À 2014, la France

Finishing up packing for a three week trip home, and I thought I'd add one more post in France for 2013. This first semester has been such a learning experience and a fun adventure. It's flown by, and now I'm thrilled to spend Christmas back home with family, and to cuddle with Rosie in front of a cozy fire enjoying a large mug of coffee while it snows outside! But as it's almost 60 degrees I'll happily settle for no snow and a refill on the coffee.

So here's a last few glimpses of France this week. I went to Nantes by covoiturage on Wednesday- a great, affordable way to travel. I was dropped off here in the suburbs (and took the tram into the city.)

 

I passed the chateau again in the center of the city and all the winding pedestrian streets.

 

 

Today I returned my trusty orange vélo. She was so good to me, thanks for the memories vélo number 2513! I walked the way back and took some pics of the long hill I bike to get to school. It's called-

-and so is almost everything else on this long road. I think of it as my daily dose of America. Well, America seems ever-present now in France, but lets get back to the walk home...

Bakery le fournil

Bus stop l'arrêt de bus

 

Driving school l'école de conduite

 

Garden jardin

 

Flowers fleurs

Grocery alimentation

Then back to the river to enjoy a last few glimpses of Angers for 2013 :)

 

 

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He's been known

to be mistaken for a real cowboy and probably Santa Claus, too. But he's even cooler than all that if you could imagine, he's Dad! Happy birthday Pops!

 

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View from the Ferris wheel

My friend and I went window shopping on Saturday and she introduced me to my new favorite French clothing store under the category of technically out of my price range, called Maje. Le sigh. The dresses and shoes I just can't forget, and employees were so friendly. I can't wait to go back!

But before that fateful moment where I fell in love with the Maje shop, we went on a fun Ferris wheel ride and looked out onto our pretty city from fairly high above.

Going up,

and up. You can see the other side of La Maine and my campus way out there.

And there's a pretty church in the other direction.

Yesterday, I enjoyed a little more fresh air grading final exams at a café by the main square Ralliement. It was such a perfect afternoon to be spent outside... And in December! A glass of Cabernet d'Anjou didn't hurt either. :)

 

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A little more of Nantes

We walked around the city some more Saturday night and I admired all the Christmas lights.

 

The Christmas market was packed.

That night we had dinner in a quirky little restaurant. I had salmon tartare with avocado which was yummy. Our dessert menus came presented in classic French novels. I got Manon Lescaut- read it in undergrad and grad school :)

Then for dessert. It was so, so good. I had heard a lot about this traditional Breton butter cake dessert called Kouign Amann so I had to get it when I saw it on the menu. And the salted caramel sauce drizzled on top... Delicious.

View from our hotel on Sunday morning, three churches standing tall above the rest.

Passage Pommeraye, below, is a historic three story mall built in 1841 that is decked out for Christmas.

 

Place Graslin with the famous brasserie La Cigale, possibly the most beautiful in the world. It is pretty! Can't speak for the food however, we were too early for lunch and too late for breakfast.

Here's a view of one of the Christmas markets from a restaurant where we had a coffee Sunday morning.

La Loire.

We went to Les Machines de l'île which is a place where inventors create things inspired by Jules Verne and Leonardo da Vinci. There's a mechanical elephant that walks around and which you can ride. The little kid next to me is like wowww :)

These metal "branches" below are the beginning of a big project that eventually will be three times the size of the elephant above and will include a cafe.

Here is a model of the future creation.

Dan and Dave got to watch some bird creature fly around from these cool seats.

 

Sunday in Nantes also marked my first time eating chestnuts roasted on an open fire, which we bought at this stand. A very fun weekend... J'aime Nantes!

 

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A weekend getaway to Nantes? Why Nantes!

(Ok for the little pun there, keep in mind the French pronunciation of Nantes which sounds like "not" :)

Last Saturday I went to Nantes with David and Dan since Dan and I figured we should probably travel at least a little bit this semester before heading home for Christmas. Holy cow I am apparently used to French keyboards now, I keep making so many mistakes typing!

Ok, so anyways, I love Nantes! Christmas was such a great time to visit. It's a bustling big city with good food and lots of shops and a beautiful castle. The city is convinced its a part of Brittany/Bretagne even though it hasn't been since the Revolution. It's only people from Nantes that believe they're Breton, even Angers folk laugh about their denial to accept that they're no longer Breton.

I loved all the pedestrian streets...

 

So we had lunch in a Breton style creperie where I enjoyed my first mussels in Nantes, it was great. And one thing I love that I'm not sure I'll be able to find back home is Breton cider. The flavor can be so fresh and tasty, it's bubbly, and is usually around 3-5% alcohol. It's served in pretty mugs, too.

Afterwards we went to Nantes' chateau which was beautiful to see in the setting sunlight.

 

 

From the inside of the chateau the architecture is less fortress like...

 

 

 

 

Inside the towers many areas have been used as prisons so you can see graffiti left from prisoners from hundreds and hundreds of years ago all over. Some of it is religious in nature because Protestants were locked up and other is just personal or some of it is... a mystery to me like the one below.

 

 

 

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