Spontaneous trip to Nantes…”The most BEAUTIFUL place on earth”

I feel like so much has been happening lately and I havent had a chance to blog about it and then it becomes old news and then you never hear about it!!! So I’m going to try NOT to bore you but catch you up to snuff:

Monday: First day back from break. Mondays are actually my favorite day of the week this semester because I really like the classes I have on those days :)  Vacation felt like it continued a little longer though because Emily and her roommate Kaysey were on break and so Emily went to visit her former host families in Grenoble for the weekend and on Monday night Kaysey came to Rennes!  I took her to English night at an Irish pub in Rennes called O’Connells.  English night is sometimes hit or miss but it ended up being really fun.  We met some really cool people & spoke a lot of French :D

Tuesday: We woke up and I briefly showed Kaysey around the city before going to class and then she did her own thing during the day, wandering around.  We got back together for a late lunch and then said goodbye because she was on her way to Nantes, via a carpooling social network (www.covoiturage.fr), where she was meeting up with Emily.

Wendesday: I went to class like usual on Wednesday and after my last class, I took a train to Nantes…I haven’t gotten up the courage to covoiturage yet.  The train took me to Redon, where I had to switch to a bus that took me the rest of the way to Nantes…I think I heard someone mention that there was some sort of construction on the line to Nantes, which was why we took a bus. Anyway it was very strange and made me feel like I was on my way to a cross country meet that was really far away. Haha anyway, I got to Nantes and met up with Emily & Kaysey as well as Pascal.  Pascal is the guy at whose place we couchsurfed. I feel like that was a strange sentence but I think you get the idea. They stayed there the night before and I just stayed there Wednesday night.  We walked around the city, saw some crazy shiz and got some food before going back to Pascals.

Pascal had a really big apartment and so there was plenty of room for all of us.  He invited us to go to a concert that he and some friends were going to that night and since we had nothing better to do, we agreed.  Good thing too, because we had an awesome time!! The opening band was Henry’s Funeral Shoe, followed by SSM, and then the headliner was Radio Moscow. We were checking out the merch in the back between sets and started talking to Brennig, the drummer for Henry’s Funeral Shoe, and he was really cool. Hanging out with him totally made my night.  Another thing that was pretty cool, is that I found out the band Radio Moscow is from IOWA. No joke. And it gets even better.  Guess where they are from in Iowa?! AMES.  actually Story City but apparently they associate with Ames because that’s what Brennig told me first before he remembered Story City.  I didn’t want to be a creeper after the show and hunt them down but isn’t that crazy?! I randomly ended up at a concert in Nantes where a band from my hometown(ish) was performing. Crazayy.

Thursday: Kaysey wanted to make a big American breakfast for Pascal because he had been so nice, and so she made pancakes, bacon, eggs, and potatoes. All delicious, but after just one pancake I could barely move…I was so full!! yummy though.  I missed my train (bus) back unfortunately, and so I had a few more hours with Emily and Kaysey in Nantes.  We wandered around and explored but the main thing we did was go to Le Lieu Unique.  If you’ve ever heard of Prince or Le petit écolier cookies, they are made by a brand called LU.  These initials come from Lieu Unique, which is the name of their old factory.  It was converted into a restaurant, cafe, librairie, boutique, hammam, and a space for “les spectacles et exhibitions.”  Anyway it was freakin awesome.

Le Lieu Unique

detail

I got the bus back to Rennes at 16:00 and on the way I tried to write a poem about the wild mistletoe that is infesting and killing the trees in Bretagne but didn’t get far.

How is this the only non-blurry photo from the whole night?!

That night was Rich’s birthday and he had an enormous party (I think about 100 ppl were there, which meant no one could move in the apartment lol).  It was really fun because there were so many different groups of people there. There were the English speakers, the Spanish and the French and probably some other more obscure languages represented as well but it was just a really fun time in general :)  Everyone left for town around 00:15 because the last metro runs at about 00:30.  This is where the night turned strange, but amusing :) We were all going to meet up at a club called L’espace, but we lost half the group and then found the other half right outside the club and apparently it was too expensive so we all sorta split up and went our separate ways.  I was with a new friend that I had made that night called Rob and we ended up meeting a whole bunch of French people in a park at which point my other friend also named Rob joined us and then we went to the first Rob’s house (which is freakin awesome btw. He lives in a real house right off the main drag in Rennes and lives with 9 French ppl. Jealous much? Yeah, me too.) to warm up before the other Rob and I walked home. Whew! crazy night haha but really fun :)  Sometimes the best experiences in France are when you just start talking to strangers.

