Tour de France: City 3 of 6

Montpellier
Opening the doors to my room in Montpellier was seriously better than Christmas. The room was clean, bright and smelled like expensive soap and Saturday mornings! It was perfectly appointed and at 33 Euros a night, the greatest thing that could have ever happened to me at that moment.

Montpellier is this amazing, tropical, Paris of the south. Its not far from the Mediterranean sea (located in the Languedoc Rousillon region) and is filled with Palm trees, cream colored houses with blue shutters, stately architecture, and the oldest botanic gardens in all of France.

I saw an amazing art exhibit featuring the paintings of Emil Nolde at the Musée Fabre, had tea in an indoor-garden-courtyard-antique-velvet-upholstered-land of herbal wonder, saw a legit break dance battle in the park, ate light and fragrant cous-cous until the wee hours of the morning in a dark and moody cave-like restaurant, bought a blue v-neck sweater, read many a page in many a garden, and just sort of smiled and loved on Montpellier in general.

Tour de France: City 1 of 6

Bordeaux
The trip starts here. After a long walk through the not so attractive part of Bordeaux, I reached the lovely area around the Opera House where my hotel was located. My hotel however, was a shit box. It was located in a sort of “annex”, across the street from the actual hotel and it was a creepy, filthy room with 3 beds, the delicate fragrance of old beef and feces, and featured a make shift bathroom room “section” where the walls didn’t quite reach the ceiling. It also had that subtly elegant crack-house style lighting, the kind with the exposed single light bulb. Classy.


I decided that the best way to deal with the filthy room was, well, not to deal with it, so I spent the afternoon sitting in a GORGEOUS garden in front of this beautiful square, right on the banks of the Garonne river. There was a gurgling fountain, lots of sunshine, and lots of people smoking and getting drunk in public.


Later that evening I went to a romantic dinner by myself, also near a gurgling fountain, where I had foie gras, duck confit, and tried to get as drunk as possible so that I could get up the courage to face the creepy hotel room. I slept for about 3 hours, with my shorts and socks on (for protection), and tried to move as little as possible, hoping that the insects who lived inside the bed wouldn’t notice me.

Breton Rennes

Last Saturday I took a fantastic day trip 2 hours north to visit the Breton capital city of Rennes. Rennes is known for its half-timbered Breton houses, excellent Creperies, young student population, and its connection to Breton history and culture.

I was jonesing to get away from Grève-land (Nantes) for a minute and feel the energy of a new city for a day. The train ride was pleasant, a little under 2 hours, and the scenery out the window was beautiful. Rennes is super walk-able and I was able to go straight from the train station to the center of town on foot, in only a couple of minutes.


On my way to find lunch I stopped off at an English bookstore in order to find some travel books in English (REALLY hard to find in France). I bought an English guidebook to Florence that was delightfully over-priced and then continued on.
I have been using the “Let’s Go! Guide to France” to maneuver around many of the cities I’ve been visiting and for the most part it has been full of great recommendations but in Rennes they sort of fell asleep at the wheel. None of the restaurants were marked correctly, one was closed, one was a big stone wall, and the one I was looking forward to the most, a creperie described as reminiscent of a seaside cottage turned out to be a kebab stand with an angry Lebanese dude reminiscent of someone who’d kick your ass. The very last recommendation I tried, Creperie des Portes Mordelaises, was down a tiny side street and was fabulous.


Tons of families enjoying their Galettes and Crepes and the food was awesome. Crepe eating in Brittany is much different than in Paris (and of course the states). Most people think of the sidewalk, street-food style crepe that’s usually served sort-of half assed with an old jar of Nutella and a smile, but in Brittany its so much more! One always orders 2 crepes, beginning with a savory crepe called a Galette, which usually has meat, egg, and cheese, followed by a sweet crepe that can be served with almond paste, ice cream, crème anglaise, or warm honey. The Galette is made with a sort of whole-wheat flour so it is a darker brown color and it is usually served open in the center so you can have a peek at what’s inside. The sweet crepes are a golden color, and are basically crispy butter-sponges with fun toppings. Oh, and the kicker is that you always drink alcoholic cider out of little bowls (not cups) while you enjoy your crepes.

Post-Crepe I strolled around little streets looking in shops and observing the architecture as I made my way towards the Jardin du Thabor. The Garden was absolutely fantastic! Beautiful and stately, full of blossoming trees, surrounded by old mansions, and filled with little treats like a parakeet aviary and a statue garden.


Post-Garden I found a great comic book store where I bought a Tin-Tin book for the train ride home. I had about an hour to kill before my train left so I went to the PACKED Place Ste-Anne, got a coffee and played my favorite outdoor café game: Hot Guy Ratio. Its best played with sunglasses to enable shameless staring. The rules are simple: Check out the first 10 guys under the age of 25 that walk past your table. Out of those 10, decide which ones you think are attractive. Then figure out the ratio. Very scientific and very definitive. From my careful study, I concluded that in Rennes, 8 out of 10 guys under the age of 25 are Bangin’. (Nantes is usually between 6 and 7 so Rennes is doing really well for itself.)

After my coffee I caught my train, got my Tin-Tin on, and then dozed as I watched the sun crawl below the horizon. Great day!
Grève-Watch: Still on Grève (strike) at the University, therefore still have yet to do any actual "study" while studying abroad. Enjoy this fun video of some Parakeets I found in the Jardin du Thabor.