Bretagne

On our first day in Nice, we had our first meeting as a program with our director. Some of us knew each other, but for the most part, we were strangers living in a foreign country. We talked about everything, from our classes the next day to the big finale at the end of our program- our week long trip to Brittany. Back then, it seemed really far away (I mean, it was January…) but suddenly May 7 rolled around and the 26 of us were boarding a plane from Nice to Paris to Rennes, and our four months together made us no longer strangers.

I don’t want to say I was dreading this trip, because that’s not true. I was excited to see a different part of France other than Nice and Paris, and I was REALLY excited to see Normandy, but there were a lot of things I was apprehensive about. I was worried about staying in a homestay since a few the homestays have been a little rough for a lot of the students in Nice.  Plus, in the time between the first week of April and the first week of May, I had been to England, Ireland, Paris, Cyprus, and now Bretagne, and I was really not looking forward to traveling.

Like I said, we took two planes to Rennes (one of which was a propeller plane) and then met our homestay families for the week. There were some students living in the actual city of Rennes, but a lot of us, including myself, were staying in a small town called Saint. Malo. It was a 45 minute car/train ride from Rennes and was probably the cutest place I’ve ever seen.

When we got to our homestay, I was in shock. We were staying in a gorgeous house on a really large lot of land. There was the bigger house, where we stayed and ate dinner. There were five bedrooms, a living room, the main kitchen, but the rest of the house has yet to be renovated. The other house was where our “parents” lived- it was smaller and had their bedroom, a small living room and small kitchen and also where we ate breakfast.

This family was PERFECT. I felt silly for being so nervous about the family. Our Madame and Monsieur were probably in their 60’s. They had three kids who were grown up and moved out, but because the week we were there was a French holiday, we got to meet their daughter, her husband, and their three kids who were visiting for the week.

The first night we ate dinner and got to know the family and their adorable kids. Our Madame was constantly making sure we were all settled in and feeling comfortable. And we ate a lot of bread and cheese.

The next morning we took the train into Rennes to tour. A couple of my friends and I got real Bretagne galettes and crepes and cider. We walked around the city for a while and it was straight out of a fairytale then headed back to our house for dinner.

The next day was hands down my absolute favorite day abroad. We took a very long bus ride up to the coast and made our first stop on a beach near Juno Beach where the British Troops stormed on D-Day. Our next stop was in a town called Arromanches-les-Bains. We got lunch and strolled around the shops and the beach. The thing I loved most about this part of France is how much they love Americans (because as much as I’d like to stand up for the French, they really just don’t like us). Up in Bretagne, there are American flags everywhere and even a restaurant named “6 Juin” (June 6^th).

Afterwards, we went to these amazing Canola fields in Longues sur Mer. They were the brightest yellow I’ve ever seen and absolutely gorgeous. There were a ton of German bunkers there as part of their defense along the coast.

Our next stop was Omaha beach, where the Americans stormed Normandy. It was really interesting because its just a normal sand beach. It doesn’t look any different than any beach in the US, I’m not sure if I expected it to, but it brought me to tears. It was amazing just to walk the beaches where so many Americans fought, where some succeeded and some did not.

We then went to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, which is a 172-acre piece of land that the French gave us as a thank you. There were 9,387 military personnel buried here from World War II, most of whom from the D-Day landings. We walked and read some of the names, but some of the saddest were those that read “Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God.”

The final stop was Pointe du Hoc, which is between Omaha and Utah beach. This was where the US bombed the Germans and scaled the Pointe using rope ladders. The entire land still has probably over 50 bomb craters all over. Again, one of the coolest things I’ve seen.

We went back to our host family after a long, emotional but awesome day.

The next day we took a trip to Mont Saint Michel which is a monastery from the 8^th century. It looked like Hogwarts and was so big that we could see it from St. Malo! We took a tour of the monastery, the garden and the little town around it to get lunch.

That night, because we got home early, our Madame took us around to a bunch of places surrounding Saint Malo. We saw the Pointe du Grouin, Cancale and the church where all of her children got married.

Our final day in Bretagne was spent in a town called Dinon and in downtown Saint Malo. Where we were staying was very far from anything, it was on back roads and took 15 minutes to get to any sort of civilization. In Dinon we walked the streets which again, looked like a fairytale and got crepes thanks to our program After, we had free time to walk around Saint Malo and do some shopping before heading back for a final night with our homestays.

That night, we helped our Madame make homemade pizza and gave her a Mother’s Day gift (since the American Mother’s day was the next day) that we got that day. We ate a lot of cheese and bread and finished with some homemade desserts. The next day, she gave us homemade jelly, salted caramel (a Bretagne specialty) and sandwiches to bring on the plane. This woman was too cute- one night we ran out of salad so she literally went outside to her garden to get some more lettuce. They had 5 day old ducklings and were some of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. As cliché as it is, I really will never forget them.

This trip was hands down my favorite place I’ve been to. Between the things we saw, the American history, the charming towns and the people, I fell in love. If I were to ever come back to France to teach English, I wouldn’t hesitate to return to Rennes. I absolutely loved it.

Sorry about the long post, but it was just so amazing I had to share!

See you in eleven days!

A 

Je suis tellement heureux que je suis allé à Bretange. J'ai eu un séjour parfait. Nous avons pu voir des choses que la plupart des Américains ne verront jamais, mais il est une partie importante de notre histoire. Je suis tellement chanceuse que je l’ai vu. Même si mon grand-père n'était pas dans la marine, il était à Bruxelles lorsque D-Day s'est passé et il me touche. J'espère que je pourrai y retourner un jour, mais sinon, je vais y réfléchir ce voyage pour toute ma vie.