I just updated photos...here they are:

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/sarapitz/Paris%20Part%201/


And here are some more: Hopefully a video too:

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/sarapitz/Paris%20Part%202/

And I promise another update on the Paris trip tomorrow. I am just really tired and I have a presentation and paper due in the morning. After tomorrow at noon, I am free to write as long as I can :)

More Paris

Okay continuing from the earlier post... The next day, which was Thursday, I got my first taste of the museum scene in Paris. We went to the mega museum the Louvre!!! And I loved it. I could spend months in that place! So may originals that I have studied time and again right in front of my face. I was so overwhelmed, I didn't know what to do with myself. I saw things like the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Early Christian Art Icons, David (Early french painter), Italian Art. I just couldn't believe what I was looking at!! After drooling over the masters, I had a quick lunch and I met one of my professors at Notre Dame. See most of the students had the mornings and nights free and then scheduled field trips throughout the morning and afternoon. But since my major was not actually in Lacoste, I had no scheduled time except the main museums. I was free!! Anyways I met my history professor because we were going to Sainte Chapelle.

Sainte Chapelle, the chapel of light, as it is referred to in the history books was an interesting visit. It is now located in the center of the liberty courtyard. So there is heavy security to get to it. But after mustering our way through all the people waiting in line to get their drivers licence renewed and taxes appealed, we arrived at the chapel of light. Sainte Chapelle was originally built as a chapel to King Louis IX and he held services and concerts there. Lets just say I can see why!!! I walked into this tiny chapel, and was overwhelmed by colors. The colors came from the light reflecting off the stain glass windows!! The walls are non existent in this space, the structure is made entirely of stained glass! To say that it was beautiful is an understatement, so the only thing I can say was that it was magnificent. Then to put the cherry on the ice cream sunday, we found out there was a violin concert that night in the chapel and they still had tickets. So my professor and I bought a couple and decided to come back later.

In the mean time, to burn some daylight hours, I decided to return to Notre Dame for a tour and to climb the towers. The main church was just exquisite. I mean I have studied this church multiple times, especially for its unique transfer between styles because it took so long to build. But I was blow away with the massiveness of the space!! It was huge. And the rose windows were something else entirely. I have never see such detail on such a huge scale. I could have sat there for hours just looking at the once rose window...and there are three of them. I also got to climb the 500 stairs to the very top of Notre Dame. Let me tell you the way up the winding narrow stair case was nothing....the way down however was the scariest thing I have ever experienced. I was dizzy and wondering if it was ever going to end. But the view from Notre Dame was inspiring. You can see all of Paris from the top. And you also get to see the gargoyles which are pretty fantastic as well as terrifying!!! I also saw the big bells the towers use to ring in the hours. They are massive!! So everything fits. A massive space with massive bells and creepy gargoyles what more could you want right???

I made it to the bottom just as my shaky legs gave out. I decoded to sketch the cathedral so I had ample time to rest my legs. Then it was back to Sainte Chapelle for the violin concert. And it was breathtaking. I think I sat on the edge of my seat the entire 2 hours. There were 2 violins players, 1 viola and 1 chelo players and the soloist. They played Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Mozart's Nocturnes. And I just sat there entranced for the whole thing!!! I think it was the best thing I did in Paris, besides the great museums. Surrounded by illuminated glass and gold and hearing the echoing music was just heavenly. I really had a good time.

And after that I went to bed. Exhausted after a busy day. And unfortunately thats all I going to write about now. I will tell the next part of the story tomorrow....I am going to try to post some pictures and possibly some videos. Enjoy!!

Paris!!

So the reason I haven't blogged in awhile is because I was in Paris, without access to a computer for about five days. But let me tell you Paris was unbelievable!! I love it. And I cannot wait to go back. I have done so much in the past couple of days I really don't know where to begin. So I am just going to highlight certain things in the next couple of days, that way I don't get tired of writing and you won't get tired of reading. Because If I told you about everything, you would be reading for hours!!

For starters, we had to get up at an ungodly hour on Wed to catch our TGV train in Avignon. But I got to see the sunrise over the valley, and that was something to see!! I found out that I love to travel by TGV train. Its fast, clean and you get to watch the countryside go by. And when I say fast I mean fast!! We had three minutes to board the train!!! That was all the time it was parked for and then it was off to Paris.

