Spring Séjour 2: Pâques en Provence

Welcome to a late and probably fairly summarised blog post on my Easter weekend, which I spent in the South of France (how exotic and cultured does that sound?!). As we only got one day of holiday for Easter, we were left with two choices:

• stay in Rennes and lament the lack of excessive amounts of chocolate and our families (but mostly the chocolate)
• make the most of our 4 day weekend to do some travelling and actually use our sunglasses

As you can probably tell from the title, we went for the second one (imagine how boring this blog would be if we'd gone for the first one...'so we stayed in Rennes and cried into our Lindt bunnies. The end.'). This post will be a lot less detailed than some of my others because we were there for 4 days, and if I wrote down absolutely everything you'd still be reading in 2020. So, on with the anecdotes and photos!

As our flight on Friday morning from Nantes was at some unearthly hour we got the train there on Thursday evening. We had pizza and stayed in a fairly basic hotel with the worst wifi ever, but it was cheap and even included an interesting bottle of shampoo/conditioner/shower gel in one. The only exciting thing that happened on our outward journey occurred when we were chatting to the taxi driver on the way to the airport: he was asking us what we were doing here/where we were from, and HE ASKED IF WE WERE FRENCH. Life. Made.

We arrived in Marseille exhausted and hungry, so collapsed in a Colombus café (best muffins in France, and they even do chai lattes) next to the window looking out over the old port.

Thankyou for saving us from exhaustion Colombus

Le Vieux Port

As a way to both see the city yet remain sitting down for as much as possible, we got the tourist train (or the 'wally trolley' as the cynical Ellie called it) up to Notre-Dame de la Garde, a church on top of a  hill with amazing views over the city. It seemed very appropriate that we were there on Good Friday!

View of Notre-Dame from the city

View of the city from Notre-Dame (see what I did there)

The church up close

Inside the main building

The rest of the day consisted of some of the best fish I've ever had for lunch, probably caught and bought by the restaurant from the fishermen that morning, then going back to our hotel and sleeping, going to Carrefour to stock up our fridge and having pasta whilst watching Netflix. Our hotel room was amazing: really not too expensive and we had a fridge and a sink and a hob to store food and cook some basic dinners, which saved us loads of money in the end!

Eating fresh seafood right by the port...we could smell the sea!

Domestic goddesses

Saturday was the day we had set aside to visit Aix-en-Provence: Ellie had been there before on an exchange and said it was beautiful, and she has a housemate studying there so we even had a tour guide to show us round! The weather was absolutely beautiful, and I totally fell in love with Aix. It's such a gorgeous, very typically Southern town: lots of beautiful buildings, winding streets and open squares, lovely shops and nice restaurants. And of course the glorious sunshine, that helped a lot too. We spent the day wandering the streets and looking round all the shops, having lunch and ice-cream, going to a museum and sitting in the park.

Fontaine de la Rotonde

A typical street in Aix

A band creating that French ambiance

The Saturday morning Marché des Fleurs

Cafés on the high street

Parc Jourdan

OH, and I found an English bookshop with a 'blind date with a book' corner, a Jane Austen shelf, and a teashop...it was like air to a drowning sailor, seriously. I was beyond excited.

I spent ages trying to guess what books these were

I would happily have spent all day here

Day 3 was Easter Sunday, and after a fairly lazy morning we headed out into Marseille to hit the tourist spots we had yet to see. Marseille itself is - in my opinion - pretty grim as a city: the tourist bits like the port are lovely, but there aren't huge numbers of places like that and the other bits are all fairly rough. Having said that, we had a really nice afternoon looking round the old fort which now houses the MuCEM museum, along with an edgy new building with great views over the sea. We queued for ages to see pretty much the only open exhibit only to discover the queues was still miles long, so we gave up.

The port side of the museum

In the courtyard

Views out to the sea on the other side

The edgy building

Finally, we went to La Vieille Charité (a domed chapel surrounded by Roman-looking galleries)...

The inside of the dome

This must be in a film somewhere, surely

...and the Marseille version of the Arc de Triomphe, which was a lot less impressive than its Parisian counterpart.

Stupid roadworks ruining my aesthetic

The next day we just packed up our hotel room and spent a couple of hours chilling in the port before our flight, and then spent the next 8 hours or so travelling by metro, bus, plane, shuttle bus, train and finally another metro before arriving back in Rennes.

