Vive les vacances!

Remember how I said I had a two week vacation?  Well, it appears that it has been extended 3 days.  I never have class on Mondays (I know, life is rough) and my classes today and tomorrow have been cancelled!  With this bonus time off and the gorgeous weather in Dijon (in the mid-high 60s & sunny!) I’ve already been taking advantage of the “extra” vaca.  Yesterday I met some friends for afternoon drinks and tried my first Monaco:

YUM.

It’s simply delicious- a mixture of light beer, grenadine, and lemon-lime soda.  Perfect for a sunny, spring day.  It’s so nice to be able to sit outside at the cafés and bask in the sunshine with friends.

Today I went to Parc de la Colombière with Jamie where we had a picnic lunch near this "temple":

Pretty, right?

And then we walked around and fed cabbage to the animals in the park!

Donkey!

Goat!

Deer!

Doe!

There are so many other cute/weird/awkward/friendly animals and we’re already planning to go back!  Next time we’ll bring cut up carrots and apples though as the animals prefer those over cabbage.  How spoiled are they?!  Actually, the real question is how spoiled am I?  I know that in the very near future I won't have the free time to wander around a park or sip on Monacos mid-week so it’s times like these that I really appreciate how life here has given me a chance to stop and smell the roses- one of the many perks of my year in Dijon!  I think Alphonse de Lamartine says it best in his poem Le lac:

« Ô temps, suspends ton vol ! et vous, heures propices,
Suspendez votre cours !
Laissez-nous savourer les rapides délices
Des plus beaux de nos jours ! »

Translation:

"O time, suspend your flight! and you, fortunate hours,

Stay your journey!

Let us savor the fleeting delights

Of the finest of our days!"

Lamartine sure had a way with words, didn't he? :) Here's more about him if you're interested-- he was born in Burgundy so now as I'm quasi-bourguignonne I feel all the more proud of his work!

Word of the Post: poésie -- poetry