Day 26- St. Raphael

We were up bright and early, as always on excursion days. Jill and I have become experts at the train now. We know exactly how to get there, where all of the platforms are (there are only 2, but we know them!) its comforting now knowing we can get where we want to go easily. Jill and I had barely any sleep the night before because we planned our trip so late, and the only train to St. Raphael was at 6am. When you’re sick, it’s most certainly NOT recommended to cut out all sleep, but when you are about to start you last week in Europe, well sleeping is definitely less of an option. But I rallied, again, and went to St. Raphael.

St. Raphael Beach

When we arrived we went to a small coffee shop that looked out over the water to give our selves a little kick start for the day. Everything always tastes better when you are looking out over the sea, and the sunshine is beating down on you.

After a delicious, tiny, cup of espresso, we headed to the pharmacy for some medicine to help me feel better.

The pharmacies here in France, and I’m assuming all over Europe, are similar, yet obviously different from the ones in the US. There is over the counter medicine, but you have to tell the pharmacist what your symptoms are, and they give you what they think will work. So it’s not really “over the counter”. After telling her as much as I could in French, and fake coughing to demonstrate my illness, she got a box and said that it would work. So I took it. When we got out of the store I opened the box to take my first dose to find little sachets. They were pre portioned liquid packs, the box said it was supposed to taste like vanilla caramel, but it just tasted awful. Weirdest medicine I have ever taken.

Weird Medicine

We taxied to the location that we wanted to go snorkeling at, which was the main attraction that made Jill and I choose St. Raphael. When we got to the tiny beach side shack it wasn’t open. So we laid in the hot sun, and took naps on the sandy beach (that’s right I said sandy!! Woo!). About 2 hours, and a little tan later we saw people moving around in the general area of the shack. When we got closer we realized everyone seemed to know one another so we began to feel awkward, we thought we might be crashing a party. After about 5 minutes of awkwardly standing near the shack like 2 silly Americans, a man came up to us and asked if he could help us, in English. We were thrilled, yes please! We want to go snorkeling! At first he said they did not start going snorkeling until July, instantly our smiles faded. But after he double-checked, he found out that there was going to be one run today at 3 and we could go if we wanted. HECK YES!

To waste time we went to a great little restaurant that, again, looked out over the water, this one was actually on the beach. In the US this type of attraction would warrant extremely high priced food, and normally and entire resort attached to it, but not here. Every one knew to owner, he was such a character, so friendly and outgoing, he tried to hook me and Jill up with his son, asking us to write our number on the check, it was quite an interesting lunch.

Looking out on the water

We sat on the beach a bit more before our snorkeling adventure, this time we both squeezed under a teeny tiny tree trying to avoid the sun so that we wouldn’t get too dehydrated. Again, we must have looked like the ridiculous Americans, we are pretty much over that now.

When we got to the snorkeling place the lady that owned the shop handed jill and I both full body wet suits, at first we laughed thinking it was a joke, but she was serious. We were about to embark on a serious adventure.

We suited up and jumped into the cold Mediterranean. After going out about 50 meters the owners husband dashed deep under the water and grabbed an octopus with his bare hands! We wrestled with it as it inked all over the place, when it finally calmed down he let us touch it and then gently placed it back down on the sea floor. In that moment I knew this was going to be unlike any other snorkeling trip in the world. Every time he would dive down he came up with a new beautiful creature, huge neon orange starfishes, coral, sea urchins it was so amazing. We swam about a kilometer away from shore, and then back again, about an hour and a half worth of snorkeling with a private special tour guide (it only felt like 30 minutes). We got out of the water thrilled! That was well worth 30 euro!

When we got back to the shack, we asked if the woman would call our taxi for us, of course she did. When she got off the phone, she told us where to meet the taxi, and said that we didn’t have to pay. WOOHOO! FREE SNORKLEING!

Our day had turned out perfect, thank goodness we chose St. Raphael over any other place. We took a long train ride home, and played cards to help pass the time. upon our return we heard the end of the France V.S. Spain Eurocup game; it didn’t end so well for France. Then we crawled our tired little bodies into bed and passed out.

