Europe 2010/11 second leg: France (pt 1)

So much for making up for a lack of blogging. Looks like I completely neglected (read: forgot about/too lazy to update) my story even though I've been back in the country (i.e. Australia) for over half a year now. But hey, it's tradition to be so behind on blog posts, right? In an effort to hurry things up, I'll write up a little bit about my time in each city instead of the usual play-by-play commentary.

Oh, and before I begin, I'll point out that photos from my trip are now up on my Flickr page. I'll link to them as I go, but here are the ones from England and Belgium.

In transit: Brussels to Nantes

I had my fears about checking out early on New Year's Day, but the biggest hassle I had to go through was trying to get the attention of the hostel staff, who were still partying on from the night before.

The trip to Nantes, my next destination, would involve an inter-city train from Brussels to Paris, a Paris Metro to a train station across the city - Paris doesn't have a unified central train station (this comes into play later) - then another inter-city train to Nantes. As inconvenient as that sounds, the trip itself was unremarkable. I even got a few precious minutes of sleep on the Paris-Nantes leg.

Nantes: A case of food poisoning

The city of Nantes is the 6th largest in France and is situated on the Loire, the country's longest river. Because of its location, it used to be the slave trade capital of France. It is also the historical capital of Bretagne, more commonly known as Brittany to English speakers. I stayed with an ex-co-worker and her family at their home there, and I think it's always nice to get the local perspective on a place that you're visiting.

Fresh produce at the Sunday markets in Nantes

One of the places my hosts took me was Trentemoult, a former fishing village on the south bank of the Loire. I also got to see Les Machines de l’île, a cool exhibit of Jules Verne-inspired steampunk inventions with both mechanical and animal characteristics. It was a shame that the main attraction - a giant steampunk elephant that would walk around the grounds, taking people for a ride on it - was shut down for the winter months. Speaking of which, another thing I wanted to check out but was closed at the time was the Jules Verne museum. Verne, a seminal author in the science-fiction genre, was born in Nantes.

An abandoned boat in Trentemoult


Steampunk elephant!

The highlight of the visit for me was perhaps the food. I got to try galette bretonne, a savoury version of the crêpe traditionally served with cider. Unlike other crêpes, which are made from wheat flour and have sweet fillings, galettes are made from buckwheat flour and filled with savoury ingredients like meat and cheese. The one I had had classic galette fillings of ham, cheese, and egg. Delicious. Galettes originate from Brittany and while Nantes is no longer technically part of the region, there still remains a Breton cultural influence, and the galette is an institution.

Unfortunately, one of the more memorable things about my time in Nantes was giving myself food poisoning. Since my hosts were kind enough to show me a bit about culture in the region, I wanted to introduce them to something from my culture. In particular, I decided to cook them one of the most iconic dishes from Filipino cuisine, adobo. What went wrong, you ask? I messed up pretty badly is what went wrong. I'd say the error was caused by a bad mix of overconfidence and lack of recent practice. That and too much vinegar. Anyway, the dish ended up being far from my best, but my hosts seemed to like it (and didn't get sick from it like I did), or at least were nice enough to pretend they did. What a bad ambassador to the Philippines, eh? The whole ordeal left me sick and drained for the next day or so, which meant I didn't get to see as much of the city as I wanted.

Rennes and an unplanned trip to Mont Saint-Michel

Under two hours away from Nantes by train, Rennes is the modern capital of Brittany. It is somewhat of a university town, with over a quarter of its inhabitants being students. My friend was studying there at the time, and catching up was the main reason for this stop of the trip. (Predictably, we had humongous galettes.)

Apart from the Parc du Thabor, through which I took a relaxing stroll, there wasn't really much for tourists in Rennes. My friend tipped me off to Mont Saint-Michel, the third most visited national monument in France. Having a spare day in Rennes, I decided to do a day trip there.

Mont Saint-Michel is a town on a tidal island by the sea. The island is dominated by the Saint-Michel monastery, from which it gets its name. The monastery has been there since the 8th century, and is surrounded by smaller buildings such as shops, hotels, and homes. Very few people actually live on the island, and it is mostly a tourist destination. Interestingly, Mont Saint-Michel has a counterpart in Cornwall, across the English channel, called Saint Michael's Mount.