Our hotel was in the Latin quarter, just about four short blocks away from Notre Dame. And we got the top level room with a balcony :) The Latin Quarter is the tourist part of the city and there is always something go on. I got pretty good navigating this part of town and after that the metro system, which is better than even DC's metro. You can get anywhere on the Paris metro and it is so easy!!! SO what did we do first?? Lunch and after lunch?? We wandered around until we got lost and had to find our hotel again, so we could reorient. Before dinner we had to take a peak at Notre Dame!!! It was right there, why not right? We got there when the sun was setting and it was heavenly! After a quick bite, we explored the night life of Paris and ended up in a Piano Bar. A very nice little nook with live music mostly in French. It was a nice spot to end the day and have a glass of wine (which was the best I have ever had :))

Princess Fun

Okay, so I don't have a lot to blog about today. But there are somethings I had to share with everyone. First here is a link to a video of the sidewalk arts festival (if anyone is interested) that my teacher put together. He likes to make video montages about our time here, so this is just one of many. And I am briefly in it!! I have on a black SCAD sweatshirt and a blue Nike hat...so look for me :)!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaKhUhJy8Gs

In other news, I did turn in some prints today for my printmaking class and the critique went fairly well. I also got my first prints back so I will try to photography them and post them as soon as I can.

And the best news of all, when I went to Apt this weekend I forgot to say that I went to local grocery store, with the intention of just buying some bottled water and soap. Well instead I came by these wonderful little juice boxes that were bright pink. As I looked closer at them, I noticed they had Disney princess on them and they were a pink fruit punch. Well I couldn't pass that up!!! So I have been taking pictures of them as I drink them and I thought you might like to see them....I thought they were sooo cute! Its a Sara moment you know??? LOL

Click Here for Princess Juice!


Have a good afternoon and I will see you all in Paris!!

Updates

So I am sorry I need to update you all on what has happened in the past couple of days. There was not a lot going on this weekend, but a lot of little things made the weekend special. Lets start with Friday. On Friday morning I went to the corkscrew museum. Now I know what your thinking, corkscrew museum, its like the paperweight museum once you see one, you have seen them all. But this was actually pretty cool... They have the oldest French corkscrew all the way up to stainless steel ones that you can purchase. My favorite corkscrews were the ones that had dual purposes, like someone put a corkscrew into a handel of a walking cane, or a tiny little hand gun, or a pen....ect. It was so funny. Another reason we went to this museum is because the man who owns it is in contract with the students at Lacoste this quarter. We are all eligible to submit a poster for this museum. The winner receives 1000 euro which is a nice reward. So we all wanted to go to the museum to know what we were designing the poster for.

Unfortunately the weather turned really nasty in the afternoon. It was rainy and windy and horrible. A nice afternoon to be inside and write my art history paper. (And I was a good student and did just that...hahaha) On Saturday the day started out relatively nice again. I went into Apt in the morning with my friends to the market and the store. It was a fun little side trip. The market is my favorite part of Apt, because they have everything!! And there is so much to see, smell and buy, I can never decided what to do first :) But this time I had my wits about me, and I bought some local honey....actually it was lavender honey, and it was amazing!! My student rep. Brett told me that if I liked honey, I needed to try the local Lavender flavor, and I am so glad I did!!! I also bought strawberries right off the stand. They are the best biggest, reddest (is that a word?) strawberries I have ever had. They were sweet and juicy and my roommates and I ate them all in two days!!

After Apt, I finished my paper and took a walk through the valley with my friend Nicole. It was a great walk, since it has been miserable all week. We ran into two couples who were walking in the valley too. It was very funny because we had the greatest French/English conversation ever. I figured out that they have a summer house in Lacoste and they love it here. They asked about our school and what we wanted to do after we graduated and where in the US we were from. It was very cute and they tried so hard to speak English, and we tried so hard to speak French.

Sunday was sidewalk arts festival, Lacoste style. I prayed all day and night for no rain!!! We were supposed to get nasty weather today, and everyone in the village had worked so hard to make chalk and organize everything, I did not want it to be cancelled on account of rain!! But luckily the day dawned bright and WINDY!!! I walked outside and it was the first time in my life, I thought I was going to be blow over the balcony!!! It was scary, if it wasn't light out, I would have thought I was stuck in a tornado!! Sidewalk arts was fantastic! All of the village showed up for it and many people also came from surrounding areas. The judges were three local French artists. I decided to do the chef Gusteau from Ratatoullie. I thought he would be a cute character to do. I think he turned out very nice considering we were not working on sidewalks but rocky asphalt. (Everywhere else is cobblestone except for one main road and the parking lot...so thats where the festival was) Almost all the kids knew exactly who it was and even some of the French locals too. So that made me happy. It was collectively decided that I won the children's choice award (this wasn't a real award) because they all liked my square :) There were a lot of amazing pieces and I am going to post pictures here in a bit that way you can see what went on. Though French judges have there own ideas about what is "art", it was still a good day.

