An American in Saint Etienne

Friday, April 20, 2007

Leaving the boys







The end of Terion and I's vacation. Time to say goodbye to Geoffroy until the next time one of us crosses the ocean and to send Terion off to NY to visit Aaron and Nathalie in DC. We helped Geoffroy move into his new appartment in Cergy, a suburb/town just outside Paris. We found that the RER just doesn't like Terion and I as we spent from 3:15pm until about 5pm trying to get to Cergy because there was work on the tracks and we had to take this confusing way to get there. Once there we walked around the place, getting to know it at the same time as Geoffroy. It was like I wasn't in France anymore with the very American style modern offices and appartment buildings and the only food around being a McDonalds or takeout pizza. We did find the port on the Seine, which Geoffroy said looked like Disneyland because it had been built to look like it was older but Geoffroy thinks it won't age well. Then we watched a Belgian film before hittin the sack for Geoffroy's first day of work and my train back to teach.

Nantes n' Rennes



















































Friday morning we met up with Geoffroy at 8:30 am in Nantes and spent time seeing the castle and having lunch in an oddly decorated restaurant (as Geoffroy disapprovingly shook his head at our ketchup usage). Then we met up with Geoffroy's friend Camille and we all went around the city a bit more, watched "Ensemble c'est tous" which was a complete disappointment after the book, and had a yummy three-course French meal (which it better have been for 24 euros). After it was off to a bar that is decorated like a house on the inside (one room is a bathroom and the table is actually in a bathtub!) where Terion and I proceeded to talk about non-pc topics while Geoffroy kept bringing up the topic of politics.
The next day we were off to Rennes and met up again with Camille. And we basically spent the whole day eating (kebab lunch, café, dessert in another café, pizza, then bed). Rennes has lovely architecture and in the main place there were alot of concerts going on (marionettes and bands) and people politically campaigning.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Alone in Quiberon































































I don't have much time to type so I will have to post about the rest of my spring break with Geoffroy and Terion when I get home because I think these next couple of weeks I will be too busy. But quickly Quiberon was my favorite place in Bretagne, a peninsula that just out into the clear blue Atlantic ocean. I only had a few hours there, long story but got wet and my bags started to rip, took a bus from Auray to Quiberon because there are no trains to the mini station there, lucckily could leave my hiking backpack at the tourism office, and then had from 12 till 5pm to see the town with its cote sauvage and numerous beaches. The walk along the rugged coastline is beautiful, then I ate mussels at a restaurant looking over the ocean before seeing some of the beaches, stores, and the Port Haliguen. It was definitely worth the hassle of getting there.

Quimper and the Pointe du Raz





















































































The coastline of Bretagne is one of the most gorgeous I have ever seen, I guess because I have always been fascinated by cliffs and rocks that jet into the waves. Or maybe its my love for all things Irish, and the green countryside/bright yellow flowers adn Bretion tongue which resembles Gaelic made me feel like I was in Ireland. It almost made me wish I had requested the Bretagne region but then I realized for it to be such lush green countryside it has to rain everyday (we just we really lucky and had gorgeous weather), plus its hard to travel from there being the point the furthest West. Quimper is also known for its porcelaine and we went to the HP Henriot porcelaine shop (since the 1600s) and saw how it is made and painted.