A Visit to Rochefort, France

I went to the town of Rochefort the other day.

It seems that during the time of Louis XVI, Rochefort was a very important ship building town. You can still see the dry docks where ships where made, and where one is currently being made once again.
They are building a reproduction of the ship the Marquis de LaFayette sailed on when he went to help the Americans during the American revolution. Her name is the Hermione.
The original ship Hermione sank because of poor maneuvers on the part of her crew, but the plans for the ship are still around, so it is not too hard to rebuild her. She is being built using the original techniques used to build the first, 17th century vessel as much as possible.
You can go and visit her, the site is also a museum. You can see the foundry where the metal fittings are forged, and the work areas where the sails are sewn together, where the wood is carved and shaped, and where the rope is made, fitted, and covered in tar to prevent it from rotting. You can also take a tour of the ship.
Unlike in the movies, the Herminone's wheel couldn't be turned by just one man. It took anywhere from two or three in good weather, to 5 or 6 in stormy weather to turn the rudder.

The big red thing in the center of the picture is the winch used to raise anchor. It took most of the crew- some 140 men- to raise anchor. There are two of these winches, one fore, and one aft, 70 men were needed to turn each one. It took about an hour to raise the anchor, and there is a stop to lock the winch if the men needed to stop and take a break. Raising the anchor was the only time the men were allowed to insult the officers!

The Herminone's masts aren't made out of one whole, really tall tree. Instead they are telescoping, made of several separate lengths attached together. This makes possible to have taller masts-trees that tall and straight just aren't all that thick on the ground- as well as making it easier to repaire should the mast become damaged.

Next to the ship yards at Rochefort is the Corderie Royal, where rope was made for the ships. It is one of the longest buildings in Europe, because it needs to be long enough to accommodate the longest length of rope made there!

Oh, and I found a four leaf clover! I'll be glad to take it along on my return trip home. Bon Voyage!



**Check back for the photos. Google has some issues :(

Eurostar to London, England

Going Avignon to London by train!

A couple of people mentioned to me that taking the train under the English channel to London creeps them out, so they fly instead. My experience was that it was a short 20 minute trip flying at high speed under the English channel and coming back to the surface in England, a lot like taking Chicago's Elevated (the El) trains when they switch from the overhead tracks to the underground subway and then back above ground, overhead tracks again. No big deal.
The amazing thing about the Eurostar trains is that you can go from the south of France, Avignon, to London or Brussels in a few short hours--as little as 3.5 hours. However 4.5-5.5 hours is a more typical time if you're a traveler on a budget like me. Buying the ticket was a snap, but allow a month in advance for the best prices. I bought mine on the internet and it was delivered to me before my travel date.
There was one little hitch--the trip there was fine until I had to change stations from Gare de Lyon to Gare du Nord. The RER at Gare du Nord is terribly marked! It was hard to find its physical location, then hard to find the platform for my train, then the stops weren't  well marked so it was hard to be certain I had the right stop. Very stressful. After I got to Gare du Lyon everything was fine.

London is really cool. My friend's family were all very nice. We went all over. I saw The changing of the guards at Buckingham palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben at the Tower of London, Nelson's column an Trafalgar square, the National gallery, China Town. We were busy! Another day we went into the Tower of London.
I think I learned more British history in one day than I ever knew. I saw the ravens, and I bought a Raven plushy, so cute! After that we went to the Tate Modern Museum of Art. It was a great trip and I hope to spend more time there in the future. England has a lot to explore.

Check back here again for the photos! Cheers!

Son et Lumiere

Well, things are winding down here.
We don't have much class time left. It's been a great experience to spend a good chunk of time here in one place at Avignon; I enjoyed my time and I've learned a lot. My French has improved so much!

The Son et Lumiere show at Avignon

We take the DELF exam in a few days and I'll be visiting with some new friends I've made. I can recommend this program to other students and especially my Foyer. It has been wonderful. The Directrice is the best and the other French students in the dorm have helped me by just being themselves. They do normal, student things and I know a lot more about French culture, customs and politics by being around them.


Son et Lumiere

Last weekend with the tourists now regularly calling in the city, they're staging "Son et Lumiere" light shows regularly at the Palais des Papes. These events are quite popular in France at significant tourist destinations, usually ones which include castles. They are held evenings and are often accompanied by music and narration.
I attended and took some photos to share:

The Son et Lumiere show at Avignon

                          

                     Two additional views of Son et Lumiere show.

An Afternoon at Fontaine de Vaucluse

 Recently I went to Fontaine de Vaucluse.

