Rennes

Sorry for the lateness of my postings! I have been sort of dead to the world for quite a while after having weeks full of exams and also having been sick. Alas, I start again, and I am back to the world of blogging. Three of my lovely American friends and I went to Rennes two weekends ago. Peter, Hannah, Emily, and I ventured off on an approximately eight hour journey to Rennes, France, which a city an hour to north of Nantes. Rennes is in the Brittany region of France, meaning the north-west. Rennes is the capital of the region, known famously for crepes and architecture. We started our day off meeting at the Nantes train station. I had had quite the morning, due to the fact that I accidentally surprised my host mother early in the morning when she was walking around in her little nightgown. Although I have lived here for two months, things are still quite proper, in terms of dress, in this house. Needless to say, this was the first time I had seen my host mother in anything other than capris pants and cardigans. She was obviously embarrassed, and I felt really bad. Although I must point out, I had told her the night before that I would be leaving quite early. Our train ride was absolutely spectacular. Peter, being the obsessive-compulsive wonder that he is, truly thought we had gotten on the wrong train do to the direction the sun was in, in relation to Rennes’ direction from Nantes. It was quite a shambles. The train ride was also filled with fabulous quotes coming out of our mouths. So many funny things were being said that we had to start writing some of them down. They are definitely not as funny now, but some quotes include “French people are ninjas, obviously” and “He is like Jesus. He was meant to live.” Where these things came from, no one can ever know. When we arrived in Rennes, we honestly had no idea where we were going. We had printed small maps off the internet, but they were not very helpful, so our first task was to find the local office of tourism so we could find ourselves a map. Right off the bat, Rennes was an absolutely beautiful city. It is a smaller city than Nantes, but still big enough. The architecture is kind of a mix of things, but there is a lot of old architecture with the outside of buildings having been painted in really pretty colors. Rennes looks like the perfect European village that you would see at Epcot, in Disney. While in Rennes for only a few hours, we had a few sites we wanted to accomplish seeing. The Parliament of Brittany is in Rennes, so we definitely wanted to see that. Also, Peter wanted to go to the Virgin Megastore because he is the proud owner of a discman (not a walkman) meaning he has to have CDs in order to listen to music. We also wanted to get to visit the Saturday market, as well as a huge plant garden with an accompanying church. After tracking down a few maps, I began our navigation to find the Saturday market. It was impossible to miss, as we were suddenly met by beautiful flowers and tons of produce in every direction. All of the food looked amazing, and you feel as if you want to buy everything because it looks so beautiful. In another area, the market had all of the cheese vendors, the meat vendors, and the bread vendors. Emily and I wanted to buy some cheese and a baguette for later in the day for a snack. We ended up going to a cheese vendor and just pointing to types of cheeses that looked yummy, because we had no idea what the names of all of the different types of cheeses were. Luckily, the normal French people next to us used the exact same pointing method. After we had bought our cheese, I went off in search of some bread. I found the most delicious whole grain bread, while Emily turned up with a gorgeous baguette. I threw everything in my backpack, and we were set for the afternoon. After the market, it was lunchtime, and the four of us head to a creperie for some lunch. We ate galettes and crepes, and drank some cider. The restaurant was on a perfect little street, and although it was a little chilly, we decided to sit outside. It was one of those days where the weather was changing and people were choosing to either be really warm or to brave the cold. We four braved the cold. It ended up working in our favor because at the restaurant across the street, there were a group of young people who took out their guitars after they had eaten, and they started entertaining the entire street. The music was amazing, and it added such ambiance to our meal. Also, while eating, we saw a couple pass who were riding unicycles. Never seen that before! Next on the list was the Parliament. We weren’t able to go in, but we were able to see the outside of the building and the courtyards that surrounded it. Turning to a much different subject, we headed off to the Virgin megastore. I got to jam out to some cool music on those in-store headphones they have there that feature different artists’ music. I was listening to some great music, until I realized that the headphones I was wearing had probably been worn by thousands of people before me. Not the most sanitary thing in the world! Bad decision! We then went on a long walk to find the huge plant garden and the church. After passing multiple sites and stopping at many, we found the church and the garden. The church was beautiful, and it was the typical 14th century catholic church. The only reason I can say that is due to my studies in art history! I studied really hard for that midterm! The stained-glass windows in the church were delightful and incredibly colorful. They were some of the most vibrant colors I had seen. From the church, we went into the garden. The gardens in Europe are more like gigantic parks that happen to feature beautiful flowers. We happened to stumble upon a graduation of some sort in one area of the garden, so we stood in the back and helped in the process of clapping. We then continued walking and found a couple in the midst of quite the acts of public displays of affection, which is normal for the French, but incredibly weird for us Americans. Further in the gardens, we found all of the beautiful flowers. We also found this house far off in the garden that is the house that I want to live in. It is a red brick house that happens to be covered in these green vines that cascade up and around the two towers of the house. It is gorgeous! The four of us also took a break to eat some of our bread and cheese. This little rest made for quite the hysteria fest. It seems the only thing the four of us can do together is laugh, which in all honesty, is an amazing thing. After the gardens, which took quite a bit of time, we headed back into the heart of the city. We walked around a bit, but we wanted to be sure that we were back near the train station at a good time. When taking trains in Europe, you do not need to arrive super early. You only need to be there 20 minutes before the train leaves, because this is when the big sign lights up telling you where to go to get your train. So, having found our way back to the train station, we decided we had enough time to have a drink. We grabbed a few beers, and passed the time chatting about the day and saying goodbye to Rennes. A few minutes later, we got back on our train and headed back to Nantes. It was a whirlwind of a day filled with happiness, tears from laughter, and absolute joy!