Ma Vie est Belle: Galway Girl

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!