November: Paris, Thanksgiving, and Boomwhackers!

I have been procrastinating a bit on this post due to a high volume of things going on around the campus. November was a very busy month and as we wind down to the end of the semester, it's getting rather hectic. It is hard to believe that two weeks from me writing this, I will be once again sitting in Charles de Gaule airport, awaiting my flight home. I am both dreading it and anticipating it with all of my heart.

Paris:
We started off November by taking a group trip to Paris. I won't go into the details of everything we did, as a lot of the things we saw and did were things that I talked about before, like a trip up to the beautiful Montmartre (which, between now four trips to Paris, I have seen by at sunrise, midday, sunset, and night, each being worth its own trip), but we did do plenty of interesting things, albeit I can't remember the order anymore. One of the nights we walked through the Pigale district, which is not far from Montmartre. This is the place of the famous Moulin Rouge, which I had never actually had a chance to see before. Our destination was a very prestigious theatre, where we were going to to see a performance of Moliere's Tartuffe. The Pigale district was an interesting place to walk through to get to a fancy destination-- it is essentially the red-light district of Paris, with strip clubs, sex shops, and scary hobos everywhere. And of course, the Moulin Rouge is the center point of all of the debauchery, being one of the most famous dirty establishments in the world. Eventually, we found our way to the theater, which was actually a very beautiful building. We got a steal on the tickets, being students and going for rush tickets. The play was actually quite, amusing, although at times it was a bit difficult to understand due to the fact that the actors were speaking French from the 17th century in perfect rhyme and rather fast. It was a great experience nonetheless.

Just your average, everyday ballroom

On another day we got the opportunity to take a tour through the Parisian Hotel de Ville-- the city hall. This place played a huge impact on the French revolution, being the site of some famous executions, it was the site of the declaration of the Third Republic, and later, where Charles de Gaule claimed victory in liberating Paris from Nazi oppression. Today, it is the administrative center of Paris, and is where you can expect to be greeted with all the due pomp and circumstance if you ever manage to become the president of a country, in the words of our adorable tour guide. We got to walk through much of the building, seeing ballrooms, feast halls, and some iconic art depicting scenes from the Revolution and depictions of the French ideals.

We also got to go inside of the Pantheon, which is something that I have only ever seen from the outside. Just above the massive columns that support the building, emblazoned in gold lettering, is a dedication that translates roughly to "To the great men, the Fatherland recognizes you." The main floor of the building is what you might imagine- giant vaulted ceilings meant to awe viewers, statues of the glory of France, beautiful paintings, etc. My neck started to hurt after a few minutes for craning it upward so much. Not to be belittling of one of the most famous structures of all time, but in my humble opinion, the grandeur of the Paris Pantheon far surpasses that of the Roman Pantheon, although the history of the latter gives it a pretty solid edge. What was really cool, however, was to go downstairs. The Pantheon today serves as a mausoleum for prestigious Frenchmen. We walked down into the crypt which had beautiful marble walls, floors, and ceiling and were faced with two of the most famous and influential French writers of all time- Voltaire and Rousseau. Both of them, apart from being excellent writers in their own right, contributed heavily to the political thought that made the United States what it is today by introducing the theories that went into our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. We also saw other famous tombs, like those of Alexander Dumas (author of the Three Muskateers, amongst other works), Emile Zola (author of J'accuse, which denounced the condemnation of Dreyfus), Victory Hugo (one of the most famous authors of all time, most known for his piece, Les Miserables), Marie Curie, and dozens of others. It was very humbling to be in the prescence of some of the most influential minds the world has ever seen. This very well might have been the highlight of this trip to Paris for me.

Who knew such a small man needed such a big tomb?

...but then I think about when we went to Les Invalides. This is another one of those things that I have always seen from far away but never actually gone inside. I never knew how much I was missing. The building itself is very impressive, with a massive courtyard leading up to a chateau with a golden dome. It was originally constructed under Louis XIV as a hospital for war veterans (hence the name "the Invalides"). He also commissioned the massive cathedral with the golden dome. In 1840, Napoleon was interred in this cathedral, and today you can see his giant tomb, surrounded by statues of his incredible military, judicial, and administrative accomplishments. The sight is really awe inspiring and makes one think about how much influence one person can have over the course of history. Today, as Les Invalides no longer serves as a military hospital, there are a number of historical museums dedicated to France's military history. There is an excellent WWII museum here that sadly we didn't get a chance to see, but we were really glad we got to check out le Musée de l'Armée which was all about the military glories of France, particularly under Napoleon. They had various officer uniforms, weapons, and these electronic maps that illustrated the events and battle strategies of various important military campaigns. If you're interested in interesting military events, look up the Battle of Austerlitz, which is one of the most impressive and interesting military feats of all time. Unfortunately, we were chased out of the museum before we got a chance to see everything because the museum was closing. It was still one of the most interesting museums I have ever visited.

