day six: Beaujolais wine region

Today was a very relaxing day and yet not relaxing at the same time. First of all, we were allowed to sleep in until about 9am which was sooo nice. Then we got ready for our picnic in the French countryside. We got into groups of about six or seven people and received our basket of goodies: french bread, brie cheese, ham, chocolate, and some fruit and water. They gave us a map of where we were supposed to go and said it would take about 30-45 minutes. We were warned that the last 50 meters would be a bit steep, but it wouldn't be too bad. hahahaha. So, first off, it was a really hot day and about 5 minutes after we left the chateau we were already sweating. The entire walk was uphill. We stopped at the little town of Thieze about half way there to buy some cold water and rest for a bit. When we finally got to the last 50 meters, it turned out to be a very steep hike up a hill. We were exhausted (and quite sunburned) when we finally got up to the top and had a look around.



It was very pretty up there. It wasn't the clearest day, but we could still see quite a bit. We were really glad to be able to sit down and have some food, though, so we did that before looking around. The baguettes and cheese were really good (as they were all over France). One of the neighbor's dogs followed us up the hill and was baking in the sun along with us. This dog does this hike almost every single day. It must be in good shape.



After a while, we walked around, took some pictures and decided that although it was beautiful, we were really hot and needed to get back. We trudged back down the hill and eventually got back. Quinn tried to hitch a ride with a local at some point, but since she didn't speak any French and he didn't speak any English, she was pretty much out of luck (especially since she asked him for a ride about 10 feet from where his house was). It was pretty funny to watch.

We all really wanted to jump in the pool when we returned, but some idiots the week before had broken glass nearby and they had to drain the whole pool. Booo on whoever that was!

I decided to take a shower and then have a little nap. I wrote in my journal for a while and then headed outside to sit under the tree and hang out with a bunch of other people. I brought out my iPod and radio alarm clock and somehow managed to get my iTrip to work so we could play music out there (basically the iTrip is an fm transmitter that was working through the radio on my alarm clock). That was pretty cool. They all thought I was some kind of techno-whiz. hehe.

Later that night, we started a little soccer game on the lawn with some of the Mexicans, the Columbian, and a couple Aussies. It was lots of fun to play with such an international group of people.

Some of us went down to the cave again that night for a bit of partying, but I think we were generally still tired from the night before and the long hike, so most of us made it an early night (some by choice, some because they passed out on their beds. I'm not naming names.)

next day...