Rennes

Last weekend I was finally able to visit Rennes, the capital of Brittany, after wanting to go for so long. I made arrangements with two assistants from a nearby town, who I had met on the training day. I was first to arrive by train, which gave me enough time to scout out the station for the next time I will be there, which excitingly, will be on my journey home for Christmas. The top floor of the station is almost identical to an airport waiting area, with boulangeries and cafes aplenty, which of course, is incredibly important information.

Laura and Frances arrived shortly after me, and luckily, they have both been to Rennes before, so were able to navigate. We headed straight for the centre of the city, and more specifically the Place de la Mairie. It is such an interesting town square, as the town hall has a curved indent, and the Opera building opposite has a semi-circular structure at the front of the building, and it is said that the two buildings would be able to slot together. Stupidly I didn't take any pictures, which would probably explain far better than I seem to be managing.

From there we went for galettes in a cute little creperie that Frances had eaten in once before. It really didn't disappoint, and my mouth is watering now at the memory. 

After eating, we walked around and caught up on our teaching assistantships, and then we decided to go off in search of the Christmas markets. We stopped at the tourist information centre for a map, and the woman was very helpful in directing us towards the markets, but they didn't seem to be where she'd marked them on the map! We stumbled across a drawbridge on our walk around the town. What is it with France and drawbridges?

I decided that I really like Rennes as we walked around. It is such a beautiful city, and even in the hustle and bustle of Christmas shoppers, there was something peaceful and sleepy about the city, and I'd love to go back after Christmas when all of the chaos has died down.

After searching for ages, we found a shopping centre, which was supposed to be close to the christmas market, so we decided to have a little look around. There was a really cool shop called Nature Et Decouvertes, which sold all sorts of weird and wonderful things ranging from hammocks to caramel tea leaves. Then we took in all the christmassy displays from around the shopping centre, and finally I felt like I was in the Christmas spirit...FINALLY!

We left the precinct to find the christmas market just outside, and although the scent of all the lovely christmas goodies was enough to make me feel hungry again, there was nothing that really took my fancy, and I thought that the first market would maybe have more charm at night when all of the lights were twinkling.

Eventually we found the final market, which ironically, was a mere five minutes from where we began our search. It was so festive, and really made me look forward to enjoying more festivities at home. The little log cabins were filled to the brim with le vin chaud, les marrons (chestnuts....roasting on an open fire), other seasonal foods and an abundance of cute little nicknacks.

The marché de Noël even came with its own little carousel. How quaint?!

Our final stop for the day was a Salon du Thé which again was recommended to us by Frances, who has her own blog called Crumbs to Crunch, which if you haven't guessed, is about cakes, baking and all things good! The tearoom was adorable. As you can imagine, there were teapots everywhere, and scatter cushions on little benches for the customers.

Unfortunately, the customer service was a bit pants, but I would definitely go back again just to enjoy the atmosphere and maybe a slice of cake!

There were too many different types of tea to choose from, so we all decided to try the Hot Apple Cider. I loved it! I'm not a huge fan of mulled wine, so this is the perfect alternative. It is heated cider which is spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and star anise. Delicious!

We were running out of time, so couldn't enjoy a pudding, but hopefully if there is a next time, I will sample some of Rennes finest tea and cake, in excellent company.

 I had such a lovely day, that can hopefully be repeated again after christmas. As an assistant, I have found that I enjoy France the most when I am travelling around and becoming acquainted with new places. I plan to get about a bit more following the holidays, so watch this space!

Until next time,

Jess

xx

The Countdown Begins!

We have finally reached December, which means one thing. It's very nearly time to go home! I am so excited. My week has been quite a nice one, but I'm not feeling as Christmassy as I would if I was at home.

I feel like France is lacking Christmas spirit in general. I think this is only because I'm living in a small town...maybe, but no houses have decorations, there's no Christmas music, no mince pies . I don't even like mince pies but it's all part of Christmas isn't it?!

Anyway, the week started off as per usual, I turned up to school with plenty of time, sat in the staff room for a while to then find out that my lesson was cancelled again! This meant that I had a couple of hours spare, so on my way back home I picked up my 'going home' train tickets from the station. Again, in the afternoon one of my lessons was cancelled, but this time the teacher come to the staff room with me for a hot chocolate and a natter.

After school I met the Spanish assistant who I live with and we decided to go for a drink and then to the cinema to see the Hunger Games. I really enjoyed the film, although I still haven't got round to reading the books, so I couldn't tell you how true they are to their paper counterpart. For the first time, I think I understood a lot of what was going on, and I was so proud of myself! (The film was in French by the way!) I haven't noticed much of a difference in my French so far, but maybe I am improving in some aspects after all. 

