Nantes à Normadie.

I spent the weekend in Cherbourg. I noticed a few weeks ago that there was a CS (coushsurfing) event planned for a weekend at the end of March. Earlier this week, I saw the message again and decided to go or it, dragging behind Alexa, my newly adopted Colombian sister (and her cellphone).

I spent Friday in Nantes. We went there to catch a ride with Laurent, someone I met while couchsurfing in Brittany a month earlier. We decided to go early to pass the day in Nantes. Alexa kept talking about this elephant she wanted to see there. We left at 10:30, spent some time in the château and the cathedral and then headed towards l'éléphant. While waiting for the exhibit to open, we grabbed a baguette and some grass and ate lunch. I mention this because the weather was beautiful. I was in shorts, not even cold.

After some reading and a nap on the grass, we went to see 'les machines'.

The elephant turned out to be a bigger-than-life mechanical elephant that walked around and sprayed water while making elephant noises. There were places for passengers. Within the exhibit were various other mechanical creatures of the sea, designed to be ridden and driven by visitors. The artwork was pretty cool; it had a steampunk feel to it. There was also what they called the 'heron tree' in design. They exhibit had one branch as a prototype. It had containers throughout the spaces in the branch, all containing drip irrigation and collection basins for the water that drained from the plants, a sort of variation on green architecture, designed solely for allowing people up in the branches. I think the plan was to situate the tree on the bank of the Loire, which runs through Nantes.

As we headed back to the gare, we walked through the city center. Found a used book sale. 8+. I was glad I left some room in my backpack.

We left Nantes around 18h30, heading for Cherbourg, on the tip of the peninsula in western Normandy. The drive took about 4 hours, a bit long and not quite as nice as the train, but much cheaper. There's a website called 'covoiturage' that links drivers and passagers with the same destinations. I'll probably check that out in the future. Anyway, we arrived in Cherbourg around 22h30 and headed for the bar where the rest of the CSers were meeting up. It was a fairly large event, with 50-60 people total for the week-end. People had come from all over the place. I spoke with several from Rouen, Paris, Rennes, and Marseille. There were also a handful of anglophones, some of them with language assistant positions in Cherbourg. I headed to my host's appartement fairly early, with a another couchsurfer who decided to turn in early. I got a mattress for the night and slept like a log.

The next day we headed for a nearby château à la campagne to meet up for une ballade. We wound up getting there late, but so apparently did everyone else, save Alexa. She missed it altogether, unfortunately. We spent a few hours hiking in the Val de Saire region, just east of Cherbourg, near a village named 'La Glacerie'. A fairly nice walk. We met back up at the château for a pique-nique, and then we started a 'rallye touristique', a sort of scavenger hunt/race with Le Val de Saire as our playground. My team was composed of three people from Rouen. Unfortunately, we had no native contentin/e with us, so we didn't do very well. We actually came in last place. But we did see a lot of the region and la côte du nord. Several phares and forts, various reminders of the war, etc.

That evening we had dinner at a restaurant on the quay. A nice restaurant, unfortunately geared toward presenting the best of the region had to offer (seafood). I chose the vegetarian option, which consisted of le plat principal minus the seafood - couscous and vegetables. You would have thought we'd insulted the chef. The vegetarians were trying to explain that fish was still meat. The French wouldn't have any of it. Apparently if you can eat during Lent, it isn't meat. Still, a good meal. I had foie gras for the first and last time. We had a good time.

The following day we had brunch at a bar appropriately named 'Le Sofa'. We brought our own food and ordered coffee or tea. It was cold. I had decided to wear shorts; it proved to be a mistake in the long run. At about 15h, we walked to the quay and took a boat out to sea. It was a small boat for 50+ people but we had a good time. Someone brought a guitar, another a harmonica. Someone started playing 'Knockin on Heaven's Door'. Boy that was a laugh. It was a pretty day. I don't have any pictures, so I'll have to borrow some from Alexa.

After the boat trip, we immediately left for Nantes so we wouldn't miss the last train to Angers. A much more pleasant ride, due mainly to the time change: there was a much more sunlight at the end of the day. It finally did cloud up and decide to rain - the first of the week and not too bad for having spent time in Normandy. Apparently it's not much better than Brittany when it comes down to weather.

Back home now. Back to school.  Four weeks until school is out for Easter. Then exams.

I haven't updated in awhile. I thought I had an exam this morning, but turns out I was wrong. Good thing to be wrong about. I thought I'd type out a few words while waiting for the library to open.

My last few days in Bretagne were terrific. I attended a fest noz ('night festival') near Vannes in the southern part of the region. Loads of fun. Dancing with pinkies locked in big circles that were constantly moving. A couple of friends that I met through couchsurfing went with me. We had a lot of fun.

Since I've been back in Angers, not much has happened. I've been trying to hit the books hard. I had one exam yesterday, and I've got a couple more next week. These examens blancs normally don't carry much weight; instead, they're taken to prepare for the final. However, as an exchange student taking classes at different levels and departments, it is probable that some of my finals will be held at the same time. So they'll take my grade from the examen blanc to cover my final. So I may have taken a final yesterday. We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm also trying to read a ton of material to make a decision about a thesis topic before the end of the month. Turns out there's a scholarship for summer thesis work. It's horrible timing, but I was already planning on spending the summer working up a thesis. Might as well cut to the chase.

