some photos!

The beaches in Le Tréport and Mers-les-Bains are all cobble stone beaches. They're a bit of a pain to walk on, but the weather has been so incredible since I arrived, and I've so far put my feet in the water three times. Tomorrow I plan to go to Le Tréport for a brocante/vide grenier (multi-family yard sale, literally 'empty (the) attic'), then go swimming for a while. The English Channel isn't as cold as the Pacific Ocean, but it's no Gulf of Mexico, either.


The view to the east at Mers-les-Bains. Clémence told me that there's a hike that starts in Mers and goes up to the top of the cliff (la falaise), then along it for a ways. Last weekend she took me to the top of the cliff that's to the west and we hiked all the way to the next town over. I collected some feathers, but didn't have any photo-capturing technology with me at the time.


Voila! What 4€ can buy you if you're willing to hunt for it! Ponce, you're off the hook insofar as the procuring a new coffee making device for me goes. I found this (1-cup) gem at a Magasin de Troc, which is another type of French thrift store. It was unopened, in its original packaging, and it works like a charm. So far I've had 4 individual cups of delicious joy.


Um. This is the living room of my apartment. It's new, and everybody swears up and down that it's much, much better than the old ones. Apparently, the whole school was torn down and rebuilt in the past few years. The construction wasn't very thoroughly thought through, on account of the fact that there was an upcoming election, and all government-sponsored construction projects had to be finished by a certain date. The door is open because, in general, there's no central air system in French buildings. That means, mostly, that the only way that any air circulates is if you open all the doors and windows and let nature run its course (ie. it's super cold in the winter, but you kinda have to open the windows, or breathe stale air).


Last but not least, the local fromage! It's called Neuchâtel L'Évêque, but it's nothing like the "neufchatel" that we Americans know as "the cheese next to the cream cheese that claims to have 1/3 less fat than regular cream cheese." It's a salty and sharp cheese made from cow's milk, a lot more dry than cream cheese. It's almost always sold in the form of a heart, though I haven't gotten a straight answer out of anyone as to why...