Spring Break With Dickinson

My apologies for the tardiness of this post. Spring break started here in France last Friday and it seems like since then it has been go go go. From Sunday April 27th until Wednesday April 30th, I went on a Dickinson-planned trip to Aix-en-Provence, les Calanques, Gordes, and Roussillon. We did lots of walking and hiking in order to see new regions of France that we might not have visited otherwise. I wanted to blog about the trip when I got back on Wednesday but I left again for more travel on Thursday the 1st, so I had no time. I started writing this post on a train in the Bavaria region of Germany and now I'm in Salzburg, Austria! I shall do my best to recall our fabulous trip to Provence that way you can all be up to date!

Our first stop of the trip was Aix-en-Provence, the birthplace of Paul Cézanne and Emile Zola. It's located not too far north of Marseilles. The city is beautiful (as most cities in France are) and filled with lots of tree lined plazas with outdoor cafés and fountains. One of the first things that I did was a hike up a hill to the north of the city to see the famous Mt. Sainte-Victoire that Cézanne painted over and over again. The views from up there were incredible. The mountain just appears out of the rolling landscape. They had reproductions of his paintings in the little park on the hill so that you can really see how he interpreted the landscape from up there. On my way down from the park, I stopped to visit Cézanne's atelier (studio) which has been preserved to look exactly like it did when he used it. It's easy to see why Cézanne chose to live most of his life in Aix. The sunlight hitting the old yellow buildings and flickering through the trees really does make the whole town feel like a painting.

On day 2 of our trip, we went to the Calanques, a national park located on the Mediterranean coast between Marseilles and Cassis. The park is a hiker's dream. It's filled with mountains and cliffs that descend into the sea. Sounds really ugly right? We spent the day descending down to the water and hiking back up again to take in the views from above. Some sections were much more challenging than others and it was by no means an easy hike. It reminded me a bit of rock scrambling in Mohonk (for those of you who know what I'm talking about.) Any time that I hike in France it makes me a bit homesick just because that's such a family-oriented activity for us. Can't wait to hike with the Hatabi nation this summer. Did I really just say that? Oy. But anyway, it was definitely the highlight of the trip. I am always amazed by the diversity of landscapes that can be found in a country the size of Texas and the views that we saw in the Calanques were no exception. It was beyond beautiful.

Our next stop was the town of Gordes, an old medieval city built on a hillside overlooking the rolling hills of the valley. Before exploring the town itself, we journeyed into one of the surrounding valleys to visit the Abbaye de Sénanque, a monastery built in the 12th century that is still used to this day. The Provence region is known for growing lavender and surrounding the abbey were fields and fields of the plant. While the plants weren't yet in bloom, they had a lavender-ish color that was truly beautiful. The abbey was also gorgeous and the history was very interesting. We spent the afternoon exploring the city of Gordes. There wasn't too much to do in the city itself so we took in the views, ate some ice cream, and relaxed in our lovely surroundings. I mean after all, we don't have that much time left to enjoy the French joie de vivre.

Our last day of the trip was spent exploring the town of Roussillon and its famous Sentier des Ocres, a natural rock formation that looks a bit like the Grand Canyon, though on a much much smaller scale. The ground and rocks in the park are all orangey-yellow and instead of dirt, the ground is covered with a sandy substance. It's leftover from when the area was covered by the ocean millions of years ago. It's another incredible french landscape that is so not what you picture when you think of France. After exploring the natural landscape, we explored the "urban" landscape ( I use that term very lightly) of the town itself. All of the buildings are the same color as the rock formations. With the tiny winding streets, colorful buildings, and awesome views of the surrounding area, the town was quite picturesque.

After a lovely couple of days together, we headed back to Toulouse with a few more freckles and lots of fun memories from our last Dickinson trip of the year.

Home in TWO WEEKS.

Luck

I feel really lucky after this past week. So many awesome things happened and I just wanted to share them with all of you!

On Monday, I found out that I will be interning at the Whitney Museum of American Art in the city this summer. For the past three or so months I have been freaking out about finding a summer internship and so to have been offered a dream position like this was the best way to start my week. 

On Wednesday, I had my first final exam of the semester and it wasn't too bad so that's always good news. Only one more to go! (It's in 3 weeks - France is weird)

On Friday, I found out that I have been tapped to join Dickinson's senior women's honorary society, Wheel and Chain, also know as the Blue Hats. It's really hard to explain to people who don't go to Dickinson but it's a group of 10 or so women who can be recognized on campus by their (our - weird!) signature blue hats. It's a huge honor and I feel so lucky to have been chosen to continue the legacy of such incredible ladies. I remember when I was a freshman thinking that all of the blue hats were some of the most amazing girls on campus and now I'm one of them! Crazy!

To top it all off, yesterday Meri and I went on a tour of Airbus! For those of you who know me pretty well, you know that I have this really weird obsession with planes and basically all things aviation. Needless to say it was one of my favorite days of being abroad thus far. Airbus is headquartered in Toulouse so we went out to their campus and got to see where they make the A380, the largest plane in the world. It's the one that has two full passenger decks. It's like a double decker plane and it's SO COOL. I really want to fly on one. All of the parts of the plane are made in different parts of Europe and then they get shipped to Toulouse for assembly. We saw the huge hangar that can house 4 of them inside and then the area where they get worked on outside. I could have stayed there all day. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the facility so enjoy this super cool photo of me being really lame:

I'm currently sitting on the bus going to Aix-en-Provence for Dickinson's spring break trip. I'll be back in Toulouse on Wednesday night and then I leave for more travel on Thursday.

