Natalie meets Brittany, France

It is hard to believe that the halfway mark of the semester has come and passed so quickly. Although last time I talked about the first half of our “winter vacation,” I’d really like to discuss the time spent in the Brittany region of France during the second half of the week. Although I love being in Grenoble, it was a great experience to travel from the southeast corner all the way up to the northwest and see more of France.

On the train ride from Paris to Mont Saint-Michel, there were definitely some areas that reminded me a bit of Ohio! Bretagne is known for its galettes, or its special savory crêpes made with buckwheat flour. We also discovered the “kouing-amann,” a flaky Breton “cake”. We’ll just say that the amount of butter in the latter is equal to the amount of happiness I derived from eating it. Needless to say, we definitely took advantage of the food.

Up-close and personal with a kouing-amann

Although it took a lot of effort on the planning end of things, making it to le Mont Saint-Michel was by far the highlight of vacation for me. The beautiful island monastery offers a history dating as far as Roman times, and we were able to visit it on multiple occasions. The weather, despite the Breton stereotype of nothing but rain, was beautiful and mostly sunny, although the first day it hailed, rained, produced huge gusts of winds, and then was sunny as though nothing had happened in a matter of less than an hour.

Mont Saint-Michel at sunrise

This vacation was full of relaxation after working diligently for two months, and was just what I needed to help push through to the end of the semester. Overall, I’d put a check in the “success” column for this one.

-Natalie