On Thursday, we had class like usual. Everyone had lunch on their own.

In the afternoon, a group of us went to the home of one of our host families, where “host mom” Hélène taught us how to make chocolate mousse and crepes. Yum!

Everyone got to help with the preparation…

And of course we enjoyed the final products!

Friday, we had our first excursion: Aix-en-Provence!

I’m having some internet connectivity issues, so it’s taking a while to upload photos for today’s update.

Please enjoy this musical interlude. It’s a video of The Gipsy Kings, a band whose music I adore. Since they often perform in Spanish, I didn’t learn until very recently that they were from Arles! In this video, they perform in the Roman arena here in Arles for their 25th anniversary concert. They have another concert in Arles at the end of June, on the day after I leave!

Today was the first day of class! These classes are usually a semester long, and we only have four weeks in Arles, so class days are pretty intense.

We had a language lunch today, and my group went to le Café Georges. We had delicious couscous with vegetables and meatballs.

For dessert, we had a “thé gourmand.” A thé gourmand or a (“café gourmand,” if it’s with coffee) is tea served with small portions of desserts. Here, we had mint tea with fruit and a tarte tropezienne.

After class, we had a tour around Arles, led by our marvelous guide, Jacqueline. Here, she talks about the Roman theater, which was built in the 1st century BCE.

The most iconic feature of Arlesian antiquity is the Roman arena, built in the 1st century CE. For centuries between the fall of the Roman Empire and when the community started restoring its Roman ruins, residents re-purposed the space and built houses inside the arena. Here, you can see walls of some of these houses on the upper level.

We walked through the Jardin d’Été, next to the Théâtre Antique (Roman theater). Vincent Van Gogh frequented this garden and painted it. Here is one of several easels that are found around Arles, marking locations that are featured in his paintings.

Jacqueline showed us where the medieval ramparts were built as reinforcements for the pre-existing Roman ramparts.

We went to the lookout next to the church of Notre Dame de la Major. The view was impressive!

The Hôtel de Ville (city hall) is interesting for having a mostly flat vaulted stone ceiling, which the architect managed to build without the typical large arches.

Our guide told us about the carvings on the front of the Church of St. Trophime, which tell the story of the Last Judgment.

Arles is a beautiful little city with many narrow cobblestone streets.

Allow me to introduce Aileen Evans, an intern at Arles à la Carte this summer! She is working on her Master’s at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and she previously lived in Arles for two years. She even did study abroad in Senegal! Aileen is a great resource for the students (and for me!) and an all-around super cool person.

We finished orientation today, including the health and safety presentation and an introduction to the excursions. Here, Julie tells the students about some of the interesting things we’ll see in Arles.

One famous Arlesian she discussed was fashion designer Christian Lacroix. Julie explained that Lacroix uses the five colors of Provence in his designs: blue for lavender (we all thought lavender was purple), black for bulls, yellow for sunflowers, red for poppies, and green for cypress trees.

Today, we had the first of our Language Lunches, where we split into smaller groups to chat over lunch in different restaurants around town. My group ate at Le Tambourin, which is owned by a former bullfighter named Charlie. We had Provencal salad and a chocolate and banana cake for dessert.

Some of Charlie’s bullfighting paraphernalia is on display in the restaurant, including the head of an actual bull!

After lunch, we had a visitor named Cyrille who taught us a bunch of board games as an icebreaker activity.

Dobble was a big hit because it was also a good vocabulary practice.

I thought this one was particularly clever. It’s called “Riff Raff,” and it’s a balancing game with a pirate ship.

Classes start tomorrow!

I’m having some internet connectivity issues that are affecting the photo upload. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get the next round of updates!

One of the first things we teach the students is how to open and close all the necessary doors. Since many of the buildings are very old, including the one where we have class, the doors often have multiple locks or complicated locks. You have to unlock and re-lock the door every time you open it, whether coming or going. It is important to pay close attention to the instructions: “Push this, then turn that, then pull here…”

Students may notice that some of the doors in France are very, very tall, like the size of a garage door. Many of them were built that size to accommodate a horse, or even a horse and rider!

