{"id":874,"date":"2010-06-12T16:41:57","date_gmt":"2010-06-12T16:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=874"},"modified":"2017-10-18T15:44:40","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T13:44:40","slug":"une-ile-secrete-secret-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/une-ile-secrete-secret-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Une \u00eele secr\u00e8te: A secret island"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Serge Gainsbourg would have said, to choose Brussels over Tunisia, faut \u00eatre \u00e0 moitie fou\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(you have to be half-crazy). Mais m\u00eame si je le suis <\/em>(but even if I am), I had une bonne raison<\/em> to do it.\u00a0 Brussels, at just over 100 euros aller-retour<\/em><\/strong>(round-trip) on the Eurostar, is vachement<\/em><\/strong>* moins cher<\/em> (way cheaper) than flying to la Tunisie. <\/em>Which left a lot more money to play with for the rest of the year. Which meant\u2026 une \u00eele secr\u00e8te<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pour les \u00e9tudiants <\/em>(for students), May is a frantic time to r\u00e9viser pour ses examens<\/em><\/strong> (study for one\u2019s exams). You\u2019re meant to spend the revising period sucking up knowledge, memorizing legal code or philosophic traditions or architecture styles or whatever your mati\u00e8re principale<\/em><\/strong>(major, so to speak) is. In the middle of this, I jetted.<\/p>\n

My boyfriend and I took a fast train, literally, straight to the south of France. We saved up all semester, dreaming of la C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur<\/em><\/strong>and a certain little town on la c\u00f4te<\/em><\/strong> (the coast). I screwed up our hotel\u2014tr\u00e8s charmant<\/em>, it was nonetheless a 45-minute walk from la gare<\/em><\/strong> (the train station) and even further from la plage<\/em><\/strong>(the beach).<\/p>\n

It was raining when we arrived, so we slipped on cobblestones through narrow medieval streets till we came upon une place central<\/em>e (a town square), avec un caf\u00e9. Deux verres de ros\u00e9<\/strong><\/em> (two glasses of ros\u00e9), sheltered by the caf\u00e9, and the vacation was already worth it. Then le soleil<\/em><\/strong> blasted through les nuages<\/em><\/strong> (the clouds), and we ran uphill through sunshine-yellow canyons to the top of the town, un monast\u00e8re<\/em> (a monastery).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Le lendemain <\/em>(the next day), we took un ferry<\/em><\/strong>to the main attraction: l\u2019\u00eele secrete<\/em><\/strong>(the secret island). Cette ville est sp\u00e9ciale <\/em>(this town is special) because it has a nice town component, but more importantly, the most spectacular beach I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

The ferry was fun because there were only French tourists\u2014in mid-May, it wasn\u2019t quite tourist season, though the weather was hot and sunny, and the island was fleurie <\/em><\/strong>(in bloom). Off the ferry, one walks and walks, through fields edged with tournesols<\/em><\/strong> (sunflowers), and this is the view that opens before you:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

X<\/strong>** is a magical town, of ochre and ros\u00e9<\/em> and working-class beer joints d\u2019un c\u00f4t\u00e9 <\/em>(on one side- literally) and Windex-blue water on white sand de l\u2019autre <\/em>(on the other). La plage est isol\u00e9e<\/em> (isolated), avec tr\u00e8s peu de monde<\/em> (with very few people). \u00a0If you don\u2019t have plans yet for the summer, pensez \u00e0 des vacances en Provence\u00a0!<\/em> D\u00e9couvrez votre propre \u00eele secr\u00e8te<\/em>\u2014discover your own secret island. In the meantime, bon week-end!<\/em><\/p>\n

*Vachement<\/em><\/strong> = as big as une vache <\/em>(a cow)!<\/p>\n

**X <\/strong>= Je vous donne pas le nom, c\u2019est trop facile\u2011 <\/em>I\u2019m not giving you the name, that\u2019s too easy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

As Serge Gainsbourg would have said, to choose Brussels over Tunisia, faut \u00eatre \u00e0 moitie fou\u00a0(you have to be half-crazy). Mais m\u00eame si je le suis (but even if I am), I had une bonne raison to do it.\u00a0 Brussels, at just over 100 euros aller-retour(round-trip) on the Eurostar, is vachement* moins cher (way cheaper)…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-874","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t