Salut!
It is a quiet weekend here in Rennes because most of my school is away at the Crit, a crazy sports tournament with all the other Sciences po universities in the country. That means that there is very little happening here but those of us that stayed are making the most of it. I have a big carbonara dinner planned with a friend tonight, hopefully it will work out well even though I have never made it before. Pretty simple so fingers crossed I don't mess it up. The weather here has been lovely, in the 60s most days so today I went out in a light jacket and dress and spent some time in the sun at the park. Saturdays are always very busy in town and most of the restaurants have put out their tables and chairs in the courtyards so it is a great time for people watching and having a coffee outdoors. Thursday I spent some time with a french friend in the of the bigger courtyards because the sun was out all afternoon. Everyone here says it is bizarre to have this much nice weather in March so I know we are really lucky. Next week I have an expose in french class and I am doing work on that. A comparison of women's rights movements in the two countries which I can talk a lot about so it will be good because I have to speak for a solid 15 minutes. Yikes! I have been binging on lots of girl scout cookies sent by my amazing aunt. They have been getting me through lots of stressful moments because all our professors apparently think its fine to cancel classes at the last minute and then reschedule at random times. Very strange. I have made plans with Elle for her big trip in April/May, we will be hitting London, Dublin and Paris. Watch out Europe! Things are already in motion planning for the fall when I get back. Lots and and lots of class decisions, thesis prep and internship stuff to think about. I cannot believe class registration is happening already. It looks like a year of Poli sci and French, and lots and lots of writing. Ah well it will be a very busy year in 11-75 S. Prospect. I don't have any pictures this week because I have spent most of it in the library and my room working on a project all about Jean-Paul Sartre. Next week I will be sure to upload plenty. Hope everyone has a great week.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
My Family in France Part 2
Salut et Bon Weekend,
The family is now back in New Hampshire safe and sound and so it is definitely time for me to catch up on the second part of our big weekend here. So early Saturday morning we headed out to the market in Rennes to get some provisions and see a very traditional french market. We had galette saucisse, which is totally breakfast but the french refuse to admit it. Basically sausage and cheese wrapped in a salty crepe, ketchup can be added. How much more breakfasty can you get? Mom and I split a galette complet which is egg cheese and ham folded into a salty crepe. Also very good (and breakfasty). After picking up lots and lots of cheese from my cheese guy, some jam, bread, olives and ham we decided to head out to Mont St. Michel. It was a significantly shorter drive than Normandy and before we knew it we were on the causeway to the island. As an interesting side note the legend says that the Abbey was built on command by the Archangel Michel who commanded it to be built by the Bishop of Avranches but he refused until Michel burned a hole in his skull with his finger. Moral of that story, don't mess with St. Michel. The dedication and renaming of the Islet was in 708. It really is an incredible sight driving up and it seems to be from another time entirely. Once we found out it was safe to park in the parking lots (meaning that the tide was not going to come in enough to cover our car) we had our food and waited for it to stop raining some. We then entered and had to battle our way up one of the tiniest streets (not really a street no car could fit) and through what Dad called "the disneyland section" before we got up the 300 steps to the Abbey itself. Once inside the abbey it is very quiet and sort of barren. We met up with our tour guide who was a really nice french man who had spent much of his life living in England so gave the english tours. He spent a lot of time telling fun little stories and providing context to the huge empty rooms and the some of the architecture. All in all a great tour. My favorite part was that he referred to any of the large groups of people not on a tour as barbarians and insisted we wait for them to leave whatever room we were in before he would continue his talk as they were loud and distracting. It was quite funny. After the tour we went back through the abbey again to take in the information we had heard from our tourguide. It was chilly but very beautiful and amazing to think that parts of it were built in the 13th century. Much of it now was updated and restored in the 19th century but it still all looks very authentic. We then took a long walk down the windy side of the stairs to avoid the crowds and stopped in for some crepes before going to mass in the small chapel on the side of the mont. Mass was nice and there was lots of singing, I was quite surprised that for such a small church they had such a large band. Once we got back from the mont we went our for mussels and had a mellow evening in Rennes. Sunday was a quiet day, we walked around, went to the park and went out for another big meal at another seafood restaurant. We wanted to make sure we really got Dad all the oysters he could eat. Enjoy the week!
