saint-malo and la route du rhum
Ah, what a lovely weekend!
im on vacation from school (already - one month of work and ive got 10 days off.... life is good).
so we decided to go to Mont St. Michel on teh weekend. this involved Sara and i getting up at 6:30 in the morning (after having been on the phone until 3:30, that was fun) to take the bus to Rennes, where we would meet Anita to get another bus to MSM. Well, we arrived in Rennes at 9:00, and the bus to MSM left at 9:35. At 9:10 Anita called: "hi. are you guys here? oh. have you bought the tickets yet? good. cause I slept through my alarm, adn i just got up. but theres another bus at 10:40! so we can take that one!" ok, so we go to Anita's to hang out for a while, and on the way there, we realize that the bus at 10:40 is only on Sundays, and teh next bus we could actually take was at 12. 20 euro for 4 hours in MSM didnt really seem worth it, so we decided to go to Saint-Malo instead. It was a shorter, adn cheaper trip, and definitely well worth it!
Saint-Malo is a lovely beach town. And last week, it was a happening place! Sunday was the start of the famous "Route du Rhum" a big sailing race between SM and Guadeloupe that takes place every four years. All the boats were docked at SM, and there was a whole festival happening. So Friday, we just wandered around the town, saw the boats, walked the ramparts (some dating back to the 13th century), and admired the beach. We also knew that some other assistants from our area were in SM the same day, so we got in touch with them, adn met up with Maria, an assistante at the collège in Dinan, la mysterieuse irelandaise, Joanne, also at the collège with Maria, Joanne's boyfriend John, who works in St. Brieuc, and David, who works in Crehen, and who i had heard about, but never yet met. Anyway, it was great fun to hanging out on the beach with them, chatting, making new friends. It was a beautiful sunny day (although it had been foggy all morning in Rennes), adn I was happy to have finally had a glimpse of the atlantic after more than a month here!
At 6 we caught the bus back to Rennes, stopped by Angelie's apartment, which was literally built in the middle ages, then went out to a night of flemenco music and dancing. We started at a concert, which according to Sara, our expert, was decent, though not amazing. Me, i loved it. Ive only ever heard of Flemenco, never really seen anything of it. it is incredibly passionate. the singing, the playing, the dancing, all of it is just pure passion. And I love watching people who are so clearly into what they're doing. Anyway, that was awesome. We went from that concert to another, smaller concert/party where we drank sangria, ate paella (well, anita and angelie at paella, i ate something else. i dont really know what it was, but it was pretty good!) hung out and listened to music. near teh end of the evening, this guy came over and asked if he could sit and talk with us. We said ok, and the next thing we knew, his friends started trickling over, adn we ended up in this giant group. i guess we were a pretty exotic group of females - Spanish Sara, blondish Canadian moi, Chinese-Canadian Anita, and Indian-American Angelie. anyway at the end of the night, we decided to head back for an after party, which was highly amusing, and involved cramming 7 people into a very small car (oh, the foolish things i do) and which took us to 6:30 in the morning.... whoo hoo for 24 hrs without sleep!
So! Saturday, we got a message from David inviting us to meet him back in SM for the fete before the race. Beautiful thing about David is that he has a car, so we wouldnt be forced to leave SM on the last bus at 6 like we were on Friday. So Angelie, Sara and i met david in SM, where we wandered around Saint-Malo in full party swing the night before the big race. We found ourselves at a fantastic soirée Zouk! what is a soirée zouk, you ask? well, im afraid i cant really answer: apparently it is a creole word. all i know is that it involved excellent music, to which you could not resist dancing, sweet guadeloupan rum drinks, and overall good times. it was 10 euro to get in.... but not for us! oh, what a good story that is. we had decided NOT to go to the soiree zouk, cause we were too cheap, so we sat down to some food and drinks just on the other side of the tent where the concert was being held. while there, we ended up talking and sharing chinese beer with some french dudes 'd'un certain age'. id say they were in their 40s or 50s. maybe even 60s. anyway, we could hear the music, cause it was just a piece of canvas between us and it, and we ended up clapping along, cheering after every song, adn eventually dancing in the aisles. then we got kicked out cause the place was closing. it was 1 am, and the zouk ended at 2. we were still too cheap to pay the 10 euros. luckily, so were teh dudes. 'oh non....' they said, 'ça, on ne se fait pas.' so, first we tried to sweet talk our way in. they had us sing 'i wanna be loved by you, boop boop dee doot' to this little old man guarding the door. while we were there singing away, one of the dudes, who was a sailor, apparently, was busy untying th cords holding the tent together. so, after turning away, disappointed, from the door, we discovered that he had created this little hole in the tent! so, one by one, we snuck in through te hole, and found ourselves in la soirée zouk fantastiaque! those guys were awesome.
