Matt's Visit and Packing Up

Meeting Matt at the train station.

We returned to Rennes from our travel-ganza late on a Friday afternoon and my brother Matt was waiting at the train station to meet us. He was in the midst of a month-long European adventure across Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, and the Netherlands. His bus go to Rennes early that Friday morning so he had about seven hours on his own to explore Rennes and we hope he did. He said that he tried to take a nap in one of the city's parks because he didn't get much sleep on his night bus from Spain to Rennes.

Part of the map-covered bedroom.

Lisa and I both felt bad that we couldn't provide Matt with the same kind of hospitality we've given other guests because, after returning to Rennes, we had three days before we had to vacate our apartment and return to the US. That meant that we had a lot of packing and last-minute errands to do. It also meant that every day Matt was there, someone came by to pick up pieces of furniture they'd bought from us. So every day, we changed what piece of furniture we sat on or ate off of! It was a little sad to pack up everything we own, especially all the maps we'd hung up in the bedroom and the postcards we'd put in the toilet room. In every city we visited this year, we got a map from the tourist office and, when we returned home, hung them on the bedroom walls as decoration and as a reminder of all the amazing trips we took. Similarly, in the toilet room, we hung up a postcard from nearly every city we visited. Returning to bare white walls was a bit depressing!

On the other hand, it was exciting to know that we were just a few days away from returning home to the US and our friends and family. It was stressful few days, though, of canceling our utilities, cleaning, and trips to the post office to mail boxes of books, maps, and brochures home because it was cheaper than paying the overweight baggage fee on the plane. Also, once we started boxing and mailing things, it was surprising how much we had accumulated in France - admittedly, not much by American standards, but quite a lot in proportion to how much we brought with us. Mainly it was maps and books we had purchased, but then again, this blog is called "Running and Reading in Rennes" so you shouldn't be surprised we bought a lot of books.

Our cheese-mongers.

Our apple-seller.

Amidst all the packing and selling and moving, we were able to do a few things with Matt in our area. On Saturday, we took him to the market where we were able to buy some last good fresh French produce and cheese and say good-bye to the many vendors we had become familiar with over the course of the year. They were as sad to see us go as we were to say good-bye to them! We were very happy the cheese-mongers agreed to pose for a picture for us.  We also went into central Rennes that afternoon to go to a record store. Since had Matt hadn't brought any good-sized sturdy luggage, though, he didn't want to try to take records home with him so he bought a few cassette tapes instead. Also downtown, we saw part of what passed for Rennes' Gay Pride Parade and Matt listened to and recorded a good gospel choir singing to advertise their church.

Gay Pride Parade, French-style.

Our Week with Chris

Our egg guy's new truck.

We arrived home Friday night and Saturday was kind of a rest and recovery day after three jam-packed days in Paris. Lisa and I went to the Saturday market, though, and it was nice to see all our favorite vendors. We had a nice chat with the people we buy apples from (they both held up the rest of the line just to talk to us!) and the guy we buy eggs from had purchased a new truck in our absence. He was very proud of this truck.

Free water outside the Franco-American Institute.
That's the American part.

Sundays are pretty slow days around here since most everything is closed. In the afternoon, though, I took Chris into central Rennes to show him around the city a little bit. We saw many of the same things as when Sarah was here (the cathedral, the tourist office, the outside of the city hall and the opera) but we also went into two churches I'd never seen before: Saint Sauveur (which was small and dark, but had several worshipers inside) and Saint Aubin (a modern, late 19th/early 20th century neo-Gothic church which was smaller on the inside than I expected).

Vegetarian Haggis for Tuesday's dinner!

