The first 4 weeks of pure fun and adventure have come and gone and I am finally getting my long awaited blog up. My excitement is dimmed only by the fact that I have to recall from memory what happened in the beginning. I regret not writing sooner. Ach! Such is the life of a procrastinator.
In this post I will try to cover the flight across the Atlantic, the first day, and all the other days. For the sake of your eyes and my typing fingers, this post will be super condensed and rather lacking of details. Future posts (which I promise to be diligent in updating at least once a week) will delve deeper into specific topics and other areas of interest.
Hope you enjoy!
The flight and first day: I had the privelege of traveling with one of the nicest and most intelligent men that I know, Paul Bertsch. For those of you that do not know who he is, let me introduce you. Dr. Bertsch is past president of the Soil Society of America, current Chair of the U.S. National Committee for Soil Science (National Academy of Sciences), Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, and Director of the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment. The most awesome thing is that we can find him in the heart of central Kentucky, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Kentucky!
While I am on the topic of introductions, let me introduce to you two other very important people, Armand and Chelle Masion. Armand is a research scientist over here in France and I met him last year after a presentation that he gave back in KY. Chelle, his wife, I met once I arrived in France. She is one awesome woman! Chelle and Armand met in the U.S. when Armand was doing his post-doctoral research in Paul's lab. It was either a chemical reaction that took place between them, or love. Either way, they got married and Chelle moved to live in France with Armand. If I am not mistaken, she has been here for 13 years.
Anyway, the flight across the Atlantic was okay, but very tiring. They played 3 movies on the airplane: Leap Year, Crazy Heart, and Bride Wars. I was planning on watching only one and trying to catch some sleep the rest of the way, but that never happened. I ended up watching all 3 movies and by the time they were finished, we were almost to France. Even though the excitement of going to France for the first time in my life was huge, I was beginning to feel tired when we were nearing Paris. We arrived at the Charles-de-Gaulle airport at 6:10am local time. That was 12:10am our time. After running across the ariport in a frantic and anxious rush we reached a 300 person line in which we were told to wait in. We didn't think we would make it onto our next flight, as it departed in like half an hour. Then, miracle of miracles, they let us and some others go through some back security entrance, by-passing the massive line. At the security entrance, my bag got searched and Paul got thoroughly patted down. My carry-on deserved to be searched because I had liquids in it, but Paul had absolutely nothing and he got the ultimate pat-down. It was pretty funny!
We made it onto the plane and flew into the airport in Marseille, where Armand picked us up and drove us to CEREGE. CEREGE stands for Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement des Géosciences de l’Environnement and is a branch of the Universite de Aix-Marseille. CEREGE is a research facility where Armand is stationed and where I have been assigned to work. It is a gorgeous campus about 20 minutes outside of the city of Aix, surrounded by trees and mountains (although here they are only called hills because compared to the Alpes in the northeast, they aren't mountains at all).
Around noon, Chelle joined us and we went out to a really nice restaurant called Auberge Bourrelly. This was my very first time at a real french restaurant and I am sad to say that all I remember was that I had a dish called Dos de daurade royale roti sur sa fondue de fenouil, petit jus aux aromates et tomates confites and that I was trying so incredibly hard to stay awake. My eyelids felt like a thousand tons. The dish, however, was a really, really good tomato and fennel sauce stuffed fish. The french have this way of presenting and serving food with such incredible airs that it tastes one hundred times better than you can ever imagine.
After lunch Armand, Chelle, and Paul drove me to my Aparthotel in Aix-en-Provence, where I checked in. The four of us did a thorough examination of the apartment that I will be staying in to make sure that it was equipped with all things necessary. It was, plus some. The balcony had a gorgeous view of Montagne St. Victoire, a mountain inextricably linked to the famous french artist, Paul Cezanne.* I was invited to wine and dine with the three of them later that evening, but as the only thing that I wanted at that time was sleep, I declined the invitation. After they left, I set myself upon the task of unpacking and putting things more or less away. Then, sweet sweet sleep.
*[Note: The famous french post-impressionist artist, Paul Cezanne, was born in Aix-en-Provence. When he was a schoolboy, he used to go on walks on the mountain. The wild landscapes, rugged villages, and the motley collection of colors were what captivated and so obsessed Cezanne, appearing in over 60 of his canvas works and countless watercolors. The spanish artist, Pablo Picasso, bought an estate (called Chateau de Vauvenarges) on the northern flanks of this mountain, saying that he had bought himself Cezanne's mountains. Picasso is buried at the foot of this mountain, while Cezanne rests in peace in the local Saint-Pierre Cemetery. ]
All of the other days: On Thursday Armand and Paul departed for Il de Porquerolles, (an island in the Hyeres Gulf) for a nanotechnology conference, while I used this time to get acclimated to Aix. As I had not the slightest idea of which way to go from my Aparthotel, Chelle became my saving grace. She came by bus, picked me up, and showed me how to get to centre ville (center of the city of Aix-en-Provence). This was my first time using mass transit in France and let me tell you, I've had some adventures since then! More on those in a later post.
