Presque Fini...

These last couple weeks have been moving way too quickly! I am sad that the time for me to leave is getting closer, but thankfully I have quite a bit of traveling left before I leave. The last couple of weeks with my friends have been pretty incredible and I know we have enough time left to still make some more lasting memories.

St. Louis statue

Speaking of memories, I definitely have an unforgettable one to add to the ever-growing list. Last weekend we had our last exchange program outing. It was nice to be able to look forward to one each month and this one had most people incredibly excited. The trip? Visit the city of Aigues Mortes followed by horseback riding throughout the Camargue. I have been wanting to visit Aigues Mortes since I learned about it briefly in my Civi du Sud class. If you know of the walled city of Carcassonne, Aigues Mortes is also an incredibly well preserved walled city. The name "Aigues Mortes" actually means "Dead Water" and the area was sought after by King Louis IX, aka Saint Louis, to be the location of the only Mediterranean ports during the 13th century. Why? For the crusades, of course. The walled city itself was built over a number of years, but the main goal was to ensure it was incredibly secure. If my memory serves, this resulted in them creating walls that were 6 meters thick! Standing inside one of the towers you could see this thickness in the few windows that were allowed. We walked around most of the city by way of the fortress walls, and it was great to be able to see the city inside it on one side and the outside fields and water on the other.

After exploring the towers and walls for a while, we went into the city to walk around and of course-- to eat. We all ended up eating at the same restaurant in the center square and I, along with a few others, had Bull steak and had a leisurely lunch. Our group lunches almost always end up lasting the 2 hours we have free, but no one was in a rush to see the rest of the city because we had already seen a lot of it from above. The city itself was very, very, charming and just felt very "French"-- which I loved!

After all our sightseeing of Aigues Mortes and our delicious lunch we headed off towards an area known as La Camargue. It's a nationally protected park in the wetlands of the South. We also learned a bit about this area in my Civi du Sud class. Some fun facts include: it is the only area in France that produces rice because it has the habitat required to do so; it is home to hundreds upon hundreds of different species of animal, birds (including Flamingos!), and plants; it is home to the Camargue Bulls which are used in "course camarguaise" which is the area's version of bull fighting (the bulls are greatly respected and aren't killed); and finally the Camargue Horses which are famous for their white color and are used to herd the bulls used for bull fighting.

This leads me to one of my favorite experiences in France: the hour and a half of horseback riding! Many of us were very excited to be able to go horseback riding, my friend Marion in particular who is already a very experienced rider and has missed it while she has been in France. I have always LOVED horseback riding and really hope to become more experienced with it somewhere down the road. For now, it is an activity reserved for vacation and the occasional opportunity outside, but I hope that changes in the very near future. We arrived at the stable and quickly divided into two groups: those who were "experienced" and those who were not. Apparently, their definition of experience was only if you had ever ridden a horse before. I ended up in this "experienced" group half worried about what kind of horse they were going to give me if they thought I was experienced. Shortly after we were assigned to our horses we ventured off into the Camargue. The temptation of all the green vegetation near the trail was too much for some of our horses, mine included, and the first portion was a bit difficult to keep the horses in check. I felt really rusty especially since we were riding Western and any lessons I have taken were always English. After a while I was comfortable and felt I was able to control my horse. We trotted along, on and off, in these wetlands where you could only see green grass and slightly muddy ground. Eventually we got to a point where we were told to separate off if we were interested in galloping with our horses along-- I was. Up until this point I have never been on a horse while galloping and I was excited to try. It wasn't until the last few seconds before I started to get a bit nervous, due to my inexperience. Thankfully, Marion gave me some advice: hold the reins tight and grab the horse's mane. So that's what I did with my right hand while I used my left to grab as tightly to the saddle as I could imagine. Next thing I knew, we were off. I realized how little control I had in that moment and just made sure I held on knowing it probably wouldn't be too hard to fall off if I didn't. Though we were only galloping for a couple minutes it was completely exhilarating and left me in this high "I pulled it off" feeling for a while after. Definitely unforgettable. This experience left me with a definite interest in pursuing lessons back in the States-- already looked into stables and prices online for Terre Haute :)

View from my horse, post gallop!

A little windblown with my cooperative horse!

After three finals this week, two of which ended in drinking wine and eating delicious food (rough, huh?), and only one next Thursday I am using this weekend to fit in one more trip before my summer travels begin. Tomorrow, I will be taking a little trip and celebrating Cinco de Mayo with my group of friends. We had talked about visiting this beach town Collioure for a while and we decided that this would be the perfect weekend to do it. So, with the hotel and train reserved we head out for one more weekend all together at 7am tomorrow! Here's to hoping for nice beach weather-- I am incredibly jealous of the temperatures Illinois and Indiana have experienced in my absence!

Things I have learned:

• There are wild pink Flamingos in France.
• Bull meat isn't that different from regular cow meat, though I was told it had a stronger taste.
• At the end of two of my finals my teacher brought in wine, cheese, and other treats to celebrate with the second we put our pens down. We should start this tradition in the States!
• Everything in France shuts down on their Labor Day.
• Montpellier IS in fact capable of experiencing thunderstorms. Experiencing the first one as I sit here and write this!
• Le Prenom, a French film I recently saw in theaters, was a fantastic movie. The French know how to keep things simple, but incredibly funny in their storylines and there always seems to be a bit of dark humor mixed in.