Pont du Gard

Today was our outing to Pont du Gard, which is a bridge over the river Gard constructed by the Romans between 40-60 BC as part of a huge aqueduct. It's amazing how well preserved it is, that it has survived 2 thousand years of damage, weather, and even an earthquake. If you click this link you can see a picture of it. But we started off by crossing the bridge and going down on the rocky riverbank. There two of my fellow students each did a little report on various historical aspects of the site. After that we headed up into the nearby wooded area to see the aqueduct from above. Then a visit to the Pont de Gard museum, which was a little anti-climactic but blissfully air-conditioned. Due to some, um, inefficient planning on the part of the professor, we only had about half an hour to swim in the river, which is what we had all been looking forward to all morning. Ah well. After our little dip it was back on the bus and back to Avignon.

We all had lunch on the Place Corps-Saint, which is my new favorite square. It's very authentic and not too expensive, with a lot of young people around. It's also really close to school. We got to enjoy lunch and little shade and a little rest, which was a nice change from the high energy, super-sunny morning. After that we wandered around a bit, and I headed home to rest for a little while. Had to go to the grocery store to find ingredients for my potato salad, which turned out quite well. Then it was our usual quiet dinner, and a shower, and some reading--still Ender's Game, I'm halfway through and I love it! But most nights I feel like taking it easy. The heat and the activity of the day can be really draining. I thought about going out with some of the other students tonight, they were going to meet at ten, but by the time we'd finished with dinner it was already half past nine and I needed to shower still. So I decided to skip it for tonight and chillax a little. Definitely a good choice.

Tomorrow morning a bunch of us are going to a pool on the little island, then in the afternoon we will head over to Carpentras for our barbecue! Should be pretty fun. More details to come!

Love,
Natalie