10/9 Rennes

Today 7 of my friends and I went to Rennes. It’s the closest city to us here in Laval, about a 40 minute train ride by TGV. Luckily since it's so close it only costs about 13 euros with my Carte 12-25. Le Carte 12-25 is a special pass for young adults and children from 12-25 (obviously) that gives discounts on train tickets. I usually get about half price on all my tickets. It's really helpful here in Europe especially with traveling. But our morning got off to bumpy start before we even left. We got to the train station with minutes to spare before our train departed, around 9:40, our train was at 9:45 but none of us had purchased our tickets yet so when we got to the counter the women said that we didn't have enough time to buy 8 tickets to Rennes and we had to wait for the next train at 12:24. This in the long run turned out better but at the time we all were a little disappointed, especially since we all woke up at 8 am on a Saturday morning. Since we had 2 hours to spare I headed to our local farmers markets that is just a block past the train station. It's your typical market we have in the US, but it also has an amazing bakery and cheese stand that will blow any cheese or bakery stand out of the water in the US. But I try to get all my vegetables there for the week. They are fairly inexpensive too. There is this one stand in particular that I have been frequenting since I have arrived, but the older man is so funny. He always has this really big smile and saying "ceux-ci" and pointing to some other vegetable. He gives me a good laugh every time.

By the time I took all my goodies home and cleaned my room it was time for our train. Luckily we made the train with no problems. Rennes is beautiful; it too has a river running through the middle of the city. The other girls and I are convinced that it is mandatory for French cities to have a beautiful rivers running through the direct middle of it. But once we got there we wasted no time and got right down to business: shopping. I purchased 2 sweater dresses, the black one is from H&M and the dark gray one is from Etam. Both are perfect with leggings for the cold weather here in France. The other girls bought some sweaters and shoes as well. Shopping in Rennes on a Saturday afternoon is an experience until most shopping experienced I’ve had. But it was packed in every store we went into. Absolutely bananas! People and clothes were being thrown about all over the place. I was surprised I was able to find anything. Most of the stores were complete ciaos but fortunately while I was waiting outside for some of the girls while they shopped I found this little restaurant called "Tante Yvonne". No worries Grandmere I took a picture of it for you. It was pretty funny cause while I was waiting outside with 2 other girls we happen to notice there a subway. We thought that was crazy, a Subway in France, but the Subway was right next to Tante Yvonne's restaurant. I saw this and knew I had to take a picture. My friends thought I was taking a picture of Subway but I reassured them I wasn't. I'll be sure to send it to you Grandmere. After about 4 hours of shopping and walking all over the city and department stores we all were worn out but our train didn't leave until 8pm. We still had 4 more hours. We then put out a search for a cafe. Thankfully Rennes is filled with them, we came across this huge cobblestone square that had a carousel (these too are a staple of French cities, I believe carousels and rivers are required here) in the middle and market going on. The market mostly had really old books, paintings, and nic nacs. But surrounding the squared on three sides were rows of cafes and restaurants that had patio seating outside in front of their restaurants. It was the typical scene you would image in France. The square was packed and most of the tables were filled with French people smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. We all had a drink and shared some crepes (this place was not as good as the crepe restaurant in Laval). We spent the rest of the day wondering around the town of Rennes, but we all agreed that our next trip to Rennes for shopping would be during the week, early in the morning, and for not nearly as long as an 8 hour day. It was a good thing that we took the 12:25 train instead of the 9:45 one. We were all exhausted by the time we got on the train back to Laval. I have to admit that the shopping day was great, we didn't get lost thanks to Alicia and her blackberry, and no blood was shed. I know sometimes it can get a little crazy with 8 girls shopping together for an extended period of time. hahaha. But we all had a great time and bought some really cute French clothes. 

From the left: Laura, Liz, and Charlotte