Ma Vie est Belle

2011-12-30T10:29:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to receive the best Christmas present from my family: a roundtrip ticket home! After an incredibly busy December helping colleagues with end of the semester evaluations and scrambling around trying to decide what gifts to bring home (and realistically, what will fit in my suitcase) I spent a wonderful ten days in the US of A. Even though it ended up being a lot of dayquil and netflix due to getting sick (oops) I still managed to squeeze in a trip to NYC, seeing friends, lots of cooking and even more eating. Here are some snapshots from break ...

a white christmas!

celebrating cait's birthday in nyc.

pancakes are the new birthday cake.

christmas eve tradition: homemade pizza.

make it nice around the tree, make it nice.

merry christmas family.

before heading home, my roommate and i did a little
tour of rennes to look at the lights and enjoy the
christmas market ...

french christmas trees.

christmas market with delicious food and spiced wine to keep you warm.

everyone was out and about looking at crafts and munching on
tartiflette at the christmas market.

I am back 'home' in Rennes and anxious to ring in the New Year with my friends here. I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday and I will see you in the New Year!

sunday afternoon.

2011-11-20T23:17:00.001-08:00

Time for another update. I wish I had more pictures for this post, but I'm sure that Thanksgiving will provide plenty food pics so just a few will have to suffice this time! Ever since our October vacation, things have been really busy. I'm working a lot, tutoring a lot, and keeping very busy throughout the week. This usually means that Friday night I zombie out and watch bad reality TV I've wanted to catch up on, Saturday I sleep in and hit up the market, and Sunday is usually a wash.

But I have been very productive this weekend...meaning I was social and planned what is going to be another amazing ex-pat Thanksgiving. In addition to going to the market, going to IKEA, and doing what has become my only form of exercise here (dancing), I went to my dear friend Lisa's farm about half an hour outside of Rennes. Lisa is the owner of Apple Pie - the restaurant I talk constantly about - and she invited my friend Caely and me to spend the afternoon with her and her family. Last weekend I went to a colleague's house for lunch and after champagne and wine and a delicious chicken dish and tarte tatin, I decided it is so nice to spend Sunday with French families.

Our afternoon with Lisa was so lovely. Her husband is a baker and was nice enough to let us poke around his bakery ... it is very cool as everything around them is homemade, organic, recycled and wonderful. We had tea and cakes (gingerbread!) in the afternoon with her family including her sons and talked for hours about food and family and being a foreigner. We went for a walk, and Lisa and her family acquired an adorable female kitten from the neighbor. It was relaxing and I think I drank enough coffee and fresh apple juice to last me the rest of the semester. Sunday afternoon is something the French definitely know how to do ...

inside the baker's workshop.

custom oven making between 50-60 loaves a day.

i almost forgot to show you Apple Pie was featured
in french Elle ... la class.

random post.

2011-11-12T08:52:00.000-08:00

Not too much to update everyone on, but found some unused pictures in my iPhoto and thought I would share ...

clare front row and center at the stade rennais vs. lorient game.
apparently she wasn't the only one psyched about the picture taking ...

smitten kitchen french onion soup: success!

cute plate credit to berit.

fig marscapone tart. yes we made it. yes it was delicious.

on halloween (and caely's birthday!) we ventured to the salon des vins
and they featured my favorite châteauneuf du pape wine.

one word: mustache.

the salon also featured tons of cheese, sausage, chocolate, and foie gras.

joyeux anniversaire caely!

birthday brunch. complete with speculoos.

halloween came to rennes. thank you clare for the pumpkin!

role call: miss peacock, colonel mustard, miss white, prof. plum,
miss scarlet and mr. green. all present.

a scotsman and a lovely butterfly arrived.

beautiful day in cancale with caely.

lots and lots and lots of oyster shells.

november has arrived. so have warm, home cooked meals.

like dad's mac and cheese.

and zucchini and carrot muffins.

we had a huge potluck with the other chateaubriand assistants.
representing america, china, and mexico.

representing brazil and connecticut.

representing russia and mexico.

the spread.

the feast.

off to bordeaux we go.

2011-11-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

This is beyond overdue so brace yourself ...

After only three weeks of teaching, France rewarded me with a long vacation. Technically, it is honoring Toussaint, or France's "All Saints Day" on November 1st, but who's counting? The weather has been beautiful in Rennes, not too cold yet, but some friends and I decided to head south in search of sun, food, and wine - welcome to Bordeaux. My friend Caely from Rennes and I took a painless train arriving in Bordeaux on Friday night in time to meet my friend Helen, who studied abroad with me and is currently teaching outside of Toulouse. We rented a room in an "appart'hotel" which is basically a hotel room, but with a kitchenette for people who stay for long periods of time. It was in a perfect location, a small (much-needed) walk from the city center, and it was nice to have a fridge etc, to avoid eating at restaurants every meal.

Saturday morning we moseyed through the city center which is completely dominated by pedestrian only streets making it easy to take our time and people watch. We grabbed a quick coffee and croissant before heading down towards the river Garonne.

cute bookstore we passed along the way.

helen and caely.

perfect way to start a cold morning.

We came across Esplande Quinconces which is a huge open space that is currently being occupied by a carnival. As you can see the sky was blue, blue, blue - we totally lucked out.

We kept walking until we hit the boardwalk along the river. The river separates Bordeaux into two sides, which is very important (as we soon learned) when it comes to wine and which grapes are cultivated and grown on which side. Despite the cold in the morning, the sun came through and it was an absolutely beautiful day.

Along the boardwalk we found Bordeaux's mirior d'eau which is a very thin layer of water that allows you to see your reflection.

Bordeaux raises breast cancer awareness so creatively by hanging breast cancer ribbons in Place de la Bourse while fish spit out PINK water. Very clever.

We seriously walked all over the city stopping once to enjoy some foie gras tartines and smoked salmon salads at L'Autre Petit Bois, a restaurant we found in this NYTimes article. Helen and I sat "shaded" under a fake tree covering the inside of the restaurant on a very regal feeling couch and the three of us shared our first, of many, red Bordeaux's.

dessert: banana and speculoos crumble.

Following our meal, we continued to explore the city that all three of us fell in love with very quickly. We visited the Cathedral which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has been built over different decades providing a very diverse architecture both inside and out.

After a petite soirée Saturday night, we got up at a very reasonable hour to explore the Sunday market along the river. I had heard lots of good things so my expectations were a little high, but they were beyond fulfilled. The market went on forever, and everyone was out and about taking walks, riding bikes, and slowly making their way through the market drinking rosé and eating oysters. The man below is making canelés which are small pastries made of egg yolk - they are caramelized on the outside and have a solidified custard inside. When we went on a wine tour, our guide told us that canelé were originally invented because wine makers used the egg whites in the wine barrels to collect debris inside and they needed to use the leftover yolks so they created these small desserts. I'm not sure how accurate that is (as wikipedia suggests differently), but it makes sense!

In addition to canelé, we bought bread, cheese, wine, figs and sausage to complete our riverside picnic brunch.

cheese. beautiful, beautiful cheese.

more cheese.

Eating was followed by more strolling through Bordeaux on another amazing day. After ditching some goodies at the hotel, we took a break in the Jardin Public which reminded me a lot of the Boston Common, and sat in the sun for the rest of the afternoon. On our walk back we discovered a brocante, or an antique market on a blocked-off street that was also celebrating vin nouveau, which is a wine they sell before its complete fermentation. The wine has a little bit of carbonation, is best cold, and tastes a tiny bit like sangria. We walked up and down the street poking at what people were selling and listening to street music while tasting vin nouveau. I have a great video I will try and find to upload ...

sunset on the boardwalk.

We passed through the Esplande again and couldn't not go on the ferris wheel ...

Monday was rainy and ... Monday, so not a lot was open and due to the weather we were feeling particularly lazy. We had a late breakfast, walked around, did some shopping and watched a movie before venturing out again for dinner.

real cool alligator sculpture in front of musée de beaux arts.

L'Entrecote. Yum. So this place is apparently a Bordeaux institution and they have one in Lyon and Toulouse as well. Vegetarians beware. They have one item on the menu: steak. The line is enormous and people wait forever just to enjoy steak, salad, and unlimited fries and bread (do you blame them?). We waited in line, in the rain, and we were not disappointed. I'm not kidding when I say one thing on the menu, when we sat down we were asked two questions: "What would you like to drink?" and "How would you like it cooked?". The steak was cooked perfectly and it was so entertaining to watch the hustle and bustle of the waitresses attempting to serve three floors of customers.

it's famous because it is served in an amazing
sauce that is a top secret recipe.

walking home in the rain - in front of the opera.

Tuesday we woke up very early and went on a guided tour of La Winery, which was a relatively new vineyard filled with contemporary art. It rained, again, but there were only six of us so we piled into a landrover and off-roaded in order to get the full experience.

inside.

huge vats pumping red, rosé and white wine into barrels.

caely taking a closer look.

Our guide made a point to tell us that each barrel comes from a different place and provides a different taste to the wine, so they purposefully put wine in different barrels to later combine them and come up with a completely unique taste.

we found a little friend.

The tour was finished with lunch, and lunch with a wine tasting. The lunch was amazing, and beautifully presented. Caely and I had fish while Helen had the pork. The concept of the place is they have a huge wine store where you buy the wine and can drink it at lunch without a corkage fee - clever no?

wine tasting.

three very happy girls.

dessert.

attempting to capture how amazing every bite was.

When all was said and done we had an amazing time. Despite some rain, Bordeaux is a beautiful city and is moving all the time. People were nothing but nice and as per usual, we ate so. well. I would love to go back and spend more time in the surrounding area, not to mention take a small trip to the sea. Bordeaux, je t'aime. I will leave you with some more pictures ... (thank you Caely!)

oh, hey, mélanie laurent.

2011-10-19T02:20:00.000-07:00

After a super busy weekend and a very hectic beginning to the week, my friend Caely and I decided to have a low-key movie night and go to the "avant-premiere" (pre-screening) of Les Adoptés. The film was written and directed by Mélanie Laurent who is a very well known actress in France, and is becoming increasingly popular in the US as well (Inglorious Basterds and Beginners). I really enjoyed the movie and it was exactly what I was in the mood for. Also, there was an original score by Syd Matters, so the music was really good. I noticed the lights didn't come on as the credits started so I was a little confused as to why people weren't getting up. At the very end, a young man with a microphone stood in front of the screen to say thank you and "bienvenue à Mélanie Laurent." Caely and I looked at each other ... wait ... what? I had no idea she would be there! She was so cute and so funny and people were able to ask questions. She touched on how she chose the actors, the music, and what it was like to direct her first film - it was one of the coolest surprises. Bravo Mélanie!

photo credit

trot trot to normandy.

2011-10-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

You thought I was JUST going to write about my day trip to Normandy and not include my latest food creation didn't you? Tant pis. Before I gush about Normandy and the amazing horse festival I went to today, let me just talk about the latest dinner club creation. I have to give complete kudos to Caely (as per usual) and I think the photos will speak for themselves. Wednesday night dinner consisted of mashed cauliflower, fresh market sausage, roasted tomatoes stuffed with basil pesto and a salad. I'm pretty sure the three of us were prepared to lick our plates at the end. Who knew cauliflower would be so delicious roasted and mashed with butter? I guess that is a rhetorical question ...

Ok so today, Saturday the 15th, means I have officially been in Rennes for one month. It is seriously amazing how time flies. While it has quickly turned to Fall, today the sun came out and made for an absolutely beautiful day. A colleague of mine, Lise, who is a philosophy teacher at the lycée took me horseback riding a couple of times last year and this year we decided to venture to Normandy for the day to participate in Equidays. The best way I can describe it is a sort of horse festival for about 10 days in Normandy where barns and breeders open their gates (literally) to the public. Lise and I had the opportunity to go to a small town outside of Bayeaux, close to Omaha Beach, and visit France's largest haras - or stud farm. A stud farm is basically a farm for an extremely selective breeding process for race and show horses. We took a two hour tour of the farm walking over 10 kilometers. The farm was only open to the public on this specific day to those who reserved a spot. There were about 35 of us that oo-ed and aw-ed our way through the fields and stables led by our guide, Christophe. It is hard to refer to Haras d'Etreham as a farm, it was more like a perfectly manicured estate with amazing views and beautiful horses. You can learn more here: http://www.etreham.com/

entrance to the "farm."

our guide, christophe, explaining a bit of the history of the "farm."

first barn which was actually an american style barn.

stables.

this is lise looking at what i would describe as a merry-go-round for
horses. here they are trained to work by following fast paced gates in
a circle. christophe let the young kids run around in it for a while which
i think every parent was thankful for.

path to the stables.

home to the poulins - or fouls.

one of their newest fouls - only six months!

a couple of babies decided to come say hello.

this is the stable where the stallions lived. they were absolutely
stunning.this particular étalon is named poliglote and can be bred with a
mare for 6, 000 euros. the stallions ranged from
3,000 - 15,000 euros just to be bred.

isn't he absolutely beautiful?

it sounded a bit like a high end male prostitution ring. you can find
out more information about poliglote here.

everyone wanted a turn.

one of the stallions popping out to say coucou,

and of course we finished with a little coup de champagne.

this was the inside of the structure where the mares and stallions
are held to mate. interesting choice of location for a toast ...

and we finished the day with a late lunch in the soleil in bayeaux. delish.

day trip.

2011-10-09T15:30:00.000-07:00

I love Rennes so much, but I also love taking a day to escape to the coast to a. see the ocean, b. eat good seafood, and c. have a mini break from "the big city." This Saturday my friend Caely and I did exactly that. From metro to train to bus we arrived in Cancale around one in the afternoon. It was a beautiful train ride from Rennes to Saint Malo, and then we hopped a local bus through fields and campgrounds to get to Cancale.

Cancale is a very small town of about 5,000 people that is infamous for their oysters. In fact, according to the most reliable site on the internet, that being Wikipedia, Louis XIV had oysters from Cancale delivered to him in Versailles. If that isn’t class I don’t know what is. With this in mind, Caely and I ventured north on a cloudy day to enjoy relatively warm weather and seaside dining.

