Strasbourg – the land of Christmas

DISCLAIMER: Now that I have decided to make this blog exist again, I am trying to put up pictures and unfinished posts from my last few weeks in Europe. I have copy/pasted the little writing I had saved, but I hesitated to add more because I’d rather put up the pictures. Make sense? Anyway, the point is that the writing in these next few posts will be limited to non-existent before I start full throttle on my next adventure. Cheers!

Seriously, guys. Whoever told you all that North Pole business was either confused or trying to hide the true location of Santa. Strasbourg is exactly like the North Pole, but without penguins. Okay that’s not really true, but seriously. Go to Strasbourg and try to tell me that the North Pole (or anywhere) is more Christmassy. And I went before the famous Christmas markets even started!

Back on track. For my mom’s second weekend and last few days in France, we took a train pretty much to the other side of the country (granted this country’s not huge, so whatever) to Strasbourg, just along the French-German border. Because of a delay, we got into town pretty late and just went to our hotel.

The city is really beautiful enough that mom and I didn’t make any specific plans on where we wanted to go. We would obviously see the big things, like the cathedral, but other than that we spent the majority of the two days walking around and stopping in interesting (or yummy) little shops and galleries that we came across.

The Cathedral…is huge. Remember in art history class when your teacher talked about “flamboyant gothic” and you thought it was hilarious? Well, this is it and it exists. I wanted to go to the top, but it’s stairs only and mom and I weren’t confident we’d make it.

Ceiling!

This is the famous “horloge” in the cathedral…one of the must-sees of Strasbourg. Unfortunately we were there on the weekend and did not get to attend the information session about it….so here’s a picture of a clock. Cool, huh?

The city (like so many cities in France) is pretty much built around a river, so a good deal of it looks like this!

Translation: “STRASBOURG BEACH Without the beach.”

 

A hidden used book store…

The best hot chocolate EVER.

 

(You’re welcome). Our last day in Strasbourg was unfortunately a Sunday, so we didn’t get to tour the inside of this building (EU headquarters!), but we walked around.

 

And like everything in this city, it was on the river.

Oh yeah, it’s still the land of Christmas.

Paris…with Mom!

Quick note – sorry this post is so absurdly late…in my defense, 1) Mom was not at all interested in helping me write this while she was here, and 2) My internet’s been down since she left, so….ta-da!

So, as most of you know, my lovely mother came to visit me and discover a little bit of France on her first trip to Europe. I met her at the airport in Paris, and we took the RER (regional train) down to our hotel in the Quartier Latin. The hotel was cute, small, and very French (tiny spiral staircase up to the fourth floor…no elevators!), and in a fantastic location – barely a five minute walk to Notre Dame, and even less to walk along the river looking at local art and used book booths. We were pretty tired our first evening in Paris, after finally conquering the metro system across the city with mom’s suitcase in hand, but we went for a little walk along the river and around the area.

 

I could tell mom felt the same way I did the first time I was in Paris – tired? What? Why would I be tired….I’m in PARIS OH MY GOSH IT’S PARIS! I think the above picture captures that sentiment fairly well.

That evening we noticed that the line to get into Notre Dame was relatively short, so we went in and walked around, even though, obviously, we did not get to see the stained glass in full light. Still, a service was going on as we toured, so the vocal/organ accompaniment to our tour was well worth the absence of daylight.

That evening we walked a little more, and of course got some classic vin chaud (hot wine – red wine, orange juice, cinnamon, and other spices). Mom was immediately hooked. Speaking of which, I hope by the time she reads this I will have found a good recipe and sent it to her…

We woke up early the next morning to go to the Louvre. Naturally, this took almost all day and we did not take any pictures. Yay!

Sunday, our last full day in Paris, we walked to the Musée d’Orsay, and ran into quite a few lovely things on the way. First, one of the many bridges in Paris  we saw was the “Pont d’Artiste”. I don’t have an explanation for this, but mom and I thought it was really cool.

