My friend Claire in Bordeaux for a week-end (18-20 August 2007)

Very nice week-end! Unfortunately with only one sunny day (this is definitely a very bad summer) which we enjoyed in the Bassin d’Arcachon on the beach of the Pyla Dune.
On Sunday Claire walked around in the centre of Bordeaux (to check the changes: we studied together in Bordeaux 5 years ago). And on Monday, as I had to work, she went with Olivier and Léo to Toulouse, to the “Cité de l’Espace” (a museum and thematic park about space and aeronautics).






I hope she spent a nice week-end despite the weather, Léo’s whims and me being tired… At least I think she got along quite well with my sweet Olivier, which is good :-D (eh eh eh, friends’ opinions are important ;-)

Lot-et-Garonne, my current second home (with Bordeaux)

After my summer holidays, I went back to Agen to work with my parents so that we could spend a little time together and they could see where I live. They stayed one week, partly in Olivier’s house, partly in my flat in Bordeaux. Unfortunately the weather was quite bad, so we visited only the village of Clermont-Dessous (with its nice Templar church), the city of Nérac (where the French King Henri IV and his wife “la Reine Margot” used to live) and the Sauternes vineyards in the south of Bordeaux.
Here come some pictures so that you can have an idea of what Lot-et-Garonne looks like (I also put an extra photo from the Bonaguil castle which I visited a few months ago):

Holidays in Finland - Helsinki (3rd - 6th August)

After 10 days spent in the middle of nowhere (we were in an island in the Saimaa region), and before going back to France, we stopped 3 days in Helsinki (of course!). Almost nothing has changed since 2005 (but it’s quite strange to see so many tourists! It seems to be very fashionable to go to Finland now…). Esplanadi, Porthania, Café Engel, the railway station: everything is just the same (well, some shops have changed of course).

With Olivier, we decided to have a light sightseeing program and to visit the places we both didn’t know: Korkeasaari (the zoo), Kiasma (the modern art museum), the open-air museum of Seurasaari, and even Suomenlinna (I realized I knew only a part of it!). It was funny to discover Helsinki with renewed eyes!



During those 3 days, we also met Juan (who generously welcomed us in his flat) and his girlfriend Pirjo, and also Minna, my dear Finnish friend (Olivier was glad to meet a friend of mine who is vegetarian: be careful, they’re everywhere! ;-)
Unfortunately I couldn’t meet Fernando (he probably didn’t receive my message).



And finally, Vantaa airport again (I think I know this place by heart :-D) and flight back to France with a group of French tourists coming back from India (I found it suspect that so many French people would have chosen Finland for their summer destination ;-).

Now, back to Bordeaux for at least 4 months of intensive work :-(

Summer Holidays in Finland - the Lakes Region (23rd July – 2nd August)

Quite a well known destination for my summer holidays this year. But in a part I didn’t know (the Lakes Region) and in a season I had never experimented there.

Those 2 weeks were just GREAT!!! I was with my boyfriend Olivier, his son Léo, and part of his family (his parents, his brother with his wife and daughter). We stayed 10 days in their cottage near Savonlinna (a cute place with several red wooden buildings like the ones I’ve always dreamt of ;-).
The weather was quite nice almost all the time, so that we could go walking and picking berries and mushrooms, do canoe and sightseeing… Our program was more or less an alternance of excursions to some place and relaxing time in the cottage. And of course, each day ending with a good sauna and a bath in the lake J Just the holidays I needed!

We visited Savonlinna and its castle. Unfortunately we were there a week too late for the famous Opera festival (anyway, the tickets are quite expensive…). We went for a one-hour-cruise on the Saimaa Lake: all this water, it’s very impressive!
We also went for a day trip in the Eastern part of Finland, near the Russian border, to visit the Lapperantää fortress and to see the Imatra falls.

Our last excursion was dedicated to Punkaharju (a road in the middle of the water with lakes on both sides) and its museums: Lusto (forestry museum) and Retretti (the most famous art gallery in Finland).

As you can guess, this trip had a little nostalgic taste: I could eat Finish food again (pirakka, salmiakki, reindeer…) and I could remember some Finish words (after a few days, I felt almost like at home :-D).
We were very lucky because Olivier’s parents have Finnish friends there who invited us for dinner, first in a farm, then in a summer cottage: it was so nice and they were pretty happy to meet a French girl who had lived in Finland and who was fond of their country ;-)

Now that I’m back, what I miss the most is of course the sauna time before having dinner…

Ahhh, holidays…

Week-end in the Basque country

Now, the English version ;-)

Last week-end, as there was a free day on Tuesday (to celebrate the end of the 2nd World War), we finally decided to go to Spain to enjoy one of my last quiet moments (I will begin a new job on May 21st while going on my current job...).