One of the funniest things that happened in Paris was one the second or third night we were there. Hayley, Taylor, and I decided that we wanted to eat dinner at Pizza Hut, which we are all obsessed with back in the United States. For Hayley and I, it is one of the things that we miss most about back home, as it is part of our weekend traditions. We wanted to do this in Paris, as it is the only city in France that boasts one of the establishments and we wanted to compare and also have a little slice of home (get it? Like a pizza slice?) after a few months abroad. While in the states Pizza Hut is kind of a shitty fast-food kind of pizza joint, in Paris it was incredibly fancy. In fact, of all of the restaurants that we visited while we were in Paris, none of them were quite as high society as this place. All of the French people we saw there were really dressed up, the waiters were wearing suits and ties, and the food was really expensive. Man was it worth it! Even though it wasn't quite the same as back home, it was a least a somewhat American style pizza, and made us smile. Whats more, they actually had fountain pop! Fountain pop! Here in France, they don't really have it-- it's all in glass bottles. While at first this was interesting, the result is that if you ever want to have a soda with your pizza, you have to spend like $4.50 for one bottle, making it not so affordable for us poor college kids. But man, having unlimited soda for a short time almost brought tears to our eyes.

For one of the dinners, we went as a group to have a nice three course dinner at a pretty fancy Parisian restaurants. For the first time over the course of three trips to France, I found escargot on a menu. One would think with the steryotype that we have of the French, that they would be all over the place, but not so! While it may come as a shock to the skeptics back home, I got a platter of six escargot. I was nervous about them at first, but after I figured out how to work them out of their shells, it was a little easier. They didn't taste bad (they had some garlic butter sauce smeared all over them), but man did they feel weird going down! I didn't mind them, but I might decide to have that be a once in a lifetime experience. I was one of only two people in our group brave enough to try one, though!

On our last day of Paris, our group split up. It was our free day to do and see whatever we wanted. Some people went out of Paris to see things in the surrounding towns, some went sightseeing. Hayley, Taylor, and I decide that we wanted to take our last day to be like the Parisians; that is to say, do nothing all day. We walked around the city for a while, just looking around. We spent two hours just sitting on the banks of the Seine. We checked out the small stands set up on the streets along the river, searching for interesting books, talking with people and haggling. We took a Parisian lunch for two hours. It was very relaxing and very refreshing. In the past, I had almost rushed too much in Paris to be able to really enjoy what the city is in and of itself. This day was probably the best we had there, despite it being really cold.

Thanksgiving:

This is how we do it back home, isn't it?

At first, we were really sad to be away from home for Thanksgiving. After three and a half months of sketchy cafeteria food, the thought of having turkey, potatoes, etc. and having the company of our families made us miss home a lot. The people at the the College must know this, so they prepared a really nice Thanksgiving dinner for the Americans. They spent the whole day preparing. They made long feast-style tables, decorated the cafeteria, and made a ton of food. The funny thing is that the French don't really know a whole lot about what Thanksgiving actually is. All they really know is that it has something to do with Native Americans. Then, when they think that, they think about Cowboys and Indians. So, all of us got dressed up for our fancy dinner, walked down the cafeteria and are greeted by a bunch of French people in cowboy hats. Happy Thanksgiving! The decorations were all really weird, too. They had little miniature saloons that said "Gold Rush Casino and Saloon," tomahawks and walk-in Teepees. When they rolled out the turkey, it had sparklers in it, which burned out after about ten seconds. The food wasn't quite the fare that one would have back home, but it was still a welcome diversion from the day-to-day stuff we eat and it was a really cute try on the part of the staff. We didn't have the heart to tell them that there were no cowboys at the first Thanksgiving.

Boomwhackers:
Last night, we walked through Cannes to the other side of town, where we went to see a percussion performance by a group called Percossa. They are a group of guys from the Netherlands who put on a show using all sorts of percussion-- from drums of all sorts to their own bodies. It was a super high-energy show full of lots of really good humor, even though they never spoke a word. One of the things they did was to use Boomwhackers (these little tubes that are cut to different sizes to produce different pitches) to create music. Here is a short clip I found on youtube of the guys using this part of the show: click here , although it was a little bit more interesting when they did it for us.

