Deux Villages Perches

Literally, Two Perched Villages. On day 2 of being in France we took a trip to two different perched villages: St. Paul de Vence and Le Village Medieval. Both of these villages date back to 14th and 15th centuries. They are built into and atop these hills as a means of protection - hence perched. Sitting up so high the "enemy" as it were would be marching up hill, thus proving easy targets, and from inside the fortified city as like most cities in France, the streets are very narrow, meaning invaders could only march two to four across, and sitting atop the hill it made it easier to pick them off as the tried to invade.

The first perched village: St. Paul de Vence:

Yes, indeed. Beautiful. History like I never have known. I'm speechless still looking at these pictures and realizing how long these places have been in existence, and how beautiful they still are today. I'm thankful that the villages have been kept up nicely but it does come at a cost. This village in particular. It has become a rather large tourist trap. Many boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, etc. There was even a wedding later that day in the chapel! People can even live in these villages. It was actually quite something. When I was leaving, there was a car pulling out of the village. No, not just a car, but a extremely lovely black Ferrari convertible! Yes, I would imagine if you have the funds to live in such a village, you have the funds to drive Ferrari. Either that, or there has to be some rule set by the village that you have to drive a nice car to live there. Either way, the commercialization of the village does not diminish the beauty which is this city.

As you walk in, if you turn around at the main entrance, you will see the statue below. Yup, a little tiny statue of St. Paul who as protected the city dwellers for the past 5 centuries. And, although I didn't get a picture of it, right next to the entrance was a little, bubbling water fountain. This was their only source of water. What? Yes, this tiny little spout of water was what the inhabitants of the day used for drinking, cooking, bathing, whatever they used water for, that was their supply. As I am trying to fully immerse myself in French culture by not showering every day and having a difficult time with it at that, I cannot fathom how infrequently they showered with this tiny spout of water. But it wasn't like it was just this group of people. In fact, frequent bathing is a relatively recent thing. One that the present day people of French still have not figured out. I only dwell on it because it was even more realistic seeing this single source of water.

Now, enough about hygiene and onto another topic which the French need no education about: WINE! There is a tiny little vineyard right at the foot of the city. I'm sure this more recent than it is old, but I do love wineries, and wine, so I had to take a picture. Landscape like this is something so new to me, having grown up in the Midwest, so I find even more beauty in it.

This is a picture of the church tower. If you look at the first picture of the village from a distance, this is the tall bell tower that you can see. Yes, religion has long been a center of French culture. Have I mentioned that we won't have school on November 1st? All Saints Day? Yes, welcome to France. Labor Day? What's that? Second tier religious holidays like All Saints Day, no one will be working. And we'll be returning from Paris that weekend. I'm hopeful the trains will still run...

And here we are inside the church. See the flowers? While they make lovely decorations, they are for the wedding happening two hours later. The best part was the handwritten sign on the flowers telling you not to touch them. And yes, it was in french, and yes, I understood it!


Here we have a picture of the tiny "streets" in this village. I suppose they didn't have to worry about cars back in the day, but you can barely pass someone on these streets. And, if you have two people taking there sweet time walking in front of you, well, you might as well just sit and enjoy the beauty of the architecture that is around you because you can forget about passing them. That, and the French don't like being told to move along or that they're moving too slowly. Both of which are implied should you try and pass them... Not first hand knowledge of this, and hopefully I won't have any horror stories of being yelled at in french to share.

And a final picture of this city. One of the other perks to having it be a now commercialized city is there were some great pieces of art work "hanging" around the village. This was my favorite:

We now move to the smaller village: Village Medieval.

Incredible, no? I cannot even imagine what building these cities must have been like! I can't imagine what a nightmare it'd be with today's progress in engineering. Then subtract that and 500 years, and they still build a city that looks like that? Brilliant.

This had more opportunities for photo shots with me in the picture due in part to traveling this city with others, rather than exploring it on my own like the first city. This first shot is from the city looking out. Yes, good luck to any invader who thought they might actually invade this city. That's a bridge you see in the background. And, if you can't tell, I was gripping that bar for dear life as it was a straight drop down over that edge! Look at the picture above again to better understand.

