Today we spent the day climbing Mt. Saint Victoire!
Before I talk about our adventures on Saint Victoire, a recap of the week: This week was spent calmly going regularly to classes, eating delicious French pastries as per usual, and enjoying the South of France. But something exciting!! - I bought tickets for our October Toussaint break! I will be headed to Madrid and Marrakech with Becky, Emma, and Evan! I have never been to Spain before, so I'm very excited for Madrid. As for Marrakech - I never thought I would be going back to Morocco so soon! You can read about my summer in Morocco here. Though I never made it to Marrakech this summer, so I'm excited to go there, this time with my friends. Should be a wonderful experience!
So. Saint Victoire. My day began at 6:30am, because we had to meet at the gare routière at 8am for the bus. On the way to the station, we stopped by Paul's to buy sandwiches for lunch. We arrive at the station nice and early - 7:40am, and no one else was there. We didn't think anything of it until 7:55am - still no one....turns out the station is NOT the same thing as the gare routière!! The gare routière was another 5-7 minutes away! Luckily, the group waited for us.
The bus took our whole group, and a few other passengers and we set off for Saint Victoire. The bus ride was only 10 minutes. We arrive at this desolate bus stop, in the middle of no where, no mountain in sight, and we get off. Driver and passengers alike gave us the strangest look, one that said "This is definitely not where you want to get off for Saint Victoire". But we stuck by the instructions given to us by our guide, M. Baury, and we get off and wait. But after 10 minutes of standing there, we began to worry. We considered hiking by ourselves, walking 45 minutes back to Aix, staying there stranded, and many other terrible ideas. We were just minutes away from reenacting scenes from Lord of the Flies - Wellesley edition, when M. Baury finally shows up!
So begins our hike! The route up the mountain was full of small pebbly rocks and sliding stones. A dangerous hike! The worst was when we thought M. Baury told us there would be a place to refill our water bottles at the top of the mountain. Everyone started chugging down their water, believing we'd soon be replenished. One person even began to "water the plants on the ground." But upon arrival at the Prieuré, there was no such thing....we're still not sure if M. Baury had been joking, or if all 15 of us misunderstood his French. If he was joking, we have learnt that humor does not translate across languages.
Anyway, it took us almost 3 hours to get to the top of the mountain - Le Prieuré - where we sat down for a nice picnic lunch. And the view sure was breath-taking! The descent was equally challenging. The rocks kept gliding, and more than one of us slid on the rocks - even on flat land. But we made it down around 4pm! A long, but rewarding day! The weather was perfect today, and the water was an unimaginable turquoise.
Tonight we celebrate 4 of our dear program-mates' birthdays! And tomorrow we head out to the vineyards to gather grapes and olives. A lovely weekend, and a wonderful week to come! :)
Sending love, xoxo
Before I talk about our adventures on Saint Victoire, a recap of the week: This week was spent calmly going regularly to classes, eating delicious French pastries as per usual, and enjoying the South of France. But something exciting!! - I bought tickets for our October Toussaint break! I will be headed to Madrid and Marrakech with Becky, Emma, and Evan! I have never been to Spain before, so I'm very excited for Madrid. As for Marrakech - I never thought I would be going back to Morocco so soon! You can read about my summer in Morocco here. Though I never made it to Marrakech this summer, so I'm excited to go there, this time with my friends. Should be a wonderful experience!
So. Saint Victoire. My day began at 6:30am, because we had to meet at the gare routière at 8am for the bus. On the way to the station, we stopped by Paul's to buy sandwiches for lunch. We arrive at the station nice and early - 7:40am, and no one else was there. We didn't think anything of it until 7:55am - still no one....turns out the station is NOT the same thing as the gare routière!! The gare routière was another 5-7 minutes away! Luckily, the group waited for us.
The bus took our whole group, and a few other passengers and we set off for Saint Victoire. The bus ride was only 10 minutes. We arrive at this desolate bus stop, in the middle of no where, no mountain in sight, and we get off. Driver and passengers alike gave us the strangest look, one that said "This is definitely not where you want to get off for Saint Victoire". But we stuck by the instructions given to us by our guide, M. Baury, and we get off and wait. But after 10 minutes of standing there, we began to worry. We considered hiking by ourselves, walking 45 minutes back to Aix, staying there stranded, and many other terrible ideas. We were just minutes away from reenacting scenes from Lord of the Flies - Wellesley edition, when M. Baury finally shows up!
So begins our hike! The route up the mountain was full of small pebbly rocks and sliding stones. A dangerous hike! The worst was when we thought M. Baury told us there would be a place to refill our water bottles at the top of the mountain. Everyone started chugging down their water, believing we'd soon be replenished. One person even began to "water the plants on the ground." But upon arrival at the Prieuré, there was no such thing....we're still not sure if M. Baury had been joking, or if all 15 of us misunderstood his French. If he was joking, we have learnt that humor does not translate across languages.
Anyway, it took us almost 3 hours to get to the top of the mountain - Le Prieuré - where we sat down for a nice picnic lunch. And the view sure was breath-taking! The descent was equally challenging. The rocks kept gliding, and more than one of us slid on the rocks - even on flat land. But we made it down around 4pm! A long, but rewarding day! The weather was perfect today, and the water was an unimaginable turquoise.
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| Mt. Saint Victoire |
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| It's hard to believe that we climbed all the way to the top! |
Tonight we celebrate 4 of our dear program-mates' birthdays! And tomorrow we head out to the vineyards to gather grapes and olives. A lovely weekend, and a wonderful week to come! :)
Sending love, xoxo
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