As I said in a previous blog this week, IES (the company that is in charge of my study abroad) took us to the south of France from Thursday to Friday. The trip was included into our tuition for the school so they took care of purchasing tickets, the hostel, the tours, etc. It was an absolute blast!
Day 1
As I said, this was on Thursday. IES cancelled (well they didn’t necessarily “cancel” but they didn’t schedule us our intense French class this week so we could travel with them) our class so that we were able to go with no worries.
The Train
In order to get to the south of France, we took a train leaving from Gare de Lyon at 8:15 am. Now you think that is not a bad time, but we had to meet at 7:15 am so I was awake at 5:30 am!!! I usually give good praises to the metro, but taking that morning commute at 6:00 am was not pleasant at all.
Regardless of the ungodly hours of the morning, the train was really nice. I did not have much room to move around (but being a guy standing 6′ 6” and weighing about 220 LBs, I usually don’t stand too much of a chance). I sat at a seat with one person from my program and two people from France across from us. We shared a communal table in the middle so everyone could work or read on that surface. Most of the seats only had 2 people in them but we were in the middle of the train where the direction of the seats changed and four people faced each other.
Overall, I read the entire ride and it was really nice. It was about a two to three hour ride. Since IES took care of this ticket, I am not sure how expensive the tickets actually were but I did look into trains to go other places in France and they only cost from 30 – 50 Euro for two-ways which really is not that bad. I definitely will be taking the train again to various places in France/Europe during the time of my program.
Nîmes
Once we arrived in Nîmes, we took a bus from the train station to the hostel (more details on the hostel later) and then from the hostel to the city center.
L’Arènes de Nîmes
We started our tour of the city at the Roman arena. The arena is at the center of the city and really stands out against the modern buildings surrounding the arena.
We were given audio guides to use throughout the arena which was really interesting. I really liked them in comparison to using an actual tour guide because I could skip information that I already knew and I could really go through the arena at my own pace. Pictured above is me in front of the sand at the arena in the bleachers area. The fact that the arena is still standing and has been used from Roman times to modern day is insane!
The arena used to be used for gladiator fights and prosecutions of enemies of the state. Now the arena is still used for bull fights and horse shows but the bull fights are not like Spanish bull fights. I will explain in a minute what happens at a French bull fight shortly as we experienced it at a different place in southern France.
Above is a picture of some people on my program. To the surprise of many, there was no protection on the sides of the arena. Someone could easily fall or jump of the side of the arena. I did not have any problems with the lack of guards or protectors; however, I understand where many people in my group were coming from. In America, that would never happen! No one would 1 be allowed at the top of the arena to begin with and 2 if they were, there would be a huge wall going around the outside and a guard there to make sure no one tried to be adventurous.
La Maison Carrée
La maison carrée was a roman temple a few blocks up from the arena. Pictured below is the side of the temple. There is a little space on the sides where the public can spend time but the front and the back of the temple are pretty much right up to the road.
The temple is obviously no longer used for religious worship. Now, it has been converted to a theater but not one that plays movies like “The Hangover” or “Frozen.” Instead, Nîmes uses the theater to show a movie about the history of Nîmes from its start as a Gaul tribe, to how a Gaul general used 500 troops to help Cesar in his conquest of northern Gaul, to his return with treasures from Rome in order to commence the city. It was very interesting and I suggest that anyone visiting Nîmes should go and see as it really demonstrates the history of this wonderful city.
Above is a picture of the panoramic view on the top of the Tour de Nîmes (Tower of Nîmes). Only take the trek if you are not afraid of heights or a lot of steps!
Auberge de jeunesse
Auberge de jeunesse is French for hostel. I had never stayed in a hostel before this trip and I was surprised by how dorm-like the experience was. This was not a normal hostel visit since it is out of season. IES rented out the entire hostel just for our group so it wasn’t a “true” hostel experience in the sense that I kind of knew who I was sharing a room with and there were familiar faces throughout the entire hostel.
The Rooms
Basically, the rooms were exactly like dorms in Pollock halls. There were three bunk beds and one single bed in the room. There were also 7 closets in the corners of the room for you to put your stuff in. Each closet had the ability to lock so that you could lock your belongings in when you were not there.
