My last day here in La Rochelle! And it's really sunny and beautiful (typical.) Had my last little walk this morning and went to the market, also discovered an awesome second hand shop which I might go look at in further detail later on if I have time. I've mostly been packing and I also thought I'd go eat my lunch out in the sun at Les Minimes which was most pleasant. This afternoon I wana go finish that book at the Mediatheque even though it's lovely outside- I've just packed all my swimming stuff and I can't really be arsed to go to the beach again- plenty of time for that in Montpellier! I will go try and find Fito and Hector afterwards if possible- Andi left this morning and I felt really bad cos his sister arrived last night and I wasn't in the mood to go out so abandoned him, but he said he'd pop by this morning before 12 (he was leaving then.) To be fair I waited until 12 but he didn't show, so I went to Les Minimes, but when I got back there was a note under my door saying he was sorry he didn't catch me- d'oh! Anyway, as it's my last night, even though I have ZERO money I'd quite like to go out to a nice restaurant- I found a fairly reasonably priced Caribbean one earlier which looks awesome- so tis important that I find les mexicains, who are probably currently dozing in their comfortable hotel beds...it is 3.12pm...

Mmmm. Chillage.
I'm still so tired this evening that I'm having an early night..!
In the end I did go to the mediatheque for a bit (but some bastard had taken the book I was reading out) and then at half 5 we had the aperitif with Lucie-Anne (she remembered!). Twas very nice- got to speak some French for once (Was just me and Andi- I had invited the Mexicans and they promised they'd come then didn't turn up- I don't blame them though as they wouldn't have understood anything and would have sat there twiddling their thumbs.) Turns out Lucie-Anne is the same age as me and from Paris. She wants to go do an English course at some point so I recommended Oxford! She also works in Dolci Gelati (the rival ice cream parlour next door to Ernest, which I have not visited due to aforementioned obsession with Ernest) and was quite indignant at my rejection....at least I've got a couple days left in La Rochelle to rectify it though!

My god, I'm knacked. Why does my body always wake me up so early!?:(

Had a chilled afternoon yesterday in the library- very proud of myself as read solidly for a couple of hours which is amazingly disciplined considering I've done none since I got to France. Woo. The library is lush though- it has big comfortable armchairs and you sit upstairs with a lovely view of the port and all the people coming and going on bikes, so I can't complain. It's not open that often though so you kind of have to take advantage at the time and as I've got up too late I think I've missed it now, but not to worry. In the evening I met up with Fito, Hector and Andy. Amelie had given me free tickets last week to a club in town- La Douche- the novelty of this club is that, as you can probably guess from the name, there is a shower. Actually a proper one. And apparently it's bloody cold. Anyway, I read about the club online and discovered it was a gay club (What a surprise!) but we decided to go anyway cos it was free, and Andi and I really wanted to see the novelty value of a dirty club with a shower in it. So we had some drinks in La Ville en Bois before moving onto the weird little hippy pub next to Ernest where I had one too many mojitos- we met two students (French ones)- one of them was a dick cos he pretended to be German and/or retarded, obviously just because he was a mixture of drunk and annoying. Best to ignore him, I felt! As for the other Frenchlet, it was a girl who actually lives in my building (weird coincidence!) called Lucie-Anne who seemed quite friendly and invited us over for an aperitif today at 5.30 before she goes to work. We accepted the invitation as it was kinda rude not to, and she seemed fairly normal- I hope she doesn't bring that stupid guy though! That's, if she actually REMEMBERS meeting us.... After the pub we moved onto La Douche. And oh my GOD it was skanky. Quite a little place, and weirdly you had to ring a buzzer on the door to be let in-- once we got in there it was basically the classic group of fag hags and 40 year old sleazy men in tank tops, and the legendary shower in the middle of the dance floor (which fortunately nobody was using at the time- there was quite enough skanky old man groping going on to not have to cope with that too.) Anyway, Andi and I decided we'd had enough so we stayed for a bit and then walked home, although Fito and Hector stayed a bit longer....wonder if they met anyone "interesting"?!? We'll soon find out today...think they're making us mid-afternoon entrecot?!

1. Patri has left. :( Boo.
2. The banana man on the market just gave me a very sleazy "a bientot".
3. I despair. Award for Stupid Brits of the Day goes to the ones who approached me in the street to ask:
"Excuse me, do you know if there are any coffee shops in the town?"

WE'RE IN FRANCE, YOU ABSOLUTE SPAZZERS. OF COURSE THERE IS COFFEE. ahem.

On the plus side, it's a sunny day!

Most uneventful day and I have zero to report. Just went to the cinema to see Delirious with Hector and Fito- AWESOME movie (love Steve Buscemi, so fucking disturbing in it though!) and we're all going for drinks now cos it's Patri's last night. All sad! A plus tard!

