Le Premier Jour à Actilangue

lundi le 27 juin

Well, school took 30 minutes to find this morning.  It's just over a mile away, and it was a little hard to find.  It's on a little road, Rue Alexis Mossa, which is only 2 blocks long.  And after walking up and down the road a few times, I saw three young girls walking into a building, and that is when I noticed the tiny 12" sign that I had walked past three times already.  Oops.  I guess I was expecting a big sign like Alliance Francaise had had in Bordeaux.  Oh well.

The school is on the second floor of an apartment building. In fact, the school is the entire second floor of the building.  It seemed to be much friendlier than the Alliance Francaise, and the director of the program, Paul, and another advanced professeur, Michel, were the ones who administered the test.  It was 6 pages of multiple choice questions.  "This should be a breeze!" I thought....... I was wrong.  The first four pages were good, but then it got really difficult.  I suppose I still have a lot to learn.

The other new students came from all over.  There was a girl with her brother from Slovenia, a girl from Italy, three very pale girls from Ireland who had an unfortunate visit to the beach the previous day, a girl from England and a girl from Chicago.... I was by far the oldest.  Most of the new students were 16 or 17... it's hard to imagine going away like this at that age.  But I suppose international travel is different with how close all the countries are in Europe.  It's still quite intimidating for me, though.

I was placed in a more advanced class than the class in Bordeaux, which was good.  I like to be pushed, and I was starting to feel bored in the AF classes in Bordeaux.  But, unlike the other classes at Actilangue, I was joining other students who had already spent weeks together, so I felt somewhat like an outsider.  The classes here start at 8:45 and go to 10:15, then resume from 10:30 to noon.  There was an option to take afternoon classes, but after my experience at Bordeaux, I didn't think that I needed more than 3 hours per day of instruction.  And plus, learning a language for essentially 3 straight hours is hard.  Those days at AF when I had 5 hours of class were very exhausting.  And on top of that, I want to spend time at the beach!

The testing process, written and then ~30 -45 minutes of oral group conversation during which we were evaluated, took nearly 90 minutes, so I entered the classroom at the end of the break, around 10:25, and then had class for another 90 minutes.  During the afternoon session, the students give 30-45 minute presentations on their home country, and I was told that I would present on Thursday afternoon..... how intimidating.  30 minutes can be a very long time!  Surprisingly, I'm the only American in class.  That way, if I mess up on a statistic, there is not likely to be anyone who can actually tell.  In my class, there are two students from Italy, a girl from Kazakhstan, a girl from the Czech Republic, a boy from Switzerland, a Canadian boy, two Japanese students, a Finnish girl, and a German boy.  Quite an eclectic group!  It's funny to hear all the different accents as we all try to speak French.  I think the Canadian has the worst accent... Hearing him speak French makes me very aware of my pronunciation, and it makes me really aspirate those h's and r's!

Some of the new students that I met in the morning had enrolled in the Junior Program, where they pay an upfront fee to go to different excursions throughout the week for two weeks.  Today was a walking tour of the Vieille Ville of Nice.  And since it's a tour given by one of the teachers at Actilangue, I asked if I couldn't tag along.  They obliged, and we all met back at the school at 4pm to head to the Old City. 

Nice is quite large, and the Old City is a good mile and one half from the school... We walked along the Promenade des Anglais, the large "boardwalk" along the beach and the sea.  The promenade is so named because, in the 1700s, the English spent a lot of time in Nice, generally during the winter.  Along the Promenade (or La Prom for short) are many famous hotels and casinos.

Palais de la Mediterranée - a famous casino and hotel

After about 45 minutes of meandering along the Baie des Anglais, the part of the Mediterranean that abuts la Prom, and many photo opps, we turned into the old city where the buildings are tall and close together, and the shadows are large enough to keep me out of the sun! 

L'Opéra de Nice

The Opera of Nice is a beautiful old building which debuted with Verdi's Aida in 1885.  Maddie, the girl from Chicago, and I grabbed a program... student prices are only 5€!  Next week we're going to come back to see if we can't buy tickets.  I've never been to an opera, but would love to go!  They also have a ballet, Sylvia, in a few weeks, so we'll see what tickets are available when we come back.


The churches in Old Nice are nothing like the l'Église Notre Dame which was large, open and airy.  The churches in the old village are smaller and emit a sense of stuffiness.  They're also extremely ornately decorated.  This is in stark contrast to the minimist ambience from the churches in Bordeaux... though they were grand and beautiful, they were not decorated with gold and rich marble.  These churches almost feel overdone.

Ornate interior of Sainte Reparate, Vieux Nice

Ornate interior of Sainte Reparate, Vieux Nice

But it seems that there's another Roman Catholic church down every little road in the old village. 

L'Église Sainte Rita

After seeing countless churches, we went into the *free* Palais Lascaris, now a museum for music, the arts and popular traditions of Nice and the French Mediterranean.  The baroque-style "palace" was simply an aristocratic residence built in the 1600s and lived in by the Lascaris family until the early 1800s.  By the 20th century, the building had fallen into disrepair, and the city of Nice bought the building in 1943 to become a museum. 

The museum boasts beautiful, grand rooms with original-style decor, decorations and even painted ceilings.  The furniture, upon which it was forbidden to sit, was original 17th century craftsmanship. 

Painted ceiling in the Palais Lascaris

Painted ceiling in the Palais Lascaris

It was really a beautiful museum.  But I'm not sure if it was appreciated by the young students with whom I was touring.  Such is life - appreciation only comes after maturity.

(Poorly lit) Room with old furniture and tapestries in the Palais Lascaris

After the Palais Lascaris, we headed to Colline du Chateau, Castle Hill.  Between the beach area and the port is a great hill which points out to the sea.  Centuries ago, there was a castle there.  And then it was burned down.  And then the castle was rebuilt, only to be burned down again.  This happened numerous times, until the 1960s when the City of Nice decided to re-build, for tourist purposes, the area where the castle had once stood.   Now there is an elevator (thankfully!) which takes tourists to the top of the hill to the only remaining part of the most recent castle, which is an archway.  No joke folks - that's all that is left. 

The only remaining archway of the Chateau de Nice

But the park offers incredible views of Nice and the beach.  

View of Old Nice (immediate foreground) and the Greater Nice area from La Colline du Chateau

Beach + Nice

The beach where I sunbathe every day...

Great view of the 3 mile long beach of Nice

 

Vieux Nice - the Promenade des Anglais is the large boardwalk area to the left of the line of palm trees on the far left of the photo

Myself and my friend Maddie from Chicago with Nice in the background, through the trees

Waterfall atop la Colline du Chateau

For the tourists, the city had built a waterfall which proved to be incredibly refreshing after hours walking in the hot, French Rivieran sun!


Further east from the castle is the port complete with cruise ships and cruising yachts.  I wish Unbridled would pay a visit!!

Port of Nice

Port of Nice - facing East over the Mediterranean

After descending from the Colline du Chateau, I returned home for the night.  It's so nice to have so much sun, especially after Bordeaux's dreary, rainy, cloudy climate... but it really takes a lot out of me!  I have a feeling I'll be going to bed early tonight!

À demain!