Jill and i played war on the train (i won )

Great round of Beebe Solitaire

Day 25- Goodbye

We woke up to meet our neighbor to go find the keys to our apartment. She was very kind and seemed excited to be able to help us. She spoke a great amount of English and asked us why we were here and what we studied, it was strange because she thought it would be to personal to ask where we came from. She told the woman at the front desk that we were renting so our names were not on the documents and that it was okay for them to give the keys to us. Finally we had access to the building! No more worries!

On the walk home my sickness really started to set in. It has been pretty hot here, and our apartment has no air conditioning so getting inside wasn’t even that much of a relief. I decided to put on my bathing suit, sprawl out on the couch, and take a nap. It was most certainly my best decision.

After changing into appropriate attire, Jill and I met our friends for a fair well dinner. We went to a place called burger bar. It was amazing, well for burgers in France. 

Pesto Mozzarella Burger

Dinner ended quickly and it was time for u to say our last good bye to our new friends. It is strange how attached we have become over these past 3 weeks, some times it feel like we have known each other forever. The people I have met here in Aix were put here for a reason and so was I, and I am so glad that our paths crossed. It was sad to watch them leave. just another reminder that our trip is ending shortly :(

As our night started to end Jill and I decided to plan a trip to St. Raphael for the next day. One of the best parts of being in France is the ability to go somewhere that is so cool and different every day of your trip. In this case, small is good.  

Day 24- Blessings

My dad told me that I should start running again if I want to try and beat my small head cold. I am not sure if he is right but he’s my dad, so I followed the advice and went on an easy jog in the morning. The smoke from the Europeans was burning my esophagus the whole time, it was awful.

I returned and made my self a beautiful American breakfast. I had eggs with toast and cheese. It was most certainly the best I have had yet, I should open a restaurant here I think I’d make millions. It was just what I needed.

When Jill woke up we went shopping for souvenirs for our families. It was so depressing! It is starting to set in more and more that our trip is almost over. While going to the shops we ended up at a market in the center of town buying clothes for 5 euro. It was awesome! Needless to say I think I ended up buying more souvenirs for my self than I did for my family.

Thankfully I had time for a nap before our last class. While I was sleeping our wifi went out again L it wouldn’t have been such a problem the wifi being disconnected bur when we left for class saw a note on the door saying the locks were changed and go see land lord, but we don’t know who or where that is! The simple fix would be to e-mail the woman we sub lease from, but that’s had to do with no wifi!

We decided that class was more important at the moment, and if we were lucky, it would just be on when we returned.

Class was bitter sweet; we mostly talked about the end of our trip, and wrote letters to our selves about or favorite part, which will be cool to read in a few months. If you couldn’t tell from previous posts, our teacher is the sweetest person. While we were out on our 20-minute break she put little cadeaux on our desks. She never fails to impress me.

Petite Cadeaux from our teacher

After class the school had a little get together to say good bye to the students that were only doing the three week session. It wasn’t all that sad because every one that was there was attending the “Fete de la Musique” the same evening.

The Fete is Frances way of bringing in summertime every city has lots of bands playing all day and night on every corner. It felt like Italy on repeat, except this time we got to experience it with our friends. Although we were still slightly nervous about our key situation, it would have been awful if we got locked out of our building during the festival, most certainly would have been déjà vu. I decided to knock on the neighbors’ door before we had people over just to see if maybe she knew where to go. Of course she knew where the keys were, and being the sweet woman she is, she offered to walk us there the next morning and promised the door wouldn’t lock tonight. Yet another blessing on our incredible journey.

Friends

The party was on, we had friends here as always, but a few more than normal, then we hit the streets. Unlike Italy the music here was different on every corner some classical, some jazz, some rock, all of it was amazing. We headed straight to the big stage to try and catch the headliner for the night, and ended up being right in front of the stage on the rail. The band was so full of energy, the crowd loved it. The girl singer rocked the stage and we all instantly fell in love with her. it was the perfect last big night out with everyone.

