Busy, Busy, Busy

So, I’ve officially been in France for over a month now. Which seems impossible. Although I have settled in here, I still feel like I just got here. I wonder when that feeling will wear off. Time just seems to pass so quickly here. The week flies by — maybe because I have no Friday classes — and then the weekend passes just as quickly. Since I haven’t posted in a while, I’ll try to give a quick run down of what I’ve been up to lately. 

The weekend after IAU went to Nice and Marseille, I took a crêpe cooking class in Aix. Yes, it was as delicious as it sounds. We made both savory crêpes made with buckwheat (galette bretonne) and crêpes suzette, which are sweet crêpes with an orange sauce in them (sometimes they’re even set on fire when they’re served. Sadly, we did not learn how to do this.) The cooking class was a lot of fun and was entirely in French and I think I understood essentially all of it, which was a great feeling.

The next day I had a class trip for my Provençal History class and my Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations class and we went to Glanum and Arles. Glanum is an archeological site of a Gallic village that was first built and occupied during the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. It was then conquered by the Romans during the latter half of the first century B.C. It was fascinating to walk around the remains of a village that old. Then we went to Arles, had lunch and saw the cathedral, the remains of the Roman theater and amphitheater and the archeological museum. 

 L'arc de Triomphe de Glanum 

Le Cénotaphe de Glanum

L'oppidum de Glanum

Théâtre de Glanum

Amphithéâtre de Glanum

The following week, on Valentine’s Day I went to a wine tasting class given by the wine studies professor from IAU. I couldn’t really tell how she could taste the different flavors in the wine, but hey, that’s what practice is for, right? 

That Saturday I went to Montpellier with the Aix Science Po, the Institut d’Etudes Politiques and some other IAU students. Montpellier is a little larger than Aix is and it was cool to explore the city. We went to Parc Peyrou, which gave a pretty cool view of the area and we wandered around a lot. There are several trompe l’oeil paintings around the city, so we looked for those and had fun taking pictures with them. 

This past weekend a group of us went to Indian Forest, which is a ropes course/ ziplining park. Those of you who know me (which I assume is all of you, or else why would you be reading this?) know I was in heaven doing this. It was a lot of fun, and it was an absolutely beautiful day. 

The whole group!

I did parcours vert, bleu, rouge and part of noir

The next day some friends and I went to Montagne Sainte Victoire, which is a mountain just outside of Aix. It’s famous for being painted many times by Paul Cezanne. When we set out to climb it, I knew it was a mountain, obviously, but I wasn’t mentally (or physically, let’s be honest) prepared for it. I was expecting a dirt or gravel trail that we just had to follow. Instead, it was an extremely rocky trail that was occasionally marked by a small blue mark. Although we didn’t make it to the top — the bus leaving Aix left later than we initially thought, so we didn’t get to the mountain as early as we would have liked and we were worried about missing the bus back to Aix — I definitely plan on going back to make it to the top. The views were absolutely beautiful and the photos just don’t do it justice (much like most of the things I take pictures of…) Again, we were very lucky with the weather. Every now and then a breeze would pick up and you couldn’t help but spread your arms out and feel the sun beat down on your face (I even got a little sunburned, which is weird in February). Anyway, Mont St. Victoire was so beautiful and the landscape is pretty drastically different from back home, which is cool to see/experience. 

Now, this coming week is my winter break (how lucky am I? I get two winter breaks this year!) and I’m really excited for my travels. It’s weird, because it’s like I’m about to take a vacation from a vacation. I leave tonight for Venice, Italy. It’s Carnival right now – Mardi Gras is Tuesday, so I think it will be a really cool time to see the city. Then on Tuesday I’m flying out to England to visit two camp friends (shoutout Katniss and Keish). Anyway, I can’t wait to see what this week has in store for me…! 

A plus tard, mes amis.

Nice, Marseille and a Chapeau

I've been in France for two weeks and a day now – which, honestly, seems impossible. I've been so busy these past two weeks that it seems like I just landed yesterday. But, I've mostly settled in at my home stay and gotten into a new routine here in France.

Last weekend, my first weekend here, IAU had two trips planned for us – Nice on Saturday and Marseille on Sunday. Both cities are right on the Mediterranean and were absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, it was a little rainy in Nice and was pretty windy and cold when we were in Marseille, but that just gives me a reason to return in the spring!

Nice was my favorite of the two cities. It was more calm than Marseille (which makes sense because Marseille is France's second largest city, after Paris) and we were able to walk along the Mediterranean in Nice. The view was stunning.

There's a path you can take from the beach up to a hill that overlooks the city and the sea, which afforded an equally as gorgeous view. You can even see the alps in the distance.

One of the professors from IAU took some of us on a tour of the old port and to a confiserie (candy store). One of the specialties of the store was flower-infused candies, like these – I tried a lavender flavored one, which was delicious. 

The next day we headed to Marseille and we visited Notre Dame de la Garde, a beautiful cathedral situated on top of a hill over looking the Mediterranean. 

I was very much impressed by our bus driver's ability to maneuver up the incredibly narrow, spiraling road while simultaneously dodging motorcyclists. Anyway, after Notre Dame de la Garde, we explored Marseille. In the port they have a free ferry boat to take you from one side of the harbor to the other, so you could technically say I've sailed on the Mediterranean. Although the ride lasted all of 3 minutes, maybe. 

The coolest thing that happened while we were in Marseille was just after we got off the ferry. As we were getting on the ferry, there was an older French couple who asked us how much it cost. We told them "C'est gratuit!" (It's free!) so they got on the boat with us. After we got off the ferry, my friends and I climbed up some stairs to look out over the sea. The French couple evidently had the same idea, and we saw them up on the platform taking in the view. 

My friend Emily and I were looking at the couple, saying how cute they were when all of a sudden a strong gust of wind came along and swept the man's newsboy cap off his head like a frisbee and it sailed down and landed in the middle of a fairly busy road before it was further pushed into the median. Two of my friends decided they were going to run all the way down the stairs, across the pavement and retrieve the man's hat. Emily and I went over to the man and his wife to explain, as best we could, in French that our friends were going to get his hat. "Nos amis… ils vont attraper votre chapeau!" The man looked at us incredulously. We then pointed to the boys running down the zigzagging stairs. When he saw them hustling to retrieve his hat before it was run over or carried off by the wind again his face completely lit up. He told us that the boys were "comme des anges" and he made a halo shape over his bald head. The man was so happy to get his hat back and asked us where we were from. We told him America and he then proceeded to thank us sincerely in both French and English, his hands clasped tight. When the guys came back with his hat he hugged both of them – a seemingly un-French thing to do – and his wife took the hat. I had a feeling she wouldn't let him wear it for the rest of the day… It felt so good to see the man get his hat back because he told us "je suis vieux" (I am old) and that he wouldn't have been able to run after his hat, it simply would have been gone.  

We later got on the bus and left Marseille that evening feeling good about our improving American/French relations, one hat at a time.