Aigues Mort et Le Grau du Roi

Last Saturday, our group visited the fortified city of Aigues Mort and the coastal city of Le Grau de Roi.  Aigues Morts is similar to Carcassonne, but it's ramparts are still fully accessible all the way around the city and it is a residential city, which means it has many more residents than Carcassonne.  The big draw in Aigues Mort?  Salt marshes, red salt marshes to be exact.  My host father was an engineer at the salt company there for 15 years and it is quite impressive.  The mountains of salt lining the red water seen from the ramparts at Aigues Mort are pictured below.  According to our tour guide, the area is a habitat for pink flamingos, which become pink from drinking the red water and eating the "petits crevettes" (minuscule shrimp-like creatures) in the water.

Salt, red salt marsh as viewed from castle wall

The castle and ramparts were amazing for many reasons, in particular that the entire structure is still standing centuries after it was first constructed and because of its significance in the religious wars between Catholics and other Christian sects.  The grand tower at Aigues Mort was a women's prison during the protestant purge under King Louis XIV in the late 1600's.  We toured the towers where the women were held and though no pictures were allowed (technically), it was quite eery.  They engraved their names and how long they were imprisoned in the walls.  Everyone used the same toilet- a hole the floor in one corner that led to a deep hole.  There was almost no light in the towers and the conditions were horrible.  The crime these women committed was being married or somehow associated with a protestant male who refused to convert to Catholicism.  The men were frequently killed, but their wives were put in prison.

King Louis XIV, whose statue sat in the prison tower

City of Aigues Mort as pictured from the ramparts.  The castle in at the end of the road the middle.  This picture shows just how big the ramparts were and how they stretched all the way around the city.

The final part of this trip was a two hour long catamaran trip.  We cruised on the Mediterranean along the coast and it was quite wavy, but overall an excellent sail-yacht ride.  The Mediterranean has deepest blue water I have ever seen and the day was perfect- sunny, warm, and just a bit breezy.  Sadly, no pictures here other than of the sail to give an idea of how big the catamaran was.  There were topless European women so I couldn't really take any pictures once we got going...

Sail of the large catamaran we rode on

Overall, it was a great saturday trip, the last one before classes start.  I have been to two of my classes so far and they have been mostly with other Americans, but taught in french.  Today was my first day of grammar and writing methodology and it's a class I'm actually looking forward to, because it will help me immensely when I have to write papers for actual french professors.  I have class monday afternoons, wednesday mornings, and all day tuesday/thursday, with fridays off.  This makes a great schedule for travel!  I'm most likely going to Paris in three weeks and I'm spending a week in the UK at the end of October.  Blog posts will be less travel stories, more life in france oriented until I travel again.  I'm going to a post about a typical day's food, the french university system, french culture, and of course, keep updating about what I'm doing in my classes.  Until next week...au revoir.

The Medieval Castle at Carcassonne

The past week has been full of new challenges, one of which has been finding time to post on this blog!  So, today, after a trip to the fortified city of Aigues-Mort and the port city of Grau du Roi, I decided I would do a post on last week's visit to the medieval city of Carcassonne.

This week,  I have mostly spent my time figuring out the french university system and getting to know my host family.  French universities are very different from the US and not in a good way.  They are highly bureaucratic and lack any organized structure.  For instance, each department decides for themselves when to start classes.  So on thursday I went to my first class only to discover that the history dept. will not commence classes until next monday!  

After the three week orientation course ended wednesday, everyone in the program chose their classes for the semester at the university.  I chose to take five classes:

• Contemporary european history 1815-1989
• Medieval french literature
• Theatre and politics in 16th c. french literature
• Grammar and writing methods in french
• French civilization

Three of these classes are with only other American students and two- the history and politics classes- are with other french students in an integrated setting.  I'm really looking forward to starting all my classes and getting into a routine, one that allows me to sleep and travel more.  This should be possible, because I have no classes fridays or monday mornings.