The end of the week looks a bit more promising, Thursday being St. Patty's day. I've actually had several people invite me out for the evening, presumably to take a fixture-like position in some pub, you know, make it a little more authentic. I'm also hoping to travel to Tours on Friday. I'm not sure it'll happen, but it'd be nice. Saturday has a couple of rugby games I'd like to see. I missed all the others, since I was on vacation at the time. That reminds me, I need to see if there are any school planned trips. I wouldn't mind tagging along if it got me where I wanted.

En Bretagne.

Well, sporadic internet access has kept me from the computer. That and being in Brittany for the week. I still haven't written about Wales, but since it figures into a lot of my stories, I don't guess it matters, for the time being.

Last Saturday, I began my foray into Bretagne. I opted for it rather Belgium, which is a bit farther off. This region is the western most peninsula of northern France; Angers sits near the boundary between Bretagne and the Loire. A good place to be. My goal when I set out was to spend time with real Bretons, preferably Brezhoneg speaking Bretons. What better tool than couchsurfing to make it happen. I spent my first evening in Auray, a city on the southern coast, between Vannes and Lorient. There was a couchsurfing meeting there that night. To be more specific, it was actually an Indian cooking party, which, while being outside my immediate goals, proved a to be a good start. I rolled into the city around 11am, killed a few hours eating some lunch and trying to catch some sunshine, and then headed to Morganez' house. After a few other couchsurfers arrived, we drove a little bit closer to the coast and set out on a ballade, a short hike. Well, it was 4 hours long. But it was really nice weather. The sun came out, first time in a week for me. There, one were about eight of us; mostly French, one brésilienne. We had a pretty good time. Saw a chapel built by a Welsh monk.

We got back at about six and started cooking. More people showed up, until we had a good 12-15. We ate at about 11. The food was pretty good. Most of it vegetarian, but it WAS Indian food. However, the french are lightweights when it comes to spice. There was one prefab dish that everyone screamed was so spicy. I'd give it a three out of ten on Maharaja's scale of heat. People started trickling out around 1h30, but the last four of us didn't go to sleep until 4h30. I had already been snoozing when Morganez whipped out her Breton and Welsh books, including a Breton book for learning Welsh. Very fun.

The next day, a handful of us went into the city, guided by our host and a couple others, we saw the cathedral and a few other old buildings, as well as the old port around which the city had been built. We stopped at a candy store, and I got a kouign-amann, based on the recommendation of everyone there. It's a little pastry made with rolled layers (almost like a pecan roll) and butter. It was very good. As we left, it decided to rain. Apparently Breton weather isn't that much different from Welsh weather. One of my new friends has a comic depicting a Breton standing on top of a hill, his arms held wide to praise the 'telle variété de gris.'

The next day, I traveled to a small town in east central Bretagne by way of the larger city, Vannes, which is also on the coast. I spent the day wandering through the old city and around the port. I went into a couple of museums, but nothing really worth telling. The areas around the old town walls were pretty neat. Under the choir in the cathedral was a tomb containing the remains of some Stuart royalty, daughter of James Something of Scotland and wife of François I, duc de Bretagne.For lunch, I stopped in this really posh looking bistro. Ornate silverware, fuchsia napkins and pink lights everywhere. The look on their faces when I walked in, with my pack on my back and all. The food was good. Avocado and chicken salad, followed by curried pork lo mein, or something like that. I honestly didn't know what I was ordering.

At the end of the day, I took a bus to Locminé, which really is about as country as it gets. Lots of farms, food processing plants, etc. I went to stay with a friend I had met at India night. Yann's a really cool guy. His plan is to finish renovating his Breton country lodge (lodge it is, being longer than three times it's width and being made entirely of stone), begin renting the rooms, and go to California and start wwoofing. I told him I wanted to do the same, just traveling in the opposite direction. We got along well. He fed and gave me a place to sleep, and the next day, he drove me all around la forêt de Brocéliande, the heart of Bretagne's mythology. Legend, and I use that word very loosely, has it that Merlin and Vivian have their respective tombs here. The Bretons of course claim the legend of Arthur and all associated with him as their own, much like Wales. I visited both tombs, but the what was most visually impressive was a ballade in le val sans retour. Pictures on facebook. All in all, I had a good time, and Yann seemed to as well.

The next day, today, I came to Rennes, the capital and one of the largest cities. I spent today in out of museums and book shops. Rennes is a pretty city. It has a canal running up the center, and it doesn't appear to have had major changed to the pre-'modern' architecture. I saw an exhibit that told the history of Bretagne, including a couple of videos on the two regional regional languages, Breton and Gallo. There was also a history of the city as scene in the songs from the different periods. That was pretty cool. I saw a couple Picasso's at la Musée de Beaux-Arts.

Tomorrow I'm headed back to Auray to join a couple couchsurfers and make are way up the coast, towards Lorient. I'm also planning on attending a fest noz Saturday night, just outside of Vannes. Should be pretty good.

A bientôt.