Feeling the Christmas spirit in France

Yesterday was the first Saturday in a long time that I haven't stayed in my room all day studying - and it felt so good to be out again. Okay, I'm making it sound like I've been imprisoned in my room for 3 months. It's not that bad, honest. It just felt good giving myself a break away from the stress of university work and to enjoy the south of France once again! On a bitterly cold (but sunny) Saturday afternoon, my friends and I decided to check out Noël à Nice - the Christmas market. This was not procrastination, by the way.

And so we arrive: Nice by day.

I've never seen Nice so busy before: it was heaving with people! My friend and I decided to have a quick look at the market stalls, while we waited for our friend (who had an exam) to come and join us. We kept to a policy of "just looking, not buying" until our friend came - but it was so hard. Everywhere I looked I saw something adorable. Hand-decorated mosaic mirrors, jewellery of all kinds, homemade gingerbread and even different flavours of tea! How I resisted buying the chocolate orange tea, I'll never know.

Preeeetty.

Our main plan was to go ice-skating on the outdoor rink, but time just flew as we were being dazzled by little Christmas goodies. About an hour later, our friend had arrived in Nice so we left the market for a brief moment to meet her near the train station. It was time to do some shopping. On our way back to the market, it had already gotten dark. You know what that means... Christmas lights!

Nice by night.

Lovely Christmas decorations!

Trying to be sensible, I only brought a little bit of cash out with me, otherwise I would have bought everything in sight. The great thing about market stalls is that you can "haggle" you way to a good deal and our precious student Euros can go a long way. We saw a crowd of people so, like people do, we went to have a look. A man, a very talented man, was making clay pots - a different one each time - and giving them to people.

My pot in the making.

My best part of the evening was getting a free clay pot. The worst part was trying to get a freshly-made clay pot home without someone bumping into me. Guess what? Someone bumped into me. Luckily, it had already started drying so there wasn't too much damage done. From that point on, I held on to it for dear life. Well, as much as I could with two shivering hands. With that said, I nearly dropping it on the train ride home when trying to save my friend's pot from falling... But it survived:

"Mum, I made this for you!"

The pot looks quite big in the photo above, but it's actually smaller than my hand. I might paint it... but then I don't want to ruin it, especially after all the trauma it went through just to stay in one piece! I'm not sure how it's going to be transported home safely, but if it can survive being knocked over twice, I'm sure it can survive a 2-hour plane journey.

And so to my best photo of the night:

I want this in my house. Now.

I am definitely in the Christmas mood now. We plan to return to the market, with more friends and slightly more money, and ice-skate! And maybe get another pot:

"Could I have another, I mean, a beautiful clay pot? Oh no, you've never seen me before Monsieur."

These next two weeks are going to be hectic for me. 5 final exams, 2 assignments and 1 presentation later, I shall be packing up my room, saying my goodbyes and catching a flight home. Oh gosh, the packing - *sad face*

"The important thing is to firmly fix our gaze on our own weaknesses, not run away from them, but to battle them head-on and establish a solid self that nothing can sway" - Daisaku Ikeda