So David and I left Modane, the train station where Dario dropped us off, with all of our ten pieces of luggage. I wish I would have asked someone to take a picture of us at some point during one of our baggage-laden voyages, but to be honest we were always so concentrated on getting where we were going (as that took a lot of effort) that the opportunity never arose. Besides, I probably couldn't have found the camera anyway given that I most literally had ten bags to choose from. In case I haven't listed them all before, I am going to list them now so that even those of you who have not weaseled your way through public transportation can appreciate our skill: two enormous suitcases, David's being even larger and heavier than mine, two duffel bags, a comforter, a Carrefour shopping bag of foodsstuffs, a Carrefour bag with our towels, sheets and a blanket (these are industrial reusable shopping bags by the way), my tote bag, David's backpack, and my purse. Phew. We are literally superheros. So anyway, we were very excited because this was the last time we would ever have to move all this stuff, because a lot of it won't be traveling with us after this semester (food, towels, my plant - yes I transported my little plant from Le Havre to Turin to Chambéry and it is still alive and flowering, the little beast) so we will be a little less burdened.
We arrived only 3 minutes late, and the owner of our apartment was waiting with a little sign for "Ellen" so we had no problem finding him and he even drove a truck so he was able to bring us and all of our luggage to our new apartment. Also I saw a sign for a Le Clerc (a grocery store) when we were leaving the gare so I asked him about it and he made a comment about it being close-by because he had just purchased some stuff for the apartment for us. I was super glad to hear that because David and I still needed to find a grocery store that night in order to buy some food for dinner and breakfast the next morning, ans since we had arrived at 5:45pm, I knew we only had a few hours before everything would be closed. So as he drove us to our new home which was only a couple minutes from the train station we paid attention so that we would be able to trace our way back.
Arrival into the apartment was really exciting, starting with the fact that he said to go to the French 5th floor (our 6th floor) when we got in the door. I have always liked being on the upper floors of a building. Then once we were out on the 5th floor, the top floor with elevator access, he told us to go to the 6th floor to get to our apartment - the very top floor! And PS I have counted the stairs and there are 140 of them from ground to us, so we are really nice and high up. Then he showed us the apartment which is really cute and quaint with quite a lot of space. We have a living/bedroom/study area, a small entryway area, a bathroom, and a kitchen/dining area. And the kitchen is awesome! Especially in comparison to what I had in Le Havre. I am sorry that I still haven't taken pictures, David and I will try to take care of that tomorrow since neither of us have school (well I might, but I don't know anything about it yet, haha). But anyway, the kitchen is great and we were provided with loads of dishes and cookware, so it was quite exciting. But the best is yet to come. Then he showed us that we had an extra walk-out balcony which is on the roof of the complex, and it literally is across the street from the château of Chambéry, which was lit up since it was already dark. It was breathtaking and it is all ours because no one else has balconies there, just us!! Here are two pictures, but they are both during the day because the night ones stink... I am still trying to find a camera setting that works.
Here is the main part of the château, without either of its towers. In fact, we are so close to the château that it is impossible to take a picture with the whole thing in it. I also really like the mountains in the background, though they are a little muted in the picture and are actually more visible normally.
This is the château as sunset begins (therefore I probably took this picture at 4:45, haha) and you can see one of its towers. I'll also make sure to take some pictures once the trees have their leaves.
Immediately after Monsieur Piard (the owner) left we took off to find some food. Key element of the story: there was no "included wifi internet" as stated in our contract, so we set out only knowing that there was a Le Clerc by the train station. Well, we remembered wrong, so this is where our night got really exciting. We literally walked so long in the wrong direction that we left the town (bear in mind that this only took about 25 minutes because the city only has about 50-60,000 people in it) so then we turned back, had to go back to square one, and then we went the other direction. It was about 7:45 by the time we found the gare, and we thought for sure that we must have been close to the Le Clerc (and we had passed no other supermarkets at this point, so Le Clerc was our only hope). There was an advertisement for "the first on the left" so we followed the road for about 5-10 minutes and didn't see it, so we turned around and came back to the gare. Once there I went in to ask for directions because I knew that it was about 8:15 and stores would be closing soon. The guy at the coffee shop told me that the Le Clerc was actually about 2-3 kilometers away and that I couldn't walk there (turns out he was wrong as we would find out later) but that meant that David and I had to abandon our plan for the night and start scowering the other parts of the darned city for a supermarket. We didn't find one. I even asked a hotel manager at 8:25 in a last desperate attempt where the nearest supermarket was and he told us that it would be probably be closed but that there was a Monoprix by the FNAC. Luckily I had seen the FNAC so David and I went there hurriedly to find this Monoprix... which didn't exist. So finally we gave up and returned home empty-handed after about two and a half hours of walking. I was in an incredibly bad mood because there is no reason that new exchange students arriving in a new place should have so little information. And I was mad because we were supposed to not only have internet but FREE internet, which now we have to pay a ton for. (I am trying to work on that problem currently). On the bright side, since we got back home exhausted and famished, at least we had carted around the remnants of my Le Havre food with us all around Europe because we did have "food". Mommy, you will be proud to know that our first meal here was Cream of Wheat and we loved it. (=
However, because I was so worried about not having groceries in the house David and I woke up early the next day so that we could track down and find this elusive Le Clerc, which we did. It is about a 20 minute walk from our apartment, though that is not 100% confirmed yet because in each our 8ish times going there we have gotten lost by some minor turn or, I guess, some major turn, and therefore we have no exact time estimate of how long it takes to walk. We can take the bus though, which we often do for the return when we have lots of heavy groceries.
The other thing we did during Day Two was cleaning. Cleaning cleaning cleaning. Even though we had just moved into the place, the people who lived there before us clearly did not have the same standard of cleanliness as the two of us, and I was afraid to cook in the kitchen or use anything provided in the kitchen to prepare our food. And let's not even talk about the bathroom; I still don't thoroughly enjoy my showers because I know how dirty it was before we cleaned it, and the drain doesn't drain well... I will spare you all the details but I can definitively say that our elbows will never be greasy again because we expelled all of our lifetime supply degreasing and scrubbing every surface of the apartment. But that was totally worth it because we absolutely love it here.
First of all, we have the most amazing view that I have ever had in my entire life. I'll admit, the lake with a bald eagle in the tree, and a mountain backdrop is a serious competitor, possibly even the winner, but there is nothing like looking out over a regal château with beautiful mountains in the background from your private roof-top porch. So cool. And so exotic, in a non-tropical way. Also, we are only a 9-10 minute walk from the campus (though you probably have to climb the equivalent of 7 stories of stairs to get there because it is all uphill) and we are a 5 minute walk from the historic downtown which is thriving with shops and life.
Well, I think that pretty much sums up David and I's arrival here in Chambéry, filled with excitement and stresses, but now that that is over, David and I are settled in and very happy, so I'll leave it at that.
Oh, one last thing actually. That Monoprix that the hotel clerk told us about, well I asked a clerk at FNAC the next day about it and he informed me that the store wasn't open yet. That's right, the hotel guy sent me to a supermarket-in-progress. I guess it's a good thing we didn't find it because that would have been even more frustrating.
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