(Quick note to those of you who will understand and appreciate this, the green lock near the bottom says “Missy <3 Ric, 2011″ and I totally thought it said “Missy <3 RICKROLL”…so…I was falsely rickrolled by a bridge in Paris).

 

On our walk to the Museum, we also came across Shakespeare and Company!! Kirsten Daniels told me a bit about this place before I left, but I ran into it totally on accident. It’s a wonderful little book store with an old reading room upstairs, lots of used books (the vast majority of them in English), a piano, and beds. That’s right, beds. Apparently, if they “like you” ( I was told being hired involved the owner having a good gut feeling about you), you can live for free as long as you open and close the shop and work a minimum of two hours a day. I’m thinking very seriously about doing this this summer.

…the view of Notre Dame from the upstairs reading room…

 

 

…and a view of their…roof? From another window…(can you see why I love this place??)

And goody goody, more blabber about things that I love. The opera house!

Sadly for me (but probably lucky for you and my mother), nothing was playing at the opera house that weekend that I had much interest in seeing. Mom still wanted to go and see it and take a tour of the inside, but unfortunately we got there too late after the tours had stopped. Still, there was a local horn ensemble playing on the front steps, so we enjoyed watching that.

 

That evening we had our only really nice sit-down meal in Paris (the street food is so good and everything’s so expensive that it’s hard to find a reason to sit down for a meal there). Again, no pictures, sorry! But mom had her first real glass of French red wine along with a classic omelet with fries. The French add fries to everything. Seriously. There is a reason they’re called French fries and America will not ever really be able to claim them. If you don’t believe me, come to France, and then we’ll talk.

 

Our second evening in Paris (sorry about all the temporal jumping around, but I just wanted to save this part for last), we went…ohh….ohhhh wait for it….to the Eiffel Tower!! I didn’t actually go up la tour Eiffel or even very close to it last time I went, so I was as excited as mom (even if it  took us about two hours to get to the ticket counter and then to the summit).

Anyway, there was a full moon that night, and the view of the tower from when we got off the metro was just lovely.

AND THEN IT STARTED SPARKLING

One of the characters in the movie “Midnight in Paris” says “I can never decide if Paris is more beautiful by day or by night”. I think I really understand that dilemma now. The city is just so incredibly charming all the time.

Anyway, mom and I both tried not to freak out (apparently the fear of heights is genetic) as we ascended the tower. Here’s a shot from the second level, at which point I was already regretting buying a ticket to the top.

…but fear not, of course going all the way to the top was well worth it. And I think the point of your parents coming to visit is usually an excuse to spend the extra dollar and to the extra thang you wouldn’t normally do. So…here’s us.

Later that evening, mom and I took a little boat tour down the Seine, just to see the city at night without having to walk everywhere. It was really relaxing, and generally just nice. Please excuse all of these pictures of the Eiffel tower (because we’ve all seen a million already), but here’s the one more (from the boat!)

Nantes!

Since coming back from Bangkok, I’ve been in a bit of a funk, to put it lightly. Basically I was a blob of mess hiding in my room on my computer for about five days. Luckily for me, my friends Molly and Erin were working on plans for a weekend trip to Nantes, and I joined them. Yay! I had never heard too much about Nantes, had no idea/plans of what I wanted to do there, and didn’t have any great expectations, to be honest. Again, I was lucky. Nantes turned out to be one of my favorite places I’ve been to in France. It reminded me a lot of Asheville…except with a castle. The whole city was very green and had a different atmosphere than Rennes. The crowd was generally younger and more artsy, and most everything about the city reflected that demographic.  As soon as we got off the train, we saw the “jardin des plantes” which was a lovely park/garden where we walked for a good while.

A secret tunnel under the water fall walkway?

And I’m not too sure what this is…but it’s cute!

The shops all around town were generally…well…just cool. Everything seemed a little cuter or more hip than what you typically find in Rennes or even Paris. Like this cheese shop! Tell me that isn’t adorable!!

Also, the name of this shop alone was enough to win my love and affection. Even after that random chick ruined my picture.