Living with my host family this past week has been an educational, and immensely positive experience.    The food has been mostly traditional french and southern french style food and each night we eat a multi-course dinner with plenty of cheese and wine.  I've decided that I love the cheese, but I don't love the wine.  It reminds of paint thinner and I'm sure that's insulting to french wine, but I can't stand drinking it.  But that's ok, because my host family doesn't expect it.  And my host sister doesn't like cheese at all.  The running joke is that between us, we are banned from france!

Since my host parents are older, they often correct my french slang that I have learned in the states and they always correct my grammar when I speak incorrectly, which I appreciate because it helps me improve as much as possible.  Living with a host family is an amazing experience and I am enjoying every aspect of it.  There are oddities:  no clothes dryers or microwaves in real french houses, separate rooms for bathroom and toilet, excessive darkness in the house because electricity is so expensive.  

A quick overview of last saturday's trip to Carcassonne.  The city and it's castle are about two hours west toward Spain from where I am in Montpellier, but it was definitely worth the two hour bus ride to get there.  This is where every movie about the Middle ages has ever been filmed.  The castle contains a small city with merchants, restaurants, and an amazing Cathedral.  The castle was first built to defend southwestern France from attacks during Roman times in 100 BC and it remained important throughout the Middle Ages as warring kings fought over it until 1659 when the french border moved further south toward Spain, reducing its importance.

It felt like being a movie set walking around the ramparts and inside the towers.  We were given a tour of the entire outside portion of the castle and spent hours walking around the small city inside.  They actually let vehicles drive around inside too, but only for a few hours each morning to bring in supplies for shops and restaurants.  

Most of the castle was restored in the 1800's which is why it is in such good repair today.  The walls, towers, and ramparts are well remarkably restored.

The most amazing part of the trip for me however was not castle itself but the Cathedral that serves the city. 

The cathedral is absolutely gorgeous and remains in very good condition, with an intricate organ and fantastic stained glass windows (not pictured).  While we were in the church, a male quartet began singing a cappella hymns.  If I can figure out how to upload the video I took, I will.  It was beautiful and made the trip really special.

I wish I could describe Carcassonne with better detail- I encourage you to Google it and read about it.  It is truly an amazing place and is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which keeps it protected and renders it a huge tourist destination.  It lives up to its fame as a Medieval castle with Roman heritage.

There should be another post tomorrow about today's trip to see another castle and sail on a catamaran yacht.  It was very cool, especially the yacht.  I'm also going to try to do a post on the food I have been eating, most of which has been excellent and very regional cuisine.  Look for another, shorter post tomorrow.   

A Trip to Nîmes

The past week has been increasingly busy and packed with the orientation course and the looming prospect of registering for classes.  French universities do not post course schedules anywhere until a couple days beforehand, which presents a serious challenge.  I also learned this week that unless I change my french minor into a french major at Northwestern, I will not receive credit for three of the courses I will take here! That news added some seriously unnecessary stress to this week.

Fortunately, this past Saturday, the entire group took a bus trip to the Pont de Gard (a giant Roman aqueduct) and Nîmes, France, about an hour away.  This trip was absolutely amazing!  Anyone who comes to France must visit the Pont du Gard, the Roman temple, and the Roman gardens in Nîmes.

The Pont du Gard is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (which means it's pretty awesome) built around the 1st century AD.  It was used to transport water over 50 km to the city of Nîmes, the aquaduct itself acting as a bridge over the Gardon River.  It is impressive in its size and height, built about 50 meters off the ground without mortar, the massive rocks used to build it were dry-laid.  This makes it all the more impressive that it lasted this long!  We got the chance to actually walk inside the aqueduct where the water used to flow and the interior (which I have no pictures of because it was too dark) is massive, big enough to carry a river's worth of water.

Pont du Gard from below.  It's twice as long and huge up close.

