Post 13: Sorry again... Travel Day!

Hey Everyone!
I'm sorry that I haven't been keeping you all up to date. I have a required journal to write in for the trip so that we can remember some of the historical things that we learned on our outings. And I also would like to share some stories with you all when I get home and give out little presents! :)
So I will just list some places that we went to this past week.
Sunday: We went to Cannes for some sun and expensive lunch.
Monday: We took a tour of some really old Roman baths that are actually on the same street that I am staying on! It was quite hot when we were navigating our route through the rocks and ruins but then we followed with maybe our 4th church... After that we went to the MATISEE MUSEUM! Which is what I was looking forward to that day!
Tuesday: Our teachers snuck (real word?) us on to their pool roof! Where we lounged and swam in the cold water. We could see half of Nice from that pool!
Wendesday: Mr Newman, Allison, Michelle, Morgan, Jordan, Mackenzie and I all took a train to Antibes for the afternoon! Antibes is the most relaxing place I think I've been to in France! The town was amazing, the view of the ocean was amazing and the Pablo Picasso Museum was amazing too! When we got home we tried to figure out a plan to go see Eclipse- "L'hesitation" but Mme said that she didn't want us to be out that late in a different part of town. I told you, we are her puppies/babies!
Thursday: We went to Monaco on maybe the hottest day of year! We hiked up maybe 300 stairs (haha) and then we ended up at the "Palais" we did some wandering and then went to the Oceanographie museum which was a bit of a bust.. not much going on in there. And everyone was tired soo we decided to leave the group early. We power walked down the stairs and got to the train station to find that the next train to Nice was either in 6 minutes or in an hour. So guess what, we sprinted the whole way there, which was probably a bit of an ugly sight :) "sveaty ameriecannes" and we ended up in a tight cabin standing up and we made everyone else in the cabin drip with sweat. It was a very fun experience. We got home to eat our last supper with madame (because she is leaving/left at 7:30 Friday morning for Colorado!!) And then she told us to go find her daughter in the market. So we went to the market after Fenocchios (where i tried lavender ice cream) and her daughter could pass as her TWIN! haha I bought a gift for Olivia from her stand and we took a picture with her. Then i said goodbye to all of my friends and took pictures. And when Allison and I got home we helped Madame pack and weigh her bag and give her the list of "interdit" and a list of american stores that have adapteurs. Then we took a photo with Madame!

And today I am anxiously waiting to get in the Taxi with Mr Matanes to get to the airport where I will start my voyage home. I should leave Nice for Paris at 1:10 and then if i make my next flight i should leave paris for ATL at 4:15!! (But i will have a helper person who will be incharge of me-to make me feel like i sort of know whats happening! haha) AND if everything is on time i should land in atlanta at 8:05 (thats what my ticket says) and be home at 9:30-ish? But I love you all and I hope to see some of you when I get back!!! Wish me a Bon Voyage!

<3 Claire

Post 12: Hump day and jeudi!

