A Weekend in the South of France

Bonjour! So this last weekend (Friday Feb 24 through Sunday Feb 26) The Central College Study Abroad group went to Marseille and Arles in the South of France!! If anyone has seen either Count of Monte Cristo movie, the city in that movie is Marseille and the Chateau d'If is right off the coast from that city too. But more on the Chateau later... 

Friday morning we met at the Train station in Paris bright and early to get on a TGV to our destination: MARSEILLE! It's about a 3 or maybe 3 and a half hour ride. I put some googlemaps pictures below so you can se where I was.

 

Marseille:

When we arrived, it was sunny and somewhere around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It was beautiful! We got settled into our cute little hotel and then we went to the Toursim Office to meet our guide who would take us around the old part of Marseille.

My first view of the beautiful city of Marseille 

This was the beginning of the tour of Marseille. It's the oldest building (or maybe it was hotel) in Marseille and they actually moved it over a few meters and turned it a little a few decades ago when they were re-doing streets.  

There was a big church on top of a hill that we always saw but never got the chance to go to.

Me trying to be artistic. Look at how blue the sky was! I didn't even enhance this picture at all!

We were supposed to go to this really famous Chocolaterie (it's that red building in the background), but they were closed all weekend. 

A famous striped Church in Marseille (not the one on top of that hill). The little building on the right is the old church and then they rebuilt another new fancy one later. We didn't get to go in this one either, but the outside was really cool. How many striped churches do you see?

Le vieux port (The old port) This is the big main port that we wandered around while we were here.

Since we didn't get chocolate, the director bought us all  Navettes from the oldest bakery in Marseille. They look kind of like mini baguettes but they are harder, and are kind of lemon flavored. They weren't bad, but comparing them to chocolate probably made them not as good as they could have been in my eyes at the time. 




Saturday morning we got up early so we could catch one of the few boats to the Chateau d'If!

After we got back from the island, I wandered around with some friends for a bit, and we found the Arc de Triomphe de Marseille! It's a lot smaller than the one in Paris, but just as pretty.

Arles:

Early Saturday afternoon we took a 1 hour train ride to the nearby town of Arles. Van Gogh lived there for about 15 years! (Although I didn't realize that until much later than I'd like to admit) 

Arles is on the Rhone River. We walked along the Rhone during sunset. 

Later that night we went back to the river to see the "Starry Night on the Rhone" (That was one of Van Gogh's paintings) and all the sudden there was this HUGE wind! I was looking around for a tornado at first, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky! It was this famous really strong wind from the north that they call "Mistral."

My own Starry Night on the Rhone :)

Sunday morning we took a tour of the old part of Arles (shown in the map below) 

This was taken at a really old and pretty convent

This was the old amphitheater. Did you know that those two big columns are the only columns left that used to be on the face of a building that stood there? The actors and special effects people had all their stuff in that building. 

There was a group of guys there that were jumping around on some of the remains of buildings. I thought they were just really bored, but it turns out they were training for some rock jumping sport that I forgot the name of...

An old stadium

They've been doing bull fights here since the 1950s I think... Before that they had gladiators and such. 

Anyone recognize this painting by Van Gogh?

Well it's still there! And I stood (roughly) where Van Gogh was when he painted that!

The cafe itself was closed during the winter season for some silly reason, so we ate at a little sandwich shop near our hotel (which was a Best Western btw) and then we got on a train to head back to Paris. And so concludes my weekend in the south of France. I really hope I can go back! Except next time I want to try Nice for beaches!

Mon Anniversaire a Paris!

So, on Wednesday February 21st, 2012 I turned 21. The setting? Paris, France! This day was also Mardi Gras. I quickly learned though that Mardi Gras isn't a very big deal in Paris. That's okay though, I made the day special myself. Unfortunately it had to wait until after noon because it was the first day of classes at the Institut Catholique de Paris. I had a french language class from 9 to noon and then after lunch at a little cafe near the University, Lauren and I decided to wander around in the Montmartre area for the afternoon. We found the Moulin Rouge almost right away. It was interesting seeing it in the daylight. For some reason I only pictured it at night... 

After ogling the Moulin Rouge for a few minutes, we wandered in the direction of the Sacre Coeur until we found it and went in to look around. That neighborhood was beautiful! It was also quite the work out since we were walking up a hill the whole time. Also the weather was beautiful, and it was actually sunny! Pretty much the best birthday afternoon ever.                                                 

Here's one huge stair we went up to get to the top of the hill and Sacre Coeur

This square had tons of painters with their artwork in it. Some of the prettiest, original, paintings of scenes in Paris I've ever seen. 

My first view of the Sacre Coeur

The view of Paris from in front of the Sacre Coeur

There were some guys in front of the church doing some type of martial arts dance to music. It was really cool.

After a quiet supper in my foyer, I met some girls in front of the Fontain St. Michel to find a bar so I could get a drink on my 21st birthday... even if it doesn't matter in France... The bar we ended up at was called Shywawa. It was a wonderful ending to my 21st birthday.