Friday: I didn’t do too much on Friday (I don’t have any classes on Friday), but I met up with my friends Imogen, Maire and Barbara for lunch at this adorable tartine restaurant in the middle of town before shopping a little bit (no purchases for me though, shucks!). I saw a really cool pair of frames when Barbara went in to get some contact solution.  They’re a light tortoiseshell color and they’re pretty square shaped but the coolest thing about them is that on the inside of the frames, they’re a lavenderish, purple-y color, so when I turn my head you can see a little hint of it…I’m super tempted to get them :D

Saturday: Today I really haven’t done much but recover from such a long week.  I’ve been blogging a lot today and I’m hoping to meet up with some friends tonight. I’ve cleaned up my room a little bit, but I still have a little bit more to do, like usual ;)

I’ve been listening to Wet Sand by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Neutral Milk Hotel’s The King of Carrot Flowers Pt 1 repeatedly.  It’s that kind of day…chilly and dreary.  I’m sending out rays of love and sun to all of you! Bisous!

xxo

The Thirsty Street. Also Known As “La Rue de la Soif”

Salut mes amis!

Last night was really fun!  Could you tell by my last post?  lol

I met some Irish girls at this mini orientation thing yesterday morning and although I really want to meet & become friends with some french people, I know I’ll have lots of time for that…I just need to meet some people in general first.

So anyways, we met downtown at the metro stop St-Anne at 9 o’clock last night. Or we were supposed to. I was there at 9, but Elizabeth and Sinead missed their bus stop because they were chatting lol so I wandered around for awhile and discovered so many cute little shops and restaurants while waiting for them to walk back.  That area is so cool!!  Anyway, we went there because we heard there was an “English Party.”

How hilarious.

Sadly, we never found the bar and so we didn’t get the free drinks we had been promised, but we did meet some English boys that are studying at Rennes II as well.   So Martin, Rob, Sinead, Elizabeth, Catherine (a Master’s student at Rennes II that we met up with) went to a few bars together.  It was really great.  I had my first legal drink too!

I have noticed though, that I’ve kinda started doing a weird hybrid accent of American, Irish and British English since I’ve started hanging around with them. But as long as it doesn’t affect my French, I think we can be friends :) haha

We had another orientation this morning- way more detailed- and I sat with some Spanish people who I met yesterday morning as well; Marta, Blanca, and Anderique (?! I know I am butchering his name, sorry!).  We were given these completely adorable cardboard briefcases full of information and documents for foreign students.  There were apératifs after the orientation (how French!!  Alcohol in the morning and in an academic setting, no less!) and then a big group of us decided to go exploring downtown.

We had lunch, got rained on a little, and looked around the shops.  That area is very quaint.  I found the nicer, frencher (i know thats not a word but oh well haha) version of a Bed Bath & Beyond, which was a relief.  When my crappy Carrefour towels wear out, I’ll know where to go!  We also went to the French Virgin Megastore (very different from the American one) and I bought Coeur De Pirate’s cd.  I posted about her fabbbb music a while back, here.

Then our massive group parted ways.  A few went to get cell phones, a few went back and Sinead, Elizabeth and I went to the most adorrrrrrrrrrrable place everrr to get a coffee.  I should have taken a picture so you could see the preciousness of it.  Anyway, its a little cafe called “Haricots Rouges.”  I think I’ll go back no matter what because it was so damn presh, but anyway, it is a cafe, but what makes it special is that whatever you order, whether it be hot chocolate (a specialty of theirs) or a latté (which you can get with almost any flavor), you get a mini brownie square and a tiny shot glass of water to go with it!  It is completely adorable and delicious.  I had a hot chocolate that was amazingly frothy.  Yum!  Anyway it was amazing, and if you visit me, I will take you there :)

From there, the girls and I parted ways and I took the metro back while they took the bus.  I stopped at the Carrefour to buy a  few things (it feels like I stop there every day) and met up with some friends to do some serious grocery shopping/ kettle & cup buying (really that is just a little jab at my English friends who say “kettle”, “cup”, “mug”, “four” and countless other words with adorable accents).

Next on the agenda was some relaxation in the dorm, which really consisted of calling home (its always nice to hear my mom’s voice), checking emails, responding to problems, making “To-Do lists”, organizing forms and papers and other things like that.

Before I knew it, Friday night was upon me and I ran out to meet my friends at the metro stop in front of the University.  When I got there, a pretty big group had assembled and we went downtown together.  Almost all of them were English except for Barbara (Irish), Sam (Belgian) and Me (American)!

We all wandered around for a bit together, trying to find a good  bar, but our group was way too big and we lost track of each other.  In the end, it ended up being Barbara, Rob, Martin and I at a cozy little Breton bar with lowwww beam ceilings.  The boys had to duck because they were so low!  These are photos of Martin, Barbara and Rob.

At the end of the night a lot of us found each other again and took the metro back together.  We didn’t stay out too late because we are going to the Marché des Lices tomorrow morning and are meeting up with everyone at 9:45am.  I understand that it is a farmer’s market, so I am rather excited :)

Anyway, I better be off to bed now.  I wish I’d had a chance to upload some pictures for you- especially since this post was so long.  I’ll do my best to update again tomorrow morning before I leave for the Marché.

xxo