The Home Stretch:
As I mentioned at the start of the post, we now have exactly two weeks left in France. I often find myself asking where all the time went. It seems like just yesterday that we were sitting on the beach in Cannes thinking about how we still have almost four whole months left. Sadly, while we should be out enjoying our last few days in France, we are inside writing papers and cramming for finals. For our study abroad seminar, we have a huge dissertation we have to write. Hayley and I are working together to write about the elitism and egalitarianism of the French educational system. We also have final exams to study for for our Art History and French Society courses. And on top of it all, we have a theater performance in less than a week, and one of the guys that is in all of the scenes Hayley and I are in does not have most of his lines memorized. Talk about a stress load! On the bright side, we were told that we will get a video copy of the play a couple of months after we get back, so everyone will get a chance to laugh at us. Despite all of the work we have to do, we are still very excited to come back home. It is a very bittersweet kind of feeling. We don't want to leave, but we are excited to get back home.

Roma!

Birthday cake!

Last weekend was Hayley’s birthday. Originally we had planned on going and celebrating in Rome for the weekend, but it was significantly cheaper for us to wait a week. We bought our plane tickets and started planning out our trip. For her actual birthday, we went out and had a nice dinner in Cannes and walked around Le Suquet, which is kind of part of the fancier area of town. It was really pretty at night, as it is a small, extremely old street with tons of fancy restaurants, flowers, and candlelight. It was a beautiful night to usher in her 21^st. Also, the ladies who work in our school's cafeteria surprised Hayley with a birthday cake to celebrate at lunch!

We booked our flights to Rome for Thursday evening so that we would be able to maximize our time in the city, since we were only able to take of time for the weekend. We don’t really get long breaks from class here like we do back in the United States, so we planned out our trip to get the most out of a few short days. We skipped our afternoon classes and took the train from Cannes to Nice. Getting from the train station to the airport was a really long walk and really confusing. We were worried about missing our flight, but we eventually managed to find a shuttle that took us to our terminal, which just happened to be the farthest away from the train station. Security was surprisingly easy. All we had to do was walk through one little metal detector. It took less than five minutes to get from the front door of the airport to our gate. The flight took a little less than an hour, and we were in Rome!

Getting to our hotel was a total disaster. We had checked google maps before we left to make sure we would be able to get there without a problem. What we had not anticipated, however, was that the metro station near our hotel had two exits on different sides of a highway. We got off and started walking down the sidewalk towards where we were certain our hotel would be. It was kind of scary because we weren’t walking through the best area of town (our hotel was on the outskirts of Rome, near the last possible metro stop) and it was late at night. The sidewalk cut in and out and at times we were walking along the GRA highway with cars whipping right past us at 70 mph. The ironic part is that just when we thought we were finally getting close, we noticed a metro station. It was the one before our stop. We had just spent twenty minutes or so walking in the complete opposite direction! A little discouraged, we paid for another set of tickets to take the fast way back. We eventually found our hotel, but the problem was that it was on the opposite side of the aforementioned highway, with no apparent way across. Thinking that this hotel had the worst possible location, we sprinted pell-mell across the highway, and finally settled in to safety. 

Outside of the Baths of Caracalla

We started off the next day strong with a visit to the Baths of Caracalla. These were a giant structure built by the ancient Romans to serve as a community bathing establishment. It was massive. It took 6000 workers 5 years to finish and is still in remarkably good condition today. The baths were divided into three main areas. There was the central (Olympic sized) cold water bath in the main complex, a warm water pool on the outside in the sunlight, and a medium temperature pool between the two in recesses in the walls. The ancient Romans would often use these pools for Hydrotherapy, going from warm water to neutral, to cold. Caracalla also had giant changing rooms, a library, and a huge courtyard for exercising with javelins, wrestling, boxing, etc. To quote Hayley’s summary, the Baths of Caracalla were essentially the YMCA of ancient Rome. It was supplied tons of water every day by an aqueduct leading to a giant cistern. The water was heated underground by various fuel sources, heating up the tiles in the pools. Thousands of people would come here every day to bathe, but baths in ancient Rome served more than just sanitary purposes. They were also an important part of the social culture of the time. Emperors and other influential figures would often create bathes and allow free or extremely cheap admission in order to gain public favor. After exploring the gardens around Caracalla, we headed out to our next stop, the Coliseum.

The seats and sands are gone, it remains impressive!

While after our trip to Provence we were no strangers to impressive Roman architecture, the Coliseum might just take the cake for the most incredible we have seen. Despite an incredible fire that destroyed much of the original façade, it was still very easy to imagine what this place would have looked like in all its splendor. The arena was built to hold 60,000 excited Romans. As with baths, games in the Coliseum were put on by emperors and politicians to gain favor from the populace and to glorify the host, often after a military victory or conquest. While the Coliseum is famous for its gladiatorial fights, was also very popular for its animal fighting, where hosts would attempt to recreate the habitat of the captured animals (rhinos, elephants, lions, hippos, etc.) in order to provide a more exciting atmosphere for the viewers, who were allowed to enter for free. Much of the original seating and the actual gladiatorial sands have since been destroyed, but it still provides an awe-inspiring site.

