Me in Marseille - the harbour and the basilica are in the background
The Harbour in Marseille
Fishmarket in Marseille
View of Marseille from Palais de Pharo
Chateau d’If - prison, from the book The Count of Monte Cristo
Frioul Islands, outside Marseille
Ile d’If
Me on Ile d’If
Rue in Marseille
Monday, January 28, 2008
Salut,
It’s already the end of January. I’ve been back in France for 3 weeks, and it seems to have flown by.
I returned on Jan 8th, and immediately started in hospital the following day in ENT (Otorhinolaryngology or EarsNoseThroat). It was a great placement. I met some great French students, got to examine loads of Ears, noses and throats and saw interesting surgery. It was however, brief, 1 week, so I quickly departed my new friends at the end of my first week.
I went skiing at Les Deux Alps that weekend with some friends from medicine and my residence. On the Saturday, it snowed the whole day and whilst we were skiing. It was poor visibility and difficult skiing, but really fun. Most of the time I was knee-deep in snow, and at one point I was even up to my hips, which I have never done before. I did however lose a ski at one point when I fell on a turn. I spend a good 15 minutes digging all around in the snow looking for my stupid ski. Luckily I found it, but I was worried I’d be stuck walking down the mountain that day! The next day, it was beautiful and sunny, but after the exhausting day previously, my thighs were killing me and I took it easy. We spent a good 2 hours lounging around in the lawn chairs they set out in the sun with a chocolat-chaud.
The following past 2 weeks I’ve been in Rheumatology. I honestly expected another boring placement – thinking back to my musculoskeletal unit in 1st year – where we studied complex pathways of Rheumatoid Arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis. But I’ve been surprisingly interested in the whole area of medicine. I’m also in a great firm, the doctors are excellent teachers, the students are very considerate and understanding too. They’re very encouraging and let me do loads of work in the Ward. I’m also lucky that one of the French students did an exchange to Bristol (and loved it) and one of the doctors is Australian, who is amazing at French, but will quickly explain in English if I don’t understand. He is also teaching the French students/doctors a bit of English by putting up English expressions and translating them. Eg – Let’s take this outside … it’s helping my French too. I’m going to be starting my last week there and I’m actually pretty sad to leave next week as it has suited me so well. It’s okay though because all of the French students will be changing placements too, so it won’t stay the same anyway. We all went out for dinner last Wednesday to celebrate our time together – I had Raviole, which the French Students claimed was different from Ravioli, and I had to try it. It was basically Ravioli – but was cooked in cream, and was cheese filled. I had Raviole with Mushrooms and it was absolutely amazing!
Last weekend I went to Marseille for the day with two friend from my residence. It was a bit of a trek to the south coast of France, especially when our train broke down. It was funny though –we left Grenoble at 06:30 and were supposed to change at Valence and arrive in Marseille at 10:45. We were 3 hours late getting into Valence, but they put us on a TGV and we got into Marseille at 10:20. So, even though our 1st train broke down, we made it to Marseille early!
Marseille was awesome. I’ve never seen the Mediterranean before, and it was stunning. I did notice that Marseille was much dirtier; garbage in the streets and weird smells, the buildings were a bit more run down. But down by the water, it was gorgeous. We mostly just walked around and saw sights. The harbour, the city hall, the old fort, the Jardin de Pharo. We also took a boat tour out onto the Mediterranean (I mean, how many chances do you get to go out into the Mediterranean when you don’t live there!). We went out to Chateau d’If. It was made famous by the book ‘The Count of Monte Cristo.’ We walked around the Island for over and hour and went in and saw the prison. It certainly was a prison, but much nicer than I would have expected. Meaning big rooms with fireplaces – but no toilets or view of the ocean. I wouldn’t have liked it – is what I’m saying.
Anyway, we stayed in Marseille until it got dark. Took some pictures of Marseille and night and viewed the city from the Palais de Pharo. We headed back to Grenoble at 8:00pm.
The next day, 4 more medical students came from Bristol. I showed them around Grenoble and have spend most of the week helping them get settled. We’ve also cooked together (as 3 are in my res.) and 3 of us went skiing at Les Deux Alps Saturday. Yesterday we went and hiked up to La Bastille. The old fort that looks over and once protected Grenoble. It was a beautiful hike, and one the the girls made us an awesome picnic complete with olives, French cheese and French bread. So good!
Back to Rheumatology for my last week before starting Cardiology. 5 weeks left!
Hope all is well,
-Peter
Me and Michael in one of the Telecabines at Les Deux Alps - i’m wearing my *new* ski helmet
A Long Flat piste (ski run) at Les Deux Alps
Lounging in the Lawn Chairs during lunch (not the most flattering pic)
Barrels, taken in the caves of our Chartreuse distillery tour
La Bastille - we walked the 2.3km to the top on Sunday
Grenoble at Dusk
