The Summer of a Lifetime

Monday, June 27, 2011

June 27, 2011

Today was a beautiful sunny day, the perfect day to officially start Lacoste 2011 summer quarter! After another delicious breakfast at 8 am, I trekked down the hill to my first class in Lacoste, Treasures of Provence. This art history class focuses on art of this region, which is Provence. The most exciting part was when I learned that for one of our field trips, our class will be going to visit the crypt of Saint Anne, the mother of the virgin Mary.

The second best part of the day was lunch. Did I mention the SCAD Lacoste chef use to be a pastry chef? Well, he was, and he is EXTREMELY talented. I had the chance to preview the menu for the entire week, and tomorrow’s dessert for lunch is tiramisu and for dinner is crème brulee. I might possibly only eat dessert tomorrow because I have a really strong feeling they are going to be incredible.

My second class was Introduction to Printmaking. We just spent the 3-hour class period going over techniques and getting adjusted to the studio equipment. After standing for 3 hours, I was nearly dead. So to pep myself up I went on a hike with a few friends. We trekked down a dirt road and ended up at an abandoned house that had a beautiful garden. I took so many pictures of the flowers, vegetables, and vegetation. I always find nature so inspiring. The details of the leaves, the bugs that take a break on the flower petals, and the colors of the plants just fuel an explosion of creativity for me. After about another 30-minute journey we ended up at a vineyard that looked too beautiful to be real. I really needed the hour and a half walk to wake me up and get me going again. I spent some time watching the sun set at a local café with some friends where we had girl talk at its finest. It was the perfect ending to my first day of classes.

~Peace & Cupcakes~

Sights from our evening walk

Little snail hiding in the flower

Vegetable garden!

My fabulous hat!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Bonnieux, baby!

Wow! What a day. Now I know what everyone’s talking about when they say France is a magical place! My day started out with a tour of Lacoste given by our wonderful Student Success Coordinator, Eleanor, who happens to be a graduate of Ole Miss AND SCAD. That’s my kind of girl. We got to see all of the SCAD owned buildings, learned where our classes will be held, and were shown some neat places to hang out around town. I also learned that 99.99% of all student accidents (i.e. broken legs, bleeding heads) are a result of too much wine. So, if anything bad like that happens to me, I’ll know I’m in that extremely unlucky .01%.

After the tour and an amazing brunch of homemade chocolate chip granola, that I will most definitely be having every time it is served, a few close friends and I ventured up to the Marqui de Sode. We spent a long time up there acting like the typical loud and crazy American tourist that the French despise. I mean, since they already hated us from the beginning, we figured we might as well have fun and be loud!

The highlight of my day was walking to our neighboring town, Bonnieux. If you are looking out onto the valley from Lacoste, Bonnieux can be seen directly across from the town. It looks like it is magically placed on the side of a mountain. It took us about two hours to walk over there, because we just had to stop at every interesting point along the way and explore! We were so excited when we reached the town though. After we walked to Bonnieux, explored it from top to bottom, and walked back to Lacoste, it equaled about an 8-mile journey. But I would absolutely do it every weekend! The highlights of the town were two churches. The locals explained to us that there was the “old church” and the “new church.” The new church is at the bottom of the town while the old church can be seen at the very tip-top of Bonnieux. After we explored the new church, one local said the new church really wasn’t really very old… it was built in 1870. Seems pretty old to this American! The old church was breathtaking, but I never found a sign saying how old it was. I can’t explain in words how much I loved Bonnieux. Now that is a place I could see myself spending the rest of my life in.

C'est tout pour maintenant!

~Peace & Cupcakes~