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Published: September 29th 2005
Thursday night was dinner on a boat that cruised along the Seine River. The food was decent (at least it wasn’t ham!) and we were all dressed up. A very relaxing night since we had finished orientation earlier in the day.
Friday I went with Rachel to the coast- her host mom, Francoise, was going to the vacation house in Saint Malo with some friends and family so she invited us. We drove about three hours to Mont St Michel, which is an abbey about ten centuries old on the top of a mountain which is on an island. The island is surrounded by the ocean if the tide is in and surrounded by quicksand if the tide is out. It has been used as a fortress but also as a prison during the French Revolution (just try to escape from there!) and now is mainly a small tourist town with the church at the top. The view was gorgeous at sunset and there was a little rainbow since it rained.
After this we drove to the vacation house (actually Rachel and I stayed at Francoise’s brother’s vacation house) and went right to bed. Saturday Francoise’s friend Dominique showed us around the town of Saint Malo a little and left us to explore for ourselves. Saint Malo is an old port along the English Channel that is important for shipping, but in the 16, 17 and 18th centuries was actually a base for pirates. The French kings supported these pirates who attacked British (and sometimes French) merchant ships and this is partially how the monarchy gained its fabulous wealth. The town was 80% destroyed during WWII so it has been rebuilt, but the walls surrounding the city are still the originals built in the 14th century or so. We walked around and went shopping and had lunch in a small café in the sunlight while we wrote postcards. We walked around the walls also and down to the beach. The water was a little chilly but we walked in it a little and collected seashells and then hurried back into town to catch the bus back to the house.
Saturday night Francoise had two friends named Dominique over for dinner as well as her brother and his wife, so there were a lot of loud French people all talking at once. Unlike English speakers, who usually try not to interrupt or overlap because it can be rude, the French do not mind talking over each other or interrupting in the middle of a sentence. Conversations are very loud and almost impossible to follow because you can never tell who is talking to who and which subject they are actually talking about. It’s actually pretty entertaining! They served a traditional French meal although Rachel and I still don’t know which animal we were eating… they tried to demonstrate a jumping animal with horns like a deer, but it was not any animal we have ever seen. It was very tasty though and we had potatoes and LOTS of bread with it. Also learned something interesting about French table manners- never ever ever place your bread on your plate! It goes on the table on the left side of your plate. Still not quite sure why this is so important… something about a tradition of the bread being holy and the meat being dirty… so we just did it since they wanted us to. Dinner lasted about two hours long and was very delicious- we even tried the cheese after dinner. Cheese is served after every dinner (before the desert) in a French meal, and we tried some bleu cheese that they thought we wouldn’t like (because we would probably find it a little strong) but I loved it and thought it was actually not as bad as some of them I try with my dad : ) After dinner we went to bed (that much food is exhausting!) and slept really really well.
Sunday we slept in and then went to the beach with everyone. We didn’t have swimsuits so we actually ended up swimming in our underwear- they told us it was perfectly fine to go nude, and many people actually did, but we really didn’t want to! The English Channel is pretty cold, but we got used to the absolutely numbing water after about 10 minutes and then got out to lay in the sun. Nice day at the beach and I felt so relaxed afterwards. Went back to the house and had lunch but Rachel and I really only ate bread because it was a bunch of seafood. We tried eating the oysters and the lobster but it was pretty gross so we ate bread, paté, and some salad. And peaches, ice cream and whipped cream for desert- that part was delicious! We drove to Rennes after lunch and got on the TGV (train de grand vitesse- very fast train) to go back to Paris.
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Mom
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A day at the....
A day at the beach, no, I mean the shore, no, I mean the coast. It sounds like you had a wonderful time. Good thing your dad has prepared you for "unusual" meats and strong cheeses. I hope you'll post some pictures. I love you and miss you!!!!