The family is now back in New Hampshire safe and sound and so it is definitely time for me to catch up on the second part of our big weekend here. So early Saturday morning we headed out to the market in Rennes to get some provisions and see a very traditional french market. We had galette saucisse, which is totally breakfast but the french refuse to admit it. Basically sausage and cheese wrapped in a salty crepe, ketchup can be added. How much more breakfasty can you get? Mom and I split a galette complet which is egg cheese and ham folded into a salty crepe. Also very good (and breakfasty). After picking up lots and lots of cheese from my cheese guy, some jam, bread, olives and ham we decided to head out to Mont St. Michel. It was a significantly shorter drive than Normandy and before we knew it we were on the causeway to the island. As an interesting side note the legend says that the Abbey was built on command by the Archangel Michel who commanded it to be built by the Bishop of Avranches but he refused until Michel burned a hole in his skull with his finger. Moral of that story, don't mess with St. Michel. The dedication and renaming of the Islet was in 708. It really is an incredible sight driving up and it seems to be from another time entirely. Once we found out it was safe to park in the parking lots (meaning that the tide was not going to come in enough to cover our car) we had our food and waited for it to stop raining some. We then entered and had to battle our way up one of the tiniest streets (not really a street no car could fit) and through what Dad called "the disneyland section" before we got up the 300 steps to the Abbey itself. Once inside the abbey it is very quiet and sort of barren. We met up with our tour guide who was a really nice french man who had spent much of his life living in England so gave the english tours. He spent a lot of time telling fun little stories and providing context to the huge empty rooms and the some of the architecture. All in all a great tour. My favorite part was that he referred to any of the large groups of people not on a tour as barbarians and insisted we wait for them to leave whatever room we were in before he would continue his talk as they were loud and distracting. It was quite funny. After the tour we went back through the abbey again to take in the information we had heard from our tourguide. It was chilly but very beautiful and amazing to think that parts of it were built in the 13th century. Much of it now was updated and restored in the 19th century but it still all looks very authentic. We then took a long walk down the windy side of the stairs to avoid the crowds and stopped in for some crepes before going to mass in the small chapel on the side of the mont. Mass was nice and there was lots of singing, I was quite surprised that for such a small church they had such a large band. Once we got back from the mont we went our for mussels and had a mellow evening in Rennes. Sunday was a quiet day, we walked around, went to the park and went out for another big meal at another seafood restaurant. We wanted to make sure we really got Dad all the oysters he could eat. Enjoy the week!
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| Alter to St. Michel in small Chapel on the Mont |
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| Alter to Mary in the Small Chapel |
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| View of the Abbey from below |
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| Path leading up to the Abbey |
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| Outer Path |
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| Ocean view from the Mont |
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| Cloture inside the Abbey |
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| Statue of St. Michel on the top of the Spire of the Abbey |
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| Outer section of the Abbey |
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| View from the Abbey |
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| St Michel appearing to Bishop |
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| Door outside the Abbey |
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| Main door to the Abbey |
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| Mom and Dad at the top of the Mont |
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| Mont St. Michel at Night |
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Family in France Part 1
Happy St. Patrick's day everyone!