Hello et bienvenue!
Well I couldn't post anything last night because...it was a LONGGGG day!
I woke up Allison and 7:20 to get ready but because we went to sleep at 1 am on Tuesday night it took a while to actually wake up. Mme Ledeuil had a cute dinner party on her patio with her family from Lyon, Paris and Nice. She made the best quiche in the world (that she let us eat inside before they ate)! We went out again for ice cream (probably the last time in a while-we feel the kilos adding up!) and came back to a full patio but empty house. The house being empty did not help us rest, instead we talked and surfed the web/facebook till 12. Of course once Allison went to sleep, an all black cat popped its head around our door! Mme doesn't have a cat! The cat visited once more and then I think I might've scared it away :( But the chat noir managed to keep me on watch until 1-ish... naughty ClaireBear!
School was...school-we did some more things that we learned in class and then the last hour took a turn for the better. We talked about "nos experiences mauvais" (our bad experiences). Jordan, Morgan and I jointly recounted the troublesome arrivals to Nice and then once a classmate pointed out that not all of us spoke individually I told the story about how I broke my nose last year in soccer. SOCCER? Girls play soccer? Apparently this was shocking to the europeans-our teacher was dumbfounded. We explained that it was common for girls to play soccer, lacrosse, basketball and even field hockey! Emilie (our teacher) told us that it was very uncommon for a girl to do any sports besides dance and swimming. (she basically said that you had to be a butch..)
After class we wandered around Nice aimlessly for 5 HOURS!!! Nous avons fait du lecher vitrines. (window shopping) and then we went to the market! (where I found some nice Niceoise gifts for some lucky relatives!)
We all met up for dinner at a new meeting place where all the skaters hang out! I'll have to try to post the video! But then we walked over to a nice restaurant that overlooked the yachts in the bay. It was really nice until the attacking gnats and fly or some weird annoying French insect with wings commenced! Oh my goodness! Jordan, Morgan, Hallie and I were attacked for the remainder of the night by these annoying little varments! The tally of dead bugs got up to 54... we smacked, cut, trapped, and battered the bugs until we were sure that they were dead. Unbelievable. Oh and even if you say separate checks...youll still get a single check for the whole table.
Overall the dinner was really nice and we enjoyed it, but the French waiters HATE groups of 10.
Oh goodness, I almost forgot the family of oranges! Before the swarming bugs, Jordan, Mackenzie and I noticed some brightly dressed kids checking out the menu. But wait not just some kids... 5 kids and a dad were all wearing the same AWFUL orange and white striped polos with matching navy bermuda shorts! The boys would've looked nice if they were at school but the poor little girl had to wear the same outfit as her brothers. Of course, you could tell that the mother dictated the wardrobe for the family vacation because she was able to wear her own floral gypsie skirt and earmuffs around Nice. (its like 80 degrees here) Our funny bones were tickled by this sight because we laughed so hard that we cried, for about 30 minutes this went on until we realized that the oldest son caught on and he put his rain jacket on and baseball cap :(
No harm done... but the photos we "took of eachother" will explain everything.
I don't think I can type anymore... so Thursday's adventure to Eze and Fragonard will have to wait until tomorrow! :) Bon soir!

Post 11: First day of Classes

So yesterday, Monday, the french speaking girls took placement tests to see what level we would start in at the Alliance Francaise. Morgan, Jordan and I managed to place in the same class and Hallie and Carolyn are in another class. We got the rest of the day free whereas the 3 girls who speak 0 French, and I mean 0 (Allison, Micchelle and MacKenzie) had 4 hours of total immersion french class!
Today when we went to class, we were very nervous that we wouldn't understand alot of things when the reality was that we had already learned the topic of the day 2 years ago. I wouldn't call this a bad thing though because I'm sure tomorrow we won't know something so I'm glad and satisfied with where we are now!
After class we are going to go shopping in Nice at the market and in the big square near where we usually meet up for the night outings for exploration and usually ice cream :) Then we are all going out for dinner!!! Mr Newman found a lovely restaurant that looks out over the yachts. We are all going to get dressed up and show off our "sun" that we got from our outdoor tour and attempt to enjoy the ROCK beach haha :)
Until next time (and hopefully not this late again...its 12 here)

Post 10: 5 of 10 are here in Nice (at 11:30 pm)

While eating a delicious meal that Mme Ledeuil prepared for me and the British lady staying here and watching/studying Invictus in FRENCH I managed to get in touch with Carolyn and Hallie who dropped off MacKenzie successfully and then Michelle and Mr. Matanes! The fourth and final tier of Pace knights are flooding Centre Nice :) And they should make it to their houses before 12 unless their luggage managed to wander off. tsk tsk tsk...
But hey on the bright side I have learned how to navigate Nice from my bedroom, speak french 5x better (just from today) and I have improved my secretary skills while using almost all my alotted time on firstclass (pace's email server)!
What a full day, but I'm sorry to report that Mme Ledeuil has gotten 2 rounds of headaches today :(
J'espere qu'Allison arriver avant minuit :)! I need a roomie, 12 hours later...!!

Post 9: Entrance to Nice.. started with a BANG!

Hello!!!

