Enfin ...

Here is my last post here in France! I can't believe the semester is over already. I have such an incredible time in Rennes and it is extremely surreal that everything is ending. Since my last post I have been to Loire Valley with my program, I went to my family's summer house in Pornic (about 2 hours from Rennes), went to a soccer game Rennes vs. Caen (Normandy), and turned 21!

Loire Valley

The weekend trip to the Loire was so fun. We began by going to two chateaus when we arrived in Loire - the chateau Angers, and later in the afternoon, Villandry. It was cloudy the whole time, but it didn't rain which was good. Angers was cool, very medieval, and had this special building for tapestries depicting the Apocolypse from the 13th century (pic on the left)! Next we went to Villandry (pic on the right). We didn't go inside the chateau, as it was extremely small, but the gardens were unreal. They only have nine gardners, but they literally work all the time to keep everything perfect. That night we all went out to dinner, all 40 of us, at a great place in Tours, where we stayed. Some friends and I went out a bit afterwords to check out the city. Sunday, we began at Chenonceau, which was my favorite. The gardens were amazing, and the chateau itself was so well preserved and was used as a hospital during WWII. It was built over the water, so it looked like a beautiful bridge but didn't completely cross the river (pic on the left). It was very secluded and peaceful. We had lunch at a delicious restaurant right by the chateau afterwords, which was really fun. We continued on our way to the last chateau, Amboise, where Da Vinci's tomb is (on the right, not THAT interesting). We were all very tired by this point so on our way home, pretty much everyone passed out. Overall, my favorite chateau was Chenonceau, and the gardens at Villandry. It is just impossible to believe that someone actually lived in these castles!

Pornic

We had two three day weekends because May 1st is Labor Day and May 8th is a national holiday. They take Labor Day VERY seriously. No one worked, even the public transportation wasn't working. It was the perfect excuse to sleep in too late and do nothing. The next morning my host mom and I drove to Nantes to pick up her mother (who is 95!) from her retirement home and drove to their summer house in Pornic. We met her son and his family there too. The first day we got there and had lunch. Afterwords we walked downtown for ice cream and they showed me downtown. It was very beautiful and reminded me so much of New England and home. That night we had a big dinner before reading to my host mom's grandkids. The next morning was so beautiful. We played outside and went to the market in the morning to shop for lunch (my host mom and her daughter-in-law below at the market). The market was big and busy and we bought oysters and other shellfish fresh for lunch. In the afternoon I did some reading and played outside with the grandkids and talked to my host mom's mother. She is so sharp for her age, and so adorable. She was telling me all about WWII and when she was living in France. Her husband was imprisoned in Germany for 5 years and she had to raise her four kids on her own, while working. She is an incredible lady. I also taught Paolo, the 7 year old, some hand games, and he showed me his English skills, aka singing Jingle Bells, which he was psyched about. We got back home around 9:30 pm and had a quick dinner before bed.

Soccer

Two things about soccer. One, the weekend of my birthday was the big French Cup for soccer and Rennes was in the finals. So they set up a HUGE screen in town and there were 13,000 people crammed into this small square to watch the game. It was ridiculous. We tried to watch the game there but ended up getting overwhelmed and going to a bar where there was a big TV outdoors (crazy amount of people outside, with Brittany flag outside). Rennes ended up losing, but the other team was from Brittany as well so most people were satisfied. Two, Lindsay and I went to a soccer game the following Wednesday! We found out that I get in free with one companion, so we got tickets for the Rennes v. Caen game. We were so close to the field, and it was fun to see people get so excited for the game. Watching professional soccer is so fun, they are so organized and play with finesse.

My Birthday!

