Merci!

That about sums up my extensive knowledge of the French language. Even this word proved difficult during my brief trip to France as I kept wanting to relive my Cortona days and say 'grazie!' Alas, despite my lack of knowledge of the French languge, there is one thing about the French culture that I have fully embraced, the food, thanks to my devout tour guide, Lauren (Man of Osch). Following a few weeks spent in the St. Andrews library and a quick trip down to London to run a group project, I was off to France for a week to visit my friend Lauren, relax, explore, and of course, eat.

Upon my arrival in France I had to take a taxi and a bus to Rennes (pronounced 'Ren'... yeah, the French add a lot of extra letters). Luckily, after awkwardly trying to make eye contact with a taxi driver and ascertain if he spoke English, I found out that he did, and I was off to Rennes. As we were approaching the bus stop, there was a bus preparing to depart. Before I could stop him, my taxi driver swirved in front of the bus to block it in case it was my bus. It was a gallant effort, but was not in fact my bus, causing an angry look or two from the bus driver.

On Friday, we explored Rennes, beginning with sitting at a cafe enjoying coffee and pain au chocolat, followed by lunch of a falafel wrap at a Lebanese restaurant, AMAZING caramel ice cream outside, and vegetable crepes and cider... oh yeah and there was some strolling, exploring, and visiting kitchen shops (they LOVE kitschy kitchen shops there!)  between all of that eating.

Saturday morning we ventured out early for the market in Rennes, the 2nd largest market in France, and bought all of the essentials for a French picnic in the park: baguette, cheeses, sausage, wine, caramel muffins (SO GOOD), and fresh strawberries. We headed to the park where we walked through a gorgeous rose garden and spent the afternoon relaxing and enjoying our picnic- though it was at this point that I made the unfortunate realization that I am allergic to France.

my lovely tour guide, Lauren

The next day, we headed off to San Malo, a beautiful beach town (I'll let the pictures do the talking for this one). The amazing part about this town is that when we arrived the water almost reached the town walls, with a fortress and tomb appearing to be islands; by the afternoon, the tide had gone out revealing a pathway to the islands. We enjoyed a chilly lunch on the rocky beach, walks around town, some delicious sugary crepes, and witnessed a lot of French loving on the beach- let's just say those Charleston southern belles sipping on their sweet tea would be mighty shocked if this was going down on the South Carolina beaches!

We then headed to Vitre, a cute town where Pierre-Antoine (Lauren's boyfriend) is from to help another friend of Lauren's move out. Her family took us to a nice Indian restaurant for lunch (a confusing experience figuring out how to order Indian food in French) and we wandered around town and visited the chateau.

The rest of my visit involved exploring more of Rennes, eating some more (galette saucisse- sausage wrapped in a wheat crepe), Tibetan food, fruity drinks at the Funky Monkey, shopping, and visiting the chatteau in Nantes.

So, the metro, train, bus, plane, another plane, bus, train, and bus, and I was back in St. Andrews for a day to repack for slightly different temperatures and activities for a week in the Highlands with Mark's friends.