I am sporting my Irish pride in lots of green and even though I am in not the most Irish country people still seemed geared up to visit some Irish pubs and maybe even sing a shanty or two. We will see how that goes. As many of you know my parents came to visit me last weekend and that is why there was no post, we were filling our time as best we good and then I was thrown right back into school work. I am going to do my parents' visit in two parts because we did two big trips and to discredit either would be a crime as they were independently really awesome. However, lets talk about some of the craziness. Apparently renting a car in this country is about as difficult as me trying to enroll in my French university, it took about as long with only a little less paperwork and that was because much of it had been online. My favorite was when they sent a guy to go find out the exchange rate of the day because they were trying to calculate a payment for a prepaid rental car. O the french and making things more difficult then they need to be. Then once we had the rental car we tried to get to their hotel but of course every street in Rennes seems to be one way and while this normally causes no problem for me because I go everywhere on foot it was quite the hijinx in our tiny little rental car. It also is insane cause the street signs are not visible until you already need to be in a turning lane but whatever we got there eventually! For those of you who know my mum dad and I you can imagine for yourself the ridiculous dialogue occurring while we trying to navigate a country that seems intent on avoiding another world war or invasion by simply confusing the heck out of the invaders (thanks dad for this observation) if you don't know my parents and I very well, or our enjoyment of sarcastic banter it definitely bordered on a Monty Python skit (if only we had british accents). So once at the hotel and parked we decided to go out and see what we might find for dinner. After a few false starts and my wandering delaying dinner a bit we found a restaurant called L'amour des pommes de terre. It translates to a love of potatoes. They were not kidding... seriously I have never seen more potatoes in my life. If you are ever in Rennes and are really really really hungry you should check it out, it is an experience you will remember for the rest of your life. I have never been so full! We decided to get an appetizer even thought the waiter sort of cautioned us against it, interesting in my opinion but we really had no idea what to expect. Mum got a fondue which came with two kinds of meat and two entire potatoes and a mini wheel of melted Mont d'Or, very good. I got tartiflette which came with enough salad to be my dinner for the rest of the week and a giant pas of potatoes. Dad's I believe was the most interesting, he was given a hot stone to cook the meat he was given and on the plate was also and I am not exaggerating here 5 potatoes, baked, au gratin and french fries. Any way you could cook a potato they had figured out how to do it very well and in large portions. He too got salad. I thought they might have to log roll us out of the restaurant. Anyways it was very good and lots of fun and we couldn't think about food well into the next day. We tried to turn in pretty early because it was Normandy the next morning and we had to get an early start. The Normandy beach visit started at the Caen WWII memorial which is one of the best museums in the world, with every exhibit in French, English and German it won an international peace prize for its testimony to the incredible forces of destruction during WWII. If you ever go make sure to catch the 15 minute movie on the D Day landings it is very well done and really sets the ton for the museum. After 2 hours in the museum (there is a lot to see) it was time to get in the car and try to find the beaches. We attempted to do this without anything but the map we bought at the gift store in the museum which was more of a commemorative map than anything else so basically I got very lucky and my Dad and I managed to figure things out on the way. We stopped at Juno, the main beach where the Canadians landed. Then we saw some of sword, the British landing spot. Then we moved on to Gold and Omaha. Our goal was to make it to the cemetery before it closed. The American military cemetery is really beautiful and maintained very well by the French who work there. They recently built a small museum at the cemetery which was also impressive. We were there until close and we able to see the lowering of the flags and they always play taps as the last flag comes down. It was incredibly moving. The cemetery has just over 9,000 graves and there are 41 sets of brothers buried in that one cemetery alone.
After the cemetery we continued on to Point du Hoc which is just beyond the cemetery and is the site of one of the worst sections of the beaches because there was an intense amount of bombing but for the most part we missed the guns on the top of the point and in order to stop them soldiers had to scale the cliffs and take out the guns individually. It was the reason why there were so many deaths on the American beaches because the Germans really had the high ground. The point is the only place where the craters formed by the bombs have not been filled in and it is very powerful to see how close we came to hitting the guns directly and somehow missed. The landscape is very beautiful but it is a solemn occasion. Once we finished we decided it was time for dinner so we ended up in Bayeux. After a walk around the city a couple of stops into some shops there we found a bistro. It was Friday so of course everyone had fish! It was amazing. I started with some sort of chowder like appetizer with scallops and lots of really good sauce. Then some sort of white fish with a white butter sauce. Dessert was an ice cream sundae. Amazing! Dad had had the best oysters of his life. All in all a great dinner. Getting home was a fiasco but after stopping paying attention to signs that were completely useless we found our way home. Post number two on this weekend coming soon. Hope you all enjoy your Irish pride!
