Day 22

Day 22:

Saturday, April 11, 2009: Today was our first excursion as a group. We went to Les Baux de Provence. The excursion was really cool but they basically tell us nothing of where we are going. We just get on a bus and we go.

We met our charter bus by the university gates at 9am. It was like an hour drive out into the paysage (countryside). We finally get there and it is an overcast day. Not too cold but when the winds licked up it was not fun. The Baux de Provence is these really old city ruins from like the first century AD. And the ruins are atop this huge mountain so they were protected. This was a catholic community so there were the ruins of a church and all these houses that were built into the side of the mountain – it reminded me of Mesa Verde in Colorado.

We explored for an hour and then they had a catapult demonstration for us. There were three replicas of catapults that were used to defend the town. I volunteered to help out so I could get a firsthand look at how it really worked. Not like the mini catapults we built in physics class senior year at all. Look for the pictures on Facebook and I will try to post some here or on my flickr account. So we catapulted huge water balloons. They demonstrated each catapult one time.

After that, we watched a short video of the sites and villages of Provence. We then had time for lunch and to explore the town that was there now – more for tourists than actually living in. I had pizza with ham. After lunch, it started raining. Our next attraction was the Cathedral des Images. Once again we had no idea what was here and why we were walking in the rain to get there. It was only a short walk away. They gave us tickets and pushed us in; still completely not knowing what to expect.

The Cathedral des Images is an old stone quarry in the side of a mountain. They cleared out all the stone and now it is like a huge cave with white walls and 50 foot ceilings. Well you walk into the darkness and find that it is a Picasso exhibit. They have created a show set to music and they project all his paintings 30 feet high on the walls. It was really cool but a little cold. It could have also made a really good night club with a laser show and strobe lights.

So after visiting there, we boarded the bus and our next stop was the little town of St-Remy-de-Provence. It was really cool and I wish we had more time there but people were complaining that they were cold and tired and wet. We did get to go to a chocolatier that is world famous? His name is Joel Durant or something like that… I met him too. After looking at hundreds of dollars worth of chocolate, I wanted to go look at $150 swim trunks at Villbrequin – I can look right?

So then we boarded the bus and headed home. We had to make a stop at the hospital because Christophe’s squeeze and assistant Katy sliced her hand and needed stitches. Her parents flew in today from Michigan and they were not with us.

I finally got back to my house and ate dinner by myself because the Zemmits went to Paris for a long Paques (Easter) weekend with their son, his fiancé, and their granddaughter. John went with some people that no one knew to Arles for the Le Ferida (bullfight). But it was cancelled because of the rain so they drank in the streets and came home later that night. Lance, Melissa, and Shawna came over and we tried to play French Scrabble but that didn’t work out too well so we just went to the discotheque instead.

(Google a bunch of these places – they are cool)