Francophile in the West

On Saturday, I took myself on a day-trip to a little town that's about 20 minutes by train from Nantes. Clisson is so cute! Much of the architecture is Italian-inspired, there's this amazing old chateau in ruins right in the center of town, and there are lots of fabulous walking paths along the river that I enjoyed wandering along. Temperatures were hovering around freezing all day, but the sun came out in the afternoon and gave an added sparkle to the scenery. I had heard good things about this town and am very glad I decided to check it out!  Tomorrow morning, I'll be leaving for my ten-day adventure to Amsterdam, Strasbourg, and Annecy. I'm sure I'll be coming back with LOTS of pictures, and hopefully some good stories, too! Catch you on the flip side! :)

On Monday, V and I decided to take advantage of yet another  day off of work and take a day trip. We decided to visit Guérande, a medieval city in Brittany famous for it's salt! La Porte Saint-Michel, the main gate into the medieval city. Guérande is so small that it doesn't have a train station, so we had to take an early train from Nantes to Saint-Nazaire, then take a one-hour bus ride from there to Guérande. Whew! After inquiring after a map at the Office de Tourisme, we walked out of town and towards the famous "Marais Salants", or the Salt Marshes . There, we paid a visit to Terre de Sel , which is a big distributing company affiliated with the local salt harvester's co-op. They provide daily tours of the marshes, and we got in on a 45-minute explanation of the history, geography, and geology of the region, as well as a description of how the marshes work and what the harvesting process is like.  Next time you use or look at salt from Guérande,...

February is progressing nicely! I probably shouldn't say this, but I've hardly been working!! It's great! The other week, I only worked two days out of five, and this week, the same thing happened. My teachers keep canceling classes with me because lots of my students are getting ready to take the le Bac ,  which is the big, all-encompassing exam that French high school seniors (les terminales) have to take and pass in order to graduate and be eligible to continue on to higher education. Needless to say, there is a lot of stress that builds up in both teachers and students in the weeks preceding the exams. I'm happy to leave the kids be while they are busying cramming for such a stressful thing.  There's a lot of debate in France over how effective le Bac actually is; there is a pretty dramatic failure rate, which costs the government a lot of money, since they pay to educate the kids who fail for another year so that they can re-take the exam! It's also b...