The French Connection - Part 1

Bonjourno, as the freaky French guy on the Eurotrip movie puts it. Sorry for the delay in this but time constraints in France meant I couldn’t write anything substantial as I know that is what everyone is after! So, the plan was to go for about a week to catch up with the French connection Alex, Julia, Fabien and Delphine. In this time I decided to immerse myself in the culture of France and get to know a few of the locals…

La Trinite-sur-mer

I arrived in Paris on the night of the 9th August and went to the Effiel Tower that night with a couple of Austrian girls I met on the train that randomly ended up staying at the same hostel I was staying at that night. The next day I left Paris and took a train to Rennes where Delphines sister Anne picked me up and went to La Trinite-sur-mer which is a quaint little seaside holiday town in Brittany that turns into a bustling town with a heap of tourists (from France and afar). That night I had my first real taste of French cuisine with the family dinner and boy was it good! The next day a few of us went surfing at I don’t know where. You may pick up in this blog I don’t know where I am half the time as the number of places I visited and the number of small villages dotted around the place were too many to even try counting so I didn’t and didn’t pay much attention to the names as I forgot them as soon as we passed the roadsign stating it. The surf was glorious especially since the water temp was cooler than the air (unlike Dubai). That afternoon we did what was called Apero (spelt right?) buoy. We (Delphines numerous cousins) blew up these plastic tyre things and with some beers chillaxed in the harbour lying in the sun. We actually became a tourist attraction with a number of jealous people snapping some pics of us. That night ALL the cousins came round and had Cousins Night (aptly named) as there were a few cousins from France and the States. After having more than a few drinks there was the predicament of getting into town which was about 6km away in Carnac. So in the spirit of France, we rode… in the pitch black. My only guiding light was in fact a solitary voice in front of me but made it unharmed and had a great 2nd night out. Despite a language barrier with a few people that night, we managed to communicate in our drunken state, I don’t know how though, but it is funny, it is amazing how much more English French people speak when they are drunk. I was impressed. The next day Fabien, Delphine and myself left for Brest, the most western point in Europe, I think, where they live and spent the next 2 days there.

Brest

As soon as we arrived it didn’t really stop raining until I left but in that time Fabien and I went mountain biking around there area which was very nice and we/I had the best Crepe ever. It had white chocolate in the middle and chocolate ice cream on top which was very very delightful. Mmmmmmm. I may have to return to France just for that.

On the Wednesday it was a national holiday so we went back down to La Trinite-sur-mer where I really saw the area. The area is a massive inlet where the water from the ocean surges through a gap of about 1km wide which is very small in comparison. This causes an incredibly powerful tidal current that almost prevents yachts from getting in and out. It was very entertaining watching the yachts attempt to get out. Fab and Del also took me to the French equivalent of the Stonehenge where a number of stones have been standing on their ends for a rather large number of years still with no explanation for it. That night was a nice fireworks display on a couple of boats on the harbour. What I loved about this was that directly in front of us was a nice big American flag and behind it were the fireworks going off. The American cousins were loving it… Anyway, that night despite the lack of English spoken I somehow managed to cop a heap of shit about losing the Americas Cup, what’s with that?? It was all right though, just mentioning the two golden words “All Blacks” soon changed the subject.

Please read part 2 to continue. Thank you and enjoy your flight. Oh yea, I'll put photos up when the internet speeds up.

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