We went first to Bilbao. It's been such a long time since I've wanted to visit the Guggenheim Museum! And I must say I've not been deceived at all, all the contrary. The Museum is very beautiful (its arquitecture is a real success) and it has a very interesting collection (usually I'm not fond of Modern and contemporary art, but it is very well designed and explained so that you learn many things and don't see time passing while inside). Actually, the entire city of Bilbao is worth a visit : the buildings are charming, and all the city has experimented a urban renovation that I liked a lot (parks, modern bridges, ways along the river...).

Then, we drived along the coast of Biskaia (one of the 3 regions of the Spanish Basque country). We visited many nice villages (among them the famous "Guernica") and we stopped in a camping where we could get up with the Oceand and the Coast in front of us :-)

Finally we spent 2 hours in San Sebastian before coming back to Bordeaux (and to work :-(

As you can imagine, it was great to speak Spanish and taste Spanish atmosphere again (despite the fact that the Basque Country is not completely representative of Spain) :-)

Agur!

fin de semana en Vizcaya

Decidimos al ultimo momento aprovechar ese puente del 8 de mayo para ir a visitar el museo Guggenheim de Bilbao y pasar unos dias en el Pais vasco español.

Reservamos un hotel por internet, casi sin mirarlo mucho, y buena sorpresa : nos toco un hotel de lujo (mucho mejor que cualquier otro hotel del mismo precio en Francia!).

Visitamos el museo (con una exposicion muy interesante y una arquitectura impresionante) y la ciudad de Bilbao (preciosa : un verdadero éxito en tema de renovacion urbana).

Luego fuimos a San Sebastian en coche por la costa vizcayana : vimos unos puertos y unos pueblos muy bonitos.

Paramos en Guernica para visitar todo aquello, y de camino a San Sebastian paramos a dormir en un camping (ya no nos quedabamos dinero para una noche mas en un hotel jejeje) con una vista increible del mar cantabrico desde la tienda!

Acabamos con una visita rapida de San Sebastian, pero como teniamos que regresar ya (yo tenia que trabajar temprano al dia siguiente), no pudimos ver muchas cosas... asi que habra que volver ;-)

Por supuesto estaba encantada de hablar español de nuevo, de mostrar a Olivier la vida española que quiero yo tanto y de comer queso, jamon, aros de cebolla, tortilla, chocolate a la taza... :-)

Biganos

Summer weather in France for a few weeks : it is the warmest month of April since 1920's! Climate change is coming...

As the city of Bordeaux is quite unbearable with such temperatures, we went again to the Bassin d'Arcachon, but in another part, Biganos, where there are very nice small harbours in protected areas. This is one of the most important region as for migratory birds.

Easter in the region of Bordeaux

Spring seems to come finally : it's been very sunny and almost warm for a few days.
First sunbathing in a public garden in Bordeaux on Friday afternoon.

And a very nice week-end with 2 excursions :

On Saturday Olivier and I went to the "Bassin d'Arcachon" (about 70 kms from Bordeaux), to Cap Ferret to be precise. It is a peninsula with a gulf on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other side, with a great view of the Pyla Dune (the highest sand dune in Europe). A great place really! (by the way many famous French people - singers, actors, football players - have a house there). Unfortunately I couldn't take any picture as my camera had no battery left :-( But to give you an idea, here come a map of the place and a picture taken on internet...



On Sunday, we visited a castle near Bordeaux : the "Château de la Brède". It was owned by Montesquieu, a famous French writer who was also the father of the separation of political power (executive, legislative and judiciary) - for those who have studied constitutional law ;-). A very interesting guided visit and a nice walk in the park.

Holidays in the South of France

Here are some pictures of our week in the region of Montpellier.

On the way :

Montpellier :

Dinner organised by the Association "la Voix des adoptés (the Voice of adopted children) :

Gorges de l'Hérault :

St Guilhem-le-Désert (UNESCO site) :

When the web is inspired by politics... :-D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1OqdDdEIzY&mode=related&search

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhsses5KKU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHs0U-gdbdw

News from France

Today a new law is implemented in France : it is now forbidden to smoke inside of administrative buildings, companies and high schools. We'll still have to wait one year before seeing this new law implemented also in bars, restaurants and night clubs. But this will be such a pleasure for the non-smoker that I am! Now I hope that Spain will soon adopt such a law too, because it is absolutely awful to have to bear the smoke of the others when going out (and we all know that in Spain, going out is a national sport ;-).

Another news from France : tonight, an ecologist organization has asked French people to switch off the lights and all that works with electricity during 5 minutes... It will be interesting to figure out how much energy we would save during only 5 minutes if we were less "plug in- addicted" :-D

My 26th birthday :-)

Thank you so much for your messages, calls and gifts! Yeah, I definitely have great friends ;-)

A special thanks to my sweet Olivier who sent me beautiful roses for my birthday. Romantic, isn't it? :-)

Week-end in Paris

I'm now back in Bordeaux (since Sunday evening actually) after 4 days in Paris. I went there for work (well... at least on Thursday and Friday ;-) in order to take part to a meeting between Green politicians from the main French cities. It was quite interesting to learn about the initiatives in other cities in areas such as energy, local democracy, urbanism...

