So I know I’ve missed a few days on here, but I’m gonna go ahead and start with today and work my way backwards. So today we went to the Canyon Forest where we did a high ropes (and I mean really high) course. We could pick from four different levels: green, red, purple, and black. The way the guides described it to us went like this: green was easy, red was “fun,” purple was hard, and black was very hard (and you had to be very much in shape). I’m all for a challenge, but I didn’t exactly want to kill myself, so I opted for the purple course. There were a few other people that decided to do the purple course as well so I watched a few of them attempt the first challenge on the course before I went ahead and jumped on in. The first challenge was to climb up a very wobbly net and then hoist yourself up on the rock and basically rock climb over to the next challenge. The first girl that went made it about half way up the net, fell off, cried, and had to get a worker to come get her….this was not looking promising for me. The second girl that went made it up the net, up the rock wall (and when I say rock wall, I’m not talking about those fun indoor rock walls with plenty of pegs to step on, I’m talking about a legit wall of rock with only a few little ledges to step on, very far apart), and to the zip line, but decided to quit and come down when she got to the zip line. The next guy to go made it to the top of the net and then quit. It was my turn, yikes. Surprisingly I made it up the net fine, and up across the rock wall. Trying to make it across that rock was one of the hardest things EVER. Like I mentioned before, there was barely anywhere big enough to place your foot and you couldn’t get a solid grip on anything. Not to mention you had to keep moving your harness clip from rope to rope in order to make any progress. Knowing that at any point when I was moving my harness clips to another rope, and happened to slip and fall, I could very well be slipping and falling to my death, just didn’t settle well with me. I know that sounds a bit dramatic, but literally if one of my clips wasn’t connected at all times I was screwed. So anyway, at this point I’m at the zip line. After hooking myself up to the line, it took me a few minutes to talk myself into jumping off my ledge and sliding across a thin wire onto a little ledge on a tree. However, I finally worked up the courage and went. From then on, the rock walls, the nets, and the zip lines got a little easier to handle, and my nerves subsided a bit. However, there were some questionable stunts these people expected you to do…and 100 feet off the ground at that. The whole time I kept thinking to myself, what if I did fall off and was just dangling from my harness? How would I get myself out of that one? And more importantly how would I ask for help….all of the workers only spoke French! Thankfully, I made it through the hour and a half course alive and all in one piece. However, after finishing, I just couldn’t understand what kind of thrill and adrenaline rush mountain climbers got out of dangling from a cliff. It was absolutely one of the most nerve-racking things I have ever done, but, nevertheless, rewarding once I finished. I just don’t think I’ll be doing it again. I’m not only sore, but also mentally and physically exhausted as well.
After everyone was done with the courses, the group headed back to the bus that would take us to Antibes. My roommates and I were starving when we got back so we immediately went to a little restaurant that was inside the open-air market. I had a kind of pasta carbonara (I think…the menu was entirely in French so you can never really be sure). It filled me up so I was happy!
Now rewinding it back to Sunday. Sunday was our free day, but I had been asked to go to Frederic Dimanche’s house for lunch. He was a professor at Skema Business School who spoke to us the pervious week during one of our class sessions, was also the President of the Hospitality and Tourism Association in France, and was also good friends with Pierre and France (my professors on the study abroad). On Saturday, Meghan (who is working with me at the Marriott in Monaco this summer) was invited, so I was glad to know she would be joining as well. Me, France, Pierre, and Meghan took the train to his house, which was right outside the village of Grasse on Sunday morning. When we arrived Dr. Dimanche and his wife, Christina, were very welcoming. Dr. Dimanche is a dual citizen in the U.S. and France so his entire family spoke English. He had a 13-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter, who were both a little shy but very sweet. They lived in a Mediterranean-style house with the most gorgeous view I have ever seen. The whole backyard was shaded by gorgeous trees and just behind the pool was the most spectacular view of the mountains. We all snacked on a few dishes of olives, peanuts, and chips, and sipped on wine for a little while, and then a few of their friends came to join us. There was one other couple that joined, and then a man and his 5-year-old son. We all sat around outside and ate some amazing French food. It seemed like the plates just kept coming! I was told that this was the way the French spent most of their Sundays; eating and drinking for several hours with friends. It was really neat to see how different their culture was and how they all interacted with one another. However, I felt very uncomfortable because they all spoke French the entire time, even though they all knew English. Me, Meghan, and Christian (someone who came in to do some work with France and was staying with both her and Pierre), didn’t know hardly any French besides the basics, so it was impossible to participate in their conversation, and very awkward as well. At one point one of Dr. Dimanche’s friends turned to me and asked, “Hayden, exactly how many foreign languages do you speak?” I hesitated and then replied, “Well, I only really speak English. I learned Spanish in high school but only speak a little of it now, and I’m currently trying to learn French.” He simply stared back in absolute disgust. Then another person chimed in with, “Well what are you going to do when you are working this summer? Aren’t people going to be speaking to you in French all of the time?” I replied with, “Well the woman who hired me knows that I’m not fluent and French and said it was fine.”
“Well what are you going to do if someone speaks to you in French?” he shot back. “I’ll do the best I can.” I said. The rest of the meal they fired off questions like this to me. I could just hear them thinking, stupid American, I know at least four different languages. I felt that they were very critical of me the entire time and just had to sit there feeling humiliated. The only real compliment I received from Dr. Dimanche’s friends the entire time was that they never would have guess I was an American by just looking at me because I wasn’t fat. Thanks….I think? However, I think they were obviously concerned about my weight because when I was served a platter of cheeses along with a French baguette and olive oil, one of them spoke up, yet again, and siad I should be careful eating it because I would soon get fat. It was an interesting afternoon to say the least. Nevertheless, Dr. Dimanche and his wife were very hospitable and extremely sweet to me. They gave their phone numbers and email addresses and told me I could call them if I needed anything while I was living in Monaco this summer and that would love for me to come back and join anytime. It’s nice to now that I’ll have a contact here if I need anything. However, I’m not so sure I’ll be joining their friends for lunch again anytime soon!
On Saturday we visited Grasse, which is the City of Perfume and did a few museum tours. On the first tour, she explained to us the factory aspect of how to make perfume and how perfume was originally made. This place also made their own perfume and we were able to sample a few of them. On the second tour, which I liked a lot better, we did a similar tour but the guide gave us a lot more information of the history of perfume, how it was made, etc. I won’t bore everyone with that now but one of the most interesting things I learned was about the Noses. Noses are the people who test all of the different scents and blend them together to create the perfumes. Apparently becoming a Nose is like winning the lottery….it takes a very special individual, with, obviously, a very special nose. They can memorize over 2,000 different smells and name them back to back. There are about 20 Noses in the world at this time and they are not allowed to eat anything spicy, drink alcohol, or smoke. If there were no more Noses left in the world, we would no longer have any new perfumes!
After the tour we walked around Grasse some more, which was an adorable town. That night we all went out for a girl’s 21st birthday, again. We also went to the Hop again, but it’s a great bar so I had a lot of fun. The only downside about going out here is that drinks are so expensive. I paid 6.50 Euros for a normal size beer, which is about 9.75 U.S. dollars. So I ended up spending about 20 bucks for two measly beers. I guess it’s a good thing we don’t have a lot of time to go out here!
That about sums up the past three days! Since it takes forever to load pictures on here I’ll post them tomorrow so yall can actually see what I did!
Au Revior!
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