My body wasn't too happy with me after my run Monday morning. Lol. Not very happy at all. My stomach was killing me most of the run, and just stopped hurting before I got home. Then I pushed it further with crunches and stuff. Lol. I was so exhausted by the time I got to class, but despite being worn out and sore, I felt wonderful!
And to add to feeling wonderful, after class we walked up two huge hills and walked to a Russian Orthodox Church! (Yeah, after my run this morning, I realized I had no clue what exhaustion was yesterday…) It was a fun day, though. :)
I bought a wheat baguette at the store before walking to Old Nice. It was kinda weird. White baguettes definitely taste better. But it was good enough that I kept eating it as Beth and I searched for the old part of the village.
It was really fun talking to Beth. Lol. We hung out a bit in Paris, but haven't really talked since leaving Paris. We realized we have a common friend, Heidi Olsen, who used to be Beth's roommate. Lol. Everybody else in the group had a funny friend connection to Beth, so I felt privileged to be included. Beth is awesome, because she talks to everybody in the group and is so friendly and fun. She's someone you can be instant friends with.
We found the old city, finally, after a long walk. Lol. But it was an enjoyable long walk. Going into the old village, you were hit by the bright colors all over again. And all the streets in the old village were so steep! Lol. We started the hike up to the "chateau", and my legs started complaining. If they spoke English, they would have said, "Rachel, what are you doing to us? No more, no more!" But I told them to be quiet and toughen up, and luckily they obeyed me.
So, the chateau isn't really a chateau. Lol. It's actually just the ruins of a wall that used to be part of a chateau. Now it's a garden/cemetery. Still beautiful with amazing views of the ocean and the city. But definitely not a chateau. Lol. There was also a cool waterfall on one of the paths. That was fun to take pictures by. This was also a fun little excursion because we met up with other people from the group and took some pictures. On the way back down we stepped into the cemetery. It was pretty cool. We were in the Jewish section of the cemetery. I didn't know this before our class reading last night, but France has the largest Jewish population in Europe. Cool, huh? Although, one thing that I'm still a little confused about. Why do Jewish people put rocks on loved ones' graves? I haven't figured that one out yet. Most things have symbolism in the Jewish religion, so I feel like it should be some sort of symbol. Maybe not, though…
Then we hopped on the tram to go to the Russian Orthodox Church. That was a pretty cool church! Very different from all the other churches I've seen on this trip, because it was Byzantine style, not Gothic or Neo-classic. It was a nice change. The murals on the walls of the church were very beautiful! Like all the other religious stuff we've seen, there was a lot of symbolism. One part of the decoration showed the Russian/French friendship. A lot of the Russian royalty liked to come to Nice, so they built a church there at the end of the 1800s to be able to worship the way they were used to. This was one of the first Russian Orthodox churches built outside of Russia.
I was a little appalled by one woman I saw there, though. She went up to one of the painted panels and rubbed her hands all over it! Hard! Doesn't she know that that thing is an antique? Oil paintings (or tempera, I couldn't tell which it was) do not last if people rub them! It's one thing to take photos when three or four signs at the entrance to the church say "no photos at all", but touching the paintings? Goodness…
Everybody went to the beach after getting back from the church. I didn't, though. Lol. I did laundry (for an arm and a leg! So expensive…) and then dozed by the pool. It was getting a little bit late, though, so I didn't really get any sun. Oh well. Lol.
We ended the night with FHE! Beth gave a lesson about President Monson's message from the Ensign. I loved the talk! And her lesson, too. It was a great reminder that sometimes the poorest and weakest and least pretty among us have the most beautiful souls. We need to remember everyone's potential as sons and daughters of God and treat them with the love and respect they each deserve. That's something I've struggled a little bit with this week in more than one way. It was a good reminder and a good time to reflect on how I've been doing.
We ended with a birthday party, celebrating Paris and Caitlyn's birthdays and all the people whose unbirthdays we didn't catch. (We have a birthday party every Monday and celebrate unbirthdays, as well as any birthdays that happened during the week.) Professor Le Bras bought pastries for everybody! Strawberry tarts and réligieuses and éclairs and a bunch of other things I didn't know the name of. I had a réligeuse. So yummy! It's basically a cream puff sandwich. The bottom layer is a big cream puff filled with chocolate cream, then there's a layer of chocolate ganache on top of that, topped with some sort of cream cheese-tasting icing. On top of that was a mini cream puff with the same chocolate cream and ganache on top of that. YUMMY!!!!!!!! And so fattening. All the good effects of my painful run, out the window! Oh well. Lol. I only have a few more days left of eating real French pastries!
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