If there are five days of my life that I will never forget until my dying day, it will be the past five days that I spent in France. Maybe it was the beautiful French countryside, maybe it was the friendly French people I met, maybe it was all the bread, wine and cheese... or maybe it was the cute French boy that I got to enjoy it all with! But something about my visit to France was really special.
An answer to the question that most of my friends and family have been asking- no I did not go to Paris. But I was not at all disappointed about this, because I feel like Paris is such a touristy place that I can really see that anytime. Instead, I had the opportunity to stay with Philippe (a very lovely and very handsome French guy I met in Sunderland) and his family in La Roche, as well as spending one night in Nantes.
For me, this was better than a trip to Paris, because I got to see what it is like to live in a French household and visit places I might not have ever seen if I had not met Philippe.
I have had a busy past week. It started with the international student graduation. It was a quick presentation at the Sunderland Glass Centre and all the international students received a certificate of attendance and graduation from the university, which I thought was a nice gesture. It was a bit of a sentimental moment for Beth and I because she realised during the ceremony that we met each other on our very first day of University, and we were spending the last day of her degree together on the other side of the world! Funny thought! I am so happy it ended up this way and we became such close friends from this experience.
The next night was a 'girls night out' in Newcastle for Beth, Mascha, Sina and I. We managed to find a cheap hotel room for the four of us a while ago, and it was nice to spend time in the room drinking and talking about girly stuff. Sina and Mascha are such funny girls, we had the best night out together which is good because I know Beth and I will miss them so much when we go home!
The next day I had to endure a very hung over eight hour bus ride to London. It wasn't pleasant, but London was the cheapest place to fly to France from. Plus I got to spend the night at Laura's house so it was good to see her!
So after what felt like the best sleep of my life in Laura's big comfy bed and a yummy breakfast with her, I was on my way to London City Airport- destination: FRANCE!
I flew into Nantes, where Philippe met me at the airport with his older brother. They both thought it was funny that I shook his brother's hand, rather than kiss him on both cheeks...but that was a custom I soon became used to! (although it still made me giggly, even at the end of the trip...)
On my first day after arriving, Philippe took me to Noirmoutier, which was really beautiful, but the real attraction was the road we took to get there. It is only accessible in the morning, because by the afternoon the tide comes in and it gets swallowed up by the sea! Much to Philippe's amusement, I spent about half an hour overturning rocks trying to find a crab, and I finally found one but it was about the size of a penny!
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| Philooo being cheeky |
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Cute little French streets!
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After walking around the streets of the island for a while, we went and got a really yummy lunch. I am not ashamed to say that literally my favourite thing about France was the food. I love the way the French eat- and I really didn't think it would be so different to what I am used to! Besides the fact that what they eat is different, HOW they eat it was a new thing for me, too!
I'm used to my entire meal being served all at once on one plate, but from what I experienced, the French have lots of small courses during one meal. This pleased me because it felt like one meal never ended! The other strange new concept was the idea of wiping my plate with bread after each course, leaving it spotless for the next course. At first I was really bad at this, but after sitting next to Philippe at the dinner table and copying his every move for five days, I was a master by the end of my stay!
The best food I ate on my trip was definitely cooked by Philippe's Mum, but on the day we visited Noirmoutier Philippe took me to a nice little restaurant that served crepes. Of course, there were multiple courses- we started with an apéritif (a pre-meal drink and snack used to stimulate the appetite). Then we had three courses of crepes- two savoury and one sweet. We also had some French cider, which was very nice with the meal.
After the island, we went back to La Roche where we went and saw it's latest attraction! The town centre was full of mechanical animals! Each one had it's own control panel which was open for the public to operate.
Philippe and I felt like big kids running around pulling levers and pressing buttons. I think we were having more fun than most of the little kids that were there...
I really loved La Roche. It is a quirky and dreamy little place- made even more so by the recent instalment of the mechanical animals! I really enjoyed looking around the town that Philippe is from.
Next was our visit to Nantes. Nantes is the city where Philippe studies, and to me it seemed like a much bigger version of La Roche. This is probably because Nantes also had some very curious mechanical attractions...
We went to Les Machines de l’île , which is a mechanical museum that is also a warehouse for some very unusual artistic projects. It is most famous for it's mechanical Elephant, which is a completed project, but what I didn't know is that they are working on something even bigger...
All of these strange looking giant insects and birds are models for a design that the museum is currently working on. Inspired by the ideas of Leonardo da Vinci, they are building a giant mechanical tree which will be big enough for people to walk through and explore- it will even have a restaurant nestled in it's branches! The tree will be mechanical, but it will have real plants growing on it. Giant moving mechanical insects and birds will also be a part of it. They have been working on this for many years and it is scheduled to be finished by about 2018 (I think)...Maybe one day when it is finished I will come back to France and see it!
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| This is a model of the tree- it will be ten times this size. |
Although I loved the idea of the mechanical tree, the most exciting part of our visit to the museum was riding the mechanical Elephant! I have always loved elephants, so riding a giant mechanical one was an exciting experience for me! It is one of the most peculiar things I have ever done and it honestly felt like a strange dream!
That night we stayed in Nantes so that we could meet up with a few of Philippe's friends. It was cool to meet them all and also to party with them! It was hard for me because I didn't speak any French - but I found that after a few drinks, a few of them could actually speak quite good English!
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| The view from our hotel room- very French, I thought! |
The next day Philippe and I were both a bit hung over, but we still managed to seize the day by visiting the Nantes Botanical Gardens- another very dream-like place!
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After five days, I am sure Philippe has finally understood the enormity of my obsession for dogs.
As usual, every dog I saw caused me to get very excited. This particular little French doggie had just left a little present for it's French owner! I still thought he was cute anyway.... |
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| My favourite part of the gardens |
I left Australia over 5 months ago now, and I have seen a lot of places. I don't know how to explain it, but France was really special and one of my favourite places that I have seen.
I am so grateful for Philippe showing me around his hometown and also for his family for letting me stay in their home. I was so sad to leave, but I know I will be back one day...
