Back Down South...

So I am blogging today from Jeffrey and Silvana's small house in Mimet, a sleepy town between Aix en Provence and Marsailles. They have a small paradise here, and as for me, I have undisturbed internet access, plenty of time to read, country roads to explore, and absolutely no intention of doing any preparatory work for the three weeks of exams that follow this vacation.

The house is located on an old, quaint street in the higher village of Mimet, which is made up of three different areas: the higher village, the lower village, and another, much larger neighborhood that used to be the home of the coal miners. Coal mining has a history in this town dating back to the 16th century, apparently, and only recently did the coal mines dry up and the industry died. Their house is situated at the top of the hill, overlooking the town. On one side is a beautiful view of the countryside and Mont St. Victoire- a favorite landscape subject for Cezanne - and on the other side are high mountains.

The weather has been lovely and warm, such a welcome change from Paris, which has been gloomy and cold for almost two straight weeks now. I took the TGV from Paris, the easiest three hour trip I have ever taken. Silvana and Jeffrey picked me up at the station and we ran a couple of errands. One being the carpet store, where they were playing the new Madonna and Justin Timberlake song, go figure. Then, Silvana made a nice dinner.

Yesterday, I woke up early (for me) and had coffee with Jeffrey. While he worked in the afternoon, I explored the higher village and walked down to the lower town, which was largely closed for lunch. I found a terrific spot near the old church to read and returned at about 4pm, when Jeffrey and I went on a walk up the mountain to the ruins of an old Celtic settlement. The view was amazing - Mont St Victoire on one side and the Mediterranean on the other. You can see clearly the location of Aix en Provence and Marsailles, behind the mountains. We came back and ate a terrific dinner at the crepe restaurant in the lower town, in an roman tower where they used to house pigeons (or so our waiter speculates).

That being said, I cannot understand the French people here. The southern French accent is so thick I don't know what language they're speaking. Example: the French word for Roman is "romain", pronounced "roe-man" (just say the same word with a thick French accent and make the 'an' very nasal). But in the south, they say it "roe-maeen" and I am suddenly lost.

Better example: This morning, Jeffrey told me that the old woman who lived next door passed away last night. After lunch, the neighbor stopped by and chatted with us (or just Jeffrey, I didn't catch half of what he said and just nodded and smiled). Well, Jeffrey left me alone to fend for myself a minute. While the man was talking, a girl passed by the window. He paused and said, "That is the neighbor, it is her grandmother that died last night." Not understanding what he said (and expecting it to be something nice, or just small town gossip), I laughed and said, "oh!"...and suddenly figured out what he said and had to backtrack in a big way.

Anyway, right now Jeffrey is working and I'm just hanging out. Later, we are going to walk around Gardenne, another local village and hometown of Cezanne, and then Silvana is making artichoke risoto.

Tomorrow, we are going to explore Aix en Provence - early in the morning to avoid the work that is commencing on the upstairs kitchen.

Their house is really coming together very well. It has three floors. The bottom floor has served as their bedroom and kitchen since the work on the house started, but today they are moving into the recently completed second floor bedroom. On the third floor, which has the terrific view, they are putting in a nice kitchen and their living room space. Jeffrey says they are thinking of renting out the bottom floor room to a student if Silvana's mother doesn't spend a lot of time there.

Sunday, we are going to Marsailles, so that I can pretend to be Edmond Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo, and next week I think will be pretty lazy. Jeffrey has some work to do back in Paris and Silvana may be working, so I plan on taking a couple of hikes and reading constantly. There is also a bus that will take me straight to Aix for the day if I choose.

The weather is supposed to be beautiful all week and it should get much warmer. There might be a hope and a prayer for my pale skin to get a little darker, even though it will fade as soon as I get back to Paris.

I'm taking tons of pictures, but I forgot my cable so you'll see them when I get back.

Everything in Paris has been fine, even though we all feel we have worn out our welcomes with our host families. I have one more week of class, two weeks of exams, and one final week of freedom before my flight home on June 4.

I will certainly try to write again before the end of my vacation. God knows I have the time to do! Finally!

More later...

My European Life in Pictures

Alright, alright. I'm the worst blogger ever. I know. I'm sorry. But now there has been SO MUCH happening that the only real way to show and tell is with my pictures. Hopefully this will make up for some of my flakiness...



IRELAND

We spent the first weekend of March in Doolin, on the western coast of Ireland across from the Aran Islands in a place called the Burren, in County Clare. There were something like eight bed and breakfasts, three pubs, and two locally made craft stores. It was like a storybook, and exactly how we had imagined Ireland - and the smallest town ever.

My friends Leah, Kate, and I took a cab from the airport to the hotel, about an hour. Our driver played celtic music. We dropped our bags off at our hotel/ amazing apartment with a full kitchen, living room, individual bedrooms and underfloor heating!!!, and got back in the cab to go the two minutes to the nearest pub for dinner. We had a terrific, hearty, not French meal, enjoyed some music and spirits, and headed out the door. On the way out, an old Irish man saw us and said, "Meagen? Meagen? Are you Meagen?" When I introduced myself, he said, "Hi Meagen! I'm Noel! My brother in law drove you into town!" And there beside him was our cabbie, having a pint, and there he was again 4 more times before the end of our weekend!

So, some pics...

There were palm trees all over. It was so odd. Lucy had warned me, but sometimes it even looked like Florida from certain angles.



This is the town of Doolin...all of it. This view was taken from the bridge over a stream that ran down to the sea. Our hotel is right behind where I am standing.




















































My friend Kate enjoying a pint at McConnell's pub.







































A view of the Cliffs of Moher




























Grrr...So I wrote a caption for each of the pictures explaining what I was showing you, but I'm having html problems, so I got rid of them. And, as I'm typing this, self-inflicted host family drama. I, apparently, did not properly close the downstairs door and the cat brought her kittens upstairs. Now one of them is lost, my host parents are up, and I am in trouble. Terrific. I'm sure that the episode of the Hills I am watching making me look like less of a moron.

Anyway, I hope that these pictures shed a little light on what I am been neglecting to blog. Sorry about the technical difficulties. There are TONS more pictures, hundreds in fact. I am looking forward to coming home so much.

Coming up for the next month and a half - 10 million dissertations, 4 of which are due on Monday, a very exciting week Chez Jeffrey and Silvana in Aix en Provence, another 12 dissertations, final exams, my birthday and a trip to Disneyland Paris to celebrate my full fledged adulthood, and a visit from Katy (British friend) for my last week here.

More to come. I will be looking for any outlet to avoid work...like right now.