The town of Fontaine de Vaucluse.

A view of the town from the river.

Its only about half an hour away by bus. The village is truly, disgustingly beautiful. It it set against a backdrop of mountains with the Sorgue river running fast and clear all through it. Fontaine de Vaucluse is the village that the renaissance poet Petrarch lived in, and you can see the church were he met his famous muse, Laura. The church 11th century church is impressive less for its architecture than for its age. Of the many churches I have been in it is one of the oldest that still retains all of its original construction. Fontaine de Vacluse is clearly a popular tourist destination, especially for the locals, however it has a nice carnival atmosphere to it, rather than being an expensive tourist trap.

The way along the river to the main attraction of Fontain de Vacluse, the source of the Sorgue river, is lined with stalls selling souvenirs: clothing, hats, the famous scented soaps or the region, sweets, and postcards. All manner of nick-knacks. Most things were pretty reasonably priced too. The walk up to the source wasn't  too look and it beautiful.

A pool in the Sorgue river

A fine view of the river Sorgue.

Because of all the rain, the Sorgue was very full. It was rushing and cascading around rocks in white rapids. The Sorgue is supposed to come out from a cave, and when the water is lower I think you can go down and a bit into it. The water was so high when I was there that it simply seemed the be coming right from the bottom of the cliff. The pool was deep, clear, and very cold! The path along the Sorgue up to the source is very easy and pretty smooth, it should be accessible to just about anyone, even small children or people in wheelchairs.

Old machines for making paper.

There is also a Stanton museum and a Petrarch museum, which I didn't  go into, as well as a water powered paper mill that is still used to make paper, and the remains of a very old castle. I went in the paper mill and climbed up to the castle. The paper mill is attached to a larger artisans village, there are a number of artisans sell glass works, jewelry, candies and other things. The paper mill is still working and you can watch the paper being made, which you can then buy if you so please in the calligraphy shop that is attached to the mill.


My final stop was the old castle. It is up on the cliffs overlooking the Sorgue, and the way up is steep and a bit rocky. The climb is beautiful and offers a wonderful view. The castle is mostly destroyed, just a few walls are left, but still interesting to see. It looked like there were more trails around the cliffs than just the one that lead up to the castle, but I didn't  have time to explore them all.
I would definitely recommend Fontaine de Vaucluse to anyone traveling in Provence. It is a great place for the whole family to visit.

A view of the castle ruins.

Next I planned to go to Stes. Maries de la Mer again, but when I got to Arles I found out that the bus I was going to take doesn't  start running until the end of May. So I had to wait for the later bus a bit after noon. I went into Arles to pass the time as I has about two hours to kill.
I started wandering around a bit, saw the Arena again, St. Triomphe, then I found that an enormous market had popped up in Arles. It seemed like every huckster in Provence was there!

 I wandered through the market in a combination of curiosity and became lost! I couldn't  find my way out in time and missed the noon bus, but by that time I realized I was really very tired anyway, so I wandered around Arles a bit more and then just came back to Avignon and took a nap. I'll  go to Stes. Maries some other time.

Visit to Sorgue

With the arrival of spring weather and a few days vacation from school, the nearby towns of Sorgue and Uzés were waiting for a visit!

A street view in Sorgue.

The Isle sur Sorgue. It was very pretty, the town has many little branches and canals of the Sorgue river, many running right under the buildings! Unfortunately,I didn't  enjoy my trip as much as I might have because it was unexpectedly cold and rainy that day. I had dressed for the weather of the day before - sunny upper 70's Fahrenheit. I was also disappointed that I couldn't get to Fontaine de Vaucluse, which was where I really wanted to go.

According to my guide book, the place called Fontaine de Vaucluse is were the poet renaissance Petrach spent much of his time, and where he met his famous muse, Laura. It is also the place where the Sorgue river springs out of the ground; apparently it runs for many miles underground, and in the spring it shoots several feet into the air!

A view of the town market square.

 Sadly, Fontaine de Vaucluse is about 7 km from Isle sur Sorgue where the train station is, so it was too far to walk. None the less, Isle sur Sorgue is a very pretty town, with many excellent antique shops and art galleries, as well as the beautifully clear Sorgue running all through out.

The Ducal Palace, still home to
the Dukes of Uze!

Next I visited Uzés with a friend. It's is a lovely old city,  the seat of the dukes of Uzés, one of the oldest duchies in France, going back to the time of Charlemagne. The dukes of Uzés are still living and remain in possession of their ancestral palace. Parts of the ducal palace are open to tourists- palaces need a lot of money to upkeep, and charging visitors is a great way to get it.


