La France

Maintenant, je pense que je parlerais au sujet de mon voyage en France. Vous dites que vous ne pouvez pas lire des Français? D'accord, je reviendrai à l'anglais....

Anyway, for spring break, I decided to make a solo journey to the south of France, if order to practice my French and pick up some reading material for the summer. So, a simple train ride from Bologna took me to my first stop: Nice. Actually, Nice was my first and last stop. Anyway, my first day in Nice was less than stellar. I won't bore you with the details, but the hostel was located up on a hill and the buses were weird and it involved walking uphill with all my stuff. I wasn't too pleased with this location, but the price was right. On my return to Nice, I found a great, cheap B&B where I could stay right in the middle of town. Oddly enough, haveve no pictures from this first day in Nice.

After Nice, I headed west to greater Provence. My first stop was Aix-en-Provence. I ran into a similar hostel problem there, too. Some of it was my fault, but a large part of the problem was the hostel's closing in the middle of the day. What is up with that? Is the hostel trying to be Italian? I need see a few interesting things in this town. One thing I came across was a Good Friday march to thcathedralsle. My mother will be happy to know that I actually joined in:
I also saw the most amazing carousel, complete with miniature Sputnik, biplane, bug, dinosaur, hot air balloon, rocket-shipsps, and cruiseliner:After Aix-en-Provence, I headed to Avignon, which is where the whole trip started to pick-up. Till that point, the trip was about to go down as my least favorite. But Avignon was a cute town, situated right on the Rhone. And it features a Papal Palace and actually served as the seat of the Papacy instead of Eternal Rome for 70 years in the 14th century. I believe it is the only city to have served such a purpose. Here is the Papal Palace and the area right around it:

Above the Papal Palace is a large park overlooking the Rhone. Within this park, I found palace where kids could hire and ride horse drawn carriages. I thought this scene was rather funny:

Another picture of Avignon:

After visiting Avignon, I traveled to Arles, where I planned to stay on Saturday and then on Easter Sunday. I was a little concerned about what I would do with myself on Easter, for imagined the entire town would be shut-down. Boy was I wrong. Instead of finding a boarded-up town, I found a huge festival ushering in the start of the bull-fighting season:

This festival featured the running of the bulls (at one point it looked like the bull might run through the fence, so we the spectators had to run, too), old women making paella, a bunch of rides and carnival games (check out the Friends-themed game, plus the shooting game with the prize of alcohol, and the game that allows you to choose which knife you want as a prize):

In between the festivities, I also went to church, which features the Nicene Creed in Latin!

After Arles, I head back to Nice, where I saw a beautiful sunset while sitting on the beach:Then I saw something that reminded me why I travel:This is a life-size vending machine, that was probably 8-10 feet tall and 10-15 feet wide. You could buy all sorts of things-normal vending machine stuff like soda and candy, but also full-size milk cartons, toiletries, and all sorts of stuff. It reminded me why I travel because I really enjoy seeing normal everyday things, like vending machines, tweaked and manifested in a new and novel way, like above. The Friends-themed carnival game is another example.

After Nice, and before returning to Bologna, I traveled to Grasse, which is a small town an hour north of Nice. I don't have any pictures, but it was a rather cute medieval town. The only difference between this town and other medieval towns was the state of the town. Most like towns have been rather bustling places, full of cute stores and cafes. This town was different, as most of the storefronts were either empty or just shut-down. I felt like I was in a town that was still several years, if not decades, away from revitalizationin plan. Grasse is a hotbed for perfumeries, though. I almost bought a perfume with a base of dark chocolate, but decided against it. They also had a perfume based on marshmallows.

The next day I returned to Bologna. I was very happy to be back. I enjoyed being in France, as I read French Cosmo, some French celebrity magazines, and started reading the Da Vinci Code in French. That part of the trip was good, although I also saw how badly I need to work with tutors this summer to improve my speaking skills. I knew exactly what I was supposed to say, but when people actually spoke to me, I clammed up and got really nervous about having to say something. This needs to change, so my next trip to France is more productive....