I actually enjoyed the train ride a lot because we got to see the French countryside all the way from Paris, which is central, to Brittany, which is on the coast. Immediately outside Paris the land was very green and pretty, with lots of farmland. A little farther from Paris the land turned to marsh and there was steam rising from the ground in the cool morning air. As we got deeper into the countryside you could see the land becoming rockier and more mountainous, with fewer farms and more lonely houses.
Through most of the countryside, however, one thing that struck me most was the absence of individual, isolated farms or houses; that is, houses that were not obviously connected to one town or another, just sort of in the middle of uninhabited land. One sees this a lot in the States, but the residents of the French countryside are almost exclusively settled in small towns that are self-contained and surrounded by the farmland, rather than a home sitting on a large area of land. These are for the most part very old towns, and each had its parish church, many had ancient walls, and they all had examples of old-style cottages, barns and animal keeps. Even with the few examples of isolated houses, they usually had a fence or wall surrounding the area around the house, though it was clear the house and the land around it belonged to the same people. The French really cherish their privacy.
We arrived in the "city" of St. Malo, in Brittany, took a short bus tour through it and went on up the coast to Cancale. Cancale is a small, very pretty seaside town with nothing outstanding in the way of history, but very good food. I don't think it's well-known for anything, but we visited it as a typical town of the area. We were there for lunch and an hour or so to explore. I have shamelessly stolen pictures from other students, because I didn't get any batteries until the next day. Here's Cancale:
I went off with a small group of students, most of whom I do actually like. We walked around for a bit before choosing where to have lunch, as that was the serious business of the visit. Holly had highly recommended a region specialty, moules frites, and we looked for a place with locals to ensure our moules frites (mussels with fries) were authentic. We found a place with a 3 course menu for 11.50 euros, and the food we ordered surely would've been at least twice that price in the U.S. I had some tasty fish soup, the moules frites, then a friend and I split two region desserts - meringue in a caramel custard and a prune cake/pie type thing. It was probably the best meal I'd had in France so far and there was so much food! I've had mussels before and they've been nothing too special, but these were delicious. They gave us each an enormous plate of them and we all ate everything, which just goes to show how good it was.
Our meal also took a while because the one poor waitress had to deal with about 16 of us (another group went to the same place) and the regular lunch crowd. By the time we were done, we only had about 15 minutes left to run up the mountain above the town (where the above picture was taken) and only three of us agreed to go. We ran down to the outskirts of the town, up many, many steps to see this memorial below and the gorgeous views.
We just barely made it back on time, but the running, sore legs, and breathlessness were worth it.
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