I don't know if I've mentioned before, but substitute teachers aren't really a thing here. If a teacher is going to be gone for a long time, yes, there is a sub, but in general if a teacher is absent, there just isn't class. The kids have to go to the library or the study lounge, but they don't have class. Totally different than most schools in the States...
So yesterday's blog post was super long, and I don't think today's will be quite as long. But I want to mention the last couple days of Mark being here along with the day trip (or at least part of the day trip) I took on Saturday with Cathi and Azahara.
Mark and I came back to Perigueux on the last day of the vacation and that evening we met up with my friends here, including the girls and the French/Argentinian friends we made before vacation (we hang out with them a decent amount). It was nice because Mark was able to meet everyone that I talk about and also practice his French a bit. We saw my friends a couple times, so that was good.
The last night Mark was here we went out for a really good dinner at a traditional Perigordien restaurant (so traditional local food) and then we had most of the next day to walk around Perigueux and see the city before Mark had to take the train up to Paris. It was very sad to say goodbye. :-(
Stereotypical photo of the two of us...
And a nice picture from the last evening before we went out to dinner.
So I readjusted to being back in Perigueux after Mark left and then luckily on Saturday I went out on a day trip with the girls to see some small towns in the area. I say "luckily" because it was probably good that I went out and did something fun otherwise I probably would have felt pretty bummed. We picked a few villages that we'd read about in guidebooks and that were located fairly close to Perigueux; it's easy when you have a friend with a car!
Also, on our way out we passed this house:
(I stole this photo from the internet because we saw it from the car and there wasn't anywhere to pull over. We hadn't made a plan to see it, I just spotted it.)
Look familiar? I had heard of this "White House" before, from one of the teachers at the school. The story goes that when Jefferson was in France, he saw the plans for this house, which had not yet been built at the time, and liked them so much that he took a copy home with him to suggest for the future White House in Washington. I don't know how true that story is, but there's no denying that they look almost exactly the same!
Our first stop was in a town called Brive-la-Gaillarde. We only stopped cause it was on the way. It's a decent-sized city (bigger than Perigueux), but it's not particularly pretty or exciting. But we stopped and walked around the center of town, which wasn't unattractive!
There were these big reindeer decorations still all over the town.
The back of the cathedral and some of the old buildings in the center of town.
After Brive we went to one of our main destinations, which was a town called Collanges-La-Rouge. It's a tiny town in the countryside with gorgeous views of the country and the hills (which are really the foothills of the Pyrenees) that is constructed entirely out of red sandstone. So the entire town is the color of brick, but the buildings are made out of big stones. It was very interesting and very pretty. It's also a vacation town, so it was pretty much completely empty. A lot of the towns that we visit are empty. But it was still really cool and interesting to walk around and see.
The town just felt old. Apparently there's evidence that it has existed since the eighth century. That's pretty old. I'd love to see what it's like when there are people there!
The cathedral (which was unfortunately locked) and a few old manor homes.
Small streets and an inn/garden.
Old-timey tractor next to someone's house!
Just some more shots of the small streets and buildings of the town.
I really liked this little town. It was really interesting and really pretty. It was also in a really gorgeous setting, but it's hard to show that because a. the lighting wasn't good and b. it was kind of overcast. But it's right in the heart of the foothills of the Pyrenees, like I said. Very gorgeous and very cool.
Next we went over to a town called Turenne, which was only about 10 km away. (Uh oh, I'm starting to talk in kilometers. Even though I still only have a vague idea of kilometer distances in comparison to mile distances.) Turenne was another small and very ancient town built on a hill. Since it was built on a hill (with an old fortified castle at the top) it had incredible views of the surrounding hills and valleys. Even though it was a bit overcast and hazy, we could still see for miles and it was really gorgeous. The sun even deigned to come out for about twenty minutes, so we got some good views. Again, it was a very small town and a vacation spot, so it was pretty much empty. I think we saw about five people. But it was still cool to see and wander around. Plus we got some exercise walking up to the top of the hill.
Sheep on the hill as we drove up to find the town. We took a bit of a detour on the way there. And I would hardly count what we drove on as "roads." Just kind of dirt paths.
Looking out toward one of the churches and the countryside.
Some of the small streets of Turenne. It was interesting to see another tiny town not far from the first - but that looked completely different.
A decent view of the countryside and the tops of some of the houses in the town.
The ruins of the old castle and the walls at the top of the hill that the town sat on. There was more to see of the castle - but of course it was closed, so we couldn't go check it out. Still cool from the outside though.
I really like this picture. Kind of cool with all the pigeons taking off at once. Even though I can't stand pigeons!
Like I said - itty, bitty little roads. Very pretty, very old, very French.
It was a nice little trip for the day, and I've managed to see a lot of the area already. I'm lucky that Cathi has a car and is interested in driving out to see new places. If I wasn't friends with her, I definitely would have seen less of the region! And I definitely would have felt more trapped in Perigueux!
It's getting to be time to go back to school, so I need to wrap this up. My class this morning was on Civil Rights and important minorities in the U.S., and it actually went pretty well. We'll see how the rest of the afternoon goes. Unfortunately my last class of the day is almost a disaster because the students are tired and just refuse to talk and participate, so even if I have enough prepared...we end up running out of stuff to do because they refuse to talk. It's not very enjoyable. So we'll see how my other classes go. The other two classes that I have this afternoon are usually fine, so it's really just that last one.
Also, we'll see how I do about continuing to post regularly! I will make an attempt. But I'm going to need to go do some more stuff so I still have pictures to post! Otherwise it will just be words, and that's not quite as interesting.
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