Here comes the sun (le soleil arrive, enfin!)

After what has seemed like an eternity, spring has finally sprung in Aquitaine! The camellia bushes in my garden are blooming, and Minette (the cat)'s favorite activity has changed from sleeping on the couch to sleeping underneath them. The sunny weather is a nice break from the rain and 1 degree mornings we were used to for all of January, and although it's a far cry from California weather, it's still an excuse to go to Jardin Public and take an afternoon nap instead of shlepping to the library and attempting to read Proust (which usually just ends up in frustration and/or sleepiness). In the past couple of weeks I have also started exploring many of Bordeaux's open air markets like Marché St Michel, which is every Saturday morning in the courtyard of l'Eglise (chuch) St Michel. St Michel is the perfect one-stop-shop for everything I think I'll ever need- vintage scarfs, delicious baguettes, 10 euro shoes, home-made honey, dried fruit, Moroccan spices, and much much more. Saturday morning I went to St Michel with friends where we picked up un poulet roti (rotisserie chicken), des pommes (apples), du pain (bread), du fromage (cheeeeese), et une bouteille de champagne (self-explanatory), and then had an amazing picnic on the steps in front of Place de la Bourse, overlooking the quai (river front). Place de la Bourse is one of the prettiest sites in Bordeaux and is also a fun place to people-watch... apparently the French are REALLY into rollerblading. It's something we can't quite figure out. This weekend was also the first weekend of Bordeaux's Carnivale, which sounds much more exciting than it actually is: basically some weird floats (think high school homecoming, minus the crêpe paper), scary tilt-a-whirl rides (I just don't trust roller coasters that can be put together and taken down in the course of one day..), and lots and LOTS of cotton candy (in french- barbe à papa or dad's beard). Still, it seemed that the whole city came out to celebrate because all of downtown was completely packed! Luckily I am escaping it all tomorrow and taking a train to San Sebastian with Cailin and Laurel ..we have 24 hours to learn both Basque and Catalan but we're not really worried...hopefully "where's the beach?" is a universal phrase!