Stars Nantes

So decided to stay a second day in Nantes....hotel was in fab location, but loads of bars right outside the hotel, thank goodness for double glazed windows!

Went to the local saturday market this morning, geez, i love the french markets. took us about 20 mins walking around just to figure out what to eat.

Off to see the chateau this afternoon then maybe to a soccer game (Nantes vs. Nimes) this evening.

Chateau ...

Ok, so we arrived in Nantes....bit of a nightmare to park, but all good. Found a very centrally located budget hotel (1 star) - cheap and cheerful. We had booked the small room, but as that turned out to be on the fifth floor, we opted for the luxury room (an additional 4 euros a night) on the first floor. Is quite big, with ensuite bathroom. Well, actually, its more like the room is ensuite to the bathroom as when u open the door to the room u walk right into the ...

... We were both getting sick of the gravel, and we didn’t want to go into the city anyways. What a difference the pavement made! Went from cruising along at 15 km/hr to 25! A very nice change as Brian was quite discouraged at our progress along the canal. Thought that we would be traveling much further distances each day.

Arriving at Nort sur Erdre we encountered a problem I have been waiting for ...

... was SO sweet. It's such a nice gift. Others gave me drawings and stuff like usual. Then at the end of class they signed my French flag and we took a lot of pictures. The next class came in, Aidan's class, and the same things happened. Gifts, food, flag, and pictures. It was fun. Chloé gave me a painting (not a drawing, a painting in a frame) which she had made herself. How cool huh? This class was fun and afterward I got a ton of hugs. Even Mathieu, one of the boys, gave me a HUGE hug ...

... I knew there was no way I would find Josh. We agree to meet at a little café near the chateau so we would be able to chase these giants together. We wait in line to get into the chateau, and when we do we see her. The little girl giant, still sleeping. Soon she wakes up and is lifted out of the castle and put in her boat. Somehow we were tricked into thinking that she would stay in the castle for a while but that was not the case. Afraid we would lose her, Josh and I run out ...

... away from caffeine and alcohol for a while just so I don't mess anything up. This is probably why I'm tired all the time now, no coffee. I had to get decaf with Rach. It really wasn't that bad. May 13, 2009 Turns out I didn't have to babysit today, something about their answering machine not working or something so the mom was staying home. I don't really listen to the reason I just hear "April, no need to come in today." So I did some grocery shopping then went to ...

March 25, 2009 So I get up early like I always do and go to my baby sitting job. Today she took a class or something and didn't come back home until like 5, so that was a bit boring with the kids. I actually got out my book and read a few times. Plus the little boy, Cosme, would not stop throwing tantrums and I was so annoyed. After work, I get home and there are a ton of messages for me from all the other assistants. We get paid the last Wed of the month so I was really ...

... a stupid Frenchman who knows nothing about it talk about him like that." I will defend Obama to anyone who's not American. He may not be the president I wanted and I may hate his entire presidency but I can't change anything and I'm not going to let some French jerk talk about him as if he's horrible just because he's black. Ugh. Usually we don't deal with people like this. In all my 4 months here so far I haven't had anything like this happen. It was just not a good night. Oh ...

... terminal. Speaking of the main terminal although it was quite elegant and artistic, it is definitely one of the most confusing airports I've ever been to. My co-workers and I rented a car from Nantes to get to St. Nazaire. Thankfully it had a GPS, unfortunately I didn't know the details on how to us it. When I typed in St. Nazaire it automatically chose the last searched destination in the city and let us believe we had correctly programmed it. My co ...

... 70 minutes de café Internet, puis direction l'île de Nantes pour trouver notre FJT. Ensuite, après avoir repéré l'endroit, nous nous dirigeons vers l'arrêt d'autobus le plus près, pour aller vers le sud, la banlieue et Sun FM. Arrivés rue de la Taponnière (environ 15 minutes), nous retrouvons ce qui est supposé être la station : une vieille bâtisse à peine identifiée, cachée derrière un mur de béton, et où personne n'est venu répondre à la porte (à peu près ...