Je suis arrivée!

Bonjour!

Oui oui, I am in Valenciennes!
It's my fourth full day in La France and the jet lag is still a drag.
I haven't done anything too exciting yet but I will share with you the photos I've taken so far from my explorations of the town and other exciting things like the airplane food.

Starting from the beginning;

I said my farewells to people I care about but I only took a photo of my farewell with Bear because he is cuter than everyone:

A little blurry, our embrace was so moving

About to leave the home, me not looking at the camera, Kate dabbin', Jack hanging out in the back. We were good to go.

And then I was gone.

Jetting across the Tasman:

First course was a lasagne with some veggies and stuff which was v tasty (plus a cheeky side of sav):

Had six hours at Melbourne airport so we had a bit of a wander. 

Saw this Foo Fighters book, don't know if Janine will be impressed that it's on sale.
Dave Grohl is worth full price.

Also had to stop and admire this Oreo shrine:

Got an intensely hipster-sounding juice:

Literally just orange juice. But I appreciate them trying.

Got on our flight to Dubai (it had been delayed an hour) and sipped on some lavender water (couldn't taste lavender but was nice):

As you can see I had no one next to me so I got to spread out and pretend I was in first class like I deserve.

G&T, g!

G&T was paired with a kind of sad looking dinner but it was actually quite tasty. I think it was like a potato gratin type thing with veggies and gravy. And not really sure what those purple worm things were, but it might have been some sort of sauerkraut thing. 

ANZAC biscuit so I don't forget my roots

Of course vegetarians like fruit. Just gimme a little somethin' else too..

Brief encounter with Dubai

Arrived at Dubai with 30min to get across the airport to our flight to Paris. This involved catching a train to the other terminal and walking real briskly. But we made it! 

Final call for Paris

Breakfast I think..

Little container of water

Little bit of Brooklyn Nine-Nine on the plane

Dinner feat. metal cutlery..

We could watch the plane during the whole flight - from different angles too. This is us about to land in Paris

When we got to CDG our bags weren't at baggage claim so I filled out some forms and then had to run to the trains to catch mine to Lille. 
It was a Lille bit stressful (lol)

Then got on my next train to Valenciennes.

A random train station on the way to Valenciennes

When I arrived, I was picked up by Isabelle, one of the english teachers at the school, and James who did the same assistantship two years ago. He's from NZ too which is great!

Got to the flat and filled out some stuff, then the three of us went out for a quick bite to eat at a pub. I didn't even touch my food though, was feeling rather queasy. 

But after a few pukes I was back to my normal self.
Went for a wee wander through the town, on the way there I passed by some super old looking walls and a cool purple door:

a street

walking along the cobblestone streets

Got a baguette and a deeelish pain au chocolat from the patissier:

the town centre (mall is on the right)

big pointy thing 

sneaky selfie while munchin on a baguette

There is a really nice park across the road from the flat. It has lots of park benches and flowers and a duck pond:

Went for a run through here today, was v nice!


Had my first grocery shopping experience at Carrefour:

Impressive flavour selection of madeleines, but there can only be one ginger-flavoured Madeleine.
And very disappointed to find there was only one jar of (Skippy) peanut butter. 
This might be a challenging period in my life.

But at least I've got cheese and pastries!

The face of satisfaction after my first taste of a French pain au chocolat:

Those of you who are loyal fans will probably recognise this snap from my insta:

Stoked to find that Janine's Netflix account is still available over here:

Haven't done any 'flixing yet but I'm comforted in the fact that it's there for me.

At the rest of my baguette with some Bonne Maman framboise jam:

Thumbs up - this is my jam!

 Suitcase was delivered to me - wooooooop

Reunited and it feels so good

Now my room is nice and messy, cluttered with my stuff. The way it should be.

Met up with James and went for a wander around the town. 
Got an ice cream - coconut and speculoos, which is this Belgian cookie spread and my god is it tasty. It tastes sorta like a caramel cinnamon/gingerbread cookie.

Ice cream in front of town hall

:P

I thought this little balcony looked very french

Valenciennes Mairie (town hall) which was built in the 1600s

Another valenciennois street

The Gare de Valenciennes (train station):

I still like the Wellington train station better.

Caught a train from here to my school in another town called Le Quesnoy for some super chill drinks/nibbles with some teachers. Made cool teacher friends. 

Cheeky snap enhanced by some zooming-in technology on my phone

This guy here was seriously like 13 but he rode a motorbike and was full-on pashing this other 13 year old girl. So much cooler than I'll ever be. He's probably one of my students. I'm not showing them my blog.

Ran into some kiwi friends at the supermarket haha

Thankfully there was a fantastic NZ based team that ensured the safe eating of such kiwifruit. God bless.

This is my apartment building - my room is the very top left window on the corner in the roof:

Trees, as seen from my window

Wildlife in the park

A stream that I pass on my way to town

Got this huge cookie - a "supercookie" - like Mrs Higgins but even better

This is the cathedral in Valenciennes:

its proper name is Basilique Notre-Dame-du-Saint-Cordon, built in 1852

Cool fountain at the cathedral

Walked by this little restaurant! I'll have to find a friend named Jules and go there. 

I will leave you with a picture of the camembert I bought for 2€. 

more flavour in this one wheel than in all the camembert I've ever tasted in my life

So yeah, first couple of days were a little hard and I have lots of paperwork to do, but overall I'm just #blessed to be living in France for a little while.

Merci for reading, sorry -  it was a lot longer than I had anticipated.

À bietôt!

Madeleine