Last, but not least, I turned 21! I had a great birthday weekend. We went to the soccer game saturday night then spent a couple hours in our favorite bar with all my friends until midnight, when everyone sung happy birthday to me in French. The morning of my actual birthday we had a huge brunch at Lindsay's. It was incredible. It was an AMERICAN brunch, complete with pancakes, french toast, eggs, bacon, fruit salad and of course mimosas. Saturday morning we had gone shopping for all the ingrediants, (me on the left at the market) so everything was super fresh. The fruit salad had kiwis, strawberries, bananas, peaches, and apples in it, and our french toast was made with incredible fresh bread. Lindsay made amazing cheesy scrambled eggs, and we also had some of the jam my host mom makes from scratch. Lindsay, Helen and I took a nap afterwords and woke up in time for a shower and dinner. They came over for a huge dinner chez moi. My host mom had made a big dinner for 10 of us! It was me, Helen, Lindsay, my host family, my host sister's boyfriend, and my host mom's son's family. They all gave me gifts, which was adorable and the Paolo sang me happy birthday in English (complete with adorable french accent). They also bought me a huge delicious strawberry cake. All in all, it was a great and relaxing day.

We have been having some last events as a group as well. We had a cocktail party with all the host families, and the other night everyone from CIREFE, so everyone who is learning English at the university, went to a discotechque which was really funI am hopefully going to do a little bit of traveling before I go home, but this is my last post before I go home, which will be bittersweet. This has been an incredible semester and I am going to try my hardest to live it up in Rennes this week before I go home!

April in Paris, Chestnuts in Blossom

Spring break ended with Cait's lovely visit to Rennes, in which we had picnics in the park, went to the market, visited the fine arts museum, met friends out and about, ate traditional Bretagne galettes and cider (and of course crepes) and slept in. It was very relaxing and the weather held-off somewhat. On Saturday morning, we went to Paris! Though the weather was nasty, it was so cool to show Cait Paris for her first time. We were so lucky because we met/stayed with my Grandma Fern and her husband Alfred, which was such a treat. We walked along the Champs D'Elysees, saw Arc de Triomphe, grabbed lunch, went to an African Arts museum that was having an exhibit on women, and finally ended with the most spectactular dinner... ever. After dinner we stood outside for a minute to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle. Cait and I had so so much fun, essentially we laughed and ate for about 10 days, it was perfect, and really nice to see a familiar face. Cait left somewhat early Sunday morning to fly back to Rome, and I went to meet my friend Julia (again!) for another wonderful Sunday in Paris. We grabbed lunch and decided to go to an area I had not yet explored. We found beautiful gardens (it is most definitely spring here, the flowers are out in full bloom) and also checked out the Evolution Museum, which was very cool and kind of like a Natural History Museum. The sun came out so we walked along the river to get the BEST ice cream in Paris, right by the Notre Dame where Lindsay and I had gone in January. We sat in a park in the sun, with the rest of Paris, and enjoyed our last time in Paris together.

I am now back in Rennes and it is great to take a break from traveling for just a little bit. We have had some serious strikes since we've been back, including having to be evacuaded from the building twice (leading to class outside ... no to shabby), but our program leaders are moving all of our classes from the University for the rest of the semester because this is getting so ridiculous. I am off to the Loire Valley with my program for the weekend so I will be sure to send another update when I get back!

Sicily

After a somewhat stressful morning, Cait and I were aboard a train bound for Catania, Sicily. Estimated travel time: 10.5 hours. Something you should know before reading. Apparently, in Italy, there aren’t always seat assignments, so while we were fine, many others were sitting/standing/perching in the aisles, and waiting for people to leave, and at that point they would dart to the free seat. So Cait and I were sitting next to each other, and there was a mother sitting next to me. Her son and her husband were sitting across from me. Not only did she smell, but they argued for the 7 hours they were on the train and decided to make sandwiches with salami and sweaty cheese, which made us quickly loose our appetite for the salami and cheese we had brought as well. Needless to say we slept for most of the ride, and laughed for the rest of it. We arrived in Catania at night, went straight to our hostel, and straight to bed.