Next, we visited the adjacent Palatine Hill, which is one of the seven main hills in Rome. It is considered the heart of the city, as it is where archeologists have dated the earliest life in the area to 1000 B.C. According to legend, this is where the famous she-wolf found rescued the twins Romulus and Remus, who would later challenge each other to create the greatest empire on the banks of the Tiber River. One day, in a fit of rage, Romulus killed his brother, and thus the city is named after him. Later, Palatine Hill (Palatine is the origin for the English word "palace" and the French word "palais")

One chunk of the massive Basilica

became the site of the palace of Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, and later Septimus Severus, who created many of the gardens. The view from up here was gorgeous, with huge courtyards and a view of the giant Circus Maximus below, a sort of football field length arena build for chariot and foot races. We then proceeded down to the Forum Romanum or Roman Forum, which was the center of the ancient Roman government. It was here that laws were passed, commercial policies were enacted, and where some of the most important temples to the gods of the Roman pantheon were created. One of the basilicas in the Forum was still in remarkably good condition and was so massive that it dwarfed all of the other buildings. After walking around the ruins of ancient civilizations all day, we finally decided to wrap up our day. We had dinner to a gorgeous sunset between the Coliseum and the Forum in a restaurant enclosed by vine leaves.  We made it back to the hotel that night with sore feet and aching muscles.

St. Peter's Basilica

School of Athens, Raphael

The next day we stepped out of the ancient and into the semi-ancient. Our first stop in the morning was to the Vatican City, where we hoped to be able to see the Pope. Sadly, he wasn’t performing mass, but we still got to soak in the splendor of St. Peter’s square. There were gigantic marble pillars circling the square with beautiful statues on top. St. Peter’s Basilica stood at the end. Originally, we had hoped to go inside, but by the time we got there the line was so long it almost wrapped around the entire square. It would have taken us at least 4 hours in the hot sun (even though it is the end of October, Rome still felt like Minnesota in July) just to go inside. We instead appreciated the bastion of Catholicism from the outside before heading to the Vatican Museums. The line here was short and we were soon surrounded by rooms and rooms of relics from Rome’s past- from statues of the gods to Egyptian artifacts. We made our way up to the chambers dedicated to the works of Raphael, one of the most famous painters of all time. After searching around for a bit, we came upon one of my favorite parts of our time in Rome. I will admit that I had a little bit of a geek-out in this room, as we came upon Raphael’s famous mural School of Athens. The painting is a brilliant work, combining portraits of all of the greatest minds of science, philosophy, art, and religion. As I was familiar with the paining already, I excitedly pointed out to Hayley the representations of Michelangelo, Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Pythagoras, and a few others. I took a few pictures, but could not really get a good one of the whole thing, so to the right you can see one I pulled from Google. We proceeded through rooms of art until we finally came upon the reason for us coming to the Vatican Museum- the Sistine Chapel. It was smaller than we had expected, but impressive nonetheless. Every inch of the chapel was covered in beautiful paintings. I can only imagine the colossal effort that must have gone into the creation of the ceiling. In the center of it, we were able to catch a glimpse of the famous image of God reaching out to Adam. The ceiling was so high up that I actually struggled to see clearly (naturally I had forgotten my glasses in our room) but it was still a remarkable sight. There were men stationed every few feet snapping at tourists to be quiet and to not take pictures, but we managed to snap a few when they weren’t looking. 

Hadrian's Mausoleum

We next made our way to Hadrian’s Mausoleum, also known as Castel Sant’Angelo (St. Michael). This was probably the coolest part of our trip. This giant structure was originally commissioned by the Emperor Hadrian to house his remains. Unfortunately for him, he died a year before its completion and his body was made to wait before being burned and eventually entered in this building. It was created to be viewed and admired by the structure and would have originally housed a statue of the emperor in the main entrance. Hadrian wanted to build this mausoleum to echo the one built by Augustus just on the other side of the Tiber River, which courses through Rome. This giant edifice was not only for one man, however. If you have ever seen the famous film Gladiator, you might be familiar with the names Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, and Lucius Farris whose burial urns once were held here. We passed through the chambers were the burial urns were held, a room that was, for a short period of time, converted into a prison (it was essentially a pit that they lowered prisoners into and didn’t feed them), and up into a small courtyard. In the center was a giant statue of St. Michael made out of marble. Originally we had thought that the statue was as old as the mausoleum itself, but such was not the case. The statue that we saw was the sixth of its kind, and used to stand on top of the mausoleum. It turns out that St. Michael statues serve as wonderful lightening conductors when they are adorned with bronze and other precious metals and that being struck by lightning tends to ruin them. They have since learned to put a giant metal rod near the current statue on the roof. The reason that the Italians now call it Castel Sant’Angelo instead of Hadrian’s Mausoleum is that one day, a Pope (I can’t remember which) had a dream that St. Michael landed on top of the mausoleum and sheathed his sword. Naturally, this meant that the plague that was raging through Rome at the time was now over, and so the structure was renamed in his honor. I am sure that Emperor Hadrian is pleased with that! Because of the beautiful view looking over the Vatican/Rome, we decided to eat dinner in the fancy restaurant on the parapets (during the Renaissance, the mausoleum was repurposed and fortified to become a fortress) and profit from the atmosphere. Sadly, when we finally got our food, it was cold and disappointing, which was not the first time (more on this later). 

