Arrival in Rennes

Aaron and I arrived in Rennes Tuesday night around 10:30 after a long trip starting in Beaver, PA on Saturday, two nights in Washington, DC, an overnight plane ride to Copenhagen, 8 hours in Copenhagen, a 2-hour flight from Copenhagen to Paris, an RER trip from Charles de Gaulle to Paris, the metro from the Gare du Nord to Montparnasse, a 2-hour TGV ride from Montparnasse to the train station in Rennes, and then a 5-minute walk to our hotel--Le Magenta.  Whew!  That took some time!  Even more than time, it took a lot of work dragging a very heavy duffel bag and two large suitcases.  The metro stations and train stations have many stairs, some escalators, and even fewer elevators.  Thank goodness for the kindness of Parisiens who helped carry some of the bags and prevented a massive tumble down the escalator!  The people in Rennes were just as nice and carried the two large suitcases up the stairs at the train station when we just couldn't carry them anymore.

We slept very well and awoke to a French breakfast at our hotel where we were kindly chauffeured by my friend Anne to a variety of places.  With her excellent assistance we found Cesson-Sévigné, where our apartment and workplace are.  She helped us purchase cell phones and showed us the bank and various realtors.  We could not have managed as well without her and are very grateful!

We went to six different realtors and made at least three different trips to the bank before we had everything squared away.  It seems that if you ask the French for something, they really only want to give you your specific request.  Finally, we started revisiting realty places telling them "any price, any size!  We just want a place before October!"  We ended up back at the first realtor who, in fact, had exactly what we asked for the first time, only it was 150 euros cheaper than the price range we gave her!  Perfection!  The problem, of course, is that in order to have a bank account one must have an address, and in order to have an address, one must have a bank account.  We worked with very kind people and managed to open an account and rent the apartment.  We will have the keys tomorrow afternoon.

We ate a "kebap" dinner at the restaurant next to our hotel, where I had an eggplant filled with ratatouille, and Aaron had the "assiette Adana," which vaguely resembles a hamburger in kebob form with no bun.  We'll let you know more about orientation and our apartment tomorrow!  A bientot!