So I had the most amazing tour guide I've ever had for a tour of this 11th century castle. He started out by taking us up to the castle like we were trying to attack it. Pointing out all the impossibilities of this castle. It was built on rocks, its extremely high up, there's many places for people to dump hot sand/boiling water/chalk that reacts with water to create an exothermic reaction (whoa got all science-y!). But apparently they do not pour boiling oil like many myths said. It's too expensive! So this guy also plays the king of the castle when they have their reenactment days, so he lead us into this throne room, and was talking all about daily life in the middle ages, bathing, teeth brushing, prostitutes, that people in the middle ages drank about 3-4 liters of wine per person per day. His delivery was amazing. Anyway, then we got to walk on top of the high walls around the castle, and it was beautiful scenery, but I've come to expect that from France. While waiting for the other people on the tour to come down I got a chance to talk to the guide. He was telling me how he also does maintenance on the castle, like cleaning it up and such. Apparently they have a problem with flying ants mating above their castle, then dying and creating a huge mess. That's when the most wonderful quote came "That's what you get when you come to France! Wine and Sex!" and with his accent it was amazing. He was also able to deliver a sketch about Monty Python and the Holy Grail (in English!) about the swallows that nest in the castle. Needless to say, this guy was so cool, and made the tour extremely fun.
Let me explain why I was on this tour. All the international students at my university were able to go on this tour of the region, the bus left at 9 am and we didn't get back until 6 pm that night. On the bus ride all day we were forced to play get to know you games! The first being we had to introduce our neighbor either in French or English, then once he got through a couple Americans and realized that's too easy for us, he made us do it in several different languages (Chinese, Spanish, etc). Fortunately I got to speak in both french and English, but I had to explain Thanksgiving. It was quite interesting. Later on, we each had to sing our country's national anthem, and I no longer feel bad for not knowing a couple of the words, because a few other countries didn't know theirs either, and their anthems are much shorter than ours! Then the torture ended with visits. Our first stop was a church in the middle of nowhere, it was pretty, but we only had 15 minutes before we had to get back on the bus and go to our next stop. Along the way I felt like the bus was going to tumble down the steep cliffs at any moment as we wound through the mountains. The scenery was beautiful, and the geological rock formations were fantastic due to the volcanic activity in the region. After our tour at the chateau, we then went to lunch in this tiny restaurant where the kids filled up the entire restaurant. Everything was served family style. We started with a salad with bacon, eggs, cheese (of course!) and a bunch of other things. Then the vegetarians were served an over easy egg, and everyone else got a slice of Prosciutto type meat. Then the main course was brought out. There were HUGE pans of this too. The waitress kept joking that we had to finish it all before we left too. The main course was made just for me: Potatoes and cheese. They were the most delicious scalloped potatoes I've ever eaten! After the 8 of us cold barely finish one pan of this, dessert was brought out. A blueberry and raspberry tart. Fairly good, but I'm not sure about the jell-o that was on top of it. After eating and drinking to our hearts content, we piled into the bus again for another adventure.
The next stop was a cheese farm! Unfortunately, it was not as cool as expected. First we were shuttled from room to room, shown multimedia projects about the farm, it's history, the volcanic area, and St. Nectaire (whom this region is named after). After the 3d presentation I started to zone out. We didn't even get to see the cheese making process! However we did get to see the fermentation area, and was taught the difference between farm cheese and factory cheese in France. Finally we got to go see the cows and pet them! It was rather funny, they were in the barn to be milked, and some of them were feistier than others. I got to have my picture taken with one of them!
Then on the bus ride back I fell asleep, it was an amazing nap! We got back to the school at 6 pm, and because my family is in the countryside this weekend I didn't need to rush back home. But on the square near my home I found a rock climbing event! It was a boulder-ing competition. While I was there I was just watching the female competitors, and wow they were buff! They were climbing upside down, and there were very few handholds. It was pretty amazing. Finally I went home and had a pizza for dinner. Then later that night I had a movie night with other Americans.
All in all, yesterday was an amazing day. And today is filled with doing homework and working on projects. But real classes start on Monday, and I'm super excited for them! Hope everyone's weekend is going well.
Peace, Love and Wine!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Watch out for those French flying ants!
ReplyDeleteMom