I've averaged a holiday every other week since I've been here. Apparently this is pretty much the 'holiday season' here. We'll pay for it soon though, cause I think we only get 3 days off over the next 4 or 5 months. This last Monday was Ascension Day I think, so it was a 3 day weekend. Saturday I went para gliding for my first time. Boy was that something! I'll post pictures soon. I like the idea of getting my license for tandem flights so that I can take friends up. However, even though you can get your pilots license in a couple weeks, the tandem license takes something like 2 to 5 years depending on how committed you are. Basically, you need a whole lot of flying hours to do it.
Late that afternoon I was at a friend's house on the river in the village of Bernin. We spent the rest of the afternoon and late into the evening listening to music, grilling seafood, and drinking wine in his backyard. Quite a nice day! The next day I drove south with a friend to locate Vallon Pont D'Arc, or something like that. It's basically a cool part of a river that people from all over Europe go to for canoeing in the summer time. Apparently there is an enormous natural landbridge (the Arc) over the river. It's supposed to be quite a sight. We got there too late to go canoeing, but the trip itself was worth the trip.
The scenery was spectacular, and there was the wonderful fragrance of jasmine and other flowers growing for the better part of the trip. The trip down there was supposed to take about 2 or 2 and a half hours. It took us 4. We got sidetracked, but it was great seeing some of the remote little villages. Once we got to our destination it was slightly dissapointing cause it was so commercialized. But like I said, the trip itself was worth the trip. Marseille and Nice are also about 2 and a half hours away, so I think those will have to be my next roadtrip.
The garbage men finally came. I think it piled up for 3 weeks while they were on strike. There was a big strike today for public transportation. I heard it took people in Paris 3 hours to get to work. Teachers have been on strike for a total of something like 13 days now. The mail is intermittent, I never know when they are striking.
Vive le greve!
Posted by Brian at June 10, 2003 04:08 PM