Sur le pont d'Avignon et sous le Pont du Gard

Oh how busy and glorious life has been! With each day it becomes harder to believe that I am leaving so soon. Provence is just wonderful. I've already started mentally planning my return trip with Andrew, Brother, Anne Marie and my parents. After all, they're going to need a translator!

Saturday started early: my archaeology class met at 8:45 to go to Arles, which is maybe an hour and a half away from Aix. Archaeology is taught in English and in French; I'm in the French class, but everyone went together. This meant I got to sit next to the lovely Janette, who is in the other section, on the bus! We started at the Museum of Antiquities, which had a lot of Gallo-Roman artifacts and some really great miniature reconstructions of Roman monuments. Arles was a significant city for the Romans. It had supported Caesar during his power struggle within the first Triumvirate, so he was always very beholden to it. It was a popular retirement location for Roman soldiers, among other things. We happened to be there at the same time of the French minister of culture. Kyle and Janette really wanted to ask him for an internship, but that didn't end up happening. The tour of the museum felt kind of rushed, because we were such a big group and the professor kept moving us from one artifact to another. I prefer to go at my own, very slow pace in museums; I'm one of those people who will read every single placard if you let me. I took lots of pictures, but most of them didn't come out very well. Such is life.

The café Van Gogh painted. I did not have lunch here.

Lunch: baguette with goat cheese, ham, tomatoes, basil & garlic. And wine.

After the museum, we went into Arles proper, which was great. First we took a lunch break; Janette, Kyle, Mel, Caronae and I found a very cute, very cheap little sandwich place. The wine was good too! We passed by the café Van Gogh painted, which was beautiful. I would love to know more about more recent Provençal history; we've covered it a little in my film & littérature class but not enough to satisfy me. Anyway, the two big things we saw were the ampitheater and the theater, so that's a little confusing. A fun fact about the ampitheater is that after the fall of Rome, it was used as a fortified city in its own right: people built houses inside it! They finally tore the houses down around the nineteenth century, and now the ampitheater is used for concerts and bullfights.

Kyle, me, Janette and Kevin!

The Rhône from the tower at the top of the ampitheater

The theater was cool, too, although it was in much worse condition. The theater at Orange was more interesting, so we'll talk about that one when I get to it. But a fun thing I learned about the Arles theater is that they would kill people onstage. Whenever a character had to die--say, in a tragedy--they would substitute the actor with a war prisoner, and literally kill the person. Well, maybe that's not so fun, but it was apparently very popular. I guess it was more realistic than someone falling dramatically and being dragged offstage.

After Arles we went to Glanum, which was a Gallo-Roman city. You may (should) remember that Entremont, which is outside Aix, was full of Gauls who hated the Romans. By contrast, the inhabitants of Glanum actually welcomed the Romans and helped them out. In thanks, the Romans built an arc de triomphe (which later inspired Napoléon to build the one in Paris) and a monument in honor of the leaders of Glanum. The residents also received Roman citizenship, which was a big deal. Glanum has early Gallic, Greek and Roman influences, so that was interesting. It was also very hot.

Janette and me at Glanum

Aerial view of Glanum

After Glanum, everyone headed back to Aix--but my adventures were just beginning! A few days before I had gotten in touch with a lovely woman named Anouk, who went to college with a friend from Grace Pres. It shows the power of Facebook, because when my mom posted that I was going to Aix, Whitney commented that she had a friend there, and then Anouk and I got in touch. Our original plan was to hang out in Aix on Sunday, but then she invited me to stay with her Saturday night and go sightseeing on Sunday, which was absolutely incredible. She lives in Jonquières, which you can find on my awesome Google Map. It's much more agricultural and green than the area around Aix. I got to meet her adorable three year-old, Edouard, who is my friend, and her very lovely parents. We spent the night at her parents' house, which is surrounded by vineyards and just beautiful.

The view from Anouk's parents' house!

They took me out to an absolutely delicious dinner on Saturday night with two other friends, who were also really nice. As soon as I got back I wrote down everything I'd eaten, because I didn't want to forget anything. We started with olives, cheese and sort of cheese puffs. That was before you even ordered. And we had champagne! Then there was a sort of amuse-bouche with a warm fromage blanc (like yogurt?) with wasabi. Then, my appetizer was lightly grilled shrimp over some cabbage-y thing. I think the sauce for the cabbage may have been pineapple or mango but I am not sure. It also came out with a dried shrimp head for decoration which was amusing. My main course was a cod filet with a butter/pesto sauce with tomatoes, green beans, snap peas, white beans and potato strips. It was so good. Then dessert took a long time to come... but I had a sort of cannoli, except the shell was caramel with maybe bits of hazelnut, and the filling was chocolate and hazelnut mousse. It also came with a little fruit garnish of apple, raspberry, kiwi and the elusive nèfle.

And that's just the food. There was also delicious wine, and everyone was just so nice and welcoming. Anouk helped me figure out what to order, since for some reason schools don't teach much French gourmet vocabulary. The more I reflect on it, the more I think they should.

I slept in more than I'd planned on Sunday, and woke up around 9:30. I showered (they had an actual shower!) and ate a yummy breakfast of pain au chocolat and coffee. Then Anouk, Edouard and I went on our sightseeing extravaganza!