Wednesday was lovely. One of my teachers asked me to go for crepes after our class. Firstly, the crepes were delicious, quite possibly the best in town, and secondly it was lovely to get to know her a bit better. It's nice for the teachers you work with to become friends as well as colleagues, and she insisted on us talking in French, which was great for me.

Thursday and Friday rolled into one, with nothing particularly special happening, but both were good days. I have a new class on a Friday, and some of the students are so enthusiastic, which makes a refreshing change. On Saturday I visited Rennes, which I will talk about in another post, and it was lovely. 

Then on Saturday evening, I was invited around by Jacqueline for an evening meal. She came to pick me and my flatmate up and within 5 minutes we were at her house. I happened to be wearing a dress and thick wooly tights. I leisurely took my coat off, hung it up, dawdled across the room with all the time in the world, in front of the whole family may I add, to realise that I had fashionably ended up tucking my dress into my wonderful grey wooly tights. Nice one, Jess! How embarrassing?! Anyway, we had a lovely meal and I really enjoyed my time with them, and being able to attempt to chat in French de temps en temps. They are such a lovely family and I have been so lucky to have them supporting me while I was settling in to my French life.

Finally, Sunday was a washout. I'd finished my next assignment for university this week, even though it isn't due until the 11th I wanted it out of the way, so yesterday I had no go in me. It was nice to not have to worry about anything though! The only trouble is, I don't like having lazy days because I feel like time goes quickly enough as it is, without me wasting days by doing nothing. I did, however, manage a workout. Again, I will explain my new found "love" (for want of a better word) for working out and running. So by the end of the first week of December, it is the 7th, which means 10 DAYS UNTIL I GO HOME!!!!! I'm so excited that I could burst.

That's all for now folks!

A bientôt 

Jess

International Soirées, Galettes and Crêpes!

Salut!

Well the past couple of weeks have been fairly uneventful since I returned from my jollies in Paris and Troyes. I had to get a bit of work done for uni which took up a bit of time, and obviously there was preparing for lessons which takes up more time than you'll ever believe, a few crêperies were visited along the way and of course the Soirée Internationale.

With regards to lesson planning, it's not usually so bad, but I really care about doing a good job, so I take ages trying to pick something fun and interesting for the groups I'm teaching. However, sometimes you end up working with teachers who are never quite pleased with what you do, no matter how hard you try. Unfortunately I work with one. I spent all week worrying about what to do, and stressing once I had picked something because I wasn't sure if it would be good enough or not. Yep you guessed it, it wasn't good enough. I'll go into more detail in another blog post about how to deal with these situations and hopefully it will help anyone else who is in a similar situation.

The International Soirée....oh the joys. Well I'll start from the beginning (obviously). There is a man who works in the Mairie who is in charge of getting all of the international students and citizens of Guingamp together. Well at least I think thats what he does. My French wasn't good enough to fully follow the conversation. But anyway, he got in touch with all the language assistants and international students at the university. The plan was that we'd meet up at the centre social with whoever else wanted to attend and, here's the snag, we had to do presentations about the country we come from. I. Was. Dreading. It.

However, the evening came, and I was armed with my script about Le Pays de Galles. I was so nervous, but as soon as the presentation was out of the war, it was quite nice to be able to chat with some new people. It wasn't quite as I'd expected though. As ever I over romanticise things and I thought I'd end up making friends, but no, I ended up spending most of the evening surrounded by the people I know, just as the French students stayed in their friendship groups too. 

There is supposed to be another evening soon, so I may go to that one too. I was so proud of the fact that I'd actually stood up in a room full of French people, and international people who's French is 10 times better than mine, and still managed to get through the presentation. 

Anyway, apart from that I don't think an awful lot else has happened in the past few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled for my post on being a language assistant. 

Toodleoo 

xx

Excursions to Paris and Troyes

Salut!

Well, as I said in my last post, my 2 weeks of holidays were only finished briefly and this is because I had to meet up with my uni lecturer to in Paris to discuss my time so far, and my upcoming university project.

So bright dark and early on Wednesday 5th November I was boarding the train to Paris, and I wouldn't be returning to Guingamp until Sunday evening. I managed to get the time off work as it was mainly for university work. After the three and a half hour journey, I arrived in Paris Montparnasse and had about 6 hours to kill, so instead of navigating the metro, I decided to pass the time by walking through Paris towards the Seine, and trying to find a Kiko on the way!

