Raindrops on Bridges and White Roman Ruins...

Santons and Guinness and Bright Afternoons… these are a few my favorite things! 

Not necessarily in that order :)

Arles is a city in southern France not too far from where I live (I mentioned in a post this fall that the soccer team in this area is Arles-Avignon) and is famous for several things: its Roman architecture, its traditional ‘style,’ and as I found out from a Wikipedia search, it’s also where Van Gogh painted some of his most famous paintings, including two of my favorites: the Yellow Room and the Night Café. 

Some of the Roman structures remaining include an ampitheater and the Alyscamps:

Roman ampitheater

Alyscamps

Joelle and Steve and I took Caitlin and Laura to explore, and it just so happened that there was also a big santons exhibit in the Cloitre.  Here are some of my favorite displays! 

Tarascon castle

We headed from there to Beaucaire and Tarascon.  Beaucaire had an enormous statue of a bull and a sweet marina to greet us- we took turns picking out which boat we’d like to own in the future.  From atop the hill in Beaucaire, we were able to see the Tarascon castle- pretty neah, huh?  We also found a Drac in the town square, but my camera wasn’t the one we took a picture with, so I’ll add that when I can steal it from someone else.  Both Tarascon and Beaucaire have their own mythical beasts, which remind me a little bit of the hodag in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. 

Tarascon Tarasque

Beaucaire Drac

Rhinelander Hodag

That takes care of the white Roman ruins, santons, and bright afternoon part… Raindrops on bridges and Guinness took place in Toulouse the following weekend.

French and Occitan

Dino :)

After a somewhat bittersweet goodbye to the IAU (Institute of American Universities- a school in Avignon where American students studied French) as it closed, I headed off to meet Caitlin, Laura, and Gavin in Toulouse.  Toulouse is in southwestern France, and like Provence, speaks a language in addition to French called Occitan.  The city’s called La Ville Rose (The Pink City) but unfortunately, due to the weather conditions, it was more like the Gray City for us.  However, I still really enjoyed our time there!  I’m including several of our pictures below :)  Caitlin and I checked out a Natural History Museum, which was really sweet and even had DINOSAURS!!  Love it.  We also hit up an art museum and took advantage of the opportunity to take some fun pics ;)  One of our other highlights was our night out at an Irish Bar, where highlights included but were not limited to Guinness pints, Heineken pictures, and glowstick glasses!  Caitlin and I went exploring early on the morning that we left and also found a cool little park over by the University, which is the second-largest in France. 

Au revoir from Toulouse!

More to come as I catch up on the fun! xoxo