Those columns have stood for two thousand years!

Trevi Fountain at night!

Next, we made our way to the Pantheon. This is probably the best preserved structure of ancient Rome and definitely one of the most impressive. The Pantheon was originally the temple to all the gods of the Romans, but has since been appropriated by the Catholic Church. Although I was a little disappointed to be confronted with Christian statues and art rather than those of Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, etc, it was still great to marvel at the architectural miracle that is the Pantheon. Next, we made our way to the famous Trevi Fountain, which was beautifully lit (by this point it was roughly 7:30 and the sun had since set) and tossed our coins and wishes behind us. While we were there, we saw a couple taking their wedding pictures at the fountain, which was adorable. There were tons of people there and they were all cheering for the happy couple. Next, we made our way to the famous Spanish Steps, which were designed by Michelangelo. They were in a beautiful area of town that reminded me a lot of the Montmartre area of Paris, which I wrote about in one of my first blogs. The steps were very lively at the time of night we made it there. There were tons of young people just hanging around, sitting on the steps and talking. It was a shame that we couldn’t speak a word of Italian, or we could have blended in! 

As our flight was set to leave Rome at 3:20 in the afternoon, and the trip back to the airport takes a while, we really only had the morning on Sunday to say goodbye to Rome. We went to visit the Capuchin Crypt, which was one of the most beautifully haunting sights I have ever seen.  The crypt was underneath a church which was built on dirt that had been brought from Jerusalem. Naturally, this made the crypt a very popular burial site. Due to an incredibly high demand for burials at this church, resulting in too many bodies, individual burial coffins/rooms were no longer a luxury that could be afforded. There are a few myths regarding what happened next, one of which that states that a criminal artist came to the church and, in repentance, offered to design a burial chamber for the bodies. What this mysterious artist then did was to decorate the chamber with the bones. He separated the bones by chamber and adorned the walls, making intricate patterns and religious symbols all around the room, and arranging the complete skeletons of some of the Capuchin friars into poses that held various meanings. In the first room was one such friar at whose feet was a sign that said something to the effect of “As you are now, so we once were. As we are now, one day you shall be too.” Reading this surrounded by the bones of hundreds of bodies forced a shiver down our spines. Sadly, we were not allowed to take any pictures. As we walked back into the sunshine and the world of the living, we had a quick lunch before regretfully began the trek to the airport and home. 

Random notes about Rome:

• Most of the food we had was cold. It was very frustrating, as a lot of the time we picked out nice looking restaurants, which turned out to be kind of iffy.

•  Pizza in Rome, contrary to what you might think, it actually not very good. Apart from being cold, it was really sweet. Neither of us liked it overmuch, although we did have some pretty good lasagna and spaghetti.

• Italians make out in the streets all the time. I cannot even begin to count how many people we saw just going at it in the middle of the street or popular areas.

• We had several situations where we were caught between a few Italians who were yelling in loud, agitated voices in our restaurants. It turns out they weren’t even having an argument- that was just how a normal conversation works.

• Gelato is the most amazing thing ever in the history of forever. We had it a few times for desert after meals and it was worth it every time. Each place that we went heaped enormous amounts of the ice cream treat on a cone, for really cheap prices. I tried a few weird flavors that were incredibly good, although I have no clue what they were. Essentially, gelato is ice cream on steroids.

• Italian drivers are crazy. There were a number of occasions where we found ourselves wondering if we were going to die to some reckless Italian who didn’t care about traffic signs or signal lights. This, along with the fact that oftentimes sidewalks were nonexistent and crosswalks were not even usable, made for a rather nerve wracking experience.

• Unlike many other cities that we have been to, the metro system is not incredibly useful. We read somewhere that this is in part because it is difficult for them to build new metro stations, as whenever they try to build a new line, they come upon some archeological wonder in the digging process and are forced to abandon the construction. The result is that oftentimes the sites we wanted visit were often quite a distance from the closest metro station.

