Channeling My Inner Belgian: The Region of Provence

Sunday, August 21st, 2011

Today started out early-ish at about 7 in the morning, as we all had to get up and going because we were going to the market today. We got to the market just as people were finished setting up. It was great, and Becky and I had quite a nice time looking at everything. We probably circled the entire market at least twice, there was just so much to look at. It was quite like markets back home, with fruits, veggies, homegrown/made foods, and a few pieces of art. But the majority of the stands were actually clothing and accessories stands, so that was cool for a change. Also, everything was really cheap (SUPER cheap for Europe) and so there were many tempting things that just seemed to call out my name. In the end, I only bought a small black purse because I had been unable to fit my main one in the suitcase (I accidentally took it out and forgot to repack it, and by the time I noticed it there was no room), and a gray belt that was a great deal and I kinda needed, considering that lately I had been borrowing my sister’s belt a ton.

I forgot to mention yesterday that after seeing Becky and I interacting and having so much fun together, both of our host families agreed that if we both wanted, Becky could stay with us on the boat until we leave Wednesday, rather than go home with her host family today. I was excited about having someone my age and who spoke English to hang with, and Becky was excited to have a longer vacation. So, after getting a quick drink after some shopping, we said goodbye to Michel and his family.

We then headed to the bakery for croissants, as all of us were starving because it was 11 AM and we hadn’t eaten anything yet. Then, we packed up a lunch and headed off to this place (which is the equivalence of a county) named Provence. There we went to a museum where there were little dolls with fancy recreations of buildings and other scenery. They all represented Provence way back in the 1700s (I think that was the time frame…) the detail work that went into the museum was crazy, and Eddy explained to us that if one person had done all of the work, it would have taken something crazy like 10 years of non-stop work to complete. It was nice getting to see all of the parts of Southern French culture, and I was actually surprised to see how much of the culture that I had actually been able to experience. It was nice. Becky and I finished looking probably within 10 minutes, and Eddy and Pascale were just taking a lot of time to look at every detail very carefully. We were wondering why they found it so fascinating, but then Eddy told us the reason. He said that a lot of the dolls within the museum represented real actors and actresses that were in movies about Provence and the rest of France. Apparently, the dolls were made to look exactly like the real life people, so there was an even longer story behind the story of Provence.

Grape Smashing Dolls :)

Lavender with a windmill... But not the one we went to!

Goliath got tired of looking at the dolls.

After the museum, we went to a windmill that apparently inspired Alphonse Daudet, a famous Belgian writer, for the majority of his books. Neither Becky nor I had ever heard of this guy, but he is a classic. So classic that his books were translated into English and are used as literature in high school English classes. The windmill, even though we didn’t know the background story, was cool. It was really old, but still in good shape. Also, in the little gift shop that they had inside of the windmill, there was an English copy of the main book by Daudet, called Letters from My Windmill, and Eddy bought a copy so Becky and I could share it and learn about the windmill we had just seen. He also bought us some nice postcards of the region because we hadn’t had enough time to see everything he wanted us to see, and little pins for our blazers that were a cricket, because they are all over Southern France and they have a special species. This cricket in French is actually called the seagale (excuse my French) and you seriously cannot go outside without hearing them! After the windmill both Becky and I were really tired and slept the entire long-ish car ride back to the sailboat. And once we got on the sailboat, we slept some more. Both Becky and I blamed the sun, but one cannot be too sure… Haha maybe vacation just makes everyone a bit lazy and tired. After sleeping for what seemed like forever, we enjoyed a delicious dinner of Eddy’s Chinese cooking and were finally able to sit outside thanks to this mosquito-be-gone smoke thingy that they had bought after seeing how much mosquitoes love me! Then, we hit the sack after a long day. Please excuse my switching from present to past tense. At first, I was keeping up with my blog but once Becky arrived I felt more obligated to spend time with her and so the blog got pushed until more than a week later when I finally had time!