Please VOTE FOR MY BLOG!

I got a nice surpise message on my blog the other day, when I was informed that someone had nominated my blog for the iX13 (International eXchange and eXperience blog competition)! Merci mille fois to whoever that was, it really means a lot to know that someone appreciates what I write here, and that my 'memoirs' are serving as more than just a way of documenting my experiences for my own personal future benefit.

So now comes the part when I ask you all to PLEASE VOTE FOR ME! Voting's open until February 17th, and you can do so by visiting http://www.lexiophiles.com/english/vote-for-your-favorite-ix13-blog. The list of blogs is in alphabetical order, so you'll find mine in the M section, obviously :P Thank you so so much to anybody that votes for mine! 

While I'm writing a new post, I may as well tell you what I've been up to the past week. The main event was going to Poitiers for the day on Friday with Mike. This was the 4th main time I've been to Poitiers, and it was the 4th timed it rained whilst I was there. Needless to say, my impressions of Poitiers aren't the greatest. Nevertheless, we managed to have an enjoyable day, despite the weather and despite having to wake up at 6:30am in order to meet our CoVoiturage chauffeur so as to make transport a lot easier and cheaper. We decided to be touristy, and went inside the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre, the Notre-Dame la Grande Church, and the Palais de Justice where it took over 5 minutes at the security in the entrance after we were asked to open every single bag-in-a-bag we had, and where at one point I thought I was going to end up naked the way they were going, asking me to remove item of clothing after item of clothing to see what the guilty metallic object was that was setting off the doodah. The rest of the day was spent shopping, eating, café-ing, getting wetter and wetter, and eventually meeting up with Bethan and a friend of Mike's.

The beautiful painted interior of the Cathédrale

What else.... oh yeah, it was finally sunny this weekend! It was so gorgeous in fact that I ended up going for 2 walks on Sunday and discovering that Melle is actually bigger than I thought it was so that to my surprise I ended up getting lost.

Layer of ice on a crisp sunny morning in Melle

Eglise Saint-Pierre, Melle

The pretty woodland area at the bottom of my road

I also got a shock yesterday when I walked out of my flat to find 3 chickens by the door. I knew from then on it was going to be a good day!

My Sunday morning surprise. Bonjour Messieurs les Poules!

More exciting news - this evening I have booked a hotel for Mike, Sonia, Bethan and myself to stay in in Bordeaux at the weekend. It's been on my to-go list for ages, so I'm really looking forward to that....although I've just checked the weather forecast and rain's due the whole time we're there.