Cancale is basically a large boardwalk along the ocean consisting of oyster traps with dozens of crêperies, cute hotels and seafood restaurants. We chose a mom n’ pop looking restaurant where people were squished on small wooden tables and the owners were shucking oysters and picking away seaweed as they shuffled around taking peoples' orders. We settled on a dozen oysters to start and each got moules frites – mussels with fries. The meal was complete with bread and Breton butter and a nice bottle of muscadet. After overstaying our welcome and having a typical two-hour French lunch, we walked the boulevard a bit and marveled at the color of the water. Also, despite the weather we could see Mont Saint Michel, which Caely pointed out looked like a little sandcastle. We grabbed a pastry (or two) in Saint Malo before heading home and arrived home around 6:30. It was such a lovely day trip and even though we just ate and took a walk it was a very successful day - in my opinion.

the way lunch should be: part two

the color of the water here is insane

au pied d'cheval - where we ate

very distant mont saint michel

oyster traps during high tide

yes please

famous statue

art gallery? knick knacks?

gordon's visit: part two

2011-10-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

As my cousin rightfully pointed out to me today what started as a "Dear Family and Friends, this is what I am up to!" blog, has really become Emma's adventures in eating. Not saying that is bad thing, but I feel like I should start writing superfluously about teaching, traveling, or my cultural discoveries to balance that out. Don't worry, I won't start today. There is too much to share - especially after having someone stay with you, showing them around/telling them what to eat allows you to experience all of your favorite things for the first time.

gordon and berit

gordon, berit, and caely

enjoying berit's quiche!

Gordon's visit was wonderful and we couldn't have asked for better weather or timing. We had a very low-key weekend filled with lots of sunbathing and food. Saturday we got up early and went to the market for a couple hours. We pretty much bought anything and everything: figs, goat cheese, comté, duck and rabbit paté, kouing amann, caramel tarts, bread, Fall apples, homemade apple juice and beaujolais sausage (yup. wine flavored sausage).

different kinds of sausage including mushroom, bison, duck, and cheese.

caely and gordon catching their breath at the market.

galette saucisse.

flower market.

We sat in the sun and enjoyed our purchases before heading to Apple Pie to meet the other English assistants. Gordon tried one of Lisa's raspberry cupcakes. Amaze. The way he put it was, "This is like eating a raspberry, but, like, in cake."Very philosophical G.

apple pie's raspberry cupcakes.

We walked around Rennes a bit before heading home and waiting for Berit. The three of us had a nice little debrief of the day over paté, goat cheese, and cocktails before I made dinner. The weather has been so nice that we have been able to eat outside even at 10 o'clock at night. We are so so lucky that we have a little terrace and we can profiter from the sun. After dinner we may, or may not, have brought iPod speakers outside and had a bit of a dance party for all our neighbors to see.

we are very sophisticated chez nous.

not sure it gets better then this.

dinner for three - very romantic.

sunday flowers.

The next morning we slept in quite late ... let's just say well into the afternoon, then went to find a café open for business on Sundays. We had a coffee and a small pastry before remembering this weekend was the Festival Gourmand. Even though I included the link, for those non-French speakers, "gourmand" is the French way of saying "foodie." But, it has a bit of a negative connotation when you are talking about someone being a gourmand, unlike in English when saying you are a foodie simply reflects your love and appreciation for food. In French, gourmand is more along the lines of glutton. For instance, if you are a young American living without a refrigerator and you grab breakfast at the market and eat it while walking around, many of the vendors might look at you endearingly and say "bon appetit! quel gourmand!" which basically means, "wow. enjoy your breakfast ... glutton." Maybe not that harsh, but you get the gist. Back to the festival ... we wandered inside to find lots of vendors selling meat and apple juice and chocolate, and there was a food demonstration. The chef was local and he was making a three tomato tart on a basil, parsley, and cilantro based tart. I know, it was amazing. I translated for Gordon as we oo-ed and aww-ed at the final presentation.

cooking demonstration.

Across the street from the festival there was an outdoor bar showing the Rennes/Lille soccer game so we sat for a couple hours and unfortunately watched Rennes lose. We rounded up Gordon's visit with a visit to my favorite créperie where G got a shrimp, scallop, and mushroom galette in a cream sauce, with a side of a special sweet bread and foie gras. They don't play around as you can thoroughly see.

gordon's fancy galette.

absolutely beautiful in front of the mayor's office. oh, and proof
i take pictures of things other then food ...

It was so nice to have Gordon here - very relaxing and low key, especially now that he knew what he was getting himself into.

School starts today! So as I write this I'm preparing to see some former students and meeting my new ones. I'm getting excited to start a routine because I feel a little like I'm on vacation, which is, don't get me wrong, fantastic, but not exactly realistic. I will work every day except Wednesday and have a bunch of tutoring gigs as well which will be great for some extra income. Tomorrow, there is a little get together at the lycée to meet the other foreign assistants which will be really fun. That is all for now - more to come once school picks up and I have some more pictures of ma vie.

the way lunch should be.

2011-09-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

In true Verrill fashion, my cousin Gordon emailed me two days ago briefly saying what he was up to and finishing it with "so can I come to Rennes this weekend?" A quick email to my roommate later to announce his arrival and his plane ticket was bought! He arrived exhausted and hungry and so I did what made the most sense: feed him. We hopped over to my favorite tartine place open all day (even on Sundays!) and took advantage of the summer-like weather and each other's company. Gordon enjoyed the special consisting of grilled sardines in a tomato provençale sauce and I had a tartine that was a bit like chicken salad. Add a side salad and a bottle of muscadet and voilà. Let our food adventure weekend begin ...

and that's how it's done.

les sardines

2011-09-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

perfection.

I brought Helen and a rough cold home with me from Paris sothis past week was spent taking advantage of our internet, which finallystarted working, and catching up with Helen over almond croissants and badinternet television. I took her to the market where we stalked up on producefor dinner and then Apple Pie where I had a lovely reunion with miss Lisa andsome of the other Rennes assistants as we nibbled on tea and carrot cake.

Seeingfriends and returning to favorite restaurants and coffee shops is such a huepart of reentry. The fact that I have been recognized and have received many “Je suis contente de vous voir! Bon retour!” makesme feel even more at home.

this one is for you margaret. l'epicerie wasn't the same without you.

Helen left this morning (Sunday) and the apartment feels alittle empty so I filled the Sunday with lots of mini excursions. The weatherhas been abnormally wonderful these past couple of days though so I have beengetting my vitamin D and took a nice walk today to a brodarie which is a bit like a yard sale for multipleneighborhoods.

rennes gardens are stunning

especially on a day like today

Last week Berit and I went to one and we walked around for twohours and only saw a section of it – that should give you insight as to thepotential size of them. People sell everything from old clothes and shoes, toTVs and stereos, to kitchenware and furniture. I’m so bad at going to thosebecause I think I should buy something only because it is two euros, but thensomeone else’s junk becomes my junk … I was controlled today and only bought asweater. For two euros. However I was wildly impressed by one woman’s My LittlePony collection and “joked” about how I would have loved this 15 years ago(slash now?).

am i right or am i right?

After a late brunch and some writing, I ventured to have a caféwith Caely and we took a Sunday stroll to an outdoor photography exhibit called“Passages” where the featured photographer captured important events inadolescent lives. For instance some of the kids were celebrating their firstparty or their quinceanera (I hope I’m spelling that right). There were somephotos from France and the US, but most were taken in Ukraine and Cuba – I’mincluding a few of my favorites.

i like this one because it reminds me of home!

So as you can see I’m back to my old routine –seeing friends, wandering around Rennes, and eating food that is so deliciousit’s honestly unfair...

apple pie specials!

just a quick dinner helen and i threw together ...

this is why i came back.

I’m so happy to be back and so excited to have school start –only one more week! There is another English assistant teaching atChateaubriand this year, which will be great as she is returning from last yearshe just got reassigned schools. I’m excited to get back into the swing ofthings and see old students and meet new students!

first market back

quite possibly the quaintest late brunch ever ...

On tap for this week is more IKEA runs, a couple first rendez-vous’ for tutoring, runningaround trying to get my immigration paperwork settled, putting finishingtouches on the apartment, and of course discovering new restaurants andrevisiting familiar ones.

third time's a charm!

2011-09-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

evidence of fall in rennes

I am officially in Rennes and moved in to my very new and improved apartment! I have to say I am SO much happier now then I was at the beginning of my stay last year and my living situation has so much to do with it. As does being back in a place I feel incredibly comfortable, seeing my friends, and eating lots of French food.

I jumped right back into life here starting with grabbing atrain into Rennes a few hours after I arrived in Paris. Berit (my roommate) andCaely met me at the train station and we went directly home. I’ll be postingpictures of our humble abode very shortly.

trying to figure out the bed frame ...

After some catching up I showered and weheaded to IKEA to purchase the most important missing piece: a bed. Caely, Lise(a colleague of mine), and I piled into Lise’s car with some fake flowers,picture frames, sheets, a bed frame, a mattress for a double bed, and my chair.We were cramped to say the least, but made it home in one piece. I enjoyed atraditional galette dinner complete with crepes and cider before absolutelypassing out. Thursday was full of errands. I got a bunch of paperwork done andheaded to Emmaus, which is like small used furniture/clothes/book/random-shitstore (Salvation Army?). I found dining room chairs, a bedside table, a smalltable for our terrace (yes, terrace), some things for the bathroom, and aperfect desk for Berit. I then conned Berit and Caely into helping me puttogether my bed frame. So IKEA is great, but the thing they don’t tell you ishow it is a huge pain in the ass to put together. Even three intelligent,strong women had some difficulty. But I can say with complete confidence (knockon wood) that I slept for eight hours and did not wake up in a pile of brokenframe wood so I would count that a huge success.

back to grocery shopping on a day to day basis - which i LOVE when
fresh markets are involved ...

Cheers to a wonderful dinner back!

Berit and I attempted to impress Caely

Jetlag didn’t catch up with me until I got to Paris. I wentto Paris to see two friends, Helen and Clare, I studied abroad with in Rennes.Clare will be teaching with me in Rennes and Helen is off to a small villageoutside of Toulouse. The three of us oo-ed and aww-ed about being back inParis. We ate so well (act like you are surprised), went to the Shoah Museumand Memorial, may or may not have done a little dancing and strolled the Maraisand the Latin Quarter along with the rest of Paris on a Sunday afternoon. I haveto say I’m always enchanted by Paris, but also always happy to be home.

in the summertime ...

2011-08-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

After much hesitation, debate, and endless indecision, I'm officially going back to France.

My contract for the teaching assistant program was renewed (unfairly right before I was leaving so I never really had a chance) and I'm not ready to say goodbye yet. I'm not ready to stop listening to French everyday, speaking French everyday, working with my students, cooking with my friends, and flat out pretending I'm French. I think about it everyday and finally the wait is over.

So I will be stressing about packing too much for the third time, thinking about traveling over vacation for the third time, arriving in Paris with way too much luggage for the third time, and taking the train home to Rennes, for the third time.

I have had one of the best summers. It has been the perfect combination of downtime and seeing family and friends and doing small jobs to have some backup funds while abroad (which will inevitably go towards something I don't need like almond croissants and hair bows, let's be honest). Here are some highlights:

As you can see perfect weather and a lot of eating.

So the adventures will continue on September 14th as I make my way from Boston to Paris where I hopefully will meet up with some friends before we go our separate ways around the country to teach. I found an apartment in the center of town with my friend Berit instead of living in the same "apartment" as last year (and yes, quotation marks are seriously necessary in this situation). I'm so excited to be back and see everyone and settle in.

Stay tuned for more in September ...

Saying goodbye to Rennes ... again

2011-05-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

My last couple weeks in Rennes were fantastic and I can't believe everything came to an end so quickly. After I got back from Lisbon and Lyon, my cousin Gordon came to visit me. He is currently living in Madrid so he came up to Rennes for three days and then headed to explore Paris with friends for the weekend. He was such an easy guest as we had a very similar itinerary in mind: sleep, take advantage of the sun, and eat good food. I introduced him to camembert cheese, paté, duck, and galettes so I think he was a happy camper. As soon as Gordon left I suddenly realized I had one week left. Time absolutely flew. My last week consisted of packing and attempting to cancel internet, move out of my apartment, and pawn all of my extra 'stuff' off on my host family and my friend Caely who is staying. It is incredible how much stuff you can acquire in such a small period of time. I also had my birthday which was so nice and a really wonderful thing to have in my last week. I celebrated by going to Apple Pie for lunch (pictures to come of course) and then having a small dinner party with friends. It was the nicest party and I got great gifts from friends, including a Stade Rennais scarf and Caely-knit socks ... which I refused to take off and ended up wearing home on the bus. The cake was delicious - absolutely one of the best I have ever had. I had sent Caely a recipe months and months ago, and somehow she remembered and surprised me with it: sweet potato pie with coconut and almonds and a speculoos cookie crust ... like really?

absolutely. delicious.

Georgia and Kelsey

Berit and Margaret

Getting some help from Caely: at first I thought I was having a hard time blowing
out the candles, until we all realized they were trick candles ...
which took us a little too long to figure out ...

I am officially home and not ready to admit that I am no longer living in France. I'm not sure what is next, but I know for sure this is not the end of traveling and I will be back to at least visit Rennes in the very near future. Stay tuned for more travels ... even if they are stateside travels!

L stands for ...

2011-05-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

LISBON

Spring adventures started on the last day of school - April 22nd. Gracie arrived THAT night and after a long traveling day, came straight home with me and passed out. Saturday morning we got up and went the market - obviously - to soak in the sun and have her try some of my favorite foods there. We went to the park in the afternoon with some friends, but Saturday was interrupted by a quick trip to the ER after a super random back spasm. But all was fine, just needed some relaxation, hydration, and sister time. I took her out for a typical Breton dinner on Saturday and then Sunday, Easter, we had a wonderful brunch with my friends complete with delicious quiche, scones, and of course, bellini's. Monday was absolutely beautiful, basically beach weather, so we simulated the beach at a park near my house and packed up all of our stuff for our long trip to Portugal. Tuesday involved buses, metros, trains, cabs and cars, and around 10 pm we finally arrived in Lisbon. I felt so flustered with the end of school and Gracie's visit I didn't have too much time to research what we were getting ourselves into ... and perhaps lesson learned? Of course our hostel was in the hilliest part of Libson (Barrio Alto) and was at the top of one hill and the bottom of another. Also I think the notion of accessible is definitely a relative term and depends on where you are, so lesson number one: always clarify what 'accessible' means. We stayed in the hostel one night before realizing it really was not going to work, and we were lucky enough to find a great, inexpensive hotel in a perfect location with perfect accessibility for the other three nights.

