le luberon

last weekend was the last excursion trip through my school. we went to three "villes perchés," or perched villages, in the luberon mountains: lamousin, gorde and roussillon.

we got to lamousin pretty early in the day, so most of the stores were closed and the city was still really quiet. i walked around a bit, saw a million cats and got a tea at a cafe.

gorde was a lot more lively. we bought lunch for a picnic (a baguette and goat cheese) and sat on the edge of town overlooking a huge valley full of farms. the view was awesome and the weather was perfect!

finally, we went to roussillon in the afternoon. this was my favorite stop. while the buildings in the other two cities were made of your typical grey stone, roussillon's buildings are shades of bright red, orange, yellow and pink. they're made from a clay specifically quarried from this town. the quarry is no longer in use, so we got to go inside of it. it looked just like a miniature french grand canyon. the walls have vibrant pink, red and orange swirls. (they looked like fruit roll-ups to me)

after the quarry, i walked around the town and took a lot of pictures-- you can see from them that the colors in the quarry are the same as in the building facades. i also had a lot of ice cream.

i realize i haven't talked about my classes at all. they're okay. we finally started "going out into the landscape" for my painting class. everyday we grab our US army -issue backpacks full of painting supplies and climb onto a super small bus to go to mount saint victoire. painting landscapes outside is much more enjoyable to me than portraits or copies. i also discovered watercolor paints, which i love! tomorrow i plan to wander around aix and watercolor the city.

i only have one month left in france. time has gone by really quickly here, although i'm kind of homesick and will be happy to come home. i'm trying to book the remaining three weekends with trips around france: this weekend i'll be in paris, next weekend i might go to lyon, and the final weekend i'm going to carcassonne (a medieval city) and the toulouse lautrec museum in nearby albi.

also, due to the icelandic volcano and the french train workers' strike, traveling has been a disaster. A has been stuck in london waiting for the skies to clear.

right now i'm in paris for the weekend for my art history class. on saturday and sunday we'll be going to the louvre and the musee d'orsay. but, i came up early to hang out in paris! my hostel is super nice and is right next to le sacré couer basilica, which i climbed up to today (many, many stairs). the cathedral is at the highest point in paris-- the view of the entire city was incredible.


quarry in roussillon


colorful houses in roussillon


quarry