On day 5 in the South of France in France, we only had the morning to do a little more touring because later that afternoon we were heading back to school. Back to the real world. Back to midterms. (Spoiler alert: I survived midterm week…but barely!)

We started off the morning visiting an ancient bridge in Avignon…apparently here is where they would sing the song “sur le pont d’Avignon on y danse…” and dance on the bridge (Haven’t heard the song? Me neither, but apparently it’s famous and I was one of the few who didn’t know it!)

And then our friend David asked to take a cheesy picture of Hannah and me holding hands looking off into the distance…

And then we headed to the Palais de Papes, and in English that means The Pope’s Palace. Back in the day, the Popes lived in Avignon in this grand palace. Unfortunately, all of the cool rooms forbid photography so I couldn’t take a picture of the Pope’s bedroom or of the amazing frescos we saw throughout the building. The only rooms left of the palace we could take pictures of were hallways…nothing exciting so instead I took pictures of the outside! Pretty cool huh?

^^The boys bought swords at the gift shop. And they play fought all throughout the streets. They crack me up!

After touring the palace, we had lunch and wandered around the town. And guess what happens when we have free time and we have seen all the sights…we shop and then I see a fluffy cozy scarf that matches my snow boots perfectly so how in the world was I supposed to pass that up? And then we run into a churro stand where the guy is making them fresh in front of us so how in the world was I supposed to pass that up? I didn’t pass either of them up.

Then, it was time to jump on the train back to Lausanne. A lot of us tried (and we really did try) to do homework…but most of us passed out. I got about six pages into my history textbook before falling asleep. We were all exhausted after our field trip, but we had so much fun! I can’t wait for our EFT next semester! Want to guess where we are going? I’ll tell ya…TURKEY! Yay!

On Day 4 of our trip to the South of France, we packed up our bags and piled onto the buses. We were going to be spending the night in a different city: Avignon. But, we made several stops along the way before arriving in Avignon. Our first stop was Arles. This city has archaeological and architectural treasures as well as links to the famous artist, Van Gogh. We wandered through the old city…

and saw a Roman Theatre…

and the famous café of Van Gogh’s painting…

and the hospital where Van Gogh went immediately after chopping off his ear, which I somehow forgot to take a picture of. But, I can show you a picture of Van Gogh’s painting of it…doesn’t that count for something?

(Photo Credit)

Then, we piled back onto the buses and headed to Les Baux de Provence, a magnificent village located high up on a cliff.

We had some yummy lunch of scallops and found a candy store that just kept calling my name as I tried to walk right on by (the candy store won).

And then we piled onto the buses again and headed to the place I had been looking forward to since we got on the train to go to France: the Monastery of St Paul de Mausole. This is the place where Van Gogh was confined for about 10 years.

It was here that he painted Starry Night while looking out of his bedroom window and The Irises from the garden outside, to name a few. I’m not even sure if I can accurately describe in words how I felt walking into his room. Basically, it blows my mind that hundreds of years before he was sitting in that very room I was standing in painting the Starry Night. The Starry Night my 5^th grade art teacher had me create my own version of. It was overwhelming and I spent probably about 10 minutes in that teeny tiny room imagining him in there and what his life was like. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

We piled onto the buses one last time that day and headed to our hotel in Avignon, where we were then free to get dinner on our own and explore that city. A group of us ate dinner right in the middle of the town with the sound of a street performer singing all American music in the background. And after dinner, we started a dance party right in the middle of the square to that street performer’s music…we even gathered a tiny crowd (one woman video-taped us the entire time). It was one of my favorite nights. After the street performer played one last song of American Pie…we headed back to our hotel for a good night sleep. Because we had one more day left of exploring to do!

Day 3 of our educational field trip was my absolute favorite day. It was the first day it didn’t rain since we had been there. And it ended up being one of the most beautiful days…perfect for Day 3’s agenda! We met at a boat around 9am and headed out into the Mediterranean. The water was pretty wavy on this particular day…we got pretty splashed and soaked (well, those of us that were outside!). In fact, it was too wavy that we couldn’t stop at the Castle where the count of Monte Cristo was imprisoned, but we could at least see it from the water! We continued on past the castle to the Frioul Islands. An island surrounded with the most beautiful crystal clear turquoise water I have ever seen. We took a little hike up and over hills around the island to see the beautiful scenery. Then we rounded this corner to this little private beach, where we spent the next few hours. We looked for shells, dipped our toes in the Mediterranean, relaxed and literally just sat and soaked up this beautiful view. Some even jumped in the water! It was truly magical.