The store was fantastic, but  wandering a city with a weekend bag of clothes does not lend itself to buying, say, a stand mixer (Sorry, Erin). After puttering around the garden and downtown, we stopped in, surprise surprise, a typical Breton creperie, and my galette was beautiful!

After lunch, we did some more (much more lethargic) walking around the city. We got pretty lucky to happen across what we did…for instance, the Cathedrale de Nantes.

The section on the upper right looks a little different because it was rebuilt in the 1970s after a fire. Next, we went to…a Chateau? Yeah, you know, just came across a castle all like no big deal what we just came across a castle.

…with a drawbridge…

…and a moat…

…and a bunch of lovely views of the city from the ramparts. Most of the inside has been converted to a museum that didn’t interest us all too much, so we walked around the outside of the castle, enjoying the view!

And my personal favorite, with a hint of Breton patriotism thrown in. I love scenes like these, because it’s so weird to imagine just driving by the castle on my way home from work, you know? And that seems to happen everywhere…peeps just driving by the Eiffel Tower, or the pyramids…you get the picture. I’m a dork. Moving on.

By the time we made it to our fantastic hotel (that had a LOFT!!!), we were pretty wiped out. It might not have been the best decision to go back to town for dinner since we were loopy to the point of embarrassing ourselves, but oh well. I suppose good pizza is worth a little public silliness sometimes.

The next day, we went to the island in the river that divides Nantes. It reminded me a lot of the River district in Asheville…a little deserted, but…well, just cool. This is a pretty picture for which I have no other description.

Our last stop in Nantes was to visit the famous Machines de L’Ile – a museum with various enormous steam punk animals. The elephant is the best…it’s enormous, walks around the city, and even sprays water out of it’s trunk.

Riding on the elephant was about 25 euro, so we opted out, but we still watched it!

Family and Food in Bangkok!

This post includes everything from my visit to Bangkok that doesn’t fit in the category of funny English typos…and excludes personal familial jokes etc. So…it’s not really a thorough account of my trip to Bangkok, and it certainly is not a “this is the city of Bangkok, yo!” post. But it’s still awesome. I suppose this is just a disclaimer…if you were expecting anything other than reading about activities with my cousins or pictures of me with beverages native to Thailand, I’m terribly sorry to disappoint.

Again, I’m facing a bit of a block trying to describe how I feel about Bangkok, or even where to start, but I’ve procrastinated a lot on this post, so…here goes. My aunt, uncle, and three cousins live in Bangkok. Generally I see them about once a year for a month in the summer when they come to Asheville. My family in the States tends to visit them every couple of years or so as well, but because of exams, college, or whatever nonsense excuse, I hadn’t been to Thailand in about seven years. As I’m assuming every person that’s ever heard me open my mouth knows, I really adore my family. As an only child, my cousins are like my siblings. I’m rambling. The point is that, as if going to Thailand wasn’t magnificent enough in itself, getting to see this part of my family is…a treat, to say the very least. Bangkok has a special place in my heart, and it’s probably mostly/only because they live there. So after being in France without my family for two months, seeing them was absolutely fantastic.

Luckily for me, we celebrated Diwali while I was in Bangkok. I’m not sure why there’s such a big Indian population in Bangkok, but there is. We didn’t do anything huge for Diwali, but seeing as I’ve never done anything at all for Diwali, just making the rangoli (a design with colored rice on one’s doorstep), lighting candles, and especially eating ladoo and other sweets was awesome.

Unfortunately, floods around the Bangkok area were also happening while I was there. I did not actually see any flooding, but I heard it was pretty bad in the north. The day I left I did see a lot of flooding from my view out the plane. Everyone (government and various experts included) seemed to be pretty unsure whether the floods would reach Sukhumvit, how bad they would be, or when they would arrive. Regardless, a LOT of people parked their car in a garage and left the country. Those that did not have connections to a parking deck settled to park on overpasses on highways. This isn’t a great picture, but it’s a very small percentage of the cars I saw parked on the shoulder just on the ride to the airport.

To do what little we could to help, we all volunteered to fill up sandbags one afternoon.

This is my girl Karuna and she is beautiful.

