mercredi 18 février 2009

Brittany, Feb 6th, 7th, 8th

Two weeks ago, I went to Rennes and Vannes which are both in Bretagne/Brittany with some friends. We had a good time, although I was disappointed that no one seemed to speak with a crazy Breton accent. Anyway, here are TONS of pictures!

First here are some highlights from our really weird hotel. When we arrived, no one was at the front desk. Instead there was a sign that said "Mlle Chaze, you are in room 14, your key is in the door." So safe. When we went up to the room, we found some awesome decorations.

First, this awesome mannequin with one hand not attached, and on a table.



Then some awesome vintage food posters:


And some randomly awesome posters in our room:


When we ventured out into town, we mostly hung out in the Place Saint Anne, where all the kids hang out. Actual kids, and kids my age. On Saturday they have this awesome merry-go-round all day:


There's Erika! (And Momie, look what was on the side of one of the carousel buggies!)

Here's me, right off the place Saint Anne (right by H&M), being French. Yes, that's a euphemism for smoking.


Here are some more pictures around Rennes.



This is the river that runs through Rennes, called La Vilaine. And then Christina, la vilaine.

On Saturday afternoon, Erika and I drove to Vannes, where our friend Liz has some family. And Liz and her cousin showed us around. Vannes is a really cute, quaint town about an hour outside of Rennes that's right on a gulf.

There is this great part of Vannes that's the pretty well kept ruins of the wall and gardens that used to go around the whole town:




Here's Liz, and a little stream that runs along the rest of the wall.



Here are some pictures of some probably important buildings around Vannes.



And finally, a picture of one side of the gulf at dusk.

jeudi 12 février 2009

Around town!

Here are some pictures of Fécamp, from one of the cliffs. This is from one of my first days, when it was mostly clear, and a pretty nice day by Normand standards. Andréa (my contact person) drove me to see an old church and a base that are located on the outskirts of town.




Here are some pictures by the water -- my favorite lunchtime spot when it's miraculously not raining.


If you continue down this walkway (above), you hit the Fécamp Casino. Sadly, the Casino is one of my favorite places in town. And the slot machines are called Centimania.