St Malo and Mt. St. Michel

This past week at Conversation Club we were talking about American TV shows. The French only watch American shows and hate their French ones. They LOVE Greys Anatomy and How I Met Your Mother. One girl in the Conversation Club met Patrick Dempsy once! It was so crazy and we told her that practically every girl in America would be jealous of her. Her parents live in Lyon and there is a big car race there. Patrick Dempsy was there for the race and she said she saw him and ran up to him and started telling him how much she loved him and the show. She said he was really nice and talked to her for a minute, then gave her the pen he had in his pocket (kind of random, and she asked us if this was a normal gift to give in American haha) and then HE KISSED HER ON THE CHEEK! She said she walked away and then fainted hahaha

            Wednesday night France played Brazil in soccer so we went to a bar to watch the game with some of our friends. It was so much fun being watching the French people watch the game. And then France won 1-0!! It was a huge upset!    

            This weekend we visited St. Malo, a town on the northern coast of France, and Mont St. Michel. St. Malo was a really neat town. It has a wall that surrounds it to block the city from the wind coming off the ocean. You can walk around the top of the wall and look out over the English Channel or over the town. We of course had to go out on the beach and touch the English Channel. It looks a lot like the Atlantic but the water is a little greener. The beach didn’t have as many shells as the South Carolina beaches do but it was still really pretty. We heard it was going to rain that day, but the weather was absolutely gorgeous!! It was pretty warm and the sun was out. But we had our rainboots so we decided to walk into the water since it was the English Channel. It was so much fun! Afterwards we ate lunch at this really cute crêperie. Everything was pink and white, and we were able to sit outside in the sunshine.

            After lunch we went to Mont St. Michel. It was absolutely incredible! It is an abbey that was built in 700 on the top of this island in the English Channel. It has an absolutely breath taking view and then the abbey itself is so amazing! It is so hard to imagine that it was built in 700 when they didn’t have any of the technology or anything that we have today. The abbey was also used as a prison during the French Revolution so it was interesting to see how they converted parts of it into prison cells. We even saw one of the 30 people who live in the abbey. While we were in the main church part of the abbey, a nun walked out one random side door. One of our friends was joking about ringing the bell because the string was just sitting right there and she came over and told him not to or everyone would be confused because they only ring the bell at sunset. She was actually really nice and joked with us about it. The tide was low so we were even able to walk down onto the beach and look up at the abbey. It was absolutely incredible!!

Weekend in Paris!

            This past weekend I went to Paris with a big group of girls from Wofford and one of our friends from Nantes. It was truly one of the best weekends of my life. It’s going to be hard to put into words how amazing it was to be in PARIS with such great friends.

            On the train from Nantes to Paris I was very excited to say the least, but I had no idea how happy I would be when I finally saw friends from home. Charlotte and Amy, two of my friends from Wofford who are studying in Barcelona this semester, got to Paris Thursday and were waiting for me, Claire, Meredith, and our new friend Emma at the metro stop by our hotel. I cannot explain how excited we were when we saw them! It was such a crazy feeling and after lots of screams and hugs we decided to go be very French and eat a crêpe. We checked into the hotel and waited on Sara and Lizzy, my Wofford friends who are in Madrid, to get to the hotel. Claire and I went outside to meet them because the hotel was kind of hard to find. When we finally saw Sara and Lizzy crossing the street we literally started screaming! We were just as happy to see them as we were to see Charlotte and Amy and couldn’t stop smiling.

            Friday night we tried to go to a fondue restaurant we had heard about but it was too crowded. Our big group of 8 ended up splitting up because there was no way all 8 of us were going to fit in one restaurant on a Friday night. Sara, Charlotte, Claire, Emma and I ended up finding this AMAZING Italian restaurant. Claire and I split possibly the best pasta we have ever eaten. After dinner we walked around and found this bar. We ended up making friends with this couple from England, Miki and Ed. They were HILARIOUS! As we were sitting in the bar talking with them, a man playing the bagpipes walked in with a group of other Scottish men in kilts. They started playing songs for us and even played songs that we requested! It was so much fun!