The ducal palace was pretty interesting, though it is a bit expensive to visit-10€ on Saturday and 18€ every other day. I though the outside was a bit more interesting that the inside. It was built in three stages- late medieval, early renaissance and late Renaissance/Gothic, so three distinct architectural styles can be seen. The oldest part is a high defensive tower.
We climbed all the way to the top-135 steps- on a terrifyingly narrow staircase and were rewarded with a truly stunning view!

An interior of one of the public rooms
in the Ducal palace.

Me at the Ducal palace, Uze.

Inside, the palace is still furnished, which is a nice change from the empty chateaux-monuments so far, though the furnishings had a mis-matched air to them which makes me think that it's mostly the things the family doesn't  want or can't  fit in their primary residence in Paris. A bit of a very fancy storage locker, decided!

There is also a Haribo candy factory and a museum in Uzés, so that was our last stop. We learned about the history of the Haribo company and how it makes its candy. We also were able to buy some at their boutique. It's a very good place to take children.

Home office of Haribo candies.

Tarascon Ancient Castle and Town

The Eglise Sainte Marthe, an important
historical, religious figure in the region.

My trip to Tarascon went very well. The city is very nice, and the weather was beautiful today. There was a market today so the first thing we did (I went with one of the girls I met on the Student Exchange Association trip) was go to the market.
After the market, we wandered around town a bit, it was very pretty. I saw the Church of Ste. Marthe, which is built over her tomb.

A view of the mythic Tarascon creature.

The main attraction was of course the castle, the seat of the kings of Provence. Outside is a statue of the Tarsque, the mythical river monster Ste. Marthe defeated. She showed it a crucifix, then wrapped her griddle around it and it became tame, allowing the villagers to kill it.

A view of the Tarascon castle

The castle is very impressive; in quite good condition and as 'castley' of a castle as one could want. It's not too expensive generally, and it's free to enter for students of art, art history, and architecture! That's me!

Inside the castle walls.

After Tarascon became part of modern France, the castle was used for various things, including (as with many of these ancient structures) a prison. You can still see things the prisoners carved in the walls. It seems that it was used mainly( or at least these were the ones the carved the most) for English prisoners. One group was apparently sailors on the Constantine, which was captured Feburary 1757 on the island Maninca (I think that was the name) The other group was mainly around 1797, many from Hull, England.

A view overlooking Tarascon from the castle parapets.

Across the river is the town of Beauclaire, which is also quite nice. Apparently Beauclaire was not part of the Kingdom of Provence. It had its own castle, which is not in nearly as good of condition now.





A side note: I notice my French is getting better. I've been catching myself writing French words when I'm thinking of English ones! It's strange-- I think in English, but French now comes out sometimes and I don't notice at first. I guess that's the best recommendation for studying abroad for more than a few weeks-- the place really gets into you.
I registered for my DELF exams, by the way. Wish me luck!

Some Days, You're the Pigeon...

A pigeon roosts on the head of this figure.

 I saw this statue with a pigeon on her head! It made me laugh. Some days you're  the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

Yesterday I went of the student exchange association trip to Arles and Sts. Maries de la Mer. The trip was interesting, except it rained steadily all day and wasn't very warm. Arles was the same as last time, the only difference beings it was wetter and they had the weekend market up, which was interesting.
Sts. Maries de la Mer seems like it would be very nice in good weather. Even in the rain the beach was pretty. However the town itself was all shut up because of the weather.

I also signed up for a horse back tour of the Camargue, which was mostly fun.

The arena at Nimes.

The cathedrale at Nimes.

A very handsome fountain at Arles.

 It would have been awesome, but it rained all day. The Camargue was pretty. It reminds me a bit of swampy areas around the Mississippi river, though I think it isn't  quite as warm as say the Everglades or Louisiana's bayou. More like Tennessee or Mississippi. There were many water birds: herons, egrets, even pairs of swans. One was on a nest -- she watched us very carefully!

Art works at the Petit Palais, Avignon.

Friday I went the Petite Palais, which is a museum next to the Palace des Papes in Avignon.

The French sandwich called the Americain.

I saw a sandwich at a street food stand nearby called an Americain, and wanted to know what it was. It turns out to be a steakburger in a baguette with the sauce of your choice  so I got mayo with fries. Not really anything American, but tasty!

Nimes: Easter Time In France

Cathedrale of Nimes.

While France is historically called the "cradle of Christianity" owing to the ancient Gauls who first accepted the new religion during the Roman occupation, to Charlemagne fame, today not many attend regularly and some laws are now in force to prevent public expression of religion. Still, they are very interested and even adamant about their Easter holiday weekend. In fact the Monday after Easter is a national holiday to allow people to travel back home from their Easter celebrations. Strange.

