet sauce.

Roquefort cheese in between spice cake and an endive salad with nuts.

Chocolate spring roll, pina colada pudding and an orange caramel cake.

After our two and a half hour meal we went to the apartment to digest and then went on a nice long walk on the beach and around town.

Happy 2012!

Aparently, it's a tradition to swim in the ocean the first day of the new near, and even though it was around 20 degrees C we decided against it.

Touching the ocean.

Un nouveau depart s'offre à moi

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."

-Maria Robinson

So, a lot has changed since I last wrote, but that's normal considering I haven't written since September. Before I left for France I knew I wanted to have a blog to keep friends and family updated, to have a timeline of my year in France, and just for the little things I notice or find interesting.Well, I have been terrible with keeping up with my blog, but that's going to change! It was one of my New Year's resolutions to be more consistant with my blog.

One of the biggest changes that has happened since my last blog post is I've changed families. I think that is one of the biggest reasons that I didn't write is because I wasn't really happy and there wasn't much I wanted to write about.

I was very lucky with my family change, a friend from school offered to host me, so now I'm living with her and her family in St. Vallier, where I've been going to school, which is nice because I didn't have to go through the process of being the "new kid" again. I now have a host mom and dad, a host sister who's in my class named Sarah, two host brothers named Alex and Sacha, a dog named Vidocq, and two cats named Sophia and Bouboule.

I've been living with my new host family since December 18th so I got to spend Christmas with them!

December 22: My host siblings and I went on a walk in the hills near our house to find some holly to decorate the house for Christmas.

Me cutting the holly. It was really hard to get to and it was prickly too.

The holly.

December 23: We did all of the grocery shopping for the 24th. It lasted an hour and a half of us going to three grocery stores. Then that evening we went to go see SVBD (Saint Vallier Basket Drome). They're Pro B which is the second highest division in France and there are 2 Americans on the team.

The SVBD cheerleaders with a sign that says Merry Christmas.

They won!

December 24: It was up to my host dad, Sarah and me to get all of the food ready, so around 10 we got to work. I'm not sure how it was decided that Sarah and I would make a buche de noel, but that was one of our main tasks for the 24th.

Sarah with the batter for the buche de noel.

Me putting the batter on the jelly roll pan.

Dosen't it look yummy?

Me putting on the frosting!

Looking more like a buche.

Creme brulees before....

And after!

Sarah and me cutting fruit for the dessert.

The table all decorated for Christmas Eve. Do you see the holly I cut?

My place at the table.

The stairs had little candles.

What we drank, can you guess which one I had?

Verrines are small appetizers or desserts that are served in small, clear glasses, they're also usually layered and served cold or at room temperature.This verrine that we had was made with red pepper, cream and parmesan.

Another appetizer; spice cake with tapenade and dried tomatoes.

Sarah preparing one of the main dishes.

Coquilles Saint Jacques with morchella mushrooms and endives.

La crique (which I would explain as something like hash browns) with shallots and fish.

Finishing touches for the bouche.

It's done!

In front of the tree.

Cute little Santa decoration.

The desserts! ( creme brulee and a fruit salad (a verrine) with an alcholic rasberry sauce)

My slice of the buche.

Enjoying dinner.

Christmas Eve was great. I had a wonderful time talking with my new host family while preparing the house and food for the big meal and later finaly getting to enjoy it.The dinner started around 8 and went later than 12. I didn't stay around until the end because I got sick and had to go to bed. I'm going to blame the amazing food I ate, because it was so good I ate too much! Thankfully it was only Christmas Eve that I was sick, so I was able to enjoy Christmas.Food not pictured: small salmon cheesecakes, sliced ham with cheese and of course baguette!

December 25: Christmas morning I woke up to a text from Sarah at 7:50 which read Tu dors?...:)/Are you sleeping? Then at 8 everyone was up except for my host mom, but the dog and my host brothers quickly changed that. Then everyone waited outside of the dining room until  Vidocq (the dog) pushed the door open and revealed the tree with all of our presents.

The Christmas tree/ le sapin de noel

Sarah and me opening our presents.

Alex and Sacha opening up the new TV.

Vidocq opening up his present.

After we had opened all of our presents and gotten dressed we all piled into the car and drove to my host family's Aunt and Uncle's house for a Christmas lunch. This photo is of my host family's cousin cutting the turkey. In France turkey is much more common for Christmas.

Even more food! What's more french than eating food and enjoying it? For Christmas lunch we had fois gras, salmon, shrimp, salad, caviar, escargots, turkey, cardoons (which I don't think exists or is very common in the US) and another bouche!