Pamplemousse!
Yes, pamplemousse is a word. It is the French word for grapefruit. It is also quite possibly the most intrinsically funny word I have ever heard.
.... I other news, yes I was in France. (Sorry, mentalfirewall >__> !!)
No, really, I was gone. For a week. Hands up, who noticed? Anyhoo - having failed to take a camera with me in the hopes that it would spur me to draw some landscapes for a change - I have doodles rather than photos.
This is the view from our villa. Yay, mountains! In retrospect coloured pencil was not the best medium to work with and I should have done the background and the pool (allow me a moment to squeeeeeeeeeeee about the swimpool, I love swimpools #^_^#) in watercolour - but seriously, our villa was awesome. Also one of the bathrooms appeared to be made of pink marble, which was... just... funny. Heee.
Here's another view of the patio... pool... whatever. Now this one, I should have used the coloured pencil. But nooo... watercolour with pastel touches. Argh, why can't I draw straight lines??
...And a pencil (well, graphite stick... like pencil, only moreso) sketch of the villa itself, slighty improved by cheating and using a ruler for the straight lines, but I wish I'd had a bottle of dark ink to shade in areas of solid colour like the grass and shrubbery... you know... just make the bushes look less like clouds and more like green... *rambles* ahh, well. (One of the other holidayers did a lovely sketch from a similar viewpoint. Yes, I stole the view from her. But alas I do not have a scan to post for her sketch ¬______¬...)
We had nice cups. They were pretty. I hate landscapes.
Big stuffed bird on the wall[1]! It was awesome. No idea what it was. Hawk? Eagle? It was big... I hate landscapes.
We also went down into some nearby caves with lots of stalagmites/stalactites. There was chocolate-mousse rock and glass... bubble... things. So awesome. Some guy played music on one of stalactites because the hollow rock behind. Heee ^^. I actually really enjoyed it, but it was a guided tour so the half-minute sketches I made aren't even worth posting ;_; I'll see if I get sent any pictures from those who were smart enough to bring cameras...
Nekkid statue! I was bored, and sitting in Cannes in 35 degree heat. Peh. The traffic was bad. This took forty minutes, would you believe? People kept sitting in front of the statue-fountain thing, almost like it was public property or something and not placed there solely for me to hone my pencil on... (you may have noticed, the landscapes were pretty much non-existent by this point).
I maintain the rest of my time was well-spent swimming, eating, sketching card designs and reading Harry Potter 7 ^^ (thanks Dwarfy!)
... Aaand then re-reading all the bits with Snape in.
Several times.
Then I drew sketchy fanart, because I was trying to keep awake to ambush the mosquitoes[2]. Unfortunately I didn't recall very well what Alan Rickman looked like at the time...
And now to catalogue the amusing disasters without which no holiday would be complete:
1.) Cousin forgot their passport.
2.) Then, after having to get a later flight, she acquired a nasty burn on her hand (making a roast dinner for us lazy sods. I was cutting more vegetables than I usually see in a week, and yet ironically survived without injury.) I maintain that the oven patch[3] was hopelessly inadequate.
3.) The pink marble toilet (tm) exploded.
Let me reiterate; I was woken up at 1am by someone going to the bathroom. Sound of water flowing normally; all was well, I dozed off.
At 4.30am, I was woken again, and realized that in fact the water had been flowing for several hours. First thought; someone's passed out in the shower. Somewhat worried, I staggered out of bed and knocked on the bathroom door..
Shit, no answer.
They really have passed out in the shower...
Fearing it was locked, I shoved the door open with more force than necessary and stepped straight into an inch of gushing water --____--... ewwwwww! Pink marble toilet explosion (tm)! [4]
Thus from this holiday, I have learned (in theory) how to stop the water flowing into a toilet cistern ¬______¬... [5] Go me!
_______________________________
[1] For the record, I very much do not approve of killing birds to stuff them and put them on walls. But it still looked awesome.
[2] For those who care, final scores were:
Mosquitoes - 15
Bluegoo0 - 7... possibly 8, but I never found the final body ¬______¬...
Yes, the mosquitoes won, damn them. 15 is more bites than I have every had in my life before, or hope to have again... four on my *feet*, fer crying out loud! Walking was itchy. Oh, so very itchy... I hate you, mosquitoes.
[3] Isn't that right, Dwarfy ^_o?
[4] Let it be noted that the water was at least clean *twitches*.
[5] I have also learned not to play Cambridge english students in Scrabble. I, for one, had never heard of the bonus 50 points you get for using all seven letters in one go.
Dangnabbit, I would have won but for that! [shakes fist]