Gorge(ousness)s du Verdon

Yesterday we went to a gorge, which was really beautiful. Or gorgeous. Are those two words (gorge and gorgeous) related? Wait, question retracted after remembering that gorging oneself is bad.

Anyway, it was great. Minus the torturous bus ride through the windy mountain roads that made me vom. Repeat of Cassis, which now that I think about, I didn't actually blog. Long story short, the bus ride to Cassis and subsequent boat ride made me über nauseous, ergo I don't have many photos from that trip. But I'll post a few along with this.

Ran into a dog whilst wandering around

I can't help but strike a pose

Cave people

Cliffs

After the super long ride, we got to a lake, which I, of course, forget the name of now. It was kind of a weird shade of blue, but really pretty. After eating lunch there, several of us rented paddle boats and paddled around for our remaining time there. Or sat, in my case, on the front of the boat, like a weird decoration.

Swimmer!

Bungee jumper

Crazy color of blue

Where we paddle boated

This looked fake even in person

Paddle boat competition

Waterfall in the mountain town

French countryside

Following that, we went to a small town in the mountains. I was shocked at how much cheaper stuff was there! I guess the further away from the coast, the lower the prices, until you inevitably hit Lyon and Paris. The town was very cute, as all small French towns are. At least in Provence, but I assume it's like that everywhere. There were tons of artisanal shops, with everything from pottery to blown glass, and I'm pretty sure I saw some samurai swords, although I'm going to guess those weren't made by the guy who was selling them.

Sadly, it is now Monday of my final week in Cannes. My family arrives tomorrow, and we leave on Saturday for Barcelona and then Paris. And then I'm home. In two weeks...

This week all I have is a final in my French grammar class, which is on Thursday, but I still have class every morning. For some reason we also have a final Art History class tomorrow, even though we took the final last Thursday. Wednesday we have our farewell dinner, Thursday night there's an ice cream party, and then Friday we have a farewell drink in the courtyard. Saturday morning most people are leaving pretty early to catch their shuttles to the airport in Nice. I'm really going to miss this place and all the people I've met here. I think I'm also really going to miss hearing French in everyday life. Anyone know a French person in Omaha that can help me stay on track?

::edit::

It is now Friday, and you can see that I'm doing really well with this whole blogging on time thing. But for real, I don't want to leave tomorrow.

The fam got here safely, but not without some problems. My dad and brother's bags did not make it on time, but they arrived by post on Wednesday here in Cannes. Also, the whole stick-shift thing is... going okay. My dad has accidentally rolled backwards into two cars, that I know of. I wasn't in the car for that, but I'm hoping that it doesn't happen on our journey tomorrow. Tomorrow we're beginning our trek to Barcelona, but stopping at random cities along the way and staying somewhere overnight. I'm hoping that I'll get to see Aix-en-Provence, because I still haven't made it there.

It was my der des ders day of class today. That's dernier des derniers, in case you can't understand me. I don't even understand me sometimes. It means the last of the last. We watched lots of random things on youtube and then some of a French stand-up comedian. We finished with a game of "Ni oui, ni non" where people ask you questions really quickly, but you can't respond with yes or no. It's way too difficult. I tend to epically fail at it.

Some people are leaving super early tomorrow, so tonight really is the last night. Sad day. I'm commemorating with a list of things I'll miss about Cannes (or France, in general):

• the view of the Mediterranean from my room
• the view from the bathroom. You think I'm kidding? I'll upload a picture later.
• living next to water and mountains
• hearing French every day
• easy transportation from city to city
• amazing museums, to which I often get in free with my long-stay visa
• being a foreigner
• beach at night
• crêpe soirées, gelato (mostly mango flavored YUM)
• not having a cell phone

However, I don't want to get myself super bummed out, so now a list of things I'm looking forward to about being back in the States:

• stores are open late, and not closed over lunch time, and open on weekends
• easily accessible Mexican, Indian, Thai, etc. food WITH vegetarian options
• my car, my room, my house, my bike
• knowing that people understand what I'm saying (at least usually...)
• hanging out in Omaha parks
• Midsummerfest
• and seeing all my friends, of course!

