Nantes By Night

January 22- January  23, 2011

Hommes et Femmes, Bonjour!

..Or should I say bon nuit! Saturday morning I woke at around noon because I was exhausted from a long week of orientation and grabbed a quick breakfast of toast and tea. I decided to walk my bus route to IES and downtown Nantes so I could take some pics and figure the city. I left my house around 2 and got downtown at around 2:45- 3. 

After walking around for a little bit up I met up with my friend Doug and got some biers. By this time it was already almost 6 pm and I wanted to go home and shower before my big night out on the town. I walked back to my bus stop and went home to change and get ready to go out. I left home at around 7:15 and met some friends at a kabob place behind place royale. We stayed there for about an hour until we were all assembled. Then we went to a little Irish pub to watch hand ball, not the same game in the US, it's like a mix between water polo and basketball. After having a few biers there we went and found Bouffay which is a part of Nantes that has a lot of bars. We found another Irish pub with a bunch of IES students and went there for a while. The boys had bought a thing of whisky and put there coke bottle in my purse and almost got me kicked out of the bar. Thankfully the owner was Irish and kindly explained to the boys why they can't bring in drinks to bar. My friend Dmitri and I met some French people who had known some IES kids from last semester. We went to a club not too far from Commerce and they taught us how the the French dance...basically fist pumping but with your hand open instead of closed. I did not get home till about 5 am because I caught the last late night bus from Commerce at 4:30 am. 

Sunday Morning I woke up at about noon feeling exhausted. I went downstairs and had some toast before going back to my room and reading for a little. I had lunch with my family around 1:15. Some sort of salad with artichokes, avocados, cheese, and vinaigrette; it was delicious. Then we had some roasted red meet for lunch with potatoes cooked in creme fresh. It was amazing and then had vanilla profiteroles with chocolate sauce for dessert. After such a rich lunch, my host mom, Marie-Aude, took me on a tour of the Jardin de Plantes, a huge garden down the street from my house that was beautiful. I cannot wait to go back in the spring to take more pictures when all the flowers are in bloom. 

Well, tonight we're having soup, yogurt, and salad for dinner. I start classes tomorrow. Dear everyone returning to connecticut college today, I miss you and have a wonderful semester! I'll post again soon about my academic adventures in France. Here are some more pictures I took of Nantes. À Bientot!

KSG