France Pictures!

[Alumette]

Well, I finally got them all arranged, sorta. I am a moron at Photobucket, but after several hours of finagling finally got them uploaded; so if they're rotated funny or whatever you'll just have to deal.

They are also in reverse chronological order from the trip; i.e. the first pictures you'll see are of our return flight to the US. So if you want them in order, the link starts at page 12 (yes, 12). Start in the lower right and go backwards from there.

I put little notes on most of them telling what they are. I took a zillion pictures and most of them will probably be boring unless you're somewhat familiar with France. Since this photobucket page will also be available to my students, I put all the pictures up there so they could choose any they wanted copies of. So I apologize for the vast, repetitive numbers of many photos.

No, I am not in any of them. I was behind the camera the whole time. But now I have a digital camera, so I can post a new picture or two of me if you're curious.

Our trip was two weeks long, and included a few days in Paris, a week touring south to the region of Provence which is my favorite part of France and is incidentally where my character Alumette is from. After our week in Provence, we went back to Paris for a week, where my students stayed with French families and I had a chance to explore the city to find new classroom materials, improve my French, visit museums, etc.

I traveled with nine students, all in French III or higher. They are all really motivated students and I was so proud of how they approached this trip. It was really cool as a teacher to see them using their French in authentic environments, learning teamwork, growing as people, taking risks, and learning so many of the "intangibles" that they could never get in the classroom. As a teacher, that was absolutely exhilerating to observe and I can't describe what a meaningful, awesome thing it was. They made me so proud.

While in Provence, we visited

Avignon
An atelier de santons
Cassis
Arles
Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
in the Camargue
The Pont du Gard
Les Baux
Nice
Monaco
Aix-en-Provence
St. Paul de Vence, and
Eze with its lovely perfume factory and an artisanal distillery which I will definitely be visiting again...

As a highlight, we also completely by accident visited the small town of Biot, which I had never visited before, but after some internet research when coming up with Alumette's background, chose for her birthplace. I was originally going to ask our tour guide to point it out to me if we happened to drive past it, but before I could ask her, she said to me, "We have some extra time tomorrow afternoon, and there's a delightful little town nearby called Biot. Would you like to squeeze it in to our itinerary?" It was quite serendipitous, and actually ended up being one of the highlights of the trip, for me and the kids (no, none of them know anything about my CoH life). I felt very geeky, but it was very cool. They have a significant glassblowing trade there, so I got a few photos of the glassblowers at work in their workshop.

I think that about covers it. Oh. While my kids were with their French families, I took a side trip to Giverny which is between Paris and Normandy, and is where Monet's home and beautiful gardens are located. I also visited quite a few cafes to watch the World Cup games and hang with the locals.

All in all, it was a good, but exhausting, trip. I'm glad to be back.

Enjoy!

[Meltman]

Very nice! (Well, except for the 4 or 5 airport ones.) I especially liked the Roman Ampitheatre ones. What does the plaque say that's in a few of the shots?

[Alumette]

Hee! Thank you! I took the airport ones for my kids, mostly. Oh man I forgot to explain the Roman cemetery photos...

I took a billion pictures of this, I have no idea why. But it was soooo cool being there! One of the cooler parts of the trip. The photos don't do it justice. It's right outside of Arles, and it's called Alyscamps. It's a Roman cemetery/necropolis that easily predates the 5th century AD. It was absolutely amazing.

As to the plaque, I assume you mean this. I took a picture of it because it's not written in French, but in Provencal, which is a dialect of a separate language (no, not a dialect of French, but a dialect of a distinct language). The actual name for the language is Occitan. It's not spoken much there anymore, but occasionally you will get old-timers speaking it and there has been a revival of interest in recent years. I took the picture because I want to use it in my classroom to explain to my students about the linguistic diversity of France. Also, since Provence is my favorite region we spend a lot of time studying it and reading literature from the region, which often incorporates a lot of Occitan references. So I took a picture of the plaques as examples of what those languages look like.

I'm not a Provencal scholar, but with my linguistics background I can give you a loose translation:

The Pope John XXIII, formerly(?) Monsignor Roncally, and who was named an apostle (or name for some other position in the church?), came to this sacred place the 25th of May (some year... don't know Roman numerals...but I think it's 19_8... not sure what L is...), for the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the holy relic

I'm not a church scholar either, so the exact details might be a little rusty. Best I can do. Hope that helps.

[Kinetix]

Was fun looking through those Al. I went to a few of those places on my trip. You don't like the Eiffel Tower I take it?

[Dr Jack Wolfe]

Well neat, and education all with the Wikepedia reference. I like the stuff you attempted with the flowers in the garden, the close ups were neat. I kids looked excited and like they had a good time, but damn they looked young.

No food pictures I'm would have hear where, what and how you ate.

[Alumette]

Originally Posted by Dr Jack Wolfe

No food pictures I'm would have hear where, what and how you ate.

That's a whole separate thread in and of itself! I can still taste the mussels I had in Cassis... mmmm!

I'll put up a food thread tomorrow.

Sorry this got so long. I took a ton of pictures and just threw them all up there. If this were just for you guys I would have picked maybe 20 or so; but my kids are going to want to pick from these too so I just put em all up there.

[Kinetix]

You have to post pictures of yourself!

That Roman cemetary is damn cool! I love how ancient it is.

They have a million pharmacies with that same neon cross-sign don't they? What's with that?

Was that one guy out of place sometimes?


http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...6/PICT0211.jpg
haha, look at that kid in the back. "Who is that babe?"

I'm glad you had fun and I can't wait to go back to Europe now.

[Astartus]

Great pictures, both historical and architectural (and personal )

But I agree with Jack, no food pictures? OR more personal pictures? There are alot of buildings etc. But I guess the more personal pictures will come from your students.

What gorgeous students you have

[Chain Lightning]

Very cool pictures Alumette. Yes, Biot is beautiful. It must have been just total mind blowing geek heaven to have gone there. So was this one Alumette's birth home?

Home

And no pics of yourself, what was the other chaperone partying too much. Looks like she was since she's loving up on all the hot men you two found.

Did you all go into the Louvre? If so, no pics? Are you not allowed to take pics there? Yeah and I noticed you call it the Awful tower also. Let me guess, nice enough to look at, but the most popular tourist spot so crowded, loud and surrounded by tons of overpriced tourtist trap shops and stores.

[Yin]

Very nice.

You have nice 1337 photography skillz. I enjoyed the landscape/scenery photos. Some of the those flowers are real pretty. It looks like it was fun.