after an hour of festivities and non-stop dancing, the place closed down, and we sadly left. however, the night was not yet done. David, apparently, cant find himself near a beach without going swimming. luckily, he had forwarned us of this fact, so we had come prepared. so there it was, 3 in the morning, and there we were, swimming in the atlantic ocean. it was excellent.
so we returned to david's, and the next day, we went for a walk along the coast to watch the boats leave. there wasnt much wind, so they were moving kind of slowly... but we watched the start of la route du rhum! not every day you can say that.
so that was the weekend, and the start of my vacation.
The next few days were pretty low key. Just hanging out in Dinan. Alisa was in Spain, so it was just me and Sara. On Wednesday Sara left for Nantes, so i had the appartment to myself for a day, which was kind of nice. Alisa was back on Thursday. And on Friday we went sailing! we went with someone i had met at the soirée zouk, a masters student in environmental studies, actually, and two of his friends. so, sailing on la Rance, on the... estuary? is that the word in english? i dont really know what it is. anyway, where teh river gets really broad before heading into the ocean. oh, and we saw this hydroelectric damn that works on tides, not on current. that was pretty neat. id never been sailing before, and i loved it! i think its definitely something i could get into. theres something really wonderful about moving along the water under the power of the wind.
so, there you go. that was my first vacation! ill add pictures soon.
im on vacation from school (already - one month of work and ive got 10 days off.... life is good).
so we decided to go to Mont St. Michel on teh weekend. this involved Sara and i getting up at 6:30 in the morning (after having been on the phone until 3:30, that was fun) to take the bus to Rennes, where we would meet Anita to get another bus to MSM. Well, we arrived in Rennes at 9:00, and the bus to MSM left at 9:35. At 9:10 Anita called: "hi. are you guys here? oh. have you bought the tickets yet? good. cause I slept through my alarm, adn i just got up. but theres another bus at 10:40! so we can take that one!" ok, so we go to Anita's to hang out for a while, and on the way there, we realize that the bus at 10:40 is only on Sundays, and teh next bus we could actually take was at 12. 20 euro for 4 hours in MSM didnt really seem worth it, so we decided to go to Saint-Malo instead. It was a shorter, adn cheaper trip, and definitely well worth it!
Saint-Malo is a lovely beach town. And last week, it was a happening place! Sunday was the start of the famous "Route du Rhum" a big sailing race between SM and Guadeloupe that takes place every four years. All the boats were docked at SM, and there was a whole festival happening. So Friday, we just wandered around the town, saw the boats, walked the ramparts (some dating back to the 13th century), and admired the beach. We also knew that some other assistants from our area were in SM the same day, so we got in touch with them, adn met up with Maria, an assistante at the collège in Dinan, la mysterieuse irelandaise, Joanne, also at the collège with Maria, Joanne's boyfriend John, who works in St. Brieuc, and David, who works in Crehen, and who i had heard about, but never yet met. Anyway, it was great fun to hanging out on the beach with them, chatting, making new friends. It was a beautiful sunny day (although it had been foggy all morning in Rennes), adn I was happy to have finally had a glimpse of the atlantic after more than a month here!
At 6 we caught the bus back to Rennes, stopped by Angelie's apartment, which was literally built in the middle ages, then went out to a night of flemenco music and dancing. We started at a concert, which according to Sara, our expert, was decent, though not amazing. Me, i loved it. Ive only ever heard of Flemenco, never really seen anything of it. it is incredibly passionate. the singing, the playing, the dancing, all of it is just pure passion. And I love watching people who are so clearly into what they're doing. Anyway, that was awesome. We went from that concert to another, smaller concert/party where we drank sangria, ate paella (well, anita and angelie at paella, i ate something else. i dont really know what it was, but it was pretty good!) hung out and listened to music. near teh end of the evening, this guy came over and asked if he could sit and talk with us. We said ok, and the next thing we knew, his friends started trickling over, adn we ended up in this giant group. i guess we were a pretty exotic group of females - Spanish Sara, blondish Canadian moi, Chinese-Canadian Anita, and Indian-American Angelie. anyway at the end of the night, we decided to head back for an after party, which was highly amusing, and involved cramming 7 people into a very small car (oh, the foolish things i do) and which took us to 6:30 in the morning.... whoo hoo for 24 hrs without sleep!