Ginjihha: strong cherry liqueur very popular in Portugal and
and specifically in Lisbon

Beautiful mosaics on the façade of most buildings

Our first day, after we called about 10 hotels and ran around trying to figure out our next move, we decided to sit down, take a breather, take advantage of the sun and have some lunch. The first day we just tried to catch our bearings walking all over the city and attempting to figure out how to understand Portuguese which is a beautiful language, but extremely hard to understand. Nevertheless, we were talking with our hands for most of the trip. Lisbon is a really beautiful city and all of the streets are paved with designs and every building is covered in traditional tile mosaics. That night we went for a nice dinner and of course we were given directions to go up two of the steepest hills in Lisbon and then the restaurant was down about 10 stairs ... I think Gracie got her workout for the week. We had a great dinner: I got a delicious seared tuna and Gracie got a crab salad - it was delicious and we felt completely on vacation when we were able to go back to our room and absolutely crash. Thursday we decided to make our way to the castle that sits up on one of the hills. The views were absolutely beautiful and we definitely lucked out with the weather because we were able to see for miles. Again, we were told that the castle had ramps going up, but by ramps I believe they meant old cobblestones thrown together to resemble some sort of walk way making it impossible for ANYONE climb to the top.

At the top of the castle!

We at least took advantage of the sun and the views at the top for an hour or so before deciding to head back down. The rest of the day we walked around and checked out the fashion museum and the Santa Justa elevator, designed by an apprentice of Gustave Eiffel . The elevator is situated pretty much in the middle of downtown and it takes you to the top of a beautiful view.

View of the elevator from the back

View from Eiffel's elevator

View from Eiffel's elevator with the castle in the distance

The next morning, after yet another incredible breakfast, we ran to the room before heading out and didn't leave until an hour and a half later ... thank you Royal Wedding. Lisbon is on London time and Kate was just arriving at Westminster ... how could we leave? We sat and watched most of the wedding before realizing we were in Portugal and should probably be taking advantage of Lisbon instead of living vicariously through Kate Middleton. So peeled ourselves away from the television and yet again roamed the streets of Lisbon. We attempted to go check out the big market, but unfortunately missed the opening hours so we walked around it and I can only imagine the enormity of what is inside based on the building. On our way back, we came across a crowd of people. We found a guy levitating surrounded by so many people. It was so bizarre. He had a plaque in front of him describing that he had won a Guinness World Record for standing as a human statue for a certain amount of time: almost 17 hours! He also had local records for levitation and human statue's from Libson, Barcelona, and Paris to name a few.

Market mosaics

Freaky huh?

That night we met up with one of Gracie's friend's from Waynflete's older brother's, who is living in Lisbon and he brought us to a great local restaurant, followed by showing us a bit around Bario Alto where there is a majority of Lisbon's nightlife. I got Lisbon's traditional cod dish, and Gracie got grilled calamari, and of course some sangria. It was so surreal to see someone from Maine in Lisbon, but was very helpful considering his Portuguese is fluent and for a few hours Gracie and I didn't feel completely incompetent.

Our hotel

Square in Lisbon - note the sidewalks with the cobblestones
in a certain pattern - this was everywhere and actually
kind of trippy ...

Entryway to the port

Last day in Lisbon, John had recommended we go to Belém, a small suburb of Lisbon with a famous cathedral, and, more importantly a famous pastry shop we had read about. That morning we headed to Belém and walked around a bit before checking out the Church of Santa Maria. There is also a monastery attached, but we only spent time inside the church. Inside, when you first walk in, there are two tombs. Directly to your left is the tomb of Vasco De Gama, famous Portuguese explorer. On your right, is the tomb of Luís de Camões, a famous Portuguese poet. In front of the church there is a slab of stone outlining the Treaty of Lisbon. We did a small tour of the church then headed to the infamous Pasteis de Belém. They make the pastry 'pastel de nata' which is a small custard tart, almost like crème brulée in a small cup. This specific bakery makes thousands and thousands of them a day and only three people in the world know the recipe. In fact, they have a competition every year to see which other bakery can get their recipe to be the closest ... there is no way anything comes close. The pastel de nada's are served hot with a side of powdered sugar and cinnamon and they go perfectly with a hot cup of coffee. We couldn't have asked for a better afternoon. Our trip to Belém marked our final day in Lisbon, and I have to say, regardless of the multiple hiccups, we had such an incredible time and it truly felt like vacation. We had one last meal of local cuisine, before heading to bed early. Gracie left very early on Saturday morning and I had a bit of time to clean up and check out before grabbing my plane to ....

Church of Santa Maria

deliciously hot pastel de nata

Park in Belém

Train station in Lisbon

Ominous storm on our last day ...

LYON

View from the hostel - beautiful!

After a very confusing week, language wise, I couldn't be happier to hear French when I got off the plane in Lyon. Lyon is the second largest city in France - it is south east and is close to the Swiss border - I saw beautiful mountains on my way in. I met my friend Berit at the hostel that night and we immediately had a drink and did some major catching up. Berit studied abroad with me and coincidentally is an assistant in Rennes with me this year which has been great. We decided to do just a small weekend trip on the tail end of our vacation to see another part of France. I absolutely loved Lyon, definitely one of my favorite cities and I was immediately struck by how incredibly nice everyone is. It is a big smaller then Paris, but has the same idea of layout consisting of arrondissements. There are two rivers running through it - the Rhone and the Saône - forming a little island in the middle and also allowing for lots of boats along the riverbanks that have been transformed into small cafés and restaurants, and of course, dance clubs. Any city where you can dance on a river boat is good by me. Another reason Lyon was of interest to us is because it is the 'food capital' of France ... so does that surprise you? You can walk all around the old quarter of Lyon and find 'bouchons' which are restaurants serving traditional Lyonnaise cuisine which consists of a lot of sausage, foie gras, tripe and Côtes de Rhone. Our first night we indulged in a delicious dinner where I had steak and gratin dauphinois, which is a fancier, more French and delicious version of scalloped potatoes. And we tried some Beaujolais rosé which is typical of the region. We were so full so instead of walking it off, we decided to dance it off, by finding one of the dance boats. They were playing mostly music from high school days so I'm pretty sure we impressed all the Frenchies by knowing the words to all of the music ...

Gratin dauphinois - goes perfectly with steak!

Typical 'salade lyonnaise' which consists of frisée, croutons,
small pieces of ham, and a poached egg

Terrace at the hostel

Our first full day was Sunday and it was a holiday, which means there was literally nothing open. The weather was absolutely fantastic so we went for a walk and found at least one bakery open where we grabbed some traditional praline pastries and went for a good place to sit and people watch. We hit a market along the Rhone - jackpot. They had beautiful flowers and incredible local food. We sat and people watched in the summer heat before wandering around the city for hours. We must have visited close to every arrondissement. I kept thinking when we crossed the street, or turned a corner, we would end up somewhere familiar, but we kept discovering new places. The city was so quiet and so beautiful we stayed out all day discovering the city. We had an early night on Sunday having a light dinner consisting of all our goodies we had bought at the market - fresh radishes, tomatoes, olives, lettuce, sausage, and of course delicious French bread. We ended up meeting a couple girls around our age traveling on their own, one from Australia and one from Germany, and we hung out on the hostel's terrace enjoying the view and chatting for a couple hours about language and the difference between our respective countries.

View of Lyon

Marching band playing on the bridge

Hotel de Ville

Opera house

Monday morning we made our way to the tip top of the hill to see Lyon's famous basilica, the Notre-Dame de Fourvière, an official UNESCO sight. We made our way up the steepest hills to get to the top, being told there wasn't any public transportation to take us to the top, of course to discover the tram and one of the bus lines went to the top ... we got our exercise I guess. The basilica was absolutely beautiful. Not only were the views spectacular, but the inside was so unique and it was one of the more recently built churches I have seen which was very interesting, it wasn't completed until 1964. Even the crypts below the church were uniquely laid out.

Notre-Dame de Fourvière

View from the top of the basilica

Inside the church

That afternoon we grabbed quiche and decadent French desserts at a little café before heading to Lyon's biggest park. The park was absolutely huge and because it was vacation in France, there were dozens of families and small children. It was the perfect park day. The park had gorgeous botanical gardens and as we were walking along we found elephants ... which lead to a full out zoo in the middle of the park. Berit and I were almost more excited then half of the French kids strolling along, especially once we came across the giraffes ...

All in all we had an absolutely wonderful time. Our last night we had a series of unfortunate events where we came back from this perfect summer day at the park to find some things ... missing. Someone had stolen Berit's toiletry kit and about half of my clothes, my iPod, and a pair of my shoes (which is just weird.) We were really upset at the beginning, but in the end it is just 'stuff' and nothing extremely precious was stolen. We sucked it up and treated ourselves to yet another delicious dinner at a typical bouchon, this time I had fish and Berit and I shared profiteroles to end, which ended up being a mountain of whipped cream - not complaining. And as a side note, other then the hill leading up to the Notre-Dame, the city was very easy to navigate and very accessible, including an easily accessible metro which became essential in getting around as the city is so huge.

Tarte Fraise et Tarte Praline

'Flower Tree' sculpture designed by Choi Jeong-Hwa

Entrance of botanical gardens

Grass gardens

Summertime?

2011-04-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

My classes end in two weeks, the weather has been 75 + and sunny and I went on a boat ride on the ocean on Saturday ... is it summer? Of course today is cloudy and cold, but for the past two weeks I have been completely convinced summer came early. I had such a great week last week/weekend this past weekend and I have been very busy that I think I'm going to use these clouds as an excuse to just chill for a couple days. This post is going to be about the weekend, but I couldn't help but include a picture of one of my favorite classes. They are the equivalent of sophomores, and I have so much fun with them and I'm going to miss them so much! There are 38 of them, and I saw them all together for the last time, this week so I couldn't help being the cheesy TA that just HAS to take a picture. So, voilà:

Small church on Ile-Aux-Moines

Pascale and Corinne on the boat!

As I have said, Monday I work at an alternative high school, working with students with physical and mental disabilities. There are only two English teachers, Corinne and Pascale, who work with me and they are so nice and invited me to the coast on Saturday. I have been to the northern coast a few time, up to Saint Malo, Cancale, Cap Fréhal, and Mont Saint Michel, but somehow I have never been to the southern coast so I was so excited when I got the invite. Saturday morning we left around 10 am and could not have asked for a better day. The area we were in is called Morbihan and it took about an hour and half to get there. We parked the car and took a small, quick ferry to an island called Ile-Aux-Moines (which means Monk's Island, even though there are no monasteries on the island). While it is the biggest island in the gulf, it is very small, only about 3 miles by 4 miles. We walked all around the island and it was so adorable and picturesque. All of the houses are old stone houses, or houses that seemed very Mediterranean, all white with blue shutters.

Admiring the ocean from above

the beach!

The flowers were incredible and were out everywhere - mostly wisteria and lilac so the whole island smelled like summer. We walked along the beach, through the middle of the island, and ended up back by the port where we had lunch. I had a very delicious scallop and leek galette. I couldn't get over how much it looked like Maine! We decided to take a tour of the gulf by boat, which took a little over an hour. There was someone on the loud speaker to describe to us what was "sur notre gauche" or "sur notre droite" - so different islands, beaches, and lighthouses. I couldn't believe that I was on a boat, on the ocean ... in April!

Little John Island or Brittany, France?

Yarmouth Boat Yard or the gulf in south Brittany?

Boat ride around the gulf

the perfect beach house?

On our way back home, we stopped in Vannes, which is a larger 'city' on the coast that reminded me a lot of Rennes. We did little tour, stopping to admire the architecture, and the castle that is in the center of the old city with extremely impressive gardens. We got home around 7 and it was one of the best days I have had here. It made me miss the ocean and summer so much, but soon enough!

Vannes

Gardens at the castle in Vannes

After a true summer day on Saturday, I was out and about again on Sunday, this time to Paris to see my friend Julia (from Huckins, who is living in Grenoble) run the Paris Marathon. I went with my friend Margaret (go Yarmouth!) and we left Rennes around 8 am. We were fully prepared with cameras, sunglasses, sunscreen, summer attire, wine opener, and ready to cheer on Ju. We first arrived in Paris at 10:30 and grabbed a bus to the Arc de Triomphe where the race was finishing. At first there was supposed to be a detour, and we were going to have to walk a ways because the roads were closed, but our bus driver was so nice and along the road let us know that the route was now open so this is what we first saw about 20 minutes into our time in Paris:

Yarmouth in Paris!

Not to shabby huh? We had some time to kill, so we took a little walk down the Champs Elysées and grabbed iced coffee and lunch before heading back towards the finish line. You never think that you care about little things like iced coffee, until you can't have it. It's not like I have been craving it all winter, but as soon as you know you can't have something, what do you do? Crave it. Much to our dismay, we became the Americans asking "Est-ce que vous avez café glacé?" At least it was in French right? Extremely content with our iced coffee we settled in at the end of the finish line and while we couldn't get close to the actual course because of the thousands of people, we sat in front of the screen anxiously awaiting Julia's finish.

Where's Julia?

We ran into Jordan and Aaron, two of Julia's friends from Grenoble who came to cheer her on and the four of us flinched at every girl wearing a white hat and 'FINISHER' t-shirt, hoping it was her. When we finally saw her come in I was so impressed. I can't believe it was her first marathon! We got some more munchies, some wine, and lots and lots of water, and found a place to sit near Champs Mars, the park by the Eiffel Tower. Situated in the sun and with a beautiful view, we sat and chatted and congratulated Jules from about 2:30 to ... 7:30.

Yay Ju!! So proud!!

Beginning of a great day ...