Head Line Band

Part of the Fete de la Musique crowd

Day 23- Shopping

Normally when we go out at night with our friends Megan and Danielle sleep over because their host families homes are just out side of the city, and it is not a good idea for two beautiful girls to be walking around alone at night, even if Aix is fairly safe. So in the morning since our friends were already here, we decided to go on a shopping spree. We traveled up and down the beautiful old streets of Aix perusing all of the stores. Then we went to an area that I had never gone to in Aix that was an outdoor shopping mall. It was so close to where I lived I just over looked it every time. 

It was so nice walking around. I normally despise shopping; I am the total opposite of many other girls in this aspect. But to shop in Aix, this was just fun. I could have stayed for hours spending hundreds of Euros. But we had other things on the schedule for the day so I left with just a shirt and a beach dress.

Out door shopping mall

For lunch we went to this place just on the edge of center city that was cafeteria style. They had an item of the day and you could get 2 sides a dessert and drink for just 3.50 euro! It was so strange though the set up and people of all ages were there from 10 to 55, (it was mostly working people). It was only open from 11 to 2 , lunch time only. I wish there was a place like this near my house in Glassboro it was a bargain!

We had a great class talking about why we came to France and what our expectations were and how they panned out. It was eerie talking about leaving already, so soon. Didn’t we just start class?

After class we went back to our apartment to make dinner blog, and talk to our families and friends. 

Face timing my goofy sister, (she might kill me for this)

In the middle of using the Internet, our service cut out! Thankfully it only lasted for about 2 hours, because it was the last night that we planned on sitting in one spot for a decent amount of time before our journey back to the US. It was critical that we talked with our families and looked up the different excursions we were planning for our last days in Aix, and our trip to Avignon and Germany. Due to the loss of Internet, we were unable to contact out friends to hang out so we had, what may be, our last relaxing night in, hopefully ;). 

Day 22- Cassis

Unforgettable views

We have dreamt of Cassis since orientation when a few people told us to Google it. Today we get to live out the dream the best part is we are able to do it with our Teacher and new Texas friends. Although still feeling under the whether, I knew that being out on the beach relaxing would be the perfect remedy.

We headed to the bus station confident now in where we were going. With about 15 minutes to find our bus we were relaxed and ready for a simple day of fun. Well of course, not quite. The bus system really isn’t complicated as long as you are looking for the right buss. We weren’t. Thankfully 2 minutes before departure time Jill realized the bus we were trying to find wasn’t here because it’s the one we connect to in Aubagne, our faces lit up as we looked about 200 yards down the sidewalk at the bus we should have been looking for. RUN! We sprinted to the bus and were the last 4 people on before it pulled away; so much for a calm morning. Thankfully our second bus was very easy to find, especially since we had been looking for it all day long.

When we arrived in cassis we waited a bit for our teacher to arrive and pick us up to go to lunch. We met up with our teacher she was so excited to see us that she forgot where she parker her car. Oops! Thankfully an old Italian man noticed we were lost and walked us to where he believed our parking lot was. A few minutes after sending us off, we saw him chasing after us, he realized he pointed us in the wrong direction and wanted to make sure we didn’t get completely lost, which was so nice. Another little angel on our trip

We finally made it to our lunch spot and it was breath taking. The café we ate at felt as though it was on top of that water. We sat for a while gazing at the beautiful water talking and eating delicious food. I had the eggplant parmesan, it was the best I have ever tasted.

From the Rock

We wrapped up lunch a little later then expected and headed out to the rock. The spot that we laid out was most certainly the locals’ area. The French really do have hidden spots that they go to, and laugh at the Americans one the rocky beach, who would have thought. We were on a giant boulder away from all noise and distractions. It was amazing. Our little group were the only people who knew what a bathing suit was on the entire rock, which really proved we were in the locals terrain. We laid in awe under the over cast sky, and then decided to take a dip in the Mediterranean.

Our class

The water looked cold, and I could tell it was freezing when Sarah-Beth jumped off of the rock one color, and reappeared from beneath the water with no color at all. I plunged in and felt my skin burn, and my muscles tense up for a moment until everything went numb. At that point it became serene again. In my head I thought to my self “how could I ever forget this moment, jumping into the freezing Mediterranean with my teacher for class, this is what studying abroad is all about”

The day ended abruptly due to the train schedule.

