Settling into la vie française

Hellooooo!

Lol so I probably should have written another blog ages ago but just been so busy, it's the way of the Français.

The last week or so has been spent at school, at shops and just chillin' around the old Valenciennes.

Also went to Amsterdam but I'd taken quite a few photos of random stuff before that..
And so the total 117 photos proved to be too much for my weak wifi to handle.

SO I will do the Amsti blog next week (hopefully..) before I go to Paris!

I'm Madeleine and here are my pictures:

When I walk home (from anywhere) I pass this mad medieval structure thang:

And it was built in the 14th century, bloody old m8!
Pretty solid structure, I would say.

It's part of the park near my house, I think the medieval people used it to like, control what flowed through the river and stuff. I dunno, maybe that's how people sent gifts to each other back then or something. 

But yeah, enough history!

Back to ME and what I"VE been doing.

Went to check out this little spectacle going on in the city centre:

Yeah, basically people throwing other people around to music, was pretty cool.
Except sometimes people got dropped and it was kind of awkward. 

And then it started raining and the performance stopped, which was probably a blessing to the people getting thrown around.

It was raining pretty hard and I didn't really want to walk home in the rain so I went into a cafe for some pizza until the rain subsided.

My pizza

It was very crunchy. I liked.

I met up with two german assistants and we checked out some (rather average) markets before going to a cafe where we got these amazing hot chocolates:

I think it was called a chocolat chaud merveilleux, and man was it merveilleux.

It was super rich and creamy (kinda like the ones from Scopa) and it had bits of crushed meringue on top, of which some melted into the drink and became delightful little pockets of sweetness.
And of course the chocolate shavings on top were amazing too.

Definitely going back there again.

A cute hostel - 'un auberge' en français

Met up with a few other assistants and went to the Musée des Beaux Arts here in Valenciennes:

The museum was quite grand and FULL of renaissance artwork.
Like, I've now seen so much renaissance stuff, I feel I've definitely been reborn.

I mean, you've probably seen the pic of me there on Facebook - I was absorbing so much culture.

Butt it was a good time and the experience buttressed our new friendships.
I hope there is no rebuttal to my choice of words.

All that pensivity made us hungry so we went to a bar to get some food and drank.
Being a small french bar, their only non-meaty option was fries.
But I'm ok with that.

Never enough t sauce

Went to Lille University for a welcome day for language assistants. Was pretty boring but we got free lunch (a big baguette du fromage for me). 

And we were basically told that we'd all die if we didn't fill in all our paperwork soon and buy insurance.

But you know, I remain super chill at all times.

What wasn't super chill was this "cappuccino" that I got - it went pretty hard core on the cream situation:

There was a little bit of coffee at the bottom..

Hahaha like it came with a spoon coz it was more a dessert than a coffee.
Not complaining, was just v surprised by their definition of a cappuccino.

Afterwards a few of us hung out in Lille, checked out the scene and a few shops.

This is the Grand Place de Lille:

Cruising the streets

Came across a Dr Martens store!

And oh I want these boots so much:

IRL they're slightly more reddish but the colour tone changes over the boot so they just look so special and cool and I want them.

Had a spot of dinner at a restaurant in Lille.

Deep fried chèvre salad. "Deep fried" + "salad" = "balanced meal"

Dinner crew

Inside the deep fried doughy cheesy balls

Walked by this cool gothic church 

Inside Lille train station

Had to wait for our train for a little bit so we played foosball - they also had a piano there.

Foosball table

I started working at school and got the canteen lunch:

Discovered it wasn't very vegetarian friendly - that gravy had bits of meat in it and that bowl at the back was salmon and potatoes (thought it was just potatoes lol).
I was wiser the next time and checked there were no animals in my food.

Chocolate tart was good though.

Le Quesnoy train station (by my school)

Le Quesnoy has a NZ street! (feat. a cheeky tongue)

Btw, you say Le Quesnoy like "Le Ken-wah" sorta like quinoa. 

It's the trendy ancient town where everyone wants to be.

Pink fountain in Valenciennes centre

pink fountain encore

Swiftly striding on stone

After I had my meeting at the bank and opened an account, I celebrated having no money in that account by going shopping at Zara.

Bought this top - I like the sleeves

 Also bought a grey coat but that will sorta feature later..

Hahaha omg these mannequins make me lol every time I pass by them:

Posing for their album cover 

"woah hold up - she said whaaaat" - the guy on the left

Had coffee with new friends, and got a tarte au citron with my cappuccino:

very foamy cap

Also, the lighting there changed between pink and blue. It was quite thrilling.


One of many pleasant evenings walking past the park:

ME - feat. my coat lol

Used the computers at school coz there's no wifi there and I've gotta keep in touch with my loved ones. Still getting used to the funny french keyboards:

Post-school evening spread by Solveig (german friend) and me:

that brie was ridic creamy - oozing out the sides and everything

After that, I went round to Monica's (american friend) so we could plan a few things for our trip to Amsterdam the following day!

A little vin to help with the planning

Oh and #BeddingUpdate ...
My IKEA order arrived!
Contents:
- mattress topper coz my mattress is kinda uncomfy
- super cozy duvet coz before I just had prison blankets

- and duvet cover/pillow case for the aesthetics (got the cheapest duvet cover possible but pretty happy with it really): 

oooh yeah so shnuggly with my duvet

#tumblr

Technically these photos are from after Amsterdam but I wanted to include them, as the change in bedding has had a huge impact on my happiness.

Yeah! That's about it before I went to Amsterdam.
That update should be coming shortly!

Meaning in like, another two weeks.

Nah I actually will try to do it asap.

So #subscribe!

Kidding you can't really subscribe.

Or maybe you can, I don't actually know.

I'm a terrible blogger.

Anyway, 

Stay fresh yo

Madswag