Edourd and me at the Arc de Triomphe at Orange

We started in Orange, which is where Anouk went through high school. As some of you may know, Orange is also the name of a county near my ancestral hometown. However, I have been developing a theory that I am descended from Gaulish princesses: they were Celtic princesses who lived in France, which is exactly my life. Therefore, Orange, France is just as much a place-near-my-ancestral-hometown as Orange, Virginia. So there we go. But the similarities don't stop there! If I'm not mistaken, Orange, Virginia, is named after William of Orange, the Dutch prince who became king of England during the Glorious Revolution. The Dutch princes held the title of "Prince of Orange" in the same way that "Prince of Wales" is used in England. And it turns out that the Orange to which the title refers is this little town in France! It became a Dutch territory during the Middle Ages, and was integrated with France under Louis XIV. The Wars of Religion were pretty brutal around this area, because of the Protestant Dutch presence.

When Louis XIV took over Orange, he destroyed the Dutch castle. But he left the stage wall of the old Roman theater (which, like the Arles ampitheater, had been converted into a sort of residential area) intact, proclaiming it the most beautiful wall in his kingdom. So there you go! It's great that he left it, because the stage wall of the Orange theater is one of three intact Roman stage walls in the world, and the only one in the West. So while the Arles theater has a few broken columns, the Orange theater has this:

It's pretty incredible! The theater has served many functions over the years, including a fortress, prison, military encampement and residential area. Around the turn of the century, it was restored to its original status as a theater, for both ancient and modern plays. Sarah Bernhardt performed on this stage in 1903. It is still in active use today, which is great!

We picked up lunch (quiche lorraine and macaroons!) in Orange and picnicked at Pont du Gard, which is actually just outside Provence. It's in the Languedoc-Roussillon region, and the Pont is an ancient Roman aqueduct that carried water to Nîmes (the town that gave us de Nîmes fabric: denim).

Now it's a popular place for swimming and picnicking. We sat under the bridge because it was so hot, and it was really fun and relaxing.

The last stop on our tour was Avignon. Anouk had driven me through the city the day before so I could get a feel for it. When my friend Stephanie told me to go on the IAU program, she recommended the Avignon center, which had been for more advanced French. IAU closed its Avignon location this past winter, which is how I ended up in Aix. So it's interesting that Avignon was almost my "home." It's a beautiful little city (smaller than Aix) enclosed by a glorious old fourteenth-century rampart. Whenever I mention Avignon to my mom, she likes to use her French skills to reference the song:

Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse, l'on y danse
Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y dans tout en rond

I did not go on the pont d'Avignon, but I drove under it a few times. Avignon was crazy this weekend, because the big annual theater festival is going on. There were people crowding the streets in all manner of outlandish costumes, handing out flyers for various performances. There are the official, fancy shows; the "off" shows; and the shows in the streets. It was very energetic and fun.

Our main stop in Avignon was the Papal Palace, where the popes lived during the 1300s and 1400s. I'm not very up-to-date on my papal history, mostly because I'm too Protestant to really wrap my head around it and because the names sound too similar, but it was very cool. The palace was huge!

We wandered around for at least an hour and I know there is so much I didn't see. My favorite parts were the frescoed rooms: the pope's bedroom and the chambre des cerfs. They had beautifully detailed walls and preserved tile floors. After the palace, we cooled down on a terrace café just next door. Anouk and I had ice cream and menthe à l'eau, that elusive bright green drink you always see in French movies. It was very minty and refreshing. Edouard had chocolate milk, which made him happy.

Unfortunately, after Avignon it was time to head back, and Anouk drove me back to Aix. It was an absolutely beautiful weekend, and I'm so grateful to Anouk and her family for their hospitality. I got to see so much of Provence that I wouldn't have otherwise, and I made new friends!

Sunday night was my first opera with Cara, which was delightful. We saw Acis and Galatea by Handel, which it turns out is in English. Who knew? The theater was outside a converted château; we took a shuttle from town and had dinner in the gardens before the show. It was great, although the modern dance-inspired choreography got distracting at times. Last night (Tuesday) was our second opera: Le Nez by Chostakovitch. We'd expected a sort of grand Romantic-style comic opera, and instead it was much more absurdist, but we both enjoyed it. It's the story of a man who loses his nose, and the nose is dancing around the stage at times, and there were all these lights and animations integrated with the set which was just incredible.

The sun setting over the stage at Acis and Galatea

That brings us up to today, where in two hours I will be sitting in a movie theater, about to watch the final Harry Potter. I'll write more on it tonight or tomorrow (no spoilers, don't worry), but for now I'm just going to say: everyone's worried about what to do after their childhoods end in this last movie. As much as we want to search for a moment that defines our transition from childhood to adulthood, that rarely exists. I know that Lucy Maud Montgomery identifies an exact moment when Anne (of Green Gables) grows up, but that's in a book. Am I a grown-up when I graduate from high school? become engaged? graduate from college? get married? stop referring to myself as a princess? (Because I will always be a princess.) It's like, on your birthday you don't suddenly feel older; you've been working toward that age for a year, you know? So it'll be weird to be done with Harry Potter, but we've known it was coming for a decade. Just like it'll be weird to leave France, even though when I came here I knew I could only stay for six weeks.