Shutterfly

After much delay, here is the shutterfly site that I have been putting pictures on.  Enjoy!

http://nathanrutz.shutterfly.com/

A trip to Orange

I must apologize for the delay in updating this blog. The internet was not free in Avignon so I figured I’d just delay updates until we got to Tours.  Alas, the time has come to play catch up.

Our second day in Avignon was spent looking at the Roman Theatre and Triumphal Arch in Orange.  The Triumphal Arch was a bit of a hike from the train station but well worth it.  The arch was massive and incredible to see.  For those of you reading this who do not have a great extent of experience with triumphal arches, they were basically Rome’s way of reminding the citizens that they had conquered the land and all who lived there were subject to Roman will.  It was placed just outside of town on a main road so that every person entering or leaving town would see the arch and understand that they were entering Rome’s territory. 

The arch itself was exquisite.  At the time, it would have been brightly colored with bronze or golden sculptures and would have had statues on the top.  Throughout time, most of that has been worn or vandalized away.  During the Revolution and Napoleon’s reign, much damage was done to the arch and other Roman structures.  For example, Roman troops used the Arch for target practice so you can see damage from the bullets on the arch to this day.  Still, it was not too difficult to get an idea of what the arch would have looked like years ago. 

The top level of the arch featured a battle scene which depicted the Romans, Gauls, and Germanic tribes at war with each other.  Each group was sculpted in its traditional battle attire so they could be easily distinguished.  Immediately to its left, there is a section devoted to representing the sacrifices made to the gods prior to the battle.  On the second level, at each end is a naval scene that typically featured a trident to represent the Roman god, Neptune.  Also included could be a bow of a ship, a mast, and other representations of the sea battles.  Below these scenes were two depictions of the Roman spoils of war.

After the arch, we walked to the Roman theatre that was another decent walk away.  The theatre was absolutely massive and a magnificent sight.  While it was easier to understand what it may have looked like, due to decay, I don’t think I could truly appreciate how it would have looked in its heyday.  The backdrop to the stage has been treated terribly by the years; at one points, after the Romans left, the theatre was turned into a fortified housing complex with hundreds of houses built on several layers.  As a result, the theatre has been irreparably damaged.  Fortunately, the damage has not been too drastic as to hide the theatres beauty.  The backdrop still has the statue of Augustus and a few columns help form an idea of what it would have looked like.  The acoustics were incredible and I hope to someday return for a concert or opera that they still continue to put on there.  It is very difficult to describe the theatre so I hope that the pictures will do a better job.

On that note, I am working on putting pictures of all of our days onto my shutterfly website so look for that link to come soon.

As a whole, these first few days in France have been incredible and we are having a blast.  I will try to get caught up on the blog within a day or so.  Hope this is interesting enough and let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to read more about!

L’arc de triomphe

Naval scene

Tim dwarfed by the arch

Stage at the Roman theatre

View from the top seating of the theatre

Closer view of the statue

Tim

Mentioning Tim and his basketball game made me want to go into a little more detail on his experience that day.   Tim, who spoke no French prior to the trip, spoke to more of the French kids (mostly girls) than anyone else on the trip.  He would have little crowds around him whenever we weren’t moving.  He’s slowly picking up more French but, since the kids all wanted to speak English, he was probably the most popular person there!  I’ve decided to post some basketball action shots since I forgot them in the previous post.  On a side note, I finally had McDonald’s in France so my trip is successful already.  

Our first day...

Bonjour from France!

Needless to say, it has been a rather busy few days.  We left O’hare around 6 P.M. on Tuesday and arrived in Paris around 9 A.M.  After that, it was on the train station for a two and a half hour ride on the TGV and a bus ride to Avignon.  One of the girls on the trip said it took us about 14 hours to get from Chicago to Avignon and I would say it felt more like 24!

