St. Malo/Mont St. Michel Among Other Things...

February 8- February 12

Hello again,

I would like to start of this post by saying I finally tried a French food I did not like, Les Coquilles Saint- Jacques. Yes, it is sea food, it is a scallop like crustacean that I did not really care for. Anyways, my host mom was so sweet about it, she offered to make me something else but I declined the offer and just ate some of the yummy rice dish thing she made me. Thursday, February 10, I went out with a bunch of French students that some of my IES friends had met at conversation club, it was an awesome night and I had a lot of fun and made some new French amis. Now onto the main attraction...

Saint Malo

Saturday February 12, I woke up at 6:15 am so I could eat some breakfast before heading of to IES to hop on a bus for 2 hours for a day trip to northern Brittany. Our first stop was the town of Saint Malo a port city  on the English Channel. What makes it particularly awesome is that there is a huge wall around the whole city. It was founded in the middle ages and is basically just badass. 

For the first part of our journey, we walked around the entire wall that circumvents the city. It was beautiful and an interesting combination of modern and ancient architecture. The modern being the creepy carnival outside the giant wall, the ancient being well, just about everything else. My favorite part of this little town was the fact that I saw little optis sailing out on the ocean. Also, they have this awesome swimming pool they built into the beach so that during the summer people could swim in it and jump off the little platform diving board they created. 

swimming pool

Optis!

All of us ladies ate lunch at this delicious little creperie in the town of Saint Malo. We each got a little green salad, a complet (egg, cheese, and ham) and then we each got different dessert crepes. Chocolate and banana, sugar and butter, and caramel. Mallory and I also got little glasses of vin chaud (hot wine) to try. It smelled like it had spices in it but then ended up being warm sangria...it was delicious!

Mont Saint Michel

After getting back on the bus, we drove a hour east to Mont Saint Michel where I saw one of the coolest looking abbeys I have ever seen. The abbey is basically built on a rock which is actually a tidal island that is connected to the mainland by a causeway that is exposed at low tide but not high tide. Clearly, we were there at low tide otherwise we would not have been able to get on or off the island. The abbey on Mont Saint Michel was built in 708 but the island had been fought over since the 6th and 7th centuries, aka the Romans and their friends. Then England tried to take it from France in the 100 years war but failed because, lets face it, it would be pretty hard to capture this place. Due to the Reformation and French Revolution, most of the monks fled the abbey and it actually became a prison to hold those who opposed the republican regime. Now it is a tourist attraction but still has nuns and stuff. There are no elevators so you have to walk up a lot of steps to get to the actually abbey. 

After the treck to the top, there is the most amazing few of the sea. The church itself is pretty cool because it is so old and you have to wonder how they managed to put the whole thing together without modern construction machinery. One of the coolest, most entertaining aspects of the mont was that we got to walk on the beach since it was low tide. If you walk about 75 yards out onto the sand bar, you quickly realize that the sand is actually quicksand. To be fair the quicksand was more like slow sand because you had to jump on it a lot to actually get it to suck you down but it was still cool. We must have played in the quicksand for hours, these two young french boys rolled up their pants and actually let themselves sink down to their knees. It was a little unnerving but awesome.  We headed back to Nantes around 5:30 but didn't get to the city until like 8. Overall it was an amazing but tiring day. Here are some more pictures from my trip to Saint Malo and Mont Saint Michel, I hope you enjoy them. Au revoir, Vous me manquez.

KSG

Nantes à Velo

January 29- February 7

Salut mes amis!

Since I've started classes, my weeks have become pretty similar so I am going to start just talking about the highlights of my week. 

Classes:

As some of you may recall my last adventure to the FAC was a little frustrating because all the little French students decided to talk over the professor. It was very hard for me to hear what the prof was saying and was overall a difficult experience. This time, I showed up to class on Wednesday, February 2nd ready to take on the history of economics. Erin and I sat in the third row and had our weapons (pens and paper) ready to frantically scribble down whatever we could understand. Since we were closer to the front, it was easier to understand him but on this particular day we started talking a little bit about American history. Well the professor thought it would be a good idea to point out the two sole Americans in the class of 100. He kept asking us how to pronounce certain things and looking at us for encouraging glances. If it was not already clear we were American, it is now. What's a French class without a little humiliation right?

Repas (meals):

I ate some amazing food this week. On Tuesday, February 1st my host mom made tomatoes stuffed with beef and then used the insides of the tomatoes to make an amazing sauce with local spices that she served with pasta...delicious. On Sunday, February 6th, we had an amazing lunch consisting of roasted duck breast and caramelized apple slices. My host mom made a sauce out of the duck's juices and cider...it was amazing. Last night, Monday, February 7th, I decided to sit in the kitchen while she made dinner so I could figure out if I had any hope of replicating my meals once I went back to the states.

 This is a tomato tart that is made of mustard, Gruyère cheese, tomatoes, something something Provence (the seasoning), and a little bit of olive oil. It was delicious. My host mom also always make a soup at the beginning of the week. In French she calls it, "soup de maison" or "potage"...either way it's delicious. In this particular soup she cooked, zucchini, mushroom, onion, and tomato together with some other spices I have neither heard of nor can pronounce in a pot of boiling water. Then she basically blends it and poof, amazing soup. It took her one hour to make the soup, (Dad, this comment is directed at you in hopes you can learn to make a soup in less than 24 hours). Basically, the meal was amazing and I cannot wait to try to cook some of this stuff when I come back to the good ole US of A.

Now the reason for my title: Nantes à velo. On Saturday, February 5th, one of my French friends took me on a bike ride along the river near where he lives. He had two bikes but I think they were from the 1950's. Even though it was kind of gray out, it was still really fun. We rode by many little parks and the race track which was called the hypodrome I think. The path was really muddy which made biking on old school bikes pretty difficult. We stopped at this little cafe in this little village called Vertou to get some tea and hot chocolate because we were both exhausted and kind of cold. He tried to take me on this one path that ended up being all up hill and super muddy. Considering we were not using BMX or mountain bikes, we conceded to the elements and turned around. He told me he had never biked this far down the river so I was a little nervous as to where we would end up but we saw some interesting things. For one, they have a sport here called Kayak polo...water polo in kayaks; he was baffled I had never heard of it. It looked pretty fun but difficult because you have to paddle, catch the ball, avoid being pirated/sunk, and try to score goals.

Trying to Bike and Take Pictures

Kayak Polo

View from the Little Cafe

The Little Cafe in Vertou

Right before my little excursion, my friend Mallory and I met up in Place Royale to get a coffee. I ordered a hot chocolate and this is what I was served:

Yes ladies and gentlemen that is basically a steaming cup of melted chocolate. I do not know if I ordered the wrong thing or if this is what this little cafe considers hot chocolate but they took the request pretty literally. Was it delicious? Of course it was but I managed to get through about four bites before the chocolate was simply too rich. Bravo little cafe, you win this time. Anyways, that's all for now I am going a field trip this weekend to a mountain or something that is supposed to be beautiful so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. Until next time, au revoir!

KSG