Stuck in Nantes

I’m much too tired to begin reading my thick bunch of texts for the week’s lessons and too lazy to do another set of household chores.

I was supposed to go to Lille this weekend to surprise Max for his birthday, but had a lot of trouble along the way. First, I did not know that this week was the big festival in Lille. Second, I didn’t know that there aren’t any tickets to Lille during the festival as they are sold out weeks before. The group was also planning to go to Lourdes this weekend, but alas, there weren’t any available tickets that catered to our schedule. Other tickets outside Nantes (Lyon, Marseilles, Nice) were also unavailable.

We were stuck in Nantes for the weekend, therefore.

It wasn’t that bad, though. Too comfort ourselves over our lack of travel for the week, we decided to make the most out of our quiet little city. After class last Friday, we all went to Commerce to look around and figure out what we want to do. While the rest of the group went home to the Beaujoire to eat dinner, Paje and I hung around to spend the afternoon biking and discovering the newly opened stores in the area.

We rented two Bicloos and rode around stores while avoiding pedestrians and speeding Renaults. It was just really unfortunate that it started to pour hard when we got on our bikes, but it was an eventful cruise around the city center, nonetheless.

We headed off to one of the nearest cathedrals a little after our bicycle ride to look Nantes’ specialty: crepes. We found a nice looking Creperie nearby, and ate a delightful meal of galletes and banana-chocolate crepes. It was Paje and I’s first night out together, and it was such a welcome break from cooking our food in the villa. A little while after, the other girls called us and we all met up to eat more crepes, while I ordered a glass of St. Croix’s delicious home brewed beer to warm myself in the freezing wet Nantes weather. We all enjoyed our little girls’ night out and proceeded to end the night sleeping in one bedroom–mine. We bonded over good food, French idiosyncrasies, and our collective longing for Jollibee Chickenjoy and cheap Japanese food.

Saturday came, and we planned to go to the Jardin du Plantes of Nantes that houses a huge number of flora. We met up with the two Miriams of Morocco and had a blast looking at artistic plant statues and French people dry humping in random park benches. Because of the beautiful sun that day, Paje and I agreed to wear sun dresses and flip flops. Our outfits were appropriate for the morning weather, but as soon as the late afternoon breeze went in, we felt our legs turning into popsicle sticks.

Our pictures look good, though. Thanks, Aldrin!

After going to the garden, we went to the Carnivale in Duchesse Anne to see what the hullabaloo was about. The brave girls rode this really wild centifugal ride called the Boomerang that propelled people at a height of three-stories. As soon as they finished, Roxy was three shades paler than her usual self, and the Miriams looked like they were going to be sick. There was no way I was gonna go on any ride, seeing as most required some form of gut courage that I do not have. I instead took Nate and went around the circus looking for kebab and other junk food.

I was able to find a nice man who sold cotton candy. He gave me an extra huge one for trying my best to speak French, and I was a happy little Asian girl all day.

We ended a perfect day by hearing mass at the Cathedral and understanding nothing because it was in French. But hey, at least we made the effort to listen and understand.

P.S. We’ll be in Barcelona next weekend! Catch THAT update!