The South of France

I am now in Lacoste, France in Provence but I will give a run down and some photos of my trip since Belgium. On Tuesday September 7th my mom and I left Paris. We were lucky. All of France was experiencing a public service worker strike. No one could buy tickets for any train that day. Yes we freaked out. We just wanted to get to Marseilles.  Sarcozy (french president) wants to push the retirement age to receive pension from 60 to 62. I mean really? I honestly don't think that is so terrible. But I'm not french and I don't know much about this subject. I just wanted to leave Paris. We talked through a few people and finally got on a train with just our Eurail pass and made it to Marseilles. And Marseilles was ok. Only worth seeing for a day. It was dirty and we knew there is better in the south of France. So we made Marseilles our base for the day and took trips day trips to Nice and Cannes. Now those are places to visit. The beaches were beautiful and the days were warm.

The French Riviera is where it's at! Old Nice displayed remnants of the dying language Occitan on old street signs. It was almost like being in a French Italy with some Catalan touches. So incredible. Fenocchio is the best place for ice cream! There are over 100 flavors that range from rose bud or thyme, to grapefruit or watermelon. I had a scoop of rosemary and a scoop of rhubarb. It tasted perfect. I'm sure all of the flavors there were close behind. 

Old Nice in the foreground and Nice in the mid ground, and The foothills of the Apls in the background.

some of the most beautiful water I have ever seen.

Cannes is the land of the rich and famous. We were there during the yacht festival. The harbor was filled with yachts and mega yachts. Rolls Royce, Bentley, Gucci, Louis. The old town gave us a view of it all. This day we took a 30min boat ride out to an island called St. Honorat which is home to a monastery that has been on this island since the 1100s. It was abandoned in the early 1800s but was reused in the later part of that century. It is fully functioning today and is surrounded in vineyards and Mediterranean sea. The old monastery juts out into the water on a tiny peninsula that gives great views of the new monastery and the french coast from Monaco to Cannes. The monks there run a small hotel and winery. The island was quiet and serene. Quite a contrast of life from the French Riviera.

A boat decked out in Gucci

Presented by Gucci models.

Cannes from the water

St. Honorat Monastery

Boats around the islands

After our fun excursions, Friday Sept 10th we arrived at the Marseilles Airport. Mom left for Atlanta and I left for Lacoste. I met up Emily and then the other students and we took a bus into the Luberon valley. Lacoste is beautiful and SCAD has done such an awesome job renovating this medieval town. I have my own room with a view of the vineyard covered Luberon valley and Bonnieux, the hill town over. Our first full day here we took a very short 12 km trip to the town Apt which is the closes "modernized" town. We went for a couple hours to the massive town wide market to grab anything we might need. I am excited to learn about travel photography and life in Provence. I can tell that Christ has so much to teach me about so many things. My heart is open and ready to be consumed by His Spirit.

Lacoste, My home for next couple of months

The view from my window. What I wake up to every morning.

My room's four little windows

in Apt Market

In Apt Market

Apt store front

Brussels, Belgium

What an incredible city. Today was spent in wonderful Brussels, Belgium. It's architecture is stunning and to say the least this city is such culinary treat. I would love to come back soon and eat everything sweet here! It was only an hour and twenty minutes to Brussels from Paris by train so it was very easy to have an entire day to see the city. The Parliament for the European Union is here, making this city a very important metropolis. It's relatively a small metropolis and a lot less crowded than Paris. What a nice surprise. I might say it's a bit better than Paris. Brussels is perfectly charming and has so much character. It's easy to feel the true culture of the people there. It's in a unique area of Europe because it meshes together, French/Flemish/Dutch language, food, & culture. In Paris, there are so many cultures, and it's a bit difficult to see true Parisian life past the mile long lines outside of the Eiffel Tower and the double decker red tour busses. Tourism being a culture itself, It can be a bit overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, I love Paris. It's a beautiful city. All of these things make your experience in Paris a very Parisian experience. But Brussels. BUT, Brussels.

