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.

Journey to Wales via St Malo

I didn't get to update before I left. My apologies. It was kind of crazy trying to get everything together.

This past Sunday I finally visited le château here in Angers. I went with Robert, Jaime, and Theodra, another américaine studying here. Those of you on facebook will have already had the opportunity to see a few. For those of you who haven't, here's a few:

I won't go into great detail about the castle. For those of you who are actually interested, you can probably find a lot of info online. I will, however, share a little about the tentures de l'apocalyspe, since I wasn't able to get any good photos of them. This series of tapestries was commissioned in the 13th century (I think). The relate the story of the book of Revelations, in keeping with all of the symbology. The tapestries start out with Saint John, sitting and writing. St John appears in almost every scene, book in hand, sometimes eating it, recording everything he sees. The seven churches, the horsemen, the seals, vials, bowls, beasts, whore, all of it. There are some scenes missing, due to what I suppose to be the deterioration of the fabric. All in all, it's quite a site to see. They're huge, and at the same time, a lot of the work is very detailed.

Monday through Wednesday was spent trying to get my schoolwork out of the way. I also submitted my class schedule. It's do or die now. I opted to leave la littérature comparée by the wayside. I'm replacing it with a class on the Renaissance and another ancien français class. Hopefully it'll work out. Time will tell.

I got my first chapter analysis back from my Montaigne class. Lots of red. All the same, the prof said I had understood fairly well. But I made a lot of grammaire mistakes. He was kind enough to point them out. I submitted another one this week. And I've got a commentaire composé due the week I get back from the UK. Speaking  off...

I left yesterday at around 4pm. I had wanted to leave earlier, but I had been running late. Upon arriving at the gare, I discovered that I would have to wait another hour and a half. Tant pis. I got a new pair of headphones (lost the others), so I caught up on a few podcasts. I took a train from Angers to Le Mans to Rennes to St Malo. St Malo is a seaside city in northeastern Bretagne. Nice place.

It was already dark when I arrived (a little after 7pm). I got a map and proceeded to make my way to the house where I'd be spending the night. I had sent a message via couchsurfing to a number of people in St Malo asking to stay the night with them. One guy replied the day before I left. It was his house I was making for. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to call him ahead of time, so I didn't really know if he would be there or not. I called him from a payphone when I thought I was near his place. Since he hadn't heard from me, he assumed that I hadn't come. All the same, he came with several of his friends to give me a lift to where he'd be staying. Turns out he wasn't in St Malo that night, but in another city nearby.

We arrived at the house in Dinard (the other city) around 9:30. My host, Laurent, is a scientist who does work in the marais (salt water marsh, I think; Christine, if you're reading this, I thought of you). Laurent and his colleagues from work were actually having a party when I arrived. I don't know what the occasion was, but we had a good time. Fromage, saucisse, pizza, bière; there was also some spiced liquor that someone had made and aged for a couple of year. Very good. I was starving, and they were very welcoming. We only stayed up until around 2am, since everyone had to work the next day. Good times. A good first experience couchsurfing.

Laurent drove me to the gare maritime the next morning. It was very nice of him. Really, I couldn't think of a better host (his first time too). I  grabbed a ferry at 10am to Portsmouth. I'm actually on it right now, as I write. I think we're passing Jersey. It's been a beautiful day. You couldn't ask for a better. Light clouds, pretty sunny, not much wind. It's been a pleasant trip so far.

I'll probably post this when I get to Carmarthen (Wales) on Saturday. I'm planning on visiting Carmarthen, Bangor, Oxford, and maybe Cambridge and London. We'll see how it goes.