About to jump into the Mediterranean 

Hi!

In the water

We made it back to Aix safely, only missing one of the busses due to a traffic jam, over all we did pretty well with self-transporting. We got back to the apartment and finished our homework while our friends eagerly waited to go out and have fun with us. We were slightly exhausted from our day, but knowing that they would be leaving in a few days, and that it was ladies night buy one get one drinks, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go out. Sorry sickness, you will have to wait until I get back to the states.

Day 21- Lost

I woke up to a stuffy nose, scratchy throat, and heavy head. Being dehydrated really hurt my body, and it wasn’t nice of me to not sleep very much. I decided I shouldn’t go to my favorite park for a morning run, I was slightly heart broken.

Instead Jill and I did some food shopping for the apartment at a cheap food store called DIA. When you walk in you can tell you are about to get cheap knock off food, and the workers don’t even seem French with their mannerisms, but it is cheap, so the atmosphere isn’t our main concern.

I took the French equivalent of an airborne and went to class expecting to sit and relax for a few hours just writing.

When our teacher arrived she came with different news. She had relied on someone else to get bus information for our class trip to Cassis that was happening the next day. As it goes, the friend was not able to follow through and the only way to get the bus information was to visit the bus stop information desk right now. Class had started at 4:00, the desk closes at 4:45, the classroom is across town from the buys stop, and we have wasted about 10 minutes listening to our teacher.

So the four of us went out into Aix-En-Provence to find the bus station and get the information to go to Cassis. Initially We thought that we had to go to the train station we got there at 4:32, nervous Ellen and I got in line while Jill and Sarah-Beth looked at all of the pamphlets to see if they could get the information there. After about 5 minutes Jill and Sarah-Beth tell us we are at the wrong spot and the map says we need to go about 3 blocks down the street. 4:37 and were headed towards the real information center. Its sweltering hot out, and we all are sweating, we get very excited as we approach the station, 4:41, just in time. We got the bus information and headed back to class for a short writing assignment, then we were sent home to rest up for our big trip to Cassis.

Bus maps for Cassis

Since we hadn’t seen our friends for the entire weekend we made plans to meet up for dinner. I said I would meet Jill and the crew at the Aix-presso a few doors down because I had a few things to do in the apartment. 

I left the apartment and couldn’t find them at Aix-presso, after looking at my twitter account I find out that they changed where they were going, and the directions they gave me were not helpful “turn right after Jacobs Boulangerie” Jill has said a million times she has wanted to go there, but I never knew where it was.

No problem ill just go up to my apartment use the wifi and then go eat with them. Only one problem, I left my keys in the apartment for the first time ever. So I walked around in the general direction that I believed they were, and after 20 minutes I found them, of course they were finished their meal by now, but it was okay I was just glad I found them.

We all headed back to our place to talk about our weekends apart from each other and how much we wished each other could have been there. It is the start of our last week together as Will and Danielle leave on Saturday to go home. Hopefully the next week will bring more time together, less time getting lost.

Day 20- Nice to meet you?

Beach in Nice, France

We woke up early, to be honest anytime is early when you don’t go to sleep until 4:30 am. We had our free breakfast, which was just as exciting the second time as the first time. Then said our goodbye to Italy and hello to Nice, France.

The station was about 15 blocks from the beach, if we didn’t have all of our luggage with us we would have explored the town a little more but for us getting straight to the beach seemed like a much better idea. So we lugged our items 15 blocks, and jumped into the crystal clear water. The beach in Nice was all rocks, not even half rock and half sand the way it was in Ventimille. Lying on our towels was incredibly uncomfortable, how do the Europeans do it? Maybe they know where the good beaches are and they are sitting laughing at the silly visitors on the rocks.