Eze, Seminars, and Provence!

I apologize for not posting anything recently. Life at the College has been really hectic as of late and I have fallen behind on my blogs. This one will be a long one, full of all the events of the past two weeks or so. I apologize in advance for how long this will take to read. Also, sorry for the weird placement of pictures on my blog site. For some reason blogger does not like to format pictures very well alongside text, so I put them where I can.

Eze: 

Partway up, but not close enough!

Last weekend weekend we took a day trip out to a place called Eze, which is one of the most well known of the villages perchés (perched villages) on the Cote d'Azur. I had actually visited this town on my last trip to France, but it was for a relatively short amount of time, and without the adventure that we had getting there. The village, as you might be able to guess, is situated on the top of a mountain, making getting up there a true feat. In the past, these villages were created to protect against bands of marauding Saracens who invaded the Provence region regularly. Being situated so high up made assaults incredibly difficult. Today, there is a road that goes up to the town, allowing one to take a bus to the top. That is how I went up last time. This time, however I had to earn my way to the top. We followed le Chemin de Nietzsche, named after the famous author/philosopher of the Zarathustra and who uttered the famous words "God is dead." Apparently, in his later years, Nietzche settled in southern France and made the laborious climb to Eze often. I admit that the old man must have been in better shape than Hayley and I, as the trek to the top was an incredible exertion. It took over an hour of hard climbing to make it from sea-level to the town at the top. Although we were sweating and exhausted throughout the climb, the view as we worked our way through the wooded path was exceptional. From our vantage point, we could see the ocean, mountains, and forest for miles around. It was well worth the pain of the climb. We spent some time exploring the town, enjoying the view, and stopped for some delicious crepes in a little spot looking out over the mountains. The climb down, while a little bit easier, was still quite a bit of work. We really did the full leg workout throughout the day. Hayley got a little nervous near the end, as her legs were quivering from the workout and she was worried that her legs would lock out. All in all, it was a fun day. We got a lot of fun pictures, and although we didn't do terribly much, the sights made the day spectacular. It was our last reprieve before a hectic week of classes.

New classes:

This week marked the end of the super vacation-y phase of our semester here in Cannes. Up to this point, we only really had our 3 hour grammar class every morning, and a seminar with our trip leader twice per week. The rest of the time has just been our leisure/beach time. But now our other seminars at the college have started, taking away the last vestiges of free time. Hayley and I are both taking French Society and Art History, which go for 3.5 hours once per week (Mon/Wed respectively), along with a theater class which will actually begin tomorrow. These new classes, combined with our existing workloads, have had us really busy. It has been a stern reminder that contrary to the tropical weather, we are here first and foremost as students, not tourists. We try not to take that fact too seriously. The courses are actually very interesting. Our society class, along with our CSB/SJU seminar and our observations since coming here, have really helped me to get a grasp for how France works. We talk all the time about the French healthcare system, education, familial policy, cultural assimilation, immigration, and a ton of other subjects. One of these days I plan to write out a post detailing just how different these things are from back home, and what they do better/worse. It has truly made for a mind-opening experience.

The day before we left on our trip, we had a "nice" surprise from our group supervisor, who set up a wine and cheese tasting session for us. We learned a lot about how some of the important French wines are made, stored, and consumed, along with information about their cheeses. These two things are super important in French culture, so it was an absolute must that we experienced them. That is not to imply, however, that Hayley and I enjoyed them. We were dismayed when we were poured several glasses of wine. As much as we wish we could, neither of us enjoy wine. We have tried it several times and tried to lie to ourselves, telling ourselves that we like the taste, but no avail. So we muddled through the wine tasting with pinched, sour faces. The cheese was, as you might be able to imagine, very, very stinky. We tried several different kinds, which actually taste a lot better than they smell. The trick is to not smell the cheese before you eat it.



Provence: 

This weekend we took a group trip through the region of Provence. If you look at a map, Provence is the chunk of land in the southeast of France, touching Italy and the Mediterranean. Cannes (the city where we live) is right on the coast, but there is a lot more to the region than just the beach. Provence is full of rich history, thanks to the Greeks and Romans. Originally, France was home to two main peoples in the south, the Gauls and the Ligures. These two factions warred constantly and were more or less uncivilized. The Greeks founded cities for trade along the coast, creating the colony of Masilla (now the third biggest city in France, Marseille) and a few other ports. When the Greeks because pressured by forces from the local tribes, the asked for Roman aid to help quell the rebellions. After three short and bloody wars, the Romans were able to take control of most of southern France. This was actually a very good thing, as the Romans essentially civilized the entire region, improving the quality of life for everyone. Evidence of their influence is everywhere. More on this shortly.

