Another Week, Another Weekend

This weekend was the Journees du Patrimoines (National Heritage Weekend). All over France museums and other landmarks were open free of charge to the public. With a group of IES students I visited an old observatory then saw Nantes from its roof. Then we visited the Musee Dobree, which had a nice collection of medieval artifacts.

In the evening a group of us met at a creperie for dinner, which was excellent. Then we wandered around the marine history museum at the chateau before heading to the gardens. I haven’t yet seen the gardens during the day but at night they were beautiful. They were lit by lanterns and there were several jazz groups playing.

Sunday was my first church service in France. I went with a friend to the nearest protestant church and discovered a large group of Americans there who were also studying abroad. I also met some other English speakers from Europe. I was really excited that we were singing songs I knew in English only translated into French. The sermon was interesting and I was surprised how much I understood. After church the other American students invited all the English speakers to their house for lunch. It was interesting to talk to all these people from all over the world and see how we all ended up at the same church in Nantes. That’s the other thing I am enjoying about this trip, even though I haven’t met many French students I am still meeting interesting people from all over the United States and the world.