Goal of the weekend: confuse the Marvejolais?

Five friends of mine came to visit me in Marvejols this weekend. Nothing like a weekend in the countryside to get away from the bustling city life. As my friends drove up to the school late Saturday afternoon, they got to see what my life is really like in Marvejols. I dragged the big metal gate open to the school grounds and let the travellers in. Unlocked the building and took them up five flights of stairs to the dorm part of the school and into my room with its bed and one chair. We then went to my fridge. And by my fridge, I mean the mini-fridge in the teachers room, four flights down. There you go, c'est ma vie. They obviously found my living situation hilarious, and who wouldn't? I literally. live. in. a. middle. school. We ate our dinner of Roquefort cheese (that they had picked up in the town of Roquefort on their way) and other various items that didn't need to be cooked. I must say, drinking wine in the school, felt more than a little strange.

I then took them on a tour of the town. The highlights: the old doors to the city, the "centre ville," the wolf statue and the esplanade. In our journey, we saw maximum eight people, on a Saturday night, at around 9pm. Oh Marvejols. We stopped in the one bar in town, the Daytona (pause for laughter) and as we walked in, we were greeted like celebrities. Everyone was staring and pointing at us, and even waving at us? Six, blatantly non-French young adults in rural France on a Saturday night. We understood the confusion.

We went back to my lovely middle school to hang out in my room again and watched a movie in the students "rec room" where we all promptly fell asleep on sleeping bags and whatever blankets I could find in the school's laundry room. I can't even imagine what we looked like.

The next morning we woke up relatively early to start our day. We hung out in the teachers room having breakfast and coffee and headed on our way to trek up the "mountain." The hike was extremely enjoyable and I got to explore the old farm ruins some more now that I had back-up with me. The view from the top of the mountain is beautiful! You can see how small Marvejols really is. After we started getting extremely cold we headed down the mountain and back to the middle school. Lunch consisted of baguettes and cheese (typique) and microwavable pizzas, because as I must reiterate, I don't have a kitchen.

Next, we hopped into Susanna's car and drove to a nearby lake that I've randomly been to. We wanted to go to the wolf park (that Marvejols is so famous for) but it is closed in January. Literally the only times it closes during the year. Sigh. To the lake! The lake was frozen and beautiful and I'm pretty sure we found some tracks from la bete de Gevaudan (the beast of Gevaudan, the "wolf" or whatever, that terrorized the region in the 1800s). After freezing there for a while, we drove off and saw a sign leading toward a chateau. I had heard there was a castle somewhere near Marvejols, so this had to be it! Indeed it was. Chateau de la Baume, the Versailles of Gevaudan, according to my guide book. In the summer maybe, but honestly it was a cold looking castle that was surrounded by cow fields. Obviously very cool and impressive, but compared to Versailles? Not so much. After confusing the residents of the castle by running around the grounds for about an hour, our feet were cold from the snow and it was getting late. The friends packed up their affairs and were off, back to civilization and Montpellier. It was great to have them here and to have people see what my life is actually like in Lozere.