The Bathrooms
The bathrooms were communal and not gender based. For most Americans, they would probably find that shocking. Even the bathrooms in the co-ed dorms are separated by gender. To me it was not awkward at all. We are all adults and there were no issues, but then again, we didn’t have any freshman on our program. The set up was very similar to a dorm hall bathroom, except that the bathrooms and showers were not stalls but they were more like closets that were fully covered on all sides.
NOTE: if you plan on staying in hostels while you are in Europe, TAKE FLIPFLOPS FOR THE SHOWER! I forgot mine and I felt gross using the shower.
The Food
The hostel had a cafeteria that we ate at twice and it was surprisingly delicious. I am not sure if all hostels do this but if you plan on staying at a hostel and they offer it, look into it because I was surprised by the amount and the quality of the food!
Commons Areas
Despite the cold weather, everyone took the time to play ping pong and hang out in the areas of the hostel. The hostel even had a lounge with speakers and people played music and danced when we were there. I am sure it would have been fun with other people that we did not know but everyone on my program really had fun. From what I could tell, most hostels have lounges, bars, or clubs nearby, attached to or in the hostel since it is generally younger kids so look out for and take advantage of these options. My group found this to be a blast!
Day 2
Fun in the Countryside
We started off our adventure on the second day at a French ranch. Then we got back on the bus and headed to Aigues-Mortes.
Le petit train
What is the only way to tour a wildlife park that gives great scenic views of the ocean? Of course the answer is a tiny green train that treks through the country side (I somehow managed to not take a picture! ):). We were given a lot of information on the vegetation, the sea, and the animals of the country side.
There were bulls and horses that were owned by the ranch but the interesting thing was how they maintained the animals. They were gates around the fields, but the fields spanned vast amount of the country, so to the animals it was as if there were no gates. The animals were kept as if they were wild, which is something very rare to find in America but seemed common for most ranches in the south of France.
Bull Fight
As a part of our tour of the country side, we were shown a bull fight and a horse show. This bull fight was nothing like Spanish bull fights, which most people associate with a bull fight. This was more of a game than it was an actual fight. No animals were killed.
Basically, one bull (they said generally from 1-4 years old) is placed in the ring. On one horn, there are pieces of strings. All of the strings are different colors and are knotted differently, with different difficulties to pull off. Each “bull fighter” was given a metal tool for their hand to rip the strings off. The tools were not sharp enough to cut the hide of the cow, yet they were able to rip the strings. Also, as another form of protection for the bull fighters, there were metal caps placed on the tips of each horn so that no one could get punctured.
While many in the group were upset at the fact that “the bulls were being mistreated,” I happened to love it! (Although in all honesty I would be totally thrilled to see an actual Spanish bull fight) The owners of the ranch really cared for the animals and never allowed them in the ring for longer than 10 minutes at a time and they are instantly released back into their pasture.
In the above picture, the man who organized the trip and all of our trips for IES had the opportunity to jump into the ring and try his hand at the game.
Horse Show
They did two demonstrations for us with the horse. The first was le jeux des bouquets (The Boquet Game). Three people play and one gets a bouquet of flowers. From there it is just keep away and the one who has the bouquet at the end, wins the game.
The second game was called les deux chevalles (the two horses). Basically, someone rides bareback on one horse right beside another horse. The principal is to jump back and forth between the two horses. At the very end, the person jumping around stands up with one foot on each horse. This really adds an element of danger to horseback riding!
Aigues-Mortes
So we ended our day in a small town called Aigues-Mortes. In this town, we were given free time to explore. My friends decided that it would be best to spend our time on the ramparts of the town! (I am glad I found friends that enjoy history/nerdy things like me!) We walked around the entire town on the ramparts and had amazing views of the town, the ocean, and the surrounding area. Below are a couple of pictures that I took on the walls.
On Day 3 we went to Avignon, but I feel like this blog post is getting a little too lengthy so I am going to continue a little later with a blog focused solely on Avignon.
Location: Aigues-Mortes France
