This weekend, I... went to a wine tasting, toured a winery, ate lunch with my Honors Program at the director's house, toured an abbey, listened (and sang along) to Gregorian chants, found the sweet spot in the chapel, went to Avignon, saw the Pope's Palace, saw a famous statue I've studied called Guerriere Vachere, ate lunch in the beautiful sun, experienced some amazing paintings, danced on the Pont d'Avignon, explored an old chateaux in Loupmarin, saw the house of the Count who was responsible for the creation of the term sadism in Lacoste, and saw the beautiful ochre in Rousillon.
Whew! Let me break that down for ya... (in a couple blog posts).
Friday, I had an excursion with my honors program. It's a program specially made for students wanted to excel in French, so we try to speak 100% in French. With that, we also get some nice perks, such as this excursion.
We started of the morning by going to a winery, well going to a winery after stopping by Brad and Angelina's driveway. Yep, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have property outside of Aix with a vineyard and a nice driveway at least! We saw some guy outside that stared our bus down as we sat there (awkward), so yeah, saw the security detail of Brangelina. That's how I roll. We arrived at the winery and walked down the driveway framed by trees up to the grand house, then past the vines and into the winery itself. The chef de culture (guy in charge of the wine) explained how wine is made from the vine to the bottle. It was really interesting to hear how rose, red, and white wines are all made differently, and they all take a different amount of time to be ready. We toured the grounds to see the vines themselves, then sat down for a nice wine tasting. Keep in mind that it was still morning at this point. We tasted a rose with hints of grapefruit and white flowers, two types of white, and ended with a red wine.
With everyone having enjoyed our morning, we were off to the director of the program's house for lunch. His wife prepared us a wonderful lunch of salads, rice, breads, and ham along with some heavenly desserts. Meanwhile, their 3 daughters were sneaking up behind us and taping fish to our backs! In France, they celebrate Poisson d'Avril (April Fool's Day) by putting fish on people. Weird, right? We were all packed full and had some time to spare so then we sat out in the garden and made daisy chains haha. I loved the house... it was like from a fairy tail with a yard full of daisies, children's playhouse and swings. 
Next we were off to l'Abbaye du Thoronet, an
abbey once inhabited by monks. We received a
tour of course where we saw where the monks made wine, slept, and especially sang.. this abbey is most known for the incredible chapel where the monks would sing Gregorian chants at almost all hours of the day and night. Once in the chapel, our guide sang a song to demonstrate the incredible acoustics. He walked around the entire room, even into the nooks and crannies where we could no longer see him, and it was like he was right in front of us.
After that, we continued to receive special treatment when a friend of the director's came in who just so happened to sing Gregorian chants at Sunday mass. He sang beautifully and then he also showed us some cool things about the chapel... such as the importance of hitting the right notes or else you hear "wa wa wa." He also showed us what I call the "sweet spot." There's one tiny spot in the chapel, that if you sing there, you hear everything all at once in your ears. It is like you are speaking into your own ear. Obviously difficult to explain, but super cool. We ended off the day by all singing a Gregorian chant together (because we're cool like that) before hopping back in the bus and returning to Aix.
All in all, definitely a fantastic day and highlight of my trip.
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