Right as we were packing up the sky turned black (literally within like 30 minutes!!) And the rain let loose along with the North wind, called the Mistral. (Basically the wind of the French Alps that blows into the Valley....the Mistral sucks!!) It was the worst weather since we have been here. And I holed up in the library for the rest of the day. And thats it folks, my weekend in a very large nut shell. Hope you've enjoyed!!

Here's the Pictures as promised!!

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/sarapitz/Sidewalk%20Arts/

Mosaic World

Sorry another late post...or rather an early morning post. Yesterday was a day full of surprises. My art history class was taking a field trip to go see a local Mosacists (don't know if thats a word, but basically a person who does mosaics) studio. Jean Pierre is a man who works for the college and he also has his mosaic business on the side. Now I know what your thinking, because I was thinking the same thing...mosaics.???pretty small tiles made into pictures, not terribly interesting. Boy was I wrong! His studio was amazing. It had to have been an old barn turned into two separate viewing spaces. One is the workshop where he actually builds the pieces and the other is where he displays the finished works. The cool thing about Jean Pierre is he normally doesn't go out and buy tiles or pieces of marble or rock to make his works, he find the things he wants right from the Earth of Southern France. In particular, he looks for old pottery, marble, stone from the Roman period. Which is very prevalent in this area because it is a valley in which multiple empires have been built, one on top of the other, and on top of the other. So it is not unusual to find artifacts or pieces of rock from the Roman Empire after a heavy rain storm!

So we visited his studio and saw unbelievable art. And I am serious, I would love one these mosaics, but I am positive I could never afford them. Its interesting too how Jean Pierre works on these mosaics. Here is my short explination of it, so if your not interested in how mosaics are made, skip to the next paragraph...it won't bother me !! :) So he finds all these ancients stones and marbles and the first things he does is cut them into baguettes (I didn't know. but the French word baguette is actually not the bread...it means stick!) with a water powered diamond saw. Then he takes each baguette and places it on a hammer anvil and hammers out all the little pieces or shape that he needs. Next his design is drawn out on paper and labeled with the appropriate shapes and colors. Then he just begins to fill in the picture, like a giant coloring book. He uses wood glue to stick the tiles to the paper. If it is a large piece, sometimes he will outline each major shape with a piece of iron, (Like in stain glass making) but he has moved away from that as much as possible, because it is not aesthetically pleasing. So after all the pieces are in place and they are glues down, he sets them in a metal frame and pours about an inch of concrete on top. That way if the stones are different sizes or thicknesses the will all be flat on the bottom. After the concrete is dried, he carefully flips the design and sands away the paper. And there you have it, a mosaic table. He covers the surface of the mosaic with beeswax so that it plugs all the holes. And let me tell you it is a amazing!

We toured his working studio and all of his "portfolio pieces" and then got invited to see his house and have "pain au chocolat" (yummy chocolate mini crossaints) with tea and coffee. His house was very quaint and he has a bunch of treasures just from living in the Provence area. Like a stone necklace from the BC era and some neolithic tools. Becuase of all his hunting for old stone, he comes across some pretty interesting things digging in the ground!

The rest of my day was pretty uneventful. I am still trying to get a Barcelona trip together. It will be a short one if I decide to go, but fun none the less. I am pretty set in going to Nice and the French Rivera in three weeks. And next week we will be in PARIS!!! That is going to be a great trip and we leave on Wednesday morning, very, very, very early. Otherwise classes are going pretty well. I have a paper for art history I need to finish this weekend (crossing the fingers that I get that done) And I have a litho print due on Monday, which is coming out okay....not exactly how I would like my print to come out, but oh well. And Sunday is the first ever Sidewalk Art Festival!!! I will be posting a lot of pictures from there! Hope things are going well and I will post later after the corkscrew museum trip this afternoon!

More Pictures In:

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/sarapitz/Mosaics/

Keep on Trucking!

Or walking since I don't have a truck. Things are going well in little Lacoste. Not much to report on, but plenty is coming up in the coming weeks. On Sunday SCAD Lacoste will have their first ever Sidewalk Arts Festival. I am super excited about it!!! I just don't quite have my subject nailed down for it yet. So if any of you have any good ideas on what you would like to see....LOL let me know.

