Des Vacances

Always good to start with a picture.
Here: nice view of Ardèche

Not really sure how often you guys are checking my blog but it's been a while since my last post, sorry about that, but at least there is a bit more than usual to write about! First of all, I've managed to open a bank account! There is a bit more to it here than what I'm used to…. (I don't have a card yet, nor any money in my account). I've had one very nice weekend exploring more of Ardeche with my bike.

That hill in front of me is where I usually go biking.

That is a really big bird that flew right over my head and nearly made me fall of my bike...

Also I went to Lyon on a gathering for the international students arranged by AGERA (Alliance des Grandes Écoles Rône-Alpes Auvergne). Before I spent another weekend biking in Grenoble, where the mountain tops are now covered in snow!!!

Lots of international students, I seemed to be the only norwegian tough...  

Not sure if taking pictures while riding a bike through the city is a clever thing to do, but you can see the snowy mountains. Winter is coming!  (sorry, could't help myself)  

In addition to all this I've also been on vacation!  Contrary to the practice at NTNU we actually get "Høst-ferie" here, or "Tous Saints" as they call it. Kathrine came to visit and we started the week in Lyon exploring the town as super turistas and trying out the bouchon lyonnaise, the food typical for Lyon. Which is pretty heavy stuff, but also very good. So it was probably a good idea to head south before we got too used to it.

Place Bellecour med statuen av Ludvik 14. og i bakgrunnen Basilique de Notre Dame de Fourvière og "lille eifeltårnet" som jeg ikke husker hva heter…. *

Lyon by night, med elven La Saône.*

Toppen av Forvière*

Meg og utsikt over Lyon fra Forvière, til venste for hodet mitt ser dere "Le Crayon" eller Tour  Part-Dieu som det egentlig heter.*

Et lite lysglimt i en av de mange traboules, en slags tuneller/snarveier gjennom/under husene, som Lyon er kjent for.*

Husbåter på Le Rhône i fint høstveær.*

After a couple of hours on the TGV and the TER we arrived in Banyuls wednesday evening, and woke up the next morning to bluebird and 22 degrees. We also tried some fine dining at Le Fanal (Michelin star!!), luckily they have some set menus that even students can afford once in a while.

For Halloween, we went on an excursion to Coullioure, where the kids go trick-or-treating in the shops, shouting "Des bonbons ou un sort".  They also had a Halloween-party in Banyuls that evening. They do love their loud music down there, it's not just for the tourists.

Think I prefer Coullioure in  the fall when there are fewer tourists and a bit more space at the beach,,,

Can't finish this post without saying that the first of november I went for a morning jog and then for a morning swim, and it was lovely!

Kathrine has gone home and I started the week with an exam. But yesterday we turned on the heating and it's kind'a nice being inside listening to the wind, drinking a cup of tea.

À Bientôt!

* Seem to have written some of the captions in norwegian.

Fête des Vendages

Believe it or not, but I didn't go biking this weekend! Instead I went to Banyuls-sur-Mer to celebrate the grape-harvest and my brothers birthday. As I didn't have any courses friday (there was a big party thursday so no courses for the 5th year) I left for Banyuls just before lunch. I was getting the bus to the TGV(Train de Grand Vitesse) station . Unfortunately, after just 5 min the bus had a breakdown… Was a bit stressed for 20 min there, but then another bus came to pick us up and everything was fine again:) The TGV is awesome! The 1€ bus Perpignan-Banyuls is also good, but not very fast… When I finally got to Banyuls it was super nice and super warm and since my only task that day was to buy bread I had a pretty chilled evening.

Benefits of being the one who buys the bread

Saturday started with a run, then a quick dip in the ocean, which is still at quite a comfortable temperature.

october...

After a swim in the ocean, a coffee at the café and a big breakfast at home, it was time to get ready to celebrate the harvest. The thing to do is to buy a wineglass and one of the special glass-holding-necklesses and spend the rest of the day walking around with your glass and taste wine.

After a long day of wine tasting it was nice to sit down for a light 7 course birthday dinner… It was soo good!

I'm obviously no food photographer, but it was really good:)

So to finish off a weekend of wine and good food, what could be better then more wine and good food? So Sunday was spent at the beach where a huge lunch was taking place.

People lunching on the beach

 The mood was pretty jolly, can really think of a better word, and I was sorry to leave. But luckily I wasn't the only one who had to leave early and the good mood followed me on the train…

But now it's back to Vaence.

À Bientôt!

Another week in Valence, another weekend in Grenoble, (forgot to publish this one before the weekend…)

I've been doing the same trip in Valence for quite a while now. It's super convenient and for me it's really nice to see how I'm progressing with my biking. But I thought I'd try to get some photos from new locations, so you guys won't get too bored.

So this is the ruins seen from below

So this was an afternoon trip in the middle of the week, not too many people up there, but quite a few donkeys...

And this time the donkeys were back

I've taken pictures of the ruins before, but I'm not sure if they've shown that the path is actually going though the ruins. Because it does :)

Inside the ruins...