I'm not sure how much I'll be updating over the next ten days, when I'll be in Barcelona and Paris, but maybe I'll do one more really large update afterward, if I can't during.

Look at who just graduated from the Collège International de Cannes, with only good notes (I mean... once they took off that cinema class one...)

Film Festival - Update 2

 Summary of the past week...

Films seen:

clip from Puss in Boots

17 Filles

Snowtown

Avé

My Little Princess

Melancholia

Sauna on Moon

Las Acaçias

Take Shelter

Drive

Celebs seen:

casts/crews from films above (minus Drive)

Tilda Swinton

Brady Corbet

Sadly, I seem to have missed Ryan Gosling's random sojourns around town, in which no one recognizes him because he's dressed in a wife beater and sunglasses and just wandering, without bodyguards and whatnot. Or maybe I was actually on the same street with him and he walked right by. I'll never know.

I'm really sad that these two weeks are over. I don't like how busy Cannes is right now, but I've loved my internship and the possibility of seeing so many movies. And walking the red carpet. And meeting new people. It's been amazing.

I'll also miss the parties, of course! The first one I went to was at the American Pavilion and it was great to be right by the sea. The lights on the Mediterranean at night are beautiful. I chatted with some random people. An old dude told me I was special. The party on Monday night was a gorgeous villa. Seriously, it was incredible. I wish I could live there. It had a view of Cannes and the Mediterranean that was to die for. Then there was the most recent one, which commemorated la fin de La Semaine de la Critique. It was also on the beach, and served tiny margaritas. At least I think that's what they were...

Nomming at the final party (with Megan)

Interviewing random Frenchies for homework

Carrying Catherine down le Tapis Rouge

Me and my fellow interns

Photos taken without permission from various peoples' facebook pages. Thanks, guys.

Cannes Film Festival - Update 1

The film festival began on Wednesday, but things have been crazy here for the past week. The influx of people into Cannes.... it's nuts. It's normally pretty calm here; I've likened Cannes to the Florida of France - full of retired people and people on vacation. However, the past week it's hard to even walk down the street. Super annoying when you're late for work (more on that later). Supposedly the population triples during the film festival (which lasts from the 11th to the 22nd), normally around 60,000. I honestly don't understand how so many people come here... Cannes certainly isn't the cheapest place in France, and France certainly isn't the cheapest place in Europe. But they do - and now I have to deal with them.

By the way, if you're interested in what's showing this year at the festival, check it out here!

I have an internship with La Semaine de la Critique, which is it's own festival separate from that of the Cannes Fest. It shows new talent - usually a director's first or second film. Because of this, we also usually get the directors to do Q&A sessions right after screenings. And, tickets are free for everyone! It's a pretty sweet deal. I'm working outside or inside every other day. Inside means preparing the theater, making sure people don't sit in the reserved seats that aren't supposed to (actually the most stressful part of my job, probably. Everyone thinks they deserve a reserved seat. Just be happy you got in, people!), making coffee for people, restocking things, etc. Outside is giving out tickets and information, in French for the most part. Sometimes I hand out catalogs. And sometimes I get to see famous people.

For instance, we ran a secret preview of Puss in Boots, so Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek came to our little theater. It was pretty awesome. I got to sit in on it. Today I sat in on 17 Filles (17 girls) which was based on the story of the pregnancy pact that happened in the US in 2008. The story was reset in France, and several of the actresses came to watch today. They were pretty adorable.

The other awesome thing about having an internship here is party invites. I'm going to one tonight, there's one Monday night in a fancy villa, and then one next Thursday on the beach. Needless to say, I'm quite excited.

Random tidbit: Lady Gaga decided to show up and do a performance on the beach. Of one song. Then she left Cannes...
Whatever you can do to get publicity, I guess.

Some more publicity

Really random stuff has been showing up in the streets of Cannes

Stage where Lady Gaga performed, I believe

Red carpet has been rolled out

Poster for this year's festival

More to come later - parties, famous encounters (hopefully), etc, etc.

Provence & Grasse

I'm combining these trips so that, at long last, I won't be behind on my blogging anymore. (Just kidding - because I started this blog probably a week ago, but due to slow interwebz, I didn't finish it). For at least a little while, anyway. Donc. Side note: there's a bee trying to enter my room right now - I closed the windows in hopes that he wouldn't realize there are some more open windows just a little ways away...

