The Past Month

Friends,

I am so sorry that I have been silent for so long. The past month and a half have been filled with lots of excitement, visitors and new experiences, and somehow the time just got away from me. So without further ado...

The second week of March brought my family's visit to Bordeaux, which was wonderful. My mom and dad arrived a couple of days before Abby, and we toured around Bordeaux and even spent a night at St. Emilion, which is a nearby town famous for its wine, situated smack in the middle of vineyard country. During the drive to St. Emilion, I realized that the Gironde departement is like the Kansas of France, except with vineyards instead of cornfields. Even fifteen minutes outside Bordeaux, you find yourself surrounded by acres and acres of vineyards and hundreds of different chateaux. When we visited in mid-March, the vines looked gnarly and barren, practically dead. However, by now I imagine that they have grown more leafy and lush. I'm going on a vineyard tour with a student group at the end of April, and I'm looking forward to seeing the progression of the vines. We stayed at an adorable little bed and breakfast just outside St. Emilion, run by a charming Dutch woman. If anyone is planning a trip to the French wine country, ask us for the name of this place! We also had a fabulous dinner that night in a wine store, where all the dinner tables are set up among the crates of wine, so to "order" your bottle, you get up, take a tour of the store, and a choose a bottle from its display.

We got back to Bordeaux to pick up Abby from her train (after nearly 25 hours of travel from Dartmouth, New Hampshire!) and then left for the weekend for the Dordogne region, which is about 2 hours east of Bordeaux. This region is characterized by the many prehistoric caves and grottos that have now been preserved and made into tourist sites, numerous small towns built right off the edges of cliffs, and the two winding rivers, the Garonne and the Dordogne, that make the region so fertile for farming. We stayed in Sarlat, which is a gorgeous medieval town that is remarkably well-preserved and used that as our base to take driving trips further into the region. The highlight for me was visiting Rocamadour, a town literally built right into the side of the cliff. We parked at the "top" and climbed all the way down and then all the way back up. Unfortunately my mom has all the pictures on her camera, so you'll just have to trust me that it was breathtaking. On the ride back to Bordeaux, we also stopped at the Chateau de Beynac, an imposing chateau also built right into the side of the cliff that looks out onto beautiful views of the valley below and the Garonne River.

And the final highlight of my family's visit was when they all came over for aperitifs with the Chaperons. Even though they couldn't really talk to each other (the Chaperons speak only a little English), it was still so wonderful for both of my families to meet each other. It was very sad to say goodbye to my family, but the visit was perfectly timed in the middle of my stay here, so it divided up the time really nicely.

A couple of weekends later, I visited Cap Ferret, which is a peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean, with one of my French friends. Cap Ferret is a popular vacation destination for the Bordelais since it's right on the ocean, but it was pleasantly peaceful and not horribly built up like many beach towns in the US. The oyster fishing industry is still alive and well there, and we wandered through a tiny fishing village and saw lots of people out on the pier fishing for crabs. We also climbed up to the top of a lighthouse with had amazing views of the beach and the water all around us. We concluded the day with a walk along the beach, collecting shells and marveling at the sand that squeaked when you walked (something I've never encountered at home). And then, like any good francaises, we stopped at a bakery on the way home for a snack.

View of the bassin d'Arcachon from the top of the lighthouse

Street musicians in Bordeaux at a "nature et bio" festival

The next weekend I returned to the beach with Kim, but we went to Arcachon, the popular beach basin destination for many Bordelais. Saturday afternoon brought perfect beach temperatures, and it seemed like all of Bordeaux was in our little train. Everyone was squashed together like cattle, so the trip out wasn't too enjoyable, but it was absolutely worth it once we got to Arcachon. The town is a charming little seaside village, and the boardwalk is lined with seafood restaurants, little bars, and of course, lots of ice cream, crepe and "gaufrette" shops. We bought a picnic lunch and laid on the beach for the afternoon, watching adorable French babies run around half naked (or completely naked) and enjoying the sea breezes. It also happened to be Carnival in Aracachon the day we were there, so we we stopped to admire a bit of the colorful and vibrant parade.

Beautiful flowering purple tree in Valerie's garden right outside my studio

Carnival in Arachon

Bassin d'Arcachon

And this past week brought the end of classes at the university, so now I am officially on spring break! I celebrated the beginning of break on Thursday night with Kim when we made dinner at her apartment (which was actually just putting in a frozen pizza that Valerie had bought for me) and ate on her terrace, which looks out on the rooftops of Bordeaux and the spires of the Cathedral St. Andre and St. Michel. We watched the sun go down and marveled about how lucky we were to be in such a beautiful place. The other Middlebury students in Poitiers arrived for the weekend since we all had to take a French test to see our improvement with the language, so we spent the day together on Friday lounging in the jardin publique and enjoying the beautiful weather. On Monday I leave for Rome for the week to visit some Middlebury friends who are studying there for the semester, and I'm really looking forward to it. Although we visited Rome as a family many years ago, I'm excited to go back now that I know so much more about all the history and art in the city. Plus, I just loved Italy when we were there the first time, and I'm looking forward to lots of pasta and gelato.

I now have just a little over a month left in Bordeaux, and I can't believe how fast the time is going. Sometimes I feel like I just arrived here yesterday, and I already know it will be incredibly hard to say goodbye to the Chaperons. But, I'm also missing America and my family, so it will be great to get back. Needless to say, I'm going to take full advantage of my final month here, and there's still lots on my to-do list that I want to do before leaving. I wish you all the very best from France, and I promise it will not be as long for the next blog!