The next morning we were hoping for sunshine and beautiful scenery. We set out into the market, which was loud, and full of fresh food, including fresh meat which was hanging everywhere. We managed to find our way around and bought the works for a picnic. We found a beautiful piazza and had lunch in the sun. After lunch we began our quest for the beach/the ocean. We found a concrete walkway, train tracks, a railing, and the ocean. No sand. No beautiful beach. Staying positive we walked back to the hostel for a nap. On our way back to the hostel we had a moment, looked at one another, and practically simultaneously said “I want to go home!” The Duomo was pretty, and the weather was nice, but the area was sketchy, dirty, and there was nothing open. Caitlin immediately wnt to the train station (actually, she was driven, thanks to the cook of the restaurant/bar that was attached to our hostel) and tried to switch our tickets. In the end, we either left early Sunday morning, or Tuesday (when we were leaving anyways). We decided to stick it out, and it ended up being a great decision. That night we ate at an amazing restaurant recommended by someone at the hostel. We were eating gnocchi with swordfish and tomatoes, and the Mafia was eating in the next room. Seriously. Really well dressed older men all wearing matching pins on their lapels … come on.

Sunday was Easter, so we got dressed up in cute Easter dresses, and attended the mass at the Duomo. It poured rain all day, so we went out for a long lunch, took naps, and watched a movie for the rest of the afternoon. That night, we went back to the same restaurant and back to the hostel for a Rasta DJ. We danced to Bob Marley and chatted with people from Paris, Brazil, the states, and Denmark.

Monday, our last day in Sicily, and we took a shuttle about an hour and a half north to a city called Taormina (view from the top on photo right, great piazza, below on left). It was the most adorable city. It was packed with tourists, but it was all the way up on a cliff and had an amazing view of the beaches and Mt. Etna! (the largest active volcano in Europe). We found a great pasta place, and sat until the rain went away. Afterwards we found gelato and sat in the sun in a piazza and people watched, with commentary of course, for over two hours. It was so fun. We decided to go to a different restaurant that night, but had an amazing day and got lots of sun.

Tuesday our adventures in Sicily came to an end. We did some shopping for snacks for the train, but we were back on the train to Rome (another interesting experience). All in all, I wouldn’t go back to Catania necessarily, but the people were nice and other part of Sicily I would more then willing to explore. Also, it makes every bit of difference who you are traveling with – Cait and I laughed the entire time, when we could have been completely miserable, yet it was one of the best adventures I’ve had in Europe.

Roman Holiday

Early Tuesday morning Lindsay headed to the train station with me as I began my journey south and she continued to Prague and Berlin. I took a nice train ride to Rome - where I met up with Cait! It was so so nice to see a familiar face. She was with another friend from high school, Becky, so we had coffee with Becky before she continued her Euro-trip as well. Cait and I headed back to her adorable apartment, which she shares with 3 American girls and one Italian student. We cooked pasta and made incredible caprese salad. The next morning Cait didn't have class so took me to her favorite piazza, the Pantheon, Spanish Steps (photo on the right), and we had sandwiches by the Trevi Fountain (photo on the left). We took a quick break in a park which use to be an old villa called Villa Borghese. A bottle of wine later, we sat in the sun, and began our way back across town. We met up with a friend of Cait’s from the program to have what Cait claimed to be the best carbonara ever. The restaurant was located in the old Jewish Quarter, which was a really cute area. Oh, and she was right about the pasta. We had drinks afterwards (and people watched, of course) in a huge piazza covered with restaurants and bars, frequented by Americans.

