Meet The Pau-rents

Wow so much has happened in the last 2 weeks!! I went to Ireland, and my parents came, so i guess i'll just start from the beginning.


When a man loves a woman very very much they... Maybe not that far back.


So my parents arrived on March 2nd and I got out of class about an hour early and went with Christine to pick them up from the aeroport. Immediately jumped into the arms of my loving parents and continued to get an overload of hugs and kisses from my mom every 5 minutes. The first day my parents arrived the weather in Pau was definitely not appealing, it was raining and cold and not the ideal conditions for convincing someone to move there. As the week went on the weather went from drab to fab. It was sunny and warm and just perfect.

Me and Christine at Carnivale 

The first night mom and dad came over and ate dinner at chez moi. My mom could barely keep her eyes open, while my dad was wide awake because he is like a kid in a candy shop when he's in France. The night ended and more hugs ensued. Thursday my parents went on a long walk/tour around Pau with Christine and Kitty and they explored my new favorite place in the world. Needless to say, they fell in love just as quickly as I did.  Thursday night was Ladies Night for Carnivale. Everyone went to this huge tent in Place Verdun decked out in as much pink as possible. The night started out by me overdoing it with pink and looking like a pink jelly bean.


There was lots of live music, and random line dancing that, after a couple glasses of free white wine sangria, me and my friends decided to partake in. As the night went on, my parents realized they were not 20 anymore and decided to go home. I stayed with all my friends until the wee hours of the night. Turns out in France, just because a bottle of wine is plastic does not mean it is cheap and bad. On the contrary, it was great. Where else can you just walk up to a bar, not get carded, and buy a plastic bottle of Jurancon? I guess anywhere in France, but thats not the point. 


As the night went on me and my group of USAC friends became tight with random french boys who continually risked their lives dancing on tables that clearly couldn't support their weight. I joined. I got home, and the next day was not my best. Thank god I only have 1 class on fridays. Immediately when I returned home I went out to lunch with my parents to a very gourmet restaurant. At this point the only thing that I wanted to eat was a double quarter pounder from McDonalds, NOT calamari soaked in its own ink. That being said, I left lunch early to eat something that wouldn't make my stomach hate me. Not long after lunch my parents, Christine, Kitty, and myself hopped into the car for an hour drive to the Musee Du Beret. (This day was filled with activities that were ideal for hangovers.. clearly). 

The Musee was awesome. We sat down and watched a video about the origin of the beret with french guys ranging from 10 to 85 years old, talking about how their beret is better and that if you wear it a certain way you're poor and if you wear it another way it means you're a member of the Bloods street gang. After the video we wandered around the 2 story, 950 sq ft museum and saw how the beret's were made via animatronic dummy's stolen 50 years ago from disney world's Epcott. Regardless, the museum was actually really cool and me and the rents ended up getting beret's that were made right in the south of France. We look like we're about to go perform with Donny Osmond. This is my limit for matching with my family members. Anyways, that night we went out to dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Au Gascon with Christine and Victor and had a wonderful time. I even managed to eat confit de canard (duck). I cried a little inside praying that my ducks that I hatched 7 years ago didn't manage to somehow fly across the ocean and get killed by french hunters and put on my plate. I slept great that night for obvious reasons.



The next day was saturday and we all took a trip to the mountains! We went to the Pic du Midi, which is the highest point of the Pyrenees. Before we went up the mountain we had a lovely lunch at the Station du Ski. My parents got this thing called a Raclette that basically is a giant piece of cheese with a heater on top of it, that melts the cheese so you can "rake" it off and put it on your plate. Awesome invention, I want one. Afterwards we took a gondola up to 9,500 ft that rocked back and forth so much that I thought I was going to be coming back to Chicago in a body cast. We got to the top, and froze our butts off. It was so much colder on the top! Good thing I was decked out in mismatching winter attire that had been collected over the years by my host mom. But on a serious note, this was one of the most amazing scenes i've ever seen. It was breathtaking. You could see for miles. Once I got over the fact that one wrong step and I was falling thousands of feet down the mountain, I took in the magnificence. 

View from the top

No big deal right?

Mom and I freaking out

We were so high up that I actually got a headache, it was wild. We stayed up there for a little over an hour and then made the trek back down on the gondola thing. We got back on the ground and ended our day with some crepes. It was a wonderful Saturday. 

On Sunday we did a 180 and went to Biarritz to take in the beauty of the ocean. This is why I love Pau. It is equidistant from the sea and the mountains! We walked around Biarritz for awhile, and went to a great seafood restaurant that took nearly an hour and a half to get our food at, but thankfully it was phenomenal. I had FRIED calamari, not taking the chance with ink, this time I asked the waiter to be sure. I followed it up with a plate of Ste Jacques (scallops) with spinach and the most amazing sauce i've ever had! After lunch I walked around my paradise in the beautiful sunshine and 60+ degree weather. Miraculously this time in Biarritz my favorite crepe place was open. Mari finally got her crepe. I can go home satisfied now. I waited 5 years to get my favorite crepe and it was just as I remembered. Perfection.

 

We ended the day with some macarons and sorbet and then returned to Pau. The next two days my parents looked at houses in Pau to buy. They found one that we all fell in love with, it's pretty expensive, so if you are reading this i'll be taking applications if you'd like to go in on this beautiful french farm with us. Credit scores will be reviewed. We went out to dinner for my parents last night in Pau. It was by far the best restaurant i've been to thus far. There were only 3 options on the menu, and we all got a different one, and they were all amazing. It was a great end to a great visit. Although I will see them in a month and a half, I am torn. Actually not really torn at all. All my homesickness is gone and I don't ever want to leave Pau/Europe. After my most recent trip to Ireland which i'll write about tomorrow, I have really come to realize how much i'm going to miss this place. I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE!! I'm going to have to be forced onto that plane. For now i'm not going to think about it, I have 40 days and i'm going to live them up. Thanks for reading this insanely long blog, I put lots of pictures in it incase you're like me and lose interest within 5 minutes and need a little pick me up with photos. 

A demain,

Mariel