Protesting Frogs and Medieval Cities

One thing I have learned about France is that they will happily protest anything and everything. Everything from full on city wide marches to creative hippies hiking mountains. It seems that no matter which French city I venture to on any given day there is always some group wielding their signs and yelling into their loud speakers. Sometimes they are more refined about it and today's protest outside my school featured opera music which was quite enjoyable during class.

Lundi...

Mardi...

Mecredi...

2 weekends ago I went hiking with my French host family. We headed up to a nearby mountain (Mount Pic St. Loup) and did a 3 hour hike (up and down) with beautiful views of the nearby cities, the Mediterranean sea and most importantly the surrounding wineries.

One of the things I love about France. Everywhere you look there are ancient ruins of something. 

Happy hiking family

Wineries, wineries and more wineries :)

And if you thought we had escaped the protesting for the day... Wrong... we found we were in the midst of a well organized but utterly bizarre spectacle. I have no idea what the point was, and neither did my french family so it wasnt the language barrier, but the general gist was a bunch of french hippies (braless...razorless...hippies) dressed all in black and carrying a basket on their back with some part of the face on it (eyes, ears, mouth etc.). Je ne sais pas? but I do know it had to be bloody hot for them and it was an interesting experience scaling the mountain  behind an eye and in front of an ear. At the top they de-basketed and used a microphone to say the different words that were on the front of the their shirts. Just really weird all around.

They're watching you...

But hippies or no hippies the views from the top were spectacular.

There were a couple of gliders circling the top of the mountain

This last Saturday I went on an excursion with my school. We were supposed to go to Avignon to see the Palace of the Popes and the Pont du Gard but surprise, surprise, it rained really hard and Avignon flooded. At the last minute the guide decided to take us to Carcassone instead. This was actually an awesome turn of events as I had really wanted to go to Carcassone ever since a co worker showed me pictures.

We stopped at Narbonne first. Which was a beautiful french city, the cleanest and calmest one I have seen so far *minus the protesting but that is par for the course*

We meandered through their museum and church. The Narbonne church featured whitewashed exterior with lots of intricate design. Inside there was a lot of wood work including all the seats and pews and some very beautiful smaller chapel sections.

 

Then we drove further along to Carcossone which is a massive, ancient medieval city. When you walk through the gates you feel like you are entering into a Knight's tale or some other medieval movie.  There are several of these heavily fortified cities in southern france as they were key strong holds during the Crusades. This one is the largest and has been the best restored and maintained - At least I think that's what the guide said (#frenchtourguideproblems).

After something jumped out at Rhaina from behind the wall...

So. Much. Candy.

 We also went for a traditional Occitane meal, which basically means I try a bunch of food and make faces and end up eating lots of bread. Actually, the Casselot was really good (beans, sausage and duck) and the dessert, an apple tarte, was fantastic. Could have done with out the mystery meat innards on my salad though.

And I finish with my pet peeve of the week. Why do you buy a fancy DSLR camera ( or somethinhg along those lines..  I don't pretend to be a camera expert) that is I'm sure very expensive because it takes really nice photos... and then use it to take selfies. Seriously?