Normandy!

Monday: Classes. Teaching Enligh. Volunteering. Dinner with the grandparents. The useual Monday.

Tuesday: St. Patrick’s Day! After loads of classes and my French lesson with the mother of the kids who I teach English to, and my phonetics midterm, Lea and I went out on the town. We had decided to celebrate many things and went out to a really nice French meal, right on the river at Chez Felix. I had a REAL French meal which was delicious: a starter of crab bisque followed by real salmon, ratatouille, and a mushroom soufflé. Then, it was perfect, we came back to my house and watched “No Reservations” dubbed in French---the film with Catherine Zeta Jones all about nice restaurants and the presentation on the food.

Wednesday: I studied loads in the sun…school is catching up to me! Then, after classes I met up with my French friend, Sophie, who volunteers with me who is just a DEAR and so wonderful and we went out to my favorite creperie…again!

Thursday: This was the day of the NATIONAL greve meaning I had to walk to school because transportation wasn’t working and there were people marching and protesting everywhere…it was crazy!!! I am not sure if people in France are truly passionate about what they are protesting or if it is more the fact that it is something to occupy their time and get excited about. Nevertheless, EVERYONE was out and it was a lovely sunny day, perfect for striking right? And doing homework and class…

Friday: In the afternoon, I got to visit the History Museum of Nantes with IES. They set those of us who wanted up for a 2 hour free guided visit of the history museum of Nantes, which was actually pretty incredible: learning about the role of the slave trade, the bombing of Nantes in World War II, the LU cookie factory (Le Petit Ecolier…yup, those come from Nantes) and now their role as a city of “culture” as they like to believe. Friday night was really low key, a French movie chez moi with Lea because Saturday morning was EARLY as it was the morning of Normandy!!!

The WEEKEND: This weekend was really fun, but REALLY busy and not much sleep. It was our field trip to Normandy to visit the beaches and the American cemetery. We set out super early on Saturday morning, had a lovely sunny picnic in Caens, and then spent the WHOLE (and I mean WHOLE 5 hours!) afternoon visiting the museum at the Memorial of Caen. Saturday night we slept in Caen and had a wonderful three course French buffet dinner, complete with salmon and seven different types of dessert. Instead of going out on the town, about ten of us girls stayed in our pyjamas and played cards for about 4 hours passing the night away. It was really fun! Sunday was another early morning and we set out for the American cemetery, which was really moving. We got to walk amongst all of the rows of graves, and along the beach. After that we visited Point du Hoc and saw the bunkers and the bombed out earth. In the afternoon we totally switched it up and visited a completely DIFFERENT part of Normandy…a visit to Haras du Pin, this famous horse breeding/preservation stable as apparently Normandy is known for their horse breeding? It was interesting…? But I was a little too tired to truly enjoy it, and I never was much one of those “horse girls” growing up. Then, we had a three hour bus ride back to Nantes and finally arrived home at 9pm! It was a really fun, full, and tiring weekend!