The French Wine List: The Best Part of Waking Up Early

September 19

The best part of waking up early? Fontaine de Vaucluse. Liz was going there this morning and had a sign up sheet last night at dinner. Bridget, Marissa and I all signed up so we could go exploring. We really had no idea what to expect. When we arrived in the town, this big beautiful river was flowing through it, and Liz explained that it's all from a natural spring that we could hike up and see. We walked up along the river, which was so amazingly clear, it reminded me of Tahoe. You could see everything in the water. There were a bunch of river-weed type plants growing along the bottom, but they were a beautiful and bright green. We hiked up to the source, and water was literally just flowing out of the rocks, it was beautiful. Bridget and I wandered around the town for a while, taking pictures and looking at all the little touristy places. We went to a park that was on the other side of the river than where we started and dipped our feet in the water... It's about Tahoe temperature, or colder. But it felt so refreshing. When we got back, we went to lunch at the cafe, and then I took a three hour nap (it was needed!).

After nap time, Sunni convinced me to work on my printmaking, so I finished my last peacock feather block and hand printed tests of all five of them. They turned out really well, but I think I'm going to do one over again, the carving isn't exactly how I want it, and it will only take a half hour or so. I stayed in the print shop until dinner, and then ate the funkiest burger I've ever seen. I think the attempt of American food in the cafeteria wasn't the best, but as usual there was plenty of bread and brie to make up for my lack of burger. Bridget and I wandered up to a terrace and talked for a little bit and watched the sun set until it got too cold, and then went down to Helene and Lauren's room to watch Braveheart. I think Lauren took a picture... we were a funny sight. we had 9 girls crammed into two twin beds and a couple of chairs, and an itty bitty computer screen that we were watching the movie on.