Priceless gift-wrapping...

Sorry about the name of this message, but it only just occured to me to use it for the last message because Hors de Prix means Priceless (according to Enzo)...unfortunately I didn't use it last time qo I thought it's use it now!
It actually has nothing to do with this entry, which is about Crepes and Nimes!
Saturday 30th December, 2006:
I got out of bed around 11 or 11:30 this morning because I didn't have an alarm and Alix didn't get me up. I emerged to find the crepes already cooked, which I was a bit sad about because I would have liked to help cook them but such is life. I heated one up and had a quarter with jam, a quarter with butter, a quarter with nutella and a quarter with honey...every single bit was delicious!
After that I think I might have gone on the internet or done something before we had lunch about 1 or 2 pm. After lunch Francoise drove us to Nimes as Alix was going to take me sightseeing around Nimes. We went first to Alix's grandma's house then Alix and I left on foot. We walked to the gardens which are about 3 minutes from the grandma's house (on the top of one of the 7 hills of Nimes). There we visited La Tour Magne (Magne tower), a little Roman tower at the top of the gardens. We went inside and climbed the skinny sprial staircase to the top where you can look out across Nimes and the land beyond. It's truely incredible to be able to see so far from one little tower.
We then walked down through the garden...it's small but very beautiful with little paths going everyone, some wide for everyone and others smaller for the children, and all of it going down the hill. Near the bottom there was some massive Roman staircases and at the bottom of the gardens there is a large area of Roman baths, still in very good condition. They were magnnificent in that romanesque kind of way! The statues around them were very cool too.
We left the garden (where children can take pony rides or hire go carts) and walked through Nimes to Les Arenes (the Arenas), the huge Roman arena that used to be used for gladiators and is now used for bullfighting. We went inside and explored all the corridors around the edges then found our way into the seating area and climbed all the way to the top. At the top you can sit on the wall and look down the outside to the street far below. It's scary and very dangerous as there is no barrier...the stone seating just finishes...
We left there and walked to the Maison Carrere, which used to be a Roman temple or meeting place or something like that I think. Now you can only see the outside of the surviving building, which is beautiful, and inside you can watch a 22 minute movie about the heros of Nimes. We watched it. It's in 3D and it goes through all the different time periods and the brave people in each one. Surprise surprise all the brave people were guys. There was a gladiator, a knight or something, a soldier, some kind of religious revolutionary I think, and a bullfighter. And maybe some others as well. After that we walked around and considered going ice-skating on the outdoors ice-skating rink next to the Maison Carrere but we didn't as it was all little kids and they kept falling over! Instead we looked for something to eat. We went into the shopping centre of Nimes and there bought an entire bag of viennoiseries (mini sweet pattiseries). They were from the day before so were really cheap but they still tasted really good nonetheless. We ate them as we headed back home. We walked past the canels which are also totally cool. We went back up through the gardens (tiring!!!) and returned to Alix's grandma's house. By then it was 5:30 or 6 and at 6:30 Alix and I took the train (I think it was the fast train, the TGV) back to Montpellier. We went back to Alix's dad's house as Francoise was staying in Nimes. The train was dodgy as it was very crowded and Alix and I had to sit separately...but thanks to my ipod, I survived!
Sunday 31st December 2006:
Last day of 2006 and I spent half of it gift-wrapping at Casino supermarket. We were there for another 3 hours or something but made almost no money because no one gives gifts for New Years. It was odd. Turns out that one of the scouts (and Alix's best friend) is going to Senegal I think, this year, to build a library...sound familiar anyone? She's lucky to be able to actually go and help with the building though! How cool!
After the gift-wrappiung I think we just went home and hung around for a while until we started getting ready for our respective parties. Unfortunately I couldn't go to the party Alix was going to as the host said both of us couldn't sleep over but there was no way for us to get home so Alix organised for me to go with Charlotte (Mia's correspondent). That worked well because I was with Isabelle and Mia for the night. Around 8:00 or so we were picked up by Alix's neighbour Lucy's mum as Lucy was going to Alix's party as well. She dropped me at Charlotte's apartment in the centre where I met Charlotte, Mia, Aurore (Isabelle's correspondent) and Isabelle. We were going to Xavier's party which was a short walk from Charlotte's place but we hung around at Charlotte's for ages. They definietly took arriving fashionably late a bit too far as we arrived at the party around 9:30. That party was ok but we had to leave at around 11:15 as they had to clean up. We then returned to Charlotte's place and spent New Years there. It was pretty fun and it was good to spend it with Issy and Mia! I think Alix also had a good time at her party but she was in bed at 12!
I slept over at Charlotte's place and when we woke up the next morning Christine, Charlotte's mum, had searched all over town for the only open bakery and bought us all croissants for breakfast! How nice is that? So Isabelle, Mia, Charlotte, Aurore, Christine, Charlotte's brother and sister and I all sat down for breakfast which included croissants, brioche bread, breadstick, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, a large variety of spreads, Christmas cake that Mia had made in Australia and bought for her family, fruit juice and fruit! We ended up sitting at the table, the kitchen bench and in the study for probably 3 hours (we didn't get up until 10 or 11 am). At some point Alix and Lucy arrived to pick me up but then they sat down, had some food and started chatting too. Finally Alix, Lucy and I left around 1:30 or 2 pm and went back home. We didn't do much that afternoon...we had lunch and then relaxed, and then watched Les Infiltres (The Departed) on the computer. That was an experience I don't want to repeat...the film was good but pretty horrible! That night Alix and I met the others again and went bowling. It was Alix, Charlotte, Aurore, Matt, another guy, Mia, Issy and I. We played two games of bowling and I think I came 3rd and 4th or something. Aurore is a really good bowler and both the boys imrpoved a lot by the second game whilst Issy, Mia and I all went downhill!
Alix and I got home around 11 or 11:30 but we hadn't had dinner beforehand and there wasn't any food at bowling so we were starving. We made some toast and had that with ham and butter and had some left over rice before going to bed.
That's all for now as it's time for bed. Oh yeah, we have internet again at home (woohoo!!!) so hopefully I will be online more often and be able to update this a few more times before I leave (on Sunday night - it's Wednesday night now).
In more recent news, the sales started today here and they are a big deal...most shops have things up to 50% off, some more. It's wonderful, I have already purchased a skirt on sale and hope to get a few more things before we leave! I also bought 20 postcards for my walls today...what can I say, the postcard shop here is incredible.
Tomorrow night is our official farewell so we all have to make a little speach which I have most certainly not finished writing...eek.
cya!
emma