Denis and me at Nicholas' apt. This is an absolutely horrendous photo of me, but Denis, of course, is adorable and I'm smitten, so I'm including it anyway. :-)
In honor of the end of my French class at the Alliance Francaise, a bunch of us got together for a farewell dinner on June 20.
Nicola and me at dinner
Me and Antonio, who turned into a great friend over the 4-week course. He and I both resided at the Protestant Theological School (yes, I know...) and got to hang out quite a bit. He was also horrified by my preternatural daily consumption of cereal, and insisted on making me authentic Italian lunches from scratch more times than I can count. After our French course, he was going to head back to Italy for a week before going to London for an English course, all in preparation for his bright future career in international relations. I hope we get to hang out again sometime soon, which seems likely, as I'm learning Europe is a very small place. :-)
Some more Alliance Francaise folks, representing USA (duh, that's me), Hong Kong, Brazil and Italy. I was really impressed with the diversity at the school, and was surprised that I always seemed to be the only American (but I suppose that's a good thing, as it just forces me to really only speak French).
The next day was perhaps the biggest party night of the year for Montpellier: the Fete de la Musique. In honor of Summer Solstice, the whole city becomes a massive dance party with every type of music imaginable, most of it live, being performed in the streets, in the plazas, in the courtyards, etc. If you're not a huge fan of what you're hearing, just walk a few feet further on and you'll hear something completely different. Evidently, this goes on in lots of cities around France, but I'd never seen anything like it. I hit the streets with Denis and his awesome rocker-chick friend, Christelle, to take it all in. We were soon joined by Nicholas and another friend of ours, Laurent, and basically had a blast until the wee hours. Here are some pics from the evening:
The next day was perhaps the biggest party night of the year for Montpellier: the Fete de la Musique. In honor of Summer Solstice, the whole city becomes a massive dance party with every type of music imaginable, most of it live, being performed in the streets, in the plazas, in the courtyards, etc. If you're not a huge fan of what you're hearing, just walk a few feet further on and you'll hear something completely different. Evidently, this goes on in lots of cities around France, but I'd never seen anything like it. I hit the streets with Denis and his awesome rocker-chick friend, Christelle, to take it all in. We were soon joined by Nicholas and another friend of ours, Laurent, and basically had a blast until the wee hours. Here are some pics from the evening:
Denis and Christelle
Nicholas and Laurent
VIDEO
Here is a little video I took of a particularly trippy corner of the fete, at the Tour de la Babote in Montpellier.
Christelle, Denis and me at Fete de la Musique, ushering in the summer in style! (Apparently, we all felt the need to smush our heads together for fear of not making it into the photo.)
Next up, trips to Barcelona and Salon-de-Provence!
3 comments:
You Rock man!
G'day Rob! So much fun!! only 6 weeks til i'm part of it. I'm in dorm room 185, where are you?? Yay!!
Hi Bob, what about your italian tour?
Have you been in Bologna yet?
Let me know.
See you soon.
Antonio
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