So I feel that I am all "France-d" out, but hopefully once the girls finally arrive that will change!
The Dillon clan left me here in Nice with Mme Ledeuil, a Belgian student (who hadn't left yet) and another lady who is apparently staying in her house as well!
Lazara, the Belgian 20 year old young woman, actually was a HUGE help to me the first 20 hours I was here! She spoke pretty solid english/franglais (english and french combined) so we were able to communicate in the same "language."
Mme Ledeuil is VERY sweet, she gave me a hug and a kiss when I got emotional as my family left and I have been her puppy ever since. She leads me around Nice showing me how the trams work and where everything is, my phone now works because of her!
So today at about 10:30 we got a call saying that the rest of the girls were stuck in Rome and missed their flight because of a million different mistakes and lost luggage that wasnt actullay lost. So I was very upset to hear this...no americans!?!
BUT WAIT! Hallie Cross! of course, she took a flight from Charlotte, NC to Frankfurt to Nice! and she was on time-but since my phone hadn't been working I couldn't reach her! My Mom was able to call me and give me updates that saved my nerves! Phew!
Hallie was in a more uncomfortable situation though, she had flown solo the whole way and arrived in 2 different countries! and took a taxi to her house. The taxi driver of course, rips her off and drops her off at the wrong street! So poor lonely Hallie was wandering around with 2 suitcases and then of course when she arrived to her house...her Madame was not home!
So Claire and Mme Ledeuil to the rescue!!! but when we got to her she was fine and unpacking in her room, phew!
Hallie wanted to go out and explore so when we were walking to La Vielle-Ville we saw Lazara! Lazara was very upset and crying because her new family had already "ousted" her! "La salle de bain est inderdit, la cuisine est inderdit, le salon est interdit!" So what this means is that her family told her that she could not go into the Living Room, the Kitchen, or the bathroom during certain points of the day. ouchhhh!
Lazara is nothing but nice, and has helped me a ton! (she even told me, during one of our exchanges, that I had solid french and it was improving and that I should be fine without her). Her new family has not been very accepting of her or her vice of smoking (just like everyone else in this country)!
But she is fine now. And all is well, I got back from exploring with Hallie and Mme Ledeuil's uncle is over and is the typical french man with the raspy cute voice asking silly questions ask jokes :)

Carolyn, Morgan and MacKenzie have now arrived in Nice!! but they now must make the nerve-wracking call to their families to let them know that they are here! And poor MacKenzie is without her french speaking roommate, Jordan, so I hope she will survive!
Hallie, Ms Anderson (our dean back home) and I have been holding this up since about 10:30 this morning and for Ms Anderson, since 4:30 am her time/your time!

Michelle, Jordan, Allison, Mr Matanes (our French Teacher) and Mr Newman (our math teacher) are in Munich right now! and will be in Nice at 10:30 pm BUT they won't get to their houses till around MIDNIGHT!

Sorry for rambling but I wanna remember all the mayhem coming into Nice to compare it to the exit, which hopefully will be better for EVERYONE!

PLEASE email me or call me or post a comment! I'd love to hear from someone across the atlantic :)
Also please pray for all the traveling! It's pretty scary to travel alone in a foreign country without a guardian!

But no worries we will all be fine tomorrow!

Sorry! More Posts coming soon!

So sorry! We haven't had any wi-fi since Paris :( and the only reason why I have it now is because I'm sitting in a Mcado/Mcdonalds next to a geant Casino (their equivalent to a Publix). And the rumors are true, a quarterpounder is a "royalecheese" ha! But once the clan leaves me behind... I will hopefully have wi-fi for the rest of the trip in Nice :)

Post 7: Olivia's Opinion

When most people think of Paris they think of expensive stores, fancy restaurants, and apartments. That's what I thought too. But, I was wrong! It is even more than that! If you are walking around stores you see a ton of real diamonds that are worth thousands of Euros!

Coming here was so much fun to think about and once we got here in this appt. I knew that we could call this place our own home away from home. Even the Boulanger employees know me! I am so glad that my sisters and I speak French. (Unlike my poor dad who doesn’t know anything and just smiles and nods his head when a French person tries to speak to him) But when my mom and dad have maps they are the ones who know their way around and you shouldn't tell them they are wrong.

