A Quick Jaunt to Nantes

:-) My title rhymes! Nantes is pronounced naunt ;-0


In Feb I took a train up to go visit my old friends Lison and Julien. I left Tuesday, Feb 14 after teaching all day about Valentine's Day (here V-Day is only for lovers, imagine that). The train was about two hours and was pretty cool. I got to work on some revisions of a book for the whole ride. When I got there, Julien came to grab me from the tram station and then we went to pick up Lison at work. She works at Lush, a store I had never before heard of but fell immediately in love with! They sell some amazing stuff, and Lison gave me a box of it free as a present. Part of her job is testing all of the new products... she's got it hard, that girl! :-) 
So we went out to dinner to a creperie because Nantes is famous for its crepes served with salted butter on top! MMMM. Sooo yummy. 


I had a generally amazing time. I stayed until Friday. Lison took me around the city and out to Machines de L'ile which was incredible. They've made all of these mechanical rides and little plants and awesome stuff and they have little demonstrations and let the kids ride on them. They have these two huge elephants that take people for rides around the park and there were all of these giant mechanical people that they made that they just set up around the city in the middle of the night and then they got up and walked around and had a little parade a few years ago. I think the idea is amazing and it was so cool to see in person.

 Here's the giant elephant full of people getting ready for a ride. The detail on this is incredible. The ears are made from leather and all the rest is carved wood and metal. 

 We also saw the cathedral and castle. And she took me to a coffee shop that served actual bagels! I was astonished. Bagels don't really exist in France, since they have baguette and such. We went to the LU factory that's been converted into a night club, restaurant and museum. It was pretty cool in there. And we watched a few movies and played some games, all in French, which was really good for me. It was so nice to see them and I was quite sad to leave. It was a great little jaunt and I hope I can see them again before I go back to the states. 

Jo's not in France

So onward I went with my adventure in France, only it led me back to the US. 
But first... let me begin with my trip home! I did all of my Christmas shopping in one afternoon, two days before I was supposed to leave La Rochelle. It was brilliant! I shopped like my life depended on it. Four hours of insanity and I was DONE! So I packed all my stuff on Friday and was scheduled to leave on a train Saturday night to Paris, to stay at a hotel and then get up and go to the airport to fly back to NY (via Chicago because airlines are crazy!). So Saturday came and I washed all my bedding and laid it out to dry and took my suitcase and went into town to see some friends. 
Then I went to dinner with Catherine. My train left at 7:53 p.m. We got to the restaurant (literally a four minute walk from the train station) at 5:30. Two hours is plenty of time for a bottle of wine, two pizzas, dessert and the largest coffee I've ever seen, right? WRONG! When you add in a French restaurant owner who is so completely sweet and incredibly talkative. After three months of living in France, I've become slightly less neurotic and more relaxed, because that's how life is there - and it came back to bite me in the ass - hard. I ran into the station to see my train pulling away. It was the last train of the night. 
I then proceeded to have a melt down. For those of you who don't know, the last time I was in France and was ready to come home four days before Christmas, my airline had cancelled my flight and told me I was booked on another airline and then never paid for the tickets, so I therefore was not on a flight home! So there I was, stranded in La Rochelle - no other trains left that night or early enough Sunday morning to get me to Paris in time for my flight. The only train leaving from the area was due to leave at 6 a.m. Sunday morning from Poitiers, about an hour and a half away. It was going to cost 300 Euro for a taxi, or $300 to change my flight and leave a day later. After many hours of working on a solution, my friend's roommate said he would get up at 4:00 the following morning to bring me to Poitiers for the train. Which he did! 
I made my train, and the flight, and then spent the next nine and a half hours on a plane with parents who didn't know how to control their children. 
I came home for a wonderful two weeks with my family and friends for the holidays. And then got on another two planes to come down to PA for a week of school. My flight out of SYR was delayed 1.5 hours, and I BARELY (and I mean barely) made my flight from Newark to Pittsburg. They reopened the door to let me board the plane. My luggage, however, was not so lucky! Yes, this is just a continuation of how ridiculous my life is. 
So I got to Pittsburg airport with only my carry-on and met up with some people who were renting a car to bring us to the hotel. Then we drove in some ridiculous rush hour traffic and spent forever and a day on Rt 30, got turned around, rolled back on this ridiculous 40% angle hill, and finally made it to the hotel. The first time I called on my luggage they said it was there and would be on its way shortly, definitely arriving before 1 a.m. The second time I called (at 1:05 a.m.) she suggested I "turn in for the night, because it may night be coming until the wee hours of the morning"! UGH. So I came upstairs and went to bed. 
It was waiting behind the concierge desk when I woke up this morning! 
So that's what's new in the travel/life department. I'll be leaving here next week to go back to France, where I will proceed to find a second and perhaps third job to pay for the ridiculous amount of travelling still to be done! 
:-)