On Monday, I went with Chris to Mont-Saint-Michel, an obvious must-see for anyone who comes to visit us. Unfortunately, Lisa had to stay home and tutor as well as practice her French with some locals. I thought it was supposed to rain, but it turned into a surprisingly nice day as we ate our picnic lunch outside. It was very crowded, too, much more so than when we went in December or with Jimmy and Jenny in January. There were lots of families with little kids there; I guess that's what you do on your two-week Easter vacation - take your kids to Mont-Saint-Michel! Other than that, though, there wasn't much new for me. On my fourth visit, it all seemed like old hat. Changes are coming, though. April 28th was the last day that cars could drive out on the causeway and park at the foot of the mount. Now you have to park some distance away on the mainland and take a shuttle. This is all part of the plan to remove the causeway by 2014. After we returned to Rennes that afternoon, we met Lisa and went to English Club, which was rather sparsely attended, what with it still being Easter vacation and all.

Parliament tour with Gobelin tapestry in the background.

Tuesday, we went to a lunch-time piano concert. Chris really likes classical concerts and this was the only one we could find in Rennes during his week here. There were plenty advertised for the week after he left, though, and all I can figure is that Easter vacation means the art scene in Rennes shuts down, too! Anyway, it was a benefit concert for Rennes' sister city in Japan and it was put on at the International House of Rennes (which always sounds to me like "International House of Pancakes"). Lunch was included in the price, which was nice, and the pianist was pretty good. He played Beethoven, Schumann, and Chopin and he got better as he went along - there were several missed notes in the Beethoven, but the Chopin sounded near-perfect. After the concert, Lisa and Chris took the tour of the parliament building (the same one we did with Sarah, but with a different tour guide, so Lisa learned a few new facts) while I came home to get groceries and start on dinner. We re-created the vegetarian haggis we had at Henderson's in Edinburgh (recipe here), and rather successfully, too, I might add!

Stained-glass window in Dinan.

On Wednesday, I went with Chris to Normandy to see the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach while Lisa stayed home to tutor and missed out on yet another opportunity to visit her favorite region of France. Turns out, it's much harder to get to without a car! We took a train to Bayeux, then waited half an hour for a bus that took us to the cemetery, about a half-hour ride. Again, it was supposed to be a cold, windy, rainy day, but we managed to avoid most of the rain and it was actually partly sunny most of the time we were there. It was very windy, though, which dampened the experience a bit! Since I'd seen the cemetery and the beach in January with Jimmy and Jenny, I wasn't expecting much new. But Chris and I joined a free guided tour, led by a retired British history teacher who now works at the cemetery, and I learned a few more things about the site. He showed us the "wall of the missing," the grave of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. who landed at Utah Beach at age 56 and died of a heart attack a month later, and the graves of two brothers who inspired "Saving Private Ryan." It was very interesting and I'm glad we did. Unfortunately, though, we were on a tight schedule because there was only one bus back to Bayeux and the train station all afternoon!

Us in Dinan.

Chris left Thursday afternoon to spend the night in Paris before flying home early Friday morning. Before he did, though, we all took the bus to Dinan Thursday morning. I had been there with Sarah, but Lisa hadn't been back since our first trip there way back in September. It was another cloudy, rainy spring day in Brittany (although there were some occasional breaks in the rain). We saw quite a bit of the town - the ramparts, the churches (in one of which the organist was practicing), and the stores.

Hurdy gurdy player in Dinan.

Plus, we discovered that Thursday is market day in Dinan, so we enjoyed that for a bit. It's different from our Saturday market in Cesson in that there were more vendors of clothes and jewelry and crafts than food (which is the opposite of our market). We also were serenaded by a guy playing a hurdy gurdy.

Where Aaron got his Baedeker.

The best part of the trip for me, though, was that I happened to see a Baedaker guidebook in the window of an antique store and we went in for a look. This one was in French, from 1903 and for Paris. We saw that the price inside the front cover was "650" so we asked the proprietor, is it six hundred and fifty euros? To which he replied, "No, no six euros and fifty cents!" That's about a quarter of the price of the one I bought in Cambridge, so we snapped it up for my ever-increasing collection! After walking around, we went to a little tea shop to get out of the rain, before heading back to the bus stop to make sure Chris got back to Rennes to collect his bags and get to the train station on time.

