Day Nine

June 25th

Day of my first field trip, with my architecture class, to Vaisons la Romain. It is one of many cities that was first developed by the Gauls and later conquered by the Romans. I had to wake up very early and catch a bus to the station. Brittany and I were almost late because our families said they were going to drive us, but that did not happen. I ended up napping the whole way to the city.

Once we arrived, we started part of the highest part of the city. We were going to go to the top to the castle and weave our way through the medieval part of the city. This area of the city was my favorite part because of all the windy walkways, plants, and just overall feel. It was quite a trek up to the top, but it was well worth it. The scariest part was the last part because there was a warning sign that basically said "Caution, may fall off cliff". You could see the whole city from on the top and the Alps as well. The professor was able to basically point out everywhere we would be going.

(The Sign)

After hanging out on top for awhile we slowly made our way down the mountain, and I took a ton of pictures (which can be found on my facebook and eventually my picas album). At the bottom we learned about the Pont Roman, and got to see some of the areas where we were before. Slowly made our way from that area to the archeological sites.

(Pont Roman)

The first site was a typical center road of a roman city, two houses, and the public baths. This site was completely surrounded by houses, which makes me wonder how much more could be uncovered. After that we went to a museum that had a full mosaic tile floor, pipes, glasses, coins, and pretty much anything else that could be uncovered. From there we went to the Roman theater. The whole field trip really brought to life all of the things we talked about in Latin class in high school. I felt really smart because I knew the setup of the house and the baths. It is always neat to have some things come to life, which is why I will be doing a presentation on Le Theatre d'Orange (oldest preserved theater that has the full backdrop).

(Stores along the main road)

So after all of the lecturing was finished, we had some time to walk around the city and buy souvenirs. It was kinda like Avignon, except things were more spread out and there were not as many places. All in all it was awesome, and I was asleep before 10 (22:00). The only bad note was the bus ride to and from, the bus had the heat on and I melted twenty times over.