The sun didn't leave for a second. No clouds at all. We took bathroom and ice cream breaks, but other then that we just hung out. It was one of the best days I have spent in Paris and I can't get over how lucky we were to have so much time to just sit in Paris and talk with good friends. We didn't do a great job of watching the time because Margaret and I were a bit stressed for time by the time we grabbed a quick dinner and got the train station, where the elevator was broken, of course. We made the train (thank god because it was the last train to Rennes that night ...) and both took a little snooze on our way home. Yet again, cutting it short, because we both RAN to catch the last bus heading in our respective directions. I finally got home around 1 am and after a long shower crashed completely. All in all, it was such a spectacular weekend. I was in the sun all weekend, ate good food, saw good friends, and really did my best to take advantage of every minute. Il faut profiter!

friends overlooking Paris (and the 'Inception' bridge)

Officially Spring

2011-04-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

The weather here has been so incredible and it truly feeling like Spring in Rennes ... almost summer! I am attempting to 'profiter' from my last two months here. March and April have been so busy, in the best way possible. I have been taking on extra hours helping teachers with their own work, giving oral exams for the bac (the exam you need to pass in order to finish lycée) and helping students with their science projects which they are attempting to do in English. In addition to school, I was SO lucky to have one of my BFF's from Bowdoin visit me and we had a Bowdoin reunion ... in PARIS. It was so surreal to see my friends walking around Paris, seeing the Eiffel Tower, and taking naps in the Tuileries Gardens. I feel like I have been so lucky lately that I am in complete denial of leaving. I have lots of pictures and updates so bear with me!

Nice weather brings delicious picnics ...

Flowers blossoming at school

Spring in Rennes!

A couple weeks ago, before Margie visited, the weather had been spectacular, so my colleague and I went horseback riding about 15/20 minutes outside of Rennes. It started a little rainy in the morning, but after our two hour walk, the sun was shining and it had been the best afternoon. Even though it is only my second time, I love my horse Mélo (short for mélodie aka Melody). She is so beautiful and so easy to ride. After a very long, but beautiful day, I rushed home to shower then back out to the train station to meet Margie. It was SO incredible to see her and it felt like a dream that she was just getting off a train in Rennes and making dinner in my apartment.

Mélo!

We spent Monday and Tuesday walking around Rennes, eating at my favorite restaurants and just catching up. Monday was my friend Fabienne's birthday (she is the Germany assistant at Lycée Chateaubriand) so we had a big dinner for her. Margie was a trooper and came along, despite not knowing a word in French. The countries that were represented were: France, Spain, Russia, Italy, Germany, and of course the USA. It was quite the mix of language and conversation, but I couldn't have been happier to have Margie meet all of them!

International raclette dinner

Yula (middle) is a film professor at school, and she brought her
baby, Milo with her to dinner. Raquel (right) is the Spanish assistant
and was attempting to get Milo to understand a Spanish lullaby

From left to right ... Elsa (Russia), Marisa (Italy), Fabienne (Germany),
Margie!, me, and Raquel (Spain)

Wednesday, even though it rained, we made the trek to Saint Malo for the afternoon after my class and had 'moules frites' and enjoyed the ocean despite the rain!

Our apartment

Reunited!!

Thursday morning we left early for Paris and had the day to ourselves before Sarah came to join us. We went to the Pompidou which was great because I had never been and I really enjoyed it - it is such a cool museum and I really want to go back and spend some more time there. Thursday night Sarah joined us and we spent the night in a hostel. Friday and Saturday were THE best. Friday we slept in a bit and went to a garden in the Latin quarter to wait for Allie and Abbie to arrive. It was so nice to be reunited and so crazy to just be chillin' in Paris with friends from school who I hadn't seen in MONTHS. We rented an apartment on Rue de Rosiers in the Jewish Quarter and after checking in the afternoon, we unloaded, went grocery shopping and Margie made incredible pasta, along with bread, cheese and wine, of course. It was so comfortable and easy, it almost felt like we were back in Brunswick N (Abbie and Sarah's old apartment at Bowdoin) making dinner on a random Friday night. Saturday we were so lucky with the weather - it was like 70 degrees and even though we were a bit 'tired' we rallied and took a bus to the Eiffel Tower.

Cheers to Bowdoin!

perfect dinner.

We walked back along the Seine and made a couple pit stops at La Durée and a place to grab sandwiches. We finally ended up in the Jardins de Tuileries, in front of the Louvre. We lounged on the grass among other Frenchies for a couple of hours before saying goodbye to Allie. On our walk back the the apartment, we indulged in Berthillon ice cream - their 'caramel beurre salé' or salted butter caramel is THE best ice cream. Saturday night was very low-key more pasta making and we all attempted to get some sleep and prepare for goodbyes the next day.

Bagels in the Jewish quarter ... how can you not?

Bowdoin at Hotel de Ville

JUMP! For my love ...

Berthillon ice cream break on the Seine

Margie left in the morning and it was so weird to see everyone start to depart one by one, but Sarah, Abs and I took advantage of our rainy Sunday in Paris, getting Pierre Hermé macaroons, and going to l'As du Falafal for lunch - which seriously NEVER disappoints and is worth the wait. Sarah and I took the train home, she dropped me off in Rennes and continued on to Brest and I got home in time to shower, have some dinner, and have some time to myself (let's be honest, I caught up on the reality TV I hadn't watched all week ...) All in all it was SUCH a great trip and I feel like we did SO much in only 3 short days.

View from the Pompidou

Miss Chanel herself

Back in Rennes the weather has continued to deliver sun, so in between school and extra hours I have been working, I have absolutely been enjoying the sun (and may or may not be burnt already ...). I have been seeing my friend Margaret a lot which is so fun - Margaret went to Yarmouth and is studying abroad as a junior this semester here in Rennes. She and I have been doing weekly dinners and last night we satisfied our mexican craving AND celebrated her 21st birthday! This weekend I am going to the coast on Saturday with two of my colleagues from the hospital school I work at on Mondays, and Sunday I am going BACK to Paris with Margaret, to see my friend Julia (Huckins girl!) run in the Paris marathon!! I'm SO lucky and so proud of her I cannot wait to see the whole thing. So stay posted for Parisian adventures.

And in case you are looking to go to Paris and want some (accessible) chic hints check this out! http://girlsguidetoparis.com/archives/%E2%80%A8weekend-on-wheels-in-paris/

à toute à l'heure!

2011-03-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

I still haven't finished blogging about my wonderful spring vacation and seeing my family in Roma BUT I couldn't resist adding some pics and moments from this past weekend. I feel like I haven't stopped since I have been back from break, which is a good thing. I also am really starting to hold off thinking about how I only have about six weeks which is not enough time - I'm really starting to feel at home and the longer I stay the harder it gets to think about leaving. All of that being said, here are some highlights from my past week:

Thursday was St. Patrick's Day, which I'm sure most of you know, so I tried to concentrate my lessons on talking about what St. Patrick's Day actually means for both Ireland and the United States. I taught my kids the legend/story of St. Patrick and we did a little exercise about the meaning of shamrocks. We have also been focusing on energy so I spent a good part of my day grading 'Alternative Energy' posters for my sophomores - which was absolutely exhausting, but fun to see how hard the students had worked! Because I don't work on Thursdays, my friend Caely and I decided to splurge and go to our favorite restaurant, Apple Pie, for some real Ireland indulgence. Well, we couldn't have picked a better day to be true gourmands. Lisa had prepared homemade bread with creme fraiche and smoked salmon, an Irish stew with cabbage, beef, carrots and potatoes, and last, but certainly not least, Irish Coffee Cheesecake. Now, I've been treating myself to Apple Pie since my discovery of it in late November. I even wrote an entire post dedicated to Lisa's Pumpkin Pie over Thanksgiving, but I have to say that the cheesecake was the most incredible thing Lisa has made so far - basically I should write a new post: Ode to Irish Coffee Cheesecake. So Lisa, thank you, yet again you have managed to make me want to share my food adventures with everyone who reads the blog.

Homemade brown bread and smoked salmon .... really?

Irish stew - reminding me of St. Patrick's Day at home!

Irish Coffee Cheesecake: Renamed "Can I have another
piece?" cheesecake ...

Caely hard at work

Now that you are salivating and hungry ... I worked all day Friday, as I usually do, but took on some extra hours to help the students with their oral exams. Friday night I was absolutely exhausted and went to bed at some unreasonably early hour because Saturday I also worked. Saturday was 'Open House' at school - basically so that parents and their middle schoolers could come and see what the lycée has to offer. Lycée Chateaubriand is considered one of the, if not THE, best public school in Rennes, so you can imagine we were super busy. We schmoozed with parents for a few hours in the morning asking their questions about our role as assistants and where we come from etc. It was exhausting, but actually quite fun to see how many parents are really curious about the next step of their children's education. Saturday afternoon, I continued working and did another afternoon at Les Petits Bilingues - which is a small school offering special afternoon classes for younger kids to practice/learn English. I help once a month with the cooking class offered on Saturday, and this week we made Carrot Cake and American Pancakes. The students were so well behaved and the parents were very pleased to see their kids so excited to share the cake with them, in addition to proving they can say "eggs", "flour", "sugar", and "cinnamon"... very cute. To top it off, France 3, a French news station, came to interview us and film a bit of our class - very very nerve racking. So apparently, tomorrow night, Emma attempting to teach English, cook, and speak French will be on French news - yikes.

Caely attempting to review the ingredients with some of my students

Despite my exhaustion level after meeting friends for tea after teaching, then going to see a very adorable new French film, I decided to 'profiter' from the incredible weather we have been having, and I took a day trip to the northern coast of Brittany with my friends Fabienne (from Germany) and Elsa (from Russia). We left around noon and drove up to the coast stopping at a couple different beaches and points. Our main goal was to see Cap Fréhal, a place I have been wanting to visit since arriving in Rennes. It went above and beyond my expectations. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and it was so nice to be in a car, exploring the countryside and the coast - which is absolutely beautiful here in Brittany. It is truly spring here, and I saw all of the colors and lush gardens to prove it. We would drive a bit, stop, get out and take advantage of the sun and walk a bit before getting back into the car and hitting our next stop. Fabienne vacationed here as a kid, so she knew the area like the back of her hand. Our last stop was at a beach where we walked along the boardwalk and grabbed a galette before heading back home in time for a shower, and finally, sleep. I'm so lucky that Fabienne has a car, and it was so nice to only speak in French all day.

Beautiful sunset

Me at Cap Fréhal

The 'phare' or lighthouse at Cap Fréhal

Catching mussels

The beach

Fort Latte at Cap Fréhal

The water color was absolutely crazy - there were times when
you couldn't tell the difference between sea and sky. Right
below the cliffs, the water looked like Caribbean water it was so
aqua and absolutely beautiful.

Paragliding in Brittany

Families have picnics and take advantage of the sun on a Sunday

Horses at low tide

Barthalona

2011-03-10T03:18:00.000-08:00

One of the perks of this assistantship is school breaks. Because France values vacation time, unlike the United States where you have to beg for one day off, school vacations are shall we say ... frequent. Schools have two weeks off in February/March and another two weeks over Easter in April. So for the past two weeks I had the opportunity to travel a bit and see my family! The adventure started in Barcelona with my friend Lindsay for four days ...

Barcelona is AMAZING. I had so so much fun. It was the perfect balance between eating, drinking, sleeping, and sightseeing. I think spending a lot of time in one place is really nice in order to get to know the city and to not feel like you are rushed in seeing everything. It is super navigable, has a great public transportation system, and not to mention, surprisingly very accessible. After spending the night in Toulouse with Lindsay (which is in the south of France) on Saturday, Sunday we got up and had a lazy day of going to this incredible market, making a big lunch with her roommates and preparing for our journey to Spain. Somehow, we got to Spain without any glitches pretty late on Sunday night. After dumping our stuff at the hostel, we found a tapas restaurant on the corner that was very very good and every table came with your own tap and it just calculated on a big screen how much you were drinking, which was really cool and their beer wasn't bad!

Monday was our first full day and we were determined to go, go, go. We first headed into the Gothic Quarter to explore the Cathedral and attempt to get our bearings. We walked around everywhere, did a little bit of shopping, and of course, found churros. For those of you who haven't been to Spain, or who haven't read my previous posts, churros are doughnut like pastries you dip in hot chocolate - the thing about hot chocolate in Spain though is that it is LITERALLY melted chocolate. So basically it's heaven. I had read about this one street that is well known for it's chocolate because it is full of art galleries and so while people used to go around to all the galleries they would obviously need a place to rest and get a sugar fix. Lindsay and I wasted no time doing exactly the same thing ... Monday night we began our ritual of a 7pm siesta for about an hour and a half to two hours - every day. I seriously think Spain knows how to live. We also went out on Monday night only discover exactly why people sleep for almost 2 hours every afternoon/evening ... people didn't even start going out until between 2 and 3 am! So you don't eat until 10 pm because you have been sleeping because you went to bed at 6 am and didn't get up until noon - NOW I get it!

Can't go wrong with churros

Tuesday turned out to be absolutely beautiful so we went to the famous market in Barcelona to pack up some things and head to Gaudi's famous Park Guell. Of course we found the most difficult route to get there which included impossibly steep hills, stairs, and an escalator, and then on our way down realized we had gone the back way and made it impossibly difficult for ourselves BUT that did not take away from the incredible view, beautiful day, and amazing picnic we had at the top! The market was so cool and everything was so fresh - not to mention the colors! It was different then the market in Rennes as there was so much exotic fruit and their meat and cheese are very different. Sidenote: I felt like in Barcelona no one spoke English so this is where Lindsay pretended she spoke Spanish. Although, putting an "O" at the end of every word does not make it Spanish. Somehow we managed because people seemed to think we understood as soon as she or I said one word in Spanish someone would just start speaking fluently to us. And instead of asking questions, we would finish with "vale" which means "ok" and then walk away without a clue as to what was said. But we ate well, slept well, saw everything we wanted and understood directions so we must have done something right! When we went to the market we had to rely on speaking French some of the time, which was comforting in a weird way.

Entrance to Park Guell

View from the top - complete with ocean view

Picnic complete with sangriaaa

Entrance to the market

incredible fruit - figs, oranges, papaya, you name it ...