Thursday Cait took me to Vatican City, but had an Italian quiz, so I walked around the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel alone. It was a beautiful day, but there were tons and tons of people. The Vatican Museums are a bit like the Louvre, it is completely impossible to do everything without feeling completely overwhelmed. I did another Rick Steves tour of the Sistine Chapel, which was amazing. I learned so much and even snuck a photo of Michelangelo’s Day of Judgment, the painting on the wall that completes his murals of the history of the world. It was very cool, and doing an audio tour is the only way to go. I continued wandering around, including grabbing a peek of the Raphael rooms, which included School of Athens, and just as amazing. I grabbed a quick gelato before meeting Cait for a tour of St. Peter’s. We entered the wrong way and found ourselves in the basement, where the tombs of past Popes were held. There were many people praying and standing around the tomb of Pope John Paul II. We then found our way upstairs and began yet another Rick Steves. St. Peter’s is massive and incredible. It was hard to see everything because of mass and all of the people (of course I choose to go to Rome on the highest Catholic holiday). The tour ended with Michelangelo’s Pieta, which was very cool, and Rick had a lot to say about it which helped our understanding of the entire statue. It is the only signed piece of Michelangelo’s. We left Vatican City and headed to Cait’s favorite neighborhood called Trestevere. Note: Every person who works at St. Peter’s is male, younger then thirty, and among the most beautiful men I have ever seen in my life. Trestevere was really cute, and we were able to walk around the river on our way there. We had a quick drink at an outdoor bar which was really cool. On our way home to go grocery shopping, we got lazy and stopped for dinner. We went home at a reasonable hour as we had a full day of traveling ahead of us …

Ciao Italia!

My adventures in Italy began with a full day of travel with Lindsay, in which we took every form of transportation: metro to train station, train to Paris, taxi to bus stop, shuttle bus to airpot, plane to Trevisio, bus to Venice, boat to Hostel (photo on the right), literally every form of transportation. We arrived in Venice around 10:30 or so at night, extremely tired and extremely hungry. We didn't stay on the main island, but at a small one about a two minute boat ride from St. Mark's square. Needless to stay there wasn't anything open. There was one small restaurant open at that hour on our island so we checked it out. Turns out the kitchen was closed, but the waiter insisted we stay and the chef would make something for us quickly. The restaurant was so cute, very modern, small, and definitely family run. We started with two glasses of delicious red wine, after we got Orecchiette ("ear" shaped pasta) with fresh tomato sauce and freshly graded mozzarella cheese. They topped it off with homemade tiramisu, which had been the special dessert. Lindsay (photo on the left) and I laughed the whole time about how surreal it was, but how the best meal we will had was at 11:00 at night in our sweatsuits/traveling clothes. For the rest of our stay in Venice, the resturant was never open - seriously. The lights were never on again, the tables were never outside again - making us think we just dreamt the whole thing.

Sunday was our first full day in Venice. We started off heading towards St. Mark's Basilica, of course it was mass, so we wondered across the canal to grab lunch and kill some time. We walked around a small market, and had lunch in the sun (we totally lucked out on the weather the whole time). We ate fresh fruit on the canal, and headed back to the square. We were able to cut the line and were let in the side door, the church was beautiful inside, and extremely ornate (photo on the right). We had downloaded tours of the basilica for free off iTunes with Rick Steves, so we each had our iPods and were able to take a free tour! (photo on the left) Gelato and people watching were in order afterwords. We walked all around the island, hoping to get lost and find a quiet area, but no luck that day, tourists were everywhere. Around 6:30, we had found a really cute small church, and given it was Palm Sunday, Lindsay took me to my first Catholic mass. The church was beautiful, the mass was very cool (and in Italian) and it was nice to be away from crowds for a couple hours. We grabbed dinner afterwords, and headed back to the hostel - not much was open on Sunday and we hadn't been home for almost 13 hours!

Monday in Venice was incredible. We met a girl who is studying in Rennes, but lives in Venice who recommended we leave the main island and look for Campo Santa Margherita. It was where the university is, and she said it was cheaper and less crowded. She was so right. We got off the water taxi, and just started walking, we had found the real Venice. We walked passed bakeries, and lace stores, it was very residential, and we never heard English. We crossed a bridge into the campo, and it was so nice. It was like a huge square, where all the restaurants had tables outside, and it was close to 75 degrees. With Lindsay's Lonely Planet "Europe on a Shoestring" (aka our venetian-bible) we had the most amazing pizza and gelato for less then 5 euros! There were some tourists but mostly just students. We stayed in the camp all day, looking around shops, people watching and sitting in the sun. We headed back to the hostel for a quick nap/shower, and had a quick cocktail hour, prosecco by the canal, then went back to the campo for a delicious dinner.
Gondolas
View of St. Mark's from our hostel
Cool view of a canal and a typical bridge Me and Linds on the docks

Ciao!