I flânered through the streets on Paris, managing not to take any wrong turnings, and ended up at the love lock bridge. I tried to find the lock me and Lewis put there last year, but I would have been there forever. I walked over the bridge, pausing to take in the view of the Seine and Le Louvre from across the river. 

There's something quite peaceful about walking around leisurely in a busy city. I felt like it really gave me a bit of time to breathe after being so caught up in everything since moving abroad. I sat around people-watching in Le Louvre for what seemed like hours people watching, and it was so relaxing, watching people eat food on their lunch break, rushing to take photos before moving onto the next tourist spot and people hastily moving towards the exits, probably running for the next train, whilst I was calm and still watching the hustle and bustle. It reminded me of the line from that poem, "What is this life if full of care? We have no time to stand and stare...".

Afterwards I decided to walk to the hostel where I was staying for a couple of nights to drop my bags off before meeting my tutor and classmates. On the way, much to my surprise I saw three "women of the night" only it wasn't the night, it was mid afternoon, in broad daylight. What on earth?!!!!

Then I caught the Metro to Saint Michel and waited by the fountain for a good half an hour before anyone else from uni turned up. The fountain was quite spectacular compared to street corners at home. 

After our meeting our lecturer, myself and my friend Dan went for a stroll around and Dan took me to the bookshop Shakespeare and Company, somewhere I have read about a few times, and always wanted to have a peak inside. It was so quaint, and for the second time on my year abroad I felt like I was in a bookshop in Diagon Alley!

After heading back to the hostel for a second time for Dan to drop off his luggage, we headed back out to see the tower all lit up. Not quite as good as the Bonfire Night I was missing back home, but it was definitely a close second!

Me and Dan spent ages trying to get decent pictures of the Eiffel Tower, hence the amount of them...

...but this is the best by far!

The next day we decided to go to Le cimetière du Père-Lachaise which was as Dan put it "strangely beautiful". I didn't take any photos as it really didn't sit right with me. We walked around for hours, paying our respects to Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison, but I was disgusted to see people clambering over graves, or standing on them in order to get a better picture. Have some respect! We continued to walk and talk for a while, and then we had to leave to meet another classmate, Izzie. 

Once we met up, we headed straight for the Champs Elysees. First stop M&S! It made me miss home so much when I saw all the food that it's so easy to buy from home! Then we had enough time for a brief picture of the Arc de Triomphe, before meeting up with our lecturer for a second time.

After our little meeting, our lecturer took us around a few of his favourite places in Paris. We headed for The Pantheon which was really interesting. We found out that very important people who have impacted on France in some way get buried here, which I had never heard of before. I felt quite honoured to be able to stand at the tombs of the Curies particularly, who's work has had such an effect worldwide on their discoveries in medicine.

We walked through Paris and ended up settling in the Jardin du Luxembourg, which felt sooo Parisian on a crisp November day at dusk, sat on the little green chairs. After an evening of crepes, baguettes and fresh cream cakes, it was our last night in Paris before moving on to Troyes, where Dan is spending his year abroad, the following day.

We were so tired by the time that we got to Troyes that we just popped out for essentials (baguette) and then spent the evening watching Love Actually. (Well it is nearly Christmas!)

On Saturday Dan decided to host a dinner party for all the assistants in Troyes, so we popped into Troyes to get some ingredients. On the way to the marked we bypassed H&M, and I had to go in because it was the first clothes shop I'd seen in France that we also have at home. Anyway...we got all our ingredients from the market, fresh fruit and veg, and it was also an opportunity to interact with French people!

We walked back to Dan's and got to work on chopping the veggies for the shakshuka we were making whilst listening to Abba. As you do! We also decided to make Eton Mess for pudding. It was more like Eton slop as the local food shop didn't have the powder to make the cream whipped cream, but still, tasted delicious! 

The dinner party was great and the food went down a treat. It was so nice to meet lots of new people and they were all lovely. We spoke French all night which was exactly what I needed! The following morning it was time to get the train home. I was a very sad to be leaving, but my time in Paris and Troyes made me feel a bit more positive about my time abroad, and that's never a bad thing!

That's all for now! I'm slowly catching up on myself on this blog, but it may take some time yet!

A bientôt! 

Jess
xx

Toussaint Week 2 - A Week With My Other Half!

Salut!

If you've been keeping up to date, you'll know how *ahem* wonderful the first week of my holidays was, and how much I needed a break, to spend the second week exploring some of Brittany with Lewis.