Lets see what else is going on.....On Thursday I will be going to a local artists mosaic studio. That should be really interesting. Jean-Pierre works for the college and but is also a local mosaists (is that a word?) He digs up old Roman tiles and uses them in his works. But I will give you all the details after I see it.

Today I went to Yoga, and let me tell you it kicks my butt into shape every week. I mean I thought I was a little bit flexible considering I fence, and I danced for all those years, but wow she has us using muscles I never knew I had...hahaha. I also went to a lecture about the Louvre. And now I just want to go to Paris and go to the museum. There are so many wonderful pieces to see I don't know how I am going to choose where to go.

On that note the Paris trip is in two weeks. And then after that, there are tenative plans in the works for Barcelona!!! and after that for Nice/Monaco. But that also depends on homework. Unfortunately things have picked up in that department too, which is sad. But I guess thats why I am here right? To live Provence, learn French and eat way too much good Food! Take care all, I will update when I have things to talk about!

Late Post

Okay so this post is actually supposed to be for yesterday. I am sorry I was really tired when I got back that I fell asleep without going to the lab. I apologize.

Yesterday was an busy running around day. The plan was to go to Avignon in the morning. So I got up early, no problems there and went down to the bakery to get some breakfast. The lady is sooooo nice there and I ordered most of my meal in French. You should have seen the meringue that she bakes...is the size of my face. I had to ask her what the big white puff was, because I didn't know. HAHA So I got my Orange drink and a pastry and headed on my merry way. I had an apple for later and I wanted to grab the Rick Steves travel book from the Library before I left for Avignon. I'm walking down the street and I pass Finn's house ( which is the guy who graciously takes me to mass, he works for SCAD. Does the landscaping and odd jobs and is really nice Irishmen) So anyways I pass his house and he calls out to me to come join him and his wife Karen (who I take yoga classes from every week) for breakfast. I accepted, even though I really only had 15 minutes to spare. They were very nice to me and I had a great time talking and eating. But all of sudden I realized my bus was leaving without me!! I had three minutes to get to the top of the village!! I gave Finn my thanks before trying to sprint up the hill. I say try because you all know my running capabilities...and if you don't....well I suck! And the hill kicked my butt. SO I finally make it to the top gasping, to find my ride and all of the other students waiting for me, and who else is there but Finn. He drove his car up (1/2 min drive) to tell them to wait for me and he was planning on picking me up on the way there...but I took a different route. What a way to start the day!!

Avignon was amazing though. We had a group going, Nicole, Niel, Megan, Robert and Sandy. The first three and I decided to go to the Papal Palace. That was the main reason to go. But along the way we ran into stores. Not market buys but actual local shopping. IT was so much fun!!! We walked through the Papal Palace next. The Palace was built when there was the great schism in Rome. The Papacy decided Rome was not living up to its original standards so they moved the papal court to Avignon. Its stayed for almost 100 years before it was moved back to Rome. It had great architecture and it was fun to walk through it with the little headset on. After the palace, we met up with Robert and Sandy for lunch. It was some good French pizza and better company. After lunch Robert and Sandy went to find an art supply store, and the rest of our group went to look at the papal church and gardens. Both places were magnificent and it was warmer out so it was nice to just walk around. We also found a carousal in the middle of the town center. All of the girls wanted to ride it, and Neil was a good sport and took pictures of us. That was pretty much our day in Avignon, we did a little bit of shopping before we left, but unfortunately I only found a gelato stand...but it was good Carmel gelato anyways!!!

We got back to Lacoste a little bit later than I would have liked, because I had to so a swift change to get ready for mass. I met back up with Finn who was taking me and we drove off into the country side to find the little church. This week it was at St Pontillon. I thought the church in Leox was small...about the size of a chapel. This church was the size of two closets put together!! But it was entirely made out of stone. From the walls to the vaulted ceiling. It was an amazing feat! And the church bell was still rung by hand by a little cord that dropped down beside the door. It was so interesting to watch. After mass, Finn took me to another windmill. Last week he showed me one that sat on top of a hill in a village. This week the windmill was in the middle of a field, and a man still lived in it!!! The windmill didn't work, but it was a house all the same!! So after all my adventures I still had to work on homework. I muscled through as much as I could before I promptly went to bed! And that was my day.

