November Entries and the Weekend

Here are the rest of the entries from my trip to the South of France:

Saturday, November 1

This morning we left early to visit the Pont du Guard, an ancient Roman aqueduct. Unfortunately, the weather today hadn't gotten much better. It wasn't raining, but it was pretty chilly and it looked like it would rain at any time. When we got there, I had déja vu because I had definitely visited the Pont du Guard 3 years ago with my school. The only difference between visiting it then to visiting it now was that our group of 10 (12 if you include Siad and Dr. Patton) was pretty much the only visitors. It was nice having the place to ourselves to just walk around on our own. We had an hour and a half to explore the place, so of course we walked on the bridge (middle tier of the aqueduct) taking pictures and admiring the scenery, which was still beautiful despite the gray weather. The water flowing under the bridge was really pretty, and we were able to go down to the see the lower tier of the aqueduct where there were a bunch of rocks bordering the small river. A group of us hung out on one of the rocks for a while just talking, admiring the scenery, and the ancient roman structure behind us. It rained a bit on us but thankfully we had a giant aqueduct to take shelter under, so we just hung out there until we had to go back to the bus. Despite the bad weather, it was nice to just go somewhere and chill out for a while instead of being herded all over the place with a tour guide.
After returning to the bus, we ate lunch and by that time, the weather had gotten a lot worse. The wind had picked up and it was raining on and off. And then we saw on our itenerary that the next scheduled activity was a 2 hour horseback ride through the farms around the Pont du Guard. Awesome and fun idea...but not in this weather. So on our way to the stables, it was only sprinkling and we hoped the rain would hold off for 2 hours. When we got there, it wasn't raining but the whole place was muddy, which sucked for those of us who didn't wear tennis shoes that day (I did thankfully). We got helmets and then the women taking care of the horses gave us all a horse. My horse was a gray one named Spirit. He was really cute. Some of the horses were tethered under a shelter while some others were tethered outside. Katie and I ended up being assigned to horses that were tethered outside and while everyone was getting situated on their horses, it began to rain torrentially and Katie and I had to sit in it for a good 10 minutes before everyone was ready to go. It's only the beginning of the ride and I'm already soaked. Though I was wet, I thankfully wasn't cold so I was still able to enjoy the horseback ride even though my jeans were soaked. The ride was beautiful too...we rode through a lot of vineyards, lots of farmfields, and we went up a couple of hills and got a beautiful view of the mountains. I managed to take some pictures while riding my horse, which was hard but I managed. It rained for about 65 percent of the trip, but I got used to just being wet. Spirit was a pretty good horse most of the time. He liked to stop and eat at inconvenient times and after awhile I began to figure out that when he started drifting to the sides of the trail, he was probably going to eat, so I learned to keep directing him to the center of the trail so he wouldn't be tempted. But then we'd just be riding along and suddenly he would just completely yank his head to the side and just start eating, holding everyone up. He was really mischievous, but all in all, a pretty good horse. At the end of the ride, I looked like a drowned rat and walked awkwardly due to the combination of stiff wet jeans and the fact that I still felt like I had a horse between my legs even after I'd dismounted. Thank God that was the end of our day. We headed to our new hotel in Avignon after that where we all changed and showered. I roomed with Elizabeth and after we'd gotten cleaned up, we shopped around for a bit because there were a lot of stores on our street and then we joined Michael, Monika, Enna, and Lubaina for dinner at a really cheap Vietnamese restaurant. After dinner, we all just went back to the hotel to relax and go to bed early because we were all pretty tired. Elizabeth and I stayed up watching Gossip Girl on her computer for a couple of hours before finally going to sleep.