One of the first days I was in Bangkok, Karuna had a prior engagement, so her younger sister Anya took me on a “date” to get our nails done, lunch, and a little bit of shopping. This is us with Yakult – a drink that…is very special. If you haven’t tasted it itself, you have probably never tasted anything like it. It’s like liquid candy…but yogurt. I have no idea. Anyway it’s amazing and should be the first thing you consume if you go to Thailand.

Anya (who is also beautiful) took me to lunch at “Mos Burger” – the home of the Japanese burger. These burgers were smaller than burgers anywhere else, and have a very interesting sauce that Anya artfully described as “sloppy-joe stuff”. Not to poke fun, though, I couldn’t have described it better. They were pretty good!

And while I’m on this kick of posting pictures of myself (it’s not my fault – my aunt insisted on taking pictures of me for my blog), here’s one of me drinking a coconut. I don’t think this needs much explanation. Coconuts are baller. (Sidenote – wordpress is telling me that I misspelled baller and this makes me both giggly and annoyed).

And since you’re just loving these pictures of my lovely face consuming Thai delicacies, here’s me with mango sticky rice.

I really, really, really love both mango and sticky rice, so together it’s pretty much my favorite thing ever. I spent a lot of time pestering my family to get some. Other Thai food I had that I unfortunately did not photograph includes “luk chun”, which is a kind of kebab – basically meatballs on a stick, best served with spicy sauce. Also street noodles with “moo dang” (red pork), panaeng curry, and the delicacy of “roti wan” which is crispy fried dough drizzled with sweetened condensed milk. For my cousins – I’m sorry I just spelled all of that so badly. In my defense, I learned how to count, say colors, and ask where the bathroom is in Thai, so after a week I’m pretty much a Thai pre-schooler. WHUT!

I realize I don’t have any pictures of the youngest cousin, Arjun (other than his arm and feet in the rangoli picture)…so…here’s a picture of our favorite TV super-hero. In Thai he’s called “mot dang” (red ant), even though the original Japanese title is “Kamen Rider”. Please not that there is no reference in this show to ants or this hero resembling an ant of any kind.

I suppose I’ve done this already, but to conclude, public shout out to my Nina Massi, Uncle Jolly, Karuna, Anya and Arjun for everything. I love you guys so so much! Kapunka, chun rak te na kha! (I’m not sure that’s not right, but it looks cool/makes me look pretentious so just go with it).

Shopping in Bangkok – A Comedy for the Anglophone

There are many, many, many shops in Bangkok, and the majority of the ones I saw had come up with some name in English. Also a few of the products were amusing. That’s really all…I hope this doesn’t offend anyone and gives you a chuckle.

 

Granted, I guess we do have “Forever 21″ in the States. That’s a little silly as well if you think about it…but oh well. I also found a couple of amusing mannequins:

 

I didn’t even bother to wonder what was going on with this one -

I’ll leave you with a little typo that made my day:

Koh Chang, Thailand

So…yes. You’re right. Thailand is very far away from Europe and why on earth did I go there for fall break? Well, this blog is called Esha conquers the WORLD, not just Esha conquers France and neighboring European countries. Or Esha conquers Rennes. I am moving on to bigger things….so I flew far away/decided to have some family time and visit my aunt and cousins in Bangkok. My family is kind of the best in the world, and Thailand’s pretty awesome too, so again – I flew far away. And you’re jealous.

Warning: My younger sister/cousin Karuna told me that my writing was too formal and sounded nothing like me, so…that is on my mind. Take that into consideration.

My cousins are on break this week as well, so to kick-off the beginning of our vacation, we drove to Koh Chang, or the “Elephant Island” about six-hours from the city. Supposedly, this island looks like an elephant from an aerial view. I’m still working on this one…let me know if you see it.

Regardless of its questionably-existing shape, Koh Chang is absolutely beautiful. Big surprise. The penultimate leg of our journey was the thirty-minute ferry to the island.

These are my cousins/sisters. Anya’s on the left, and Karuna is on the right. They are wonderful and I love them a lot.

