Printemps and Picnics

I could apologize here for the lack of updates, but I don't know if anyone is still reading, so I may not have anyone to apologize to.

Short version of the last month: crazy nice weather, lots of Lebanese sandwiches, and even more picnics.

We’ll focus in more detail on a few fun weekends. The first weekend of April, Lauren and I returned to Vitré to visit Caitlin. I had a skype interview and wanted to use Catilin’s reliable internet, plus I had some serious baking to do. Caitlin, in addition to having reliable internet (quelle idée!), also has an oven. Ovens are hard to find in assistant-affordable housing, so I had hoarded brownie mix and canned pumpkin for a while waiting to have the chance to bake with it. The brownie batter (which, let’s be honest, is all I was really interested in—you stick it in the oven and it just loses all the fun) was delicious and made me quite happy, and the pumpkin bread was excellent. There was even enough canned pumpkin left over for Caitlin to make a batch of pumpkin scones this week. The rest of the evening was spent dancing and following the first Sox game of the season (which, you’ll all be happy to know, they won).

Saturday we headed back to Rennes, where we had a low-key afternoon and enjoyed some delicious ice cream since the weather was so nice. That evening there was a clothing/book exchange/cocktail party hosted by Kelsey, another assistant. It was a really good idea, since I was way low on books to read in English, and I’m completely sick of 90% of my clothes. I’ve had the same limited wardrobe since September, and I miss my clothes at home! I got rid of a few sweaters and tops, and I snagged one short sleeved sweater and a cardigan. The simple addition of these two pieces of clothing have made my life so much more enjoyable the past two weeks. I was also able to bust out a few pieces of summer clothing, which made my wardrobe seriously exciting. Post-clothing exchange, we all danced for several hours. It was lots of fun. The only downside was that in theory the party was supposed to end pre-dinner, so no one had eaten. Instead, the party went until 10:30, and we all relied on the light assortment of chips and dips and a few strawberries for dinner. This was not quite enough sustenance for all of the dancing, but we were having too much fun to leave, so we just devoured what food there was.

For the second weekend of April, Caitlin, Lauren, and I headed to Fougères to visit David and Amanda, who are assistants there. Back when we had all hung out in Vitré together, we’d decided that a falafel party needed to happen in Fougères, and happen it did. We arrived around 6pm, and we were quite French and enjoyed a little appéro of wine with bread and cheese. Of course, we then ate so much of that that we weren’t hungry in the slightest for dinner, so we decided to go for an evening walk around Fougères and its parks, which was lovely. The sun is staying out really late here—I didn’t realize how much further north Brittany is than Chicago, and that combined with the fact that all of Western Europe’s time is off (when Germany invaded France, they brought them over from the same time zone as England, where they belong, to Germany’s time zone) means it’s light past 9PM. Anyway, after our walk, we headed back to create and enjoy our falafel spread.

Once we got up on Saturday, we all headed to Fougères marché to gather food for a picnic. I stuck to my standard bread, brie, and strawberries, along with an apple cake for dessert.

An aside on dessert: the French are really big on sweet things. I don’t think I’ve discussed this here before, but it rubs off on you. I get used to having something sweet after every meal, and my body gets mad at me if I haven’t had sugar in too long. That can’t be healthy…

Back to the picnic, we found a spot with a view of Fougères’ château, and we ate a leisurely lunch and listened to music. This was one of the first really warm weekends—I’d guess it was about 75, and it felt lovely to feel the warmth and sun! Once we got ourselves moving again, we walked around the château and some other parks, and then we stopped at a café for some drinks before we hunted down food for dinner. We ended up making moules-frites (mussels and French fries), accompanied by a salad, and with ice cream for dessert to celebrate the season. The evening finished with a dance party that went on for some time—I succumbed to exhaustion around 1AM despite the party going on two feet away from me.

Sunday morning we had an American breakfast of eggs and sausage (YUM), and we sat around and chatted until noon, when Caitlin, Lauren, and I went back to Rennes. Caitlin then hopped on a train to Vitré, I grabbed my bus to farmland, and Lauren stayed in Rennes.

Okay. I’m going to post this now rather than trying to catch up even further. Hopefully I’ll be back in a few days with stories of my Easter weekend and some work updates (you know, work? That whole reason I’m in France to begin with?).

Joyeuses Pâques!