Mont-St-Michel, Saint-Malo, and Class in the Park

Yesterday was our day trip to Mont-St-Michel and Saint-Malo.

Jeana ended up staying over for the night because her bus doesn't run early enough for her to make it on time. It reminded me of all those horse show nights spent in hotels with the team. Anyway, alarm goes off at 5:00 AM (not cool), we grumpily get ready, and set off for the train station to meet up with the rest of the group. Everyone shows up, and we hop on our private bus to Mont-St-Michel. I mostly slept during the ride, but the scenery that I did see was beautiful. There was a traffic jam at one point that was caused by a flock of sheep that wandered into the middle of the highway.

This was actually my second time at Mont-St-Michel, but it was just as beautiful as I remembered it to be. It was pretty foggy out, and even though it made it all look so eerily beautiful, it ruined any chances of taking pictures. After our guided tour, we had a few hours of free time. Justin, Jeana, Mandi, and myself all got some lunch and found a secluded balcony to sit and eat at. After lunch, we wandered around for a bit, then went down to the shore surrounding the castle. I took off my socks and shoes and walked around on the sand. I love the feel of sand on my feet. It's common for the water surrounding the castle to go all the way up to the castle during high tide, so the sand was relatively packed down. I dug my toes in, and it felt amazing. I really love the beach.

After that, we piled back on to the bus and set off for Saint-Malo. We walked around on the ramparts for a while and enjoyed the view of the city. The ramparts are built right next to the shoreline, so I really enjoyed the constant salty breeze that came in from the ocean. We walked around the town for a bit, windowshopped, etc. I also ate crepes with Mandi, Justin, Jeana, Candice, and Claire. I really enjoyed spending some down time with Candice and Claire. They're such great people and wonderful program leaders. After our crepes, we headed back to the buses and returned to Nantes. It was around 9:30 when I got in.

Today was a nice day, too. We were given the morning off in order to recooperate from yesterday's adventures. Today is also Jeana's birthday, so a bunch of us met up and had a picnic for lunch. After lunch, we met up with the rest of the group for a tour of Tour LU, which is an old cookie factory. It was ok, but seemed a bit weird for a cookie factory. We then had class in a park by the train station. We had a great time acting out random skits based on a poem that we read. After class, Mandi, Jeana, and I headed out to celebrate Jeana's birthday with crepes. A nice guy who worked at the restaurant gave Jeana flowers that he found on the street. We found out that today was his birthday, too!

My host mother is gone all weekend at a wedding, so me, Chloe, and Audrey have the apartment to ourselves. Tommorow, I'm going to a horse show with Jeana and her family, and most likely spending the night there.

I'll try and update again later this weekend.
~Sarah, who is sick of crepes