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Published: July 10th 2006
As fun as our Parisian adventure was, we were ready to head to the south of france and start classes. We occupied our 5 hour train ride by taking turns reading David Sedaris's stories about moving to france and learning the new language. If you havent read his book "Me Talk Pretty One Day" do it! It is hilarious, and after struggling with the language barrier in Paris it was that much more hysterical to read about his experience. After 5 hours we switched trains in Cannes and headed to La Napoule.
We had been informed that the place we were staying was a tourist attraction of the small seaside town aptly named Chateau de La Napoule, but no words could do this place justice. We saw it from the train on the way in and thought, maybe? possibly? no way.... but then we followed the directions from our teacher right into the entranceway of a Mideval Castle. we have not yet taken a picture of the Chataue as a whole so check out http://www.chateau-lanapoule.com/ we will highlight our window later, but its in the left side of the picture. freakin amazing! Turns out we have the second best room in the place (second to the one our teacher is living in) and it is usually not given to students, but we are just that cool.
We were greeted with a fabulous meal catered by the same person that catered the Cannes film festival and will continue to enjoys this caterers meals during the week for the rest of our time here. After falling alseep in disbelief of our surroundings, we were grounded the next morning by the fact that we are actually here to take classes. But two hours a day and three to four field trips to museums a week is not that bad. When class consists of looking at the works of such artitst as Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Cezanne, and the feildtrips are to their studios and museums we really cant complain too much. (dont worry we do have work to do and are graded) (we also know we are spoiled) All lectures are housed in the villa where the majority of the students are living across the street from the Chateau.
The Chateau was the home of a not so well known american artist name Henry Clews, who bougth the property in 1918 in a rather delapadeted state and restored it to what you see today. His wife Marie Clews was the main architect of the building whcih is surrounded by beautiful gardens, fountains and terraces whcih give an amazing view of the mediteranean. The building is intricatly detailed with Henry's sculpture, down to the creatures heads on the bottoms of the drainpipes. We have not yet fully photographed all the details of our surroundings and will continually show more as time goes on.
Sorry for the short tid bit of an update, but it is time to head to dinner. Cant wait to tell you more about what we have been doing here and add pictures soon!
Au Revoir!!
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barbara and mike
non-member comment
Amazing!
Hi Robin and Patrick - Amazing! What a great trip you two are having and they call this going to school? We want to sign up. Looking forward to your pictures of school and the surrounding countryside. Keep writing, it is so much fun to read about your travels. We are excited for you, the summer of 2006 a time to remember forever. Au Revoir, Barbara and Mike (godparents forever)