Sunday, November 2

This morning, we visited the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, which was where some of the popes in the fourteenth century had relocated their residence from Rome. It was a pretty nice place on the outside, but the interior wasn't the most decorative. Some rooms had displays of nice tapestries and frescoes, but most rooms just contained exhibition material on the popes that had lived there. Not the most interesting of visits in my opinion, but oh well. After looking at the Palace of the Popes, our tour guide took us around the city of Avignon taking us to different churches and markets in the city. She told us about the architecture of certain buildings in the town and talked about different aspects of Avignon's history. She also took us up a hill in Avignon where we could see a nice view of the city. Thankfully, the weather was nicer today in the sole fact that it didn't rain, so we got a really good view of the city and saw the famous bridge sung about in the song "Sur le pont d'Avignon" (On the bridge of Avignon). This was the end of our visit, so we returned to the bus and left for a day visit to the city of Orange.
After eating lunch a great lunch in Orange (which consisted of kirs, lasagna, and chocolate mousse) we met a tour guide who showed us an ancient Roman theatre called the Théatre Antique. At this point, our good luck with the weather ran out, and there was this ridiculously strong wind circulating through the outdoor theatre. I didn't hear a word the guide was saying because of this wind and because I had to bury my face in my hands to avoid being pelted in the face by sand particles which constituted the floor in this theatre. We were probably sitting in that wind for at leat 15 minutes...it seemed like the guide just wouldn't stop talking even though it was pretty useless. Thankfully, we were able to go inside after the tour guide had finally finished her lecture and we watched a movie that I'm pretty sure explained just about everything the guide had already told us, so I did end up learning something about the theatre. After that, we went to a museum across the street that housed a bunch of Roman ruins as well as a modern photography exhibit, which was really cool because the displayed photos were taken in the 60's and 70's and were mostly photos of famous people like Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, and different designers like Chanel, Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent. So that was cool for me.
After the museum, the tour had finished just in time the for the torrential downpour that had just started outside. Thankfully, Siad drove the bus right up to the museum so we didn't have to walk far at all in the rain. We then drove to a wine cave called "Père Anselme" for a wine tasting. We first walked around a small museum that was set up in the building learning about the locations of the different vineyards in France and looking at the different tools used to make the wine. Then we had the tasting. We tasted two different red wines--both were really strong, but I liked it enough to drink it. It was a short wine tasting, but still fun.
We then went back to the hotel and prepared to celebrate Michael's 21st birthday. Erika, Katie, Michele, Elizabeth, Monika, and I all went out with him to a couscous restaurant he had picked out. The couscous was so good and we ordered a bunch of drinks to celebrate. We started off with kirs and then ordered a bottle of wine, of which the majority was drunk by Michael. By the time dessert rolled around, he was pretty drunk and really funny. He told us that we were about to see "the real Michael Bailey." He was really entertaining. We had a great waiter too who made an assortment of small desserts with a lovely pink candle in the middle for Michael's birthday. It was a really fun dinner. After that, Michael decided he wanted to continue the night, so all of us except Erika went out with him to a bar. And at this bar we met two men named Fabrice and Antoine who were both older guys--Antoine looked like he was in his mid thirties and Fabrice looked like he was in his forties. Both of them spoke English and wanted to talk to us when they heard us speaking English with each other. Initially Fabrice was wearing a jacket and at one point he took it off and we all saw that he only half of his right arm. He said he lost it in an accident but he didn't mention how and neither of us really wanted to ask. He had this cane thing with him (it looked like a pimp cane) and he showed us that it was also a sword. That was pretty cool. He bought us all drinks and talked to us about the election and his sex life--yeah no kidding. Once we had finished our drinks and had gathered more information than we really wanted to know, we left the bar and went back to our hotel to get ready for the next day.

Monday, November 3

This morning we left for Aix-en-Provence to meet a tour guide who would give us a tour around the city. And of course, when we arrive, it's raining pretty hard and we have to continue with our scheduled tour. An upside to the day was the fact that the tour guide was pretty cute. He took us around the whole city. He took us to a cathedral that he said was the first gothic cathedral built in France, so that was cool. Then he took us through the city's markets (not everyone was out with their stands due to the rain). Then we visited the judiciary building in the city, which was a pretty important and historical building for the city because Aix-en-Provence was the primary city where judicial hearings were held centuries ago. He also talked about the painter Cézanne who was born in Aix, which is another aspect that the city is proud of. The tour ended in another cathedral in Aix which is the most visited place in the city. It was a really nice gothic cathedral. The part of the cathedral I liked the most was the cloister--definitely the prettiest part in my opinion. When we came out of the church, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. The city was suddenly much prettier than it was at the start. It was too bad we only got to see that at the end of the tour when we were leaving the city, but at least we did get to see it.
So we all got into the bus again and Siad drove us to Nice. Driving into the city was beautiful. It looked like Florida because it was sunny, there were palm trees all around us, and we drove right by the Mediterranean which was a beautiful clear blue. I wished we could've stopped to go onto the beach, but we had lunch reservations we had to meet. Eating lunch was kind of fun because the restaurant's electricity was out so we ate by candlelight. After lunch, we drove deeper into the city away from the sea and stayed at a hotel in the center of the city. After dropping our stuff off at the hotel, I went shopping with Elizabeth, Monika, and Michele. It was a lot of fun because the city was very bright and vibrant. After shopping around for a couple of hours, I got some dinner to go at a patisserie and hung out for the rest of the night in my room with Roz uploading my pictures and watching TV.

Tuesday, November 4

Election day! Unfortunately, all we did today was drive because we were heading to Lyon, which was really far away. So that meant we had the whole day to wonder who was going to be the next president. It was really annoying because since we were at least six hours ahead of the U.S., we weren't going to know who the next president was until the next morning.
Once we arrived in Lyon (around 5:00), we had 2 and a half hours before we had to meet for dinner. I roomed with Elizabeth again and since our hotel was surrounded by shops, we went shopping again. We mostly just window shopped and browsed around in a bunch of different stores. We did this for about two hours and then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Then our entire group went out to dinner together, which consisted of a really good steak with potatoes and crème brulée for dessert. A French family at a table close to ours heard us speaking English and asked if we were American. When we said yes they asked if we knew anything about how the election was going in the U.S. But of course, we only knew as much as they did. I could tell they were really anxious about it.
After dinner, Michael, Katie, and I went out to a small bar with Dr. Patton and Siad. We just sat down and ordered drinks and just hung out...talking about random stuff. It was interesting and pretty fun. Then we walked back to the hotel and Elizabeth and I watched Grey's Anatomy on her computer before going to sleep.

