Today was sadly our last day in Fanjeaux. We had class in the morning, and began by looking at slides of different churches and talking about their architecture:
-A Romanesque basilica has a long naive with an apse in the back.
-Vaults of stone were used for ceilings, as opposed to wood because of fires and because it allowed for thinner walls and more openings for windows.
-Pilgrimages and the monastic movement propelled the Romanesque architecture.
-A church to St. Michael is either on a mountain or there is a tower.
-People would come and take stones from the church to St. Jaques. With so many people coming they would eventually run out of stones or start to take away from the foundation of the church. They gave the pilgrims shells and now St. Jacques is associated with a shell.
Then we talked about Le Laustic by Marie de France. The form is a lai, which is a Romantic adventure written in octosyllables and couplets. Le Laustic was originally set to music, but no manuscripts were ever found. The author, Marie de France, lived in England's court of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, but she wrote in France.
This story is about courtly love. A woman married to a knight is having an affair with another knight. Her husband kills a nightingale, which is a symbol of their love. The main idea of the story focuses around courtly love, but it deviates in that the woman is not of elevated status in relation to the lover and after it is over, the knight carries the bird with him for all to see, going against the idea that it is secret.
Then we started working on a play called "Love's Twilight Hours" by Corri Tetler, a student who participated in the program last year. It is based off of Le Laustic. My group gathered the props and the actors read through their lines.
Then we had orientation for Paris. Sister Patty explained the metro and demonstrated for us on a map. It was very overwhelming! We're used to not seeing anyone at all, so it will be quite a change.
We had quiche (which was really good) and sausage and potatoes for lunch. We had pudding for dessert, which was a big hit. We then had a free afternoon. A few of us went to the tea shop, which is a small store in Fanjeaux, and then we packed.
At 4:30 we had a good-bye ceremony. Sister Kathleen played a song called Namaste and the students each lit one of the 13 candles to represent our schools. One candle was lit and then all
of the other candles were lit from that. It seemed to be a symbol of how much we've learned from each other. Then, everyone was asked to talk about what they're taking away from this trip. This was the first time I spoke up in this kind of setting. It was an emotional hour, but good-byes can only be sad if the time you spent with the people was happy.
Afterwards, we had mass. There's something special about going to mass where you know everyone, and that you have gotten a chance to get to know the priest. It was very nice.
Before dinner, we toasted and sad thank you to Madame and Monsieur Gaiye and Sylvie. This was the night we were waiting for - we had escargot. Surprisingly, it was very good! For dinner we had linguini with a sefood sauce, with a pear tart for dessert.
We quickly left to get ready to put on the play "Love's Twilight Hours." It went well, and I have it all on video.
After the play, we all just hung out and talked for a while. Katie, Katie, and I headed to the Seinadou to do the Rosary. I had planed on going by myself earlier in the day, but this was a much better alternative. First of all, it was nice to have company. I don't think I've done it with someone since I learned how to do it in Kentucky two years ago. Second of all, it was surprisingly nice to do it in the dark. The normally beautiful view was completely black. This makes sense though. It's so beautiful because it's just pure nature with only very few man made lights. If the lights were there, it wouldn't be as dark at night, but it wouldn't be as beautiful during they day. I think it's symbolic of the good and bad times in life. You can't have bad unless you really know what good is, and you can't truly know happiness without pain.
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