After a short time at the beach, I decided I was way to dehydrated, so we made our way to a Chinese buffet. The selection was small, but we had been craving Chinese the whole time we have been here in France so it felt like heaven for us. We indulged in many different items, all slightly different from American Chinese. Our favorite was the make your own wok, which tasted almost exactly the same as home, and we didn’t have any mysteries about the food we were about to consume. We wanted to sit and relax at our table before heading back to the train station but as we were finishing our ice cream an old woman pulled up a chair and sat down, right at our table! We were at a fairly large table for the two of us, but there were about 7 other open tables she could have chosen from.

She said something in a thick Italian accent, I keep replaying it in my head and I cannot tell if she was trying to speak French, or thought that everyone in Nice, France should know Italian. She sat staring at us, no attempt to make small talk, only a small wrinkled smile when we would look over to her. After about 5 minutes we started to feel a bit awkward and decided to head out. As we were picking up our stuff, a flock of older women came to our table all speaking in the Italian, French gibberish. Jill and I had no idea where they came from but it must be their spot, and we were intruding. Most certainly one of the most interesting situations we have been put in so far.

Nice Train Station

What the train normally looks like

The train ride home felt overly long, there was no air conditioning for the longer train that we had to take, which ended up feeling like a sauna. Luckily the last half started calm and peaceful, until a few drunken French men got on the train with a boom box and beers and tried to make a party, any other day I might have thought that was cool, not today. 

Tired faces on the train

We got back to our apartment safe and on time. When i opened the door the scent was comforting. it wasn't the same scent as my home in Glassboro, or anyoneelses' home I have ever walked into, it was the smell of Jill and my home. Italy was definitely one of our best decisions so far, now we start our last week of classes, hard to believe. 

Day 19- Right Place, Right Time

FREE BREAKFAST, WOOHOO!!

Breakfast at hotel Calypso

Any day that starts out with a free French breakfast is bound to be an excellent one. We woke up rejuvenated; it was the first time we slept for the recommended 8 hours in a few weeks. A little breakfast, bathing suits and a map we were ready for a day in the sun!

Phil’s birthday was a few days ago, he asked if when I was in Italy I could try to go to a Kappa store (famous for soccer items, located solely in Italy) and he would love something from there for his gift. Simple enough, there was a store only 3 miles down the road. The plan was to sit on a beach walk a little sit on another beach then walk a little until we reached our final destination.

First beach

Jills Beach experience

Jill was pretty burnt from the previous day in the sun, so we didn’t stay on the beaches of very long. In the end it worked out because it took us hours to find this imaginary kappa store. 

Pretty Flower from our walk

Walking around and seeing everything in Italian really made me appreciate the little French that I know. It was frustrating that we couldn’t stop for directions anywhere we pleased, we had to find a store where they might know French, which can get tricky, because I am not fluent, and they aren’t fluent either. We had almost given up after hours of searching, and getting burned by the hot Mediterranean sun when I decided to walk into a shop and pray they spoke English or French. Thankfully she spoke French, and we were less than a mile away. Her directions were perfect, we made it.

Kappa Store

After shopping, we trudged home exhausted. First item of business when we were back in our area was find dinner. Again we sat at a little café and relaxed. We were slightly upset that we were given sparkling water. It didn’t quench our thirst the way a cup of nice cold tap water would have. While we were eating a parade of floats went by. They were all made up of thousands of flowers, beautiful perfect flowers; thousands of dollars must have been put into the ornate floats. We watched not knowing what was going on, my assumption was that it was just some sort of town flower show. We finished our dinner and went back to our hotel

One of the floats (Mostly lilies, my favorite!)

Olympics flower float

 I felt pretty dehydrated, and sick after a long day in the sun with no water. After skypeing with my mom and Phil, and drinking a large quantity of water, I decided to suck it up and go out for our last night in Italy. While we got ready we heard a band playing from our window, we figured it was just the café next door as we had seen drums being set up earlier in the day. What really caught us off guard was the sound of fire works.

 We quickly got ready and headed outside to see what was going on.

When we opened the door the street was flooded with people. It slightly felt like walking into a surprise party, where the heck did all of the people come from!?

The crowd here is small!