It was usually day 1 we are doing this, day 2 we are doing that. And it was fun but imp not gonna lie after a while it got pretty much on the low side for me. And just when I needed to be lifted up I heard we where going to a market on the streets of Paris! After riding the Metro we finally got there and starting looking around for things to bring back to America! Each of us Dillon girls got something or things. I got this blue cotton dress that I adore, one white pair of sandals, one pink pair on sandals, and each of us got three hand made leather bracelets! Tess got African masks to put in her room and Claire also got a hand made side bag! Shopping was so much fun!

Versailles is this HUGE castle or chateau that Louis XIV built when he got tired of staying in the middle of Paris. When I first saw this place I thought "oh my gosh! Marie Antoinette LIVED HERE!!" I am obsessed with Marie Antoinette because I thought she was like a really good queen and was really pretty and rich. All of the history and cool facts about Versailles made me want to just drop all of the headset tours and look at every single little detail! I kept saying in my head " Marie Antoinette walked on this hallway! and sat in this chair! and slept in this tiny but very decorated bed! After learning REALLY interesting things inside the castle my family and I went out to the gardens! The gardens where like two neighborhoods and more put together! We all walked all over and sat on the grass and had some pasta and Paninis! We kept on walking until we reached Marie Antoinette’s other house! (Marie lived in that house because she wanted to be alone and away from everybody including her children and her own husband Louis the XVI) we walked in her own garden too! she even had a little village made for her so that she could go there and pretend to be a peasant and play because she never was an ordinary person she was either a princess or a queen. Doing this was so much fun and I loved it so much that when I get back I'm going to be telling most of you all the cool facts that I know about Versailles.

Just the other day my family and I where coming back from the coolest museum in the world (Le Louvre-we spent too much time there)! We ate at this amazing restaurant that only served salade, fries and steak! It was delicious-all my favorite foods in one place! We hopped on a metro to go back to the apartment! All of us girls sat in a four seater and my dad sat alone nest to this guy up front. Claire Tess mom and I where so busy playing red hands that we just noticed our station to get off! (Now those French substation doors only stay open for 15 seconds!!!) So we where all trying to get off and without hurting anyone. The doors started to beep (which means its about to close) and Claire got off on one door and didn’t see us coming off so got back on and then saw dad and I get off and mom follow close behind! So she jumped off. Tess was slowly coming off behind mom, and saw the doors closing slowly and the doors where squeezing her in the door way and the expression on her face was a confused, worried, embarrassed face. Now my face was only worried and I wanted to just pull her out of there! And Claire was laughing and then Tess started to laugh and my dad got mad at Claire and my mom was about to jump on the train. I sat down and started tearing up. Only because I started to really worry that we were never gonna see her again. My mom hopped on the next train and started after her hoping that she got off at the next stop. Later on after it was completely quiet, my mom called my dad saying she found her and they both had tears of joy! And I just smiled the whole time after that.We just finished our fantastic lunch and winding down! Until next time!

Post 6: Tess's Turn!!!!