This second one is of a very picturesque door in the village. Some one's front door, to be exact. Thankfully they didn't come out while Maddy was taking the picture. Though, we did receive some strange looks from others who happened to be walking by at that moment. It's a great door, and other than looking a little like a senior picture (well, they both do) is a great shot. I thank Maddy entirely for this one!

And one final shot. This was a lovely garden tucked away in the city. It was a wonderful day of sight seeing. It was all so surreal and sublime.

Cannes: A walking tour

I have been in France for almost an entire month.  It's been such an amazing time and also so busy.  About two weeks ago my computer crashed.  I've been using friends' computers and the computer lab to keep up correspondence, but that's made it difficult to write this blog.  There is so much to say, but let's take things still one day at a time.

On our first full day at the college, we took a walking tour of Cannes.  Below are some pictures.  A general discretion on all pictures: they do not do justice to the beauty which is France and this place.   

Our first stop on this tour was the library.  Our tour guide spoke only in French, and after still trying to get over jet lag, and still working on remembering my French, I think missed most of the information on the tour.  Regardless, it's a beautiful building, which unfortunately I haven't been to since this first day.  It's on a long "to do" list for this short time I'm here.

After that, we continued our walk towards the center of town.  The College is about a solid 20 minute walk to the center of town where you can find the local Monoprix (like a Target), churches, a plethora of restaurants, and local watering holes...  Along the way there was some really cool art work painted on the side of the buildings.  Cannes is home to the infamous Cannes Film Festival held in the spring.  Yes, missing the film festival and also missing the beautiful fall colors of Minnesota.  I think they should move this program to the spring.  Also note the store visible in this first picture - Leader Price.  It's a grocery store that's about 10 minutes from the College.  It's a great place to go for 3 french baguettes for 1 euro, a small wheel of cheese, and a nice bottle of beaujolais for 2.15 euro.  Now that's a french meal and economy shopping!  Now that's Leader Price! -  I should really go into marketing.  

The streets are just like they are in pictures.  Surprise!  However, to see them in reality is so wonderful.  So, I took pictures to further pass them.  This first picture is of the beginning of the main road through Cannes.   If you look closely at the very first building on the bottom left, it's a restaurant called Jonathan's.  I've not eaten there yet, and I'm not sure what they serve, but it is a definite requirement for me before leaving.  After all, it's my name and it's spelled correctly!  Also, across from Jonathan's is the building with the second mural on it (the picture right above this).  Just trying to help give you bearings for what it's worth! 

I had mentioned the Cannes Film Festival earlier.  The films are shown in the Palais.  The first picture is of the building from up on a hill.  Also notice the hug yachts that all privately owned, as well as Cannes' beautiful coast line.  The second is of the stairs that many famous movie stars have walked on.  

One of the highlights of our trip into town was seeing the Market that occurs every Saturday morning both in Cannes, but also in Nice as I later learned.  It was the first time I cried being in Cannes.  It surpassed being surreal to simply being beautiful.  Fresh flowers, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, fresh olives, fresh seafood... well, everything but the smell of seafood.  It was so beautiful.  The space is covered and is spans about the space of an entire square city block.  Simply beautiful.  

While the seafood didn't smell great, seeing swordfish heads was definitely a first for me!

And finally, spices!  It removed the smell of fish from my nose, which caused me to love them even more.

Eventually we had to leave, though I think I could have stayed in that market until it closed.  I wanted to buy something, but was far too afraid of my French, and was not going to be the ignorant American who excepts all to speak English.  So, I enjoyed with my eyes and nose and walked through the market with a tear of joy in my eye and a huge grin on my face. 

As we continued to walk around Cannes, we found this statue of Lord Brougham. I received a translation from a friend of mine who knows french better than I do and apparently this man was sent away from his original home because he had some illness.  He settled in what was Cannes and then invited all his rich friends to come and live here.  I'm assuming he was better by the time they showed up, though I'm not entirely sure how that worked.  Consequently, there is a statue and with a small pond in front of him near the heart of the town.  The crows who sit on his head certainly add a lovely touch to it all.  Either way, Way to go Lord Brougham!  Oh, if you could only know how great Cannes has become! 