The first evening was spent taking a mini-tour of the city.  Tim and I got croque-monsieurs from a local boulangerie or bread shop and our group went on a walking adventure of trying to find the local internet café.   We also caught our first glimpse of the Palais des Papes, the Palace of the Popes.  However, after a long day of travel and very little sleep (I might have slept an hour on the flight), we were both passed out by 8 P.M.

The early end to the day came in handy the next day when we were up and on the roads running shortly after 5 A.M.  The heart of Avignon is encircled by a stone wall that was built by the popes hundreds of years ago.  For our run, we just followed this around for a few times; two for me, four for Tim.  Shortly after returning, cleaning up, and eating an actually very good breakfast, our group headed to a local collège, a French middle school.

The middle school we went to was about a 20 minute bus ride away but well worth the trip.  We all had a blast teaching the children about American culture and life in the States.  The classes knew various levels of English so we would have to speak very slowly and simply and their professors would ask them questions to see what they understood.  We also entertained questions from them.  My favorite was when all of us were caught off guard when a few questions asked if we could show them the dollar trick that shows the Twin Towers after the attack; I was shocked they knew about that (that they found out through the internet was slightly less surprising).  We also had a kid break-dance in one of the classes, which was pretty entertaining. At lunch, we sat with groups of French kids and spoke English or French as they wanted.  My table had one kid who was born in Poland but has been living in France for 10 years.  His English was excellent and he also spoke German, Polish, and, obviously, French.  The other kids, who were little hoodlums and loved to make trouble, including throwing bread into the purses of girls on the trip, would ask the Polish boy to ask me things in English.  I found this entertaining because I understood enough of what they were saying to get the gist of the question before it was asked to me.  They wanted me to play basketball with them but, while we were waiting to go to our next thing, they must have had class.  This didn’t stop Tim from hopping in a game though… Later on, the boy gave me his e-mail so I guess I have my first pen pal?  Another enjoyable part of this day was singing our National Anthem and When the Saints go Marching In with a group of the students.  We then attempted to sing to them Frosty the Snowman but failed miserably as nobody really knew the words.  Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer was a much better choice.  Madame Schillerstrom was talking with a few of the NCC students on the trip about how they have a better appreciation for teaching now since we all had to make the same presentation for each class and hear the same groups present all day long.

After the middle school, we went on a guided tour of the Palais des Papes.  I am not entirely sure how to describe this place as it was the most massive structure I have ever seen.  In fact, Tim and I ran past what we thought was another structure that morning, but was just the backside of the Palais.  This complex was incredible to be inside and consists of two styles; one pope had a more Romanesque style while the pope that replaced him wanted a Gothic style.  The result was two palaces in one, split in the middle into the two styles.  I could not believe the incredible size of a structure at which only twenty or so people actually lived (hundreds came to work there every day and lived nearby).  I probably won’t go into too much detail on this place because trying to describe it will only do it a disservice.  However, I strongly recommend visiting.

That was a fairly busy day that was capped off by a nice pizza, some good wine (even though I do not really like wine, at all), and, to my delight, crème brulée and whiskey.  After that we went to an Irish bar (yes, in the south of France) and had another drink.  Since I had seen Frenchmen order beer at dinner, I no longer felt obligated to drink wine. 

All in all, that was quite the busy first day and we were pretty beat by the end from being on our feet from before sunrise to past sunset.  Internet isn’t free at this hotel so my posts will be relatively infrequent.  Stay tuned for the next edition.

A nice view from the TGV. There wasn't much snow at all in Paris but, for a while on the way to Avignon,  there was quite a lot.

Part of the front of the Palais des Papes. You can sort of get an idea of its size from the size of the entranceway, which is much bigger than a person itself.. 

The lunch at the middle school for the unfortunate souls who do not go home... (I wish we had had that at St. Pete's) 

An interesting statue of an elephant doing a trunk-stand? Needless to say, I do not know what it means. 

A replica of the size of the complex. The previous picture was taken about where the bottom of her folder is. 

And from the inside... 

By far, the best way invented to chase whiskey...