ANNECY
I got up reasonable early on Saturday morning and caught a train from Marseille to Valance Ville where I then changed to go to Chambery. It took me from 0901 to 1410 to get there so it was quite a way. Chambery is in the mountains - The Alpes to be more specific. I was going to visit Alex for the weekend and see a different part of France. When I got off the train at Valance Ville it was about 10* colder than it had been in Marseille. When I got to Chambery it was freezing. Chambery, apparently, used to be the 'gateway to the Alpes' but now transport has improved - ie. there are train lines that go further into the Alpes, it isn't so much of a 'gateway'. On Saturday afternoon we went to Annecy which is a town just north of Chambery. It was beautiful albeit cold. There was a lake with the mountains in the background and it was old and small and very picturesque. Afterwards we went back to Chambery and I met Alex's flatmate - Breo - he is also an assistant but he's Spanish. It's good because it means they have to communicate all the time in French. We cooked a curry and ate together. We then went to meet some of the other people in Chambery - one other assistant - Megan, she's American. And 3 French people - Benoit, Eva and Jessy. Because it isn't just all English speaking people hanging out together it means that you have to speak French.
