Scones, board games and a visit from Ellie

Well hello again,

I forgot to tell you in my last blog that I have in fact tasted some very good scones here on the other side of the Channel. Three kinds in fact – raisin, cherry and chocolate chip – baked by a French bakery in Rennes. They were given to me by Dan, the English club teacher, because I’d missed a special event the English club had put on called ‘Tea Time’ due to the fact that I was working, where scones featured as refreshments. If I’m having a homesick moment I might have to hunt down the bakery to have a taste of home. Not quite as good as Dad’s, but close!

Last Friday night I went to a board games evening hosted by the ludothèque with Michèle and Loïc. Two men joined us to play a game of ‘Dominion’ which is a popular board game with lots of different versions in France. The original version of the game was on loan so one of the ludothèque staff members made us a game mixed up from cards from other versions. I had never played before and neither had one of the other men. The game lasted quite a while (longer than it should have) and when we finally got to the end and counted up our points, I was the winner! (I knew I was in the running for the win but I think the French guy opposite me who came second was quite surprised because he thought he had won!) The other men left and then we played a simple game in which frogs jump from lily pad to lily pad (with the member of staff from earlier too) and I thought it quite amusing that I was sitting there with three ‘frogs’ playing a frog game.

My friend Ellie came to visit me from Sunday afternoon to Thursday lunch time and we had a lovely time together; she’s such an easy guest to have and it was so good to catch up with her. When we got back to my house on the Sunday after a little transport mishap on the way back from the airport we ate dinner with Manqi and played some wii video games for a bit.

On Monday I took Ellie to the English club in the morning where she met two of the groups, then we went on a walk around Rennes and found a crêperie to eat in and filled our tummies with tasty food before continuing to wander around. We started to wonder what to do that afternoon, because the weather wasn’t good and the place that I had planned on visiting was closed (the French don’t bother opening a lot of things on Mondays!). A lady from the English club that morning had suggested we go and visit the Parliament building and so we went to the Office of Tourism to find out more. The lady sold a tour to us even though it was all going to be in French and I would have to help Ellie understand.

So at 4pm we set off with a tour guide, a family from Rennes, a couple from Germany and an old lady from Belgium! Going with a tour guide is the only way to access the Parliament building because it is used as a practising law court, and I have to say even though history and politics isn’t usually my thing the tour guide was excellent and the visit was very interesting. Afterwards we hunted out a patisserie which does fancy cakes and each bought one for an after dinner treat. Later on we watched a film.

On Tuesday we took it easy in the morning, went for a wander round the park then cooked a nice spaghetti bolognese for lunch and some apricot and almond muffins to take to my friend’s later on. I then had a guitar lesson while Ellie read a book (yes, a guitar lesson, tell you more about that next time!) and we left to go to my friend’s flat for the girl’s prayer/Bible study group that I go to on a Tuesday night. That was a good evening, reflecting on God’s love.

On Wednesday I had to get up early to go to work for a couple of hours and then I met Ellie at the coach station in town so we could set off to explore the town of Fougères (to the NE of Rennes). It took an hour and ten minutes to get there and we arrived around lunchtime so our aim was to find the town centre, wander a little and then find somewhere to have lunch…only when we came to finding the town centre (we’d been dropped off at the station), we wandered through it without realising that it was the centre! It’s a small place which is quite spread out, and it didn’t help that a lot of shops closed for lunch so it seemed a bit dead. We enjoyed our lunch in a local Bar-restaurant and then set off to find the pride and joy of Fougères, which is a medieval castle. It took us a while to find that too, but when we did we enjoyed the view!

After that we climbed up high to a viewing point with a beautiful outlook, then back down and up to a garden and church and rejoined the centre of town before heading home. In the evening we chilled out over a nice meal and games, before getting up early in the morning to have breakfast together and say goodbye as I went off to work. Thanks for coming Ellie!

It’s now February half term over here, so I’ve got a week off which is nice. I don’t think I’m going to do much with it, but it’ll be a bit more peaceful in the house.

Love to you all,

Fiona x