European Parliament building

Chocolate. Belgium is clearly known for chocolate. Pierre Marcolini Chocolatier served us well today! With some of the most incredibly unique and delicious chocolates in the world, they are hardly sold in the US (New York only) and, as informed, they are one of the few REAL Belgian chocolatiers. This upper crust chocolate show room dazzled my eyes' taste buds that didn't let me leave without a few of these treats. Pierre Marcolini uses different cocoa beans from all over the world for specific types of chocolate. Just like different grapes are used for different wines, different beans from Java to Ecuador create a line of chocolate that didn't let me down. Who would of thought that chocolate could be so serious? After tasting, I can easily see why this genius man has used his highly thought method to create this culinary masterpiece.

so many chocolates to choose from

The Grand Place  is one of the main squares in town that showcases architecture so incredible different from Paris. The town hall almost looks like a cathedral with it's detailed spires and gothic facade. The surrounding buildings are just as detailed and most built in the 1600s. They are trimmed and decorated in gold leaf that reflects beautifully even on a dull gray morning.

Town hall on Grand Place

Wonderful example of Belgian architecture

Belgian Museum on Grand Place

Me and mom on Grand Place

We also indulged in little baked goods from the Middle East from Patisserie Orientale. Little baklava type snacks filled with all sorts of nuts and were in mounds that caught so many eyes not window shopping. Almond, pistachio, caramel...

Bourse (Pistachio and Almond)

Almond Cigars

My chosen treat

Belgian waffles can lead your nose around any corner in Brussels. Fraises et Chantilly (Strawberries and a Whipped Cream), can't go wrong there. Just pound it on a waffle. After eating we walked to the Cathedral of St. Matthew and came across the best park benches I've ever encountered.

Overall Brussels is a place I'll never forget and will revisit in the near future.

Paris is Paris

It's my second time to Paris and I feel like I'm really gonna know this place well when I come again in October with SCAD. My mother and I took a slow regional train to Montpellier (South Central France) which was a beautiful trip, stopping in beautiful Mediterranean coastal towns. In Montpellier we took a high speed train to Paris. The trip was also beautiful. We saw so much of France in just 3hrs. You could see the landscape change from drier Mediterranean to the French Alps to hilly forests to massive plowed field in Burgundy that didn't have a tree for miles, to suburban Paris. The architecture morphing by the hour. The train is perfect for reading a devotional book, taking a Selah moment to lookout at the wonderful God-created landscape and reflect.

We have been doing quite a lot for our short visit. We cruised the Seine, strolled through Notre Dame and Saint Chapelle, took a walk from the Louvre through the Jardin des Tuileries and down the Champs Elysee. Sacre Coeur, Montmarte. Eiffel Tower. We walked the underground Catacombs and have been enjoying great french food like crepes and duck. So far the best places we have found to eat, Tribeca on Rue Cler and Paul on Rue Buci. Good Mediterranean food at Chez Marianne in Marais. I will be returning to all of them. All three places had a crowd and took a bit to order but it is worth the wait. Sunday morning we went to mass at St. Sulpice on the left bank, especially to hear the famous 7,000 pipe organ played by Daniel Roth. After the service, Daniel plays the organ for 30 or so minutes until the next service. The secret here is that you can go up to the organ chamber in the back of the church by waiting at the rear back door and see Daniel play and talk to him about the organ. It's air used to be pumped by 5 men on these stair master type mechanisms to fill the organ's bellows. The views of the church from up here are incredible. It's amazing how much music effects me. I love the organ. Chills running down my body. It is so powerful. I can feel the Almighty God in every note from every pipe.

First sight when we arrived in Paris, Gay rights demonstration at the Trocadero in front of the Eiffel. I don't know much about French politics but I'm sure this has something to do with the current conservative French President Sarkozy.

Inside Saint Chapelle

Sculpture in the Jardin des Tuileries next to the Louvre

On the Champs Elysee, this particular Louis Vuitton store is the largest single brand luxury store in the world.

You can still easily see a contrast of culture and lifestyle on the generally upper class Champs Elysee.

The crowded Tribeca on Rue Cler

skulls in the catacombs of Paris. An official ossuary since 1786.

Priests led 5ft high piled carts of corpses from Parisian cemeteries into the catacombs to make room for more buildings, chanting songs for the dead. The entrance to the ossuary says "Arrête, c'est ici l'empire de la Mort" ('Stop, this is the empire of Death'). There are over 6 million bodies here, around 30 generations of Parisians.

