Bonne Anniversaire à Moi!

You might notice that I'm actually making my own birthday cake - in the meantime, Flo is taking pictures of himself. Yay, happy birthday to me. The only thing he did was do the icing decorations.

It was my attempt at making an "american style" birthday cake... so we bought the pre-made mix and went from there. It wasn't that great... but I think Flo had fun decorating it... and I had fun harassing him for not helping me make it.

















"LOOK HAPPY"

























I think we drank 3 bottles of Cidre Brut that night - and it was then that we discovered its pretty much impossible to get drunk on Cidre. :-)

Meneham

I'd love to have that in my backyard, wouldnt you? There's a story here about this little church - and I will tell you all about it once I can access my hd (I left the stupid power adaptor at home).











































During the late 80s there was an oil spill here - this is still evident by the tar spots on the rocks. You'll notice it more on the big rocks in the background.

























So yeah, here we are July... on the beach... and it's freakin' freezing! Note Flo is wearing a jacket! Unacceptable!

Le Chateau Kerjean

We're back in Brittany - after a 24 hour train trip from Antibes to Landerneau. Talk about a long day... at this point I would like to recommend that if you ever take a night train, do get a cabin!







































You might have noticed that part of the castle is missing. That's because the owners, a couple hundred years ago, started selling the bricks of the building in order to pay their taxes (I believe it was taxes, they had to pay for something).









































You might remember that little bed thing from when we went to Ouessant. When Flo's grandmother was growing up, she used to sleep in one of those. Check out how small the bed is - Flo wouldn't be able to lay down in one at all.


















This is the detail on the ceiling of the chapel. You might notice it doens't look very French - I'm guessing this is likely going to back to the Breton (Celtic) roots of the region.
























Creepy looking statues... came out pretty cool, if you ask me...



























An Exhibit:

It's pretty self-explanatory as to what the exhibition was on... regardless, these are some wild paintings...




































You got that? Are we clear on it? Finally!















































This is exactly how I think of pregnancy - sure.


















I'm guessing this guy has the clap - I can't really be sure.

Fort Carré

The model - since I couldn't actually get a picture of the real thing from that angle...























Designed by Vauban - he designed several buildings and forts (37) and upgraded many others (approx 300) around France. His style is incredibly distinctive, so you can usually tell when he built it. Vauban was a key figure in advising Louis XIV about securing France's borders.























This was built prior to the city of Nice actually being apart of France. Each of the 4 corners of the building are strategically placed with one pointing towards Nice and another pointing towards some part of Italy.

















































Behind the walls, situated in the middle, are the officer's quarters.




































































Supposedly parts of the James Bond movie, Never Say Never Again, were filmed here.




























Port Vauban:


















Supposedly the most expensive Port in France - but I find this hard to believe because St. Tropez is only a couple hours away... and I've seen the kind of people that place attracts...

Out & About in Antibes

I got to live there! Isn't it gorgeous? This is the view from the beach that we went to every weekend. It is only about a 5-10 minute walk from Johanna's apartment.


























In the old part of Antibes, a small church tucked away on their narrow pedestrian-only streets.






























































Absynthe Bar:























So they will bring you a glass with absinthe in it... and then you take one of their special spoons, put a piece of sugar on it, and let the water from the pitcher slowly drip over until the sugar has completely dissolved into the drink.
























The stuff that they sell in France isn't the real thing. There are no hallucinogenic qualities to this beverage. If I remember correctly, from my reading on Wikipedia, you might be able to buy the real thing is Spain - but I can't be certain.



Cap d'Antibes:











































So we went scuba diving not too far from here - in a slightly less rocky and wavy place...




















The only reason there are any waves on the Mediterranean Sea is either because of all the boats racing by or there is a storm... otherwise, there isn't even a tide (or rather, the tide is so minimal that you wouldn't even notice it).

















And despite my best effords, I was still pasty white...



Don'tcha just love the road signs in France? You have about 1 second to read it and figure out where you're supposed to go? That seems perfectly reasonable right? That's not even the worst one I saw while I was there.

Farewell Amadeus!

Main Campus
























Unfortunately, I didn't get to work at main campus... I was a mile or two away at the HP building. A much smaller atmoshere.



















These buildings were so difficult to get around in that I would joke about how the aptitude test that HR gives is only to ensure that people don't get lost in the buildings.


















It felt pretty nice to walk through those doors though.

































Looks remarkably similar to the metro gates in Paris... same company? Perhaps.

My Co-Workers















This is Ghislaine (French), she was my manager.























Thomas Browne (French) - He took me and Flo snorkeling at the Cap d'Antibes (pictures to come).

















Johanna (Swedish) & Dominic (British/German - my Project Management "trainer").



My Going-Away Gathering
















If you look closely, you'll notice that those pictures of me dancing with the street performer were passed around the office and put on my going away card.


















It took two interns to replace me. :-P

Not really, Hannah (on the left) and Liz (on the right).



















So, I don't know if this is in all of France or if it was specifically at Amadeus - but when you have a going-away party, you pay for it yourself. Typically, people brought croissants & pain au chocolat (what I lovingly call Chocolate Croissants) and orange juice. An odd combination if you ask me, I could never drink orange juice with croissants. In fact, I rarely drink orange juice despite the fact that I practically grew up in the Orange capital of the world.