The Third of several very, VERY late blogs: BRETAGNE

The Church in Quintin

So, after a lot of plans flip-flopping between Bretagne before Christmas/Brussels after Christmas, and visa-versa, we decided to go to Bretagne before the holidays. My host family has a vacation home tucked away in the country. It's actually just next door to where my host father grew up. The house is built in the traditional stone and mortar style and looks like it belongs exactly where it is. The inside has been updated and is very comfortable. The whole family spent a great 4 days there. We explored a nearby town called Quintin and went to a beach who's name escapes me. It was really great weather, especially since we left from a tsunami of snow!

Quintin Florist

My host sister and I watched quite a few movies, both in French, for my benefit, and English, for her benefit. I downloaded the new version of avatar with 20 minutes of bonus material, it was fun to watch! I forgot how much I loved that movie. I also got to meet a lot of family and friends of my host family. We had my host father's brother and his wife over for dinner one night. The whole week was full of really good food, that is for certain. We also went over to a neighbor's house for desserts one night. The family was really cool and very receptive, plus we ate homemade pineapple pie with homemade chocolate sauce and homemade caramel AND the most delicious vanilla ice cream; I think the first time I've had ice cream in France that was as good as 'Stewart's Philly Vanilla'. We just hung out for like 3 hours and watched the finale of the French equivalent to 'America's Got Talent!' which was really entertaining. If you were wondering the 8 year old salsa dancers won... Everyone was very disappointed.

I went to St-Brieuc, a small city right near our vacation house, with my host mom, sister, and host father's sister-in-law. We walked around and looked at the Christmas illuminations. I also found a hat, with a pompom, I gave in to the French style, no matter how froofy it looks. It's all black, so don't worry that I got a big yellow pompom or something... I already have an idea on how to make it cool when I come back to the US. Anyway, St-Brieuc was very nice, but very one-dimensional, not really much to do other than shop, which seems to be a reoccurring theme in these medium-sized French cities. The major problem is that all of the stores are the same in every city, so even if I wanted to keep shopping, I'd already seen everything before. After buying my hat, I re-joined my host mom and her sister-in-law, there was supposedly some lighting ceremony to go see, but that didn't happen, we just left. The walk back to the car was ridiculously cold, I can't even begin to explain the cold, moist, air plus the wind...

We ate a great dinner with my host father's brother and his wife and another family friend, it was a good time. I actually, for the first time since I was maybe 7, had to sit at the 'kid's table' which consisted of me and Auberie, my host sister. It was kind of lame being separated and almost made me feel second-rate, but it wasn't a huge deal. Being at the kids table meant that we could just peace-out when we were done eating and go watch Avatar: extended cut! which is very very very very good!

Now I'm searching for things to say and repeating myself, so that all I guess.
Peace and Fromage!