Le Palais des Papes

La grand chapelle

We were lucky enough to be able to skip classes on Friday to be able to take advantage of everything we needed to see. We rented a bus for the weekend and set out. About 20 minutes out from Cannes, the landscape began to change. Mountains sprang up, seemingly out of nowhere, in beautiful red, white, and almost purplish hues. We saw a few huge stretches of Lavender fields. The Provencal countryside is absolutely gorgeous. It was a very enjoyable two hour drive to our first destination: Avignon. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip and the one that I was most looking forward to. Avignon is home to the Palais des Papes, the site of one of the most important European historical events. Essentially, in 1309, the Pope moved the papacy from Rome to Avignon, for political reasons. However, in 1337, when the Popes moved back to Rome, there was an event known as the Papal Schism, where there were three popes in the world, as there was the "real" pope in Rome, and what were known as the anti-popes in Avignon, who refused to relinquish their power. Keep in mind that at this time, the Catholic church was the most powerful entity in Europe, but especially so in France. The palace was much larger than I expected. There were massive dining halls, various ceremonial rooms, small chapelles, a monstrous main chapel (seen on the right. Note how small the people are compared to the ceiling), and we even got to peek into the Popes office. One of the most interesting parts for me was seeing the vaults. We got to go into the room that houses all of the riches of the Catholic church. The audioguide said that gold coins, relics, etc. were piled high in the chamber. What was truly impressive was that floor was actually just a false floor, and that certain stones could be pulled away to reveal the true treasures hidden beneath. The sheer wealth that would have been there as shocking to me. As I walked around the grounds of this huge, majestic palace, I found myself wondering how it was that such wealth could be collected from the peasants and used to create such edifices to God, such excess. It was truly food for religious thought.

One section of the Pont du Gard

After leaving the Palace, we took a short drive over to the city of Nimes to see the Pont du Gard. Remember the Roman history lesson above? The city of Nimes was one of the most important Roman colonies. To facilitate the transport of water to the city, the Romans built an aqueduct spanning 31 miles. While most of the aqueduct moves the water underground, the Pont du Gard spans the Gardon River. The bridge is massive, with three tiers made to transport water at the top levels and foot/horse traffic at the bottom level. For me, the most impressive part is that the Romans did not use an ounce of mortar to create this structure. They built a bridge 160 ft. high by cutting each stone to fit and packing it so tightly that you would not be able to slide a piece of paper in between it. Not only that, but that this structure has stood strong for over 2000 years, surviving major flooding and other natural and man-made disasters, without falling. The colossal effort that it must have taken (not to mention slave labor) to create this feat of engineering must have been incredible. We spent a couple of hours eating lunch on the banks of the river and walking around to various scenic view points around the aqueduct. 



Our next stop was the city of Arles, another heavily Roman-influenced town. We arrived in the early evening and had a few hours to relax and catch our breath at our hotel before going out for a group dinner. We walked through town to a small restaurant, where we proceeded to celebrate M. Villette's (our CSB|SJU group leader) 70th birthday with a great dinner and an expensive bottle of wine that we all pitched in to buy for him. The meal was a Provencal specialty. Thanks to the Romans, the city of Arles is home to a gladiator colosseum (more on that later) which is still in use today, although the gladiators of today are actual bullfighters. Our special meal, therefore, was tauraux or bull. It was cooked in a really dark, hearty sauce and tasted kind of like a really strong/heavy roast beef, although that doesn't quite get at it. 

Flamingos!

The landing coast of the three Marys

On the way to our next stop the following morning, we pulled over to the side of the road and got off the bus. On the side of the road was a huge flock of flamingos! Apparently they often come to this part of Provence. Because of the different diet in France, however, they were hardly pink at all, but rather a pale whiteish color. It was an amusing distraction. Soon after we arrived at a place called Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. This town was supposedly the landing of the three Marys in the Bible: Mary Magdalene, Mary Salome and Mary Jacobe. The legend is that after the crucifixion of Jesus, the three women set out in a boat without sails and were guided by God to land in this town. Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer is also the site of a yearly pilgrimage of the Roma gypsies, who pay homage to Saint Sarah, their patron saint, by taking relics of the Marys to the ocean. Sarah was thought to be a servant to them. We were able to climb to the top of the scenic church and take a look around the town. It had a pretty view of the ocean and the surrounding area. We didn't stay for long, as there really wasn't much to do or see. We stopped to eat at an exotic bird habitat, enjoying sandwiches as we saw more flamingos and other birds. I'm not really sure what this had to do with France, but it was an amusing lunch and a show.