After waiting like what seemed forever, Lewis finally arrived on Friday evening, with a carload of some things from home. Y'know, all the important things, baked beans, spaghetti hoops, Dairy Milk, gravy granules etc. Plus I have another suitcase full of my winter woolies, a stack of books to read in my spare time, and a few DVDs. After unpacking the car, we had a homemade Nando's for tea (yup, missed that too!) and set to catching up as much as we could on The Walking Dead! 

On Saturday we ventured to the very cultural Ikea to do a bit of shopping. This was necessary because the furniture the school had put in my room was tragic. Eg. A wardrobe without a rail to hang things. I left Ikea with a bookcase, cubing unit and lots of candles. Once it was all assembled, and my duvet and cover from home were on the bed, my room looked more cozy and welcoming, unlike the prison cell it resembled before. 

Sunday was a lazy day where I showed Lewis around the town, despite the fact that everything was closed. We planned to visit Mont Saint Michel and Saint Malo the next day.

Mont Saint Michel was breathtaking. I loved it there. The picturesque buildings, the drawbridge, the cobbled streets and the inviting smell of the food cooking in the numerous restaurants. I felt like I was in Diagon Alley. 

After Mont Saint Michel we drove over to Saint Malo, which was a really special place for us to visit as it was a place Lewis went on holiday to with his family when he was a bit younger. Traffic getting into Saint Malo was ridiculous and we had no idea why, but when we got there, there were thousands of tourists, loud music, and lots of boats and it turned out that it was the start of the Route de Rhum which is a yacht race between Brittany and Guadeloupe, which takes place every 4 years, and we just happened to stumble across all on the excitement. What are the chances?!

The beaches looked incredible, especially due to the fact that we were there at the end of October.

Then Lewis showed me this place, which is a swimming pool built into the sea, where it is revealed when the tide is out! What a cool idea! I wished I'd brought my cozzie!

Then of course, how can you be a tourist in Brittany without indulging in a Crêpe au caramel au beurre salé. Delicious!

On Wednesday, we decided to visit one of the Spanish assistants in Lannion, which is about 30 minutes away by car. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos, but we had a lovely walk around, and again, ended up in a Crêperie for lunch! On our way home, we decided to detour and drive up to the Côte de Granit Rose which was beautiful.

On the way home we stopped off in a place called Ploumanac'h, which again, did not tai to impress!

And of course, how can a trip to France be complete without des macarons?! Chocolate and chocolate orange! A win.

After a lovely week it was time to say goodbye to Lewis which was awful. I'd had such a great time and knew that from that point on, it would be a long stretch until Christmas before seeing anyone from home again. It was so difficult saying goodbye, and many tears were shed! I tried to focus on making sure Lewis drove home and arrived safely, and by that point, my holidays were over...briefly.

Toussaint Week 1

Bonjour!

For those of you who don't know, Toussaint is the name of the holidays in October/ November. As a language assistant, I had a whole two weeks off work, which was great! My holidays were eventful to say the least.

In the first couple of days we had a knock at the door from a plumber who said that there was a huge leak in the school, so if we needed water, we'd have to climb in and out of the manhole to turn the valves. (If you need water....phttt of course we need water!) For the next few days we trekked to the hole to turn the valve as and when we needed it. However, one day it stopped working all together and we ended up having to spend the night with one of the teachers from the school. The teacher took myself and Talena to an amazing creperie close to his house and made sure we had everything we needed during the water crisis!

The head teacher was called to sort out the problem, but was far too busy spending the holidays on his boat to fix the issue! Alright for some, eh?! Eventually (two weeks later) the problem was fixed, just in time for the students to return to school. 

In the second week my fiancé came to stay so that we could do a bit more exploring of the area. Stay tuned for my next post about the second week of the holidays!

Bises
xx

Language Assistant Training Day

Well, to be completely honest, I had no idea what to expect from the training day. First of all, it was held on 6th October,  and my teaching contract started the 1st, which in my eyes seemed a bit pointless. My training day was in St Brieuc, about a 15 minute train journey from Guingamp. 

There was around 20 language assistants from all around the world; Canada, South America, Austria, China etc. In the morning we filled out paperwork and spoke about what is expected of us in our jobs. The afternoon provided us with ideas for teaching. We were split into groups based on our native language and had a lesson on teaching. 

The training day wasn't amazing in itself, but it was a great way of meeting other assistants. From the day I have managed to stay in contact with a few assistants, which means there is always someone else to visit, and somewhere else to stay for a few days!

It is comforting to be in touch with people who are in exactly the same position as you. You can swap lesson ideas, talk about what you've been up to and it's just nice to have friends when you're in a foreign country.

There's not an awful lot else to say about the training day, other than don't be nervous about it, like I was, and make the most of meeting new people!

A bientôt
xxx