To celebrate the end of the year, EAP had one last outing for us. We went to tour the Abbaye de la Sauve-Majeur and then to the Château Mediéval de Langoiran for lunch and some medieval entertainment. Unfortunately, not that many people came - only like 15 out of 50 students made it. It was the last Saturday of spring break, so a lot of people were off traveling - or just ready to be done already with everything school-related, I think. Plus it was another gray, cold, rainy day, so some people just didn't want to get up at 10am.1 But I had a good time! :]
Our first stop was the Abbaye de la Sauve-Majeur, which was consecrated way back in the 13th century. It's mostly just some of the walls that are left now, but the tour guide explained to us how you can still see the original cross-shape of the church and where the altars were. He also explained some of the carvings that you can still see. Since most people were illiterate back then, the church made carvings in pillars to represent Bible stories and the morals you were supposed to learn from them. There was one with Adam and Eve and one with Samson and a lion, and a few others that I don't remember. It was pretty interesting, and the abbey was pretty even though it was raining and gloomy.
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| Guy getting eaten by lions :O |
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| Samson fighting that lion! |
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| Gloomy gloomy |
Next, we headed to the Château Mediéval de Langoiran. We didn't really tour it, we just walked through the pouring rain to the event room where we were eating lunch (which was not actually part of the château, just off to the side). We seriously ate lunch all afternoon, like from 12:30 - 5:30. There were little crackers to start, then I gnawed on some delicious bread for a while, then there was the main course of beans and lamb and more bread. And eventually, apple tart with pudding/cream for dessert. And of course lots of wine! This was all interspersed with performances by a troupe of medieval entertainers who played music and sang songs, told stories, and performed skits and magic tricks. I admit, when they told us the lunch was going to be medieval themed, I thought it would be a little dorky, but it was actually a lot of fun. Even when they made us all do medieval dances at the end... (Not sure all that twirling after eating for five hours was a good idea, though!)
Anyways, it was a fun day! And it was nice to have one last event with the other California students and the program directors.
For the next two weeks, I had to crack down and study for finals! I did visit some other places though, which I will write about soooon. :]
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| I love the blue tinges of the stone :] |
À bientôt!
1. We're from California! Doing things in the rain is hard.
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