Chateau De Saulon Chateaux & Hotels De France Saulon la Rue

This week i went to school only on lundi (Monday) because Marie had exams all week. So that was really good for me because it gave me a week to do whatever i wanted and i actually felt like i was on holidays. =)
I'm sorry i have left it so long to write this blog entry and now i have forgotten what days i did things but now i finally have a good computer working. Unfortunately it is not my laptop but one that belongs to my host family ...

... and she wants me to prepare i think shes expecting a fully structured presentation) and philosophy (which is a snooze fest).
Then i came home a skyped my family which was nice but also a sad reminder of what i miss.
Then Marie took me to a drama lesson. I didn't understand very much of the French but i could understand what the teacher wanted me to do. I participated for a majority of it, mainly in the tableaues (because they are ...

... christmas lights set up above the roads but they do not turn on until the 1st of December. I also saw 2 of the 3 churchs near by but i did not go inside. Lastly Marie's mum took me up onto the roof of their building and showed me where the servants used to live and also the attic.
Questions are asked to me in french but explinations of places or things are done in english because it is very difficult to understand so much. Last night though i found that as i was ...

... is that everything closes for lunch from 12 to 2. They are serious on their lunchtime here, and when its raining and there's not much sightseeing to do in the small towns, well, lets just say we were lucky to have enough wine to get us through it. We also tried a proper french dinner in the town of Beaune, a 4 course meal for 12 Euros. Caity got Rabbit and Tom got Veal, or so we thought. We still aren't sure ...

... easily but finding parking made us take one too many turns around the first wine hall which made me eager to get out of the car. It was only 10:30am so we had to wait 30 minutes until the next tour. Finally we we paid and were handed fancy wine glasses with the emblem of the place engraved (we tried to keep them but we weren't allowed). Angela's mom picked this as stop number one because it was advertised as a learning experience and not just a drinking experience. The ...

... been travelling another line and wasn't going to stop at where I needed to be. The hostel never bothered to tell me that the bus deviates from line 4 after 2000. This stop however according to the bus route map was only a street away from where I needed to be. Phew! A little sweat on the brow there.
Then I spent an hour looking for some place to eat after being directed by the receptionist that there was Pizza 'just across the street'. Being at an intersection; there were ...

... so we rode in. Pastis and a (small) glass of rose for 2.20eu. Bit of a difference to Troyes where we were charged 8.10eu for a beer and a cold cafe au lait.
The site is fre but requires tokens for electricity (3eu for 1 hour) and water (3eu for 100 litres).This is pricey by French standards (the usual charge for 100ltrs of water - where not free - being no more than 1eu) but not too bad for such an attractive site.
One novelty spotted - a large BMW ...

... easy enough to get this right on the motorways, ********* junctions of smaller roads! But the mistake lasted only a few seconds and the surprised French driver who alerted us to the mistake was really nice about it, slowing down gently as I eased (well, lurched) to the right side of the road, and not even offering a corrective beep - very polite indeed in the circumstances.

The last stretch of our day's journey ...

... Finally a nine year old girl adopts me as her friend and we have a conversation in German about the trip. TBH I wish mum would do the childminding, but she's quite persistent and at nine how can you say get lost! So I put her to work assembling tent poles... until she tells me about standing on one and breaking it. Eek! This trip has had many new experiences and chatting in German with nine years olds was never on the horizon! She was too young to be ...

... but I did so get over it guys. Now because we live in probably the most central chalet and we have a large lounging area we are always getting visits from other people who don't live here. I keep trying to charge a cover for getting in (which I'll gladly waive for those of you that visit) but as of yet they generally pay me off in edible currency. Or they better soon. I'd like to show you pictures of them, but due to legal requirements at this time, I'm only able to provide ...