la camargue

Yesterday I took a day trip to Camargue with the people in my program, The Camargue is near the city of Arles, but situated more south on the base of the Rhone river. It is mainly agricultural land - the area is famous for its production of rice and salt. In the center and south of Camargue it is a National Park with tons of marshland full of various wildlife. Supposedly the area is abundant flamingos - but I only saw a few unfortunately. They also have beautiful white horses! Although, because of previous brave attempts to conquer my fear of horses (near death experiences with Tony and Ashley in PA), I did not participate in horseback riding. But hey I took pictures of my friends doing it!?!? Instead of trekking through the marsh on smelly and dangerous animals, we went to a little town in the Camargue called Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. This town is famous because the three Maries' - Mary Jacobé, Mary Salomé, and Mary-Magdalen supposedly were expelled from Jerusalem on a boat that landed on les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. The Gitans are a group of gypsies who come every year in May for a pilgrimage to this little town. The town was really charming, and right on the beach! I checked out the church, grabbed a baguette, and relaxed in the soleil. It was a great afternoon!

The Camargue is also associated with le guardiens, which are bull rearers. There are tons of bulls in the Camargue ! We went to a see what the bulls were really like. Although I had no idea what to expect, we went to les arenes in a little town to watch a bull show, called la course camarguaise. The town was absolutely charming, and we were the only tourists there! All these old men with dark provencal skin were welcoming us and teaching us the rules of the game. There was a live band playing music from the opera Carmen as we walked in. The rasteurs are the men who try to pull these little strings off of the bulls' horns using a crochet, which is a spiky weapon they hold in their hands. It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen, when the bull was attacking them they ricocheted themselves off the walls and grabbed onto the side banisters to avoid the bulls horns! I have never seen anything like it. I happened to fall in love with one rasteur, Matthieu Marquier! What a stud. Agile, athletic, and a bull-fighter! What more could a girl want?

paris je t'aime

I just got back from a great weekend in PARIS! I took the TGV, the train de grand vitesse, all the way to the city of lights. It was only a three hour ride through the beautiful countryside. Lots of sheep and cows! I was so happy when I arrived - all of these amazing memories from last summer came flooding back! There really is no place like Paris. I met up with Kiera's best friend and Tony's girlfriend, Ashley, who is studying abroad in Barcelona. We stayed in a hostel in the Marais, which is an absolutely amazing section of the city. It is where the Jewish quarter is, so it was full of delicious Jewish bakeries. We went to a famous falafel restaurant; L'as du falafel has the best falafel in the world - even better than Israel! Falafel is a pita with veggies in it - shredded cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, onions, carrots, grilled eggplant, and these fried balls of chickpeas. It also has a special yummy sauce on it. It was so good!

Although it was pretty cold, we went on a night bike tour of Paris! I was laughing with sheer joy when we first got on our bikes and rode down the Champs du Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower - I hadn't ridden a bike for fun in such a long time. Plus, I was in PARIS! It was amazing to be able to see all of the sights at night time, when they are all lit up. Even better, our tour guide was really knowledgeable and taught me a lot of interesting things that I didn't know before. The only negative was that I nearly died a few times due to the heavy traffic and stubborn Parisian drivers. Although we were well equipped with large green reflective vests and lights on our bikes, I guess small bikers are usually in the blind spots of large buses? Needless to say I survived without a scrape and the tour ended when we got aboard the bateau moche on the Seine and had some wine with the people in our group. It was a great night!

Other highlights of the trip were seeing an excellent Andy Warhol exhibit at the Grand Palais, eating delicious fondue in Montmartre, and watching people leave the opera on Saturday night dressed in their finest clothes! tres chic :) The weekend ended on a great note when I went back to Sartrouville to visit Estelle and Michel, my host family from my high school exchange! And not to mention the infamous Antoine, whom many of you met. He is currently sporting a new do, "the Jackson Five" as he likes to call it. And no, he is no more mature than before! But his parents were so sweet to Ashley and me, and I was so happy to see them. They made us a big four course meal on Sunday night and packed sandwiches for our trip in the morning. They are really generous people and I was happy to get to see them again. We had a great time looking at pictures from three years ago. I was happy Ashley got to meet them, and she is excited to show me around Barcelona when I go for a visit in a few weeks. Can't wait :) I am so lucky to be able to do all this traveling...I am soooo addicted :)

st. remy

After the cathédrale des images, we went to st. remy. This is a little town where VanGogh lived - he was admitted the the psychiatric hospital here! I went and visited it - it was the most beautiful hospital I have ever seen! He painted some of his most beautiful works there.

The most amazing part of our trip was that we had lunch at a troglodyte farm house. This really old man named lulu opens his house up on Sunday for lunch. This is not just any lunch, but a Provencal sunday lunch - it lasted three hours! First of all, lulu's house was amazing. It was carved out of rock and his front yard was full of olive trees that he planted. His house a gift from his family before him - the deed of his house was signed by Louis XIV, the king who created the Versaille palace. He was really an amazing person to talk to - he welcomed us by saying how much he loves the generosity of Americans, and how it is thanks to us that France exists today. He cooked all of the food by himself for 40 people - and he is 86 years old! He loves cooking and of course talking.

The food was delicious, to say the least. First, we had this really yummy country pate that was dried and smoky. Next, we had olive omelettes, which looked strange because they were brown but very tasty. And I cannot forget to mention superfluous amount of wine - rose and red. The next course was ratatouille, a specialty of Provence which is just cooked veggies in a tomato sauce and olive oil. The main course was lamb with green beans - I don't think I've ever eaten lamb before but it was delicious! Then, of course we had huge helpings of cheese, there is nothing better to finish your meal with. Except that wasn't the end! For dessert we had strawberries and coffee, perfect for a spring day.

It was so nice to sit and spend so much time with friends just talking. I am vowing to use less minutes on my cell phone when I return to the US and more time face to face! After lunch, we walked around beautiful st. remy and lazily layed out in the grass basking in the sun. It was a GREAT day! I wish you were all there to join me!

les baux

Last weekend I went to the baux de provence and st. remy. Les baux is a beautiful and quaint little village near Avignon. We went to see the Cathedrale des Images, which is a stone quarry which inspired many Provencal artists like Picasso and VanGogh. Recently the quarry was transformed into an art exhibit, in which an artists work's are projected on the wall and timed in accordance with music. It was a very amazing sight! I was taken aback at first - the quarry is huge and you are overwhelmed by the colors and detail. I saw an exhibit on Picasso - it was amazing!

calisson

Last week I visited a calisson factory. They are a delicacy of Aix! Made out of almond paste with candied oranges, there are tons of patisseries that hand make their own calissons. Translation: calissons are trop cher (very expensive). I could get used to all this chocolate and candy tasting!

le ciotat

There is a little town between marseille and cassis known for it's rocky cliffs, called the Calanques. Today I was off to do more hiking in the Calanques! The weather was absolutely beautiful and I got to lay out in the sun for a little by the sea - it was so relaxing! I loved it :) And it is only 20 minutes from Aix; I imagine I will be back all the time when it really starts to get warm.

sainte victoire

There is a mountain here that I usually talk about - le sainte victoire - which I have been wanting to hike since I got here! Saturday I finally got to do it. It took about 2 hours to climb to the top, and it wasn't easy! It was like a never-ending stairmaster. I was exhausted by the time we got to the top. There were some crazy people passing us who were RUNNING up the mountain!?!? If I did that I would have a "fesse" of steel (butt of steel).

Once we got to the top, it was so worth it! The views were amazing! I packed myself a picnic lunch and we relaxed en haut for a while before making the trek back down. It was a beautiful day!