Final photo opportunity

And that was our weekend! Overall although I think going to Marseille for a day or so to go round the port and the tourist areas is a good idea, I wasn't really that impressed by the rest of the city. Aix-en-Provence on the other hand is now one of my favourite places in France and would be a perfect holiday destination, especially as it's not far from other towns like Toulon, Montpellier, Cannes and Nice, and just generally so pretty and French. Would recommend.

A little trip to the far east (of France) and back to Paris

I've just come back from another amazingly refreshing week at home and in Exeter, but before I left I was planning trips for this final half term, and realised how few free weekends I have left in France, and how long my travel bucket list was...I did the maths and I need to do a fair bit of exploring to get it all done by the time I go home for good in April! So with that in mind, I ticked two of my travel ideas off in the last two weeks of last half term.

First off, I went to Metz to visit my friend from Exeter (who came to visit me just before Christmas) who is doing British Council there. Even though we're both in France, culturally our adoptive homes are completely different: where Rennes has more Breton and even British influences, Metz is much more Germanic as its so close to the border.

After a 5 hour journey, I eventually arrived and Ruth and I had a catch-up over tartiflette and wine in an authentic Lorraine restaurant...Ruth brilliantly described its decor as 'being in your Grandma's living room after a long day skiing'. We had a quick wander round the city at night too, and I took lots of pictures of the beautiful cathedral at night!

This is when I knew I had arrived in the Lorraine region

The incredible cathedral!

Saturday started with another look round Metz but in the daylight (Ruth laughed at me for stopping to take pictures of the same part of the river every time we crossed it, but I protested that it was a different angle so a photo was necessary). The architecture is so different to what I'm used to in Rennes, and the school where Ruth lived was separated from the city by the river, giving it what I thought was a slightly Venetian feel. We visited the market where I got a jar of genuinely the best honey I've ever tasted, and after having a bite of Ruth's I also bought myself not one but two pretzels. Going inside the cathedral gave me yet more amazing photo opportunities...it was massive and even grander inside!

Ruth's school is the buildings on the left

A church-type thing on a little island

Inside the cathedral

The insane stained glass

We spent the rest of the morning at the Centre Pompidou (kind of like the one in Paris but smaller) looking at weird art...the building itself was like a spaceship and very cool, but I feel most of the art was just too edgy and deep for me. Here are a few of my favourite bizarre pieces...

The building from the outside: so edgy

This was meant to represent thalidomide children playing piano:
the description said felt had 'great personal significance' in the artist's life... (what?)

This was inventively called 'Cigar Smoke to Match Clouds That Are Different'

'The Mind Expander'...it took up almost an entire room, and
came complete with various photos of people using it and even technical drawings

After this foray into the world of modern art, we hopped on a train to Nancy (about half an hour south of Metz...see the map above) because we were going to a language assistant party in the evening and wanted to have a look around first. However, it was absolutely tipping it down when we got there, so we ended up spending the afternoon in a café where we had lunch and then literally the cosiest pub I have ever been in (IT HAD ARMCHAIRS), with a quick stop off at the cathedral and the beautiful (if very wet and slippery) Place Stanislas. At least I got a lot of use out of my new yellow raincoat!

I wish all teabags had little leaves like this

Cathedral number 2

A very wet and little me

Place Stanislas...which I'm sure would be even more beautiful in the sun

Ruth in Nancy's version of the Firehouse in Exeter

The rest of the day consisted of drinking tea and mulled wine, before heading to the language assistant party. It was amazing that even though I had never met any of these people before, we had so much to talk about and so much in common just because we were all going through this mad year abroad journey, and it was lovely to meet Ruth's friends and be the resident expert on the French university system! Sunday was a fairly quiet day of watching French films and chilling at Ruth's as it was still very rainy, and then getting the train back to Brittany! And that was my adventure in the far east done...a thoroughly enjoyable weekend, thanks Ruth!

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The following weekend I found myself back on a train, but this time to Paris to visit my friend Katie who is working there this semester. My train was crazy expensive, but this actually turned out to be one of my favourite days of my YA so far! I had a few hours to myself which was amazing as I could do exactly what I wanted, and I had a lovely afternoon exploring!