Chris on his way.

It was an all-around good visit from Chris (and we hope had a good time, too!). Even though we're now repeating a lot of things with our visitors, it seems like there are always a few new things to discover at these places, keeping them interesting for us, too.  We look forward to seeing Chris again soon stateside.

Sarah and Lisa's Visit to Paris

Window open at Notre Dame, just in case you need to
make a quick getaway!

To conclude Sarah's trip to France (and our time with visitors), Sarah and I (Lisa writing here), went to Paris for two days so that Sarah could see the capital.  She climbed the Eiffel tower while I was still in Rennes teaching, and then we went to the Square Saint-Jacques (the only time we got a bit turned around and the only place we weren't allowed to do sit-ups!), Notre-Dame, walked all around the Palais de Justice while seeing if we could get into Sainte-Chapelle (we could, but we chose not to), the Arc de Triomphe, the Père LaChaise cemetery, the Tuileries gardens, and the Louvre.  I was very proud of myself for not getting too lost anywhere and for figuring out maps without my geographer husband!  I guess he's taught me something this year.

Square Saint-Jacques, where sit-ups are strictly forbidden.

The Square Saint-Jacques marks one of the routes that head toward Compostelle.  We've visited many cities along the way, and each has seashells marking the path along sidewalks and buildings (we've seen them in Chartres, Tours, Mont St-Michel, Nantes).  At the Arc de Triomphe, we saw an official ceremony of some kind, though what kind, we don't know. 

Hotel de la Porte Dorée.

We stayed at the Hotel de la Porte Dorée as recommended by David and Lily, and it was an excellent choice!  They had bookshelves full for guests on every floor and adorable rooms.  We especially enjoyed the artwork in our room as well as the unique, antique furnishings.

The cemetery was a good way to start Thursday even though it took a while to find the graves.  We visited Chopin, Poulenc, and Apollinaire.  Poulenc was good for both of us since Sarah, a pianist, plays his music, and since I, a lover of Apollinaire's poetry, like the poems set to Poulenc's music.

Sarah taking a picture
of Chopin.

Lisa with Apollinaire.

Sarah's favorite sculpture in the Louvre.
Winter, embodied.

We had absolutely gorgeous weather and enjoyed lunch in the Tuileries gardens while looking at statues and people-watching.  We figured out Sarah's return journey to the airport and then forged our way through the keychain vendors to get into the Louvre, where we saw the Mona Lisa, a lot of sculptures, and an exhibit on some Greek and Roman discoveries in the Rhône river.  All in all, it was a great tour of the city in two days.  It was sad to say good-bye to Sarah because it's the last family time we'll have until Aaron's brother Matt comes and because it was so good to become better friends with Sarah.  We miss her already and look forward to our other visitors in April! 

March is Visitors' Month

This post is written jointly, just for your information and, of course, reading pleasure.

David and Lily in the rain at Fougères.

David, learning all about the history
of Fougères through the children's
information sites.

Much of March was spent hosting visitors, whom we were very grateful to have. First, Lisa's brother David and his girlfriend Lily came for about four days (plus another two and a half in Paris). We showed them around Cesson-Sévigné and Lisa took them to Fougères. This time, the castle was open and they got to go in, but it was cold and horribly rainy! Lily and David also went on their own to Mont-Saint-Michel one day (it helped that Lily speaks French!). It was very nice to have them here and to show them a little bit of Brittany. We made them the traditional dinner of cider, galettes, salad, a cheese course, soup, and baked apples, and by the end we all had eaten too much!  After their days here, Lily and David went to Paris for a few days where they enjoyed picnics in the park and art museums as well as venturing up the Eiffel tower.  It was good to have family time even if that involved what was sadly typical weather.

Fougères intramuros and seen from across the moat.

