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| the burger place |
We did a
lot of amazing things during the weekend in Nantes. On Saturday us, Alisa and
our correspondents met at the bus terminal in Nantes. After everyone had
arrived there, we headed to a burger restaurant called “Roadside”. We ate
outside since the weather was quite sunny and pretty. The food was very good,
and we sat there for a good hour or two.
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| the castle |
We were
very full and a little tired after eating but we went to the castle of the
dukes of Brittany which is situated in the center of Nantes. In the castle some
of the other people who were in the project came with us and we went for a
quick little tour around the castle. The correspondents would’ve wanted to go
from a slide that’s on the side of the castle, but it was closed so we
couldn’t.
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| the sightseeing building |
From the
castle we walked in the streets of the beautiful Nantes and stopped in a few
shops to get some souvenirs for us and the other Finnish students. Next, we
went to a sightseeing tower called “le nid”. It was very windy already on the
ground so when we got up with the elevator and went outside, the wind was so
bad that if you would’ve let go one of your things it would’ve flown away.
Outside we were told that there were some eggs painted on the roofs of some
buildings in the town and we were supposed to find them all. We only found two
out of eight. After being long enough in the wind outside we decided to go back
in the building. We also went back because the other correspondents who came
with us after the food had to go.
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| the boat trip |
After they
had left, us six still stayed up and we drank small juice drinks. Then suddenly
right after we had drunk the drinks, the French correspondents told us that we
were in a hurry because we only had fifteen minutes time to go to the harbor
since our boat to the other side of the river called Loire was leaving then.
Our pairs also said that we had to take two trams and we had seven stops before
we were there, so we really were in a hurry. (We actually ended up running to
where the second tram left because we didn’t have enough time to wait for the
first one.) When we got to the harbor the boat had just got off the wharf, but
they stopped the motors so that we could hop in.
After a few
setbacks we got to the other side of the river and looked for a bus to go to
one of our correspondents whose name is Lise. We found the bus, went with it
for a while and then from one stop Lise's father came to pick us up and we went
to their house. The house is big and outside they have this cute little cottage
that they rent for people to live in for short periods of time. So, us six went
there to sleep the night.
During the
evening and night in the cottage we just played some games, talked and ate some
good food. When we started to be overly tired, we decided to go make our beds
and went to sleep.
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| the market place |
On
Sunday
we woke up in the cottage and went to Lise’s home to eat breakfast. It was a
normal French sweet breakfast. After everyone had eaten, we went to the
marketplace in the village center. There were a lot of different stalls where
were sold for example leather goods, pet accessory and of course, some food. In
the meantime, Lise’s mother and little sister had been swimming. We had some time
left after shopping, so we went to a nearby playground where was a children’s
playing track from the Finnish company called “Lappset”.
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| the market place |
After that
we all went back to Lise. Her mother started to cook for us. As the starters,
we had Saucisson-sausage, salty crepes and small deep-fried cheese and ham
balls. For the main course we had a whole small fish. The meat was white, and
skin was pink. (We don’t know what the fish was called.) For the dessert we had
some strawberry pie that we had bought from the bakery earlier. And it was so
good.
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| the canoeing place |
After lunch
we went to a canoeing place. In addition to us two and Alisa, there were seven
other Finnish students and our correspondents. Also, with us there were the
mothers of Lucie and Lise. The place where we were canoeing was in northern
Nantes and the river was called Erdre. In total we canoed for two hours and the
total trip was about three kilometers long. After that we had a little snack
break. Then all the Finnish students and their correspondents left to their own
homes. It was quite late, so we just went home, ate some dinner and then were
hanging out with our hosting families and then went to sleep.
Ada & Aura
Our last day in Nantes started at eight in the
morning, at least for me. First we were divided in to groups of four people and
then we went for example to a biology lesson. The classrooms were a bit
different in France than in Finland. For instance they had much better
working spaces for sciences than we do and the rooms were a bit bigger, but one
of the major differences was that they didn’t have their own laptops. The
lesson I went to was pretty interesting because we examined a real heart of a
pig. 
