the gonzo: Christmas and New Years

That's meli's dad and sister in the attic of her grandparent's place outside Annecy. Those are her dad's paintings.

The young guy throwing the rooster into the air is Meli's cousin. He plays the drums super loud, and teases the hell out of that rooster.

The man with the shaggy hair and untrustworthy eyes is Baptiste. The picture of everyone on the street is most of the gang from New Year's outside his apartment in Annecy.
There is a pic of me in the hallway talking to Damien's girlfriend, and as you can see, she is straining to understand my French post-unknown number of drinks.
The two lovely ladies were from Aix-les-Bains, a neighboring town, and I was completely charmed by their style.

The photo at night of the old building in the canal was the prison way back in the day, in Annecy. We would go out on a walk and stopped at this bar nearby called the Captain's Pub.

There are a bunch of swans that chill in the canals, and the weather was really cold.

That would be Josh casting a devlish eye through the smoke, an assistant in Cluses (who, believe it or not, went to UGA and is from Columbus!). He told me Cluses is famous for making some kind of processed metal-like stuff from the earth, and for its watch museum. That would also be Marilyn Monroe, and me in the background.

That would be me, lying across a few people's laps.

That would be me and Josh in Baptiste's doorway, obstructing the flow of traffic during the New Year's Eve party. The man smushing my face is Marco, from Paris, and that's Damien looking down at us.

The bar scene, overhead shot, is at a bar near the university where most of these fellows pursue their serious sides. The barman had a mullet and wore one glove. I asked Josh for the reason as to why this man would wear only one glove, and Josh said, "because he's a badass." The bar was pretty much empty except for us, as we started drinking that afternoon at 3PM and continuted for the next 4 hours. There was old seafaring memoriabilia adorning the walls, and I came to learn that this barman was an ex-French sailor. Argh!

This one old guy came into the bar, wearing an old baseball hat and backpack, and said it was up to us to continue the fight the students started back in '68.

That's me and Damien, looking really serious, but I think I'm in the process of explaining why the Second Ammendment exists in the USA. Wow, I guess that is serious.

That's me and Andrea. I'm more for #1 than #2. That night scene with the bus is outside Bap's apartment.

That would be me on Lac d'Annecy.

That's a bridge in Annecy, and that's Josh, Amanda, and I looking really serious.

That's Melissande playing the piano at her grandparent's house. She is a rockin' piano player, playing lots of Beethoven. We drank some coffee and ate these delicious cookies from Morocco with her grandparents. You can see all of us, including her older sister Geraldine, at the fireplace there.

The dinner scene is New year's Eve night, in which meli cooked up some tartiflette for all of us before setting out to Baptiste's for the party. Tartiflette is this meal that's very traditional in these parts. It's basically potatoes, this special ham cut into small pieces, and cheese, baked in the oven. It's awesome.

OK, now we're heading off from Thonon and going to Arles, for the Christmas break with Mel's family. That's a train station

in Valence.

There's Antoine and Anne at Mel's grandmomma's house in Nimes.

That's me demonstrating how thick the walls are at her house in downtown Nimes. It's a really really old house, built in the late 1700s (correct me if I'm wrong Mel!).

The larger man at the end of the table there is Pascal, one of Mel's uncles. This guy! Here's the story from Julien, one of Mel's cousin's and the brother of the young guy talking to Mel in the picture.

Pascal once raced across the Sahara desert, and took one of his nephews out for a walk on the farm. He grabbed a lamb and said "You know, we named this lamb after your mother" [his sister-in-law]. He then proceeded to slay the lamb with his pocketknife, removing the stomach and inflating it with his mouth, blood dripping down his beard. He has 6 girlfriends, all who compete for his love.

That's me, Nicolas, Julien, Mel and Emily in Nimes.

Me and Fran on the farm in the Carmargue delta, and Mel valiently fighting his way through some reeds, while Francois and Emily watch from afar.

Some, but not all, of the Rollin fam in front of the big old fireplace. Mel, Emily, and I in front of the Roman ampitheater in Nimes, and an old bookcase with even older books in the house.

Walking down the road outside the house.

Christmas day lunch - a spectacular meal! Mel's dad even brought a Virginia baked honey ham from the States! Now that's what I called customs control.