Avignon, Pont du Gard, and a Miserable Day in Arles

I did promise my mother I would finish posting the highlights of our France trip.  For the last few days, we were based in the old town of Avignon, where popes (and then anti-popes) set up shop for about a hundred years in the 14th century (Rome was thought to be too dangerous).  The entire old city is surrounded by an intact medieval city wall and is very walkable, with quirky little side streets and squares.  We also liked Avignon because we could hop on the TGV to go back to Paris, or go by train or bus to other places in Provence.

 Here is the Papal Palace by sunset, on the gloriously warm day of our arrival in Avignon.

The next day, it had become quite a bit cooler and rainier, alas.  We took a very inexpensive bus up to the Pont du Gard, exclaiming over all the vineyards we passed and all the lovely hills.  Provence felt much more sun-baked and Italian than we were expecting.  This is the river itself, with great hills on either side for scampering up and down and taking in the view.

The famous bridge with the aqueduct just running along the very top (after the sun had come back out).  The museum here had a really fascinating exhibition on the engineering and administration that went into building this aqueduct in the 1st century AD to supply water to nearby Nîmes.  This is the second-tallest Roman ruin after the Coliseum and it was something to behold in person.

The next day, we took an ill-fated day trip to Arles.  Sigh.  The forecast for our visit to France promised us temperatures of 25 degrees each day we were in Provence.  Alas, on this day, it poured rain and was windy and was about 8 (EIGHT) degrees!  Since we had stupidly not brought our umbrellas with us and had only light jackets, we ended up rather soggy and sad.

 Here is Arles' Roman arena - still in use for rodeo-style events, with metal risers built over the old stone seating.  I couldn't decide if I was really pleased the arena was still being used for something like its original purpose or slightly sad that it wasn't being carefully preserved as a Roman ruin.  The tower you see towards the back is a medieval construction and at one point in the Middle Ages, an entire settlement was set up inside the arena.

We came to this church because the always-helpful Rick Steves promised it had one of the most beautiful and elaborate entrances of any Romanesque church.  The church wasn't open when we happened by.  We considered waiting awhile so we could see the inside, but we were soaked by this point and decided to cut short our visit to Arles.  We dashed through the pouring rain to catch an earlier train, took a wrong turn, missed the train, and then ended up on a bus back to Avignon.  I suspect we need to go back to Arles some day when the weather's nicer.

Snow Day in Oxford!

Well, for the first time since we moved to Oxford, we had a proper snowfall.  It came down just about all day and it stuck and it was glorious.  Sort of.

(And now I'm going to wax poetic about snow.)

I hadn't realized just how much I missed winter - and snow.  My little prairie girl heart positively bursts with delight when it snows.  I feel calm, serene.  The world gets softer and quieter somehow.

This was the kind of winter day we dreamt about at home.  Lovely falling snow in just sub-zero temperatures.  I walked home from school (about a 45 minute-trek) and didn't get cold at all.

Also, I think Oxford really deserves more snowfalls.  The city looks utterly lovely under a nice white blanket.  Snow on spires - snow on ancient stone walls - snow falling peacefully over churchyards.

I made sure to take pictures, because I don't know how often I'll see Oxford like this.

Mansfield College

Holywell Cemetary, on the way to the English Faculty

Icicles!

I quite liked how the snow settled on the busts of the old men in front of the Sheldonian Theatre.

The Radcliffe Camera, with All Souls College in behind

The University Church, recently out from under a bunch of scaffolding

And the cemetary at St. Giles, a great place to have lunch with Tim

 Now.  The negative part of the story.  You see, the British don't get snow like this very often.  Today 10 cm/4 inches were expected to accumulate across much of England.  Schools closed.  The Bodleian's library system closed at 3 pm.  Trains and buses were cancelled and delayed.  This is all rather annoying.

Especially since at home everyone just drives slowly and it isn't really a big deal to have this much snow in a day.  The only time parts of the University of Saskatchewan started shutting down during my undergraduate days was when Saskatoon had its worst blizzard in fifty years!

I suppose it all depends on what you're used to.  Thus, I cackle every time I read about how "very cold" it is in the British press.  Cold?  You ain't seen nothing!  It was -2 for most of today in Oxford; tomorrow's high in Saskatoon tomorrow will be -21.  (For comparison purposes, the coldest it has EVER gotten in Oxford is -17...)