But this long "week-end" in the French capital was also an opportunity to see my Parisian friends. And, despite the fact I was quite ill during almost all the week-end, I managed to see almost all of them : Marie, Lionel, Vincent, Claire, Sandrine (whom I had not seen since the Erasmus year!), Dominique and Etienne, Matthieu and Alice.

Unfortunately it was too cold and I was too tired and sick to enjoy the beauties of Paris, so finally I only visited cafés and Asian restaurants (the only place where they propose rice ;-).
But I made a cultural pause with the visit of the marvellous new "Museum Branly" (http://www.quaibranly.fr/index.php?id=1&L=1) which I recommend you : the building itself (by the French architect Jean Nouvel) is really worth a visit and it presents a great collection of art and multimedia about peoples and civilizations from Asia, Africa, America and the Pacific area (this museum has been qualified as the "Museum of primary arts" - Musée des Arts Premiers). And it is just a few hundred metres from the Eiffel Tower, so no reason for missing it when you come to Paris ;-)

2 Spanish in Bordeaux

My dear friends from Madrid, Laura and Enrico, came last week-end and stayed here about 4 days so that they could discover a bit Bordeaux and its region. Unfortunately the weather was not really good (but it's quite normal at this moment of the year) : very cold, sometimes rainy and windy ;-)

We went to the Atlantic Coast to visit Arcachon and the Dune of Pyla (the highest dune in Europe), where we really had a lot of fun :-D, and we also visited the nice village of Saint Emilion (very famous for its wine).











I hope they enjoyed their stay here. Personally, I was so happy to see them again after so much time, and to make them discover the region I live in now...
Next time, we'll probably meet in Spain ;-)

Women and politics

The future President of France may be a woman...

It's the first time that one of the 2 main political parties has chosen a woman as its candidate for the presidential elections. Ségolène Royal represents a great hope here against the right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy (he has not be designated yet as the official candidate but nobody doubts about it) and she seems quite open as for ecological matters. Even if she's not really new in politics (she belonged to the "team" of the former President Mitterrand), she can help showing the path for women who have political ambitions...

This morning I read an article about the world classification of countries as for gender equality. Sweden, Norway and Finland are without surprise at the first 3 places of this classification. But the great suprise is that the Philippines are at the 6th rank when France is classified at the 70th rank!!! France is among the 4 less-advanced European countries in this matter (together with Italy, Malta and Greece)! SHAME ON US! So, as you can see, there's a lot of work to do before seeing more women in politics in the country of "liberté, égalité, fraternité"...

Week-end in Sète

Here come a few pictures from last week-end which I spent with Olivier in Sète (in the South of France, on the Mediterranean Sea). The weather was very nice (although a bit cold) and I met very nice people (Claudia and Olivier, Marilyn and Adriano from Nice, Céline and Kevin from Paris, Guilherme...), all members of a really interesting association that deals with adopted people : htttp://lavoixdesadoptes.blog4ever.com/blog/index-2995.html (the webpage is in French)


Aqui vienen algunas fotos del ultima fin de semana que pasé con Olivier en Sète (una ciudad del Sur de Francia en el mar mediterraneo). Hizo un tiempo estupendo (aunque un poco frio) y conoci a gente muy maja : los amigos de Olivier, Claudia y Olive (muchisimas gracias por todo!), y los miembros de una asociacion muy interesante que trata de ayudar y reunir a las personas adoptadas que lo quieren (http://lavoixdesadoptes.blog4ever.com/blog/index-2995.html, la pagina web es en francés...).

Voilà quelques photos du week-end dernier où je suis allée à Sète avec Olivier voir des amis à lui (Claudia et Olive). Il a fait un temps magnifique tout le week-end et j'ai vraiment passé de supers moments avec Clo, Olive, Céline et Kévin de Paris, Marilyn et Adriano de Nice, Guilherme...J'ai ainsi pu découvrir une association jusque là inconnue pour moi, "la voix des adoptés", qui a pour but d'aider et de réunir des enfants et personnes adoptés (ainsi que leurs parents et leurs amis). Je mets ici le lien pour que vous alliez y jeter un coup d'oeil : http://lavoixdesadoptes.blog4ever.com/blog/index-2995.html

The importance of voting...

After almost 3 crazy weeks I'm back in my job and in this blog...

All the work our "team" has produced in the past weeks has paid : we've made a better result than in 2001 with 10,30% of the votes (we're still the third political force in Bordeaux) and we've kept the same number of representants.
Unfortunately it has not been a victory for democracy as Alain Juppé has recovered his seat of mayor after having provoked unjustified elections (which cost 600.000 euros, paid by the French people) and being condemned for corruption (he only had one year of ineligibility!).
His party considers this election as a victory... but with only 45% of people who have actually voted, has he really any reason to be proud of???

I must say I'm more and more convinced that we should implement in France a law that makes voting compulsory, just like in Belgium... Because where is the legitimacy of politicians who have been elected by only half of the votants???