Sunday had been catch up day for me. It is beautiful outside today, it makes me sad that I was stuck in doors all day. I have a paper that I wanted to get started on and my journal needed to be updated for class. Tomorrow starts another process for printmaking...who knows what will be in store. Until next time, Have a great afternoon!!

I am updating pictures as we speak

For Nimes and Pont du Gard:

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/sarapitz/Nimes%20Pont%20du%20Gard/

For Avignon:

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/sarapitz/Avignon/

Rainy Day!!

Field Trip Day! and Unfortunately rainy day. I have to give props to my Dad, I had originally packed a rain coat and umbrella, but he talked my into a poncho instead of an umbrella. A poncho, he said, will be able to cover more and I can put it on over my backpack, with an umbrella, I have one less hand and it doesn't cover as much. AND that proved very true today! I was probably the driest out of the whole group even though I looked like a teenage mutant ninja turtle. (My poncho is green and my backpack made a very good looking "shell") LOL

Anyways, today we went to Nimes and the Pont du Gard. Nimes was an awesome city. Really the first city we have gotten to explore in. All of the other places we have visited have been towns and villages, with open air markets or little family run shops. Today was the big city..haha. The first thing we did when we got off the bus was the Roman Arena. Basically Nimes has got the best kept secret in all of Europe! They have a Roman Arena that they still use today. Mostly for bullfights, but also mock gladiatorial games. It is the best preserved Roman Arena in Europe and it was awesome!!! It hold 27,000 people and it was made from cut stone...no mortar! I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I loved it! So after I climbed to the very top of the arena and did a lap around it, I decided it was time to move on.

We walked around Nimes and found a nice little cafe right where we were supposed to meet our professors at the Miason Carree (An old Roman Temple) We decided to grab a cup of coffee and just enjoy people watching. I had my first cafe experience and I ordered my own coffee in French and it was very fun!! and very good! Anyways after the wonderful cup of coffee we headed out on a little walking tour. We went through a very beautiful park that had fountains and marble statues and stairs. It was amazing and I really don't know how to explain it. but I will upload pictures and you can all see for yourself. Then at the top of the park hill there is a watch tower, La tour Magne. Built in the BC era it was the first tower in Nimes. And when you climb the 200 steps to the top you can see out over the whole town. The view was incredible!!! I could see into the Arena I had climbed around on that morning!

After Nimes we went to the Pont du Gard. This is a Roman aqueduct, meaning a bridge that transports water to Nimes. It is also a great example of the ingenuity of the Roman engineers. I mean this bridge spans a valley and a river. It was built stone by stone, all perfectly cut and leveled so that gravity would force the water to travel down into Nimes from a higher spring in the mountains. It is an amazing feat, one that I can barely comprehend. I mean it was built when there were no cranes, levels or even power tools. How did they cut each stone to fit so perfectly? And it is still standing today, years later!!

Unfortunately at the Pont du Gard it started to rain. So I pulled out my trusty poncho and became Sara the awesome art animation ninja turtle...LOL just kidding. I did have a lot of fun in my poncho though, because I felt kind of ridiculous in it. And since it was green and a lot of the trees are green I tended to blend in with the environment which was kind of fun. OH and a warning, when you go to touch the water under the Pont du Gard, don't fall in!!! I about tumbled into the water head first when I bent down to touch it because I had my bag on and my poncho and I was off balanced. But it is a really funny picture because it was snapped right when I was trying to regain my balance. HAHA

So tomorrow is the Papal Palace in Avignon. Its an early start so I will see you all (or talk to you all) on the flip side!!

Here is some pictures from the Roman Ruins from yesterday and Van Gogh's Asylum visit

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/sarapitz/Glanum%20%20StRemy/

The Romans Are Coming

No just kidding, the Romans have already been here. Yup thats right, today I went to see some Roman ruins. It was amazing!!! I mean these things have been around since like 100 A.D.! of course now its mostly piles of rubble and rock and some standing columns, but you can just image what it looked like when it was prospering. The city (?? ) of Glanum was located on the old Roman road it was like a stopping point for rest and relaxation. Today it was blooming with big pink trees (yes pink ones!!! I loved it!!!) mostly in pieces. But you can still make out the bath house and pool from the Monumental section of the city. There is also some pretty impressive standing columns in the Residence district. And in the Sanctuary area that is a temple to Hercules, (did I mention it belonged to the Greeks before the Romans build on top of it??) and a spring right next to it dedicated to the local water god, which name eludes me right now. All in all a very impressive site, and it was just amazing to think of this place as still being around. I mean no mortar between the stones and yet beautiful carved columns and symmetrical temples...I can only image. So much character in such a peaceful place.

