le printemps arrive!

After months of dreary gray and dreams of warmer days, the weather is finally turning around. I've spent all this time imagining how beautiful Dijon would be in the springtime and it hasn't let me down. Flowers are blooming, birds are singing, and the streets are alive with people, sitting outside of cafes and drinking Oranginas.

Still, these are French people we're talking about, so you would never know the difference to look at them. They continue to wear scarves and coats, and all black of course. I wore a skirt without tights one day and was surprised to find myself feeling a bit naked. If this were Washington, people would be in shorts and tank tops! The French people simply don't understand.

I on the other hand have been taking every opportunity I can to soak it in. We've spent several lunches by Lake Kir (a small man-made lake named after the former mayor of Dijon and the creator of everyone's favorite aperatif), eating sandwiches on the dock and letting our bare feet hang over the water. One day we went to Erica's neighborhood (she lives in a suburb just on the edge of the city) and walked around with her host mother. We walked up to the top of a hill on which sits a church where Saint-Benigne, the patron saint of Dijon, lived. From there, we could see a view of all Dijon. We continued on through a small wooded area and found ourselves in a little patch of idyllic farmland. Sadly, the pastoral beauty was interrupted by the construction site of a future highway and the view of the mall in the distance. Nonetheless, I still want to go back one day for a photo shoot or a picnic.

We've also spent time in some of the parks of Dijon. Several times we've simply sat in the park near the center of town doing our homework, or at least trying to. A few days ago, Lauren, Abby and I went to the Parc de la Colombière, a bigger park that Abby and I had visited in the beginning of the semester when everything was cold and dead. This time we found flowers blooming and children playing and baby animals! There's a small zoo of sorts in the middle of the park with llamas, goats, peacocks, guinnea pigs, and all other sorts of random animals. It's a bit strange, admittedly, but this time there were baby goats! They were unbelievably adorable -- running around, making adorable noises and jumping on their mamas' backs! We spent an insane amount of time watching them. Someday, we're going to come back with carrots to feed them.

All of these adventures have been rather spontaneous so I sadly don't have any pictures to share. It's one of the downsides of having a giant SLR. I will simply have to suck it up and start lugging it around with me when it's nice out because I plan I having plenty more adventures.

Tomorrow, in fact, is our next excursion. We're going to Alsace and so I will be having some German-flavored adventures very soon.