Had a leisurely sleep in on Saturday. Left the house on my vélo to go meet Laura by the school. We walked towards the old part of the city, stopped by the tourist bureau to ask for the whereabouts of H&M, and made that our next stop. I purchased my first piece of clothing of the trip (don't worry Mum, it was just one thing! And it's so cute). Then we carried on to a little lunch restaurant called La Gourmandise. Laura had a delicious croque madame and I had a variety of different salads. When we sat down, we asked the people at the table next to us if they'd take a picture (in French), and they replied that they spoke English. They turned out to be a lovely couple from Stratford-upon-Avon in England who were taking their camper van around France for 4 weeks. So we had a nice chat and then they continued on their way.
Oh funny story, one of the guys we met on Friday night, Olivier, had told us that instead of saying <<santé>> for cheers, you should say <<au chatte!>>. So naturally Laura and I wanted to use the local terminology, so we toasted au chatte before our meal and later when we stopped to get a glass of juice. I found out later that night that one must never say chatte in polite company. It means female cat... you can figure the rest out. You got us there Olivier!
We carried on around the city, wandering down this street or that to see what we would stumble upon. We eventually made our way across the Maine River and lay down on the grassy riverbank in the shade of some unfamiliar, but beautiful trees. It was the perfect way to spend an afternoon! We read a little bit of homework, but mostly lazed around. There are beautiful rose bushes all along the river, and it really did feel like la vise en rose. By 5:15 we left and I got back on my bike and pedaled home. By bike, my route to school is only 5 minutes - so great. The only hard part is on my way back I have to navigate a roundabout. Not a roadway I'm used to!
Shortly after going home, Madame and Monsieur A took me and my roommates to the opening of a local bar. The owner is a friend of Monsieur A. We were a little too shy to mingle much, but the three of us practised our French amongst ourselves nonetheless. Then we returned home for a tasty dinner.
We went out (again... zut alors), with no particular bar in mind. I biked to Laura's where she was with her roommate Yeji (from South Korea, she's great), Maria, and Maria's roommate. Her roommate split off after a little bit, and the rest of us met up with Matt (just an update for those of you who don't know, Laura, Maria, and Matt are my fellow StFXers). We couldn't find any bar that looked particularly hopping where we were, so we just picked a random one. It turned out to be a bit expensive, but it served our purpose. A few more CIDEF students walked by and told us they were going to Falstaff, so after a while we went that way too. It wasn't as exciting as it was on Thursday, but we enjoyed ourselves. Sunday's task - finish my homework... Ugh.
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