It’s hollywood, y’all!

We got checked in to the hotel and settled in our rooms just as the sun was setting. This is the view from our balcony.

…and since my Uncle Jolly (Suthep) is a much better photographer, here’s his version:

In my defense, he has one of those fancy cameras that’s actually a real camera. You know what I’m talking about? Anyway, here is the view from the hammock we spent the afternoons in. Nearby there were men climbing ladders to remove coconuts from the trees. Evidently, falling coconuts are common, fatal threats here in Thailand.

Another threat (that was judged to be not-so-fatal) was jellyfish. There were a lot. Seriously, guys, A LOT! Taking pictures of jellyfish is not too easy…but my uncle’s the bombdiggity, so here’s what he got.

You think that looks cute, huh? FALSE. YOU ARE WRONG. They’re terrifying. So instead of braving the ocean, we found a swing.

I promise we got in the water, by the way. It was a little too pretty not to. This is an authentic Thai restaurant we came across the afternoon before we left. Apparently, it’s a common custom here to keep the skeleton/skin of the fish and serve it with the food.

Bam.

(Photo credit: Suthep Srikureja)

Lazy Sundays in Rennes

Well, really just lazy weekends. And not even lazy because there’s a lot of walking involved. So…low-pressure, plentiful of meandering, agenda-less weekends in Rennes. In other words, this is a post about my wanderings around the city, how I spend my commitment-free days, and just a few of the random things I have the luck to happen across.

Hm, so shall we begin by recapping what I did this weekend? (Yes we shall, Esha!) Okay! I had thought visiting Caen/the beaches of Normandy or a nearby forest this weekend, but neither of those worked out, so I decided to get to know my city a little better. Even though Rennes is not the most popular tourist or study abroad destination (I don’t think a single person in the States that I told had heard of it), there is really plenty to do here. Anyone who has even met me knows that thrifting is one of my favorite things (how many times have I come up to you boasting about my newest 5$ jumpsuit?), so when my friend Jordan (the girl version) told me she found a French equivalent of Goodwill, I had to go. Clarification: there are two Americans named Jordan here – one is a girl and one is a boy. So Jordan (the boy version!) and I left the dorm Saturday afternoon to hit up the Marché des Lices, but unfortunately we got there a little late and most stands were packing up. We still hit up the food trucks for a galette saussice, and then decided to try the “Tcha House” at the end of the street. Look at me using hyperlinks all over the place! Anyway, the Tcha House had a surprisingly overwhelming and beautiful array of different teas. Check out the menu, I’m serious – over 100. This was the first and only tea house I have seen in Rennes, so I was pretty impressed. Also, the atmosphere is wonderful – there’s a small gift shop, and the place was not crowded. It was the perfect place to sit down, warm up, and chat with a friend. I will definitely be returning frequently, especially as it gets colder here.

After a delightful cup of “Magie Blanche”, Jordan and I went to Emmaus – the store vaguely resembling goodwill. I just joined a gaelic football team (a sort of cross between rugby and soccer that is proving extremely difficult and extremely awesome) with Erin Jacot, a fellow American who goes to Reed College with my wife Lauren. I am not a girl that is really into sports or has ever been good at sports, but I thought I might as well give it a try. So lucky for me, I found a borderline-nasty pair of blue nike cleats in my size for 1.50 euro. This way I feel like I’ve made a commitment to join the team, but I don’t plan on bringing the shoes back with me. Regardless, this store was full of things like that – an old spatula with a melted handle that they gave me for free, a ripped up map of France from 1985 (also free), along with some notebooks for school and a mug that I unfortunately broke that night when I got home. That evening we came home, made some dinner, and then I had a few friends over to chat and eat cookies. Another reason I love thrifting? I found a toaster/oven for 5 euro at the city-wide yard sale a few weeks ago. It has helped me avoid the dorm “kitchens” and make friends by offering people cookies. I also finally bought batteries for another one of my purchases at that yard sale – a little child’s keyboard. It’s great for entertaining!