Easter is (still) an important holiday in France. Everyone goes traveling to see their family, so the trains where quite crowded. It seems that Easter in France still has more traces of the ancient spring celebrations that existed before Christianity. Along with the usual chocolate rabbits and eggs, they have chocolate fish and chickens. They have chocolate euros too, but I think maybe they are more of a Christmas thing that ended up in my Easter basket because they were left over :) I do like chocolate!

'CocoEuros' for holidays.

Roman arena of Nimes.

Chocolate novelties for Easter.

On my return I had a long stop in Nimes, which is the principal city of the Gard region. Nimes is an ancient and very interesting city. I didn't  have time to see too much, but the train station lets you off right down town so I was able to see some of its pretty shopping area, the large cathedral and a very impressive fountain. I also saw the famous Roman arena, which is still used today. They have bullfights in the style of the Camargue (the swampy areas near the Mediterranean)  which doesn't  involve injuring or killing the bull.


 

The SNCF train station at Nimes.

A rainy, cool day at Royan.

April is the very beginning of the tourist season here. The beach at Royan was just warm enough to be pleasant, and the attractions for the tourists have returned for the season.  I did go walking in the surf but the water is still too cold for swimming. It was still early and cold enough in the season that the beaches weren't  crowded.

There is a wide variety of delicious dishes in the region!

Well, I had my second reading/writing test today. It wasn't  too bad, but one section was a bit hard, it seemed like it was hard for everyone. The hard part was the section about food. We had to answer questions about what sort of ingredients were in different dishes!
 Which would have been fine, except we learned and practiced the names for different foods, like names of fruits, vegetables, not really the contents of any dishes.
(I don't  think it was completely reasonable to expect the majority of the class to know these things.)


Apparently we were supposed to have learned all about the names of various French dishes by our own experience cooking. I didn't  think it was the best test design.


It was sunny again today, so the marche, the market was out in full force. I bought two decorative keyhole cover thingies. I thought they were interesting.

The native lizards are a type of gecko, I think.

The humans aren't  the only ones coming out in the sun. I saw several little lizards which are native to this region sunning themselves, and a duck diving for food in the public park pond.

The Avignon home and museum of Jean Vilar.

I went to the home if Jean Vilar. It seems he was a notable actor who started the now famous theatre festival in Avignon. The museum was free; there were video interviews of the actor and such. I didn't  stay long as my interest in theater ends with props and costumes, but for those who are interested, it seems like a good place to stop by.

A prayer card for Avignon saint, St. Benezet.

 Oh, I also went into the Èglise Saint Dider, which apparently houses the body of St Benzet, the saint credited with building the Pont d'Avignon. The church is fairly pretty, another good example of Gothic architecture.

Travel by French trains is fast and comfortable--unless
you're going from the center of France to the West.
Then it's slow--no TGV service. Aggh!

This weekend I'm off to spend the next few days with my wonderful hosts in Aquitaine! Wish me bon voyage; I'll be on the train about 8 hours to arrive there at night at Saintes station.

Le Printemps et Avignon

Its beginning to feel a lot like spring time!

Dining on the cheap--as the locals do
from the supermarche!

Now that it is getting warm and the tourists are just starting to arrive, the city seems to be giving itself a bit of a face lift. Buildings are getting new roofs and shops are being renovated and painted.  They like to re-use even very old buildings here.The cafes have all set up huge umbrellas in preparation for the hot summer, and they have set up barrier walls to mark out which seats belong to which restaurant.

Renovation and construction of buildings
is now in full swing at Avignon.

Restaurants, even fast food, is expensive in France! However, I've  discovered that a good way to get around this is to buy already prepared food at the grocery store and take it somewhere to eat. The food is quite good and much less expensive. Especially when I stick to French favorites like jambon, ham or le thon, tuna; or regional favorites like cassoulet, bean stew. It seems to be what the locals do too. I see lots of them buying the same kinds of things around lunch time along with bread, fruit, vegetables and cheeses.

 

I saw quite an antiques market setup in the square, la Place d'Horlogue today! They had all kinds of things-- jewelry, silverware,  porcelain, linens, decorative objects, old farming equipment, war memorabilia; it was

La Place d'Horlogue
Tourism is starting to bloom as well here!

quite an eclectic collection. I saw a few things I liked, but nothing that would fit well in a suitcase.

The roof tops and tower of Avignon Palais.

