Francophile in the West

Wow, November has FLOWN by!!! It's hard to believe that I've already been back at work for three weeks since the Toussaints vacation! Here's the latest... On the last Saturday of the vacation, I joined Anne-Marie, Andre, and the UW study abroad group on a day trip to Bretagne! We were driving around all day long, but were able to see some great locations! Our first stop was to see some of the Carnac Stones . This grouping of Neolithic stones has been around since about 4000 BC! There are over 3,000 of them scattered around the village of Carnac, and while we drove by quite a few different sites, we only stopped to poke around at one. It might not be much to look at, but it's still incredible!! To think that people from thousands of years ago dragged around all of these massively huge boulders and placed them upright in formations or made stone huts just blows my mind. Having visited Stonehenge in 2007 and then being able to see these formations was quite a treat!

Two weeks off of work?? I am spoiled with this job. And it was difficult to wake up crazy early on Monday to go back to work... But I had a great vacation! You already read about the first week; now, onto week two- the real adventures! On Friday, N. and I took a train from Nantes to Paris and got all checked into our hostel before wandering over to la Tour Eiffel. On display at the Champs de Mars, there were all these random, painted bear statues. It turns out that they're called "Buddy Bears", and they've been traveling the world to promote unity between nations. There are 140 of them (one for each UN-recognized country), painted individually by artists from that particular nation. It was actually pretty cool! Some of them were really intricate and fun. It was interesting to see how each country decided to represent itself artistically.  Of course the bear for the USA was dressed like the Statue of Liberty! Particularly fitting for the Bears' display in F

Autumn in France is GLORIOUS! Nantes has been enjoying some fabulous weather this past week, and I'm loving it! The leaves are changing colors, the air is crisp and clean, and the temperatures are dropping. All the Frenchies are starting to bust out their fashionable heavy coats and jackets, and I have officially brought out my scarves, gloves, and down jacket. I think the cold weather clothes are here to stay for some months until Spring arrives in l'Hexagone. I'm just hoping that I can hold off on turning on the heater in my apartment until at least mid-November! The plaza right in front of la Cath édrale St. Pierre. This week was busy and fun! On Monday night, I had dinner with N., C., and V., for V's birthday! We went to a delicious crepe place in Bouffay, and I thoroughly enjoyed the seafood crepe that I ordered. When scallops, mussels, and/or clams are involved (in this case, all three), I cannot refuse. C., N., and I cooked dinner at my place on Tuesday ni