Well, I had to take advantage of my weekend in Jersey. Since there isn't much going on in Jersey, especially in winter, I took the ferry Friday evening and spent the weekend in France!
The ferry took an hour and 20 minutes and unfortunately it was storming really bad the entire time. I sat in my seat and closed my eyes hoping we would get to St. Malo soon and hoping I wouldn't throw up. I made it, barely. I got a taxi and checked into my hotel without having to speak english and was pretty proud of myself. The woman at the hotel said told me there were a bunch of restaurants just on the next street, so I walked down and saw this sign from God:
My french was not so successful at the Creperie because the woman asked if I wanted an english menu almost immediately. I took the menu but ended up not using it because I didn't want to order "pancake with ice", I wanted crepes!! I think it was because I haven't had good french crepes in about 5 years, but these were amazing!!! I actually laughed to myself at one point because I was so happy.
So, crepe with ham and cheese and egg for dinner:
And chocolate crepe with almonds and vanilla ice cream - oh yeah it was delicious!!
I headed back to the hotel with my stomach fully content. I woke up early the next morning and walked to the train station at 7am to catch my train to Rennes. I was extremely early, but I wanted to make sure I didn't miss it and that I could figure out how to buy my ticket. I went next door to a patisserie for a pain au chocolat. My stomach was really happy with me at this point and was almost wondering why I didn't do a GDP in Bretagne just for the fact that I could eat croissants every morning and crepes every night!
After the 1 hour train ride, my train arrived about 10 minutes late in Rennes (that would never happen in Switzerland!). I walked outside looking for Julien, but couldn't find him. For those of you that don't know, Julien is my "french brother". When I studied abroad for a summer in France in 2002 (wow - 10 years), Julien and his parents were my host family. I hadn't seen Julien since 2004 (I think) when my family went to France and visited my french host family. We've kept in contact somewhat sporadically through emails and letters, but I emailed him on Monday telling him that I was in Jersey and how close I was to Rennes (where he lives now) and it worked out that we could meet up over the weekend!
Anyway, Julien spotted me and starting rattling off questions in french and I was completely overwhelmed. It started to come back slowly (and I think he started to talk a little more slowly for my benefit). We spent the morning running errands. We went to the gym where his 3.5 year old daughter takes gymnastics and I met his wife, Laurence and his 10 month old son, Tybalt. Julien and I took Tybalt and we then went to the patisserie to buy bread and pastries for lunch and then to the grocery to buy fish for lunch and then met Laurence and their daughter, Cassandre, back at their house which is about 30 minutes outside Rennes. We ate lunch (with wine of course - God I do love France) and then hung out the rest of the afternoon and evening. I played Barbies, read Little Red Riding Hood and Peter Pan in french, took a walk to see their 2 horses, and really just enjoyed everyone's company. I had bought Cassandre a Sleeping Beauty dress which came with a crown and she loved it. She threw a fit after her bath when she had to put her pajamas on!
When the kids went to sleep and Laurence was sewing a Christmas present for Cassandre, Julien and I played French Taboo and French Scrabble to practice my french! I almost beat him in Scrabble thanks to some greatly placed 2 letter words, but taboo was a different story!
I had such a great time. The funniest part was when Cassandre looked at me after having been around me all day Saturday and said "Porquoi tu ne parles pas normal?" (why don't you talk normal?). We managed though, and boy is speaking another language when you are out of practice tiring!!! I woke up with a major headache on Sunday (and no, it wasn't from the wine).
Here are a few pictures from Saturday and Sunday hanging out at the house:
Julien and his princess crown:
Me and Cassandre:
Julien's adorable family:
Sunday after lunch, Julien drove me back to Rennes to take the train back to St. Malo. We took a quick tour around the city. We walked through the beautiful park and through a Christmas market and saw the main sites that the city has to offer.
Here is the view from the ferry leaving St. Malo:
I definitely hope I make it back to Bretagne again to visit Julien's parents and see his family again soon!