So, I hope the snow sticks around (though it does mean I can't cycle down to school while it lasts) and that the weather-related disruptions end soon.  Also, perhaps the government and local councils should look into investing in more winter weather-related infrastructure?

Fun December Things: A List

1. Mulled wine, my new favourite hot drink
2. Seeing Florence + The Machine live in London
3. Visiting Dr Johnson's house
4. Seeing the new digital restoration of Lawrence of Arabia at the BFI (with an actual and much-needed intermission)
5. Scottish country dancing at Tim's work Christmas party.  Very Jane Austen, while simultaneously being very Scottish.
6. Snow before Christmas (unlike last year's snow in February)
7. This morning's hoar frost-covered spider's web

Life with Open Windows

Gosh, that sounds awfully pop-philosophical, doesn't it?  But no, today I'm going to expound on the joys of keeping the literal windows open.

Over the last week or so, the rainy and cool weather that predominated in April and the earlier part of May was finally replaced with lovely summer weather.

A note about said summer weather.  The warmest day we had got up to the mid-20s celsius, which is apparently about as warm as it gets here even in high summer.  Thank goodness for that.  The temperatures didn't seem that high (at home, we can generally get into the low to mid 30s celsius during hot streaks), and yet I would be hot and sticky after just the grocery store run.  The answer: much higher humidity!  Today the high was 23 and I found it much more comfortable.  Nice enough to wear the few items of summer clothing I have over here, but not so hot as to induce sensations akin to melting.

So, we have no air conditioner in our flat and most of the time wouldn't be able to make use of one.  What we do have for ventilation are windows in the bedroom and living room.  For the last week straight, if we've been in the house, at least one of these windows has been open and its been wonderful.  We keep commenting on how lovely the air smells.  The scents of spring flowers, rain, night-time, and sometimes smoke drift pleasantly into the house.  Also, you can hear the birds chirping away very happily (with occasional less melodious calls from crows and magpies).

Every morning, the nursery housed in the complex lets the kids out to run and play.  At our last place, we had a family with five children living above us, so we got pretty used to tuning out children running about and screaming.  Every now and then we cast amused glances at each other when someone is throwing a particularly loud tantrum.

Today, we had a pretty respectable thunderstorm and, with the windows open, heard every crack and rumble and reverberation of the thunder.  This was a great improvement over our basement suite back home; we were always rather insulated from the thunderstorms there, unfortunately.

Now, the other thing it is important to note about the windows in our flat is that they are without screens.  My first thought on discovering this was What about the bugs?  If you leave a door open in Saskatoon for any length of time, you're going to find yourself sharing your home with flies, mosquites, and moths and, perhaps, dragonflies, bees, and wasps.  Not a problem here: England apprently has no bugs.  (Though it does seem to have preponderence of long-legged spiders...)

To date, we've had a couple small moths, a few flies that dart in and then leave again, and about two mosquitoes.  No bees (thank goodness - I thoroughly dislike being trapped in confined spaces with stinging insects).  Also, no birds or squirrels have attempted to infiltrate our sanctum sanctorum.  (Phew!)

So, the open windows have been great so far.  Long may this state of affairs continue!

Picture Post: Summer is Here!

After close to a month and a half of below normal temperatures and rain and overcast skies, the weather gods have finally decided to smile down on England.  Yesterday it probably got up to 24 and today it's supposed to get up to 26!  I'm going to have to start getting a bit creative fashion-wise - we didn't bring very much summer wear with us when we moved over here.

Yesterday, we went to see Terry Eagleton, the famed Marxist literary critic, speak on his book Why Marx Was Right.  I actually found myself agreeing with a lot of what he was saying, because if you actually look at the historical Marx, you'll find he was actually quite bourgeois and a reformist as well as a radical.  Eagleton seemed to moderate Marx, which in turn makes him look much more compelling.  Also, he stated very firmly that any present-day socialist has to admit that a) Marx was very bad at predicting the future and b) that Stalinist Russia must always be seen as a failure of Marx's principles.  Also, he was a very engaging and self-deprecating speaker.  In the 1970s, he wrote a Marxist study of the Brontes, Myths of Power, which I cited in my master's thesis.

