A Bit about Rennes

It's been over a month since you've heard from us!  We've been so busy doing things to put on the blog that we haven't had time to do any blogging!  We're starting back with a brief post about Rennes and Cesson-Sévigné themselves since we don't often talk about them and since we have visitors coming soon who might want to know what activities and attractions are nearby.  We are very much looking forward to everyone's visits!

The gathering, with Andrew, our fellow
American teacher in the background.

For starters, here's a picture of our Thanksgiving feast at Todd's house.  He organized a wonderful meal, and we had the opportunity to meet lots of new people.  We didn't have too many extensive conversations with the new people, however, because the dinner table ended up being divided between Americans and French!  We brought dried corn (recipe on Two-Burner Meals), which the French appreciated but didn't love, and which Andrew, our fellow American teacher, said he did.  We also had a Thanksgiving potluck the following week on campus, and I made green bean casserole from scratch.  It was delicious and worth the effort!  Our colleagues from all nations ate every bite!

Marché de Noël at the Place du Parlement in Rennes.

Carousel (I love carousels!)
at the marché!

Most of France does not celebrate Thanksgiving, so that means Christmas decorations and advertisements can begin much earlier than in the US.  The one really fantastic thing about that is the presence of marchés de Noël (Christmas markets)!  There were two in the city center and one in our little town, and we visited them frequently, getting a cup of vin chaud (hot, spiced wine) and walking around admiring all the artisans' wares and selecting gifts for friends and family.  The marché, pictured to the side, in Rennes had lots of international, fair trade items, and the marché in Cesson had all local artisans and artists.  In addition to finding lots of gifts, we bought some fantastic raspberry-chocolate jam and a watercolor of our town to hang when we have a home in the States!  

Après le bain, Louis Henri Nicot.
Medium: marble.

Sculpture from the time
exhibit.

Since we were already in the city center exploring the Christmas festivities, we thought we'd visit the local art museum.  They had some amazing sculpture, a very interesting modern exhibit, and some mediocre paintings.  There were some good Picassos, to be fair.  As for the modern section, it really was very impressive.  Local artists and art students from the humanities side of the Université de Rennes had worked with members of group homes for people with developmental disabilities to create visual art about their perception of time.  Each piece had a totally different feel and a lot of different contributors, but they still came together into fantastic pieces of art.  

Here in France, most of the
Santas wear a long coat and
give candy to children.

In Cesson and in our apartment, we started preparing for Christmas as well.  The Père Noël (Santa) visited our market, and I completed our Christmas tree!  I'd been collecting all the green sections of advertisements that come every week in the mail and taping them together.  Here is the result!  A 4-foot by 6-foot Christmas tree adorning our wall!  We did not get around to decorating it; I only managed part of a paper chain.  We may end up leaving it there all year and decorating it for each holiday, because we really put a lot of effort into it!  If you're visiting us this year, we hope you like creative Christmas the whole year through!

We hope to have some more entries up soon about our time in Normandy, Paris, America, Vitré, and ping-pong with the Mormons.  As always, thanks for reading!

Christmas Tree.  Lisa Bevevino.
Media: advertisements, one roll of scotch tape, and one envelope for the trunk (not shown).