Russan 2

The blogging has come to a screaming halt and this posting is only short. Our language classes started on Monday last week and all is going well. It’s a great mix of nationalities, with Suisse-Allemangnes (as opposed to Suisse-Francophones) being the most noticeable group. Both of us have ended up in the same class (of 8). But we just don’t have much time to blog because the language classes are very intense and a number of days have not finished until 3.30 pm (merde!!!). We are also being given stacks of homework that we spend hours on every night. Plus there are all the social activities such as playing petanque.

David joue au petanque

Last week Dale and I also had dinner with a French family – but more of that latter. Here’s a brief update of the second half of our week in Russan and our apartment in Aix.

We spent Wednesday the week before last doing the grand tour around the Tarn Gorges. We were on the road for 11 hours, which did include stopping everywhere to take photos and attempting to do a walk outside Ispagnac for 2 hours and continuously losing the path (a recurring problem during our decade of French countryside randonnees) . However the Tarn Gorges were absolutely stunning to drive through, with a final grand vista at the appropriately named Point Sublime. Another great travel suggestion by AD and KF.

We finished the tour by driving across the astonishing Pont de Millau. The Pont is so amazingly high that you lose your sense of perspective about just how far you are above the valley below.

We were still driving as the sun set down so we stopped to buy pizza from a road side van and they were delicious if not healthy (dripping with oil and cheese).

Our final couple of days in Russan were pretty low key. We did a 4 hour walk from Russan to the Pont St Nicholas (where we started our wind-affected canoeing trip from). Great views of the Gorges du Gardon and Pont St Nicholas blah blah blah.

Vinyards next to Vic

The most interesting part of the walk was running into an actual goat herder with about 50 goats and a couple of dogs. I thought goat herders only existed in a puppet show in the Sound of Music. Several jokes made about Sylvia.

Oh those eyes!

On Friday we visited a town call St Quentin that is known for its pottery. We loved the work of the different artisans and naturellement we bought our first teeny weeny artefact. We also a made quick visit to Arles but were not that impressed with the Amphitheatre after Nimes and the Theatre Antique is virtually non-existent compared to the stunning one at Orange. It reminded me of the Forum in Rome on 100th of the scale. I love history but I’m not convinced about these sites that you visit that are nothing more than crumbled ruins. I think I’d just prefer to read about them because you need to exercise just as much imagination to work out what they were in the first place.

Arles Arena

We arrived in Aix-en-Provence on Saturday last week, which will be our home for 5 weeks. Our apartment is fantastic and actually looks better than the photos on the internet (a blow to marketers everywhere P O’B). It is in the centre of town on the corner of the beautiful Cours Mirabeau. Unfortunately it sits next to a throbbing disco that pulsates through to 6am 5 times a week. Last week was school holidays so here’s hoping it was temporary. In any event we nominate ear plugs as the greatest invention in history.

The beautiful Cours Mirabeau in Aix just outside our apartment