Pont d'Avignon and Mont Ventoux

On my walk with a few friends today we ventured across the Rhone. I took at picture of the famed bridge the "Pont d'Avignon" of which there is a famous french song. The bridge was started in 1177 and part of it collapsed in the 1600's, was rebuilt in over several years, only to collapse again 2 months later, never to be repaired again. When I took this picture I neglected to frame it properly, the bridge ends right behind the tree.

The next picture is the Mont Ventoux, the dreaded Mont Ventoux of the Tour de France fame.

A room with a view and the Palais des Papes

This is the view from my room with some work going on from the festival

 Thsi is a view in the other direction.

 This is me outside the Palais des Papes

I went on a walk ealier today and here is a shot of the Palais from across the Rhone:

Antonin Artaud

Today we discussed Artaud's idea of theater and how it should hit you emotionally - the audience shouldn't analyze dialogue they hear, the actors should use mostly gestes and "sonorations" to elicit a response from the audience......that's about all I got from his readings.....extremely theoretical and very hard to understand.

After that a few of us went out to lunch and then I ran around town picking up the theater tickets I already bought, and my discount pass for the "Off" program (there is the On program, like Broadway, and the Off program, like Off-Broadway). I am now headed out to check out the municipal pool about a 1/2 hour walk from our residence, the but Mistral is still blowing today, so not really good weather for spending time at the pool. It's more of a reconnaissance mission. The weather is supposed to bet back to the "usual" tomorrow, 90 and sunny.

First day of school.

We had class this morning. Thankfully they had coffee there because I don't have a coffee maker in my room. I bought one today, and eventhough it was on the expensive side, it gives me piece of mind that I can have coffee whenever I want. After class some of us went out to lunch:

Here is a picture of my bathroom (yes the shower is that small).

I want to add another picutre of the sleeping area but the uploader has decided it doesn't want to work anymore. More to follow...

I am here!

OK, so after after a flight where they asked if their was a doctor on board for a sick passenger, and then an aborted landing because the tail-wind was too strong, we finally landed 20 minutes late. I met a fellow seminar attendee in the TGV station, so we passed our 2 hour layover together before our train left. My room is REALLY small and there is no fan and 90 degrees during the day, so I hope I won't be as miserable as I fear. Also, there is a strong sewer smell in my bathroom, which I already complained about, so hopefully that will get taken care of. We had a lovely get-together at our instructor's appartment, so I have met all of the other people in the seminar. I haven't really slept since I left on Monday, so I am hoping that I have a restful sleep tonight. I haven't taken any pics yet, but when I do, I will download them here. Bonne nuit.

Bienvenue a mon blog!

I thought this would be an easy way for my family and friends to see what I'm doing while in the south of France for a month. I plan on posting pictures of the things I see and comments on the performances I attend while there. I hope you enjoy it. I leave on the 27th of June, so check back then and see how it's going. A bientot!