Painting at the Castle

6/29

Today began with editing yesterday's video, because we got back at 1:30AM yesterday and the idea of editing it then made both Chandri and I want to cry a little...

Speaking of the video, here it is if'n you'd like to watch it! It is from our visit to the wee school in Rustrel.

We were granted a day of recovery today, and everyone lounged around the house after our French lesson. I learned a wonderful new phrase: "avoir la pêche!" It literally translates to "to have the peach," but it is a figure of speech meaning you are having a WONDERFUL day, that you are in the BEST of moods!

The sign outside our driveway.

Heading up to the village castle to do some charcoal drawings and watercolour paintings!

I can't get enough of this church, it's so pretty.

To the castle!

The trek to the château is all uphill, climbing a series of steps until you finally round a corner and see the castle peeking out at you from behind the cliff. 

Our town, Saint Saturnin-les-Apt!

C'est moi!

Yeah, I could get used to this...

Nayyira agrees.

Getting ready to sketch!



The kids are all busy drawing so I took a panoramic shot of the area.

Emma with the villages behind her.

Geoffrey with his wee sketchbook.

Avery sits on the castle steps.

Larissa studies the ramparts for her drawing.

Nasir sketches the cross at the front of the castle.

Nayyira surveys the landscape.

DeAndre sits on the well.

The castle belltower.

Bons travails, les élèves!

Moving on to watercolours.

It doesn't get much more gorgeous than this.

Using a palette to test colours is overrated... :P

It was SO COLD. The wind started picking up and luckily Julia had a shawl she let me borrow... and then I hid behind the safety of the wall.

Nayyirah soon joined me.

Bonsoir mes amis. Bons rêves!

Aix-En-Provence

6/28

We started the afternoon with a trip to the market uptown.

Bags and bags of lavender for sale.

These were all different types of olives.

One of the walls of our house.

Aix is where one goes to be seen. We dressed up for the occasion.

Ready to go into town.

We stopped on the way to Aix to fill up on gas, but Ari had never filled up a car before, since they were from New Jersey.

I do not understand.

We were on the road when we looked out the window and saw a dozen parachuters jump out of a plane!

Aix is known as the "town of a thousand fountains." This is the main one.

Ready for action.

Aix-En-Provence is one of the most charming, quintessential French towns you will find. It is a labyrinth of boulangeries, café tables, and beautiful architecture.

His bowtie has the Eiffel Tower on it. SO GOOD.

A very famous patisserie.

Chocolate chip cookie of wonder.

A tea shop that smelled absolutely lovely.

The age of the buildings just blew me away. People have lived and worked and died here for centuries, and yet you look at it and realize, so much probably looks exactly the same as when those people passed here.

French graffiti!

"Grandma's Restaurant."

We found a comic book store.

It's the pig game!! This game is hard to find in America, let alone France!

I FOUND KINDER EGGS. LIFE IS COMPLETE.

Kokopelli visits La Rotonde.

So many delicious choices!

I finally settled on black raspberry chip.

Aix was having a festival that night where the London Symphony Orchestra came and played in the town center. We arrived early so we could have time to peruse the shops (they all lose at seven), get something to eat (I had a healthy dinner of a plum, a Kinder Egg, and an ice cream cone), and then find a place to sit to watch the concert.

Happy punk-man and happy punk-man's dog. :3

The cathedral.

The top of the cathedral.

Heading back for the concert, we see the cathedral peeking out of the buildings.

A sparkling lycee-flavoured drink I bought. It was very interesting, to say the least.

Everyone gets ready for the concert.

Nous!

It begins! We were far enough back that they set up a screen for us to see what was happening.

The glow from the stage.

This guy was my favourite. He was just MEANT to sing opera. The singing was fantastic, I mean it just gave you chills. Especially when it hits you, like it did to me halfway through, that here I am sitting in an ancient town, one of the most beautiful towns in all of France, at an open-air concert under the starts, listening to the London Symphony Orchestra... live. It was incredible.

They match. How cute is that?

When we were on our walk with the wee French kids, one of the boys had these rings and asked if I wanted one. As you can see mine is an "angel" ring, with a halo on it. Pauline got a red one with horns -- a devil one. So cute.