We also went to St. Remy, specifically to the metal institution that housed Van Gogh in his later years. The interesting thing about this place is that it is still running today. Obviously we didn't get to go into the working ward, but the kept the room Van Gogh stayed in. And all of his paintings that he is famous for, he painted while at the asylum. It was interesting because on the grounds they have this trail of paintings. At intervals along the trail there would be a plaque with on of Van Gogh's paintings, and when you looked up, you were in the exact spot that he was in when he painted it!! It was really neat, I stood on the hill where he painted his famous painting, Starry Night. I also got to see the violets that he painted along with some of the olive trees. St. Remy was very interesting because they left the ward as Van Gogh would have experienced it. It is eerie to think I traveled the same paths he did, saw the same things and climbed the same stairs! LOL

After that it was another windy day in Lacoste. I didn't do a whole lot, just updated the sketchbook at little and tried to work on my research paper. Right now I am also trying to get a trip together to go to Barcelona. But its being a bit more difficult since we have to change countries. And I found out (though I already knew this, just didn't really think about it) that in Barcelona they do not speak Spanish, they speak Catalan, a dialect of Spanish. :) Random trivia for you! Well I am going to sign off now. Tomorrow is a campus wide field trip to Nimes, and we have to be up EARLY! Let you know how it goes. Bonne nuit!

Burr Its cold out there

Yup thats what I said. Its is cold here today, and it looks like it will let loose rain any second!! But the god part about rain is that the whole valley is covered in a mist like fog. It is very creepy looking and cool at the same time. I am sorry I don't have anything interesting to write about. I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to my brother Adam!! Have a great day today, hopefully your day is sunnier than mine!!

Otherwise, I have a print due tomorrow morning. I am a little worried about it. Its at that stage were it looks really good, but it could look better if I ran one more color through the press. But the color could really make or break the piece...so I am debating right now. Play it safe or take a risk??? Anyways, I did make it to the grocery store in Apt yesterday. That was a fun experience. It is very different than an American grocery store, loud, crowded and it smells funny. But I had a good time trying to figure out all the French products. I got some granola bars that I am going to try. At least I think their granola bars...lol Well I miss all of you at home and in Savannah. Hope things are going well and I will give you an update when I have something exciting to talk about.

Look for it on Thursday, we are supposed to be going to some Roman ruins and the place were Van Gogh stayed when he was hospitalized.

The Hike

An unexpected day. Thats all I can say...and that rhymes! It was an early morning Sunday, I got up and worked in the print shop before brunch. That way I had the shop all to myself. It was nice, I still don't know if I got the hang of printing but thats okay. I am learning. After brunch the plan was to walk to Bonneaux. My two friends and I were geared up to walk there. But our coordinator, Brett, was trying to get a group together to go to the Cedar Forest lookout ridge. He told us he would give us a ride to Bonneaux if there was room because it was on the way. As it turns out we were the only ones that showed up for the ride. As we were driving toward the Cedar Forest, Brett convinced us to go there instead and he would drop us in Bonneaux later. I am so happy he talked us into it!!

The Cedar Forest was incredible. Cedar trees are no normally found in this region. The Romans brought Cedar trees with them and began planting when they were fortifying the valley. Now the trees have naturally spread out, but you can still see the line where they haven't crossed and mixed with the other trees yet. The Cedar Forest was planted on one of the taller ridges encompassing the valley. So the view was spectacular. I have never been able to see so much land at one time as I did today. I can't even begin to describe the view, it eludes any description I could possibly think of. I guess it is enough to say I would love to go back and just sit and look out over the valley all afternoon. :)

After our walk along the ridge, Brett drove us into Bonneaux. Since it was Sunday there wasn't many things open, but we just wanted to walk around. Bonneaux is about twice/three times the size of Lacoste, or maybe it just feels that way because there is a lot more going on. There are more restaurants and cafes, just more things to do in general. My friends and I had a great time walking around. We got to see two churches. The old church sits on the top of the hill and you can see it from Lacoste. The newly renovated church sits in the rough middle of the village. Both churches were very beautiful and earthy. The old church was especially interesting. They were restoring the building, so we weren't able to go in it. Instead we could walk around it, and we had a great view of Lacoste from that site too.

Brett was nice and drove us back to Lacoste when we were done exploring. And the rest of the night was spent doing homework and watching movies with my friends. It was nice to just sit and relax. And I finally got to call my family, which is why this post it a little late...sorry. All in All I thought it was a great first weekend in the South of France!

