At lunch, Julie and I ate the remaining lasagna her mother gave us and then headed out. It had stopped raining but everything was very very wet. Julie left me off at the gate of the city of Les Baux and I was off. I headed up and did my rounds of pictures and gifts. It was nice knowing exactly what shots I wanted and what gifts I wanted, since I had already been there.
I took pictures of the new museum for their little nativity scenes.
Provence is known for these little dolls.
I then got some pictures of the streets.
I got two gifts that are breakable. One was wrapped in bubble wrap. I am still a bit worried that even after I find room, that it may get smooched and break. The other one is just really heavy. Between that and the boules for Pitanque I am going to have a heavy bag!
After that I headed to the Cathedral d'Images. Now, it was a bit expensive to get in 7,50 but I figured it was expensive for a reason. I read every single sign when entering. This is something that most people just skip, they just go for the exhibit, but you can learn so much with all of the information they give you! Plus, I had two and a half hours that I needed to spend in this place, I needed to make it last.
This is an art exhibit about Australia. It was taken by a French man ans his Chinese wife who have spent 12 months within the last 5 years in Australia. All of the photos, video, and sounds are from his recordings. The Cathedral d'Images used to be an old stone quarry but now is used to exhibit different pieces of art.
I walked inside and it was dark. On the stone wall there was a projection of information on the man and it changed between information and pictures of him. Then I headed in. It was a smaller space (for a museum type building) but on every wall and the floor there were projections. Some walls had pictures, some video. Every couple of minutes the pictures would change and the videos would go to different walls. One minute you are surrounded by waterfalls, then next birds flying away and then kangaroos and then Aborigines people. The whole time you had the sounds or music surrounding you in this stone place. I have to say, it was amazing. If you are ever in Provence, I highly, highly recommend you visit (although I cannot promise the next exhibit will be as cool.
I do not want to go to Australia from the exhibit but I do love how the whole thing was. I mean LOVE IT. I was stunned at first and just stood at the entrance trying to take it in. I ranked it as cool as swimming in the Bioluminescent Bay in Puerto Rico. Looking back, perhaps it was not that cool, but it was pretty awesome; not like any art exhibit I have been to before. I kept walking, trying to find the perfect spot, to see as many of the walls as I could. I found an awesome place, but this old German man thought it was funny to whistle and make owl sounds. I gave him a nasty look and walked away (really?! A 25 year old has more manners than you?)
The exhibit was on repeat for about every 30 minutes. I wish it was longer, but thinking about all of the tapes and video that must have been used and gone through, I understood why it was not real long. I looked at some of the clips a second time and then headed out. I saw some information on how the Cathedral used to be for getting stones and then found some artwork from the Australia area and another video room. It was the 1 hour and 24 minute long preview for the artists adventures in Australia. What I learned was even though every 10 minutes it cut to "this is just a viewing, you can purchase the whole video of 1 hour and 24 minutes in the boutique" it really was the whole video. I sat for the hour and a half and was very content.
When I got out, it was still early and so on my way back to Les Baux. While walking back I found a trail. I was very happy as Les Baux is in the mountains and the last time I walked around I thought about how cool it would be to hike some of them. It was a steepish start and I loved how I was climbing right next to the cathedral and could hear the music from inside. I was definitely on a path, but it looked as though it had not been traveling in a while. Many of the bushes were growing into the trail.
I found some old tracks. I am thinking then were used for when this was a stone quarry but honestly, I have no real idea about it.
I climbed until I got to a building. I thought I heard voices and I was sure that I was in someone's backyard! I continued on slowly but it wound up just being an electrical house. I decided I needed a better view and went to climb some rocks. I literally did some rock climbing. I got some great shots of Les Baux and set up my camera to take some pictures of me. They were bad pictures though as I was high up, near a cliff, and it was wet. I was holding on for dear life and the pictures showed it.
I needed to get down from my rock-boulder now. No idea how to...I was hoping my jeans would not rip and that I would not have to sit in a puddle of water to get down. I quickly realized that those were nothing when I saw I had climbed over some thorny shrubs. Getting up, I just stepped on them, getting down, my whole body slide across them, but I got down; success!
I continued on and saw some other views of the Alps. I think it is so difficult to take good pictures of mountains. I mean unless you are far away, it is just hard! They are so big and you don't know what the focus point of your picture should be. I tried but failed in getting good shots. I then tried to get some self shots and set up my camera again. I changed the delay from 8 seconds to 20 and set it for 5 pictures. By the time i got to my spot and posed, I had just missed the 5th picture. I did not try again as it was too difficult, but it was fun. I loved my hike but needed to head back.
The hike down was ridiculously difficult for me. All I could think was, yea my parents would love this hike...no they could not get down... Perhaps one day I will show them the Alps a different way.
I had a little bit of time so I picked up a peach lollipop from the candy store and headed down the the parking lot to wait for Julie. Julie came to get me and then we went to the fruit stand to get some fruits and veggies. I picked up some apples for the American Apple Pie that I was going to make. They do not have Red Delicious Apples in France, like Julie said she had never heard of them! I did not want to use the other kinds that I knew and they had about three kinds I had not heard of. I wound up with Gala's and hoped they would be okay.
We got home and while Patrice made dinner, Julie and I made an apple pie. She was surprised at how easy it was and how it did not call for any large amount of butter. I explained how I just taste the apples to figure out if I have enough cinnamon and sugar and let her taste it with me. Julie had pastry dough in the fridge and took it out and lined the pie dish with it. I asked about the second one and she said, no just one. French pies are tarts and only use one crust. I found a quick recipe with butter for a pie crust and we made it.
We made a lattice top for the pie and put it into the oven. Julie was so happy and copied the recipes for the dough and the apple pie. After dinner we tried it. I was happy with the Gala apples and the sugar/cinnamon ratio but I did not like the crust. Since we used two different kinds, the bottom one was browning too quickly and so I covered it with foil. Even though the lattice top was cooked, it did not look cooked, plus it tasted like it needed some salt or sugar or something. Julie loved it anyways and was in pie heaven.
OH! So I totally forgot to mention that when I was eating dinner at Julie's father's house, he asked me to sing the national anthem. I turned him down and he insisted saying that he would sing the French one first. He stood up and put his hand on his heart and sang and wonderful song with Julie. Patrice just sat there. When he was done he looked at me like...YOUR TURN! So I stayed seated and did a very quick and small part of the national anthem, although I have been told before that the American National Anthem is beautiful while they feel that the French and other ones are ugly. I mean the French one is all about the people cutting off the king's head...
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