May 22nd is just around the corner, it's insane!

Home in 25 days!

Nice is Pretty Nice

This weekend I took a trip to the French Riviera where I met up with my favorite weirdo, Chelsea, after 8 months of being apart. In our 13-year friendship this is the longest time that we haven't seen each other. Bizarre! Needless to say, we had such a fun weekend exploring Nice and venturing to Monaco.

Friday we stayed in Nice and explored everything that this amazing city has to offer. My host family was skeptical as to why I was going to Nice. They said that there isn't really anything to do there and that the population is really old. I don't know what they were talking about because Chel and I found so much to do and had an awesome time wandering around the city. First of all, the Mediterranean. The water was such a bright blue and even when it was cloudy it was beautiful. Nice is famous for its "Promenade des Anglais," a really long boardwalk-type path along the rocky coast. The beach in Nice isn't sand but little rocks and pebbles. While it's not exactly comfortable to sit on, it's definitely a sight to see and explore. Nice has so many different vantage points for taking in the incredible views of the city and the surrounding regions and we tried to hit them all. Our exploring was obviously broken up by numerous food and snack breaks and the food options in Nice were endless. The part of the city known as "Vieux Nice" or old Nice, is filled with tiny, winding streets and vibrant, colorful buildings where restaurants and cafés (and ice cream shops) are to be found all over the place. Let's just say we ate well this weekend.

Nice is just down the coast from Monaco, the second smallest country in the world, so on Saturday we decided to take a day trip to see what it was all about. Monaco should just be synonymous with money. At least in the Monte Carlo area where we got to see the world famous casino, every designer store you could possibly imagine, and cars. My god the cars. Parked on the street, driving down the famous Monaco grand prix track, or just waiting at a stop light, the worlds priciest cars were everywhere and it was definitely a sight to see. Monaco is a beautiful country built right into the mountainside along the Mediterranean. After admiring the Casino and the Monte Carlo region in general, we made our way down to the port, scoped out our future yachts, then climbed up the hill and explored old Monaco where the Grimaldi family palace is located. The Grimaldi family has ruled Monaco since 1297. So cool. Up on the hill, the views of Monaco were absolutely breathtaking. After visiting the Oceanography museum, which is literally built on a cliff, we headed back to Nice to enjoy the sunshine and beautiful weather.

The famous casino

Grand prix grand stands

Zee palace

Chel left early on Sunday morning, so I wandered around for a while on my own, did some shopping, and plane watched for a majority of the day before my 5pm flight. The Nice airport is really close to the city of Nice and sort of sticks out into the Mediterranean so I was sliiiightly obsessed with watching all of the planes go in and out all weekend. Cause I'm a super cool human.

This was probably the best weekend trip of the year and I was so bummed when it had to come to an end. Especially because it was rainy and gross when I got back to Toulouse.

Home one month from tomorrow.

Firsts and Lasts

This past weekend was filled with both of them. It's strange that after seven months in France I could still have new experiences and even weirder still that all of my "lasts" are beginning to happen.

About a month or so ago, I made a list of all of the things I wanted to do in Toulouse before I leave to go back to the States. One of those things was to go to the ballet and so on Friday night, Ayse and I went to see "Pâques Russes" - translates to Russian Easter though I'm not sure how that's related to the ballet we saw. It was incredible. And incredibly cheap. Only 10 euros for student tickets! Things I will miss about Europe. Even though the seats were partial-view I was still mesmerized. The way that these dancers do what they do with their bodies is incredible. Makes me really want to go see the New York City Ballet when I get home.

Couldn't take pictures at the ballet so this poster will have to suffice

Another thing on my list was to see a rugby game, so on Saturday a bunch of us went! Here in southwestern France rugby is king, not soccer. My only experience with rugby was going to see my cousin Kristin play at Gettysburg last year so I wasn't (and still am not) too familiar with the rules. We got our tickets from the international student group at our university so we ended up going with students from all over Europe which was really fun! We were also surrounded by a group of drunk of irish guys so of course that was entertaining as well. Maybe more entertaining than the rugby? Maybe equally entertaining? Tough call. Going to a professional sporting game in France definitely made me miss football (as in real football), hockey, baseball, and all of our glorious professional sporting events at home. It's much more fun when I can understand what the angry drunk fans are yelling (this includes not being able to understand the irish guys because let's be honest, it's practically a different language). Toulouse won the game which was the icing on top of a great night.

Dickinson ladies do rugby!

Then on Sunday I had the first of my lasts. Throughout the year I have eaten dinner on a bunch of Sundays with a family who lives just outside of Toulouse. They would love to be a host family for students on our program but they don't live close enough to the center of the city. Thus, I go and share my American culture and help them with their English! It's a family with three kids all of whom study english in high school and who have traveled in the US, so they love learning all about us strange Americans. Well, the mom does at least and she forces her kids to, which I appreciate. We always have an "apéro" where we snack and have drinks, then have dinner together, then hang out either looking at photos, playing board games, or watching movies. Every Sunday that I spent with them was so much fun and I really will miss them! When Martine, the mother, drove me home it was so sad saying goodbye because I honestly don't know if or when I will ever see them again. I must prepare for saying goodbye to my actual host family because that is going to be rouuuuugh.

Sundays in the country

Their dog Cannelle (Cinnamon)

They have an amazing garden - these smelled like honey and mint, no idea what they're called

So strange that I have to start thinking about things like saying goodbye. Today I chose the dates for my end of year meetings with our program directors and this week is my last week of classes. Have I mentioned that time is flying by?

Home in 38 days.