Life in Avignon

It has been over a week since I arrived in France but it feels like much longer.  Despite language and cultural differences, such as always having the baguette directly on the table, life is pretty great!  It has been interesting to see what I thought would be French stereotypes unfolded to be the exact opposite.  I had been taught that the French do not speak about politics or money, things considered “la vie privée” when in fact, I have found myself having those exact conversations with my host parents, their parents, and even in my classes.  Another stereotype about what the French eat; healthy and small portions, but as I write this now, my host mother R___ is eating nutella out of the jar with a spoon; ahh the sweet life.  For one of my classes I have to write about my observances of French culture, French people that surprise me or provoke my curiosity.  Now, as many of you know, pretty much anything provokes my curiosity, so I’ve had to be careful about what I find interesting versus what I want to know more about.  I have noticed their use of water to be different than that of my own in Vermont.  I drink water like I breath air, but here the water glasses are very small, and so I’ve tried to puzzle out what the explanations for this small difference.  In the end, I just decided to pour myself more water in smaller glasses, as there doesn’t seem to be a water shortage. 

This past weekend, I went on another excursion, this time to the North-East a bit of Avignon to a small very charming town called Vaison la Romaine which holds the ruins of a 12th and 13th Roman city complete with a grand house, a theater, and a château.  After a guided tour of the village that has been uncovered (as much of the village is still buried under the current buildings that make up the town today), a few of my friends and I walked up through the small village on the opposite side of the river Drôme and travelled through quaint streets with perfectly Provençal houses, complete with colorful shutters and flowers outside the window.  The goal was to reach the château, a grand (or at one point grand) castle that looked out on all the villages and vineyards below.  [As a side note, last year in England, field after field was sheep.  In France, it is grapes, vineyard after vineyard.]  Upon reaching the top we had our picnic and enjoyed the view.  Coming down and then back on the bus for a rough ride around the incredibly small streets not made for giant tour buses.  Not knowing how long the bus ride was I decided not to sleep, but after an hour I figured it would have been okay. Luckily staying awake I could see everything that passed, but also, that meant I could feel every roundabout we came to as the bus swerved to one side and then the other.  We finally came to what seemed to be the top of a mountain and the view of a small village called Gordes was right in front of us. The village looks as though it was sculpted directly into the rock.  The town Gordes is also known for stone structures called bories that were once ancient homes, as well as the home of François Mitterrand. After stopping for the view we continued our way up small road and scrapped a car on the way, until we reached the Abbey of Notre Dame in Senanque. 

The Abbey is surrounded by fields and fields of lavender and is still a working monastery of monks.  The lavender was gorgeous, although not in its full bloom and I’m not sure if we were too early or too late.  Apparently the lavender that was growing there wasn’t true lavender but a hybrid for the area it was in, “real” lavender grows higher in the mountains (I think).   We had a tour of the Abbey, which was difficult to understand as the woman’s voice was very high pitched, the rooms echoed and it was in French.  As a result, I stopped listening and enjoyed my own found silence.  I woke up this morning very late, which was great, but I think the next time I have the opportunity I’m going to run around the perimeter of the old walls of Avignon.