Day Trip to Rennes

Yesterday a bunch of the female assistants headed out on the train to Rennes. We've come to realize that weekends are basically full of nothing here, so we should take advantage of any opportunities to get out and about. So the 8 of us enjoyed a day of shopping in Rennes!

The train took us past some beautiful countryside and adorable towns. It took less than an hour to get to Rennes, so it made a great day trip. We headed straight for the center of town, and probably ended up hitting a dozen shops. The streets were crowded with people and the stores were even more full. Apparently saturday is the day to shop in Rennes? It got a little overwhelming at times, with the music and the talking and the chaos. But overall it was a good day and the city is beautiful. I'll post some pictures later of the architecture in Rennes.

As we walked over one of the many bridges in the city, someone remarked, "Does every French city have a river running through it?" It makes sense, if you think about it. Rivers were/are ideal for communication, transportation, and industry. I'm sure we've talked about this in one or more of my classes over the years. There's a quote by someone...can't remember who, that talks about how in France and Europe, the cities were here first, and then the roads were built to serve the cities. In the US, the railroads and highways dictated where cities would be placed. Sarah Vowell has this amazing essay about the intersection of Michigan and Wacker in her book Take the Cannoli. It's all about how the entire history of the US can be told from that physical location.

Wow. This has gotten really off-topic. I bought a cute dress for work and some earrings, and really enjoyed the day out.

Later we went out to L'aventure Cafe, a sort of beach/jungle-themed bar that has a couple of inches of sand all over the floor (yuck). It was fun, and definitely very different from O'Regans! Today is another jour de rien, so I'm going to clean my apartment and maybe force myself to write a few lesson plans.

Tomorrow we're having a costume party to celebrate Jen's birthday. Should be fun to see what everyone comes up with out of our very limited wardrobes!