A friend of mine , Tim, and 2 of his friends came to visit me last week. I took two days off and we took a couple day trips. A few of the pictures from it are posted here. The first day I took them to some of my favorite spots within an hour drive of my apartment. On the second day we took beautiful road trip to Italy, to the lovely (but tiney) city of Cesana. It was one of the most beautiful drives I've ever taken in my life! I think everybody had a great time. In Cesana we walked by a bakery that was emanating what was probably the most amazing fragrance possible from a bakery. The three of us turned and walked in without saying a word to each other. We tried a number of things. My favorite was a light flakey cylindrical shaped pastry filled with rich dark chocolate and cherries that were a cross between fresh and maraschino. It was delightful! I think my eyes rolled back into my head and my knees almost buckled when I tried it. :-)
The hot weather broke a few days before they got here. It's been fairly hot since, but nothing like the temperatures we were getting before. It's been pouring all afternoon today. I'm supposed to do some climbing tomorrow afternoon if the weather holds. They said that if it was bad weather we would just go hang out somewhere and drink some wine!
The roads and parking spaces have been fairly empty for all of August, even more so than in July. But, since this weekend it has started to get a little more crowded, and I can tell that families are coming back from vacation and students are coming back to the University. I'm glad that the 100 F temps are gone, but I'm wondering how long the gray winter will be. The weather right now is excellent, but I'm told that the sun doesn't come out for a long time in the winter. Sounds like I'll really get to experience the seasons this year!
So, by now you have all heard about the weather here. It's been hovering just above 100 F for about a month. Yesterday cool air blew in, and today is great. I'm enjoying this weeks french holiday by staying home and cleaning. I haven't been here much for a few weeks and it needs it. I have all the doors and windows open, and I'm enjoying temperatures in the mid 70s!! I'm glad, cause taking ice cold showers to cool off was starting to get annoying. I slept better last night than I have in 2 months, and it was completely due to the cool weather. You've probably heard about all the fires here too. The worst are an hour ro more away. But, I have been watching one on the mountain next to me for 3 weeks now! I think it's finally out as of yesterday.
I have new pictures up in a few sections, including Denmark and more pictures of Annecy (that I think are really cool!). Copenhagen was pretty cool, I was there for 4 days. The nightlife was alot of fun, and it was so refreshing to have all the signs in english, and so many people that spoke english well. I met some pretty cool people. Some people there told me they thought Denmark was the European country most like the US.
I did have alot of people ask me if Americans are much fatter. They are, of course, but the people in Denmark weren't far behind. There's a french guy at work who's 24, and his girlfriend is in training in the US for over 3 months. I was teasing him asking him if he was afraid she would meet some American guy and fall in love. He got serious and said "no, but I am afraid she might get fat like Americans". It's interesting that that is on so many people's minds here.
So, I've discovered something really wonderful about living in France and not speaking english very well. When telemarketers call I just tell them in my poor french that I don't understand, and they drop it. It's great!! :-)