le musée fabre: nicest restrooms in montpellier

this afternoon entailed a program-paid visit to the visiting impressionist exhibit at the musée fabre, located off the esplanade in montpellier. the exhibit celebrates the relationship between french and american artists, philanthropists, museums, and public that contributed to the movement, and contains masterpieces by monet, manet, renoir, degas, pissarro, caillebotte, cassatt, sisley, and morisot. there were too many americans to my liking (and i cannot abide being rushed, slowed, or spoken to in a museum) so i broke away from my tour group and took my time going through the exhibit. the works that i found most captivating were degas' Petite danseuse de quatorze ans and Renard mort; renoir's La rêveuse and Coco écrivant; and cassatt's Caresse maternelle. once we have our student id cards, we can get in free to the permanent collection any time.
in other news, our excursion to carcassonne last sunday was a disaster. the city itself is interesting, as a study in restoration techniques (look up Viollet-le-Duc) and artisan biscuits, but it's full of tourists. also, it was bloody hot when we were there, and most of us very nearly perished while watching the jousting knights and mangy squires. the real adventure began when we left to return to montpellier. the bus i was on was leaking oil, so we had to stop to refill the tank. of course they neglected to tell us what was going on, so we sat in the furnace of the bus waiting indefiniately, and then found the door to be locked when we decided to get off. we got back on the road, only to stop again. the other bus went on home, and we got back in our death mobile to go a few kilometers to wait for a rescue bus to pick us up. in all, what should have been a 2 hour trip took more than 4. hopefully the excursion to avignon tomorrow will go more smoothly...