I haven’t posted a lot of pictures lately, so I figured that today I’d write a bit of a photo-journal and include a few photos here so that people might see what we’ve been up to and what the region around Clermont-Ferrand looks like.

here it is…

winter has officially come to Clermont-Ferrand; that is to say that this morning during my walk to school I saw a good many cars driving around covered with snow. Not just a light dusting of the stuff, mind you, but a good inch and a half of hardcore, in your face brrr powder. In the city, where I live, we didn’t see as much snow as in the suburbs (especially near the mountains, of course), but during my walk through the Jardin le Coq (a large public park in the center of town) the grass was coated with a fine layer of white.

it was nice to see!

of course, by the time Y and the kids met me for a (chilly) picnic lunch in said park, the snow had disappeared. But it will be back.

this has truly been a weekend for eating.

last night a friend had a group of friends from Lyon come for dinner, and we all had Raclette – it was awesome. Part of the fun was the way you eat it – since you basically melt pieces of cheese over ham, bread and potatoes, it takes a while to eat and you spend a lot of time sitting around talking, which is cool.

then, today, a group of us (a different group of friends) drove to the Chaudefour Valley to a friend’s father’s restaurant. The region is amazing – here is a good article describing what the region is like. The mountains and valleys were breathtaking, and surrounded by swirling mists. At the restaurant we all ate Truffades, a dish from Auvergne (this province) made with potatoes, cheese, and I’m not sure what else. It was excellent – eating at this restaurant in the countryside was extremely French – the only thing that could have made it any more French would have been if the chef (and server) had come out of the kitchen while we were eating to play the accordion. Which, of course, is exactly what he did – I think that was a first for me!

at any rate, it is experiences like these that make me very happy that I decided to take my courses here in French – along with the language comes a great deal of amazing culture. It’s the sort of education you can’t get from a book.

I am currently at my friend Carlos´apartment with a group of friends. Carlos, a Mexican exchange student doing the same program that I am doing (but in English), lives on the 5th floor of a very old building near the cathedral here in Clermont-Ferrand, and in order to get up here you have to climb a rickety old spiral staircase. Quite some exercise! Anyways, this evening, two Italian students cooked us some pasta – quite awesome.

my new apartment is great: It is brand new and a 20 minute walk from school; a long way by downtown standards but well worth the walk. At the moment it is completely unfurnished – I am in the process of buying the things I need before Yvonne & Co. arrive mid-November. It´s a lot of work, especially considering things take a long time to achieve in France. For example, the phone line that I ordered last week and the corresponding high speed Internet connection won´t be available until the middle of next month, and the fridge that I ordered that was supposed to arrive on Saturday (I waited all day in my empty apartment for it!) never showed up. But that is just how things are in France it seems – things definitely happen at a different pace than I am used to.

the food and drink here are awesome. Yesterday I bought a box of cookies for a Euro that are some of the best I have tasted – chocolate with orange. So amazing! The coffee here is fantastic, though I can only drink one small cup of the stuff or I´m up twitching all night long. And the cheese… oh the cheese…

also, we have Monday and Tuesday off (French holidays) so that´s always good!

today my friend Damien and I climbed the Puy de Dôme; at 1464 meters tall it is the largest of the several inactive volcanoes in the Clermont-Ferrand region. It took us about two hours to hike our way up the mountain and back down again. It was a lot of fun and a good trek, especially after having attended a party last night where there was much eating and drinking (of wine, cheese, paté and foie gras, no less) – the fresh air and the exercise was well worth it.

while up at the top of the mountain we were pretty much inside of a cloud – we ended up soaking wet not from the rain or from sweat but from the cold humidity of the cloud. At the top we had a great view of Clermont-Ferrand and of the surrounding region, though Damien’s camera ran out of batteries before we reached the top (and I left mine in Canada). Nonetheless, I’ll try to post some pictures later.