2 days late. Albi to Racamadour.

This stupid runny nose won’t leave me alone! I went to bed early… well, earlier last night which actually helped a lot. This morning for breakfast I was talking with my professor, he was asking me questions in French and I answered them as best as I could. While I was talking I said something with the word “Vous”, then I realized I wanted to say “Tu”. He corrected me, and said “No, you say Vous” I was confused, and I asked “Well, aren’t we friends?” He said “No, I'm your professor.” I felt kinda dumb.

Have I mentioned that I haven’t blow dried my hair at all on this trip? At our first hotel in Saint Jean de Luz we blew out our outlets plugging in the blow dryer. We tried again at this hotel… It blew up again. We gave up.
First thing we did today was go to Cathédrale Saint- Cécile. That place was HUGE! I could be wrong, but I think it is the largest brick building in the world? I know that it has the largest organ in France. We had a bit of a tour that was interesting at first… then I just got tired.





After the Cathédrale we went to the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, which was by far the highlight of my trip! There was definitely a different feeling there. I loved every moment of it all. Everything was so interesting. I didn’t know that he was born in that small town of Albi. He would paint a lot of pieces on cardboard and on his father’s cigar boxes growing up. He moved to Paris at 18 ans to draw, which was very young during that time. He went to Montmartre to paint prostitutes most of the time. The subject matter was one reason why he is famous today. He painted real life… he didn’t imagine things to paint. His idol was Degas. Degas painted ballerinas and horses. Toulouse-Lautrec painted prostitutes and horses. Both were because of the truth in their paintings. I wrote down titles of about 30 different paintings and drawings. I honestly loved them all. We weren't allowed to take any pictures, darn it. Oh wait, I accidentally got a picture... Oopes?




I had been feeling a bit sick (of course, right?) so I found some frozen lemonade at a crêperie. We met up with some other gals at an cloister and ate our crêpes and drank our lemonade.



Once we all got on our bus, boy did we look forward to our 3 hour road trip. We are all so tired of that think. I usually just listen to music and sleep so I don’t get sicky.

We got to our hotel which was the absolute cutest place I have ever seen in my life. Let me just show you how adorable it all was:





I found a cat...



We wandered around our hotel for a bit, and then we got on the bus and went into the main part of Racamadour. We decided to go to the Pilgrimage site. It reminded me of a petite Mont Saint Michel. It had different churches, restaurants and little shops. It was really cool. We walked the path that the pilgrims would walk up on their knees. We didn’t walk on our knees… I considered it though!



Finally, we got dinner. I sat by a few girls that I haven’t spoken with much during the trip, and I'm really glad I did. I really got to bond with them a bit more to where now I feel like I can talk to them anytime. I am trying really hard to get to know and love every girl here. I only have a few I don’t know very well.
I got duck again, but sadly I couldn’t taste a thing! We got a little cheese platter with goat cheese on it, and most of the girls thought it was disgusting. I tried it, but like I said… I honestly couldn’t taste anything with this stuffy nose. I guess I was lucky?? Now I can say that I have tried goat cheese for real… whether I liked it or not, I cant say.

We got back to the hotel really late and we only had about 15 minutes of internet. It was hard with every girl getting on the internet at the exact same time. I wrote Cass a quick e-mail and got to bed earlier then usual.


- Sorry about not getting the post up on time. Like I mentioned, I haven't have any time!