The trip got even better after this stop.  Next we went to l'Arène, Nime's version of the colosseum.  It's about half the size of the one in Rome, but it was spectacular (I'm running out of adjectives that don't start with awe and end with some).  We climbed to the top of the seating section of the massive stadium and heard about its history from a guide.  She told us that fights between people and animals used to occur there, as well as citywide meetings.  During war, it was converted into army barracks.  Today, they still have concerts and sporting events there, a couple thousand years after it was built.

The remainder of the trip was spent seeing two more Roman-era landmarks, a temple and a watchtower. Both were impressive structures, especially the temple, which stands in the middle of the major square in downtown Nîmes today.  It has carvings in the stone and was designed to resemble a Greek temple.  It's tall columns and marble floors remind me of the Parthenon, but in much better condition.  The pictures I took of the temple did not turn out well because of the bright reflective light, so feel free to google "La maison-carréé" to see a picture.  The watchtower required a long walk up a hill to the highest point in Montpellier.  It was obvious why the Romans used this area for a guard tower!  The gardens on the bottom of the hill were spectacular as well.  Statues depicting Roman gods surrounding marble pools spanned massive ground.  This was highlighted by the ruins of a Roman castle of sorts.  This was the most impressive part of the tour, if only because we were able to walk around in the ruins.  Tablets, writing, and intricate designs were still intact, as pictured below.

Roman watch tower

Ruins in the garden

Inside the ruins

Tomorrow, I have my first exam of the introductory course, as well a special course in wine and cheese tasting and my first-ever soccer game.  The next post will include my impressions of my host family as well as photos from a group trip to Carcassone, a city close by to Montpellier.

Day 5- First Impressions

I've been in Montpellier now for a few days and so far it has been excellent.  My travel experience ended up being fairly stressful but I got here in one piece after taking three planes, two trains, and a taxi.  It turns out that American credit cards don't have security chips in them, so they can't be tracked by the French government.  Which means I couldn't use mine to pick up my train ticket.  After having my first conversation in french with actual french people, I learned that tickets are only required if the conductor actually checks for them.  Luckily, he didn't and I was on my way from the airport in Marseille to Montpellier.  This stress just compounded my stress from traversing the Munich airport earlier in the day.  By the time flight from Toronto landed,  I had less than twenty minutes to clear customs and get to my next gate.  Customs and security, as well as what seemed like walking several miles to get to them, took about nineteen minutes.  As I ran to my gate, boarding pass in hand, the agent locked the door and closed the flight.  I had made it just in time!

When I finally made it to Montpellier, I took a taxi to the hotel where I would be staying for the next ten days.  I needed food and sleep, neither of which I would get right away, because I spent most the afternoon and evening getting to know my roommates Ed and Byron.  Ed is from Gulfport, Mississippi and Byron is from Duluth, Minnesota.  We finally ventured out to find dinner, but since it was a Sunday, everything run by actual french people was closed.  So, we went to a kebab place and got excellent middle eastern food, go figure.  Even worse, it came it fries and soda.  And yet, it was nourishment, desperately needed after twenty four hours of airline food, pictured below.

Something resembling food on Toronto to Munich flight

First view on Montpellier's Place de la Comedie at dusk

Since food is so expensive here, we have been cooking for ourselves in the evening and having sandwiches and such for lunch.  But it's not so bad.  Food here is of much higher quality than anything you'd find in Aldi's or even Wegman's.  They don't do processed foods and they make tortilla chips from crepes.  Things the french love- bread, cheese, and wine- are cheap and plentiful.  A sandwich of jambon et fromage edam (ham and edam cheese) on baguette is delicious.

This week, my days were filled by intense orientation classes taught by french professors, where we review grammar, speaking, writing, and listening skills.  So far, we have taken two tours of the city, the highlights of which included going inside medieval Jewish baths and climbing atop Montpellier's version of the Arc de Triomph, constructed after the Catholics defeated the Protestants here.

Arc de Triomph of Montpellier- smaller than the one in Paris

Montpellier has amazing history.  Most cities in southern france are of Roman origin, but Montpellier is  newer city, dating only the medieval era, around 1200 AD.  The old city has lots of stone walls and narrow winding streets.  The building most commonly look the ones below- with hints of Greco-Roman architecture and later styles as well.