Daniel Roth talking about the incredible 7,000 pipe organ at St. Sulpice

The Nave of St. Sulpice

In the Jewish Quarter in the Marais district. Fallafel's everywhere.

Hebrew/French signs on store fronts.

The Basilica of Sacre Coeur

 
I'm slowly learning and practicing french. It's not just the language but the culture needs practice too. I'm sure I'll be fine by November. Tomorrow morning I'm headed to Brussels to see the European Union Parliament among other things, but especially to get some Belgian chocolate. It's going to be quite a culinary treat. I'm anxious for school to start and can't wait to be settled in Lacoste.

Passeig de Gracia

I have been in Barcelona for 5 days now. I like being in a place where I am comfortably and easily communicating with the people. The interesting thing about Barcelona that most don't know is that it is in the region of Spain called Catalunya. The first language of the people of Catalunya is Catalan, not Spanish. So here in Barcelona, all the street signs, atms, menus, etc are FIRST in Catalan. It's like a mixture of Spanish and French. But Spanish is understood and spoken if first spoken to. Because I was just here in March I thought I might find it difficult to see and do different things but it really hasn't been! Yes I have repeated a few but they have turned out to be different experiences completely! Repeats have been, Parc Guell, Montserrat, Mercat De La Boqueria, and La Rambla. But new on the list has been, Montjuic (mount of the Jews), Poble Espanya, Parc de la Ciutadella, Catedral de Barcelona, Eglésia de Santa Maria del Mar, and venturing around Barceloneta. 

The fountain in Parc de la Ciutadella

La Rambla in the evening, even McDonalds had seating on La Rambla.

Everyone's gotta use a bike.

Poble Espanya is a village-ish town on Monjuic that has little workshops, art galleries, cafes, restaurants, and stuff like that. It is the perfect display of Spanish architecture ranging from the 15th to 19th centuries. 


La Catedral de Barcelona is currently being preserved and worked on, but that was great because there was an elevator installed for construction only that allows tourists, a few at a time go to the roof of the cathedral which would be unwalkable without the temporary scaffolding. This is one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen. The choir of the church is in the center of the nave with wooden seats so detailed that it rivals the detailed altar pieces in the radiating chapels lining the side aisles and apse. The cloister of the cathedral is stunningly Gothic in style. The flamboyant arches. Wow. A beautiful fountain and geese, white geese. 

The Mercat De La Boqueria is amazing every time you go. It's a massive produce market right of Las Ramblas that began in 1217. It was officially recognized in 1826 and a structure built for it 1835. It is crammed full of locals and tourists buying, tasting, dining, smelling, wishing and wondering. It's got everything you could imagine. Hug legs of ham starting at around 50 Euros and going to way over 100. Candies you've never seen, exotic fruits, skinned rabbits, little kebabs called pintxos (peen-choes), xorico (chorizo), nuts, spices, fresh sea food from the port, and during the warmer months fresh fruit juice everywhere, everything from a regular strawberry to coconut with cactus flower. yum. It's never a bore and always an adventure at La Boqueria. 

Duck Eggs

Fresh fruit juices

Montserrat is a beautiful mountain about an hour and a half outside Barcelona with a monastery, basilica, music school for boys, hiking trails to holy sites, and beautiful views of Catalunya and surrounding mountains, from the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean. The boys who attend the school are boys that study music both vocal and instrumental and sing twice per day everyday at the basilica. They sing at 13:00 (1pm) and at 19:10.  We attended the Vespers service at the Basilica. At 18:45 the bells let out huge rings and the monks and priest file into the choir and apse. They sang with the newly installed 4,000+ pipe organ in unison plainsong. Then at 19:10 the bells ring again and entering the church are the 30 or so boys from the school, dressed in the traditional cassock and surplice to sing with the monks. their voices were angelic. The boys sing the soprano and alto while the men sing tenor and bass. It was absolutely incredible. Their voices resonated like no other I've ever heard. If any of you out there make the trip to Montserrat, make it to the very less crowded Vespers service in the evening, not the 1pm mass because heaps of pilgrims and tourists will have left by the late evening. 

Today I am headed to some coastal towns, Tarragona and Sitges. Itinerary: Leave Barcelona, Paris, Mont Saint Michel, Brussels, Marseilles.