Posting pictures now!! Here they are

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/sarapitz/Cedar%20Forrest/

Good Day!

Today was a great day! I got up early, and went with Lauren down to the Bakery (Boulangerie). And I ordered, by myself, in French a pastry! I was quite proud of myself. It took a lot of learning and repeating, but I did it.LOL And it was the best almond croissant I have ever eaten in my life. The reason we got up early, was because there was a hiking expedition that left at 10am before breakfast. But as I was getting ready this morning, I realized, it would probably be better if I just stayed here and did laundry and some homework (since I hadn't started any yet) And I am glad that I did. My friends came back from the hike, sunburned and tired!

So yup, thats what I did today. I did laundry and homework. I know that sounds boring but it was actually kind of fun. Laundry here was an experience. All the directions were in French, and there is no temperature setting for the water (at least not what I could see) And the detergent didn't have a measuring cup, so I had no idea how much to put into the washer because the measurement chart was all in ml. So I kind of guessed and pressed some buttons. But in the end it worked!! Phase I done. Next drying. So there are dryers here, but most students and locals just hang up their laundry on lines. I wanted to try it too. I found a bunch of lines next to my room and began hanging. It was a lot of fun, and almost everything dried.

Homework required me to be in the print studio for most of the day. I pulled my first monoprint ever. It came out okay. Not the way I expected, but hey it was the first. And lets just say by then end of this class I better have muscular arms!! With all the ink mixing, charging the brayer (rolling the ink onto a roller), running paper through an ancient press and cleaning up afterward....It was like a work out!! LOL I am hoping to start a print tomorrow and perhaps one more before I there due on Wed!!

Now my next bit of culture shook came this afternoon. I had the opportunity to go to mass with Finn, a local who works for the college. Finn is a Irishman who now has a home in Lacoste. He is a really nice man, and knows the history and the stories of the valley. So it was a great 35 min ride through the valley to the little little town of Lioux. He just knows so much about everything, it was like getting a private tour. We got to the church and it was a small little building, but it had so much character. Wooden benches and fresco walls and paintings. It was such a humble church and 20 people showed up for mass. The service was completely in French, so I really didn't know what they were exactly saying. But it was funny I did know when the different parts of the mass were. It was a great experience. And I think Finn was surprised how much I enjoyed it. We are already planning on going next weekend, which makes me happy.



That was my day in a nutshell. Kind of a big nutshell huh? I uploaded new pictures check under the Menerbes entry and the Bories too. See ya!

Menerbe

Walking, walking , walking thats what I did today!! A group of us decided to walk to a nearby village called Menerbe. It was a 7km hike...or 4.5 miles each way. My walking shoes were working :) It was quite a hike, but we started out early enough and arrived in town about 10:30. I got to walk along the highway and see the trees, mountains, and fields up close. I went with my two roommates Lauren and Ashley and a friend Nicole. Then we talked two guys into coming with us last night. Neil and Steve put up with a bunch of girl chatter, but they seemed to enjoy it and had fun seeing the town.

Menerbe is beautiful, like almost every other thing I have seen in France. It is mostly a residence village and it is built around a mountain, instead of on a side of it, like Lacoste is built. It was fun to see the views from the top, and I don't think the villagers see many Americans, because everyone we met wanted to know who we were. We decided we would eat lunch in town too and found a little pizzeria. It was so funny. The pizza came out as flat as a pancake and as big as a dinner plate. But it was yummy. I had margarita pizza and it was amazing!!! After pizza I decided to order a coffee. It was interesting because it was the first coffee I have ordered in France. And I got the bitterest (is that a word?) coffee I have ever gotten in my life, served in a shot glass...hahaha But it came with little sugar cubes and a piece of chocolate. So I stuck those in the glass and knocked it back. And you know what....I was ready for that walk home after that!! I was so talkative, and energetic my friends didn't know what to think1

So after the trek back, it was time to get ready for the gallery opening. There was a famous French photographer who decided to open a small gallery here in Lacoste. So I dressed up and went to look at her work. It was really interesting, the photographer followed around an prima ballerina for most of her life. And all of the subjects were of this ballerina, so naturally I loved it!! There was also very nice wine served and little o'rderves. (haha can't spell that one) It was a good time to mingle and get to know other people on the trip.