So far, I love it here.  The people in my program are all very nice and an extremely diverse group from all over the US.  Yesterday, we all went to the beach and swam in the Mediterranean.  It was warm and the beach was crowded.  And yes, there were plenty of topless french women.  Tomorrow I have my first big assignment due- a one page long story in french, which is nothing compared to what I have been doing for two years in classes at Northwestern.  Saturday, we take a bus trip to the city of Nîmes, which is full of Roman architecture, including Pont du Gard, an aquaduct.  My next post will be about this trip, which I'm really looking forward to.

Oddities noted so far about Montpellier and France in general: 

1. Personal hygiene is...well, different here. 

2.  Bands of hobos with big dogs which defecate indiscriminately seem to love Montpellier.  I do not love them.

3.  I have seen exactly two SUV's here.  They were both smaller than a Ford escape.  Aka really small.

4.  French people love to speak english.  I just wish they wouldn't assume I want to speak english.  I don't; in fact,  I want to speak french whenever possible to improve my skills.

All things I already knew, but have witnessed and confirmed.

I move in with my host family on September 1...that's my next big adjustment, but I'm excited for it.  Look for my next post on Sunday, my first free day with free since I arrived.  And I can't wait for it.

  

Departure Day

Today is the day.  I woke up and frantically finished packing, even fitting in a trip to Macy's and Kohls for last minute shopping.  I'll be studying in Montpellier, France for the next four months and I didn't even start thinking about packing until I got from a two week trip to Colorado.  With one week between trips, I spent most of my time visiting family, shopping, and then finally packing.

I was lucky enough to fly out of Syracuse this afternoon on an award ticket instead of driving or taking a bus to NYC for my flight to France.  However with nearly free tickets booked with miles, there is always a catch.  This time it involved an 18 seat prop plane and flying Air Canada.  After getting to the airport 90 minutes early and saying goodbye to my family, I "checked in", which involved an agent from a different airline calling technical support after she couldn't figure out how to do it.  Air Canada is a small operation in Syracuse.  When my flight was delayed 30 minutes, no announcements were made or reasons provided, but eventually the plane (see below) showed up.  

Even the pilot had no information as to its whereabouts!  The flight was unique- no safety demo, no flight attendant, and no overhead compartment.  But, it got me to Toronto where I now sit on a four hour layover.  The airport is massive and it took forever to get from my gate (which consisted of a door leading down a long hallway, not an actual gate), through customs and on to my next gate.  Presently, the terminal is being searched thoroughly for a suspicious item of some sort!

My flight to Munich, Germany leaves at 8:25pm EST, so I have three hours to kill and a new airport to explore.  So far, I like the free wifi and all the canadians, who gleefully fit their "nice" stereotype.  Fifteen more hours of travel to go, including two more flights and two French passenger trains.

I'm going to Montpellier to study abroad, which means I will take classes in French and live with a host family.  Hopefully, I will get to travel quite a bit around Europe and make it an extended vacation as well a college semester.  I'll update the blog at least twice per week and more if I travel- with pictures and video too as the internet allows.  I'll post about the amazing french food I eat, landmarks I visit, and people I meet.

For the first ten days I will live at the Citadines Antigone hotel in Montpellier while I attend an orientation program, then I move in with my host family September 1.  My classes do not start until Sept 12 so I will have two weeks to explore Montpellier or travel elsewhere with my fellow program members.  Throughout the program I know already I am going to London, Amsterdam and Paris.  And I'm sure I will make it all over France and to Spain, Italy, and Germany at least as well.

Remember, if you want to call or text me and you have a smartphone, download the app "Viber".  We can communicate for free.  I'll post my international number here as soon as I get it. 

The next time I post will be from Montpellier, France!  If you're wondering about the name of the blog, it means "Let's go to Montpellier".  And go I shall.