Hello! Can you believe it? Week one, DONE! And if we're being honest here, so is week two, I'm a bit behind in my posting! Nonetheless I'm HERE and ready to share with you some shots and my vlog from week one living here in Lacoste, France!
Overall, this experience so far as been surreal, the fact that I get to wake up with the sunrise, in a place so calm, so pristine, each day fresh, ready to be explored, it's magical. Everyday I am doing something new and exciting here, I don't know how I got so lucky! All I can say is that I am endlessly grateful for it all. More on that in another post coming soon...
I'll be doing a full room tour towards the end of the quarter, but this is a little snippet of what it looks like. Real stone walls, real finger paintings, real evidence of me overpacking too many scarves I really didn't need... it's all here.
Every corner of the village is a glistening fairy land. No kidding, it's ancient stone overgrown with flowers everywhere and constantly tickled with sunlight. It's so wonderful it's like I have to use words like "glistening fairy land" and "tickled," there's simply no other way to describe it.
We arrived to Lacoste Friday afternoon and basically just spent the rest of the day getting to know everyone and settling in.
The next morning all 107 (give or take, it's something like that) of us hopped onto some busses and went to the markets of Apt. Booths everywhere with things from hand woven textiles to cheesy postcards, to wacky instruments for sale and fresh baked pastries and tiny cheeses on bread on a silver sample tray, Apt had it all. Most definitely want to go back.
Next on the list was a picnic lunch at the Pont Julien, an old ancient Roman bridge built in 3BC! Sitting with strangers on staggered rocks in the spotty stream we made new friends while eating caprese paninis. No complaints there, obviously.
We met all the professors, made our way back to Lacoste and then had tours of the campus.
The rest of the day was spent doing more orientation type things. It was lots of fun, and got us all very excited about the quarter to come.
The next morning (Sunday) some friends and I, (Ethan, Sophie, Kate, DJ, and Liam) ventured out to Bonnieux, the other hilltop village across the valley. It was something like an 8 mile hike in total, but that's because apparently we went the totally wrong way... classic.
I quite enjoyed it though, and it made the view at the top of the mountain all the more rewarding, and oh man, made dinner taste SO good. We were all so hungry by the time we got back to campus. Lucky for us, the food is super good here!
After dinner, some more friends and I (I have a lot of friends okay, it's fine, I'm cool, I know) went up to The Chateau on top of Lacoste and in addition to that, found an abandoned house ready for rummaging, and the old theater and quarry. SO cool, ruins new and old, both abandoned.
Week one was a dream full of splendid sunsets, snuggly sheep, and sleepy sunrises (last pic is the view from my room at sunrise!!)
I'll be posting about the ongoing fun that has been week two here soon, until then, enjoy my week one vlog! xo, O
