Millefeuille Provence is located about 20 K north of Avignon, and 20 K southwest of Chateauneuf du Pape. There are a lot of great things to see around there -- that is if you ever get to leave the campus!!
We stayed in a 17th century chateau that was built for the family who owned the enormous vineyard that surrounds it. The land was in the same family for about 4 generations, but now there is a man who owns the vineyard and the school owns the chateau. The chateau is really just a huge house, converted into many bed & baths with a large kitchen, dining room and living room. Apparently a swanky hotel bought the buildings about ten years ago and upgraded the baths and kitchen and tried to run a B&B out of there, with a nouveau cuisine menu that really didn't go over that great. There is a second building that was at one time the house for the silk worms that produced silk for the families silk industry. That too has been converted to bedrooms and baths, some of which are now classrooms.
There are maybe 12 - 16 students at the school at a time, and at most 4 students in a class. There were 7 or 8 really talented teachers. We started the day at 8:30 a.m. with breakfast and remember everyone must speak french in the common areas. Breakfast was quiet. The first class was from 9-10:30, then there was a break (coffee or fruit) and then we would go to the next class until lunch at 12:30. Lunch here is fabulous, but it takes about 90 minutes, so the afternoon classes start at 2:00! We'd go from 2-3:30, break, then 4:30 to 5:30, then there was a two hour break, when we checked emails (wireless), and if I had real work, I had to do that then too. Or, if nothing is urgent, I could go for a swim in a really nice pool on the grounds, or like some others, just relax in the shady garden with the cigales. Dinner, and the evening program started around 7 or 7:30. Dinner (Merci beaucoup Giselle, ce tres excellent) & the program took about 2 hours, and then it was time for the rest of the homework, or sleep. I was usually exhausted. There was also the evening Petanque game at whicht there was a little international team making and rivalry building and an opportunity to learn some more international language shall we say.
I was not in the same class as Pat, he is much better at this language thing than I am. I am learning, and thank god - there was one prof there who would talk politics with me. It was 99% in french, but that is much better than the mind numbing repetition of sentences. Most students come for 1 or 2 weeks, but there was an Indonesian couple who were there for 4 weeks because they are moving to Mali, Africa, and the absolute only language there is French. We met students from Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, Scotland, Republique Cheque and one other person from the US. The second week was mainly ambassadors who were boning up on their french for the next round of EU talks. I think it will take more than a common language... French is the second language of the EU. In Strasbourg and Luxembourg and Brussels, apparently French is very commonly spoken, as is German and English.
Nightly we had guest speakers (evening program) who were very interesting. One night was two women who worked for the local parliamentarian, and from the party of the UMP - the same party as President Jacques Chirac and who brought France the CPE. That was a very interesting conversation. I understood about 10% and the rest was illegally whispered to me in English by a guy from Scotland! There was also a couple from Burkina Fosa, a country in west Africa that is struggling with the abuse of its young women among other things and 30% of its adult population has AIDS. (Many African countries were once French territories so they still speak French.) There was a classical french singer who taught us the songs of Southern Provence and whose partner taught us the cut-throat business of Petanque, the lawn "boule" game played mainly by older men all over France. We also heard from a man touting the benefits of Atomic Energy and the great success that has been in France (?). Note: It is very hard to argue when you can't speak the language. And we heard from two wine experts, one of whom brought 6 different bottles for tasting with dinner one night and the other who invited all of us to his cave for a tasting and a tour. Jean Louis then joined us at the Chateau for dinner and a game of Petanque afterwards. Pat went back to one of the vineyards Girard introduced us to so that he could buy a few bottles for the cave.
Did I mention the pool? I learned very quickly to say, "Is it time to go to the pool now?" Unfortunately, all too often the answer was,
"Not yet..." Pat suggested we paint the various verb tenses on the bottom of the pool then we could justify classes pool-side. ? Perhaps with a petite bouteille du vin?
Now, we did get to take some side trips on the weekend - peut etre you have heard of Le Tour de France - aaah yes, well now that's another story for another time.