Wednesday, November 5

The first thing we did this morning was turn on the TV to find out the results of the election, and we discovered that Obama had won, and everyone (in Europe at least) was so excited about it. The news was also covering celebration parties occurring in the U.S. and it made me want to be home so that I could've participated in them.
After breakfast, we toured the city of Lyon with a tour guide. She showed us an ancient Roman theatre first, and then we went to a beautiful basilica in the city. It was incredibly beautiful because the entire basilica (floor, walls, and ceiling) were covered in mosaics. There was also a lot of gold in the mosaics. It was so breathtaking--definitely one of the coolest churches I'd seen so far. After seeing the basilica, we walked around the city, walking along the Rhone River and then through the streets. Our guide showed us some buildings built during the Renaissance as well as a bunch of connected pathways between buildings that were used by the members of the Resistance during World War II against the Germans. That was really cool. And then she showed us a bunch of different puppet and marionnette shops in the city and explained that Lyon was known for its puppet shows (the puppets were called guignols). She also said that Lyon was the food capital of France--you could find just about any type of food there. After walking through the town, the tour ended, and drove to Bourgogne to eat lunch.
After lunch in Bourgogne, we drove through the beautiful countryside to a town called Vézelay to visit the basilica there, which was located on the top of a long steep hill in the city. We met a monk who lived in the basilica who served as our tour guide. He gave us a short tour through the basilica showing us the original entryway that was now inside the building. Then we entered into the church and saw it's Roman architecture. He then showed us the famous sculpted carving of the mill which shows Moses pouring flour or wheat from his bag into the bag of another man, symbolising the alliance between the Christians and the Jews. After showing us that, the monk had to get back to his duties in the church so we were free to walk around for a while before returning. We stayed for another 15 minutes just walking around the basilica before we walked back down the hill to the bus.
Siad then drove us back to Versailles, which took about 3 hours. Thankfully, when we arrived back in Versailles, we got there just in time for me to catch the night bus back to my house. It was really lucky for me because I had a huge duffel bag that I couldn't carry all the way back to my house without having a sore back for a week. I got back around 9:45 PM, unpacked some of my stuff, and spent the night studying for a grammar test I was going to have the next morning--perfect timing.

I spent the rest of this short week checking all the emails and stuff that had accumulated in my account due to me being unable to check it for 10 days. This weekend, I just stayed in Versailles and had a really relaxed weekend. After going going going all the time on our tour, I was pretty OK with just spending the weekend in my warm house watching movies. Plus the weather in Versailles was terrible--cold and rainy, so I wasn't feeling motivated to go out. I did have a really interesting Saturday though. Erika's French mom called my house and invited me to go on a day outing with her, Erika, and her mother (Erika's French grandmother). They were going to Amiens to visit a museum about World War I in honor of the upcoming 90th anniversary of armistice day (Nov 11). So we on Saturday, we drove for an hour and half up to Amiens and visited the museum. It was really interesting and very well put together. There was lots of information, artifacts, pictures, and even some videos depicting the war's history and what the war was like for the men who fought in it as well as for the civilians who were affected by it. After learning about all the horrible things the soldiers had to go through being in the trenches and engaging in trench warfare and how little was accomplished because of it, it just makes you sad that something like that even had to happen.
After visiting that museum, we visited a memorial and graveyard dedicated to the memory of the South Africans that had fought in the war. The memorial was on fields where the battle was fought. It was sad, but also really interesting for me to realize that I was standing in a place where thousands of men had lost their lives. It's scary.
After that, we visited another museum that was built underground. This museum was dedicated to showing what life was like for the soldiers in the trenches, which is why it's underground. This museum was also very interesting because there were a bunch of photographs and even cartoons that were taken or drawn during that time displayed on the walls. They had built replicas of the different trenches for the different sides. German trenches were the most sophisticated--they built bunks into their trenches, had heat, and electricity to work their phones and radios. Basically, living in a German trench wasn't so bad, so it's interesting that they were the ones who lost the war. French and British trenches were horrible--always wet, muddy, and cold. These soldiers suffered the worst from trench foot and other sicknesses. All in all, a very interesting day. I was very glad to have been invited. I also really enjoyed spending time with Erika, her mom, and grandma. Her mom and grandma were so cute--they were constantly talking, sometimes at the same time, arguing a few times. They mostly argued because they got us lost a lot so that was funny to watch. I really enjoyed the day with them, and Erika's mom invited me to eat lunch with them on Monday (tomorrow), so that should be fun.
Today, I stayed in and did my homework and just hung out with my French family. All in all, pretty uneventful day, but oh well. Looking forward to the start of a new week. Until next time...