third time's a charm!

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 a train into Rennes a few hours after I arrived in Paris. Berit (my roommate) and Caely met me at the train station and we went directly home. I’ll be posting pictures of our humble abode very shortly. 

trying to figure out the bed frame ...

After some catching up I showered and we headed 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 a traditional galette dinner complete with crepes and cider before absolutely passing out. Thursday was full of errands. I got a bunch of paperwork done and headed to Emmaus, which is like small used furniture/clothes/book/random-shit store (Salvation Army?). I found dining room chairs, a bedside table, a small table for our terrace (yes, terrace), some things for the bathroom, and a perfect desk for Berit. I then conned Berit and Caely into helping me put together my bed frame. So IKEA is great, but the thing they don’t tell you is how 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 (knock on wood) that I slept for eight hours and did not wake up in a pile of broken frame 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 went to 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 village outside of Toulouse. The three of us oo-ed and aww-ed about being back in Paris. We ate so well (act like you are surprised), went to the Shoah Museum and Memorial, may or may not have done a little dancing and strolled the Marais and the Latin Quarter along with the rest of Paris on a Sunday afternoon. I have to say I’m always enchanted by Paris, but also always happy to be home.