First I should preface this by describing my job in France. I will be a teaching assistant to a variety of English teachers in French public schools. I do not yet know precisely which town/city or which age group I have been assigned (though it is probably either high school kids or college kids). I will likely work between 10 and 15 hours per week, not including traveling between schools (if necessary) or days when the transportation workers go on strike 'cause that's pretty much a "snow day" in American terms. The French school system has about 7 weeks off from classes between September and June. I will be working from October till about mid-April (I think) so I get all of the breaks the kids get.
My holidays are as follows (Zone B):
| Vacances de la Toussaint | samedi 25 octobre 2008 | jeudi 6 novembre 2008 |
| Vacances de Noël | samedi 20 décembre 2008 | lundi 5 janvier 2009 |
| Vacances d'hiver | samedi 21 février 2009 | lundi 9 mars 2009 |
| Vacances de printemps | samedi 18 avril 2009 | lundi 4 mai 2009 |
| Vacances d'été | jeudi 2 juillet 2009 | mercredi 2 septembre 2009 |
That's A LOT of time off and I get paid the same, moderate sum no matter how many days off the kids get. This leaves me with the great opportunity to see a lot of Europe so I've compiled a list, naturally, of places/groups of places I would like to go on my various vacations. As per usual, if any world travelers out there have any tips or ideas aside from what I have here I am all ears:
Toussaints (all saints, end of October):
This is a really long break by American standards and only a few weeks after I start my job, so I'll definitely use this time to get settled but I also want to go on a short trip, maybe 4 days or so. I initially thought I should go to Germany (Berlin and Nuremburg) and Prague during this time because it won't be too cold. Then I realized I don't really want to go to Germany, though I'm sure Prague is amazing. Now I'm thinking I'll spend a long weekend in Paris, then attend Taize Worship near Tours, and maybe even take the train to Bordeaux and go cycling through wine country. I'm a little concerned about cost though because Paris and Bordeaux are both quite expensive, so this one is still in the "maybe" category.
Christmas:
Leigh is planning to fly to Nice for Christmas and spend my two week vacation with me. We definitely want to just chill out near Nice for part of her trip, but I'm also planning for us to brave the cold weather and visit the BeNeLux countries, specifically Amsterdam, Maastritch (my family was named for this city), Brussels, and Luxembourg and then Paris for sure.
L'hivre (February):
I guess the French think that being in school for a month and a half following Christmas is just too taxing, so they take a nice long break from it. I have two different ideas for this break. The first is to stay in Nice mostly and take short trips to the Alpine region (Grenoble, Switzerland) to enjoy the snow and maybe even go skiing (assuming I can afford to??). Another idea, which would likely be a similar cost, is to visit Tunisia for about 7 days. Tunisia is a small country in Northeast Africa bordering Algeria. It is extremely safe and English and French is widely spoken. Theoretically, I could fly from Nice to Tunis, visit Carthage and a mediterranean beach town complete with tours and meals for about $550 for the whole thing. This idea is squarely in the "maybe" category and depends on a lot of factors, but I'm glad I heard about the idea because it sounds like it would be a once in a lifetime kind of trip.
Spring break:
This is the trip I absolutely must take. I'm planning to tour Italy by train. I'll either get a rail pass and do a loop going north to south on one side of the country then back to Nice on the other or save a little time and fly one way to a southern point and take the train back up. I'm not certain of my route yet, but I am thinking something like Naples, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Milan. I have a long break here and would like to leisurely (and hopefully inexpensively) make my way through Italy.
In addition to these long trips, Nice is ideally located for weekend trips to Grenoble, Paris and Toulouse (3-5 hours each by train) as well as day trips to Cannes and Monaco (each about 20 mins from Nice).
This is a lot of traveling on a very small stipend. How will I afford it, you ask? For the most part I am not sure that I can because when you travel there are many unforeseen expenses. The visa I am getting will allow me to work a second job, so that might help, and I can always offer private tutoring. There are also some great resources for traveling when you are under 26 in France and under 25 in the rest of Europe. For one I can get a Carte 12-25 and get crazy discounts on transportation and I'm planning to see about the couch surfing phenomenon. Of course, eating is always optional as long as there is wine!
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