Love from France!
I am sporting my Irish pride in lots of green and even though I am in not the most Irish country people still seemed geared up to visit some Irish pubs and maybe even sing a shanty or two. We will see how that goes. As many of you know my parents came to visit me last weekend and that is why there was no post, we were filling our time as best we good and then I was thrown right back into school work. I am going to do my parents' visit in two parts because we did two big trips and to discredit either would be a crime as they were independently really awesome. However, lets talk about some of the craziness. Apparently renting a car in this country is about as difficult as me trying to enroll in my French university, it took about as long with only a little less paperwork and that was because much of it had been online. My favorite was when they sent a guy to go find out the exchange rate of the day because they were trying to calculate a payment for a prepaid rental car. O the french and making things more difficult then they need to be. Then once we had the rental car we tried to get to their hotel but of course every street in Rennes seems to be one way and while this normally causes no problem for me because I go everywhere on foot it was quite the hijinx in our tiny little rental car. It also is insane cause the street signs are not visible until you already need to be in a turning lane but whatever we got there eventually! For those of you who know my mum dad and I you can imagine for yourself the ridiculous dialogue occurring while we trying to navigate a country that seems intent on avoiding another world war or invasion by simply confusing the heck out of the invaders (thanks dad for this observation) if you don't know my parents and I very well, or our enjoyment of sarcastic banter it definitely bordered on a Monty Python skit (if only we had british accents). So once at the hotel and parked we decided to go out and see what we might find for dinner. After a few false starts and my wandering delaying dinner a bit we found a restaurant called L'amour des pommes de terre. It translates to a love of potatoes. They were not kidding... seriously I have never seen more potatoes in my life. If you are ever in Rennes and are really really really hungry you should check it out, it is an experience you will remember for the rest of your life. I have never been so full! We decided to get an appetizer even thought the waiter sort of cautioned us against it, interesting in my opinion but we really had no idea what to expect. Mum got a fondue which came with two kinds of meat and two entire potatoes and a mini wheel of melted Mont d'Or, very good. I got tartiflette which came with enough salad to be my dinner for the rest of the week and a giant pas of potatoes. Dad's I believe was the most interesting, he was given a hot stone to cook the meat he was given and on the plate was also and I am not exaggerating here 5 potatoes, baked, au gratin and french fries. Any way you could cook a potato they had figured out how to do it very well and in large portions. He too got salad. I thought they might have to log roll us out of the restaurant. Anyways it was very good and lots of fun and we couldn't think about food well into the next day. We tried to turn in pretty early because it was Normandy the next morning and we had to get an early start. The Normandy beach visit started at the Caen WWII memorial which is one of the best museums in the world, with every exhibit in French, English and German it won an international peace prize for its testimony to the incredible forces of destruction during WWII. If you ever go make sure to catch the 15 minute movie on the D Day landings it is very well done and really sets the ton for the museum. After 2 hours in the museum (there is a lot to see) it was time to get in the car and try to find the beaches. We attempted to do this without anything but the map we bought at the gift store in the museum which was more of a commemorative map than anything else so basically I got very lucky and my Dad and I managed to figure things out on the way. We stopped at Juno, the main beach where the Canadians landed. Then we saw some of sword, the British landing spot. Then we moved on to Gold and Omaha. Our goal was to make it to the cemetery before it closed. The American military cemetery is really beautiful and maintained very well by the French who work there. They recently built a small museum at the cemetery which was also impressive. We were there until close and we able to see the lowering of the flags and they always play taps as the last flag comes down. It was incredibly moving. The cemetery has just over 9,000 graves and there are 41 sets of brothers buried in that one cemetery alone.