            Saturday we woke up and all had different plans. Charlotte, Claire, Sara, Emma, and I all wanted to go sightseeing. We went to the Notre Dame first. It was of course incredible and as soon as we got there the bells started ringing. It was amazing! We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then went to the Arc de Triomphe. This is my favorite place in Paris because from the top of it you look down the Champs Elysee at the Louvre, and you can also see Sacre Coeur and the Eiffel Tower. It is such an incredible view of Paris and it was so neat being able to see all of this with some of my best friends! After the Arc de Triomphe we walked over to the Eiffel Tower. It was absolutely incredible and we had the best time watching all the other tourists taking pictures and stuff. One girl was literally having a photo shoot—it was hilarious! After the Eiffel Tower we went to a little bar/restaurant and got French beers and French fries—they were delicious!!

            We went back and got dressed and then went back to Refuge du Fondue. We split our group into two smaller groups and we were finally all able to get in. It was the coolest restaurant ever! For 17 euros each we got a little appetizer plate, a meat fondue, a cheese fondue, and got to drink wine out of baby bottles all night! It was so much fun!! The restaurant had two long tables and the waiter would literally pull you inside and you had to walk over the tables to sit down. The food was really good, the atmosphere was so much fun, and we had the best time drinking French wine out of baby bottles—I mean when else can you do that??

            After dinner Meredith, Emma, Lizzy, and Amy wanted to go find a club because Meredith had just turned 21. Sara, Charlotte, Claire and I decided to go to the Eiffel Tower. We stopped at a grocery store on the way and picked up a bottle of champagne—we were being so French—and went and sat on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower. I can’t put into words what an incredible experience it was to sit at the Eiffel Tower with three of my best friends. It was amazing and truly something I will never forget. The Eiffel Tower is lit up at night and looks gorgeous. Then every hour it sparkles—I don’t know how else to describe it but that it sparkles haha It was so neat being there and seeing that with Sara, Charlotte, and Claire. We all realized how lucky we were to be able to have this experience and spend a night “hanging out” at the Eiffel Tower!!

            I cried Sunday when we had to say goodbye to them. To say the least the train ride back to Nantes was very long. But after such an incredible weekend, we were all excited for all the weekends yet to come this semester. We’re already planning our next trip to see each other!

Pigeon for supper??

            Wednesday my host mom’s parents and aunt and uncle came to visit because there was this huge classical musical festival in Nantes this weekend. They were very nice and the uncle was actually a chef. So I was pretty excited to see what kind of food he would make. Wednesday night was a little bit of a disappointment because it was just salmon—but for the first time since I’ve been in France they served lemons to put lemon juice on the fish. It was amazing to be able to add a little more flavor to the salmon. They also had this really good potato dish with basil and onions in it. It was so good! So after a good meal Wednesday I was looking forward to another good one Thursday. Well, when they called us all to the dinner table I realized that the kids were eating before the adults. So I sat down at the table with my host brother who is 12 and the other French medical student they are hosting. I saw something that looked like mini chickens but wasn’t sure what it was. Then my host mom started bringing our dinner to the table. I was pretty sure she said it was rabbit and pigeon, but they speak so fast that I was sure she couldn’t have said pigeon and that I had heard her wrong. After she served us I looked up at the other student and she looked more afraid than I did. The 12 year old is usually pretty tired at dinner and just eats and leaves the table. So I knew if I could just wait a few minutes I could ask the other student what we were eating. Sure enough, when the boy left the table the other student looked up at me and we both just burst out laughing. I asked her and she told me that I had heard right and that it was rabbit and pigeon. Neither of us could eat the pigeon but politely ate some of the rabbit. The rabbit was interesting because it had an orange-citrusy dressing on it. I don’t really think of citrus dressings going on meat, but maybe that’s normal. I asked the French student if it was normal to eat pigeon in France and she assured me that it wasn’t and she had never eaten it before. Thankfully we were not eating with the whole family because we were both able to bypass the pigeon and then filled up on dessert. It was definitely an interesting meal!

            It has been so great getting to know the French student that my host family is hosting too. She seems really nice. She doesn’t speak any English and I don’t always understand her French, but it’s still been fun getting to know her. We kind of “bonded” the other night over how shocked we are about the bad attitude the little boy seems to always have. He’s kind of just a pill, but the parents let him get away with it. She even explained to me a few times that he’s made like really rude comments to her and the host parents have never said anything to him. So it made me feel better that she thought his attitude and how the parents treat him was weird too. But then again, he is 12 years old, probably going through those awkward years and having to share his house with 2 strange girls haha

            I’m going to Paris this weekend with some friends from school and CANNOT wait to see them! I know it’s going to be an amazing weekend!