Okay, am I talking your ears off already…/writing your eyes off already?  Because that was just Saturday. If you’re bored, just go take a break, come back tomorrow, and look at the pictures that I promise I will eventually get to posting.

This is what a typical Sunday morning looks like for me.

Making lunch (because I wake up too late for breakfast) in my oven, espresso, finishing a scarf, and listening to Maria. The yarn, needles, and espresso maker were all also purchased at that flea market, but Maria is a new addition to the Sunday family. That was my gift to myself this weekend. ISN’T SHE BEAUTIFUL?? This is the part where I DON’T go on an opera rant. Not today, at least. But she’s wonderful. Don’t doubt it. I’m not going to make you (only because I can’t), but you should watch this. Okay, moving on. I stayed in pajamas until about 1.30, when I decided to go to the city’s art museum. Last weekend I went to a festival for people new to the city, and I got a coupon book there for free and buy-one get-one free admission to various museums, concerts, games, etc, so I decided to use the first one and go to the Musée des Beaux Arts. It was nothing spectacular after the Louvre, but visits to the museum are always a nice, calm outing. Afterward I used another one of my coupons to open up a free account at the library. The library was, in fact, something spectacular. The building is very modern, and the tower of the library is a glass cone (sorry, didn’t take a picture of this one), so every floor has a wonderful view of the city. I’ll post some pictures of that next time, because I’m sure I will be going there frequently, at the very least because it is a great place to do homework (duh, it’s the library). Also, their collection of opera DVDs is enough to keep me there at least twice a week.

Between all of these things I did a lot of exploring/getting lost and puttering throughout the city, so I’ll stop writing like a fiend and leave you with all of the pictures of the well known monuments in Rennes, and the not-so-popular things I’ve been lucky enough to come across in the past few weeks.

One of my new favorite places:

Local art and used books vendors and Saint Anne:

Parliament de Bretagne: (I haven’t been inside yet, but hopefully will soon!)

Hôtel de Ville, outside which there have been local photography displays lately:

The beloved Opera House (more on this later):

Flash-photography isn’t allowed inside, and I’m not the best photographer anyway, so here’s what I could get:

Local music often happens outside the opera house, too. Here’s a band I came across last weekend. I have no idea who they were or what they were doing…no one seemed to be handing out fliers. Fun nonetheless!

Here’s a man at the Marché des Lices advertising a local traditional music concert:

Oh by the way, I live here. It’s a little surreal.

A Day in Saint Malo

Saint Malo is a historic city on the emerald coast about a 50 minute train ride from Rennes. Brittany is notorious for overcast, grey, and constantly rainy weather (we’re at the same latitude as Seattle), but this weekend the afternoons were getting up to 27 (about 80 degrees F), so at least half of the international students that I met made the trip Saturday or Sunday. It was absolutely beautiful! Luckily I took tons of pictures, so neither of us have to endure my attempts to explain how gorgeous this beach was.

A few of my friends and I took a 9.30 am train out of Rennes to Saint Malo, and from the train station there we took a bus into town. We walked around the “Walled City” just long enough to find a Carrefour (the grocery store), stock up on picnic supplies, and head to the beach. We figured we could come back and see the city when the weather was less beach-friendly. Since we didn’t go into the city, I really have nothing to say about its history, or any fun facts; however I can say that the few natives we met all talked to us about how Bretagne is not France, and that it should be liberated. Breton pride is evident everywhere here, but sadly their language is close to dying out. I cherish every odd encounter with a stranger, and I had some really great ones at St Malo – talking about pride for one’s culture, and how the most important thing in life is interaction with other people. The lesson I learned this weekend? French hobos drinking homemade absynthe in parks are surprisingly wise.

Even though I encountered a lot of Breton pride in St Malo, the city (in the past) considered itself to be separate from both France and Brittany. They actually declared themselves an independent republic in the late 1400s (thanks, wikipedia). So here’s a few pictures of the ancient fortified city, which I think was founded in the Middle Ages. The black and white flag you see in the picture is the flag of Brittany.

And the ocean! With birds!