So! Saturday, we got a message from David inviting us to meet him back in SM for the fete before the race. Beautiful thing about David is that he has a car, so we wouldnt be forced to leave SM on the last bus at 6 like we were on Friday. So Angelie, Sara and i met david in SM, where we wandered around Saint-Malo in full party swing the night before the big race. We found ourselves at a fantastic soirée Zouk! what is a soirée zouk, you ask? well, im afraid i cant really answer: apparently it is a creole word. all i know is that it involved excellent music, to which you could not resist dancing, sweet guadeloupan rum drinks, and overall good times. it was 10 euro to get in.... but not for us! oh, what a good story that is. we had decided NOT to go to the soiree zouk, cause we were too cheap, so we sat down to some food and drinks just on the other side of the tent where the concert was being held. while there, we ended up talking and sharing chinese beer with some french dudes 'd'un certain age'. id say they were in their 40s or 50s. maybe even 60s. anyway, we could hear the music, cause it was just a piece of canvas between us and it, and we ended up clapping along, cheering after every song, adn eventually dancing in the aisles. then we got kicked out cause the place was closing. it was 1 am, and the zouk ended at 2. we were still too cheap to pay the 10 euros. luckily, so were teh dudes. 'oh non....' they said, 'ça, on ne se fait pas.' so, first we tried to sweet talk our way in. they had us sing 'i wanna be loved by you, boop boop dee doot' to this little old man guarding the door. while we were there singing away, one of the dudes, who was a sailor, apparently, was busy untying th cords holding the tent together. so, after turning away, disappointed, from the door, we discovered that he had created this little hole in the tent! so, one by one, we snuck in through te hole, and found ourselves in la soirée zouk fantastiaque! those guys were awesome.
after an hour of festivities and non-stop dancing, the place closed down, and we sadly left. however, the night was not yet done. David, apparently, cant find himself near a beach without going swimming. luckily, he had forwarned us of this fact, so we had come prepared. so there it was, 3 in the morning, and there we were, swimming in the atlantic ocean. it was excellent.
so we returned to david's, and the next day, we went for a walk along the coast to watch the boats leave. there wasnt much wind, so they were moving kind of slowly... but we watched the start of la route du rhum! not every day you can say that.
so that was the weekend, and the start of my vacation.
The next few days were pretty low key. Just hanging out in Dinan. Alisa was in Spain, so it was just me and Sara. On Wednesday Sara left for Nantes, so i had the appartment to myself for a day, which was kind of nice. Alisa was back on Thursday. And on Friday we went sailing! we went with someone i had met at the soirée zouk, a masters student in environmental studies, actually, and two of his friends. so, sailing on la Rance, on the... estuary? is that the word in english? i dont really know what it is. anyway, where teh river gets really broad before heading into the ocean. oh, and we saw this hydroelectric damn that works on tides, not on current. that was pretty neat. id never been sailing before, and i loved it! i think its definitely something i could get into. theres something really wonderful about moving along the water under the power of the wind.
so, there you go. that was my first vacation! ill add pictures soon.
posted by mrose at 7:38 AM
2 Comments:
Hello my fabulous Miss Margery! Wow, I love the way to wrote about the weekend, because I could hear your voice in my head! You write like you talk! Perrrrfect dahling!
So, you need to tell me when your last vacation is, so I can see about maybe heading to France in the spring so you can introduce me to your new world. Seriously. I think the last vacation might be the best as it gives me tons to time to clear off credit cards etc so we can actually do stuff! Have to run for now. I love you tons and will call you in the next few days. XXXOOO - Auntie Dearie
I think delta might be the word you are looking for :P not that I have any sort of obsesion for words or anything. Well I had to look it up....Ther is small difference between estuary and delta, a delta is "The more or less triangular tract of alluvial land formed at the mouth of a river, and enclosed or traversed by its diverging branches." Whereas an estuary is where the fresh water of a river meets the tidal waters of the ocean. So I think you are right. ohh things I hate admitting :D
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