photos: Veltjens duo explores Southern France

We took advantage of our two week break between semesters and rented a car and explored some of our area....

Here's a quick look at the route we took: We visited lots of places! There is so much variety in this area, from small villages with produce markets to big cities with Roman ruins and the Mediterranean coast.
We visited Avignon, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorge, Nimes, Carcasonne, Cassis, and several other smaller towns.

Some cheese at the Friday morning Market in the town of Carpentras:

 We stopped along the road for a photo in this orchard

 In the streets of Avignon

 Water wheel in Avignon

 Wisteria (la glycine, in French) was blooming everywhere!

(our car was being broken into around when these pictures were taken...nothing too important stolen, and we had some good french speaking practice when we went to the Commissariat de Police to report it)

 The chateau in Avignon

 L'Isle-sur-la-Sorge....this town is known for it's Sunday antique market

 Pont du Gard- part of a Roman Aqueduct outside of Avignon

 Nimes...

 The Roman arena in Nimes

 We stopped for lunch in the seaside town of Mèze

 And then we headed west to see the medieval walled city of Carcassonne

 

We did a mix of camping and Air BnB rentals (a website where people can rent out their spare room) for accommodation, and this was our favorite place we stayed- so lovely! There was even a small creek that ran under the house and through the garden.

 Finishing our trip in Cassis...

Now we are back home in our apartment in Albertville.  The break was wonderful, and now we are refreshed and ready to get back into studying!

le printemps

Spring is here in Albertville, and it is beautiful!

Our blog has been pretty quiet lately, but there aren't too many updates to share...just lots of studying, and lots of french learning!

Nick is in denial....he's looking over my shoulder while I'm writing this and he told me to change the title.  He's sad the snow has melted.  He loves skiing and he doesn't want to believe that spring really is here.   :)

It is still ski season for a few weeks though- it is colder up on the mountains than it is here in the city. 

But I'm loving the warmer weather, and the change of seasons.  

Here's Nick in his study spot...he spends lots of time here... :)

A few random things we have learned about France and French learning:

1- Learning French is harder and more work than we expected

2- According to our professor we will know we are really fluent in French when we say "aiy" instead of "ow" when we hurt ourselves.  (And I'm definitely not there yet, because I just had to look in my notes to remember the word "aiy")

3- Animal sounds are pronounced differently- dogs say "ouaf ouaf" instead of "woof woof"

4- Sometimes the French call their country "the hexagon" because of the shape

5- French food is delicious- and there are more than 400 types of cheese made in France

6- When you are focusing all your thoughts on learning a new language...sometimes you find yourself saying and spelling things incorrectly in English.  

7- Some people have asked us if we speak french to each other at home.  The answer is- sometimes.  But definitely not all the time, or we wouldn't have very deep conversations. :)

Just a few more photos of our lovely town...more blog updates soon...

Thanks for reading!

what french class sounds like...

This is about what we sound like during French class...hopefully not all the time :)

When we stop and think about it, we remember how funny we really sound during class.  Pronunciation aside...the things we are actually saying would sound pretty odd in English.

For example; a few weeks ago we learned how to conjugate reflexive verbs in the negative and in the past tense.  In french "je ne me suis pas lavé...tu ne t'es pas lavé...il ne s'est pas lavé"

Which, in English, would be a classroom of people slowly repeating "I did not wash myself, you did not wash yourself, he did not wash himself, she did not wash herself, we did not wash ourselves" and so on.  And repeat. 

And our instructor's corrections (all said in French) would also sound pretty funny:

"no- you just said you are talking to a thing.  We can't talk to things...unless you are a child talking to a flower.  Talk about a thing, talk to a person."  

Learning the prepositions that go with each verb is one of the more challenging things...for example in French you don't get married to someone, the preposition is more like saying married with someone.  If we just translate all the words from an English sentence directly into French, it won't make any sense.  It's not enough just to learn words, we need to learn how to construct real sentences from them.

During class we also do lots of fill in the blank exercises- we go around the room and each take a turn answering.  It's always easier to figure out the answer when it's someone else's question, and the attention isn't on you. When the attention is on you...it's suddenly much harder to remember things.  Recently in one of these exercises, Nick was desperately trying to think of the French word for weekend...turns out the French word is "week-end".  

I downloaded some French children's books on my iPad as a fun way to practice.  Nick and I have been reading them together each day...we just finished a book about some dinosaurs:

Outside of class...

We've had a few chances to go skiing- the mountains are so beautiful!!

Here's our new friends the Kendall family, they will be going to work and teach in a hospital in Togo.   

We went out on a date recently and ordered some traditional Savoyarde cuisine.

 Quote from nick: "I think what I have here is mostly a bowl full of cheese. And it is delicious."  

This region knows how to make comfort food.

Here's one more funny video...

we are better off in French than Joey here, but sometimes we still feel like this :)