The tides changed quite rapidly and much more drastically than what I am used to (at the incomparable beaches of South Carolina, at least). I don’t know if you can tell that this picture is of the same spot as one above, but an hour or so later. There were also a lot more pebbles and shells (in tact!) than I’m used to seeing, plus an abundance (literally, I came home with a jar-full) of sea-glass.

When the tide went out, it revealed a walkway in the ocean to a staircase/diving board. Most of you have probably seen this on facebook already, but for good measure I’ll post it again. For those of you that understand my fear of heights, you know that this is not something I wanted to do; however, it was my friend Daria’s first time at the ocean, so I decided to face my fears and jump in!

…twice.

(Photo credit: Emma Magyar. Motivation credit: Phil McClung and Daria Guleshova – <3 mes amis! )

Rennes – The Weekly Market, and an introduction to Breton food.

Once again, I started this post as a “Introduction to Rennes”, but I just couldn’t do it. I never learn. I have been in Rennes for three weeks now, and seeing as I sort of live here, it has been proving very difficult to write one, singular post about it. So today, I am going to write about the outdoor markets I have come across while in Rennes – particularly the Marché des Lices. I’m guessing the next few posts will be shorter, more specific, and (hopefully) more frequent. Is that cool with everyone? Yeah? Alright.

The metro stop “Saint Anne” (about a 25 minute walk from my dorm) is one of the most frequented places in the city. In the northern part of centre-ville (downtown), the place de Saint Anne is close to the “Rue de la Soif” (road of thirst….and yes, it means exactly what you think it does. More on that later) and Les Lices, which is where the weekly Saturday farmers market is housed.  I went last Saturday and was pleasantly surprised that the market was not, in fact, lice-infested. The outside portion of the market offers all kinds of fresh vegetables and fruit, vibrant red berries, eggs, and olives, among many other things. I have never seen garlic in this form before, and thought it was really beautiful. If I ever develop the slightest fear of vampires, I will without hesitation get some of these to be my centerpiece.

Outdoors you can also find some beautiful local flowers that would likely make a more socially-acceptable center piece. I don’t know why I keep talking about center-pieces, especially considering that I live in a dorm room…which is why I did not buy any flowers or garlic.

As you can see, the majority of these stands give off a “this came out of grandma’s backyard” vibe. Which, as far as I can tell, is completely true. Moving on past the produce outside, you will run into the seafood, which is all just as fresh. Sincerely. These lobsters were still moving.

Since Rennes is fairly close to the coast, fresh seafood is popular and easily available here. Mussels are probably the most common in restaurants, which is lucky for me because I adore mussels. So much so…that here’s a picture completely unrelated to the market.

I ate them all. No question. The mussels I’ve had here are generally smaller than the ones in the states, and a much brighter orange color. They are exquisite. I could probably write an entire post about mussels, or just how much I love them, but fear not dear reader, I will not subject you to that. Maybe. Yet. I intended to buy some raw mussels at the market, but after seeing the moving lobsters I was skeptical to buy anything that might come back to life in a pan of boiling water. Hopefully next Saturday I will be a little more rational. Anyhow, the market also houses some things that come off as downright weird to the skeptical American appetite. Sea urchin?

Go inside, and things only get weirder. I swear I saw more brains and livers than “normal” pieces of meat. Pigs feet:

…and cow tongue…

Look! They’re on sale! Don’t freak out, though, the French do eat meat that is relatively normal. I have found that ham is the most common meat here, but sausage is also very popular. The sausage here is  tough, with a texture resembling beef jerky…but much better flavor. As you can see, the local sausage here comes in all kinds of “flavors”.

I’m not entirely sure what “almond” sausage is. Maybe I’ll be brave enough to try that next time, but this week I just bought sausage with a black pepper casing. Homemade jam is also plentiful in the indoor market, and I love jam, so resisting the temptation to try every flavor was difficult.

And of course, the market is full of local cheese. I heard many stereotypes about the French before coming here, but the whole “they live off baguettes cheese and wine” business is very close to the truth. Cheese here is not pasteurized, so the flavors are all richer and more intense. What we call “fancy” cheese in the States is every day cheese here, and much more affordable.

