Le Weekend... et MONTPELLIER

Mes chèrs amis,
The weekend went by quite fast... Friday was our first excursion to Saints Maries de la Mer (the beach!) et la Camargue (largest national park in France). We all met up around 9:45 and took the public bus down to Sts Maries de la Mer where we had several hours of free time to lay on the beach, swim (ha the water was absolutely frozen, I came out feeling like a numb ice cube), wander the beach town, eat lunch, and if you were me and 4 of my friends, rent a bike, one of those 4 seaters, where there are two benches with 2 pedals and a seat in the front for children, where my extremely tall friend ended up sitting. Poor kid. (although you can't actually see jared sitting in the front in these pictures). We really enjoyed going around the round abouts... and then essentially stopping traffic. Beep Beep. Toot Toot. Oh wait. there was no horn.

Anyways, so after our little adventure there, we hopped back in a bus, and got a tour of la Camargue where the wild horses are white, bulls are all over and flamingos are wild! Wahhoooo Wild Flamingos! Well. the problem was... the temperature on the bus was quite comfortable and after bike riding, tanning, wandering the city I was rather tired... so i fell asleep... so much for learning about the Camargue.

Just when you think the day is over.. oh no. The excursion is not complete. Once we get back to Arles, we had about 40 minutes to shower etc which we all were dying to do after a sticky day on the beach, in the sea and in the Camargue where we were doused in bus spray. So after a very quick shower, I skedaddled on back to the Place du Forum (where Van Gogh painted his very famous painting of that yellow cafe... I just love when names escape me... c'est formidable.. not) where we met up again to have a traditional spanish dinner of paella! Why would I be eating spanish food you ask? Brilliant question as I am currently studying in France. Well! Arles is well known for the Corrida, aka, bull fighting which also occurs in Madrid. The Corrida occurs normally during la Feria in Arles, a big festival during Easter and in September. Alors, we dined with at the restaurant that belongs to two matadors, father and son, who have both had much success. Following dinner, we had a quick presentation about the life of a matador, la corrida and a Q & A sess and afterwards we had a DANCE PARTY. For those of you who know me well... which would pretty much be the people who are reading this, I like to dance. It started off with some spanish music where one of the girls, Kristin who teaches dance was assisting with our salsa moves, but then they turned on some pop and things really got... poppin?? bah. bad pun... Following our dance sess, a group of us went over to Paddy Mullins, the local Irish Pub, where i got to chat for awhile with one of my professors which was great.

Samedi (Saturday), mes deux amis, Jared and Meredith and I took the train to Montpellier in the afternoon. Wow. The feeling of walking out of that train station and back into familiar territory was absolutely fantastic. We walked through la Comedie, l'esplanade, climbed to the top of the Corum, had an apero with my two neighbors in Arles and our friend Sabrina, visited the Parc au Peyrou, saw the first school of medecine in France, walked through the botanical gardens, through Antigone, ate at the Creperie... It felt like home.

That night, I took Meredith and Jared to one of my favorite bars, The Austrlian Bar, for a night of dancing where I was able to see my friend Marlon, the bouncer at the bar. He remembered me of course (who could forget?). Once the Australian closed, we went over to a discotheque in the city called Rockstore where we met up with some Americans who were there for the night because they couldn't get a train directly to Barcelona! So we danced with them for awhile and once that closed we waited until we could pick up the train to Arles at 7. It was a sleepless night needless to say. It was just the night I needed... except Sunday was a rather miserable day. I slept from 8-4. Really, Really classy Maura. Luckily for me, there's nothing open sunday so I didn't miss anything!

Sunday night, I dragged myself out of bed, into the shower, and over to my professors house where he hosted a party for us Americans. C'etait tres sympa.

Start of week 2 maintenant! Let's see what kind of adventures I encounter...

Bisous,
Maura