Bonjour tout le monde!

Happy d�cembre! Can’t believe that time is going by so fast and that I’ve been here for over three months already. I apologize for the belated blog post- what with finals coming up and everything I haven’t been able to for a bit.

It is definitely starting to feel like winter and Christmastime here! Last week, it actually snowed. Only for about fifteen minutes, and it didn’t stick, but snow is really rare in this part of France. Apparently, this is supposed to be the coldest winter in a hundred years (of course…), and the freezing temperature we had in November is their usual January temperature. I was not expecting it to be so cold here!

The city is all decked out in glittery Christmas lights, there’s a white Christmas tree in La Place de la Com�die, and the march� de No�l (Christmas market) is in full swing. It’s a long line of little wooden chalets in the park with vendors selling all sorts of things- crafts, jewelry, chocolates, and so much more. I’m going to do a special Christmas post soon with pictures!

Anyways, I meant to post earlier about a daytrip I took a few weekends ago with some friends. We took a train up to the city of Arles, in the region of Provence. It was incredibly windy and chilly, but it was still beautiful to walk around and to take in all of the sights.

 Like many areas in southern France, Arles has a rich Roman history. There’s an amphith��tre like the one I visited in N�mes, but it was smaller and made out of white stone. After Roman times, it was turned into a fortress with four huge towers, one of which you could climb up. There was a great view down over the city and the Rh�ne River, which was worth the windy-ness! I still can’t get over the beauty of meandering irregular streets, peeling shutters and doors painted in sparks of color against rustic walls, trailing ivy and orange-tinted roof tiles, all of the aspects of southern France. I can’t even imagine how charming Arles would be in the warmer parts of the year, bursting with flowers (and minus the wind haha).

There was also an ancient Roman theater that we visited, with the seating area and stage mostly intact. There were a lot of piles of intricately carved, crumbled stone pieces, too- fragments of grapevines, broken words, time-softened faces.

My favorite aspect of Arles, though, was the fact that Van Gogh had lived there. Many of his most famous pieces were painted there, and there’s a “Van Gogh tour” with signs marking painting sites. We managed to see a couple, such as the yellow caf� from his well-known Terrasse du caf�, la nuit, and the yellow courtyard of the then-hospital where he stayed after cutting off his ear. I was really happy to learn that my absolute favorite painting of his, Nuit �toil�e sur le Rh�ne, was done on the bank of the Rh�ne River in Arles.

Aside from sightseeing, we popped into shops to keep warm and treated ourselves to some fancy p�tisseries. There was also a huge Saturday march� that was fun to wander through, with all kinds of produce and various things for sale- lots of sights and smells. It was a really pretty city and well worth the visit, but I would recommend going in nicer weather. 

I think that’s just about everything for now, but stay tuned et � bient�t!

~Julia

Location: Montpellier, France