After the cemetery we continued on to Point du Hoc which is just beyond the cemetery and is the site of one of the worst sections of the beaches because there was an intense amount of bombing but for the most part we missed the guns on the top of the point and in order to stop them soldiers had to scale the cliffs and take out the guns individually. It was the reason why there were so many deaths on the American beaches because the Germans really had the high ground. The point is the only place where the craters formed by the bombs have not been filled in and it is very powerful to see how close we came to hitting the guns directly and somehow missed. The landscape is very beautiful but it is a solemn occasion. Once we finished we decided it was time for dinner so we ended up in Bayeux. After a walk around the city a couple of stops into some shops there we found a bistro. It was Friday so of course everyone had fish! It was amazing. I started with some sort of chowder like appetizer with scallops and lots of really good sauce. Then some sort of white fish with a white butter sauce. Dessert was an ice cream sundae. Amazing! Dad had had the best oysters of his life. All in all a great dinner. Getting home was a fiasco but after stopping paying attention to signs that were completely useless we found our way home. Post number two on this weekend coming soon. Hope you all enjoy your Irish pride!
Love from France!
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| Non violence monument outside of WWII museum in Caen |
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| Croix Lorraine |
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| Dad at Juno Beach |
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| Juno Beach |
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| Bunker |
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| Monument to Allied forces at Normandy beaches |
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| Sunken docks that remain at the Normandy Beaches |
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| Statue of Mary overlooking Omaha Beach |
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| Memorial at Omaha Beach |
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| Monument to Fallen American Soldiers |
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| Chapel at Normandy |
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| Pont du Hoc |
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| Pont du Hoc |
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| Pont du Hoc |
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| Monument at Omaha beach |
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| Chapel on the road |
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| New memorial at Omaha beach |
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| River in Bayeux |
Monday, March 7, 2011
Two Americans in Paris
Hello from France!
It is now the end of our break here at Sciences-Po but I managed to get in a quick trip to Paris before it was over. Harry Merck, who many of you know, took a two day layover to meet me in Paris and do a quick weekend visit. It was quite the trip! I arrived early on Saturday morning at the Paris Montparnesse Gare on the TGV from Rennes and immediately went to Musee d'Orsay for a walk through and to see some of my favorite paintings. As always it was packed with people looking at the impressionists but its worth it just to be able to stand in front of paintings like Monet's waterlilies, Degas' ballerinas and Van Gogh's self portrait. By noon I was headed out of the museum. After a crazy few minutes figuring out the Paris metro I was in Montmartre to meet up with Harry. We found a nice brasserie to eat lunch in and sat outside and enjoyed the sun.After a delicious meal of beouf bourginon and pizza Montmartre was busy, lots of street vendors and tourists all crowded around the Sacre-coeur, an extremely famous church at the top of the hill. Anyone who has seen Amelie would recognize it immediately. After climbing the several hundred steps we took a walk through the church and then headed out to find a good cup of coffee, Harry of course being exhausted from traveling and I being a caffeine addict we needed our late afternoon dose of Cafe au lait.
After walking around Montmartre and watching one of the craziest traffic jams I have ever seen we decided to head to Shakespeare and Company and Notre Dame. Shakespeare and Company is one of the most famous English bookstores in Paris and we spent a half hour roaming around the bookfilled shop and visiting with the resident dog who was very happy to see us. Notre Dame is just across the river and was beautiful at sunset. Then it was off to our dinner destination Chartier. We had to leave ourselves plenty of time because the Metro stop we normally would have transferred at was under construction and it took no less than four to make it around to line 8. We made it in plenty of time though and were quickly sat in the large dining room with lots of other happy and hungry people. Sitting next to us was a couple from Shanghai, and on our other side a group of four french students. Together we enjoyed the amazing ambiance and incredible food. Harry tried escargots for the first time, I as always struggled with the tongs but its always worth it, I am convinced they just use snails as an excuse to eat a lot of garlic and butter. I got really good roast chicken with fries, followed by a really nice goat cheese and finally a chocolate mousse cake with creme-anglaise. Splitting a bottle of the house red we were both full and happy by the time 9pm rolled around. We decided to turn in early because we wanted to get in a full day on Sunday and we were both pretty tired.