The Brioche Dorée where I set up a makeshift planning station

First stop on my list was Place de la République: I stayed there with my family when we came to Paris a few years ago and wanted to reminisce, and as I was in Paris for the November shootings I also wanted to visit the memorial. It was actually strangely therapeutic to see the candles and messages people had laid there in a place I was so familiar with, and gave me some sort of closure about everything that happened last time I was in this amazing city. Definitely worth the journey! 

The memorial

After managing to go the wrong way on the metro and then realising I actually didn't have as much time as I thought I did, I decided to head to my top priority for the day: the English-language bookshop Shakespeare and Company. I first heard about this place on YouTube and ever since I've been desperate to visit it so it's fair to say I was pretty excited, but NOTHING prepared me for its literal incredible-ness. It was hands down the most beautiful shop and one of the most Katie-ish places I've ever seen. It was like someone had made a note of everything I love and made this shop specifically for me.

Basically my soul's home

Firstly, it's on this gorgeous little street set slightly back from the pavement and separated by little trees - which made it feel kind of like a model village - and has an amazing view of the Notre Dame.

Stupid road sign ruining my photo

I almost squeaked when came round the corner and saw it, but I settled for taking hundreds of photos of the outside instead. I collected myself and went in...and was immediately greeted not only by the sound of English being spoken, but English being spoken by people with British accents. It was like being in Waterstones, with people queuing at the till and the shop assistants politely asking 'is anyone waiting to pay?'. I don't have any photos of the shop itself as cameras aren't allowed inside, but it's basically the layout of an old second-hand bookshop with little corners and books piled up to the ceiling, but full of beautiful new books, half of which were on my Christmas list this year. Every inch of space was used, and in the tiny corners were mini bookshelves with the works of one author or genre on, like all the Arthur Conan Doyle books piled under the stairs. And there were little notes dotted round on the shelves and the walls, which was just too cute. I was somewhere between crying and beaming the whole time I was there. I agonised over what to buy (I mean I had to get SOMETHING) but eventually decided on a couple of books for my Jane Austen collection (yes, I have a Jane Austen collection) which they stamped with the Shakespeare and Company stamp, and then put in a cute bag with an Oscar Wilde quote on along with two Shakespeare and Company bookmarks. I walked out a very happy little person, swinging my paper bag joyfully as I skipped along. Best. Place. Ever.

Bye Shakespeare and Company: you hold a pretty big piece of my heart

After finally dragging myself away from Shakespeare and Company, I started walking down towards the Musée de l'Orangerie, thinking it didn't look too far on the map and I could easily walk it. It took me ages. But on the plus side, it was a lovely walk in the sunshine!

Just casually strolling along the Seine, don't mind me

Once I FINALLY reached the museum, I headed straight for Monet's waterlilies: I mean why else does anyone go there? They were stunning and I'm so glad I got to see them in the flesh...they're displayed in a set of circular rooms so you can see them all as soon as you enter the room, and the result is truly beautiful. It was weird because as I was walking round I would look at one painting close up and think 'OK this one's alright, but that one over there looks much better', but then when I got to the next one it didn't look as good...then I realised that's kind of the point of impressionism.

Stunning!

This is what one of the waterlilies looked like close up...

...And what it looked like from further away!

Finally, I went to the Eiffel Tower because...well why not. I was in Paris, and it looks really pretty in pictures.

Classic Eiffel Tower shot

And one from a few steps further back...

Then it was time to go and meet Katie...we went to a park just a few minutes from the city centre which was crazy as it was so quiet and peaceful, but you could still see the Eiffel Tower! We walked and sat and chatted for hours, which was wonderful as we had so much to catch up on having not seen each other for almost a year! Even though we've been doing completely different things, so much of our YAs were the same and it was so nice to be able to tell all my anecdotes in detail knowing she could relate to them, and to hear hers! We went for dinner near Montparnasse so I didn't have to run for my train, and actually managed to find this gorgeous restaurant with insanely good food and friendly service, and we were eating within 15 minutes!

Me looking very happy at the prospect of my dinner

And that was that! All in all, a fantastic day.

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I then spent a week at home during the February reading week, which was simply wonderful. Nothing particularly dramatic or newsworthy happened...just a little student enjoying spending time with her family and bestest friends again. OH, except all 8 of my housemates from last year were in the same room (well, corridor) for the first time since May, as both me and Jamie who is studying in Italy happened to be back in Exeter together for a few days. It was insane and I'm not ashamed to say I almost cried.