howdyyyy from paris!!
The past few days have been somewhat of a blur...in total i have slept ten hours over 4 days now...but im not even tired!! I think I have the worst jet-lag out of the five of us!
Yesterday we visited Le Tour d'Eiffel and walked along the Quai. The tower was immense and so were the lines to climb it so we chose to come back on a monday morning when it would hopefully be more quiet!
Then, visited the Sacre-Coeur in Montmatre. I'm not even going to get into the sordid details of the hike up to the village from the Metro but I will say this: TRAIN DAILY FOR THIS COMMUTE!!
When we got to Montmartre, we walked through all of the artists. French artists love blue eyes!! Artists would call me over and say "Speak English?" I nod. "Portrait for fifty euro, but for you 25!" Why me? "blue eye, tres jolie. you sit here. give me 20 minutes. find me you maman."
whaaaatttt?
I recited my script that i reserve for aggressive salespeople, "that sounds great! and your work is wonderful i'll go find my mom," except semi en francais! This seems to please the woman so i continue on my way and get flagged down by another artist who will lower the rate for my blue eyes (are they really THAT great....?) and another and another.
I finally met up with the rest of my family where they were standing beyond any of the artists view so that we couldn't get harrassed by them. (haha) To my disbelief, my parents actually wanted to have our portraits done but the question was which artist? They had their top three favorite artists narrowed down but who would end up getting the job? The one does acurately detailed sketches in sepia? The one who make the eyes the main show? Or the very friendly, older version of Claire whose main focus was getting the hair right?
Mom and Dad just couldn't chose so we decided to have each girl do a different artist. I had the detail oriented sepia artist who captured all of my little whispies coming out of my ballerina bun perfectly but tried and failed to make conversation with me while sketching (I was too focused on sitting still!), Claire had the older version of herself who was extremely nice and friendly and captured her curly locks perfectly, and Olivia had the unfriendly artist who got irritated when she coughed but captured Olivia's bright blue eyes perfectly! In the end we were all so happy with our portaits!!
While walking towards what we thought was the sacre coeur, I was stopped by un petit homme choise who begged to cut out my profile on black paper. I said I couldnt but when he offered to do it for free, I couldnt refuse! I could have posed all day...NOT! my face was litterally shaking by the time he was finished! The good news is that he did a really good job although i thought my nose was bigger than the way he portayed it! (haha)
Finally, we went into a midsize chapel type thing and after diliberating we realized that maybe this isnt the sacre coeur....!!
When we finally made it up to the famed cathedral we were astounded by its beauty and we went inside to enjoy the hymns that were being sung by the nuns. We wanted to visit the crypt but it costed money so that was out!
Back at the appartement hier soir, masses of people gathered at the pubs, cafes and clubs below us to watch the world cup (world cup is to europeans as superbowl is to americans). They cheered and they sang. They chanted and they danced. They prayed and they wished. But sadly, France only came out with a tie :( better luck next time!!
A Bientot!

Post 5: Notre Apartement

Allo!
I have taken some pictures of our petit apartement.
Olivia and Tess discovered a bird's nest which now has 2 eggs, Olivia witness one of the eggs being laid... tres interessante!
The blue room is our parents, the couch Tess is sleeping on in the picture is actually a pull out (we are rotating...)
If you can tell, the sitting area (salon) is the largest place-lots of entertaining for the French, but the kitchen (cuisine) is the smallest area, with the smallest fridge in the world :)

*The photo importer does not really like how big the photo files are....sooo I am uploading the most important picture, a picture of Olivia's Pigeon friend's nest.
Looking out the windows has been Olivia's favorite pastime. on Day 2 she was watching the schoolkids come home and chant about someone's birthday repeatedly. Olivia's response: "Shut up!" Haha-of course this was after she insisted upon not visiting the Moulin Rouge with me, tess and Dad but ultimately she and mom got lost in Paris with out a Baedeker (Guidebook). They walked around Montmartre and ended up at the Moulin Rouge :), then they took the same 18 stop metro route that we took. But hey, we all got home safely!
Tess: "Moulin Rouge sucked, better in the movie. Hey where's the elephant?"

Post 4: "Day" 1

Salut!
Wednesday became Thursday for us Amuricans way too quickly after the flight. We all crashed after unpacking for about 4 hours, which was just enough charge to keep us going till 12:30 pm (24h30)!
We ate at our local neighborhood cafe which has seating facing outwards to the street for the ultimate people-watching experience. Mom and Dad decided they wanted to see how stress kitten Claire, optimistic Tess and cautious Olivia would do by themselves in a supermarche. We were fine and benefited from the experience (yummm french candy!)
We walked around our quatrier and over to Notre-Dame for a quick viewing. It happens to be very close to us!
After Notre-Dame, we walked to l'Hotel de ville and caught the metro, which is now our new bff!
We took the metro to L'etoile (Champs-Elysees & L'arc de triomphe) for a nighttime viewing of the amazing city around us! The lights were gleaming and cameras were flashing, which added to our slight vertigo.
To get the full experience we walked a ways down Le Champs-Elysees and walked into the biggest Sephora...tres fragrant! The metro carried us home to our local creperie where we had our first crepe of the vacation
(btws, in France they only use bananas-no other fruit!) (also instead of saying oui like we do in class "wee", you say it like "whay" (with phlegm, as Daddy says))
The Dillons passed out at around 1-ish am(7pm Atlanta time) but I'd say we got accustomed to Paris time relatively quick for first time European travelers!

