Discovering La Marché Des Lices

The Marché des Lices was F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S.

If you like markets, scratch that- if you like food at all, you would love the Marché des Lices.  I can’t wait to take my mom and sister there when they visit.  There is no way to explain how massive and amazing it is, other than to actually experience it.

I didn’t want to look like an utter tool, taking millions of photos, so I only snapped a few.  Here are the results:

There were even vendors making fresh crepes, to-order, while we waited.  It was my first truly French crepe and it was delicious!  I could hardly believe that it only cost €1!

We even caught some tap dancers performing.  That was priceless.  It was probably one of those “you had to be there” things, so I wont bore you with the pictures.

One more amusing thing that happened today:

As Barbara and I were leaving the Carrefour, we discovered some sort of festival going on (practically in our backyard).  The best part: French country western linedancers.

No, you did not hear read me incorrectly.  FRENCH COUNTRY WESTERN LINE DANCERS.  There apparently is a group in Rennes and that is their thing!  They were performing and I had to get a couple pictures and a video, it was so priceless.  The funny thing was that they were so French the way they danced.  They were all dressed up (they even had God Bless America-type denim chambray shirts on!), but they showed very little enthusiasm, although I suppose the stoic look is one the French do best.  Here is the evidence (gotta love the guy in the back left):

I’ll add the video once I get it uploaded to Youtube.

There is more to say (like always), but I just don’t have the time right now.  I need to clean up (myself and my room) before going out tonight.  Luckily, I’ll be able to sleep in and relax tomorrow, which means I’ll probably be able to write a bunch…but don’t hold me to that!

Have a fantabulous Saturday evening.

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