After only having done two weeks of actual work (three if you’re counting our week of orientation), the school calendar has aligned in such a way that I then got two weeks off for Toussaint. All schools have these two weeks off, and although it seems a little silly to be having a holiday this soon after having arrived, I can’t exactly complain… A lot of assistants go galavanting throughout other European countries during this break, but I decided to stay a bit more local and visit some places on small day trips (also stayed to work on grad school apps but we can ignore the fact that I had responsibilities these two weeks). In case you were doubting the fact that the region of France where I live (and its surroundings) is beautiful, I will provide some photographic evidence to prove you wrong, along with some short summaries of my trips!
NANTES
Located just 35(ish) minutes from Angers, my first day trip was to Nantes. My only experience with Nantes was an IKEA trip within a few days of my arrival in France, so I only really saw the city from the window of the tram. Nantes is bigger than Angers, but as much as I love the big city vibe, I’m glad I was placed in schools near Angers. I went with some other assistants, and it’s always better to have travel buddies with whom to explore new places. Highlights of the day include the castle (15th century), the mechanical elephant, and all the greenery that surrounds the city in the form of parks and green-spaces. We also saw the cathedral, and managed to sneak into the art museum (unintentionally)!
RENNES
Rennes was ironically my first choice for academies when it came to my TAPIF application, and although I’m happy with how everything has turned out in Angers, I very much wanted to visit the namesake of my first choice. I arrived a little after 11am, and even though the sky was grey and cloudy, it would soon clear to such a beautiful, sunny day. The first visit of the day was to the Musée de Bretagne. As Rennes is the capitol of Brittany, the museum provided information and architectural finds from the beginning of the region to how Rennes has evolved to what it is today. After having the necessary crepes for lunch, it was an afternoon filled with wandering where we ran into the historic center complete with 15th century houses, Rennes Cathedral, and a walk along the canal.
POITIERS
Stop number three on my mini-tour de (NorthWestern) France was to the city of Poitiers, which was the furthest away from Angers. The day was cold, as the seasons have unfortunately finally begun to change, but that didn’t stop us from exploring around outside (just meant we made lots of stops for hot chocolate, and found places to go in and warm ourselves up every so often). We visited the Musée de Sainte Croix, which houses archeological finds from the pre-neolithic age, and paintings through to the modernist movement. Once again found ourselves eating crepes for lunch, and wandered around going into several churches, and even found a smaller replica of the statue of liberty! Poitiers feels like it should be widely spread out, but ultimately we ended up circling back to the same places we’d visited before inadvertently. It’s definitely chalk full of history though, so if that’s your cup of tea, Poitiers is the place to be!
TOURS
My last day trip during this break was to Tours. Only about an hour away, I absolutely loved the architecture of this city (even the train station is a sight to see). The morning started with a visit to the beautiful cathedral, followed by a stop at the chateau (which only has two remaining towers). As Tours is located on the Loire River, we were able to walk across a foot bridge, and see a lovely view of the river (thankfully the weather held out enough for us to enjoy a walk outside). We visited the museum of natural history, as well as walking into the historic part of town, and wandering past the Hôtel de Ville. Tours was such a great place to visit, and I had so much fun touring it for the day!
Two weeks of holiday has definitely gone by much too quickly, but I’m sure that’s in part to the fact that I did four day trips in a short amount of time, and each of those days were packed with walking, exploring, and lots of crepe eating (I have no shame when it comes to the amount of crepes I have consumed in my short amount of time being in France). I’m already back in the mode of lesson planning, and thinking about all the things I have to accomplish before getting back to school, but that doesn’t stop me from reminiscing about all my fun adventures. I’m lucky to live so near a train station, and I’m very glad that train travel in France is easy, and relatively not too expensive. It always catches me a little off guard how easy it is to travel around in Europe, and I’m hoping to take more advantage of that over the following months!
Not Your Average Giraffe 