Delayed post on France.

I was debating whether or not to post about my trip to France last week, as it consisted of merely on a few hours. I was under the impression that we were going to spend the entire day in France, viewing an old seaport town and it´s sights. Instead, we were given maps, and allowed to roam the town ourselves for an hour and a half before having to return to the bus. Mind you, Biarritz was gorgeous. Biarrtiz is a town in France that is encapsulated in the French quarter of el Pais Vasco. The language that is spoken in the Spanish part of el Pais Vasco, was virtually non-existent in France.

It appears that the nationalism is much stronger in Spain than it is in France, as many French flags were waving from flag poles--I have yet to see many Spanish flags here, they are all Basque. Despite being let alone to do our own navigating, I did enjoy France while we were there. I asked for directions a few times, simply to talk to people in French. We took a coastal tour along the cliffs and saw the palace where Napoleon III stayed. As tempting as the open market foods were, we began to lose our appetites after seeing turkeys being sold, heads and feathers included.

Something I have found striking is that I still have yet to have my passport stamped by any country besides Spain. After now being to Italy, Vatican City, and France, no one took a second glance as I crossed the boarded. No identification needed. I hadn´t realized how state-esque the EU has made its countries. Having the same currency while travelling as certainly made life much easier.

Returning to my France trip, after we left Biarritz, we travelled to Loyola to see la Casa Torre of San Ignacio. San Ignacio was the founded of the Jesuit religion, and as nearly every culture is tied to its religion, our program leader decided that we should learn about Jesuit roots. It was a nice history lesson.

Travelling to France however, has now heightened my anticipation for going to Paris, which I will be doing in December. I am still blown away by how defined the culutres here are. Every city and country that I have now visited is very proud and has its distinct culture, a very regional nationalism. I´ve found that more people from Spain would say that they are from their Providence before their city, despite it being as well known as Sevilla or Barcelona. I will be learning more about Spanish nationalism in one of my classes, and am considering doing my research paper for my political theory class for it as well.

This weekend I have a friend from Richmond visiting, Meredith Kamis, who is studying in Sevilla for the semester. Thus I´ll be playing tour guide for the weekend, good practice for the end of the month! Miss everyone, yet am loving it here. Besos to all.