And now, on to the photos.  I took these two days ago, which was our first very sunny day, and they mark a familiar walking route I like to take in central Oxford.

I started from the Faculty of English and first made a stop at Mansfield College to check my pigeonhole (or "pidge") for mail (there wasn't any).  This is Mansfield's lovely chapel.

I then headed south down Mansfield Road, past this glorious copper beech.  (That's what I overheard someone referring to it as the other day - mostly I just love the deep red leaves.  We don't get a lot of trees like that at home).

I went to Broad St., where the Sheldonian Theatre and the Museum of the History of Science (to its right) were looking lovely and golden in the sun.

Then I stopped at my favourite, favourite Oxford bookstore, the original Blackwell's.  I took a quick swing through the Children's and YA section and then popped upstairs to check out Literature and Poetry.  But I was very good and didn't buy a thing.

I headed back down Broad for the History Faculty Library, housed in the lovely Old Indian Institute building, for a most mundane purpose - returning a library book.

On my way back to the English Faculty (and my bike), I passed my favourite churchyard, which has quite old tombstones and an interesting mix of light and shadow, because it is so heavily treed.  Walter Pater, the Victorian essayist, is buried here.

This photo is just from last night, but it was such a nice view of Keble College's very distinctive chapel that I couldn't resist.

Picture Post: Four Colleges and a Palace

Here are some pictures from the Easter vacation.  The end of March was very warm and summer-like, so Tim and I had an excellent excuse to go exploring Oxford and its college.  April, however, and frankly most of May so far, has been rather cool and rainy.  April was, in fact, that rainiest April since 1910, which is quite something.

 The ceiling of Pembroke College's chapel.

 The view of the Radcliffe Camera from the very grand quad at All Soul's College.  All Soul's is a graduate only college and you must be invited to become a member or become a member by writing a gruelling exam.  Yikes.

 The antechamber of Merton College's chapel.  J.R.R. Tolkien was a professor here for many years.  Also, Merton is very old (I think it was founded in the Medieval period) and has lovely gardens.

 Another view of the Radcliffe Camera, this time from Exeter's Fellows' Gardens.

I really must work in here sometime.  I've only ever popped in to take a very reverent look around.  I usually either work from home or read in the Upper Reading Room at the Old Bod.

And Blenheim Palace, which we visited with my parents.  It is the only non-royal residence in Britain to be called a "palace" (I think).  Its library, which is tremendously grand and boasts its own pipe organ, is apparently the second longest room in a private house in the UK.  Now I'm most curious to find out which house has a longer room.  Also, if you happen to visit and have the opportunity to tour the private apartments of the current Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, do so.  You'll get a much better idea of how the residents of this house actually lived, as the state apartments are only used on special occasions.  And, if you are a Winston Churchill fan (as we all are), take a walk around the grounds because a) they are wonderfully landscaped, with their own waterfall and lake and b) you can see the Temple of Artemis where he proposed to his wife!

Spring Has Sprung?

Yes, this is another post about the weather here in Britain.  Now that our very brief period of "cold" and severe cold warnings and two brief snow events has passed, the weather is now back up to a warmish 10 degrees centigrade, which means I can go back to wearing my spring/fall coat.

It really feels like spring, though.  The trees are starting to bud.  There's new growth on shrubs and hedges and sedums.  Young green shoots are blasting out of the ground.  Snowdrops are blooming at Mansfield (my college).  This is all very surreal and frankly feels slightly wrong.  This is stuff that should be happening in April.  The date we use at home as the day when the snow really must be gone is my Dad's birthday, April 20th (incidentally, also Hitler's birthday).  And trust me, we've cut it pretty close on many years.  (Also, this does not mean that the snow can't come back again.  I remember having snow during our 7th grade camping trip at the beginning of May, for instance).

So, spring in February, anyone?

P.S.  I've just completed the introduction and chapter plan for the first chapter of my thesis/transfer paper.  I feel reasonably good about my plan, though I know I need to do some more reading in order to execute it properly.  In any case, right now, I'm just happy it's done.

P.P.S.  At my college today, we were graced with a visit from Booker short-listed author Hisham Matar.  Everyone had received a copy of his book, In the Country of Men, and many, many had read and thought about it.  A great initiative to encourage lifelong reading and thinking and engagement with the humanities in general.  I'm so glad my college made this happen.  Hisham Matar himself is a really thoughtful writer, who in one session earlier today, graciously answered many questions on his book, writing, and publishing by Mansfield's literature students.