Hello all!

So I am off for another traveling adventure on Saturday and I just wanted to post one last thing. I am flying to Venice on Saturday, train-ing it to Rome on Tuesday, and then taking another train to Sicily on Friday where I am staying with my friend Caitlin from home. We are then coming back to Rennes to show her my hood. I'm very excited to see a familiar face, as I miss everyone from home. Whats more is I will get to see my grandmother in Paris for a night, which will be great. I am very excited as I've heard all three places are absolutely beautiful.

Life in Rennes at the moment is a bit hectic. While it is definately spring here, it has been sunny and 50 for a while, the strike at the university is at full force. The general strike was on January 29th, so that is when the students began to strike. About two weeks ago they voted on a partial strike, meaning they didn't go to school at all the months of Febuary or March. But now, they have fully blockaded the university. We had to wait outside the building for 45 minutes the other morning because the students were blocking the doors, not allowing anyone to enter. After having morning classes, the afternoon classes were cancelled due to more blockading. The on Tuesday night, the president of the university essentiall closed down the school. We had no classes on Wednesday, and our Thursday/Friday classes have been moved to another part of the city. I guess we are all getting the TRUE French experience.

I hope everyone enjoys these next couple weeks of April - Prepare for a long blog post about adventures in Italy.

Ciao!

Ma Famille en France

Bonjour!!

WARNING: This is a long post - I have so much to say as I am the only Verrill in France now – after having a week of fam time!

Mom, Dad, and Gracie flew to Nice the morning of Friday (the 13th). I joined them in the afternoon after class. We rented an apartment, which was so chic and cute, and up a HUGE hill. But it was nice to have our own space and able to cook our own food and keep things in the kitchen. That night our good family friends, the Peterson’s, well Kate and Joyce, came to meet us for cheese and wine before dinner. We then walked downtown and found an easy pizza place for a last minute dinner. The next morning we met Joyce and Kate again at an incredible market where we bought fresh strawberries, clementines, and dried fruit. We found an outdoor café for some salads for lunch, as the weather was so beautiful. Then we walked all around Old Nice, went to a gelato place with 96 flavors including Nutella, Cactus, Avacado, Tomato Basil, and every fruit you can imagine. When we parted with the P’s, we went home to take a nap. They were exhausted from traveling/jet lag, and I was just lazy. That night we had bought some fresh pasta, pesto from the market, and some fresh bread to cook for dinner at the apartment. Sunday morning we woke up early and headed up in an elevator to the highest point in Nice. It had an absolutely incredible view of the harbor, the beaches, and you could see all the way to Cannes! It was castle ruins and a cute park at the top, which was nice to walk around in. We walked down and had an incredible seafood lunch at an outdoor restaurant near the flower market. From the top we could see a lot of commotion by the boardwalk, so we went to check it out and found it to be the end of a very popular, week-long bike race from Paris to Nice. We were able to watch the end of it – which was amazing, and the bikers were so incredibly fast! For dinner we ended up just eating whatever because we hadn’t planned exactly for everything to be closed that Sunday. Monday was our last morning – so we decided to just get a quick croissant and sit in the sun and people watch, which proved to be perfectly entertaining.

Monday afternoon we flew to Rennes, and to our surprise my host mom showed up at the airport to pick us up, it was awkward to say the least, but her intentions were sweet. She took us back to our house, where the fam could see where I live and meet my host sister Lucile. They went back to take showers and I met them in town for a typical Bretagne meal of galettes, crepes, and kir. Afterwards, my friends Helen, and Lindsay came into town to go out with me and Gracie, which was fun (pic of Gracie and I in front of the Opera at night). Tuesday afternoon after class I met the fam for lunch, with my friends Ally, Helen, Mimi, and Lindsay. I was so happy that my family got to meet my friends here. We all got sandwiches and went to a beautiful park in Rennes for a big picnic. I then showed the fam around Rennes, brought them to my pastry shop, and after coffee I sent them on their way to Paris.

