France Day 4 - Annecy/Menthon-Saint-Bernard

OK, so when I say Annecy, I'm really in Menthon-Saint-Bernard which is a small village about 10km outside of Annecy, in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region.  I actually have not learned classification and just copied this, but I better do so after this blog.  In case I did not introduce what on earth I am up to properly, I am doing a private French course and homestay.

I slept in a temporary room while another student was finishing up.  This is probably a kid's room, since there are toys and stuff in it.

Breakfast was pretty simple.  Bread, jams, cheese, yoghurt, and this morning saw tomatoes because the other student was German and liked tomatoes for breakfast.  I started my French class shortly after breakfast and it was hard.  I will not speak too much of class, but it is draining but everyday just having to speak French I feel myself getting better.

Lunch was delicious.  We started with melon and prosciutto, then a simple main dish (my teacher called it a plat familial, which I understood as a simple dish made at home for normal occasions) made with basmati rice, pan fried diced vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, etc.) and tomato sauce, and ended with ice cream and a biscuit.  Everything was delicious.  Like really delicious.

We went for a long walk after, almost 7 miles.  We started from her house in the village, walked down to the public beach, then along this path towards Annecy, turning back at some point but heading uphill.  We passed a lot of really cute houses.  I took photos of some, but if I took photos of all you would never see the end of it.  Here are some photos I took during our walk.

View of the lake with the Palace de Menthon hotel on the left.

At the beach.

Petanque competition.

Pretty flowers!

Pretty mailbox!

Château de Menthon-Saint-Bernard

Dinner was a special pasta made with mushrooms from this region, and (what I was told) a French omelette with spinach.  Simple but also really good.  So far food has been really good.  :-)  It was late, so I had no time to blog last night nor do my homework.  Sleep is good.