From Easter ’till now…
From Easter until now has been filled with two weeks of vacation. I had a friend, Gabe, come visit from the States, and he and I, with two other teachers here in France embarked on a week long holiday in Germany and the Czech Republic. Before our vacation however, I made Gabe be my date to a friend’s wedding. (I know the couple from church here in case you’re wondering how on earth I got invited to someone’s wedding only after living 8 months in France.)
Me and Gabe before leaving for the wedding.
Me and Cecile - la tres belle mariee!
Our originally-planned 7 day break ended up totaling 10 days due to the volcano erupting in Iceland. Luckily we had met a nice American living in Prague who let us stay the extra two night at her apartment so we didn’t have to pay more to stay in our hostel. I’ll write an actual “Vacation blog” soon, but not right now. Besides Germany and the CR, the rest of my vacation was spent exploring the French countryside with Charlotte and Lesley (and Canadian Katie). Guillaume left me his car so we profitted from having car access. Since I’m really the only one that can drive stick, I did all the driving but having gone to school in SC and being forced to commute back to MA multiple times a year over the past 4 years, a 2-3 hour (each way) day trip in France was nothing. We visited Avignon and Orange in the south, and Dijon and Beaune in the north (none of these towns are really north and south of France, just north and south of Lyon). Here are some pictures from our “petits voyages”.
This is the “Pont d’Avignon” (The Avignon Bridge). There is a song named after this bridge. It’s old. Youtube it to hear it. 
L'hotel de ville.
This is Avignon’s town hall (mayor’s office). We sat at a cafe and each had a sirop the afternoon we were here. It was so calming and peaceful. We kind of felt like locals. It’s such a cute, quaint, town.
The gorgeous yellow fields in Beaune.
Here, while driving through Beaune (one of France’s most prominent wine regions), we’d occasionally see these beautiful yellow fields. It was rare though because the vineyards and rows upon rows of vines took up most of the ground.
In Dijon, we had a picnic for lunch.
In Dijon, because we went on a Friday, Charlotte, Lesley and I bought some goodies at their weekly market. We then enjoyed everything we bought, as well as the sunshine, inside Dijon’s Parc Darcy. We finished up the afternoon walking around, buying some mustard, drinking a sirop outside hotel de ville and a miribelle Kir (Dijon’s speciality) at Les Trois Coups.
Check out his tshirt!
While at the cafe outside hotel de ville, I spotted this teenager. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read his tshirt. Yes, he is indeed wearing a “TL Hanna” tshirt. (For those of you reading not from SC, TL Hanna is one of the two high schools in Anderson – where I went to college.) Small world?
Theatre Romain d'Orange
Here is Orange’s Roman theater. It’s the most well-preserved Roman theater in France. Lyon has two, but they’re not as well-maintained as this one. It was a pretty sight to see.
A TL Hanna shirt??? That’s awesome!!!