Back to Provence. Provence is a region of France:

Voilà! Provence.

Coincidentally, it is also the region I already live in. However, for our trip we went further inland to the cities of: Arles, Tarascon, Châteauneuf du Pape, and finally Avignon. The following day we went to La Fontaine de Vaucluse. We got to Arles and had a tiny bit of time to wander the market. I love outdoor markets, I'm going to miss them so much when I get back to the States. From there we went to see two Roman ruins, a theatre and a something-else. Again, I apologize for the lack of details. I have no memory anymore, apparently. We also ate our sack lunches at the theatre, so I've now eaten in some Roman ruins. Ta da!

We also saw this - modeled to look like the place where Van Gogh used to hang out

Some really old stuff

Note the exit signs

 A little history on Van Gogh and Arles. Arles is where Van Gogh first met Gaugain. Gaugain's brother basically sent him to keep Van Gogh company, poor guy. They got along well for a little while, and it was Van Gogh's idea to form an artistic community. However, the two fought and that's when Van Gogh lost part of his ear. The question remains: was it Van Gogh who cut off his own ear, or was it Gaugain? We may never know.

From Arles we went to a castle in Tarascon, home to a terrible monster of French lore, known as the Tarasque. It seems to be some sort of cross between sea creature and armadillo. The castle was pretty cool - much better than the ruins, in my opinion.

Tarasque de Tarascon - be afraid

Another castle very close by

The roof had these slits in it - a little worrying

Totally scratched my elbow on these

Look at them long hairs

Following Tarascon we went to Châteauneuf du Pape for a wine tasting, then had time to explore their museum.

Grape-squashing barrels

Old bottles

Old, dusty bottles

Then we finally made it to Avignon - where we spent the night. We slept in a hotel right next to the Palais des Papes, which is where one of the popes lived when there were three of them. Weird. I don't know the whole story, so you should just google it or something.

We wandered Avignon to do some shopping and then had dinner in the hotel with the rest of AIFS. I got served eggplant with tomato sauce on it, which was okay the first time, as an appetizer, but then it was also my main course. Seriously, the exact same dish. I was sad. But then Aude got really mad, because they told her that they had stuff for vegetarians and they made us macaroni and cheese. Hah. It was good, though.

The following day we went to the Pont d'Avignon, which looks like half a bridge, and then to the Palais des Papes, followed by some free time for lunch.

Avignon from my hotel window

Pont d'Avignon

...I don't know what this is...

Preeeeetty

From there we drove to La Fontaine de Vaucluse, which was a beautiful natural spring.

Awesome roots

Must be the last of the season!

Basically, I never wanted to leave. It was so pretty and such a nice day. The French have also all wheeled out their granita machines (slushies) and I got a GIANT strawberry one. Summer has arrived.

I also moved again! I began in 213, moldy room, then went to 99, single room, and I now inhabit 402 (shout out to Nebraska), which has a gorgeous view of the sea.

Aaaahhhh

Same decorations - awesome new view

Last weekend we went to Grasse, which is the perfume capital of the world. We got to create our own perfume and went on tours of Fragonard's factory. The creation was a disaster. It was kind of like being back in Chemistry class, which I enjoyed, but what we ended up with did not smell good at all. What we did was add different chemicals together to create a violet-like smell. It smells disgusting. But moving on. The tour was pretty cool and we learned that it takes 1000 kilos of flowers to make 1 kilo of scent. Quite a few flowers. We also tested our noses to see if we could identify certain smells. There are people called "noses" who work for perfumeries and other companies in order to create new perfumes. There are only about 50 in the world, and they go to school in Paris or Grasse for 2 years, then have an apprenticeship for 7. Think of how much they must get paid! But sorry, ladies, it's a man-only job. Apparently our hormones screw up our sense of smell? Quel dommage. We ended our tour in their sales room where we tested a couple of perfumes before we were set loose. I ended up getting one called "Juste un Baiser" (just a kiss) which totally smells like candy. It's delicious.

Stuff to smell

Chemistry all over again

I have awesome skills with a camera

Different perfumes

Bottles of perfume to sell

Different scents

Final Product