If you remember reading before in my entry on Chateau La Napole I said I was going to take full advantage of my time here and make everyday an adventure. Well on Wednesday, March 10th I kept my word.
The morning started off normal 3 hours of French class followed by lunch in the cafeteria, which would be followed by an adventure. That afternoon a few of the other girls and I decided to spend the evening in the small coastal town of Antibes. In Antibes we planned on exploring the “vielle ville” or old city, go to the Picasso Museum, try absinthe and finish it off with a nice dinner.
Once in Antibes we began our journey at the stone arches that separated the modern and medieval sections of town. Being the tacky tourists that we are, from there we followed Rick Steve’s (a travel book) walking tour of the old city. The first stop was the city’s cathedral, which as Rick put it “deserves a quick look inside”. Unfortunately, when we peaked in, there was scaffolding everywhere from restoration work they were doing, taking away from the cathedrals charm.
Cathedral
The next stop was the Picasso Museum. Given that I do not particularly like abstract art I was not moved by the works of the other artists on display, but the section of Picasso’s work is definitely worth a look, featuring some of his lesser know pieces.
After the museum we finished the walking tour and moved onto the main attraction, which is Antibes’ Absinthe Bar. The absinthe bar was so much fun. It was set up in a cellar, resembling how it would look in the 1900s. They even provided you with costumes for those who really wanted to get into character (of course I wore a hat). After getting settled the waitress explained to us (in French) the different types of absinthe, white and green, and selected a few for us to taste. We got a sample of green absinthe to taste because she said the girls don’t typically like the white ones.
Getting in the spirit
The process of preparing the absinthe was quite interesting. We were each given a glass with a concentrated amount of absinthe in the bottom of it. Using a device used to drip water (not sure of the name) we then dissolved sugar into the glass and diluted the absinthe sitting at the bottom. Once our glass was filled, we stirred it, and it was ready for tasting. The absinthe tasted like Licorice (a taste I am no fond of) but kind I had, “La Vert”, which was much more mild in taste than the others, allowing me to finish my glass.
While we were waiting for our sugar to dissolve we got a quick history on Absinthe, which disproved the common myth that it is a hallucinogen. Apparently, back in the day absinthe was considered a poor person’s drink because it was very cheap. However, the cheap absinthe was created using a process that put chemicals into the alcohol. It was these chemicals that made people hallucinate.
To conclude our evening we had a wonderful authentic Provencial meal in a cozy nearby restaurant.
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