Wednesday, April 15, 2015

France: The country, the beach

To be honest with you, I have no idea where we went today. I got in the car and was happy for a long time. The weather was warm again (at least 81 degrees F, as it is right now). The sun was shining and the ocean was blue. Blueish/green. It was "colors" as I said outloud, as opposed to Californian water which is brown.

First, I should tell the story of the train ride here from Paris. I had taken one train in France before. It was New Year Day 1995 and I was playing Trombone with the Foothill High School Marching band. We were attempting to play the longest distance, non stop, of any Marching Band thusfar. So, we hopped on a train in Paris and played all the way to England via the "channel tunnel" which had only just opened in 1994. So, it'd been 20 years since I'd been on a train in France and it all came back to me when we passed our first farm with those beautiful white and black cows. Unfortunately, I was fighting off a cough/cold. It was early days and I didn't feel like eating or staying awake. Even more unfortunately, we had seats that were facing backwards, which my brain/stomach just couldn't handle. 3 seconds into the train ride, I knew I was in trouble and closed my eyes, but 2 minutes later, I knew I couldn't stay there. So, I took 1/4 of a travel calm pill (calms the stomach and makes you drowsy) and went to the nearest vestibule to find a seat facing forwards. In the vestibule was a german shephard (mixed, maybe) with a soft muzzle on. He was laying down and lifted his head to look at me, saw that I was ok and put his head back down. For the next 20 minutes, I tried to get comfortable being on this super fast train. The view out the window was beautiful and I felt 100% ok facing forward, so I went back to my seat and tried again. NOPE. Not 5 minutes later, I had to give up the backwards facing seat and took another 1/4 of the pill. I went back to my forward facing seat in the vestibule to find the dog, unmuzzled. He barked once. I was not afraid at all because he was just saying hi. His owner was there; a man wearing camo, a baret with a star on it and very in charge of the dog. I sat there with them for the next hour and half. We didn't speak, but we acknowledge one another possitively and that was good enough for me. The 1/2 a pill kicked in good and I was drowsy but awake enough to enjoy the ride in a sleepy haze. We had to switch trains to one which had no assigned seating. Luckily, we found forward facing seats and I could 1/2 snooze for a bit. Before I knew it, we were there! Here!




My cold has since gotten a lot better, but I'm afraid that because of the warm weather, I'm having alergic reactions to the pollen/grasses/blooming flowers. I don't mind that at all. My nose is stuffy, my cough is minor and my head is 100% clear, which is GREAT. I'll happily put up with a stuffy nose if I can think clearly.

So, yesterday's post contained pictures only of what I saw. I'd give you more words/explanations around it, but I don't have the foggiest idea of where we were really. And today is much the same. The great news about that, is that it doesn't matter at all. I've had a great time. 

Here are some pictures from my walk this morning.






Here are some pictures from when we went to the sea/beach.




That's my footprint having nearly stepped on a jellyfish.