It was a great morning walk, and it has continued to be a great city to discover.  I leave you with a final shot of the city from higher up:

My Room at the College

We are studying at the International College de Cannes. It's an absolutely beautiful campus. Palm trees? Yes, indeed. Palm trees! That's the life when you life a block away from the Mediterranean Sea!

When we arrived, we were treated with such service. Two college students met us at the bus and helped us take our luggage out from the bus. Then, since I was the only one to bring two full-size suitcases, a smaller carry-on suitcase and a backpack, one of the guys helped me with my stuff. It's all about the little things in life. We then got our keys and were shown our room. The teacher from St. John's helped me find my room, and also helped with my luggage. Unfortunately for him, neither of us realized I was on the top floor of the building... After the fact, I realized I could see my room from the parking lot as you enter campus. See the room way up there with the towels? Yup, my room. I've nick-named it the "Penthouse Suite". (Notice the palm trees?!) On the main floor is the cafeteria, and above the cafeteria are more rooms.

As I've been thinking about how to describe my room, a Mastercard commercial seemed to be the perfect fit, so here goes! (Warning: I just moved in, so forgive the unorganization of my room...)

Number of steps up to the room: 72 (yes, I counted)


Number of rooms on the floor: 2
Average tempertature in the room: 400 oF
Number of people per room: 2


Number of outlets in the room: 1 (seriously, one outlet and two roommates?)
Number of times the power has died: 2 (See below)
Amout of cubic feet in my closet: 8 (and check out the hanging space...)


Number of steps to the shower: 22 steps down (Yes, the floor below)
Average running time of the shower before having to push it on again: 45 seconds

But the silver lining:
View out the only window: PRICELESS!!!

Yes, that is the Sea you can see from my room. It's beautiful. Now, if it would only cool off here, then hopefully my room would cool down. When I lay in bed at night, I drip sweat from my legs and my head. I've never known heat like this. And, one day there girls on the trip from CSB were complaining about the heat and how they wanted fans. Now, fans were provided from them from the College, however, consequently I've been trying to tough it and show I don't need it. The heat break is supposedly around the corner, so I'm hoping it'll get better.

It's a rather funny story about the power outages. We had gone on trip around Cannes the other day, and when I got back I had plugged in my computer with my power strip and converter. However, I noticed that the light on my computer charger was not lit (and it should be). So, I checked the lights and realized there was no power. I told the front desk, and later that day power was restored. So, later that night, I had plugged in my computer with my power strip and converter, but it was night time. Well, upon plugging it in, the lights went out. I was the source of the problem... So, I had to go back to the desk, and talked with the guy on duty and checked whether it was acceptable to use powerstrips. I ended up going to get my converter and power strip and he was completely overwhelmed by this power strip. While it's works just fine in the States, I now know it's not usable here. But when you only have one outlet, what are you supposed to do!? (The one outlet is of particular interest because the other students here have rooms that have been re-done complete with new paint on the walls [I have carpeted walls...] and more outlets than they know what to do with...).

So, the man at the desk talked to another guy on duty who contact Bernard, the one who fixed the power the first time around. He was so not pleased. I heard the next day that it was originally to have been his evening off, but he had already been called in to fix a problem in the cafe here on campus, and then had to fix power in the dorm as well. (Note: My room is in a seperate part of the campus. It's connected to other dorms, but it's its own tower, that's on it's own power source. I don't know if he's joking or not, but M. Villette, our teacher from CSB/SJU, tells me it's where the servants lived back in the day when the school was a hospital for sick children. It's all so interesting, really.) Further, he had to return at 2:30 that morning to fix a water pipe that burst, leaving us without water for most of the next day. Either way, I felt terrible. So, to make ammends with Bernard and the other guy who had been dealing with this earlier today as well, I bought them a beer from the cafe and proceeded to have one myself while journaling in hopes of being able to sleep that night. I felt awful! It's already getting easier to laugh at, and I know that will continue. After all, it's a good story.

The Flight to Nice

I'm on my third full day in Cannes, France and so much has happened already. However, in the words of a very wise woman: "Let's start at the very beginning." After all, it is a very good place to start.

My parents dropped Fernando and me off at the airport at a little after 2:00pm on Wednesday 19 August from the International Terminal at the O'Hare Airport in Chicago. The flight was due to leave at 5:25pm, but rather than make goodbyes even more difficult, we opted for this early drop off.