Today was the first day of orientation! Here, Katie begins the morning’s presentation.

Afterwards, the students had lunch on their own. Here, a group relaxes at a nearby cafe in a hotel called Le Calendal, where there is a beautiful garden. We overheard the students speaking from among each other, which is wonderful! Bravo!

Look that this size of this palm leaf! We’re definitely in a Mediterranean climate here.

After lunch, we split up into groups for tours of the city. Seen here, a group in front of the Rhone River.

After a few hours of free time, we had the welcome dinner at a restaurant called Cuisine du Comptoir.

The main course is something called a “tartine,” which is a piece of bread cut into pieces with different toppings. Katie and I split ours so that we could each try two kinds. I particularly loved the salmon one!

The meal included dessert, and even Julie (who doesn’t normally eat dessert) couldn’t pass up the chocolate cake!

More orientation tomorrow!

All but one of our students arrived today! They were tired, and seemed a little shocked by the FRENCH ONLY expectation, but they were good sports about it.

Here, Katie explains the importance of properly closing the doors to protect the art gallery downstairs. The space where we have the office and classrooms is part of a house built before the Enlightenment, and many of the fixtures (including the doors) are centuries old!

Then the students met their host families! Everyone was excited about this part, students and families alike!

First, let me introduce you to Katie Thornton. She is the director of Arles à la Carte (the program that is hosting us) and she is just fabulous.

I’ve started exploring Arles, which is a beautiful, interesting city. If you pay close attention, there are arrows on the ground that point you to different places of interest. Here, you can see an arrow pointing the way to a place that figured in Vincent Van Gogh’s life and painting, and another arrow pointing toward a site of historical importance from antiquity (it looks a lot like the block I from the UIUC logo, doesn’t it?).

Every Saturday morning, on the two main boulevards, there is a huge open-air market where you can buy just about anything you need (including fabric and mattresses, seen on the left!). It’s also just fun to look around.

I just arrived in Arles this afternoon. The process of getting from the Marseille airport to the Arles train station (where one of us will meet you) can look a little complicated, so I took pictures of every step for you.

First, if you arrive in Hall 1, when you come out of the baggage claim area, you’ll see signs like this:

These are confusing, because the navette (shuttle) pick-up is indeed on the left, but it is on the opposite side of the airport from where you need to buy the shuttle/train tickets. Instead of going left, as one might assume, you instead have to exit the building and turn right.

Walk toward Halls 3-4, past the buses and taxis.

You will arrive at this little building. It has machines in it that ONLY accept bank cards with microchips. You’ll have to walk around to the window and purchase your train ticket from an actual person, sliding your card (or cash) under the window. Since there are a few train stations in Marseille to choose from, be sure to ask for a ticket from the Vitrolles station to Arles. I asked them today, and they assured me that there would be people at the ticket window when students arrive on Sunday. Your train ticket (a little over 12 Euros) also works as your pass for the navette. The ticket works for any train on that line going between those two stations, so don’t panic about needing to reserve a seat on a specific train. They run every half hour during the day. The SNCF (train) agent printed out a list of departure and arrival times for me.

Then, turn around and walk back toward Hall 1. Across the street from one of the Hall 1 exits is this little bus shelter. It says “Navette Gare” on it, and again make sure that you go to the Vitrolles one. This is where the shuttle bus will pick you up. There is a display screen that tells you how long the wait is.

Typically, train lines are named based on their final destination. When you arrive at the Vitrolles train station, you might notice that there are two train lines that go Avignon. Careful: only one of these lines goes to Arles! Go up the first set of stairs labelled “Avignon-Montpellier.” (Remember how I told you to pack light? 😉 )

To verify that you’re in the right place, when you get to the platform, check the display screens and make sure that you see “Arles” listed as one of the stops.

Once you’re on the train, pay close attention to the announcements. When you hear “Prochain arrêt : Arles,” get ready to disembark. If you miss your stop, you’ll end up in Avignon and will have to buy another ticket to come back.

See you all on Sunday!