Normandy and Brittany

This past weekend was my first venture outside Paris.  Abroadco arranged the trip and all the students part of the program (amounting to about 50) participated.  We had to meet at the train station at 7:30am on saturday, the earliest I have gotten up all trip and it was a little painful.  We were apparently on the fast train to the western coast of France although it did not seem to be moving especially fast and the trip was 3 hours.  I did enjoy the ride because it was my first taste of the French countryside which, even in February, was lush and timelessly pastoral.  We arrived in Saint Malo (a walled, coastal town) and immediately boarded a bus that drove us along the coast to a fishing town who's name started with a C.  We stopped here for lunch and a photo op.  This part of France is known for the dish Moules Frites which are mussels in a white wine sauce with a side of french fries.  I opted for the scallops which were absolutely fantastic.  After lunch we found an ice cream parlor and I consumed within minutes, the best coffee ice cream in the world.  We hopped back on the bus and drove to Mont Saint Michel, a castle/cathedral/walled town turned tourist trap that sits on an island/peninsula.  I add the slash because at high tide Mont Saint Michel is an island and at low tide its a peninsula.  We arrived at low tide.  The structure was interesting to see because it towers above a flat landscape like a stereotypical medieval castle.  Inside the gates, once we passed through the maze of 15,000 tourist shops and pay 5 euro to hike some steep stairs, Anna, Cara and I reached the abbey at the top of the island to be rewarded with a phenomenal 360 degree view of the surrounding landscape.  The architecture was all very medieval and I could just imagine smelly peasants roaming the halls drinking beer and gnawing on a leg of lamb.  Part of the group ventured out into the "quicksand" surrounding the castle, something I opted out of.  After this we took the bus back inland to a little hotel where we would stay the night.  The strip of road where our hotel sat reminded me of a little roadside stop on the I5 in the middle of nowhere.  For dinner we were served a meal of traditional veal and potatoes.  As a non-meat eater I was lucky enough to be able to eat the vegetarian option of plain noodles and overcooked vegetables (apparently the French think people who don't eat meat hate flavor).  We went to bed early because that was our only option.  

In the morning we went back to Saint Malo (the place where we arrived on the train) for a guided tour of the city.  The town was started by a monk named Cartier a long time ago (the date slips me) and is entirely walled in.  It looks like a medieval castle town much like Mont Saint Michel.  Several of the off-shore islands had small castles built to protect the city.  The city was occupied by Germans in WWII and one of the islands was used as a prison.  In the pirating era, a famous privateer (ie legal pirate) resided in Saint Malo and the pirate theme is now woven into the tourist scene.  Our tour guide was full of information and had a cute sense of humor.  For lunch we had a seafood meal with a delicious starter of a half avocado with tuna on top, an interesting concept and surprisingly good.  The main course was mediocre.  I did use the opportunity to get to know some other people in the program and ended up chatting with two other Berkeley students who had just arrived in Paris a week previous.  Funny coincidence, the guy from Berkeley lived in my apartment building last semester... small world!  After lunch we had free time to roam the city so Anna and I  visited the cathedral.  It has taken over as my favorite church we have seen so far, he stained glass is beautiful and the vaulted ceilings are majestic while still rendering the environment intimate and peaceful.  It surpasses Notre Dame for me mostly because it was much less commercial.  After our brush with the spiritual world, Anna and I walked out on the pier and sketched for a while.  We made it back to the hotel just in time to grab our bags and be hustled to the train station.  I enjoyed Saint Malo the best because it was a quiet seaside town but still big enough that one could spend some time exploring.  Returning to Paris was nice though, it feels like home now and there is only so much organized group travel I can do before I get annoyed.  

Today I started my Sorbonne class (my french, finally!) at 8am.  For the rest of my time here I will be required to get up this early monday through friday!  Its good for me though, I need to practice my french and a reason to get up and start the day.  I'm in the elementaire level, I knew what was going on today so thats comforting but I think I will definitely learn a lot.  Its interesting to be in a class with people where our common language is French rather than English.  There are mostly asians in the class, a few older women and one other girl from California.  Its exciting to go to class there because there are so many French students around, I feel like I'm really apart of it all.