La cueillette

In the past week that I haven’t been updating, I actually have been writing about my vacation in Paris with Mallory, mom, and Lisa. Right now it is partially finished, but it is an exhaustive account written in a more rigid, chronological manner that I have been trying to avoid in order to keep your attention. So what I’m going to do is move back to the present in Avignon, and hopefully at some point I can put an abbreviated version of my vacation in Paris and my time with my mom and Lisa in Avignon (I hope your feelings aren’t hurt too much….). Believe me, you’ll want to hear all the interesting stories—and when I get home, I swear I’ll do an impression of crazy man on the metro (I’ve been practicing).

Well, starting with the elections…being an American in Avignon was like being a celebrity. I went to an Obama victory party at the same restaurant where we had the Obama soirée. We had delicious warm pastries and coffee for breakfast, and the place was overflowing with reporters. I could only stay for about 40 minutes because I had class, and heard that after I left they broke out the champagne. While I was there, I was interviewed and my quotation was put in the regional newspaper, along with a color photo. After a couple months here, I’ve clearly already become famous. But honestly, being in France during the elections really did shed a different light on how the politics played out. I could go on about it for awhile, so anyone who’s interested can ask me directly…

The Saturday after, my host family invited me with them to Villeneuve-lez-Avignon to pick olives. They have a friend- the lovely 81-year-old Josette- who has olive trees on her property and needed help picking them to take to the mill and produce olive oil from them. So I brought along two of my American friends, and we helped pick olives nearly all day. Well, besides the couple hours that we spent feasting away in the afternoon. After I had stuffed myself silly on salad, quiche, pizza, and cheese, Josette brought out some cassoulet (sort of like a pork/lamb and beans stew- a specialty of the southwest region) and forced it on all of us. But it was the rum raisin ice cream and coconut cookies that followed that really sent me over the edge. Just when we were wondering how we could possibly get back to work when we were all in food comas, Josette made a fresh verbena infusion to get us going again. I seriously felt like I was in a dream…picking olives and also feasting away on an autumn day in Provence.

Last Tuesday I didn’t have class because it was Armistice Day marking the end of WWI. So I went with my host mom and two of her friends to a nearby farm in Isle sur la Sorgue to pick the last strawberries of the season. I was so content- rows and rows of delicious strawberries, hands covered in dirt, the sweet smell of the fruit. The family also had table grapes on their property (Muscat noir variety) that were equally delicious. The time went by so quickly I couldn’t believe it- but I wasn’t hungry because I had eaten plenty. When we came home, my host mom made the most delicious strawberry jam I have ever tasted, and lately we have been eating it mixed with plain yogurt for dessert. I am bringing a couple of jars home with me, so if you are nice I might let you try some.

I haven’t written a lot about the classes I am taking here in Avignon, but I would like to say a little about my philosophy/existentialism course. I have never taken a philosophy course before, but I had studied existentialism briefly in my French class at CMU last year. I have a lot of respect for my professor- she is an amazing actress (I was able to go to a play that she wrote and performed in), very charismatic and engaging, and also ridiculously intelligent. There are only 4 students in my philosophy class (all of us are American), so there’s no hiding- you really have to talk multiple times during every course. But right now I am in love with a text that we just read by Camus. He is most famous for his novel “The Stranger,” but we have been reading part of a collection of texts called “Les Noces” written mostly about relation between man and nature. The reason I am mentioning it is because I can’t stop thinking about it- it is one of the most beautifully written things that I have ever read.

« Ici même, je sais que jamais je ne m’approcherai assez du monde. Il me faut être nu et puis plonger dans la mer, encore tout parfumé des essences de la terre, laver celles-ci dans celles-là, et nouer sur ma peau l’étreinte pour laquelle soupirent lèvres à lèvres depuis si longtemps la terre et la mer » - Albert Camus, Noces à Tipasa