"You have prehistoric water on your pants!" (Day 6)

This morning Jen and I decided to go to the bakery. I wish I knew what I got – I couldn’t even pronounce it, but it was very good. It was flaky bread with (I think) apples inside. After breakfast, we walked back up to where we’re staying and then went to Mass in the Couvant. I miss my church, especially the choir, but it’s a very big church and by no means do I know everybody, or even half of the people who come to Mass. There’s something special about going to Mass with people you know, as we did today, especially people with whom you are sharing a very meaningful experience.

After Mass, we went to class. We segued from talking about the Song of Roland to the Troubadours. This is a topic I really enjoy. In this area, they were called troubadours. In the north, they were called trouvere, from the word “trouvere” (to find). Women were called trobaritz. Troubadours were sponsored by patrons, who were a nobility. They were paid to write songs and a jongleur would perform them. In the beginning, there was very little originality. The people wanted to hear old stories, so people would take them and tell them in their own way. The songs were written in Occitan, which is a language related to Portuguese and Spanish. These songs were about courtly love, also called fin’armour. The idea of courtly loves involves suffering, which a lot of these songs portray. The women typically written about by troubadours were of superior rank and married, and the whole ordeal was kept secret. In class, we were talking about the song by Isabella, on p. 111. Someone in the class had mentioned that it was an angry song. I disagreed, and said that I thought that it didn’t start off angry, it started off sad. From my own experience, this is the natural progression on the way things go with the experience the woman was singing about, and I think the words portray this. In the beginning, she seems to be questioning what went wrong, and then realizes it’s not her fault and calls the man a phony. I went to lunch today and Peggy, who had been sitting in our class today, asked me what I was going to say in class today about this. We had a long conversation about the troubadours and how they weren’t just poems, they were songs. Unfortuantely because so many manuscripts were either lost, incomplete, or hard to read, we do not have many troubadour or trobaritz music. Also, with the ones we do have, we have only pitch and not rhythm for the most part. However, the music that was played in the background of these poems or the music that was used as the melody for these lyrics plays a big part in the effect of the song. In the first stanza on p. 111, if the music had been bold and with a lot of open chords, then it would be clearer that it was meant to be angry. If the music was in a minor key and had a very strong range, it would be clearer that it was meant to be portrayed as sad. I have studied troubadours in music history class, so I have heard some of the remaining songs (and even have one or two on my ipod!) and have examined the music in relation to how it expresses the poetry. I find it very odd to look at only the poetry; it seems incomplete. I also find it amazing on how current the themes in these songs are. As I read through the poems, I kept finding more and more I could relate to, both about finding love and losing love. It demonstrates the fact that we are all human and all share similar emotions, even though we live centuries and an ocean apart.

After class, we went to lunch. Along with my very nice conversation with Peggy about the effects of sound, we had pork with a slightly spicy sauce on it and beans. Then we had cheese, and I finally tried the Brie. I wasn’t a fan, but I had to try it before I left. For dessert was an apricot flavored dish.

After lunch, we went to the caves! They were the Niaux caves and they had drawings from 11,000 years ago. We had to walk a half a mile into the cave to see them. We paired off and shared a flashlight. It was slightly difficult to walk – the ground was uneven and there were puddles everywhere! (Jill yelled “watch out for the puddle!” and two seconds later we heard a

splash because I stepped in a 6 inch puddle!) When we finally got to the area where there were the drawings, we had to all shut off our lights and our tour guide showed us the cave paintings. There were a lot of bison and a few ibex. It gave me chills. Although it was cold inside the gave, it was because seeing these drawings and walking the same path that so many people walked so long ago really made me realize how connected we, as humans, are to each other. It’s amazing that historians are able to know so much about these drawings. If these people lived so long ago, how can we know that our assumptions about their lives are right? I think science can tell you a lot, but there is no way to know if we have come up with the right ideas. The tour guide also showed us how well this part of the cave echoes. She said that the people who used to come in this cave probably used it to sing and play instruments. They believe this is true because in this cave and others, there are more drawings in places where the acoustics are good. I think this really shows how much music is vital to human existence. Even the people so long ago would go in search of place where they could hear and make beautiful music. The view of the Pyrenees

mountains outside the cave was absolutely stunning. It was one of those speechless moments. As we were driving and when we got out of the van to enjoy the view, the only song that was going through my head was “There is a God” by LeAnn Womack. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s9l5EvHeQs)

After the caves, we went to another small town. A lot of things were closed, but it was nice just to walk around the town and observe. We sat at a café and had ice cream, and then a few of us walked up to the tower. It was a very steep walk, but there was another beautiful view.

When we got back from this, we went to dinner and had hamburger and sting beans for dinner. The hamburger was surprisingly very good. It wasn’t an American hamburger; it had no bun and had white sauce on top. After dinner, I walked with a few other people to the middle of town and read my homework. We all relaxed for the rest of the night before going to bed.