Hello everyone! I had a VERY busy week this week (hence all the photos and videos) so this blog may be a little longer than normal. We started the week off on a journey to find the IKEA in Grenoble. It was very fun, and we were successful! It was quite similar to the US, but it was cool to see everything in French. Then, I kept busy with school and organizing our big Italy trip for break.
We left Friday for our big weekend around Provence, France! Friday we stopped in Aix-en-Provence. We got to visit a really cool museum de “calissons” which are very famous candies made only here in Provence. They are essentially candy and a little piece of bread on the bottom. It was very good! Then, we continued on into the city for a guided tour. It was really cool to see the history of Aix and all the really pretty places like the fountain and the Cathedral. I also very much appreciated the name AIX en Provence, and it made me miss all my Xavier peeps at home 💙⚔️
Saturday we got up early to travel to Arles which is still in the Provence region, but a different city. We learned a LOT about Roman and Greek architecture here, and we got to see a big arena that is still used today for bull fighting and concerts. It was similar to the arena in Rome, but half the size! I still thought it was huge and when we climbed to the top it offered a great view of the city. Then, we visited a big amphithéâtre which is still used today also. It’s really amazing how the romans could build these structures so long ago and some of them are still standing today. They were so ahead of their time, they even had curtains built in at the theater! Finally, we visited a very famous marché in Arles where I bought a lot of Lavender themed things (another famous Provence thing!) Arles is also famous for Van Gogh who did a lot of his painting there, so it was cool to see what he saw and be in some of the same places where he was so long ago. It was also cool to see a traditional French market—they take those very seriously!
After Arles, we went to the Beaux de Provence which had an amazing Château and light show. We got to climb to the top of the chateau to see a WONDERFUL view of Provence. It was very windy with the Mistral wind, but totally worth it! We got to climb around on the rocks and take many pictures, then we went to a very cool light show in a cave! It’s very hard to explain in words, but you can see a video of it yourself in my video section. It was basically projections of pictures on rocks associated with music. It was absolutely spectacular and very culturally immersive! Then, we checked into our hotel in Avignon, France for the night.
Sunday we explored more of the beautiful, quaint town of Avignon. We got to have a wonderful guided tour of the Palais des Papes, a very famous and GLAMOROUS palace in Avignon. Then, we got to explore two beautiful bridges. One was in Avignon, and it was a little smaller but still impressive how it was built so long ago and withheld so much. The other was the Pont du Gard which is VERY popular in France. No cement at all was used to build the bridge, so it’s very cool how the bridge sticks together and is still used today. There’s an old legend that the devil built the bridge and his wife stopped him from destroying it. The legends moral is that women are the only creatures that can destroy the devil. Pretty cool right? Female power!! Haha finally we visited a very famous winery and got a tour around the museum, learning how wine is made and stored, and we even got to taste 3 wines at the end! It was a very enriching cultural experience. Now we are on the way home to rainy Grenoble. I have class at 8:30 in the morning! Thank you for reading this far, it means a lot! Please enjoy all my pics and videos! Time to get back in “school mode.” I hope you all had a good weekend! Goodnight!
Rachel