She's electric

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Well it's only been a few days and already I'm struggling to remember everything that I've done! I suppose I'll pick it up again from last Wednesday, the 18th of June - CEA, along with the guidance of our adorable director Vivienne, organized a cherry picking excursion to a farm just 20 minutes outside Aix. However, just before we get to the orchard, we decide to stop by a small paddock where some horses were grazing - seemed harmless enough to offer them a few hunks of bread right? Wrong. Seems like its part of the French sense of humor to erect electric fences and NOT put up a sign to warn people. So somehow, out of the ten or so other people that must have been sticking their hands through the fence, I happen to be the only one to actually make contact with my shoulder and ZAP! feels like someone drop kicked me and I'm thrown back, causing the horse to rear up as well and freak out! In all honesty, it didn't really hurt at all but instead was more like a dull punch!

Anyways, with my guard now permanently up for the rest of the day, we finally reach the cherry orchard where we're met by Valerie ( who spoke excellent English) and her grizzly, pony-tailed hulk of a husband (who didn't speak English quite so well). I'm actually going to skip over the cherry picking because frankly, it was slightly dull and the only excitement was climbing up to the top of the trees and getting an excellent vista of the countryside. However, it turned out that that particular farm we visited was also home to the studio of an apparently very famous French artist by the name of Phillipe Burgogne (I think...) who is renowned for his oil paintings of the Provences countryside. A highly kooky looking guy about 5 foot tall, dressed in a tattered black t-shirt, olive green cargo pants and Wellington's! Oh well, when you can command upwards of 10,000 euros for a 2ft x 3ft painting I suppose you can do whatever the hell you want! Apparently he has a habit of just giving a small painting or two to visitors every now and then but we weren't as fortunate that day.

The other really fun part of the day was hanging out with Valerie's husband, who turned out to be a veritable polymath. He is himself an excellent artist, makes sculptures, is passionate about making short films that are eventually screened at local movie festivals, runs and manages a cherry orchard and finally, barters away his art or cherries for some real treasures. For example, he showed us a motorcycle circa WWII and another vintage car, of which there are apparently only 5 left in the world! Both are in mint condition, thanks to his diligence and care. Finally, he unveiled an absolute beast of a model railway station - I'm talking about something you only hear about hermits with far too much money and time spending their entire lives making! It was about 20ft x 30ft and a perfectly scaled model of a railway town, complete with functioning traffic lights, lamps inside houses, grassy hillocks and of course, about thirty train cars moving in perfect synchrony. Madness.

So with that over with, my next few entries will be detailing my forages into Marseille and the Camargue region over the weekend. Keep trucking.

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