St. Malo and Rennes!

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I've been away and then lazy getting back to writing.

My one Thursday class last week had been canceled, so I had a five day weekend! Wednesdays are for swimming and choir, so I left Thursday morning on an hour late train to St. Malo in Bretagne (Brittany).

St. Malo is a coast city, about 2 hours away (south and then west) from Coutances. It's a walled city, and you can actually completely walk around the old city on the ramparts. It's beautiful to look to the left and have the beach, and to the right lovely little streets.

St. Malo (like many places) is better in summer and spring, when you can take better advantage of its beach proximity. I read about it in my guide book, and had recommendations from some the of the Breton teachers here. I spent the day wandering around the city, eating galettes made with blé noir, drinking cider, smelling the ocean and scarfing down kouign amann (literally translated as “butter cake” and attempts to give you diabetes as quickly as possible) . 

It was chillier than usual, which was exasperated by the wind the whipped my hair around. I did take refuge and thought to expand my brain a little with a visit to the St Malo museum. 

Turns out that was a mistake. I'm pretty sure the museum was put together by several members of a knitting club getting together and realizing that they had some old shit in their attic they needed to get rid of. Well, I tried to enrich my mind! 

 

In the evening I took a bus to Rennes to meet with Julia, an assistant in Rennes. Julia kindly answered my request for a host on the “Assistants de Rennes-TAPIF” fbook wall. It turns out that Julia went to Beloit and studied abroad in Senegal with the Baobab center a year after me. We know some people in common and we got to revisit great Senegal memories through out my visit. 

As a proper introduction to Rennes Julia took me out to meet other assistants at one of the many bars. I had a great time and more real live English conversation than I'd had in weeks. The next day I headed out to explore the city a little by myself while Julia took care of some errands. I visited the old city areas and took advantage of “les soldes” (huge sales which happen twice a year) and being in a city with shops! I got a stripey shirt for 3 euros and some gloves for 2 euros- I had left mine at home expecting warmer weather.

Julia also knows all the best places for food. My trip to Rennes was constant eating. I left her apartment with instructions for the proper bakery for a “fourrée aux almandes” which is a chocolate or regular croissants filled with almond paste and amazing. I met up with her and other assistants at a high school for lunch followed by a lovely walk in the nearby park. Soon after Julia and I met up with 3 other assistants at a tea shop, “Apple Pie”, run by an Irish woman. It was like being in someone's home and lovely. I enjoyed some tea and an amazing scone.
 

I went for a walk with Katherine, another assistant to who had responded to my fbook post, and we met up with Lauren who is (can you guess?) another assistant.

The three of us met back up with Julia at her apartment for a drink and then headed out for a galette dinner. The deliciousness continued.

We quickly rushed over to a lecture being held by the feminism group that Julia is part of. It was an interesting lecture about women and safety in public in Rennes. It was fairly interesting but all of us who attended agreed that it needed to go further into issues and was too much of a beginner's intro in the subject. 
 

Julia had convinced my to stick around on Saturday, rather than taking the early train out so that I could experience the amazingness that is the Rennes Market. I'm so glad I took her advice, and I headed back to Coutances with a tiny but rich chocolate cake, galettes to prepare at home, brussels sprouts, and nems (Vietnamese spring rolls).

It was a fantastic few days and a great break from the usual in Coutances. It also reminded me how much good food rather than night after night of pasta can affect my mood, along with the importance of conversation.

Study abroad in Senegal was a lesson in learning to be with people all the time, while France has been a lesson in largely being alone. I don't regret anything, but I have certainly learned that I do prefer the former.

Now to prepare some lessons, and hopefully more timely updates this week!