Last day

For better or worse, this is my last day. I fly home from Marseille tomorrow morning.

This blog's going to stay here, just kind of forgotten on the Internet, but I hope you all enjoyed reading.

The Château d'If, or, a fun day in France

Yesterday morning I went back to the bank to receive the money that remained in my account after closing it. I thought I had about €2 left, but they gave me €11.11! Better still, I got back my paper from France et l'Europe and saw I'd gotten an excellent grade.

In the afternoon, I went to Marseille with a friend where we took a boat toward the Frioul archipelago. It's a collection of five islands about three miles away from Marseille that wouldn't be interesting if it weren't for the Château d'If located on one of them.

Built in the 16th century to defend Marseille, the castle never really came under attack and was later converted to a prison. If became famous, of course, when Alexandre Dumas used it as the setting for The Count of Monte Cristo. Today there's plenty of historical learning to be had inside—the life of Dumas, the list of famous prisoners who were held in the prison, and so on. Among the prisoners was Henri Riqueti Mirabeau, the same Mirabeau for whom Aix's Cours Mirabeau is named. The prison also held many Huguenots, the French reformists from the wars of religion.

After taking the boat back to mainland France, we went to the Quarter du Panier, a neighborhood in Marseille marked as "old town" on the map. There we found narrow, winding streets that don't resemble the big-developed-city that is most of Marseille, as well as numerous winding stairways that cut between buildings to climb hills. We also found a café called "Wild Style" which uses a Starbucks-esque logo and also rents mopeds and sells moped parts.

In the evening Mme G and I went out to eat because she didn't want to cook and, before I leave, wanted to take me to her favorite restaurant in Aix. It's called Auberge d'Aillane and is run by two sisters who inherited the house and thus restaurant from their father. It was a really sympa restaurant and our food was delicious, too.

I had melon with ham as my entrée; it was half a juicy melon and thin, delicious strips of ham. My main course was duck with olives in a Provençal sauce and it was also fantastic. When she found out I was from the U.S., the waitress (one of the sisters) asked if I'd send her a postcard from Ann Arbor for her guestbook.

To top off that excellent day, Mme G gave me a book called "Recipes from Provence" that has literally every recipe ever cooked in Provence, including many favorite that she cooked for me. It was a fantastic day and made me realize how lucky I am to have spent six months traveling and living in the south of France. Today I started packing again, which is going to be a serious challenge—how did I ever fit all this stuff in my suitcase?

My last week in Aix

You may wonder what I've been doing with my last full week in Aix. Well, Monday I had class. Yesterday I closed my bank account and told the renter's insurance company when I'm leaving France. I also swam in a pool—two of the students here students live with a French woman who has a pool in her yard. Today I met with my Histoire de religion professor and got my grade for the class: 14, or the equivalent of an "A" at Michigan.

Because French painter Paul Cezanne spent almost all his life in Aix, the locals love everything related to him. Today I finally gave in to the pressure and learned all about Paul Cezanne. With some other students, I followed the so-called "footsteps of Cezanne", a self-guided walking tour. Little bronze plaques in the sidewalks guide you all over town, and a free map explains the various landmarks.

Frankly, many of the "landmarks" are uninteresting. For example, number 17 is the church where Cezanne's mother's funeral was held. Number 18, however, is an art museum from the late 19th century. Cezanne visited and said "I found it all terrible." All in all, the map counts 36 points, but we probably only saw 20 or so. One of the ones we missed is Cezanne's tomb, which supposedly has a fantastic view of his beloved Mont Sainte Victoire. But the cemetery is on the far side of Aix and it was incredibly warm today, so we skipped it.

Finally we headed to the north of Aix—in fact, towards the Oppidum d'Entremont—to Cezanne's workshop. In 1901, Cezanne bought 7000 square meters (some 75,000 square feet) of land on the Lauves hill. Among the olive trees, canal, and fig trees, he built a house that would serve as his workshop until Cezanne's death in 1906. Inside isn't huge and you can't take pictures, but it's the workshop where Cezanne painted Mont Sainte Victoire and his Les Baigneuses paintings. They still have the skulls, bowls, and statues he painted in his still lifes, as well as Cezanne's clothes and other belongings.

All in all, it was a really interesting day, although we ended up doing a serious amount of walking on an 86ºF day. Tomorrow I have my very last class here in France, then next Tuesday morning I leave for the U.S.!

Fancy French Dinner

I'd been planning to go to Paris this weekend, but ended up canceling my plans. That was a shame, but it did mean that I was here in Aix for our exchange program's year-end dinner. Because they didn't tell us about the date for this dinner until I'd already planned to go to Paris, I didn't think I'd get to go.

Anyway, on Thursday night all 40-or-so American students met at La Madeleine, a fancy restaurant near the court in Aix. The program paid, which was good because we ate well. My entrée was a pastry with melted goat's cheese and smoked ham inside. It was incredibly good. Next I had loup de mer, which despite meaning "wolf of the sea" turned out to be sea bass wrapped in a pastry with cheeses and salad. It was also fantastic. Finally, we had crème brulée, which wasn't really fantastic compared to the rest of the meal.

Still, it was a great evening and one of the last times our program will all be together; some students started leaving for the U.S. yesterday. As such, our three program directors gave little speeches about how much they'd enjoyed having us here despite the strikes, etc etc. They also asked if the students had anything to say, so must of us stood up and mentioned how much we'd learned, that we'd miss French food, or something similar. However, the last student to speak gave a long rant about all the problems our program directors had caused him, which ended with telling one, "You're useless... Just kidding."

Other than that moment of awkwardness, though, everything was great.

Only fifteen days left in France

Yes, just fifteen days before I leave France which means I am practically done with school—although if one more Michigan student tells me "Our semester ended in April!" I'll lose it.

Anyway, the last week hasn't been too interesting because most of it's been dedicated to studying. Wednesday I had class all day long. Thursday after class I planned to go and study at an outdoor café with a friend. By the time we got there, sat in the sun, and drank (expensive) cappuccinos, however, homework kind of got forgotten. Oops!

Saturday and Sunday I spent most of my time writing my the two final papers that I had left, one for Monday morning and the other for tomorrow. It was a beautiful weekend, though, so I did go out to lie around in Parc Jourdan and walk around Aix. There was an artisans exposition on the Cours Mirabeau, which meant scores of stalls selling belts, beads, books, furniture, lamps, all sorts of things that had been, apparently, handmade in the area.

Otherwise, school here is pretty much done. I have classes tomorrow, Friday, Monday, and then Thursday. Now all I have to do is wait until Michigan tells me how much transfer credit I'll get for all these French classes...

Back from England

Last night I got back from England, which was fun but hectic. I got a new suit and went to my cousin's wedding, all in a few short days. But it was sunny—record highs of around 23ºC on Sunday and I even got a little bit tanned!

Now I need to finish all my papers. After all, I only have three more weeks left here in France.

Going away, again

Tomorrow I'll leaving France once again on what will be the tenth plane I've taken this year. That's a lot of flying, and by now I think I could recite the "In the unlikely event of a loss of cabin pressure..." speech in my sleep.

See you next week.

Five months: Aix in the winter versus the summer

When I arrived in Aix, it was January 3 and the town was alittle bleak. After all, we even had snow a few days after my arrival! These days things look quite different, especially given that it's regularly over 85ºF during the day. Here's a quick before-and-after of a few parts of town.

Le Cours Mirabeau.

Parc Jourdan.




And of course, the university.