As we were leaving from lunch, it started pouring rain. We arrive about an hour later at a city called Aigues-Mortes, which was founded by Gaius Marius in 102 B.C. The most interesting part of the city is that is was build to be impregnable by any attacking force. This was achieved by creating a wall around the entire town that was over 18 feet thick of solid stone. No amount of battering would bring this wall down. Sadly, the rain picked up to the point where it was absolutely torrential. While we did have umbrellas, only a few people in our group (not including us) were brave enough to go exploring in the city, as the rain was creating small rivers in the streets and we were all freezing. Instead, we enjoyed some crepes and and hot drinks in a cafe just inside the city walls and enjoyed the view of the fortifications from our dry and semi-warm vantage point.

Arles Colosseum

Cheering on the gladiators

After we left Aigues-Mortes, we headed back to Arles to see the sights in the light of day. Fortunately the rain let up for a time so that we could enjoy the incredible remnants of Roman civilization. The first stop was the arena/Colosseum in the center of town. I wish I had thought to find out exactly how large it was, but I was too busy marveling at the architecture. The structure was absolutely massive and in surprisingly good condition. When we went inside, it was easy to imagine the seats packed with Roman citizens and desperate gladiators on the sands. It is easy going day to day looking at stories about the Romans as almost fictional, but standing in the arena it really hit home that this is a very real and incredibly impressive part of our world's history. We went straight from the arena to a Roman amphitheater a few blocks down the road. If it was easy to imagine the gladiators, it was no less difficult to imagine the liveliness of this sight. Roman ampitheatres are truly revolutionary for their time. A person can stand down on the "stage" and speak in a normal speaking voice and be heard by the old man sitting in the farthest seat away. The sound carries amazingly well. It is very striking to stand in this chunk of perfectly preserved history in the middle of a modern and bustling city. We had some people in our group give a historical presentation on the stage, utilizing the Roman's ingenuity. If you closed your eyes you could almost see ancient Roman men putting on theatrical performances below. Amazing. That night, the rain began again in earnest, so we took the bus to our restaurant, which was on a boat on the river cutting through Arles. Sadly, we were forced to trudge through water that was legitimately midway up our calves before we made it inside. We felt slightly out of place inside this fancy restaurant with soaking wet clothes and the strong desire to take off our soggy wet socks and shoes. For dinner we enjoyed this wonderful turkey in a nummy French sauce dish thing with Provencal rice. It was phenomenal. For desert we had this super warm chocolate cake/pastry thing with whipped cream and happiness. It was a great way to make up for feeling like drowned cats.

Amphitheater stage

Amphitheater seating

Master marksman!

On top you can see what remains of the castle

The next (and final) day of our weekend trip was spent entirely at a place called Les Baux de Provence. This village was something akin to the villages perchés that I was talking about at the start of this post. It is essentially a castle built high up on a mountain for defensive purposes. For almost two thousand years, the lord of Les Baux held sway over the countryside, with its rich vinyards, olive fields, and other farmland, collecting riches and defending against Saracen invaders. The most interesting part of this town was that they have kept a fairly good historical representation of life there going. As you walk around the castle grounds at the top of the city, you get a chance to see some of the defensive and offensive siege machines- catapults, balistae, mangonels/onagers, battering rams, etc. We got to fire crossbows down at an archery range, watch historical re-enactments by these two French actor guys dressed up in costume and everything, and listen to an audioguide of the history. I was even chosen, along with another guy in my group to arm on of the trebuchets for fire during a demonstration. It was extremely taxing. We were essentially slowly raising a several hundred pound counterweight on the largest machine. By the time we got to the end, I felt like my arms were going to fall off. It was kind of sad because after all the prep time it took to set up the shot, the trebuchet fired backwards (which only happens very rarely and usually due to the projectile being too light, as ours was), but it was still a fun and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We ate lunch while watching a sword-fight between the two actor guys and proceeded to make our way up the the upper battlements to see the ramparts/watchtowers. The view from up top was gorgeous with a great view of the mountains in the distance, the rocky countryside, the neat rows of orchards lining the fields all round Les Baux, and the tiny red-roof village below us. It was easy to imagine why the lord of Les Baux were so keen on defending the area. In total, we spent several hours there with all of the interesting sights to see.

The village that the lords ruled over

 After that we made our way back to Cannes. We were all dead on our feet and ready to do nothing for the rest of the day, but our obligations as students forced us to sit down and do homework, as we did have to go to class the next day. It was also painful to return to our normal cafeteria food after a few days of wonderfully prepared, rich tasting meals. But, as the French say, "c'est la vie!" 

Thanks for putting with with this longer than average post. I hope that it was enjoyable to read, despite my history lessons. For now we go back to the day-to-day grind of classes with our new seminars and practicing for the theater production, which I will discuss more on soon. Hope everything is going well for everyone back in the U.S!