The next week, my (Aaron writing here) cousin Sarah came and stayed for about ten days. She did an awful lot on her own, too, largely because Lisa and I had to work (obviously) and couldn't accompany her everywhere. She went to Mont-Saint-Michel by herself as well as the Paimpont Forest west of Rennes which is supposed to be the legendary forest of Brocéliande where Merlin is buried. Lisa took her to Vitré one day and I went with her to Fougères so that I, too, could see the castle and the little late medieval church next to it. It was a pretty impressive site and still mostly intact. We also visited a more recent church, St. Leonard, in the upper town which was nice, too. As Sarah said, she was on the "church tour of France" while she was here!

Rennes cathedral, interior.

Saint Amand.  Sarah wanted to know why he was giving
us the finger.

Lisa and I also did a couple things with Sarah in Rennes that we hadn't done before. We went to the cathedral here which is a 19th-century construction done more in an Italian basilica style than a French Gothic style. It's a beautiful space and we also got to see the tomb of one of the first bishops of Rennes, from the sixth century. That week, Andrew (our friend/colleague/son), invited us over for a dinner of traditional galettes and lots of conviviality.  He is a delightful host, and it was a good way to spend time together and to introduce Sarah to French cuisine.

Parliament of Brétagne.

Original entrance hall, Parliament.

The next week, we all took a tour of the Parliament of Brittany building. It was built in the 17th century to house the court of appeals for Brittany as well as offices for tax assessors (the regional court of appeals still meets there). In 1994, the building caught on fire as part of a strike and had to be largely restored and rebuilt. On the tour, we only saw five or six rooms, but they're all decorated with ornate wall and ceiling paintings and one has several tapestries (which we were created after the fire based on the original designs). It's a great building and I'm glad we did the tour, although it was all in French, so Sarah didn't understand any of it and I only understood parts of it! The guide barely took a breath, so there wasn't much time for Lisa to translate. We also had a very strange young man on the tour. When we entered the parliament building, we had to empty our pockets and go through a metal detector. He had TONS of stuff in his pockets and it was all odd things, like a tennis ball, some rope, and a few books. He also consistently lagged behind the rest of the tour, being the last one out of a room as we walked and he even pulled out a newspaper to read during one stop on the tour. We were vaguely concerned that he was looking to case the building for some not-so-peaceful purpose. It was very strange.

Ceiling, Parliament.

Modern furniture in an old-fashioned room, Parliament.

Aaron with window from Chartres for scale.

On the weekend, we went back to Chartres and this time we got to see the stained glass museum, which turned out to be about a lot of windows and a very out-of-date exhibit in the basement that was supposed to stop running two years before.  It was still interesting and gave us the chance to see reproductions of the Chartres windows that were too high to be accurately read from inside the sanctuary.  Our hotel was very cool, as it was an old monastery and had a book sale, where we over-indulged on Old French and Latin books.  It seemed like all the octogenarians had emptied out their shelves for this sale, and we were grateful!  The other cool thing about the hotel was that the year prior, an American group of pilgrims had built a labyrinth out back to mimic the one that was inside the church and which is almost always covered with chairs.  We got to end our visit there with a nice walk through that.

Sarah and Aaron in the labyrinth at our hotel.

Crypt, Notre Dame de la Couture.

Notre Dame de la Couture,
Le Mans.

On the return trip, we had a long enough layover in Le Mans that we finally got to see a bit of that city where we've spent collective hours, but only minutes at a time.  The church we visited was actually quite beautiful, with no aisles.  It felt very open as a result.  We ran into the sexton and complimented him on the church, at which point he offered to light up the crypt for us, which was very old, much older than we expected.  We can now officially say we've been to Le Mans!

Stay tuned for Sarah and Lisa's Visit to Paris.

Bonus Picture: Sarah and Lisa's favorite moment from the Parliament tour.
Dog Sees Pigeon, Boy sees Dog, Mom sees Boy.  On your mark, get set, go!