Sunday we were up early to go back to Musee d'Orsay, Harry had never been and I really wanted to show him the exhibit on the new opera of Paris. Once inside we had a long walk around the whole museum stopping to look at the furniture section especially, Harry being an appreciate carpenter. We also found a section that I had never seen before, the ballroom which is tucked away in the uppermost corner of the museum. It is an incredible room with lots of chandeliers and lots of artwork painted on the walls and ceilings. I was excited as it was my third trip to the museum and I was still finding new things to see.
After the museum we decided to take a long walk to the Eiffel Tower and took a few side trips to walk over many of the bridges and to figure out what some of the more impressive looking buildings were. Finally we reached the Eiffel Tower and spent some time wandering around the lawn. Then we found a small Bistro for lunch where I had my obligatory Parisian chocolate mousse, so good! Then we headed back to metro to take a quick trip to one of the more outermost points of the city and visit the Grand Arche. It was quite a difference, very modern buildings and pretty quiet on a Sunday afternoon. It was a different view of the city and we spent some time hanging out on the steps and enjoying the sun. Then we jumped back on the same metro line to see the Arche de Triomphe and take an afternoon stroll down the Champs Elysees. After stopping into Virgin megastore (never again) to pick up an adapter for Harry we decided to head back to the hotel and take a nap. Later in the evening we traveled down Metro line 12 and did some more walking around to see the sights after dark. Then it was another bistro dinner, lasagna and salad. After a goodbye to the Eiffel Tower and Place de la Concorde it was time for me to head to the train station for my late train home. Au Revoir Paris!
Of course SNCF always has another idea in mind and after a few hours on the train we were informed that it could be several hours more before we made it to Rennes as an "animal sauvage" which turned out to be a cow, had run onto the tracks and there was a pretty bad accident with another train on our route. So we were stuck in Laval on our train with no bar car to get food or drinks, a broken bathroom and every light in the train on so that it was impossible to sleep. Thank you TGV. Ugh. Eventually I got home and at 2am rolled into bed not quite ready for another week but happy to have spent my weekend enjoying Paris. Mum and Dad arrive on Thursday so look for our adventures through Bretagne soon!
All my Love from France.
It is now the end of our break here at Sciences-Po but I managed to get in a quick trip to Paris before it was over. Harry Merck, who many of you know, took a two day layover to meet me in Paris and do a quick weekend visit. It was quite the trip! I arrived early on Saturday morning at the Paris Montparnesse Gare on the TGV from Rennes and immediately went to Musee d'Orsay for a walk through and to see some of my favorite paintings. As always it was packed with people looking at the impressionists but its worth it just to be able to stand in front of paintings like Monet's waterlilies, Degas' ballerinas and Van Gogh's self portrait. By noon I was headed out of the museum. After a crazy few minutes figuring out the Paris metro I was in Montmartre to meet up with Harry. We found a nice brasserie to eat lunch in and sat outside and enjoyed the sun.After a delicious meal of beouf bourginon and pizza Montmartre was busy, lots of street vendors and tourists all crowded around the Sacre-coeur, an extremely famous church at the top of the hill. Anyone who has seen Amelie would recognize it immediately. After climbing the several hundred steps we took a walk through the church and then headed out to find a good cup of coffee, Harry of course being exhausted from traveling and I being a caffeine addict we needed our late afternoon dose of Cafe au lait.