Day 1 was probably the longest day of our lives but definitely a memorable and exciting one as well!

Post 3: Flightplan

Hey! So it took a while for the wi-fi to be set up and working in our little appartement so I am just now creating the first post across the pond!

The airport and flight experience was lovely... It started with a lovely cab driver who passed around a handout of the world's largest suspension bridge, which happens to be here in France!
When we got to the airport with our 7 huge bags plus carry-ons, we realized Tess had packed all of her toiletries in her carry-on so a speedy reorganization was necessary. Security went smoothly until a carry-on bag that was meant to be a checked bag was home to my toiletries... Oh well, bye bye Pantene Pro-V!

Mom became a heroine for me and Tess when she went back out from security to get little bottles for our larger fragrant products :)

Tess and Mom sat together and had zero sleep while sitting in front of "Turban Man." Tess believed that Turban Man was to be trusted.

I sat in a cozy little row with Olivia and Dad. We made friends with a cute French family and their baggage... Behind us there were some dedicated readers (Twilight Saga Fans) who couldn't seem to figure out how to use the folding trays that were attached to the back of our seats. The trays became a bit loud and rambunctious.

The individual TVs provided us with some interesting personal entertainment:
Tess: Amadeus, Alice in Wonderland, Serenity and Balance (taught her how to breathe peacefully) and a failed attempt to watch Wolfman.. "just a little too intense" [No sleep on the plane]
Olivia: Valentine's Day, NCIS, 2012, New Moon, Grey's Anatomy (never fully completing any of the shows or movies) and then she tried to enjoy some slow loading video games. [about 20 minutes of sleep]
Claire: It's Complicated, Love Actually & NCIS--I watched the movies and show from start to finish and was still able to be the only Dillon to sleep for about 2 hours on Olivia's arm and Dad's arm rest. [2-ish hrs of sleep on the plane]
Dad: Tried to avoid watching TV and attempted to sleep with his head on the tray in front of him... after that did not work he schemed to sleep on the floor, which also failed. After avoiding the selections he went through each genre repeatedly. Le Mans...he can't remember which shows that he obviously did not enjoy them [30-40 min of sporatic sleep]
Mom: The Ghost Writer, Amadeus and was forced to watch Serenity and Balance (by Tessala) [No sleep on the plane]

After an overall lovely experience on the plane, we exited the baggage claim expecting to find "Dominique" who would drive us to our apartement...we Dominique was a no-show but Stefan, his employee arrived with a town car for the 5 of us with our 7 suitcases (no such thing as traveling light). We ended up ditching the trimmed and clean Stefan for a more friendly and streetsmart Stefan with a decent size van! An excellent trade off, we all agree!

The ride from the airport seemed never-ending (probably like this post... :)) but Stefan was our hero who listened to Harry Conick Jr. and gave us recommendations for our rental van for next week. Merci beaucoup Stefan!!

Post 2: Departure Day!

So... It's been a while, but in less than an hour we will be in a minivan cab on the way to Hartsfield Jackson International Airport!!!
Packing has been a week long process, but I am VERY thankful that we were urged to start so early. Although... my mom's bag is still open and there are some items that need to be jammed in there. My bag was so heavy that, well a division of weight was needed-so I now have 2 bags; one weighing 42 lbs. and the other about 23 lbs. (hehe).
Last minute things are happening, memory cards are being emptied, dishes being done, dog beds being cleaned... the dogs and cat can sense that we are abandoning them indeterminably while they watch us scurrying around the house with bags.
Good bye ATL! See ya later southern heat!
The next post will be a (accent grave?) Paris!
Au revoir les etats-unis! Bonjour la france!

Post 1: Packing Week...

To start off my blog of my trips and experiences in France, I have decided to commence recording this fine week of packing and preparation in Atlanta, Georgia.
Packing seems to be a very important part of the experience, and nowadays jetsetters have narrowed their views on what to bring and how much to bring with them on their escapes.
Well my mom scavenged the internet for packing lists for Europe...it's true minimalism is the way to go. For me, knowing that I will be in France for a month, that is much easier said than done.
So here I sit, a huge suitcase staring me down with nothing but shoes inside of it. I need to get to work.