Then after dinner I got a new challenge (Sam this is for you and anyone else who understands animation speech.) I found a guy at the gallery who is a broadcast design major and he has MAYA!!! :) He always looked familiar, because I guess I have seen him in Monty all the time. But he was doing stuff in maya, and didn't understand it. So I offered to help, and I helped!!! LOL I know it sounds so funny, but I haven't animated in like three weeks. And I have been wanting too so bad, but they just don't have the program on the lab computers. So I had fun! But I had to work on a mac and it wasn't as easy!! There is not a middle mouse button, and that totally confused me. I had to figure out a way to work around it until my friend figured out how to make the left mouse button work like the middle one.... Anyways I am done geeking out, but yeah I am a nerd, cuz I got really excited about animating today!!

So needless to say, I animated after dinner, and didn't do any prints in the lab like I was supposed to. Which makes me sad because tomorrow I had signed up to go hiking up the mountains, and now it looks like I will have to stay back and work on homework. I normally would just go on the hike and do homework later, but I might have an opportunity to go to church tomorrow night, and I really don't want to miss that either. So I am in a rut...I don't know where I will go, but I am going to sleep on it and decide in the morning. Thanks for listening everyone. Until next time. Bonne Nuit!

ps I promise more pictures next time :)

Here they are!!
Pictures:
http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/sarapitz/Menerbes/

Bories and Gordes

Today was an adventure/explore day! For my art history class, we took our first field trip! We went to see the Borie Village. An antique form of stone houses used specifically in this region. It was really interesting to see because these huts weren't made with mortar. People built them with interlocking pieces of limestone. In the end they look like little stone haystacks, but in fact this village was really well organized. Those people in the 17 century, really knew what they were doing LOL They had a hut or room for almost everything. From the pigsty to the goats, barn house to the wine cellar. It was truly amazing. I really liked touching the limestone, it was so old. And the funny part about it they still use these architecture forms today. Mostly for wood sheds, and tool sheds. Neat place, just wouldn't want to live there now! According to the history people were still living there up until the 1960s!!

After the Bories Village, we drove to the village of Gordes. Absolutely stunning village built into the mountain side. It was such an amazing site to see, I couldn't believe it. We actually didn't have a great deal of time in Gordes, just really a get out and look. But the views were amazing and I got to go into my first Church. It was a hodgepodge in art and in style, but it was beautiful and cold!! There were no heaters in there, it was colder in there than it was outside!! The walls were totally painted and it was interesting to see what "an everyday church" looked like.

Upon going to the church, we literally walked into a cafe/park/fountain where a film was being shot. It was funny to see! There were two French men holding big baguettes and then a man in a striped shirt came in on a bicycle. It was totally FRENCH!! But they still say ACTION really loud. We found out later, the film was for a local station.

I wish we would have had a little more time in Gordes. It was a quick walk around and then we had to get back into the vans. It was a beautiful little village and I would have loved to have walked down the narrow street or sat in the main square at a cafe. Oh, well there will be plenty more little visits to do that!!

When I got back to Lacoste, I was done for the day! Woot!!! The weekend has officially begun! So what did I decide to do...but go to French class. Yup thats right. I am learning French from a native speaker. Her name is Dominque and she is very nice. I learned how to introduce myself, and say that I am from American. I can also ask how people are doing and tell them I am a student studying animation. I was proud of myself!! :)

Well I have a busy day tomorrow, and I promise to upload some pictures soon. Tomorrow we hike up to Menerbs with a group, and that should be pretty fun!

Pictures
http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/sarapitz/Bories%20Gordes/

Not another Boring Entry!!

Okay so I don't want to be boring today. And now that I have started my art history class, things are going to be a lot more busy but thats okay :) Our first field trip for that class is on Thurs, so I might not write until then. Because then I will actually have something to say. I just wanted to tell you that I did update photos. I added pictures of some of the snails, and the racetrack.

Today was beautiful and I have found more intersting things out about Lacoste. There is nothing here!!! LOL No TV, barely any radio, no cars, no DVDs, no restaurants, nothing related to everyday exsistence for us in the United States. But you know what, I LOVE IT! Its a sleeply little place, where not much changes and everyone helps out. Funny but you just don't see that in American very much, or if you do its so rare, its almost wierd. But all in all I am happy here, and busy. As always, I just wish I could share it with everyone else :) Have a good day everyone and check out new Lacoste pictures!

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/sarapitz/more%20lacoste/

I know I won't take anymore pictures of Lacoste, everyone is getting sick of seeing the same village hahaha

By the way Happy April Fools Day!