Some interesting shop I found in Clermont-Ferrand!

Miss Boll, an chest platform artist. Her shop is behind the black cathedral.  She collects old chest platform and chest and repaint it. The price of her creations is not higher than my imagination. A beautiful moody box is around 15-25 euros. I really want to buy one! But I can't bring too many stuffs when travelling. pity... Miss Boll is talkative. She answers every question. If your french is not good, don't worry! She can speak English  :)

Bubble Break, a bubble tea shop which surprises me at first sight. Bubble tea is from Taiwan. Seeing this, not just Asus, Acer these technology product makes me feel more like home. I' m happy to see that it has many customers. I waited aside and took this picture with less customers. The bubble tea tastes great! But I still miss the tea shops in Taiwan.  In Taiwan, we can adjust the ice, the sweetness as you like. I don't like too sweet drinks. But the one, Mocha bubble tea, I ordered there is really good! Not too sweet, not too hot. If you never drink this, go try it! You'll love it or get a different experience toward drinks! You won't lose anything.

Ps. Bubble tea is milk tea with tapioca balls, original one is like this. If you think tapioca balls are strange to chew with tea, there are many good tea from Taiwan. Take a look of eco-cha. Even Google office can find Taiwanese tea :) The tea is from small tea farmers in Taiwan. It's handmade. With less hard to environment and wonderful taste, how can you miss it?
Recently, I heard some good news about the wines made in Taiwan. They win some international prize, red wine winning the International Wine Challenge etc. Why I'm abroad now... one is Kavalan Whisky, the other is red wine.This red wine doesn't have enough amount to sell now. Now, we only can book it and wait. I only find the Chinese information and the English news. So, sorry. When I go to Taiwan, I will tell you the taste. haha It takes time but I'll definitely get one!

Eco-Cha: http://eco-cha.com/#
Kavalan Whisky: http://www.kavalanwhisky.com/en/
2015 wines of the world: http://www.digitalnewsroom.co.uk/iwc/2015-wines-of-the-world/

Depot-vente. If you see this word showing in the shop and want to find new owners for your clothes, give it a try in that shop. It's a second-hand clothes shop with nice look shop appearance. You can put your clothes there and wait for its new owners. After some days, go back to the shop and get the money and the clothes which don't sell out.

Buibui is my favorite Asian shop in Clermont-ferrand. It's clean and organised. You can find the products from Taiwan, Korea, Japan and south-east Asia. In Taiwan, we eat Nougats, too. Frankly, I always think nougats are traditional snack in Taiwan. But  I also see them a lot in France... My another different culture shock. The Taiwanese  nougats selling in Buibui is not the best but acceptable. The most common nougats flavor is with peanuts. In France, it's almond.

Weilih Zhahiangmien in Taiwan look like this
You can have noodles and a soup by this
維力, weilih, is the brand's name

instant snake noodles
 with the sympol cartoon girl face

Weilih Zhahiangmian is my favorite instant noodles. If you want to try something new, give it a try. Normally, when we don't have time to cook and we don't want to eat out, we eat instant noodles. In my family, we also add other food in instant noodles such as vegetable, eggs and some meats. haha we're picky toward what we eat. It can't be just noodles with flavors. When we eat Weilih instant noodles, the Zhahiangmian one, we add slice of cucumber and fried egg. You can find Zhahiangmien in Japan and Korea,too. There are differences between us. The taiwanese and japanese flavor is alike according the information I find on the internet. The korean one has different accompanied food. There, you can also find one snack we like, the instant snack noodles, the one with cute cartoon girl face on. It inspires from instant noodles. But it's like salty cookies. It's crisp. Don't add hot water in it. Just eat them like cookies.

I found a video about Taiwanese snack on youtube. It's interesting and real. Make me want to go back to Taiwan and get all.  Take a look!

Walk around in Clermont-fd. And find many interesting things. Maybe it's life.

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Flickr photo album: Iron Blue

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Hey! Puy de Dome!

Hello! Puy de Dome! People tells me I must go Puy de Dome since I stay in Clermont-fd. So, in my last week in Clermont-fd, I went to the tourist center and asked for more information. It's really easy to get there by bus! In my last day in Clermont-fd, I went there. When I arrived in bus stop, there were already 3 persons. There, I knew M, an Iran artist.