Smoothies in every flavor - we had them every day
no joke, mango/coconut was my absolute favorite

Barcelona is right on the beach, so we had to try some fresh calamari

Tuesday afternoon we took a tour of the Palau de la Musica Catalana - a privately owned performance space for choruses in Barcelona and Spain. It is absolutely beautiful and is hands down own of the most incredible and intricate buildings I've seen. The details are amazing and there is a lot of symbolism surrounding the legend of St. George, the patron Saint of Barcelona imbedded on the inside. The reason the photo below of the facade is so steep is because the facade is facing another building, making the front very difficult to see. Facing the building is an apartment building, which the architect thought would eventually be torn down, and there were churches on the other sides so the architect thought they would never be torn down, hence the reason the building faces the apartment building. Coincidentally, the apartment building is the only building left standing around the Palau! After a siesta, Lindsay and I met up with my friend Julia from camp. Julia and I never plan anything ... ever. But somehow we are always in the same place at the same time. This summer she called me after canoeing in Maine with her dad for three days and ended up spending the weekend with me. Then we discovered we were flying into Paris the exact same day before our assistantships (she is in Grenoble). She was supposed to go to Cairo for spring break and didn't, for obvious reasons, so left me a message two days before I left saying she would be in Barcelona the exact dates I would. Jules, I think it is fate! So we had a wonderfully late dinner with her and a friend near our hostel. Below is a picture of the Palau, along with some other things I found interesting throughout my exploration of Barcelona!

Music Hall

Are those eyes??

Check it again ... those are towels!

Statue by the beach in Barceloneta

Wednesday was another beautiful day so we decided to head down to the beach. I guess I didn't realize that Barcelona was ON the Mediterranean, well one beautiful walk on the boardwalk and two pastries later I was amazed and in love. It was super windy, but the beach seemed to go on forever and it was so nice to see the ocean. On the way down to the beach we were able to see the port and we discovered an incredible Catalan history museum. Usually I am not very good in museums for a long time, but this museum was one of the best I have ever been to. We only went to the third floor to discover the history of the Catalan region from the revolution in the 1930s to present day. It was so well laid out and really clear. I learned more from just spending a couple hours in that museum then I have in any history class, and I honestly could go back and explore it more.

la playa!

This sort of looks like my apartment after I do laundry ...

Wednesday night I think was my favorite night in Barcelona. We met up with some of Lindsay's friends from Toulouse who happened to be in Barcelona as well, one girl was staying in our hostel. Five of us headed back down towards the beach to try this dinner place I hadn't stopped reading about La Champagneria. Seriously one of the coolest restaurants I have ever been. Let me explain: you order champagne, either a round, or a glass, at 90 cents a glass (pink champagne mind you), but the deal is is that you have to order some sort of food as well. So you can order 5 glasses of champagne, but you have to order at least one small plate of tapas or something. We all got sandwiches and split some tapas and it was so amazing. This place sounds classy, but you have to fight your way to order. It is standing room only, the floor is disgusting filled with paper wrappers from the sandwiches and people dropping things, and there is a bouncer at the door making sure it doesn't get too packed. It opens early and closes early because it takes a while to get people to leave. We called to say there were 5 of us and one wheelchair to make sure everything would be ok, and on the phone they said "Yes, of course no problem!", but of course we get there and there is a huge line and the bouncer was less than thrilled to see us. Good thing some very nice (and very cute) Italian boys, helped us get a spot in line and we all chatted a bit and shared a round of drinks. It was crowded and loud, but completely worth it. The food was delicious, the people were crazed, but very nice and it was definitely an experience. I would go back in a heartbeat! Afterwords, the five of us moved to an equally crowded bar to chat some more before the Toulouse gang headed out, as they were all leaving that night. Linds and I continued to head back to our hostel, in the rain, and ended up going out with some of the girls from our hostel which was really fun. At the beginning I was teasing Lindsay because I thought going out on an organized rendez-vous with the hostel would feel like field trip, but I ate my words because it was so fun and everyone was really nice and we had a great time.

Thursday morning was a bit slow, but after another smoothie and a Spanish pastry I was good to go. We decided to do a free walking tour of Gaudi's architecture in Barcelona. Highly, highly recommended. Our guide was really sweet, she was from England, and because the weather wasn't superb, there were only eight of us. We walked all around the city as she explained to us the details and history of Gaudi's masterpieces. We finished at the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's yet-to-be-finished Cathedral, which was actually recently deemed an official basilica by the Pope. The Sagrada was my favorite part of Barcelona. We did an audio tour, duh, and the inside of the church was just amazing. You really do feel like you are inside a forest. It is the most modern cathedral I have ever seen and truly unique. All of Gaudi's architecture makes you feel like you are taking a walk in Candy Land, which is a bit ironic considering one of his apartment buildings is actually owned by the family that owns Chupa Chups! Our guide took her time explaining as many details as possible about the outside of the Sagrada, but once you see the pictures below, you will realize there are SO many details it is impossible to cover them all. Thursday ended with an incredible typical Catalan lunch at 4 pm, a siesta, and a final dinner at one of the oldest restaurants in Barcelona. Shoot, I just remembered we went to the Picasso museum too! How did I forget that? I have no idea which day it was now ... they are all running together! Well, the Picasso museum was very cool, in a very cool sort of hidden area, but to be honest a bit underwhelming, considering there was only the permanent collection which was smaller then I assumed, but nonetheless still impressive! I can't tell you enough how much I really loved the city. I would love to go back and explore more day to day life of the city and take day trips. Friday morning I flew to Rome to see the fam so stay tuned on more updates from Italy...

Ciao for now!

Morning coffee with muffin tops dipped in chocolate ... really?

Linds investigating the map

Gaudi's Casa Milà

Gaudi's Casa Batllo

Me and Linds in front of the Sagrada Familia

Storm troopers or Gaudi statues? It was said that George Lucas
got inspiration from this exact facade for Star Wars ...

Inside the Sagrada - Gaudi designed it to make you feel as though
you were inside a forest

Looking up at the ceiling over the altar in the Sagrada

Galway Girl

2011-02-17T05:42:00.000-08:00

Enjoying tea and cake at
Apple Pie - of course

There is nothing like having good friends visit! One of my best friend's from home, Libby, is currently living in Galway, Ireland and despite us both being in Europe, we have yet to see one another - so last weekend she hopped across the channel and came to Rennes. We had the best time catching up and it was nice, yet again, to show someone all of my favorite spots in Rennes. We had a typical Breton night on Wednesday when she got here, having galettes, cider, and crepes, followed by grabbing a pint with friends in town to watch the France vs. Brazil soccer game (which we won - yay!).

Caely graces us with her talent ... apple tart

I don't work on Thursdays, so I took Libby to the Cathedral, the Parliament building, the opera house and the mayor's office, in addition to all of the tiny side streets trying to still milk the January sales. We got lunch at my favorite tartine place with one of my friends and sat at the same table as some French women who happened to be teachers as well and enjoying a glass of wine before needing to go back to school (a two hour lunch, complete with wine is what teachers should all have in the middle of the day, I wonder when the US will catch on to this ...). Of course when we left it began to rain so we sought refuge in Apple Pie so I could introduce Libby to my favorite restaurant and Lisa (the owner, from Dublin) and Libby could talk Ireland. Turns out Lisa is very familiar with Galway and even met her husband there! We were not disappointed with lemon tart and apple pie.

Great meal with great friends

Friday night Libby came to school with me and helped monitor a debate and later gave a mini presentation on Galway to the students in my afternoon class. They were really well behaved and it was nice to show Libby what my life is like everyday. I think she enjoyed the class, but it was a little hard to keep a straight face when you have someone you know well in the classroom. Friday night I had a dinner party and borrowed a raclette machine from one of the teachers at my school. Raclette is like a big hot stone, and underneath there are places to put mini frying pans of cheese. Once the cheese heats up, you put it on top of veggies, ham/meat, and potatoes ... and repeat (see image below). It was a huge success and so easy when you are entertaining people. Caely spoiled us again with an apple tart ...

Example of raclette machine
Photo from here

Perfect tomatoes

Saturday I showed Libby the market - and I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but it literally never fails to amaze me. The weather all weekend was absolutely phenomenal so we were able to have a picnic outside on the Parliament steps in the sun - it was beautiful. After yet another meal, we wandered up towards Parc Thabor where the flowers are starting to come up! There were lots of small kids and babies walking with their families so we sat and people watched for a while as well. We rounded off Libby's stay with a night of dancing which was, as always, fun and cathartic. She left Sunday morning, to my dismay, but all in all we had a wonderful time and it was so nice to just cook and walk around and talk and drink wine - it was a nice little taste of Yarmouth!

Saturday morning book sale

Beautiful weather - perfect for a picnic!

Rediscovering Rennes and it's architecture

Willkommen nach Strasbourg!

2011-02-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

"I really want to visit Strasbourg!" was simply a conversation with my friend Sarah a few weeks ago ... two train tickets, three days, and one day off later, I just got back from an amazing visit to Strasbourg! For those of you who are not familiar with the city, it is pretty much a straight line, directly east of Rennes, extremely close to the border of Germany. I essentially went from one side to the other in six not-so-short hours. I have to say, before I go into detail, that Strasbourg has to be one of my all time favorite cities so far - not only in France, but in general. Between the food, the pedestrian-only side streets, the lights, the Cathedral, and the river, it is absolutely beautiful.

Outside of Cathedral

Astrological Clock

We left Friday morning, extremely early, allowing us to have the afternoon to explore the city. We left our stuff at the hotel, grabbed a map, and headed off. First stop, the Cathedral. My friend Helen who I studied abroad with, studied in Strasbourg the semester before Rennes, and spoke very highly of it. I tried to do as much as I could while we there, but I was so happy we took the advice of exploring the Cathedral because it is seriously incredible. It is absolutely massive with beautiful, ornate stained glass windows and impossibly detailed architecture. Saturday at noon, we went back to the Cathedral to watch a short film about the astronomical clock that is inside. This is the third clock that was constructed in the Cathedral (the first one being from the 14th century, the second in the 16th century, and this one from the 19th century), and it essentially includes symbolism of the passing of time as it relates to life, death, the afterlife, and Jesus. It is really amazing and so hard to believe how well constructed it is!

Second stop, the set of Sherlock Holmes 2? As I was approaching the Cathedral I came across a trailer with a sign on it that read: "Sherlock Holmes 2: Hair and Make-Up." The night before I left, we had watched the first Sherlock Holmes because we heard a rumor they were filming in Strasbourg - rumor was true! We stood around with about 100 other people oo-ing and ah-ing at the set, the cameras, and the extras - most importantly the horses. It was really cool to see how Strasbourg is so quaint there was hardly any extra construction to the site apart from two fake store fronts. I learned later neither Jude Law, nor Robert Downey Jr. were there filming, but it was still very cool.

Sherlock Holmes 2 set: No big deal

Cutest extra on set

Third stop, who's thirsty? Kronenbourg anyone? After taking our time on Saturday morning, and seeing the presentation/activity of the clock in the Cathedral, we decided to take a tour of the Kronenbourg brewery just outside the city center. Again, for those of you who don't know Kronenbourg is a French beer, owned by the Carlsburg company. They make beers like 1664, Kronenbourg, and Grimbergen. The tour consisted of a presentation on how the beer is made, a visit to the old factory, a tour through the caves below the building where it was originally made, and of course, a tasting. I was really impressed by the tour, and it was very cool to see the evolution of how the beer is made and also the advertising. The tour was complete in French, so I think we picked up some new vocabulary too ... hops = houblons.

Original 19th century beer barrels

Old school print ads for Kronenbourg

Fourth stop, la petite France. The center of Strasbourg is basically a big island, appropriately called "Grande Ile". One corner of it is a tiny, quaint area called Petite France where there are small windy streets and adorable buildings with architecture that make you feel like you are in Epcot Germany. With the canal surrounding this area, there are small foot bridges and little souvenir shops that run along the quarter making you feel as though you are very much in a mini-Strasbourg, or a mini-France.

flammkuchen yumm

Last, but certainly not least, the food. Don't think I didn't forget. Strasbourg is very French, and very much like Brittany in that the typical cuisine includes potatoes, cheese, ham, and bread - but there is definitely a twist - like adding to that sauerkraut, pretzels, and flammkuchen. The first night we started by going to a wine bar called Terres à Vin. I read about it in Food and Wine and was anxious to try some riesling from that region. It was tucked away off a side street and couldn't have been more welcoming and delicious. We both tried a white wine, I went with riesling which tasted nothing like the impossibly sweet riesling I have had in the past, and we split some organic foie gras - a worthwhile treat. As for dinner, we went to "Au Renard Prêchant" a very traditional Alsace restaurant I found recommended by Lonely Planet. I tried pork with sauerkraut and Sarah stuck with the theme of the night have foie gras ravioli. And yes it was amazing as it sounds. But, no, it wasn't as heavy and rich as you would think (in a good way). Let's just say it was a good thing we were walking for about three hours a day ...

Strasbourg: amazing city, incredible food,
and the best company!

Saturday we went to lunch and tried flammkuchen which is typical and traditional. It is an extremely flat, cracker-like, pizza with créme fraiche (a bit like sour cream), cheese, onions, and bacon pieces. It. Is. Amazing. We got it with mushrooms and potatoes too and it was absolutely delicious. Saturday evening we wandered around and found another place recommended to me called "Au Brasseur Strasbourg". There was a huge wait, it was really crowded, and they made their own beer, perfect. We waited for a bit, took our time staring at what everyone else was getting while enjoying their white beer, and settled on knopfle (which is basically gnocchi) and jammet braisé (which is the hip from pork with sauerkraut). Great decisions. The food in Strasbourg is definitely not light, and they aren't into as much butter and sugar as they are here in Brittany (hence the lack of dessert observations), but the food is perfect after walking around all day at the beginning of February.

I also got to meet up with Alice, who is very good friends with my friend Zac from Bowdoin. When he heard I was going to Rennes, he gave me her name because she is from Rennes, but is actually studying in Strasbourg this year. She was absolutely adorable and so nice. We had a beer with her and her friends after dinner on Saturday and it felt nice to hang out with some Frenchies our age and speak some French.

Overall it was an incredible weekend. I feel like I really saw the city and took advantage of where I was. I could easily spend more time there, and would love to visit more museums or simply just walk around discovering more neighborhoods and learning a bit more about the history. Public transportation was a great plus as well, completely accessible buses, and a beautiful tram system with about five lines that runs above ground throughout the city. Hopefully I will be able to go back the Alsace region again soon because it is truly one of the best parts of France.