We made our way down the street to watch the last 5 minutes of the fire works. When the fireworks ended everyone in the crowed scattered, but it didn’t feel like anyone left. The streets were so congested you could barely move, at night there was a band on every single corner playing for the vast crowd I felt like I was in a movie. Everything was right on the beach like a boardwalk, with no boards. One of the bars sectioned off part of the beach, put up a temporary out side bar and hired a DJ for a giant beach party. Every one was so full of energy. While we were on the beach two ladies Noticed that Jill and I spoke English and asked where we were from. They then told us that we had stumbled upon Ventimille on the right day because it was their start of the summer party that only happens once a year. Not sure how we got so lucky. Jill and I ended our night at 4:30 am, half of the people were still awake and moving around at this time. When we got back to our hotel the iron gate was closed in front of it! We tried to pull it open but no luck. We didn’t know we had a curfew! After a few minutes a woman let us in, but in those few minutes Jill and I thought we were about to sleep on the rocky beach! it was a perfect memorable last night in Italy.

Day 18- Plans

Unfortunately plans did not work out for us to visit my friend jess in Florence, but we had train plans for Italy, so at 5am we were Italy bound. The streets in Aix are unrecognizable this early in the morning; there is trash all over the streets from all of the fun the night before, a few people walking around. I am surprised they are still upright because its obvious from the glitter on their shirts and the stumble in their step that they are still up from last night.

We make it to the small train station in Aix fill in our tickets and try to find our way to our platform. It shouldn’t be to hard, there are only 2 platforms, but some how the people who made the station found a way to make this confusing. There were numbers and letters denoting the plat forms, not numbers and letters together, they were separate. It was confusing, but luckily we were early, and the station was teeny tiny, and our train was the only one there. Thank goodness, still Italy bound.

Our first two trains were nice, not many people, large comfy chairs, felt like first class compared to what trains in the US look like.

Everything was going smoothly, until we got onto our third train. It was 15 minutes late and there were two or three hundred people on the platform. When our train arrived, every one from the platform got on. Lucky us. So every squeezed on to the train like a bunch of clowns in a mini cooper. You couldn’t move, you could barely even breathe. So for a half hour we rode on the clown train having our toes stepped on, falling on people we barely knew, and smelling people who barely knew a shower.

Crowded Train to Ventimille

 Fortunately everyone on the train just wanted to go to Monaco, understandable. When I looked at the time I realized it was 30 minutes until the changing of the guards, duh, that was a crucial train, note to other travelers, never take the train that’s 30 minutes before the changing of the guards. When we got off the train we were in Italy, slightly uneventful as there wasn’t a customs station, and we didn’t get our passports stamped, but we knew we had arrived, and that’s all that mattered.

We took the scenic route to our hotel, but we arrived in one piece.

Thankfully, this hotel was much larger than our hotel in Paris, it also had a huge bathroom. Even more important than the size, it was very clean, came with shampoo, and had a free breakfast in the morning I do love free!

We quickly changed, and walked to the beach just 2 blocks away. On Fridays in Ventimille, there is a huge market. It is much different from the ones in Aix. This market had all types of clothes and knock off purses, bed linens and jewelry. We decided we needed to sit in the hot sun for a bit before we would be up for the market. So we laid on the half rock half sand beach, and passed out.

PALM TREES :)

After a few dips in the cool Mediterranean Sea and a little color on our skin we decided it was time to tackle part of the Market, a small part. We most likely walked about half a mile through the streets, but the market went on for much longer possibly for miles. Personally I got my self a 3 Euro pair of sunglasses, score!

Ventimille Beach

We sat down to a nice Italian pizza dinner and hung out in the café for a few hours, this was our vacation from our vacation.

Dinner

We wrapped up our meal and headed back to the hotel ready to hit the town. Our plan was to grab a bottle of wine the have before we went out to save some money on drinks. Well, as I said before, plans don’t always go as planned. Every single store was closed, our luck. Instead we stopped into a pizza shop and got a few beers to go. For some reason we decided to get the weirdest beer in the fridge and ended up paying the same amount we would have at the bar.