Honestly, I know it isn't cool, I've some fear toward Islamic country because of the stereotype about female right. Female needs to wear burka or  people may think her easy and female tends to be conventional. But M breaks my negative stereotype. She doesn't wear burka. We talked a lot from when climbing up the hill. In Iran, boys and girls are in different class except university. In Taiwan, boys and girls are in same class. And I saw some M's creations, saw her taking photos, filming the video. She also likes film camera! When I travel alone, I'm seldom alone. Nice to share a piece of life with travelers passing by.

Puy de Dome is famous for the volcano geography. When we climbed up, it was just like climbing up a ' normal' hill. We were around beautiful plants and heard the birds singing.  On the top of the hill, we saw the volcano geography covered by green plants. It's beautiful! In Taiwan, there are volcano geography. I only saw few of them. pity..... Puy de dome is also a good place to try parachute. But I only sat on the grass and saw people doing that. One day, I'll try it!  In the afternoon, it rained and even hailed. I was glad that I brought an umbrella with me. I saw the passerby's ' it hurts!' face. I started to feel how lucky I was that I lived in a raining-a-lot-in-winter city for 4 years and have habit to bring umbrella with me.

Is hailing normal in France?

In the end, share the video of the birds singing after raining. Good days!

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Hi! Arles and Avignon!

The motivation to go to Avignon was for visiting a friend. Honestly, I didn't care what I can see in Avignon. When I walked out the train station and saw the wall around Avignon, the first thought coming out my mind is that Avignon is yellow, Clermont-fd is black if every city has a symbolic color. The wall around Avignon is yellow. The old buildings such as cathedral in Clermont-fd are black.

Walked on the road in front of train station and  found the Palais de Pape. The building is really gorgeous. But I didn't see many stuffs.Nothing showed in the treasure room but big space. It was cold inside the house.  Nevertheless, the instrument for the popes is quite in detail. The reduced ticket price is  9 euros. Full price is about 11 euros.

Then I went to the Pont d'Avignon. It was raining when I came there. Anyway, seeing a group of students dancing on bridge was good, too. Their happiness made me feel the rain was nothing for trip. The bridge is simple. But the story for the bridge is good. The bridge is built by Saint Bénezet for helping the residents.

Seeing old friends in Avignon. Sharing life in France with her. Knowing new friends. Breaking the Taiwanese stereotype again. I've met some people thinking I'm like an European,  people from USA etc. Well... I've about 23 years experience to be a Taiwanese. I don't need people to tell me what is a Taiwanese truly and I don't have strength to force myself to fit the stereotype. I once met a boy who has a thought that Taiwanese girls are easy. Well... easy people finds each other easily. They take advantage of each other. Why only women get the negative feedback?

Arles, another comfortable village in France. There are roman heritages such as arena. I've seen Arena in Nimes. Therefore, I only went to thermal, found each room has different temperature and the way of heating the room is out of my imagination, using the think wall and air to heat the water. It's interesting! In Arles, there is a kind of kid dress. I almost bought this dress for my future niece when seeing it! It was so cute!  I'm pretty sure that I would spend much money if I've niece. Luckily, in 3 years, I won't have any niece. right? my sister haha

I went to the market, saw something to eat, something to wear. In Taiwan, there is night market. I felt the market between in Taiwan and in France is similar. The most difference is the time. One is in day time. The other is at night. Of cause, the content would be different. Generally, it'a always about something to eat, something to wear, something for life. I saw someone selling snake wine. It was claimed good for diabetics. well... I've seen this kind of things once in Taiwan when I was little. Now, I grew up. Still feel it weird.

There, I met a retired nurse from Marseille, living in retired house. We talked about life, her sons, etc. Out of curiosity, I asked her using soap of Marseille or not. And she said the soap of Marseille is for tourists. Those soaps even produce in other place. We share a sweet bread together. This type of bread is commoner in Taiwan. Bread is not staple food in Taiwan. So, the most bread in Taiwan is more like a desert, not like baguette this type of bread. And cheese is not so important in Taiwan like in France. But there are a lot of carrefour, amart, 24hrs convenient stores in Taiwan. It's easy to buy cheese. As for quality, I don't know. I'm not professional about cheese. But carrefour is french company. So, I've seen some french brand there.

Nice to meet you my future friends!

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