Orléans Christmas Market!

Cracking open my Advent Calendar yesterday morning sent several thoughts running through my mind:
1. Chocolate in the morning for the next 24 days! Woohoo!
2. How is it December already? A year ago, I had recently submitted my application to be a Language Assistant in France to the British Council!
3. The First of December? That means Orléans Christmas Market with the Blois girls! Boom!

I had been looking forward to this outing for many, many days. I would be taking the bus at 7.50am from Romo SNCF to Blois, chatting with Erin in her apartment and then meeting Harriet and Amy and we are all going to get the train to Orléans and indulge in the Christmas market. I sat at the SNCF station, finishing off my pain aux raisins, and feeling slightly unnerved that the bus still hadn't arrived, but told myself it had been late the first time I had taken it. Wouldn't it be funny if I had misread the bus timetable?! Hah.

I had misread the bus timetable. On Saturdays, the bus comes at 7.34am not 7.50am.
Oh well, adapt and overcome, as they say. I left an apologetic message on Erin's mobile, and bought myself a train ticket to Orléans where I would meet the Blois girls there.
12€ and missing out on two hours of chats/gossip with Erin = the price of not checking the timetable again thoroughly last night.

Suzie's #1 Transport Planning Tip for Novices:
Make sure you know what time your transport leaves. Particularly if there are only two buses a day.

The dream...

ANYWAY, apart from that small hiccup, here comes forth my ode to the wonders, delights and delicacies of Orléans Christmas Market 2012.

Only.... I might have made a mistake there as well. I am convinced that on Orléans' Tourism website, it said that the Christmas market started late November. I swear. So we all arrive at la gare and are re-united with bises (saying 'hello' takes so long here) and make our merry way into the town centre. As we walk, we remark that it's not particularly busy; it's probably because the entire town's population are amassed at this astounding Christmas market. We found the market. Or, rather, and closed-up stands which are due to become the Christmas market on 5th December. Oh dear. The Christmas lights weren't even turned on because it was daylight.

...the reality.

Nonetheless, the day was still wonderful. We spent the time chatting and catching up, comparing being a Language Assistant at primary or secondary level, and shopping. The Christmas decorations in the shopping centres at least made me feel a bit more festive, and I bought a new hat
which has flaps to keep my ears warm. Definitely my best purchase since my arrival in France. For lunch, we had an Indian (three courses for 10€) and then I indulged in four tiny macaroons as well.

Then we headed back to Blois, clutching (/wearing) our purchases and set about figuring out 1. how to navigate an online order for Domino's in French and 2. what the heck we wanted to eat. Domino's in France describe pizza sizes with how many people it supposedly feeds, not how many slices there are. A 'four person' pizza - how big really is that? And how big are the people? Amy found an online article from a veteran of French Domino's, saying to back yourself and go bigger, so we did. We definitely made the right choice: 'four person' clearly means four skinny French girls who don't even like pizza. We ended up with three pizzas (Hawaiin, Veggie and 'Groovy Bacon'), two sides and a bottle of fanta for the festive price of 7€50 (£6) each. On the way back from collecting our order at the Domino's store, we were nearly back at the apartments when we were waylaid by two Mormon girls who wanted us to come to their church. End result? None of us are now mormons, but our pizza was a bit cold by the time we made our getaway. The evening was capped off by watching 'Magic Mike' i.e. staring at Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer's abs, and me and Erin talking til 3.30am even though I was waking up at 7am to catch my bus at 8am...

So yes, we didn't really embrace Frenchness on Saturday (spoke in English all the time, had Indian food for lunch, had Domino's for supper while watching an American film) but I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with the three of them and I got my new hat! Now, it's back to lesson plans for tomorrow, and updating my vocabulary list. Next weekend brings yet another adventure, but you'll have to wait for my next blog post to find out what it is!
                                 ***
(see left:) an image of a hat resembling my new hat. Except mine is better, not only because it has cords hanging from ear-flap-ends so I can tie said hat under my chin like a bonnet. Side effects may include looking like a prat, but being soo cosy.