View from the bridge in La Petit France

My adventures are far from over ... Libby, one of my best friends from home, is currently living in Galway, Ireland and is making the trek to Rennes on Wednesday for the rest of the week/weekend. I'm so excited to show her around Rennes and play hostess. Stay tuned for more very soon!

à bientôt!

Grandma Fern Visits!

2011-01-31T11:36:00.000-08:00

I just had an absolutely wonderful visit with my grandmother from New York! We spent about 3 days and 4 night visiting Rennes and feasting. Before she came on Friday evening, I was talking to one of my colleagues and told her my grandmother was coming to visit, her first question was "Oh how exciting! What are you going to eat?!" Hopefully that gives you some indication of what we do here in Rennes ...

Opera House in Rennes

We did so much while in Rennes and really lucked out on the weather. Friday night, we had traditional galettes and crepes, along with some homemade Breton cider. She was jet lagged and I was exhausted from teaching all day we both passed out pretty early. Saturday we walked all around the market, got lunch, and continued to walk around Rennes, showing her the cathedral, museum, major streets in the centre ville, and the Parliament building. We ran into all my friend around Rennes which gave the impression I know everyone in Rennes; when in fact I know about six people and all six just happened to be out and about at the same time. We went on a tour of the Parliament building with my friend Caely Saturday afternoon. I had been before, in fact, the first weekend with my host mom probably the same weekend, two years ago. I was amazed at how much I actually learned this time around because a. I can actually speak French now, and b. I wasn't completely overwhelmed and exhausted from culture shock, jet lag and my first weekend in Rennes. The woman who gave the tour was really wonderful, she didn't over explain anything or go into too much detail - it was really nice.

Saturday night we went to a very nice restaurant and had a beautifully presented dinner: I had scallops so I couldn't have been happier! Sunday she came to see my apartment and I made us brunch. Coincidentally my host mom stopped by to say hello, so she was able to meet her which was nice. Sunday afternoon we got dressed up for the opera. The opera house is beautiful from the outside, and so elegant yet quaint on the inside. We sat in a little box and watched a production of Debussy's "Pelléas and Mélisande," which was beautiful and not too over the top. I had never seen a full opera there and I was very impressed and everyone was extremely talented (not to mention as a sidenote: the man who played Pelléas was from Missouri - America represent!). Sunday evening we had a low key steak dinner (which for some reason I have been craving for weeks now) and went to bed on the earlier side. This morning we walked up and down the quiet streets again, this time popping into explore the cathedral. It has been relatively warm and sunny here, but today was definitely one of the coldest days we have had - but with sun nonetheless! We warmed up with some soup for an early lunch, before I had to go to class and before she was en route to her next adventure ...

We laughed this afternoon because we didn't take any photos! I guess I never think of it because I live here. I will update with some more pictures later this week ...

Last week, I went to the movies twice: Sunday afternoon I saw "Another Year" by Mike Leigh, and Monday afternoon I saw "Les Emotifs Anonymes." "Another Year" was really well done, very much a "slice of life" as my friend Georgia called it. Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, and Lesley Manville were incredible. The movie was a bit long, but the actors make the movie completely worth it. I saw that it is up for an Oscar - so finger's crossed! My classes were cancelled on Monday so I went to see "Les Emotifs Anonymes" by myself (which is the first time I have done that and will NOT be the last ... who knew going to the movies on your own was so fun?). Anyways, it was about a man who makes/sells chocolates, but is very socially and romantically awkward, and his new employee, who is equally as awkward, but they are SO adorable and fall for each other it is the sweetest story - and perfectly light for a Monday afternoon. If it ever comes to the states I recommend it.

Last week I did a lesson on Romeo and Juliet and continued gun control in addition to starting to tutor a girl at school who was born in Scotland so she is fluent in English and quite bored in class so I offered to chat with her once a week. She and I get along really well and she is super bright so it will be nice to continue that this week. I'm preparing myself for another busy week, but getting very excited because Sarah is coming on Thursday and we are off to Strasbourg for the weekend on Friday morning!

More to come soon so restez avec moi! (stay tuned ...)

Janvier à Rennes

2011-01-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

So I am back in Rennes after an epic New Year's, and an incredible Christmas break. The weather has been very not-Rennes, and not-winter. Knock-on-wood, the weather has been about 50 degrees and sunny for the past 2 and a half weeks, so I have been definitely taking advantage of being outside taking walks, going to the park, and going to the soccer matches. In fact, the last game I went to was the first play-off game, against Cannes, and we won 7-0! It was really fun to watch, even though it was a bit painful for the other team. New year, new adventures, so I am trying to do more! My friend Julia and I have started swimming in the brand new, beautiful, indoor pool in the park every Monday, which is great. I started a small job at a pre-school called "Les Petits Bilingues" for French/English bilingual kids. I have only been once so far, but I'm really hoping to go back. Last time we made cupcakes with 11 7-year-olds, it was messy and tiring, but so incredibly cute. I also went to IKEA the other day to freshen up my room a bit with living things, like flowers, so my studio is finally feeling very chez moi.

Attempting to grow some
flowers in my room!

Beautiful sunsets outside my window

I also FINALLY bought what we call a "mini four" (which sounds much more glamourous than a toaster oven, which is essentially what it is). Nevertheless, I've been using it almost every night as my improve-culinary skills continue. Below I made pizza for myself using mushrooms and spinach, and instead of a sauce, I puréed sweet potatoes. It was absolutely delicious.

I went to a professor's house for dinner on Saturday night and it went really well (by professor I mean teacher, and by teacher I mean colleague). He, Loïc, and his wife, Véronique, could not be nicer and there were two other couples including a French teacher from my high school, and an Italian professor from my high school. It was the most typical French evening I don't even know where to begin. My professor picked me up around 8 and we went to his house close the the lycée. We started with aperitifs (appetizers/cocktails), which were small, small bowls of cherry tomatoes, nuts, and chips. The drinks were raspberry juice, passionfruit juice, or orange juice with rum. We sat and talked and drank in front of the fire for about an hour and then moved into the dining room where we started with a homemade soup: celery, pumpkin, and leek (absolutely delicious). We took our time, had seconds, enjoyed some white wine and waited for the next course. We then had rice with scallops in a kind of cream sauce. The market was earlier that day, so Véronique was explaining how she had bought everything that morning - gah amazing. We digested with some mache, which is incredibly popular and in season, some fresh bread, and of course, four different kinds of cheeses. Something I learned: it is rude to have seconds of cheese, therefore, it is not rude to take mass amounts of each kind the first time. I guess that's fair. We then had dessert: little chocolate cakes, tiramisu, and vanilla bean ice cream - and yes, we got all three. We finished with some tea and coffee and talked more about travel and films. At the end Loïc gave me some French CD's (due to a prior conversation at dinner about my embarrassing lack of knowledge about French artists), and he took me home. Dinner was incredible, they were so welcoming, and when I got home my clock said 1 am! Dinner parties here are NOT like in the USA when you can assume to be out of there in 2 hours. If you RSVP 'yes' to a French dinner party, prepare to be there all night - which trust me, is NOT a bad idea ...

So from reading this entry, and reading others, it pretty much sounds like all I do is eat ... which isn't completely incorrect. Well I have also been seeing a lot of films, both French and American. The films that I saw, that I recommend, are "Pieds Nus sur Les Limaces" with Diane Kruger, about two sisters which was very good, and a sort of French indie film. "Les Vrais Mensonges" with Audrey Tautou and Nathalie Baye (who is fantastic!). Before break I saw "Les Petits Mouchoirs" which some people said was only good because it had a lot of famous French movie stars, but I disagree. I didn't understand every single word, but still, it was a really great film - starring Marion Cotillard. At dinner on Saturday we were talk about another English film "Exit Through The Gift Shop" which is a movie by famous English graffiti artist Bansky. It is mostly about a French filmmaker, so the French have really enjoyed it. My friend Cait told me to see it over Christmas break, and I just got around to it. It was so good! A super odd and quirky documentary, but worth it. On Saturday morning, I was walking around Rennes and went to the market, and I found images by Space Invader - which is a pseudonym for a well known French graffiti artist. Below are the pictures - really cool!

Close-up of image

Space Invader above apt. building

Aaaand back to food - I hope that's ok ... Sunday afternoon I had a big brunch at my apartment with my friends. It was incredible. We had all been craving some real brunch I think so we made a big deal of it. It wasn't exactly an American brunch, but it involved quiche, croissants, and champagne. We had a pot-luck style brunch and everyone brought so many incredible things. We took our time and ate around 1:30, followed by a nice long walk in the park, and later we came back to either eat more, relax, and play cards. It was a typical French afternoon, slow and involving lots of eating, but it was nice to take our time and see each other and chat before a busy week.

Mushroom/caramelized onion/gruyere cheese quiche
My toaster oven at it's best!

The spread: breakfast pizza, croissants, scones, jam, quiche,
baguettes and, of course, mimosas.

Fresh croissants and pain au chocolat - yum!

Berit's delicious almond and lemon scones.

Taking a walk in the park we
discovered a merry-go-round ...

and a bull ... which Caely decided to ride.

I have another ode ... and that is to Speculoos spread. I have been hearing about this spread for a while, and I haven't been able to find it. When I was in the grocery store shopping for brunch, I decided to grab some for the bread. Best idea ever. Worst idea ever. Speculoos, for those that don't know, is a ginger-y, butter-y Belgian and Dutch cookie. You often have one served with coffee or tea in the afternoon at many cafés all over France (you can read more about the traditional Dutch/Belgian use online). Anyways, this is the spread - sort of a cross between Nutella and Peanut Butter - but beyond. It is absolutely delicious, and I recommend eating it on warm bread ... but preferably solely with a spoon. To say something is better then Nutella is a very bold statement ... but I think half-a-jar later, you will agree.

There is more to come as we are only half way through January so stay tuned! Bonne appetite et à bientôt!

Bonne Année!

2011-01-03T01:08:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!!

Music Academy at night - absolutely gorgeous.

When thinking about going back home to Maine, I thought about when to come back, and what better place to spend New Year's Eve than in Paris? I did my research and learned that places like the Champs-Élysées is absolutely crazy, à la Times Square in New York, so my friend Lindsay, her two cousins, and I, decided to rent a small apartment, go to a nice dinner, and go dancing. Mission accomplished. This was honestly one of the best New Year's I've ever had and while Paris was extremely busy and flooded with people during the day and night, it was so beautiful to walk around the city at this time with all of the lights still up. It was also a bit nostalgic because it was almost exactly two years ago that Lindsay and I were sleep deprived and culture shocked as we participated in orientation for study abroad in Paris, essentially sleep-sight-seeing. Our apt. was perfect, located in the 5th which was a perfect location and we had the best luck with finding our way around and doing the perfect amount of walking, eating, resting, and shopping.

Galaries Lafayette
essentially the
Bloomingdale's/NYC Macy's of Paris

Side of the Galaries Lafayette building

Lindsay and I at dinner - Au Petit Marguery
Had duck and crème brulée

Lindsay's cousins Dyan and Loren attempting to read the menu in French

Home Sweet Home - who wouldn't want to stay next to Leonidas chocolates?
Looking for a place to stay? This place is perfect for 2-4 people - great apartment and incredible people
to work with. Go to www.Paris115.com for more information!

View from our door
this can be seen from our window too!

Our New Year's Eve picnic chez nous!
Yum!

Home Sweet Home

2011-01-03T00:55:00.000-08:00

Even though I promised myself I would only write about my adventures abroad, I couldn't help, but include some pictures from my trip home - which technically counts as abroad now that I'm living in France ... right? Anyways, home was lovely. It was nice to be with family and friends for Christmas and eat some good food and just relax. I was home for 10 days and here were the highlights ...

My friend Cait on her "surprise" bday dinner with her boyfriend Alex - her mom made
an incredible roasted dinner ... see below!

Yu-Um.

Happy Birthday Cait!

While I was home a snow storm hit the east coast and we literally didn't leave the house for
almost two days straight ... not complaining. This is our front yard.

Christmas tree!

Breakfast anyone? I tried Alice's Tea Cup "Pumpkin Cinnamon Scone" recipe
with caramel icing - they were delicious.

Traditional Christmas brunch chez moi - breakfast sandwich on a croissant?
Can't get any better than that ...

Christmas Morning (I attempted to include some non-food pictures ...)

Crown Roast for Christmas dinner
Dad did an incredible job

Mmmm White Chocolate Raspberry trifle
In true Mom fashion - delish

I promise my next post will be more about what I have been DOING and less about what I have been EATING, but I couldn't resist for now.

2011-01-03T00:46:00.000-08:00

Before winter break miss Sarah Marston came to visit me for a last horrah before we headed back to the States for Christmas - below are some great pictures we took of Christmastime in Rennes!

Light show on the Mayor's office in Place de la Mairie

Opera House all lit up

Hair pins!! Looking like candy, sushi, wrappers, and cookies - they looked incredibly real!

Christmas Market

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

2010-12-03T01:54:00.000-08:00

Happy December! It has definitely gotten cold here, and it snows close to everyday so I thought I would warm up with some tea and do a little update.

Santa's Mailbox

Crèche (Nativity Scene)

After America's real Thanksgiving, I had quite the 'holiday' weekend. Friday night the Marché de Noël started in front of the Parliament building. While some of the vendors have some 'different' things, most of it is knitted hats and gloves, or jewelry, or pottery - but most importantly, food. They have hot churros (basically like a thin Spanish doughnut that you dip in hot Nutella), gaufres (which are essentially Belgium waffles, but with Nutella, and you eat them for dessert), and all kids of candy and chocolate covered fruit (salivating yet?). So I walked around with some friends and admired the quaintness of it all.

Our beautiful, fresh, farm turkey

bon appétit!

Me and Berit

Saturday was the big day. On Wednesday a few of us had gone to a market to seek out a special butcher for our Turkey. Turkey's are NOT easy to come by like they are at home, but we found a really nice man who gave us a HUGE turkey to feed about 15 of us ... it was enormous. And not to be too graphic, but he informed us he would get it fresh and proceeded to tell us he would kill it for us on Thursday afternoon to be picked up on Friday. When a friend of mine went to pick it up, his main question was "Head: on or off?" - I guess you can't get fresher than that! So by Saturday morning everyone had gone to the market, picked up their last minute produce and began to cook. A few of us tended to the turkey starting around 5 with some appetizers and cocktails. We had to cook the turkey in one oven, then carry it across town to eat it at my friend Caely's - quite a production. We ended up having an incredible, incredible meal: baked brie, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (which is genius because it definitely does NOT exist here, so bravo to my friend Julia for making-do with some hard-to-find and très cher dried cranberries), sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, salad, and paté - not to mention about 12 bottles of wine and apple pie, apple brownies, ice cream, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin pie (another incredible feat, due to the fact that nothing exists here to actually make pumpkin pie, so one has to find a real pumpkin and purée ... intense no?). After overeating, some of us cleaned, while others took a short nap. No one left Caely's until about 3 am - it was quite epic.

