Brittany and Beyond!

When I last left you I was awaiting the arrival of the English exchange, who arrived in full gusto as expected. It was a delight to hear their thick Leeds accents and hear them pointing out funny things, including me! They were very confused by my presence, a girl seeming to work at the school and speaking French...yet wearing a York hoodie! Apparently one of the pupils said to a teacher that I "speak well good English for a French girl"! I have never seen such a cluster of pink items in France before, pink clothes, pink suitcases, pink hair...the French families were very overwhelmed by this sudden onslaught of British culture! The partners were introduced to each other and there were many awkward silences and attempts at exchange of conversation, judging by their level of French I think that English will doubtlessly have been the principal language of the visit!

After their arrival I had to whizz off to meet all the assistants, ready for our road trip up north. There were 13 of us in total (unlucky for some!), so that meant two cars, one driven by crazy Helene and the other by her work experience boy, Marc. We ended up in Marc's car, and didn't hit it off well with him, mainly because we'd made a cd full of our favourite music, which at one point during the weekend he said he wanted to throw out of the window! However we were so grateful to him and Helene, it was such a luxury to have a car, it made a very pleasant change from trains and busses and meant that we were free to visit so many more places.

The weekend was a great success, we all had a really fun time. We spent the first night in Rennes where we visited the famous "rue de soif", which translates literally as the "road of thirst". It's is a lively street full of French students and revellers, enjoying the many bars and fantastic atmosphere. The next morning we had a quick tour of Rennes (visiting far fewer churches than in Poitiers!!!) before driving on up north.

We stopped many times on our route up to St Malo, my favourite being the pretty town of Dinan, which has a picturesque river and some castle ruins. In the early afternoon we arrived in St Malo and spent the afternoon wandering around the city, which is absolutely charming, definitely a contender for my favourite French town visited. It was typically touristic, but due to the time of year we were able to enjoy it in peace! We walked out along the (very clean!) beach and then, because of the low tide, we were able to cross some rocks out to a little island with a monument on top. We were there just as the sun came down, which was really beautiful, and crossed back onto the mainland just in time, as the sea was coming in. We saw the ferries leaving for Portsmouth, Jersey and Guernsey and there were many jokes cracked about the British possession of these islands and that I'd missed my boat home.

The next morning we continued our journey, heading eastwards now, driving along the coast. We stopped at several points along the way, enjoying a brief, but utterly freezing, walk out to a headland point. The sea was a gorgeous blue, making me wonder how on earth the same waters can be such a different colour on our coast, merely a few miles north! Eventually we arrived at Mont St Michel which was very impressive, if very crowded with tourists. It was also icily cold up there, with a howling wind roaring round the mount. After visiting all that it had to offer we returned to the cars and the long journey back to Vendee.

The weekend was such good fun, and my opinion of Brittany has definitely changed! Not only did we not see any rain (compared to my stormy trip back in 2002) but the cuisine was also fantastic! I especially enjoyed what are called beignets, a sort of doughnut, but about 5 times the size and filled with an absolutely yummy custardy creamy filling, yum yum!

However, our weekend did not in fact end there, as as we were en route we heard the news that the first of the sailors had arrived at Les Sables. Crazy Helene suggested that we head straight to Les Sables to join the celebrations! So we did! On arrival we didn't go straight to the town centre, where the bars (and party) was, but went to the port instead, in order to glance at his boat. Just after we'd parked that car we spotted a small cluster of people over by the port, so we headed over that way. Only to discover that it was Michel Desjoyaux himself (the winner of the race) being interviewed by a TV crew! We sneaked between a gap in the barrier and walked straight up, no problems at all! We waited for him to finish the interview before accosting him for photos and autographs, plus a brief chat! He was really nice, if a little tired after being at sea for 84 days! When I told the teachers at school the next day they were all so impressed and very jealous!!! We then headed into town and the bars before heading back to La Roche, very tired after a really long and busy weekend.