You know you are in Aix if your bus stops in front of the bus stop called Rotonde and you see a huge fountain in the middle of a round-about. You also know you are in Aix if you see waves of people flowing towards a promenade called le cours Mirabeau. These are the two things that absolutely everyone in Aix is familiar with: an enormous fountain called La Rotonde, and the previously mentioned plane-tree lined street called le cours Mirabeau. The fountain is an elaborate 19th centurty marble fountain that has lions at its base and three figures of Justice, Agriculture and Fine Art on the top. La Rotonde is at the center and all of the streets "flow" in all directions away from it; Analogous to the rays beaming from the Sun. One of these streets is le cours Mirabeau lined gracefully with elaborate mansions (built by the local nobility of the 1600's) and buzzing with small bistros, cafes and shops. The very epicenter of Aix's cafe society.
That first day I walked around the city in a daze, gulping down the sights and smells and sounds ravenously. If it wasn't for Chelle with her head on her shoulders, I think that I would have stood there open-mouthed and stared all day. The place is just so.... alive. So much to hear, so much to see all at once. However, I did manage to buy my first groceries, attain a monthly bus pass and a french sim card for my phone. But that was only because Chelle was there. If it weren't for her, I do believe that it would have taken me a while to recollect my senses.
The following 3 days I spent exploring the city and going to les marches, the open-air markets. There are three of them: at the first market, vendors at stalls sell fresh fruits, veggies, cheeses, fish, fish, fish, bread, etc. At the second market, the vendors specialize in selling strictly flowers and little trees. Then there is a third which I call the "everything" market because here you can buy everything imaginable underneath the sun. You want a bracelot? We've got hundreds! A chicken or two? We've got a whole cage of live ones! Some provencal olives? Here's a baguette to go with them and don't forget the cheese! Going to these markets on Saturday mornings is exactly what I do.
On Tuesday, I started my research assignment. Since then, my weekdays have been filled with the nanotechnology project in the lab. Saturdays consist of a multitude of various things such as: exploration of Aix-en-Provence, rummaging through les marches, scouting out new patisseries (this one results in extra long pilates sessions and longer jogging routes later on), sightseeing, browsing french shops and stores, or simply thumbing through the dusty books in la librarie (bookstore, not a library). Sundays are spent mostly in solitude: planning out a schedule for the following week, reflection, meditation, etc, etc.
There is was, all in a nutshell. This post is long enough (if you have even bothered to read thus far) and I shall conclude here with a handful of pictures:
This is my first picture of France; The Genesis, as I like to call it.
This is the veiw from my balcony, Montagne St. Victoire.
La Rotonde fountain.
This is a picture of me that I asked an old man to take, who sat down on a bench next to me while I was drinking my Haagen-dazz fraise et banana smoothie. I asked him to take a picture of me and showed him which button to press, but he kept pressing the off button so I couldn't figure out why there were no pictures, then I finally saw the lense close every time that he tried to take a picture. SO, I had to show him the right button and he finally got a picture of me. I am standing on le Cours Mirabeau. While this was going on, there was an ambulance (or maybe a fire hydrant) that was rescuing another old man that was sitting on a bench across le cours mirabeu (the street) who apparently wasn't feeling too well. It was funny because the truck said Pompiers, firemen, but they carted out a wheel chair and took this man to the hospital. I was a bit confused but later I asked somebody and they explained to me that it's a 2-in-1 deal where the firemen are also les safeurs, savers (like lifesavers). This is completely different from l'ambulance, which functions only to transport sick persons to clinics and doctors, and does not partake in the transport of extremely ill or emergency patients.
This is France's all new two-in-one Firetruck & Lifesavers, at your service! This is the Pompiers-Safeurs truck that took in the old man who wasn't feeling so well, as I mentioned earlier.
This is a vegetable vendor at la marche on a Saturday morning. That's all organic.
This is une Madame carefully picking out her flowers at the flower market. That is all for now. Stay tuned for my next post, as it will be on the topic of my research.
With tired typing fingers and heavy eyelids, Au revoir.
Oksana