And don't forget dessert ...

In other news ...

Teaching is going well. I've had some difficult kids the past couple of weeks, but I also was able to work with my favorite class for 2 hours this week. They are all sophomores - so about 15 - and they are so smart and funny and really fun to be around (aka they laugh at my jokes). There is about 36 of them and they are ALL really great - it's cute to see them outside of the classroom too because they are always saying "Hello miss - How are you today?" - I think they get confused sometimes if I respond in French.

Tomorrow is the big Monaco vs. Rennes match in Rennes so I am going to that which will be great - hopefully the snow will hold off.

Going home in about 3 weeks from tomorrow! Very excited because the peanut butter I brought has already run out, so I need to do some work stocking up.

À bientôt!

p.s. Thank you for the pics Caely!

Ode to Pumpkin Pie

2010-11-25T11:26:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day full of family, friends and of course, food. While my Thanksgiving was on the lamer end of things (laundry, rain, and leftovers), I did happen to have the best piece of pumpkin pie ... ever (sorry Dad!). Remember that café I told you about Apple Pie? Where I had an incredible organic Welsh Rarebit? Well my friend Caely (a fellow foodie) and I decided to grab a cup of coffee there today in order to chat it up with the owner about Caely's hope to break into some kind of food-writing-blogging-experience while in France (à la Julie and Julia, her most recent success was boeuf bourguignon, not an easy feat). Coffee turned into coffee and pie, because after seeing the pies "no" was not a valid answer to the question "Would you like a piece of pie as well?" So cheers to Lisa at Apple Pie for making the best pumpkin pie and bringing some American Thanksgiving to France.

Not to make you jealous or anything ...

On that note, I am thankful for living in France, for my family, for my friends, for my students, and for pumpkin pie.

New in November

2010-11-21T07:24:00.000-08:00

Trying new things (and yes, most of it involves food).

So much has been going on since the departure of my mama. It has definitely been a month of firsts! So here is a list of things I have done for the first time in November …

1. Tried Tibetan food: at this place called Dolma, we had vegetable curry with rice, which was incredible, and afterwards instead of mints, the woman gave us this interesting bowl of mixed spices almost. It had bits of mint and licorice and many other flavors, which I imagine is some sort of palate cleanser? Who knows, but it was good!

Mysterious post-dinner mints from Tibet

2. French film: First French film of the year, no subtitles and very hard to understand, but nonetheless WONDERFUL. If you get a chance to see “Les Petits Mouchoirs”, do yourself a favor and go. And bring lots of tissues.

3. 3. Karoke: Ok, not me, but my students. A teacher approached me about doing it with the students with English songs, as sort of a voluntary thing for the kids to do during study breaks. I thought it would bomb considering we have tried to have an “American Cinema” hour that hasn’t had anyone show up. But I was wrong – the kids loved it! They sang ABBA, Jason Mraz, and The Kinks for an hour and were quite happy. Currently doing some research for next week …

4. 4. Prom: After learning I had helped plan proms in high school, I was recruited to help the students plan their prom. They are so interested to know what a prom is and how to get dressed for it and who will be the king and queen. We have our second meeting next week to discuss music because we’ve already settled on our masquerade theme – Gossip Girl fans would be proud.

1. 5. Degustation: Holy merde. This was incredible. Two friends and I, Seth and Julia, heard about a tasting where the market is and decided to check it out. It was a lot like the market, but essentially you pay 3 euros to get in, and you can sample champagne, wine, cider, cheese, bread, sausage, honey, chocolates, cookies, macaroons, whiskey, apple juice, mushrooms, oysters, foie gras, paté … you get the picture. We went around and tried to taste as much as we can before buying goat cheese, bread, and smoked salmon for a little lunch. They set up tables and chairs and gave out paper/plastic plates and utensils, and wine glasses (of course) for everyone to enjoy what they had purchased. It was lovely and I really hope they do it again very soon!

Julia enjoying Breton Cider at the Degustation

Trying goodies at the Degustation

Welsh Rarebit: my friend Julia introduced me to an incredible little café called Apple Pie in the center of town. It opened about a year ago by a lovely Irish woman named Lisa. She lives next to a farm and therefore posts the menu every Monday depending on what was good from the farm that week. She also makes her own flour and has specialty desserts every week. Saturday she has special brunches so after the market, a few of us checked it out. This Saturday was a Welsh special called “Welsh Rarebit” – first of all I learned that it isn’t “Welsh Rabbit” as I had thought, and second of all, it’s amazing. If you’ve never heard of it, it sounds odd, but it’s basically bread soaked in a sort of chedder cheese and beer sauce. Take my word for it, it’s amazing. She is planning on having some sort of American Thanksiving special on Thursday so perhaps I will have to check it out. In addition to her incredible plats du jour, apple pie, scones and cheesecake, the space is adorable. If Anthropologie was going to have a cute French brunch place, this is what it would look like …

Tea and Date/Apple Crumble

Welsh Rarebit

Adorable Setting in Apple Pie

Art Walk: much like First Friday in Portland, Rennes had a huge art walk this past week. A bunch of us met up and trekked across the old city seeing art and stealing hors d’oeuvres. Most of the art was a bit bizarre, but below is a photograph from one of the galleries I really enjoyed …

Favorite Paintings from Rennes Art Walk

1. Derby: not a derby like you are thinking, but a derby Breton, meaning two teams from Brittany playing each other in soccer. I went to the Brest vs. Rennes match on Saturday night, which was great. Because Brest is so close, it is a huge rival and there were so many people there – the most I’ve ever seen at a game. Rennes ended up winning 2-1, and had 2 incredible goals (Brest scored off a penalty kick, boring). Anyways, it was very exciting and I’m anxious to see the next game against Monaco!

Corner kick from one of Rennes' star players: #8 Sylvain MARVEAUX

1. Parc Gayeulles: very much like Smiling Hill Farm (for those of you who know Maine), but it is a wonderful park that has animals and big fields and running paths. It is enormous. Fabienne, the German assistant and I, went for a long 2 hour walk post-lunch last Sunday and it was really nice. As you can see we had a bit of an obsession with the miniature horses …

Fabienne and the mini horses at the Park

Duck Pond at the Park

Autumn at the Park

Mar (from Madrid), Marisa (from Italy), Raquel (from Spain) and Fabienne (from Germany)
Enjoying hot chocolate!

Mère à la Mer

2010-11-08T11:10:00.000-08:00

Me and Mom in Saint Malo

After traveling and having guests for almost 10 days, I had one day of rest until Mom arrived in Rennes! I picked her up at the train station – with lots of goodies of course – and we refreshed back at the hotel before walking around Rennes. I first took her to my “apartment” and we did a bit of grocery shopping (aka wine and cheese) before heading back into the city. That night I took her to a traditional creperie where we had galettes and crepes. She was exhausted so I dropped her off at the hotel and stayed in town to meet some friends for a drink.

View of a fort from main land
in Saint Malo

Friday morning we both woke up late and I joined her in town. We grabbed croissants and walked around before meeting Staci and Daniel, my program directors for CIEE when I studied abroad. They are SO nice and we had a lovely café with them before my class at 1. Mom came to school with me on Friday and watched me help some of the advanced students with a debate on whether or not prostitution should be legal. The kids did an excellent job and I think Mom was impressed. We then headed back into town and walked, walked, walked and shopped a bit. We had some wine and cheese before dinner then began our search for some traditional French food. First stop was one of my favorite bars/cafés called “Le Chat qui Peche” (tha cat who fishes). We met some of the other English assistants there for an aperitif, which was very nice. Sans reservation was a little tricky, so we ended up eating at a fondue place.

The waiter told us the plates weren’t for sharing, but he was misinformed. Literally the biggest plates of food I have ever seen. I’ve had my share of potatoes, ham and cheese for the rest of my life. We laughed throughout the whole meal – unfortunately she has the pictures so I will post them as soon as she sends them to me. But really – it was the most enormous meal I’ve ever seen.

Saturday morning we went to the market. Of course it was raining, but nonetheless it was still really fun and Mom was amazed by all the colors and food and vendors. We got sausage, fresh tomatoes, fresh goat cheese, and some organic bread and headed for a café at Saint Anne to enjoy our picnic. We also bought some Kouing-man and chocolates for dessert. Kouing man is a typical Breton dessert that is basically like a cinnamon bun, but with butter, sugar, and caramel. It’s incredible. We sat and had our café and ate our meal under a tent in the rain. On Saturdays you are more then welcome to eat what you have bought at the market at any café as long as you order beer, wine, coffee – some sort of beverage.

Mussels in Saint Malo YUM!

They will also give you a plate and a knife and are always very nice. We met up with Jeanne (Sarah’s old host sister who is now studying in Rennes) and her sister briefly to say hello – they are absolutely adorable. We decided to head home and dry off and lay down for a minute as we digested our French brunch. It was a crappy day so we went into town to get our haircut from someone Staci had recommended on Friday. She did a wonderful job and we were both very satisfied. (She asked me if I died my hair, and she was very impressed I did it “myself” so thanks Linds). By the time we were done with all of that it was time for showers and to think about dinner. Saturday night we had a MUCH better meal at an Italian place with fresh pasta, good wine, and delicious thin crust pizza. We were very satisfied and rolled home to get some serious REM before our big day on Sunday.

Rennes is a beautiful city and there is a lot to do! But it is also nice to explore Brittany as much as possible to really get the full experience. I took Mom to Saint Malo on Sunday for the day (I’ve been twice before and it is the perfect place to see the ocean and eat some good food). There is NOTHING to do on Sundays and everything is closed so it was the perfect day for a getaway. First we met Lise, my contact at my school, for coffee and croissants. She is SO nice and she and Mom had a nice conversation about both of their involvement in horseback riding as a form of rehabilitation. Hopefully Lise is going to take me to the stables close to Rennes in the coming weeks before Christmas! We got a train to Saint Malo around 11:30 and arrived in the rain – but of course – thank god the sun came out just as we approached the walls. Saint Malo has an older part of the city that is completely surrounded by water and walls – much like a fort. There are tons of restaurants and pastry shops and touristy shops inside the walls that make for a perfect afternoon. Not to mention the view. It was low tied so she was able to see the beach and the forts on the surrounding islands. We even found a ramp up to the top and we were able to walk on top of the walls, which was so beautiful. Late in the afternoon we sought refuge from more rain and had moule frites (mussels and French fries) along with some typical Breton cider. On our way back to the train station we discovered a bakery with SIX LAYER cake – it was incredible and overwhelming – so of course we got some. We got back around 6 in time for us both to pack up, have some tea, and enjoy our cake. Best dinner I’ve had all semester.

6 layer cake!!

It was sad seeing Mom go, but we had such a good time and I was really glad she got to see “a weekend in the life of Emma.” She met pretty much everyone I see on a regular basis, saw my apartment, saw my school, met my co-workers, explored Rennes – it was really nice. It also made me realize I’m LIVING in France. Everyone who has visited so far speaks the language and it was so interesting to be the translator (and definitely frustrating at times). It also made me realize how fast this year is flying. While there are so many frustrating things about living here, it really is a wonderful place and it is a challenge every day. Only about a month and a half until I go home – crazy!!

Back to the full grind this week. I’m currently writing this entry from the CMP, which is the high school I teach at on Mondays for students with mental/physical/psychological disabilities. Doing a conversation lesson on fashion today – oh la la. Thursday is a holiday, like in the US, so I’m hoping things will be open in town so I can spend some time with friends.

I’m sure I will have more to report as Thankgiving approaches so stay tuned!

This just in ...

2010-11-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

Two things.

One. Based on an impulse buy at the local grocery store, my hair is now purple/red/dark brown. Pictures to come. (Thank you Lindsay ...)

Two. Best phone call I've received all semester? MY MOM IS VISITING. She claims it's to check in, but I think it's an excuse to eat bread, cheese, croissants and drink wine for 4 days (can anyone blame her?). Either way I can't wait to share the details of her visit!!

Aaaand We're Back

2010-11-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

Home Sweet Home.

Rennes in Fall!!

After a 6 hour train ride Lindsay and I arrived back to Rennes. Starving we headed right to the grocery store to pick up some provisions for the week (cough cheese and wine cough) and got ready to head into Rennes for the night. We went to La Phoenician, a Lebonese restaurant in the city (where the owner knows me, if that doesn't say something about what I've been doing since I've been here (eating) I don't know what does ...). We had an incredible meal of different mezze plates and finished it off with delicious honey desserts. We headed to our favorite bar Le Saint Michel, that we use to go to when we studied here. It was the same bartender who remembered us and he was really sweet and bought us drinks as we waited for him to get off work. Our original plan of heading home or going somewhere else failed when he invited us to a party he knew of down the road - and thought "when in Rennes." It ended up being incredible - some underground battle of the DJs. Strobe lights, bouncers, huge speakers and all the three of us danced with tons of other Frenchies to original beats by a male and female DJ until the wee hours of the morning. It was so so much fun and very surreal. The next day we slept in, made a nice brunch, and headed into town for a conference that was taking place in town on Feminism. There is a group in Rennes called "Mix Cité" and they have counterparts in Nantes, Paris, and Toulouse. Sunday there was lunch/discussion that we sat in on and while I barely participated it was so interesting to hear their interests and topics of discussion. I have been back to the regular meetings since and I'm very interested in continuing to learn about what they are doing in the community and in France. (In case anyone is interested, you can learn more here http://mixcite.rennes.free.fr/). Sunday night we celebrated Halloween - yay American holidays ... - at one of the American assistants apartments, very fun - lots of costumes and too much candy - Halloween à la francais. (For lack of creativity, I went as Jackie O and Linds went as a French man ... très original).

