This is the second time I am writing this, I pressed the wrong button and lost it all, so here goes again...and by the way there are no apostrophes here so I have to write without them.



We made our way to Caen where we walked along the canal and ate lunch.  We found a castle with amazing views from the watch towers and then walked through a maze of old streets to the Abbaye des Hommes.  We went to the Museè des Beaux Arts and then met our hospitality hosts outside.  The dad, Manu, and his three children, two young girls and a little boy found us and they took us back to their home where we settled in in the room of Louna, the oldest daughter.  I read a story to Noam, the young son, and then the children ate dinner.  B and I ate dinner with Manu and his wife Estelle.  We discussed politics, culture, and personal philosophy.  B and I loved their house.  It was partly very old and partly new.  The front half was stone walls and stairs with curvy old wooden planks and posts.  The back half was all very modern.  But the common theme was bright colors and wonderful paintings and drawings done by the children as well as some great photograghs of the family as well.  The next morning, Noam, had to go to the doctor and seeing as B was trying to get over a cold and the medicine we had was not working, B went too.  We then found  good cheap hotel for the night and went to bed early.  The next day I got up early and took a shower.  When I was finally ready to go out I saw that it as snowing.  I found my gloves and hat, turned on my music, said au revoir to B and left to walk the city alone.  I walked through the snow, Enya in my head, and watched a duck swimming in the canal stretching out his neck and opening his beak to capture the giant snowflakes on his tiny tongue.  As I was about to leave the canal I was stuck by the contrast of white snow disappearing into the clear water.  It was so sudden and so complete, like magic.  As was the whole morning, seeing castles and cathedrales through the soft silence of the snow.  I walked up a hill to the Abbaye des Dammes and then back to the hotel.  B and I went to the Musee des Beaux Arts again and saw the second floor, after we went to the Normandie museum, the old coins and clothes were my favorite.  We had lunch on the train and soon arrived in Rennes.

In Rennes we met our next host, François with "hair on my head and all over my face."  Which was difinitely true, his hair is crazy, but cool, just like he is.  The next day  François took us to walk by the river where when I was crossing a small bridge I slipped and fell...yeah, I know.  Then we went to town and to a small bar where I got to sit in a fireplace, or what used to be a fireplace.  I had chocolat chaud and B had his beer.  We had dinner at a fastfood Lebanon restaurant.  We took the metro home and Noelle, one of the roommates made me hot white chocolate, which is oh so yummy!  Then she and I played La Guerre de les Moutons (the war of the sheep) and B and François played the game I have only seen played in the movie A Beautiful Mind.  Noelle has a crazy curious cat that is super affectionate, especially when he is hungry.  He likes to play with the cat next door whose eyes are too close together, but it is endearing.  The next morning I got up and went on a very long walk, just me and my music, along the river, to some small lakes.  I daydreamed about many things and saw some beautiful houses.  After walking for four and a half hours I arrived at the city center to meet B at a cathedrale.  My legs were very tired so we took the metro home.  François and his girlfriend, Tiffaine, made gallettes for dinner.  We talked a lot with François, Tiffaine, Noelle and Sebastien about cutural differences and the new similarities (new to France) and we all seemed to have a somewhat similar world view.  Saturday we went to the market, the largest in Brittany, and got food for dinner: cheese, bread, and vegetables.  Brian is able to eat the bread here for some reason, the ingredients may be different and better than in the US.  And I can eat cheese here with no problems, as I usually have with cheese in the US.  Strange, but true.  They then took us to a Biologique restaurant where we ate organic vegetarian food.  After that they drove us to a forest outside of Rennes where we walked for a couple hours and listened to the birds sing.  Driving home we saw a very old house with only two opposng walls left, chiminey in tact, trees and vines growing in and around it.  I love that, for some reason it seems so historically mysterious to me.  We also saw a very old building where the women of the town would go to wash their clothes in the river together.  Maybe that is where I washed my clothes for a living when I lived here long ago...  Anyway, today was very lazy, I read my book and B dozed.  We did some research on the computer and went for a short walk through an architectural building next door.  It was 9 rows by 8 rows of towering square columns, so many choices for direction...  Then Tiffaine drove us to Nantes, to stay with a friend of François, and we are here now.  This building is also very old and the ceilings for each apartment are about 10 feet tall, with giant doors and giant windows, really lovely.  We also found a site online for ridesharing in France.  So, it will be cheaper to travel and we meet people while they drive us to a certain city, it is co.voiturage.fr and it will be very helpful!

So that is our journey so far, or my side of it anyway.  Soon we will be somewhere warm.  Bon Nuit!