It's a Damp Cold

Before Tim and I moved to the UK, people we knew kept warning us that though it would not be as cold in Oxford was it was at home (Oxford's record low is -17ish; Saskatoon gets down to -40 at least once every winter), we shouldn't be too cocky because it was a "damp cold".

I think I've finally figured out what this means.  For a long time, it just wasn't cold at all.  I think it was 11 on New Years Day.  We went for a huge walk around Summertown.  However, that was the tail end of a very mild Christmas season I learned.

Now, I think we still haven't had a day when it didn't eventually rise to the freezing point or above and it certainly doesn't get very cold at night.  The only time I feel cold outside is when I'm cycling back home from central Oxford and my fingers get rather cold.  Once my face felt slightly frozen.  However, once I get inside, I feel this deep-seated, in-my-bones cold that doesn't go away for a good half hour or so.  I suspect this is the damp cold and that it is best combatted with hot chocolate and/or tea.

This never happens at home, where one simply freezes and burns and goes numb on the outside.

Life in Britain: The Weather Redux, or It Finally Snowed!

Well, last night, amidst weather warnings and what seemed like rather alarmist reporting on the BBC and the Guardian, it finally snowed in Oxford.  Proper snow, not just some sleet mixed in with rain.  The forecast called for 5-10 cm overall.

Despite the severe cold and snow warnings, Tim and I wandered down to Tesco to pick up some groceries.  What a lovely walk.  Nice, fluffy, wet snowflakes, no ice on the sidewalk.  The grass on people's lawns was just about covered by that time and cars were pretty well coated.  It finally felt like Christmas - in February.

And now, as I look out onto our park here, I see that in the night, someone attempted to make a snowman, but didn't quite manage to get bottom and top two segments together - shucks, and that the snow is already melting!  So sad.  On the other hand, I'm pretty sure British, or at least English, drivers will be having trouble with the icy roads (heck, the first snow in Saskatoon is always a wake up call for drivers too), so perhaps it's best if the white stuff leaves soon.

Life in Britain: The Weather

I've been wanting to write something about the weather here almost since we arrived, because I knew we were going to have a very different experience of winter here than we've had at home for the last quarter century.

This was brought home to me last night, when Mansfield's MCR (graduate students) had their Christmas Party and Oxford had its annual Christmas Light Night celebrations.  Erm...  It doesn't really look or feel like Christmas to me.  At all, really.  The grass outside my window is still green, and freshly mown, though on two mornings this week, it was was covered in frost (for the first time since we've been here).  There are also still some leaves on some trees.  Some trees have many, many leaves.  And last night, at about 11:00 pm, as Tim and I walked our bikes past the Christmas Light Night carnival rides that were being taken apart and the abandoned food stands, we were commenting that it was quite pleasant outside.  This is very strange for early December.

Autuumn has felt so different this year.  The temperatures have ever so slowly declined from about the high teens (when we got here in mid-September, with a brief blip in early October when we had temperatres up around 25 and higher) to daily highs of 6ish.  And I know that, apart from cold snaps, that's about the coldest it will be all winter.

In Saskatchewan when it starts to cool off, one experiences a sense of impending doom.  Because once it gets cold and once you get a good layer of snow, the snow and cold just aren't going away anytime soon.  We always joke that the snow is always gone by my Dad's birthday - April 20th.  It's generally a good date to judge by.  Melting takes place in March.  But December, January, and February are generally just cold (and by cold, I mean, say, average daily highs around maybe -15, with quite regular dips below -30 and, at least once a year, -40.  And that isn't even bringing in the windchill...)  Winter is awful in Saskatchewan.  We're used to it, however, and have learned to survive.  Mostly this involves not going outside for extended periods of time.

And while I think being able to walk around at night without my head covered (though I have made the transition to my wool coat now) is weird, I suppose I have to admit that Saskatchwan is where the weird and wild weather is.  Somehow we've been gifted with some of the coldest winters in the world.  I'm really quite glad I get to skip a few by being over here.

On the other hand, as we have yet to see even the barest hint of snow, it doesn't really feel all the Christmassy, though the lights and the Christmas trees in Broad St. and the Bodleian courtyard help a bit.