As I've mentioned before, Monday was the arrival of the Comenius group, 2 teachers and 5 pupils from Spain came to spend the week with us. So the last week of term was very busy, but really good fun, as I got to go on 3 days of school trips! The Spanish teachers were really lovely, very open and friendly and really interested in all the stone related trips!

On the Tuesday we went to the beach and to a sand museum and visited Les Sables. On this day the Spaniards were rather lost, as everything was in French, and the pupils speak absolutely no French, and that of the teachers was limited. Thus I ended up as Spanish translator, using my 100 word Spanish vocabulary, many hand gestures and the occasional English/French word, pronounced in a Spanish accent for extra effect! I think (hope!) that they had a good day and understood a little of what was happening, at least there were plenty of smiles!

On Wednesday, we went on a visit to some caves that were inhabited during the early 20th century and a cathedral that was entirely within a rock face, absolutely incredible. As regards the language, it was the complete opposite of the day before! The Spanish teacher from school was able to come, and the tour guide was fluent in Spanish...so the whole day was conducted in Spanish! They seemed to forget that my Spanish was limited (I must have impressed them with it the day before!), so I spent much of the day very confused as to what was happening! But it was good fun though, and I slowly picked up more vocabulary, albeit very specific rock-related terms!

Finally on the Thursday we found the middle ground on the language front after someone (ahem!) suggested that it might be an idea to invite Lorna, our Spanish language assistant, along to translate! So the day was conducted in French, with explanations in Spanish, I think that everyone understood! That day we visited a beautiful abbey and a disused mine, both of which were really interesting.

On the last day of their visit we had a "press conference" in the morning, where 3 of the local newspapers came to take photos of us all and hear about what we'd been doing all week. La Maitrise gave out gifts to all of the guests and we enjoyed lots of brioche together, I think that they were actually all rather sad to be leaving, we'd had a really enjoyable week. After that we had a couple of hours to spare before they all needed to leave for the train station, so it was suggested that I take the pupils shopping in town! They loved this suggestion and the pupils were all really excited! They bought loads and I had to really hurry them back to school at the end, I think I would have been in big trouble had we been late! The-not-so-responsible responsible supervisor!

That week during the evenings we had 2 meals together with a few teachers, both of which were very entertaining. One of them was together with the teachers from England, who were of course still there with the exchange. I was sitting at the complete opposite end of the table to them (well out of ear shot!) and a few of the French teachers kept asking me questions about the English pupils, they were all pretty horrified at the mini skirts and make up they have seen this week! I found all this rather amusing, but was divided as to whether to stand up for the English, or admit that I found them all as funny as they did!

We then must have got onto the topic of me and there was great debate as to whether I am stereotypically English or not! Most teachers thought not, as I have a great appetite (!) and do not wear miniskirts in February, what funny arguments! However one of the French teachers of English thinks that I am very British as I apparently have a "stiff upper lip"! She announced this as a compliment (I think!) but I am really not sure whether to be offended by this or not, what a thing to say! Much amusement though!

The hilarities of that evening continued as I was served simply the largest piece of pork I have ever seen in my life! I have since looked up the definition of it, apparently it was a whole hock, and it was just gigantic, about the size of a lettuce, the pig must have been one beast! I proceeded to eat it all and my pudding too, much to the awe of all! One teacher made the comment that I had a large appetite and must have put on weight since my stay in France. When I replied that yes indeed that was true, she looked absolutely delighted and exclaimed "quelle justice"! Everyone else looked equally pleased at this!!

So the week was extremely busy but a success and a fun end of term. I am certainly glad to be on holiday and am currently having a fabtastic trip back to York, which is surprisingly far colder than France was. It's funny being back and hearing about all the stresses of third year from everyone, makes me realise how lucky I am to have this year abroad, which by comparison seems far more like a holiday than anything else! However it does make me realise what I'm missing out on back here, I really do miss the York life and it will be so strange being up here next year, with 90% of my friends having graduated, it will certainly be different. But I don't regret leaving, the experiences I've had in France will certainly be unforgettable.