 The street vendors at the place de Horlogue are mostly selling jewelry and painting. I wasn't  particularly impressed or unimpressed, though there was one rather good water-colorist. There is also a tram that you can ride around the city. It's apart from the city buses which operate year round. The tram starts out front of the Palais des Papes and goes around most of the historic sites. Its about 7€ a person I think, which was a bit much for me, but it does look like a good way to see the city without getting lost- which is something to consider given the maze of streets that is Avignon!

The road to the Barthalese area at Avignon

At the Isle Barthalese, camping and lodg-
ings for the budget minded in Avignon.

The place to board the river ferry at Avignon.

Finally, I visited the Isle Barthalese today, which is the largest river island in Europe. It is accessible by bridge for cars, bicycles and pedestrians, and by ferry for bikes and pedestrians.

The ferry is free, but unfortunately, while it runs every day in the summer, it only runs Wednesdays and weekends in the spring months. 

The isle has a large camping area, as well as sports facilities and an organic farm where you can buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

A view of the adjacent  Villeneuve les Avignon
from the walkway.

 There is also a very pleasant walkway along the river. While the river is nice for walking, the rest of the isle is better suited for car travel, unlike Avignon within the walls where walking or biking is the best way to get around.

Some Visitors

I've been distracted the last few weeks by some surprise visitors from home. The Mistral wind was blowing hard when they arrived; we were freezing!
But it slacked off and the sun was quite warm when they left a few weeks later. School has been keeping me busy. I'm glad to have a routine, otherwise it would be boring here! It's not that there isn't stuff to do, it's what to do. I think there's so much, one can't really decide-- so it's boring without a routine. Humph!
Oh, my visitors. Well, they came. I can say that much.
We used our French muchly, and they made a lot of the same mistakes as me--I felt redeemed! I'm not the only one around here who can't always get the right verb tenses. I had my first French quiz last week. It went well-- no surprises. My spelling isn't too good in English either. I'm working at it-still.

We also went to the towns of Orange and Arles: 

In Arles my camera went out, so I hope to post more pictures--if the memory card isn't dead :(

The wonderful roman theater at Orange.

On the bright side,  I applied for and got a "La Carte Zou!" from the SNCF train station at Avignon. It gives me 50 per cent off for all my trips in the region, me and two others, that is--that's a bargain. So I used it for these two trips

At Orange: In the meantime, I can say that the weather was frigid the day we visited Orange, but the ancient Roman theater with its small interior movie theater was the saving grace--because it was heated! We learned about the site from the interesting video presentation and enjoyed our picnic lunch there.

The next best thing about Orange was the Cafe-Bar we stopped at. Open on Sundays, we were so glad to enter inside and were greeted by the owners, a husband and wife who graciously served us hot tea at the bar and also waited on their customers easily in French, English or German! How nice is that?!
Please do stop in at the place: V Cafe,  2 Place de freres Mounet Orange
Tel. 0490663214

They serve good, hot and tasty food at fair prices.

A hot drink at V Cafe, Orange warmed us up!

We wanted to visit a few other places, but being low season, they were closed on Sunday. We did see the interesting museum located across the street from the theater, and their cathedrale. While it was impressive structurally, it's sad to find that sooo many churches in France today now fill the role of "museum."

The visit to Arles was a week later; with the Mistral winds tamed for the day, we enjoyed fine a spring day. At Arles we saw the Roman Arena, the local museum, the Roman baths, the cathedral St. Trophime, the Cloister of St. Trophime, the Roman theater and their city park, all very attractive and most quite interesting.

The Roman amphitheater at Arles.

 We also saw Les Alyscamps, the ancient Roman cemetery, one of the few surviving intact burial grounds of antiquity in France. It was most interesting. We also attempted to visit the Museum Reattu but were very disappointed. It's undergoing renovations and, at the moment, has a chaotic schedule of openings. It may be opened for the summer season, but the renovations are scheduled to continue through 2013. Blah! We so wanted to see its art collection. Also we tracked Van Gogh a bit and realized that his presence there is a bit mystical--the society which holds some of his works was also closed and maybe moved from it's first building to a newer one, so some of the signs we followed were out of date.

A map with Arles indicated.

A Painting by V. VanGogh of Arles Les
Alyscamps cemetery.

One of the best things we did in Arles was to enjoy our picnic lunch at the fountain in the town square at the Hotel de Ville, and to meet a woman in her bakery when we stopped by to buy a baguette before lunch. She was very kindly and corrected our French! We weren't the least bit bothered; we thanked her, and we all laughed. Such a kind heart, for sure.