au revoir, aix

today is my last day in aix.. i kind of can't believe it! time went slow and fast at the same time. aix is a beautiful city, and i'll miss things about france a lot (although, not the internet connections.. well, electronics in general.. and the post office. and rude strangers). i finished packing the rest of my things today, and i'm surprised at how much heavier my bags are. i guess little satchels of lavender and euro boots really add to the weight.

flickr isn't working or i'd upload photos from my last couple of weeks here. i've been neglecting the blog lately, so here's a synopsis:

a few weekends ago i went to paris again, this time with my art history class to see the museums. i went a day early so i can wander around paris. i finally did the catacomb tour (alone.. eek!), which was super interesting but very creepy. then over the next two days, i went to the louvre, le musee d'orsay and the orangerie (where monet's huge water lily paintings are!) with my class.

the following weekend, clint and i met in biarritz, a town on the west coast of france in good old basque country. biarritz is the suring capital of europe. unfortunately, it was rainy and cold so we didn't get to go to the beach. but it was fun anyway. =)

this week my art school hosted a end-of-the-year/going-away party. they displayed our best works, and everyone from school came to look at the art and drink wine. it was nice. and then on thursday, madame took stacy and i in a very tiny airplane that her friend flies. we flew over the gorges du verdon-- very pretty mountains and rivers. we spent the rest of the day in a super, super small town in the mountains where there were a ton of donkeys. weird.

tonight we're going to have a special dinner (which, if i understood correctly, is going to mostly be dessert items). madame is also giving cooking lessons tonight.. yum! i can't wait to bring her recipes home.

and that's it for la france! tomorrow i'm taking an early train to bilbao, where clint and i will be hanging out for another week before returning to the US and A. overall, i'm really glad i came to aix: i learned a lot of french, i painted mount saint victoire (comme cezanne) and i ate pizza almost everyday.