Fernando is a friend of mine from St. John's, and he came to Chicago so that we could fly together. I will say, international flying is much easier when you have someone you know along. That way, if no one else will speak to you, or if they don't speak English at least you have someone else with you who does and also makes the time pass in a much more enjoyable way. Thanks Fernando!

While I've flown through O'Hare multiple times, it was the first time being in the International Terminal, as well as being my first time out of the country (not counting Canada). I was scared out of my mind. My heart was pounding like I've never knew it could. I couldn't even cry. I was just paralized. It just didn't seem real, and in so many ways it still doesn't. Anyway, I decided to take a picture right outside of security. The flags are quite lovely, n'est-ce pat?

Fernando and I thought arriving early wouldn't be so bad. We knew that airports have places where you can gain a little liquid encouragement, which would help the flight overseas. However, as you can already see by our faces, bars do not exist beyond security. It was an unfortunate realization to have once you have gone through security. And, being it was the first time traveling international, I was not about to see what would happen if we left security, only to go back through later after having a drink. It just didn't seem like a good combination. And, it was probably a wise conclusion.

But the question still remains, what is one supposed to do in the flight gate area when there isn't even so much as a restaurant? Well, I had a pack of cards and it was time to teach the Fernando how to play some card games. We played the good ol' games of Crazy Eights, Kings in the Corner, and Speed. He managed quite well with the games and was kind to put up with my memory loss on just exactly how you play Kings in the Corner...

We finally boarded the plane a few hours later. While Chicago had been having nice weather all day, wouldn't you know a rainstorm came right as we wanted to leave. So, if the flight wasn't already going to be long, we sat on the plane for a good 30-45 minutes before even leaving. Planes can't fly when there's lightning, well, shouldn't.

Shortly after take off, they came through with the beverage cart. The joy of international flying that I had only heard about came to fulfillment when we were offered alcohol free of charge. It's not a myth! I imagine it's the airline's way of keeping people happy while being crammed in coach. My dad told me when I got to France to have a glass of wine and toast him. Well Dad, I'm sure I'll eventually have a picture of me in a French Cafe with a glass of wine, but for now, here's to you!

Dinner wasn't too terrible, as you can see below, and to be honest, I was actually quite impressed. Cheese-filled tortellini with spinach, side salad with a balsamic vinagrette dressing, a dinner roll, cup of water, piece of cake, and yes, another little bottle of wine. All while watching Knowning, the new movie with Nicholas Cage about the world ending. What I have to say about it is, while the myth of free alcohol came true, so did the myth of bad movies on an international flight.


I was able to sleep for a couple hours on the plane. They shut off the lights at what was 9:00pm back home, so my body was not ready to sleep then, but I did a little bit later.

Getting in to London was a mess. They were overbooked getting in to London, so we circled for probably about 45 minutes. My stomach was not too happy with me by this point. Miraculously though we arrived on time, I suppose airlines have gotten used to allowing for plenty of extra time to allow for such delays and still say that you arrived on time. Alas. So, we arrived at 7:00am their time. We got off the plane, then had to board buses. The London/Heathrow airport is a mess. There is so much construction, and either because of when we arrived or what gates we opened, they just dropped us off via bus. Either way, we got in to the airport and had to go through screening again. Our boarding passes were checked and we had to go through another security check point, the entire time being herded like cattle around the airport.

All in all, Fernando and I had about 45 minutes to spare before our flight to Nice. So, we went to a pub and had a beer. Yes, it was 7 am in London and everyone else was eating breakfast and having coffee, but for us it was still 1 am. Having made the journey over the large lake, we felt justified in our choice of beverage. The flight to Nice left on time, and we arrived in Nice just fine, though rather warm weather. Below are two pictures out the plane's window. I'm not sure now which part is Nice and which one is Cannes, but I'm guessing the more populated area is Nice.

It was an extensively long day. By the time we arrived, we knew it was 12:30 in France, 5:30 back home, and it was 20 August. However, I had been up for almost a full 24 hours, and didn't end up sleeping for about the next 12, so I don't know what day or time I actually thought it was. It's absolutely amazing what an effect adrenaline has on the body. We were quite happy to have Landed in Nice, and snapped this photo as we approached the gate.