After walking around Montmartre and watching one of the craziest traffic jams I have ever seen we decided to head to Shakespeare and Company and Notre Dame. Shakespeare and Company is one of the most famous English bookstores in Paris and we spent a half hour roaming around the bookfilled shop and visiting with the resident dog who was very happy to see us. Notre Dame is just across the river and was beautiful at sunset. Then it was off to our dinner destination Chartier. We had to leave ourselves plenty of time because the Metro stop we normally would have transferred at was under construction and it took no less than four to make it around to line 8. We made it in plenty of time though and were quickly sat in the large dining room with lots of other happy and hungry people. Sitting next to us was a couple from Shanghai, and on our other side a group of four french students. Together we enjoyed the amazing ambiance and incredible food. Harry tried escargots for the first time, I as always struggled with the tongs but its always worth it, I am convinced they just use snails as an excuse to eat a lot of garlic and butter. I got really good roast chicken with fries, followed by a really nice goat cheese and finally a chocolate mousse cake with creme-anglaise. Splitting a bottle of the house red we were both full and happy by the time 9pm rolled around. We decided to turn in early because we wanted to get in a full day on Sunday and we were both pretty tired.
Sunday we were up early to go back to Musee d'Orsay, Harry had never been and I really wanted to show him the exhibit on the new opera of Paris. Once inside we had a long walk around the whole museum stopping to look at the furniture section especially, Harry being an appreciate carpenter. We also found a section that I had never seen before, the ballroom which is tucked away in the uppermost corner of the museum. It is an incredible room with lots of chandeliers and lots of artwork painted on the walls and ceilings. I was excited as it was my third trip to the museum and I was still finding new things to see.
After the museum we decided to take a long walk to the Eiffel Tower and took a few side trips to walk over many of the bridges and to figure out what some of the more impressive looking buildings were. Finally we reached the Eiffel Tower and spent some time wandering around the lawn. Then we found a small Bistro for lunch where I had my obligatory Parisian chocolate mousse, so good! Then we headed back to metro to take a quick trip to one of the more outermost points of the city and visit the Grand Arche. It was quite a difference, very modern buildings and pretty quiet on a Sunday afternoon. It was a different view of the city and we spent some time hanging out on the steps and enjoying the sun. Then we jumped back on the same metro line to see the Arche de Triomphe and take an afternoon stroll down the Champs Elysees. After stopping into Virgin megastore (never again) to pick up an adapter for Harry we decided to head back to the hotel and take a nap. Later in the evening we traveled down Metro line 12 and did some more walking around to see the sights after dark. Then it was another bistro dinner, lasagna and salad. After a goodbye to the Eiffel Tower and Place de la Concorde it was time for me to head to the train station for my late train home. Au Revoir Paris!
Of course SNCF always has another idea in mind and after a few hours on the train we were informed that it could be several hours more before we made it to Rennes as an "animal sauvage" which turned out to be a cow, had run onto the tracks and there was a pretty bad accident with another train on our route. So we were stuck in Laval on our train with no bar car to get food or drinks, a broken bathroom and every light in the train on so that it was impossible to sleep. Thank you TGV. Ugh. Eventually I got home and at 2am rolled into bed not quite ready for another week but happy to have spent my weekend enjoying Paris. Mum and Dad arrive on Thursday so look for our adventures through Bretagne soon!
All my Love from France.
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| Tour eiffel |
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| Musee D'Orsay |
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| Harry in front of the Seine |
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| Paris from the River |
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| Pedestrian Bridge |
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| Grand Palais |
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| Assemble Nationale |
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| Seine |
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| Seine Again |
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| Bridge near Grand Palais |
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| Bridge Post |
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| Tour Eiffel |
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| Harry in front of Tour Eiffel |
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| Cartier on Champs Elysees |
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| Metro Stop Assemble Nationale |
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