Tuesday was St. Patrick ’s Day and as it turns out, Rennes loves St. Patrick’s Day! It was an absolutely beautiful day, and it my class Wednesday morning was cancelled so we were ready to celebrate properly. We bought some Leffe, our favorite new beer, and headed to the big Irish pub, O’Connell’s, in town. It was a huge scene, and really fun to see everyone in Rennes out and about. We got free hats and glasses, and went back towards St. Anne, where all the bars are. It was still really warm out so we sat outside and people watched for the rest of the night before catching the last metro home.

Wednesday after classes I caught the train to Paris. When I arrived I went straight to the hotel to meet the fam. We took showers and went out to a SLAMMIN’ meal in the Latin Quarter. I had braised beef and vegetables, a true St. Patty’s Day meal, and Gracie and I shared a chestnut sundae, which sounds weird, but was super good. Thursday we didn’t do too much because they had done SO much the day before. So we just did the Champs D’Elysee, shopping, quick lunch, and walked around our area. That night we walked to a restaurant I had heard of from a friend on CIEE, Claire (from Belfast, Maine!), and Lindsay, Julia and I tried to go last time, but it was closed. It’s called The Chartier, and I highly recommend it. The food isn’t STELLAR but it’s all about the experience. It was an old building, and while we waited almost 45 minutes for a table, it was a cool crowd, and a very cool atmosphere. Friday we woke up early to do Pere Lachaise Cemetery (where Edith Piaf (in picture to the right bottom, and Dad's cool Jim Morrison pic above), Oscar Wilde, Chopin, and Jim Morrison are buried … to name a few). It was a bit creepy and extremely crowded, but worth checking it out. We had lunch in the Jewish quarter (smoked salmon on a bagel, complete with baklava for dessert) and headed home. On the way home we decided to stop at the Louvre where we checked out the basement real quick which we thought would be more creepy and ancient then it was. After our long day we took naps before heading to a quick early din at our new favorite café on Rue du Rivoli, called the Imperial Café, with incredible salads and pasta. Saturday (the fam’s last day in France :( ) we went to a photo exhibit for Robert Frank (American photographer) at the Tulerie Garden Gallery. The view from the gallery was really cool – you could see so much. We grabbed sandwiches and ate them in the Luxemburg Gardens, along with the rest of Paris, and we were able to see the Senate building. We walked home, and stopped at Angelina’s on the way home. It is a cute, fancy restaurant, close to our hotel, that is famous for their hot chocolate. It literally tastes like a melted chocolate bar, it’s unreal (it also helps that it use to be one of Chanel’s favorite restaurant’s as the Ritz, one of her former residences, is around the corner). Again, nap and dinner around the corner at another close café.

Sunday they left around 5 AM but I was lucky enough to be able to have the room until 4 in the afternoon. I slept in, read Harry Potter for a while in bed, and met Julia for a late lunch. We had cheeseburgers – which were perfect. Next stop, the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa, and I was able to go throughout the rooms that talk about the history of the Louvre which I had wanted to do this week. After the museum closed we walked all around the 2nd, near the Pompidou, and grabbed a cup of coffee. I grabbed my bag at the hotel and took the 9 PM train home. It was such a great, relaxing day, not to mention a perfect way to end yet another fantastic stay in Paris.

Some highlights:
- Mariage Frere tea store in Paris is incredible, their tea is amazing and they have legit every flavor, not to mention intense, knowledgeable employees.
- The Chanel original boutique on Rue de Cambon, wow. I wanted literally everything in the store.
- Listening to mom and dad try and speak French, very cute and I was very impressed with both of them.
- Oscar Wilde’s grave, very cool, huge, and was actually given to the cemetery by someone who admired his work, not family. The grave was covered in lipstick marks from people who had visited and clearly were in love with his work.
- Constantly imagining the Louvre as a palace. It is so gigantic, we continued to wonder, how would you get a message from one end to the other?
- Drinking lots of red wine and eating lots of good food with the fam – yay France!