Le week-end

This weekend was very busy. Saturday morning we all went on our second excursion, this time to Avignon. It is a city that borders the Rhone river and was, for a limited time, where the popes lived. We went with other students from school and Jeremy, the tour guide, who showed us le palais des papes and the cathedral. Shelley- I wanted so badly to ask if at any time Cardinal deBriccissart had visited Avignon but decided against it. The palace was basically just like any other old chateau in France- lots of big stone rooms, beautiful views, etc. We then saw the bridge of Avignon made famous by the song "Sur le pont d'Avignon." The drive to and from Avignon was almost more beautiful than the city itself because of the fields of vineyards (cote du rhone wine) lavendar fields and sunflower fields.

Saturday night I was invited to dinner at Karoline and Kaitlynn's host mom's house. We had tomatoes stuffed with braudade de morue (fish paste), a regional specialty, tapenade, which are crackers topped with mushed up olives, thon au vinaigre (tuna) and finally a tarte aux pommes (apple pie). The girls and I then went to this awesome place about 10 minutes away by tram that has restaurants, a movie theatre, disco ice skating, laser tag, bowling, go-carts, an aquarium, planetarium, and soon to have a wave pool. We did go-carts and bowling. It was so much fun. The difference between go-carting in America and "le karting" in France is that in America you wear seatbelts, in France they make you put on a cafeteria lady hair net, and then a humongous motorcycle helmet, and there aren't any seatbelts. After go-carting we all decided that it was imperative to have a go-cart track at home. We then went bowling- I scored a 110, Bethany. While bowling they played music videos on these big tvs and of course, they were all Michael Jackson songs. It made for a really fun dance party bowling experience.

Sunday we went to lunch at a house right outside of Montpellier with a family that is linked to Karoline's family. Long story there which isn't really important. The family was extremely nice and had a fabulous house. It is built on a hill overlooking a little river. You have to walk up a lot of stairs to get to the main floor of the house and the deck with a pool and beautiful sitting area. It looked like a French pottery barn catalog. It was amazing. They had gardens in the front and in the back of course with olive trees and lavendar. We ate another incredible meal with a delicious tomato salad that I will attempt to make at home. Pierre, the dad, drove us back home in the afternoon. He stopped to show us a vineyard/hotel where Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis like to stay when they come to Montpellier. Johnny has great taste because it was so picteresque. Vineyards for as far as you could see, the little hotel, a parc, a food garden, and then a samll winery. It looked just like a picture from out of those Provence coffee table books. I could easily stay there with Mr. Depp.

We went back to the fun place to do go-carts again and play Laser Tag. I was killed 32 times and only shot people 7 times. They made fun of how bad I was, but I told them I don't like violence and kept showing them my finger peace signs. Now it is Sunday night, and I had dinner once again with the host mom. This time it was veal cordon bleu, vegetables with herbs de provence seasoning, and yogurt. I then went to a cafe in town to do my homework for tomorrow and had a cafe au lait with the girls while we chit chatted en francais about the weekend.