Hey everyone! Sorry I have not been able to blog in a while (the "free wifi" in the Rennes hostel turned out to be a company called "free wifi" with whom I do not have an account). Wifi mix up aside, I absolutely LOVED Rennes and really want to figure out a way to get back to Bretagne. I saw a lot of gorgeous 15th and 17th century buildings, some very cool performances at their 5-day festival, met some interesting people involved in keeping Breton dance/culture alive, and participated in a Fest-Noz which looks like this:
Before Rennes I had spent a very nice day in Toulouse. Heddy Maalem was very welcoming, intelligent, and inspiring. After he and I talked for a good 2.5 hours, I spent the rest of the (kind of exhausting) day seeing all of the sites of this beautiful town. Some hilights of my tour de Toulouse:
-breaking all of the ticket machines at my metro stop with my American card
-watching little kids do a relay-for-life
-hearing Heddy bemoan the fact that jumping up in down and clapping to the beat (as displayed by the relay runners who were warming up) has become our culture's community dance (it literally pained him)
-getting to see the Musee des Augusins for free! (they had some great sculpture)
-going to the violet store (apparently violets are a pretty big thing in Toulouse) and buying a box of sugared violet encrusted chocolates disguised as macarons (oh you sneaky, sneaky French)
Like I said, this is just a preview so pictures and more details on my time in Rennes are still to come. Right now I am in Marseille which is wonderful, even if it is absurdly hot. My hostel is in walking distance from the beach, so immediately after arriving I went to stand in the Mediterranean. For dinner, my roommate (Gabby from Oakland, CA) and I walked down there again, watched the beautiful sunset, and tried Moroccan food (lamb and couscous. um, yummmmmmmmm). Today Gabby and I are going into the old port to do some site-seeing and then probably to the beach again. It's so hard to try to do research here :P
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