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.

Getting Into the Swing of Things

My view of the courtyard at the Palais Des Papes

We Are Study Abroad --EIU!

This is New Student Week! for us foreign students, and it's generally been a lot of fun! And my student ID gets me into the dining hall and discounts in lots of places, likes stores, museums, travel and more.
We toured city sites and met each day for social activities as well as to finish our registration. Friday morning topped off the process when we took our placement exams. This determines our class schedule the rest of the semester. Yeah! I've got no 8am classes this semester! Classes are starting.



The weather here is great. It's the south of France after all. True, the Mistral winds do blow cold in winter, but the sun is warm and the skies, very blue!

I went to the Palais des Papes and the Pont d'Avignon with the rest of the exchange students. The entire trip was a bit confused. Apparently, it was not very clear where and when we were supposed to meet up, so we ended up going in two groups.

The Papal throne, ca. 14th century

 The Palais interior was a bit less impressive than I imagined. You can definitely tell it was built to be a fortress. The walls are thick and high! I didn't get to learn as much of the history as I would have liked, but it is free the first Sunday of each month, so I shall have to go back.

The interior is not in particularly good condition. The structure is still fine-- massive stone buildings tend to last after all, but the interiors seem to have been damaged. Many of the frescoes and tile are gone or badly damaged, and it looks as though anything that wasn't part of the building is basically gone. There is no furniture, no rugs or tapestries or anything else you might expect to find in a place where some of the the most powerful men in Europe once lived. I would guess it all fared badly in the Revolution. All of the statues around the doors to the Papal chapel  have been beheaded!

Surviving fresco, the Papal apartments

Decapitated figure, entrance to
Papal chapel

I  want to go back to their gift shop! They have working toy wooden crossbows and hand crossbows, along with other cool things. I want one!

The fast moving Rhone river at the
Pont d'Avignon

I also went to the Pont d'Avignon, which was interesting enough. It has a very nice view of the Rhone river. The river seems to be quite fast moving, and I would imagine it is very dangerous to fall in!

Avignon

I have arrived at the Foyer, my new home away from home. Everything seems to be fine. The room is small, but it is very clean and seems to have everything I want. I also have a nice view of the courtyard garden from my window. The building is complete with a roof top terrace and a beautiful view of the city! I can see the top of the Palais des Papes from here!

Foyer at Avignon

 Madame la Directrice seems very nice; after inspecting the room I got busy unpacking. I was a bit worried that the building would be cold, as so many of these old buildings here seem to be. Happily, the Foyer seems to have steam heating, so it is very warm! The showers are down the hall. Overall it's home-like.

The rooftop view from my room

They serve breakfast and dinner here five days a week; we have use of the kitchen on the weekends. I'll eat lunches, that's the main meal of the day here, at the University.


 The walk to the university is very short, and I saw the location of the university buildings, though I still have to find out how to get there on foot. It is very close, so that shouldn't be a problem. I'm located within the university domaine.

Stone wall of the Papal Palace

The city itself is very pretty! Right now it is rather cold, because all of France is having a cold snap, and the Mistral wind, while not too strong today, is as frigid as promised!

The Pont d'Avignon

Decorative ironwork gate

I slept pretty well last night. It was very quiet. I walked around Avignon for several hours today. I went to the Palais des Papes and saw the Pont d' Avignon. I also saw the cathedral of Saint Peter. It was warmer today than yesterday; it drizzled a bit, the wind wasn't blowing.

The city is really interesting; there are all kinds of pretty bits of sculpture and architecture, often just sitting here or there: sculptures in niches on the walls, carved aches, delicate iron work, elaborate door knockers. They're all kinds of different things. The Papal palace is very impressive, though located on a cliff over the Rhone river and with such high walls, it 's almost more a 15th century Papal fortress!

The entrance to the Papal Palace

St. Peter Cathedrale Avignon

A French language keyboard

Oh, and the keyboards here are slightly different, and it is very annoying! I never thought about having a different language means different keyboards too!