Today makes up for all the week's mishaps- this is what life in France is SUPPOSED to be like. :).... although I spoke Spanish all day. Good practice to get back into it, though! ;) It came back fairly rapidly although I found that there was a lot of vocabulary I was forgetting, but equally so in English- maybe all this moving about has actually screwed my communication for good!! hehe.
Went with Patricia and her parents, who are staying this week, to the Ile de Re today for a day trip. It's a huge island with loads of towns so we basically did a tour of it (but in the car, stopping at various locations to have a look around.) Really beautiful, really typically French. The main town, Saint Martin, is actually a lot like Peniscola near Castellon in Spain- the photos might show that for those who've been/seen pictures- lots of pretty narrow winding streets and gorgeous wild flowers. It was also the most beautiful hot day, which made up for the rubbish weather we've had this week- looks like it's brightening up! :) Other towns we visited included Ars-en-Re, Saint Marie & also the Phare des Baleines (the big lighthouse.) Most amusing part of the day award goes to the donkey rides going on in Saint Martin- all the donkeys were wearing trousers. Two pairs each, obviously. Bloody cruel if you ask me, but also fairly comedy. All the touristy shops also stocked cuddly donkeys (wearing trousers, natch) so obviously it's something they do here..... the kids loved it, anyway!
Best thing about being taken places by people's parents- they take you to the most expensive and posh restaurants ever. Patri's dad paid around 150 euros for our meal (ulp- remember i DIDN'T SEE THE BILL..not that I looked through the paper out of curiosity or anything.. :P but I said a great deal of gracious thank yous!!). Was my first PROPER French gourmet meal and fuck it was good. Had a fish and seafood salad with honey vinaigrette, one of those mini chickens (a la formal hall, adorable!) in a tagine- with a lush gravy and cous cous (plus raisins, olives and lemon), and pistachio and praline ice cream sundae with biscuits and magdalenas. Oh, and the obligatory glass of bloody nice local (vintage!) red wine.... I am SO spoiled!!!
After the meal of lushness we spent the afternoon at the beach (See, SO spoiled!) and worked on my tan for a while, relaxing and listening to the Pixies. Life is good. Had a quick wander round the town afterwards before heading back for a much needed shower to get all that sand and sea off me. I've been invited to go with them somewhere else on an excursion tomorrow but I thought I'd give them a bit of space- don't wana inflict my presence hugely on their family and they're far too generous!!!! :)

Well last night was a strange one.
Poor old Patri was ill so after going for dinner with her parents she decided to retire to bed, so I ended up going out with Hector, Fito and Andy. We decided that instead of sitting in the depressive atmosphere that is Ville en Bois, we'd go take a small alcoholic picnic to the beach. So we did. There were a few other groups there with the same idea, and I have to say it was pretty beautiful watching the waves (while downing a bottle of cabernet sauvignon like a chav.) We met the weirdest guy EVER, as you do. It turned out he was the one who had built the amazing dragon made out of sand (A sculpture) on the beach, and he was a homeless guy from Canada who'd basically hitchhiked all over the world meeting people to take him places and put him up in caravans so that he could build these sculptures everywhere. Utterly weird. He also claimed to have dated a celebrity in England who gave him a gold dragon but I don't believe that one for a minute. He was obviously a total waster and pisshead but I've got some bizarre respect for the guy as not only was the sculpture incredible, but he seemed to speak at least 5 languages fluently (I guess that's what comes of so much travel!). After plying him with BNs and Tucs to get him away (the weird stories about him stealing dog food were getting a bit old) a couple other guys approached us. These two (totally harmless) were from the banlieux in Paris and complained about our music, forcing us to put on 50 Cent (why, Fito, why?!?). We offered them some drinks and one of them had this AMAZING skill of being able to drink an entire glass of vodka WITHOUT flinching- made me cringe watching him, but Fito was riveted by this amazing act of hardness and made him do it 4 times in a row (this was only BEFORE I left) and the guy didn't show any remote signs of being drunk!! What a sadist. Anyway, I decided it was probably time to leave...interesting night, though! I'm off to the Ile de Re with Patricia and her family for the day. V.kind of her to invite me (hope her parents don't mind, makes me feel like being on exchange again when I was 15...tehehe). Maybe I'll see some relics of Johnny Depp, but I see it as fairly unlikely :(

The door is fixed, and it's time for drinkage. :D

For crying out LOUD.

This is getting worse and worse. I woke up this morning intending to go out and realised my key doesn't work anymore from the outside. This is hugely worrying. I have tried about 10,000 times and it definitely only locks and unlocks from the inside- meaning either 1. My key has magically cocked up overnight or 2.someone has entered the building and physically changed my lock (one of our doors is broken and doesn't lock- I have stressed many times this is dangerous but nobody actually bothered to fix it cos admin here is shite- so someone could have come in without a key.) V.worried and having to stay in room until 11 when hopefully the secretary will come back so that I can ask her what to do. If it still isn't fixed later I will leave my valuables in Patricia's room but I bloody hope it is cos the idea of leaving myself vulnerable to fuck knows who entering at night (or even during the day, when they'd presume I'd gone out if they changed the lock and could come in and steal??). Maybe this is an overreaction but I really don't think so cos I CAN'T understand how the key could work for 2 weeks and then suddenly not even turn in the lock. It really is fucking weird.

Stayed in bed for a while to see if the pain went away.
It actually hurt more when I stood up.

I have cheered myself up by going to the cinema to see 2 Days in Paris (awesome film- how I laughed..) and buying a nice soft tunic (will feel nice on scar) and a double Ernest (oriental chocolate and peanut flavours). Life is better. Although just ran into Fito and he said I looked exhausted. Then again, I kind of am..