The journey: Year 1

I mentioned some posts back that I had something to blog about. I'm finally done choosing the necessary photos, so let's roll!

I wanted to document the places I've been during my stay in France...and that kind of post would be kinda "bland" without any photos, don't you think? ;)

So here are the places I discovered, with each town only being mentioned once, dated the first time I "discovered" it. (I'm breaking this down to seven posts, for the seven years I spent in France.)

September 2003: Angoulême


The town which became my home for two years. It might be small, but it's not that small...it's still the "head" of the department of Charente. And its bus service puts Malaysian towns to shame (yes, even KL).

October 2003: Bordeaux


We went to Bordeaux on a trip organised by Stéphane, our responsable (the person in charge of us in Angoulême). He got us an English-speaking tour guide, since we have just arrived and couldn't really understand "normal" French yet (only simple and very slow French :P ).

I can't remember much of Bordeaux... I wanted to visit it again later, but by then I was in Lyon and it was a little hard to get to Bordeaux (one's in the east and the other's in the west...)

October 2003: Tours


During our first one-week break, the whole lot of us from Angoulême went to Tours to visit the other half of our batch.

November 2003: La Rochelle


For Raya, the seniors in La Rochelle organised a gathering, which we as juniors duly attended :P I remember that it was very windy...and we did not get to really see La Rochelle's beauty until the second time we went there (for CNY), probably because the first time the weather wasn't so good (I can't really remember)

January 2004: Limoges


We went to Limoges to see Cécile, one of our French teachers. It's rather close to Angoulême. There wasn't that much to see...but well, it was fun ^_^

January 2004: St. Lary


Another trip organised for us, we were taken on a ski trip in the Pyrénées (and it was the first time we saw snow!)

February 2004: Rome, Florence, Pisa and Venice (Italy)

This was our first ever "overseas" trip, with we four girls from Angoulême (Mimi, Hidayah, Maisarah and myself) together with Firdaus.

the Coliseum in Rome

My memory of Rome is of it being rather dirty, though I can't be sure that that is true :P I didn't look at the map at all during this first trip, but followed the others around.

David in Florence

I can't remember much of Florence at all. I didn't like it very much...maybe because I can't appreciate the art (like David here).

the leaning tower of Pisa...well, you know what it is

As for Pisa...well, there's nothing much to see other than this :P

gondolas (and snow) in Venice

It snowed when we were in Venice...which I will remember probably forever, because everyone told us that we were very lucky to see that, because it doesn't snow often in Venice. But that also meant that it was very cold! :P

April 2004: Futuroscope (Poitiers)


Another organised trip! Futuroscope is a science theme park in Poitiers.

Recap:
Sept 2003: Angoulême
Oct 2003: Bordeaux
Oct 2003: Tours
Nov 2003: La Rochelle
Jan 2004: Limoges
Jan 2004: St. Lary
Feb 2004: Rome
Feb 2004: Florence
Feb 2004: Pisa
Feb 2004: Venice
April 2004: Futuroscope (Poitiers)

(In italics are the places that are not in France)

Be patient, the rest will come...slowly, maybe, but surely :P