Monday was Toussaint, "All Saints Day" in France, a huge holiday. We headed to Lindsay's old host family's house for lunch around noon and left at 7 pm ... talk about an epic lunch. It was so great to see them and her host mom is SO nice and an incredible cook. Tuesday we walked around Rennes, met some English assistants for galettes in town, met Fabienne (the German assistant I work with) for hot chocolate at Haricot Rouge (no joke, best hot chocolate I've ever had) and they played tourist as we wandered inside the Cathedral and visited some of the oldest parts of Rennes. Lindsay had to leave pretty early the next morning so we made dinner at home and met the assistants in town again for some Breton beer on tap before returning home for a good night's sleep.

It was so nice to have Lindsay here! It was almost like she never left Rennes and I am going to see her at the metro station in the morning for school. Both playing hostess worked out great and was so easy. We will see each other for New Years in Paris - I can't wait!!

Bienvenue Novembre!

2010-11-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

Disclosure: I have so much to say so this will either be a very long blog post, or I will do it in multiple installments to avoid complete boredom ...

Notre Dame de la Garde
On top of the hill in Marseille

To begin, France loves vacation and any excuse not to work, so I worked for two weeks before I had a break for Toussaint (All Saint's Day). I got basically two weeks for one holiday, not too shabby. My friends Abbie and Sarah (roomies sophomore year at Bowdoin) and I decided to go to Marseille and Toulouse for break. Abbie is in Scotland and Sarah is in Brest, so we all had some time off and we are all (relatively) close. Sarah studied abroad in Toulouse, and my friend Lindsay who studied in Rennes with me is doing the teaching program, so lots of reasons to head south!

Abbie and Sarah on top of the hill

Trash ... I'll spare you the other pictures

Abbie, Sarah and I started in Marseille on Monday. I arrived at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and the girls forewarned me about the trash situation. See, the trash pick-up is on strike in Marseille. The trash was absolutely everywhere. You had to walk in the street because the piles were so huge they had spread all over the sidewalk. To add to it, the wind in the south is very well known and strong, so the smell wasn't exactly pleasant. Don't get me wrong, the port was beautiful and we went to the top of the Notre Dame de la Garde and the view was absolutely incredible, but due to the trash situation Marseille isn't exactly my favorite city ... We made the most of it, found a great restaurant for dinner and walked around a bit. It was cool to hear the southern accent too. For instance if you say "demain" (tomorrow) in French is sounds like "de-meh" but in the south they would say "de-mane". Or "matin" (morning) is usually "mah-teh" but they would say "mah-tane" with a huge emphasis on the N. We could barely understand our cab driver the first day. The next morning we decided to spend the afternoon in Aix en Provence which is a cheap and short train ride away. Aix is where Cézanne painted and lived. It is filled with history and reminds me so much of Italy with its tiny, winding streets that you could walk around in for hours. Not to mention we really lucked out with the weather. We stayed through dinner and got home close to 10:30.

Funny sidenote: We attempted to sleep early because of our early train, but, of course, there is a discotheque above the hostel and they had an un-announced party from 1 am - 5 am. So instead of sleeping I listened to drunk people shouting the words to house music. The hostel was nice enough to reimburse us for the night - I'm not sure what's better, no sleep and a free night, or lots of sleep and spending extra money? I like house music, so I guess everything worked out.

Off to Toulouse!!

Boardwalk along river in Toulouse

Toulouse "la ville rose" was incredible! The architecture is really beautiful, all made of brick (hence the nickname "the pink city"). There are small streets reminding me very much of Nice and lots of great shopping. We absolutely lucked out with the weather, one day it was 70! It was so nice to sit outside and get some sun. I stayed with Lindsay, my friend from abroad, and she has an adorable house. She lives with a woman who rents out two of her bedrooms in her house to foreign students, so it is Linds and Gabby, a really nice girl from Venezuela. Because Sarah had studied abroad in Toulouse we met up with some of her friends from when she was there and had a blast. Some highlights were:

- going to a house warming party for two of her friends, it was so fun, we met really nice French people and it was so nice to go to a low key party have a bit of a US/France mix.
- eating incredible gelato in town O'Sorbet is where its at. Just to make you drool, I had mascarpone fig and creme brulée. Enough said.
- COOKING. Lindsay has a full kitchen and it was so nice to use an oven and make goodies like quiche and homemade pizza.
- walking across all the bridges that run from one side of Toulouse to the other, reminded me a bit of Paris, and was absolutely beautiful at night.
- eating tapas with Sarah's French friends and another fellow Bowdoin grad, Marissa Moore, who came in for the night (she is teaching outside of Toulouse in the country) and we all ate at a small small restaurant with only about 15 places on high stools, it was SO good and had so much personality.

Toulouse is such a beautiful city, and I would definitely go back. The weather was great, I had wonderful company and the people there were incredibly nice.

Very early the morning of Saturday, October 30th Lindsay and I headed back to Rennes ...

Finally Somewhat Settled ...

2010-10-17T06:02:00.000-07:00

The last time I wrote I was full of optimism after visiting with my friend Sarah and having my host family’s house to myself, and things are still good, but I have truly been through an administrative nightmare. It has come to my attention that no one really knows what is going on here:

- A very nice Madame may tell you that you need to come back with the following paperwork, and when you return a not so nice Monsieur might tell you he has “aucun idée” or “absolutely no idea” what you are talking about.

- There is also the possibility you go to what you think is the correct office for something, only to be told you must go somewhere else, to find out you must in fact return to the office in your neighborhood, etc, etc.

- Also, people tend to make plans to meet at 1:30 lets say, or pick you up at 3:30, but alas will call you half an hour later to see what your plan is for the rest of the day instead forgetting completely your meeting over half an hour ago, or show up early to announce they forgot you were even coming.

It really is hit or miss. And there is a different office for everything. You can’t do everything at once. And of course everything is all over the city, so it takes you about a month to feel as though you are finally settled. Needless to say I have no Internet at the moment, but I have been to the Internet store three times and spent over an hour on the phone with them and it looks like as of October 22^nd I will be with wifi. I have been very lucky in that I have (for the most part) been meet with nothing but hospitality even if it means running around the city like a crazy person and acclimating to people not always understanding my French …

Even though I’m exhausted everyday and have very very long days, I’m really enjoying being here. I was less than thrilled about my apartment until I hung up dozens of photos of friends and family, along with some Hepburn paraphernalia, a new Ikea duvet and some candles and I’m almost ready to call my studio chez moi. The other assistants live very close by and we grocery shop together, or go out to dinner, or go for walks, and it is wonderful because they are all extremely nice and our common language is French so I have to speak it with them all the time and they are very patient and unintimidating. They share my interests in wine, American film, American music, discovering new parks, French, and travel, so like they say “it work!”

The English assistants live all over Rennes, but I see them from time to time. Tuesday we went for coffee and walked around sharing our good/bad stories from lessons (it sounds like I lucked out because the teachers and students at Chateaubriand are nothing but nice and accommodating, though I’ve heard it has a reputation for being very smart and a bit uppity, which I don’t find at all, just very nice.) Last weekend, we walked around the market together, and later a bunch of us met for galettes in town and after had a drink at La Laverie, which is a place to wash/dry your clothes by day, and a salsa dancing/beer patio by night – very cool. A British assistant has found a feminist group that meets once a week in Rennes, so once the strikes calm down (see rant at bottom of post), I am going to start going with her and listening in on their meetings.

School is going very well also! I had my first lessons on Monday and Tuesday. Mondays I’m at a neighboring high school for students with psychological, mental, and physical disabilities. For instance if a student has struggled with depression and they are unable to return to a regular classroom they are able to stay at CMP to finish high school. Or if a student has a serious injury, there is a hospital there and they can have physical therapy or doctor’s visits in between classes. This might seem intimidating, but in fact the students are really smart and determined. They speak great English and I have two of them for half an hour just to talk, about anything. We mostly talk about American fast food or American music, or television – some of their favorites are How I Met Your Mother, Dr. House (aka House), True Blood and Desperate Housewives, needless to say we get along fine. Tuesday through Friday I have regular class, and Tuesday I did a lesson on ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ where we discussed global warming, it’s consequences, and what you can do alongside showing clips. I had all boys who were 15 so half of them could fit in your pocket while the other half already needed to shave and were 6 feet tall – but all very polite and smart. Wednesday I helped them with their project on alternative energy and heard what they had to say about solar, wind, water, and nuclear energy. Fridays I will be leading debates on the subject of the week, this week it is obeying authority and next week it is on legalizing prostitution. The students will prepare and I will pretty much be a monitor, but I think it will be really interesting!

All of this is happening so fast, and I can’t believe next week is my last week before vacation! France has holiday for Toussaint (All Saints) which is November 1^st, and sort of our version of Halloween. I have almost two weeks off so I’m planning on heading south to visit my friend Lindsay in Toulouse along with stopping in Marseille with Abbie and Sarah, my sophomore year Bowdoin roommates.

Alors, time to end this painfully long excerpt about my life. The last thing to add would be that yet again the French are striking. There were no buses/public transport on Tuesday, and Wednesday morning the teachers were in a circle in the teachers lounge (where I spend quite a bit of time) wearing signs that said “Je suis en grève” (I am on strike) and holding signs. Apparently this is the same strike that was going on when I first arrived, about changing the retirement age and I had someone explain it to me today. While it doesn’t affect me so it’s not appropriate to strike, it is starting to make a lot of sense and actually effects mainly women in France which is why the female teachers at my school seem to be taking it on very seriously. So I hope Sarkozy starts to listen or else I have a feeling things could get complicated …

2010-10-07T00:59:00.000-07:00

Paolo (grandson) helping with dinner!

Thomas (grandson)

As of Tuesday, I have officially been in France for two weeks. I would like to say for the record, it has poured rain every.single.day. No joke. Welcome to Brittany. That being said, I am so much more settled then I was last week, and I'm starting to get a hold of things. Last week was an absolute blur/disaster - attempting to send in immigration forms, getting my apartment keys, setting up my bank account and meeting all of the teachers from my school (who are all painfully nice and accommodating). I was so lucky because Sarah Marston, one of my best friend's from Bowdoin, is teaching in Brest (which is about two hours west of Rennes), so she came to visit me for the weekend, and we had an absolute blast! Friday we went to the movies and that night I took her to my favorite galette/crepe place, then we met up with another assistant for a drink. Saturday we went to the market, which never fails to amaze me, and we met up with her old host family from Toulouse, who recently moved to Paris, but the daughter, who is completely adorable and our age, is studying in Rennes. We had some more down time before we made an incredible dinner: chicken, with a goat cheese and fresh fig salad - incredible. We went out on Saturday - drinks and dancing - and had a wonderful lazy Sunday with homemade french toast!

Rennes v. Toulouse

She left Sunday night, and I went to the Rennes v. Toulouse soccer game, which Rennes won! Now are number one in the country - allez, allez! Monday was orientation for all of the assistants in Rennes. I was completely exhausted by the end of the day, but it was so nice to meet new people! I met some nice girls from the UK and two of the other assistants at my high school (one German and one Spanish), who couldn't have been nicer. On Tuesday night, there was a little soirée for the new assistants at my school in order for us to meet all the teachers, and each other. The headmaster made a really nice toast while introducing us, and the 5 of us were able to chat a bit and hopefully see each other this weekend as it is suppose to be beautiful Friday and Saturday (finally!).

mmm figs from the market!

Crepe chocolate pear at my favorite creperie

Yesterday (wednesday) I moved into my student housing! It was a really long day, but it feels good to know I'm able to unpack and not live out of a suitcase for the first time since I've been here. The residence has it's quirks, so if I'm not going to hesitate to look for other options, but I'm lucky to have somewhere very close to the school to call home! I also found out I will be teaching at two high schools, and visited the other one yesterday. It is called CMP, and it is for students who have had problems in regular high schools in the past, whether it is because of mental/psychological problems, or physical disabilities, or just troubled and unable to excel in a regular school. I met some of the students and they are really good at English, and super excited to meet an American. I will be having small conversation groups of 2, which will be great.

I still have so much to do and think about so I'm hoping next week (my first full week of work!) I will slip into some sort of routine. I do have to say that one of the teachers from my school has been so nice and driving me everywhere. People in France drive like crazy people and I miss being able to drive myself, so here are some other things about the good ole' US of A that I miss:

1. Ice (no ice sodas, cocktails, no ice trays ...)
2. To-go coffee
3. Driving
4. Wheat bread (sliced, delicious wheat bread, none of the wonder bread crap anymore ... although, why would you eat wheat bread when you can have baguettes all the time?)
5. Skim milk
6. Grilled meats (they rarely eat chicken, and most of the time is some sort of cold cut ham)
7. Mexican/Thai food, not a lot of options as you can imagine
8. Normal sized refrigerators (mainly mini-fridges here)
9. Spatula (for making eggs etc, they only have awkward, flat, wooden utensils that are not as helpful)

So that's a pretty good list consisting of mainly food, but you get the point. It looks like the sun is finally out today, so I'm off to school to say hello and then into town to purchase some necessities.

À bientôt!

Revenir à Rennes

2010-09-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hydrangeas at the market

Photo exhibit in front of l'Opera

I arrived by train to Rennes on Friday, and my host mom met me at the station to take me home. It was so nice to see a familiar face. She dropped me off and went back to work and I got myself organized before my host sister, Lucile,

her older brother, José, and his two kids, Paolo (8) and Thomas (3) came over. I played with the boys for a while, you know legos, marbles, trucks, Shrek - my jams. We all sat down to dinner when my host mom got home and I helped clean up and get the boys organized before they left. My host mom, José, and the boys went to their summer house for the weekend, in Pornic, while Lucile and I stayed here. I slept in, Lucile and I had brunch, then I decided to venture into the city. It is very cold here suddenly so I bundled and stepped out with my iPod. It was really nice to be back in the city. Everyone was out and about, and I watched them close down the market. I walked everywhere, including finding an outdoor photography exhibit which has some hilarious photographs. Tonight I'm making Lucile and I some chicken before I go out and meet some kids from my program. I have a lot to do this week so I'm planning on just lying low this weekend and practicing French, in preparation for setting up a bank account and meeting the heads of my department ... yikes. It is so weird to be here without my friends who I met when we all lived here, but I know I will meet more people as the program seems to be pretty big.