Expensive

We got all dolled up and headed to the bar that the concierge suggested. When we arrived it was dead. The concierge said something about Saturdays being better and how tonight wouldn’t be as fun, but it was hard to believe this place was even a bar. Unanimous decisions, go to bed, and have a great day tomorrow. Done.

Day 17- The Little Things

We woke up early for an excursion with our class. We traveled to the same region as the first excursion. It is supposedly the most beautiful and diverse area of France, I wouldn’t argue. We started out with a quick stop in Lourmarin. The first time we traveled here, there was a giant market on the streets, and hundreds of people. Today, the town was calm, small cafes open, the only people out side were two blonde boys on the playground while their parents sat on the bench watching. I thought to my self “do you people ever work?” it was nice to see the city at its busiest and at its’ calmest. It helped give me a full feel for the town, a complete picture. We only stopped for a few minutes, mostly a pee break, and then jumped back on the bus.

This trip is also much nicer then the first trip to this area because there was about 1/3 of the amount of people. We could walk around more freely, and go into little areas that a larger group wouldn’t fit in.

Our next stop was Bonnieux. Most of the towns in this area were adorable little towns that occupied just a single mountain. They would have a church on top, and the villiage would spill down from the church. If you squinted your eyes and blurred out the features of the houses it still looked just like the mountain its self with the same natural slope and shape. We sat about a kilometer out sie of town on an adjacent hill top and took in the external sights before making our way into the town.

Bonnieux from afar

 The trip consisted of many students who were studying art, it was really cool to get inside of their heads for a few moments and hear how they felt about the town from afar. Their minds were so clear and beautiful, I felt honored to e with them. Bonnieux was a quaint little town. There weren’t tourists all over the place as you would see on a Saturday in Aix. There were just the towns’ people doing their everyday routine. I felt already the difference between this excursion and the first. the first was full of grand sights a lots of moving to see the best tourist attraction all together, this trip was about seeing the little things and experiencing true southern France.

Beautiful flowers on the side of the road

After grabbing a sandwich from a little boulangerie, and fruit from a small convenience store, we headed to LaCoste for a pic-nic lunch. We traveled down into the valley on a small path then off of the path into and over grown field. There were wild flowers and greens everywhere. We sat in a little circle and enjoyed our pic-nic listening to our “tour-guide” John tell us stories and jokes. He was a gem on the trip, giving us all a new perspective on the area.

The trees that remind me of home

The "field" we ate in

After finishing lunch we trekked back to the bus and headed to the area we were going to hike

We were not told the name of the town in which we hiked, but if you placed me here and said guess where you are, I have a strong feeling I would have said New Jersey, south Jersey of course. Everything was so green. It wasn’t just the greenery and pine trees that reminded me of Jersey, it was the definite crunch beneath my feet, the pricker bushes we had to avoid, and the birds, it always comes back to the birds. It was the first time I had heard a bird chirp the same way they do in the U.S. it was oddly, very oddly, comforting.

The Highligh of our hike was a small boire (boor-ee). It is a small hut made entirely of stones stacked  one upon another with nothing but gravity and good planning holding it together. No one knows how old it is or who made it, or what it was even used for. Not knowing the details made it even more interesting. To think someone made this small hide out centuries ago, and could be famous for it, but they aren’t, and they probably never cared to be if they didn’t put anything on the hut to signify that they were there. One of the first unsung heros of our world I’d presume.

The hall in the Boire

Outside the Boire

Our last stop was at the Monastery. It is still functioning today but we were able to tour the 12^th century area including the temple and cloister. It was so much different that thecurches we have visited in our time in France. It was very simple. Not statues, color, detail, the stained glass just looked like old yellow glass. It seemed empty as if someone had come in and robbed it of all its riches. But on the other hand it was simply beautiful, thinking about how there was need to be superfluous whenen worshiping.

Monastery (lavender is starting to budd too!)

Gourdes ( 30 second stop on the way home)

The day felt like two with the amount we had accomplished and learned, thanks to John our “tour-guide”. But more than just seeing beautiful things I have a feeiling of real southern france, the spots that no other tourist gets to see, and many people that live here don’t take the time to see.