Our Sunday excursion this week was to a tiny, adorable, medieval French town called St. Guilhelm-le-Desert. Ironically, it is definitely not in a desert. In fact, a river runs through the middle of town and there are natural springs everywhere. My favorite tiny French tour guide told us that it was named "le desert" because there were no people there when the town was founded, so it was deserted. How clever of the town-namer. St. Guilhelm-le-Desert is known for its beautiful views (It's in a valley) and its historic monastery. Sadly, somehow it didn't occur to our French monitors (the graduate students who help lead the summer program) that since it was a Sunday, the monastery and church might not be open to tourists...uh duhhh! We popped into the church briefly before mass began, but we weren't able to stay for more than 10 minutes. On a bright note, instead of touring the church, the monastery, and the crypt (which would have been ridiculously cool), we climbed a mountain!
Baptiste, the tiny-but-awesome-French-tour-guide, led our excursion, and the views were absolutely stunning. I have to admit that it was a little challenging making the climb in flip flops...but it was totally worth it!
After our trek up the mountain, we split off and did our own thing for a few hours. My friends and I had lunch in the center of town at a cute little cafe, watched a band play, and then went shopping! St. Guilhelm has adorable little shops everywhere that sell handmade things - everything from honey, to local wine, to lavendar, to jewelry, to clothes, you name it! Then, we got ice cream. So good :)
We then got back on the bus and drove 10 minutes down the road to the Pont du Diable (the Devil's Bridge) so that we could go swimming in the river that ran underneath it. It didn't take long for us to discover where it got its name from...While my friends and I laid out on the rocky shores of the river, which was quite interesting since there was no sand), one brave/crazy student from William and Mary thought that it would be cool to jump off the bridge into the river below. Other French teenagers had been doing it on and off all afternoon, and we hadn't paid much attention. However, when we realized that he was about to jump off, suddenly it became quite interesting. This bridge is over 5 stories above the water easily, and despite warnings, this guy jumped.
Word to the wise - if the sign says don't jump, don't jump. He is currently in a French hospital flat on his back wearing a full body brace that goes from his chest to his hips because he slipped one of the discs in his back when he landed. If he moves, he could rupture his spinal cord... He is, however, in quite good spirits considering his situation. I went to visit him today along with 5 other William and Mary students, and he's got quite the stash of candy and sweets. Everytime someone comes to visit him, they seem to bring him something else to add to his collection. He also picked out a rather stylish pattern for his body brace - tigers, elephants, birds, and flowers - he chose it from the children's pattern options lol. Anywho, he should heal, but it will be a slow process. He'll have to wear the brace for the next 3 months as well as be super-careful once he has it taken off. He also has to fly home early and is getting a special ambulance ride to the airport since he can't ride in cars for long periods of time. And after having visited a French hospital, I am now absolutely certain where I stand on socialized health care...absolutely no no no. The hospital is un-airconditioned; you have to pay to have the television turned on in your room; and the building looks like it hasn't been renovated since the 1970s. No socialized health care please!!
Monday involved school, school, and a little more school. Sigh. In fact, Monday afternoon I came home right after classes, ate lunch in my room, and slaved over my research project until dinner. When I finally surfaced around 6:45, my French mom and 5-year-old sister had left for Paris! I knew that they were leaving yesterday, but I sort of figured that they would say goodbye...and I felt really bad. I have since learned that that's pretty standard for French goodbyes - not to say goodbye. So, now it's just me, French baby, and French dad, which so far, has worked out quite superbly. I came upstairs to find French dad attempting to feed Raphaelle, to no avail. She understands a lot more than she can say, so when her mommy told her that she was leaving, Raphaelle got it. As a result, Raphaelle repeatedly said "mamamamamama" and refused to eat her dinner. She would close her mouth and clench it tightly so that her dad couldn't feed her. He finally gave up and offered to make me dinner.
At first, I felt bad that he had to make me dinner while he couldn't get his daughter to eat, but I'm pretty sure that he and I are going to make a fabulous team. He told me that when his wife is gone, he doesn't like to cook, and then proceeds to open the freezer to reveal a stack of frozen pizzas! Score!! And not yucky French pizzas with fishies and olives and mushrooms, but legitimate American pizzas with pepperoni and sausage. My eyes must have been as big as dinner plates. Oh my gosh. He asked me if I liked pizza like that, and I couldn't say yes fast enough. I then decided to be brave and tell him that I didn't really like the pizza that we'd had the other night. As it turns out, neither did he! He prefers the more American-style stuff. Perfect. He did teasingly ask if I wanted to add olives, or salmon, or stinky cheese to complete my pizza. Clearly I refused.
While he baked our fabulous frozen pizzas, I took over feeding Raphaelle, who couldn't be cuter. She decided that she wasn't going to eat vegetables, but that she would eat pudding, so I was feeding her pudding, which she loved. In between spoonfuls, I got the brillant idea that maybe if I snuck in a random spoonful of veggies, she'd just eat them. False. She opened her mouth, thinking the spoon contained pudding, and when she realized it didn't, she opened her mouth back up and let it all fall back out. She then proceed to wipe off her tongue with her hand. Ackkkkkk.
It was cool being able to eat dinner with just my French dad because he has a lot of cool stories to share. He is a professor at the University of Paul Valery, where he teaches Psychology and Biology in addition to researching insects. So, we talked a lot about the French and American university systems, random stories about him trekking through the woods learning about bugs, and then he showed me a really cool article about him in a climbing magazine. Apparently he owns the largest collection of climbing videos in all of France. Who woulda thunk?
I then spent the rest of the evening holed up in my room working on my research project, which I finished around 12:30 a.m. This morning, my French dad let me print the outline for my presentation on my French mom's printer before he headed off to work and I headed off to school. Classes today actually weren't that bad. In my first class, we took a test, which I thought went well; we'll see when I get the grade back. In the second class, we watched a French film set in the impressionist era that was sort of Jane-Austen-esque, and I liked it.
Then, of course, this afternoon were the presentations....dun dun dun. My friends and I had a quick lunch together in the center of town before heading over to Mme Fauvel's apartment. Half of the group went today, and the other half goes on Thursday. I am definitely glad that I chose to go today so that I wouldn't have it hanging over my head. And now I'm done! Yay!
Dinner tonight was pretty sweet too - lasagna. I'm really starting to think that French dad and I have similar food tastes. We chatted all about his family, my French mom's family, and all sorts of other stuff. So, that's what I've been up to!
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