Then there was some biking through the forest. Not so easy taking photos while riding a bike, on a single track path. But I am getting better at the biking part, less and less walking, more and more biking!

The track ends at a nice little view point.

Valence

Towards Ardech

The biggest news this week is that I've changed the pedals of my bike to automatic ones!

Which went pretty well :)

village of Romage (I think)

coffe break at the bastille :)

Until sunday, when I had a little tumble…

Also had a close encounter with the gears...

Nothing very serious:) I'll keep on practising.

À Bientôt!

A normal day...

My dad has been reeding my blog and is happy that I'm having a good time mountain biking, going to markets and so on. But he has expressed some concern regarding the total lack of study-related activities mentioned in the blog. Therefor this post will be dedicated to a more normal day.

07h15: On my way to school

Starting early. It's getting pretty dark here now… No time for nice breakfast photos with the sun rising in the background. This morning was dark, wet, not really cold, even though that would have been more suitable for this post…

The buss ride to uni isn't worth a picture, it's just crowded and noisy. About half the crowd are teenagers rolling cigarettes for when they get of the bus. So many people smoking here! Next up is my desk, ready for first lecture of the day. Note the big pile of paper. They don't believe in books here, they like making copies.  Both of the PowerPoint presentations and self-written compendiums.

08h00: First course
No SIT coffee deal in France 

So after 1h45min of frantic note-taking, mixing french, norwegian and english. I'm finished with my first course of the day! As I'm following some 5th year courses and some 4th year courses, my schedule is kind of weird, so no courses until 15h15.  My parents will be glad to know that I spent the hours in between at the library. The view there was much the same as the photo above, but no coffee. Not allowed….

11h45-13h15: lunch-break

I do like the long lunch break… Did my first packed lunch today, cous-cous. I've found the student's fridge and microwave. Will definitely try to do that again, the food at the Restaurant Universitaire isn't too bad, but they do serve fries quite often…

After lunch I had another session at the library before, at 15h15, my Méthodes Numeriques pour l'Automatique started. This is one of the more confusing courses, and the professor doesn't even believe  in print-outs, this class is all about taking notes! 

Last course of the day at 17h15 is french, nice and relaxed. Repetition of passé composé is always nice.

Finish around 18h45 so that we don't have to wait 20 min for the next buss and arrive home around 19h30. And this is where I'm at now :)

writing a blogpost..

So there you go, there is actually some studying going on in between all the fun stuff!

À Bientôt!

Happy days!

So, didn't get around to writing a mid-week post, but it's been a pretty sweet week! I've managed to squeeze in four trips with my bike since my last post and I'm pretty happy about that. But before I go on showing more scenic photos, here's a little glimpse of my everyday life. Or not everyday, this  is a day I started late.

Quiet morning

By now it's getting pretty dark in the mornings. It kind of looks like fall outside, the leaves are changing colour and so on, but it doesn't really feel like fall yet. First of all, it's too hot! It can be a bit crisp in the mornings, but nothing worse than an average summer day back home. Second, not enough rain! I'm not saying I miss it, just that this doesn't feel like fall… But I'm enjoying it!

Finished early on Friday,
decided  biking would be a good idea

Saturday started of with a bit of yoga, all this biking does make your muscles kind of tight. Followed up  by a trip to "Le Marché". Must be one of my favourite things in France, so much better than the supermarket.

Market in Valence

Getting fresh baguettes, or as in this case flutes, from the Boulanger is also pretty high on the list. Returned chez moi with, hopefully, all the fruits and vegetables I will need for the week to come, along with fresh bread, honey, cheese (not so fresh, might actually have been a bit mouldy!) and semi-dry dates (seriously good).

After market snack

Saturday afternoon  I headed for Grenoble to do some biking and meet up with some friends. Had my first flat, actually had a nail though the tire. A bit of a hassle there, luckily I did have an extra tube and pump etc. As my tires are normally tubeless I now need to do some serious googeling to figure out how to fix this. However, the tube has been working fine the whole weekend. Also had my first Raclette saturday, I don't know who came up with that, but it is great!! 

Sunday morning, early-ish start

Had a really nice ride today with Fred and Lou(?), a girl Fred met biking. He said she was pretty good, "Elle roule bien". Turns out she is a world champion in mountain bike orienteering…  Think she could go just as fast uphill as downhill if she wanted. My legs are gonna be so sore tomorrow...

Can't have a post without a pretty view

But I've had a great week! And I've managed to write a post about it as well. Yeey!

À Bientôt!

 

 

Starting to get the hang of things

So, starting to get used to being in France, going to a french university and in general blend in with all the french people. This unfortunately means that I tend to down prioritise the blog, but I honesty think that is a good sign!

More VTT - Getting hooked

So after the success of Saturday I decided to go try a longer trip on Sunday. Including some wrong turns here and there, quite a few actually (it's such a hassle to dig out  the map from the backpack), it took about fiver hours… Some pictures from the end of the trip, when I knew where I was :)

Ardeche, must have cycled around and over all of those hills at least once during the trip...