1. I got my social security number today! I am officially a temporary French citizen, and have all the same rights (health care included!) as would any native Frenchwoman.
2. I went on a 8 mile-long bike ride today -- not an easy feat when going uphill and on a girl's 6-speed mountain bike... I feel like such a watered-down version of my formerly glorious biking self. But it was nice to explore more of the Vosges area, and to be able to say that I rode my bike "to the next lake over." It's very humbling being so limited by physical factors -- my own body, of course (I learned today that 40-degree weather means "wear a longsleeved shirt, Rachel"), and by geography. I rode my bike until I simply could not ride any further; the road ahead of me sloped upwards at what appeared to be a veritable 45-degree angle, and the bike lane disappeared. C'est la vie. If you'd like to take a look, check out the map on Gmaps Pedometer. I've been using the "terrain" feature a lot lately, and if you zoom out a couple clicks, you can see why I had to stop biking and turn around. If only I could get past those montagnes toutes dingues (ridiculous mountains) and make my way over to Munster!
3. I'm getting ready for my two-week jaunt in Provence, for which I leave on Saturday. I plan on visiting Marseille (big seaside city), Arles (Van Gogh hotspot), Aix-en-Provence (where I'll be staying the whole time; also a Cezanne hotspot), some naturey national parks in the area, and plenty of olive shops. The very famous, very French movie Jean de Florette (1986), directed by Claude Berri and featuring the extra-French lords of cinema, Gerard Depardieu and Yves Montand (and based on the book, La gloire de mon pere, by Marcel Pagnol) was filmed in the countryside of Provence, and I'm pretty jazzed to see it.
4. I think my brief, passionate affair with homemade shampoo has come to an end. Involuntarily, of course. Castile soap is simply not sold in France, and importing from a British distributor would cost me at least $30 for a small bottle -- and I have to put a price on my hair at some point, I'm afraid. I've been quite frugal with the little bottle of shampoo I had brought with me from America, but I'm looking pretty grungy these days as a result (tendrils a la Spring Break, for all of you who remember). So I'm buying my first bottle of commercially-made shampoo in almost a year (aah!), which is going to be an emotionally painful and long process, as I carefully read each and every ingredient on the back of each and every bottle of French "shampooing" (pronounced shah-pwang -- crazy, I know). They love fresh vegetables and local wine, but don't seem to care one bit about their body products, which baffles me; I haven't seen a single thing labeled "natural" or "organic" (or "bio," en francais), so I might have to take the plunge directly into Herbal Essences or something equally appalling. Wish me luck.
1 comment:
Dingue!
I'll send you a bottle of Dr Bronner's. I just posted about the wonders of the natty life, and you're the biggest push I had to start in the first place.
Just hold outtt.
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