Mont Saint-Michel

There are buses from Rennes that go to the monument, and it takes about an hour and a half to get there. The place itself is beautiful, and it's easy to cover the entire place in a day. In fact, thanks to a mistimed visit to the monastery, I walked around the streets several times because I missed the bus back to Rennes and had to wait another two hours for the next one. The return trip isn't cheap and the monastery costs money to enter, but it's well worth the visit if you have the time.

One of the areas accessible at low tide

It was a really cold day and it got foggy as it went along, so I wanted to spend some time indoors. Apart from visiting the monastery, I had lunch at one of the overpriced restaurants. Sadly, it was cold in there as well. I was also served by a stereotypically rude French waiter, and the food wasn't that good. Perhaps I should've eaten at the more expensive place instead.

When I got back to my hotel, I cracked open the Cantillon Mamouche (yum) that I had picked up in Brussels then had an early night.

In transit: Rennes to Montpellier

I caught an early train from Rennes to head to my next destination. I armed myself with three pain au chocolat for breakfast on the go. Some of the inter-city trains in France, I have to mention, go very fast. It's fascinating to look out to the roads parallel to the tracks and see seemingly stationary cars that are in fact driving at normal speeds.

I mentioned earlier that Paris did not have a unified central train station, and that one often has to make a connection between stations via Metro (or otherwise) before catching a connecting train. This meant one would need to leave sufficient time between trains. My train from Rennes would arrive at Gare Montparnasse, which was the Paris station servicing the west of France, and I had an hour to get to Gare de Lyon, which serviced the south, to catch my train to Montpellier. When I got to Gare de Lyon it took me a while to figure out where the platform was, and as I boarded the train the doors behind me shut. Talk about cutting it close.

Montpellier: Guess what? More clouds!

Located in southern France, Montpellier is the fastest growing city in the country. Many old structures still remain but the city feels very modern, a result of developments prompted by a population boom in the latter half of the 20th century.

Aqueduct St-Clément, built in the 17th century

Despite teases of sunlight peeking out of the clouds during the train trip, the weather was still not great when I arrived in Montpellier. In fact, I had not seen consistent sunlight since arriving in Europe. It actually started to rain a bit, too.

I was in Montpellier to visit a French acquaintance I had very briefly met years ago in a hostel in Quebec City, Canada - he needed to send an email and asked to use my laptop for a few minutes. He kept in contact with me after that, and offered his couch to crash on when he heard I was coming to France. This is one of the reasons I love to travel.

Anyway, my friend was at work when I arrived in Montpellier and I wasn't in the mood to do too much sightseeing in the poor weather with backpack in tow, so after a bit of walking around to get my bearings, I went hunting for good beer. Unfortunately, the bar I had read about, Up and Down, was not yet open, so I ended up at this dingy bar run by a guy who supposedly raced in the Tour de France at one point. There were Tour de France memorabilia and newspaper articles all over the walls. The Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World ukulele cover by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole played on the radio - in fact, this was not the first time I heard this song in France. They love it for some reason.

It was still raining the next day but, despite spending hours in Musée Fabre, I did actually get to see a good chunk of the city. I got lost (again) trying to find a kebab place my friend had recommended, walked around the Jardin des plantes de Montpellier for a bit, and got accosted by a scam artist at the Promenade du Peyrou. On the second attempt, Up and Down was open and I went there with my friend for a drink before dinner. It was a cool little hole-in-the-wall bar that served a good range of mostly Belgian craft beers and had a cramped area downstairs for live music.

The tiny live music area at Up and Down

Apart from the aforementioned kebabs, I also had confit de canard courtesy of my friend. I love that dish. Drinks wise I tried a few different things while in Montpellier. I had some Belgian and French beer, Italian wine, French cider, and limoncello, a strong lemon liqueur from Italy that puts hairs on your chest.

After two nights in Montpellier the trip continued south. Next up: Spain!

Second leg overview

Cities: Nantes (3 nights), Rennes (2 nights), Mont Saint-Michel (day trip), Montpellier (2 nights)
Weather: Cold and overcast, some fog, some rain
Favourite dish: Confit de canard
Times lost in the streets: 1

Flickr set: France

Update: I'm experimenting with mobile templates for the blog. Expect slightly more exciting backgrounds in the future rather than the default boringness.