Moving outside again, you come across a parking lot of food trucks for the intense market-goers who shop long enough to take a lunch break (or for people like me who have to eat something to quell the desire to buy everything I see). Alright, west-coasters, you’re thinking “Oh yeah, food trucks, whatever”. AU CONTRAIRE, Portland, do you have a fresh local cheese truck? I did not think so!

The most popular food truck item in Rennes (and possibly the region of Bretagne) is the gallette saussice. Gallettes are savory crepes made with buckwheat that are native to Brittany. Creperies are everywhere in Rennes, serving gallettes with egg, vegetables, cheese, ham, and sometimes even seafood. The gallette saussice is a kind of fast-food only available on the street. It is essentially a bratwurst wrapped in a gallette instead of a bun.

Lots of food trucks at the market also serve paella…which is not French. But still awesome!

So here is what I came home with this weekend (obviously excluding what I had already consumed by the time I got back).

I decided to take Mirabelle jam because I had never had it before. Mirabelle is a small yellow fruit that resembles both a plum and a prune. To be quite honest, the jam tasted a lot like honey, but I like honey so…yay! I will go eat a real mirabelle plum and get back to you on what it actually tastes like.  The green bottle is Cidre, or hard apple cider that is very common in this region and a classic companion to gallettes. I bought this bottle off an old man that I could hardly understand, because the it was dusty, unlabeled, and frankly just looked legit. Sadly half of the contents showered my pants and my friend’s floor upon opening, but oh well. I have a cool bottle!

First impressions – dorm life.

I know, I’m lame. My first post about Rennes is about my dorm. What on earth could I write about my dorm? Well, I started writing about my first impressions of Rennes, and ended up with this long paragraph about dorm-life, because after all, the first thing I saw in Rennes was my dorm. So…here it is. If you get bored just wait for the next post because it will probably have pretty pictures and be about food.

I arrived in Rennes by TGV from Paris with Phil and Jordan. Seth and Audrey (more friends from UNCG) were at the train station with a few students from Rennes 2 to pick us up. They helped us navigate the metro to get to our dorms. The dorms here are absolutely nothing special, and having never lived in a dorm before, I wasn’t thrilled to be in one; however, after almost an entire day of dragging four months of luggage through the Paris metro system and train station, I was overjoyed to have somewhere to drop everything. And I don’t have to worry about moving any of it for a very long time. YAY! Also, being in a dorm is most certainly not all bad. You develop relationships with people here that I’ve never really had before;  for instance, knowing that if I make too many lentils for dinner (if there is such a thing), I can knock on Phil’s door and give him some, and in return, he’ll knock on my door the next time he makes a pot of coffee. Also, things like brooms, pans, and buckets for laundry circulate throughout this building. As much as I hate communal showers and the pathetic excuse for a kitchen (seriously, our kitchen is a hotplate, a microwave, and mini-fridge), I’m enjoying being able to knock on friends’ and neighbors’ doors whenever I’m bored, sad, happy, or…anything, really. Another example -  last night a guy who lives across the hall from me decided to knock on everyone’s door on our floor and invite them to the backyard to drink some beer and meet each other.

Though (obviously) most of the students here are French, a lot of international people live in our dorm, which is just fantastic. I really enjoy meeting real French people and speaking with them, and  it’s comforting to have other American students to talk to, but there’s just something different about meeting other international students. Talking to an Italian, German, or Russian who speaks French as a second or third language is great, because both of you are struggling to speak this language that isn’t yet natural to you, but you’re still managing to communicate, even if it occasionally involves pointing and miming. There’s something both comforting and intriguing about knowing that you’re both in the same boat here, even if you come from different sides of the world.

I think this post is going to be void of pictures…because really, who wants to see pictures of my dorm? (The answer is no one except my mother). But I will say this much – every time I skype someone they either ask “Are you in a bathroom?” or unnecessarily remind me that my door is, in fact, bright pink.  So here is what you will see if you ever skype me. Ciao!