Weekend in Bretagne

A few weeks ago, Jacqueline and I left the sunny southern coast of France to set off for the rainy west. Apparently the sun likes us a lot, because it followed us all the way there and we had a beautiful, rainless weekend in Bretagne.

Arriving at the gare in Rennes:

We stayed with a senior couple who I had the privilege of tutoring in the MTC--the Harrises. I knew that they were going to be awesome missionaries, as their French was already great and they both had such an enthusiasm for the work. They both served their missions in (mostly northern) France when they were younger, but were excited to serve now in a different area of France. And I can see why! Rennes is just the cutest little town-- so clean and nice with flowers growing everywhere. Apparently there's a rating system for little towns in France, and it's out of four flowers. Rennes has three, but I think it should be at least three and a half, if not four. Oh, plus they have not one but two carousels. That ought to get them some bonus points.

Right after they picked us up from the train station, we went with the Harrises to the chapel where we got to sit in  on the institute class that Elder Harris was teaching. He'd told us that there was only going to be two other young adults there, but by the end of the class, there was ten! Not bad. It was a wonderful lesson about faith and repentance, and we both really felt the spirit there. Elder Harris is a great teacher!

Jacqueline in front of the church with an institute manual.

The next morning, we got to take a look around the little morning market in Rennes. It was filled with fruit, veggies, and lots of older people. We felt so young!

I LOVE green beans.

Jacqueline wanted to buy just one melon, but apparently you had to buy three. And then he threw in a fourth one as well for free. Good thing they were good! By the way, Meg, every time I eat cantaloupe I think of you!

Isn't this just adorable? We were obsessed.

Who knew that carrots could come in other colors than orange? Blew my mind.

After the market, we boarded a bus headed up north to go see le Mont Saint-Michel. I loved it. Mostly I loved how it is exactly like all the picture you always see of it. I have this weird thing about imagining places before I see them and it often takes me a while to try and wrap my mind around what it really is like versus what I'd imagined, but I'm happy to say that this was exaclty as I'd imagined it.

On the way, this girl on the bus heard us speaking in English and struck up a conversation with us. Her name is Bita, from North Carolina, and when Jacqueline said she was DC, she was like, "yeeah, that must be why you guys seem different. People from DC always seem a little bit different" (like, in a good way). We just kind of laughed to each other. Yeah, maybe it's the DC thing. Maybe the Mormon thing. Either way.

We are seriously perfectioning our jumping pictures.

Take off!

Before going in, we took a little walk around the outside of the island, and tried not to sink in the quicksand. Just kidding, we weren't really sinking, but I could see how it might be possible.

More jumping.

I loved all these cute little store signs.

Up in the abbey

This is a little piece of the mountain that the abbey is built on. It's so cool how they just built right around it.

In the little courtyard with the cloisters.

With our new friend, Bita.

This is the wheel that Rick said at one point was used by prisoners to haul things up. He said that prisoners would walk inside it "hamster style."

Another pretty courtyard.

A little souvenir golden angel... Michael, not Moroni.

We finished off our great morning the best way we know how: with ice cream. :)

Once again, the Harrises were kind enough to pick us up from the bus station, and then they took us to see this amazingly beautiful park in the middle of Rennes: Parc Thabor.

They had an honest-to-goodness rose garden that had about every different kind of rose you can imagine, all with different names--ranging from "Marilyn Monroe" to "humanity."

les Harris!

I wanted to cut these flowers and take them home with me, but I refrained.

Elder Harris playing the drums!

One day when I'm a crazy cat lady, I'm going to grow flowers like this in my yard.

 Next up, we went and visited this charming little village called Vitré. It was seriously adorable, with its cute churches and castle. We were a great group together-- the Harrises didn't even mind our exclamations about how cute everything was.

This crazy organ inside the church.

The door of the church:

Little town, it's a quiet village. Every day, like the one before.

Au chateau!

More jumping, in front of the castle de Vitré.

We scared Elder Harris by sitting on top of this little wall. He was afraid we were going to fall off into the gulf below.

Elder Harris spotted the teeny tiniest hummingbird I've ever seen in my whole life. We debated for a minute whether or not it was just a giant bee.

The other cute little church in town:

An old picture of the street in front of the cathedral as it used to be:

And voilà, how it looks today:

I don't know if you can see how that building in the middle has little fleurs de lis stamped all over it. So adorable.

The cutest train station ever.

I was especially excited to go to church on Sunday, having heard from the Harrises for about a year now about this family in their ward that recently got sealed in the temple. In sacrament meeting, the bishop asked Jacqueline and I to bear our testimonies, and I talked a bit about how much of a blessing my mission has been in my life. After church, these two cute women were waiting to talk to me. "Soeur!" they yelled, "We're from New Caledonia!" And voilà, my New Cal family just got bigger. It was so fun to talk with them just know that we share the same love of a far-off land. It was even cooler because the lady on the left also had grandparents who came from Japan, where Jacqueline served her mission. What a small small world we live in.

The Harrises had told Soeur Muliava, the sister who got baptized a year ago, that we would be at church today and she came bearing cake and tomatoes and artichoke just for us! I almost cried it was so nice, and the bread-pudding cake did, in fact, remind me of New Cal. The other sister gave me her phone number and said that if I were ever back in Rennes, I could stay with her whenever I wanted.

After church, we had a magical drive through the legendary forest of Brocéliande-- where Merlin is said to have lived. Even if it's not tout-à-fait true, we decided to just believe it for the afternoon anyway.

We saw a very sad-looking, disappointing fountain of youth:

No, we didn't drink from that stagnant water. Somehow I don't think it would produce the desired effects.

And saw these cute little fairy-made rock piles.

And finally, Merlin's tomb!

Also a bit disappointing. We figured they could have at least put a little sign or something in front of it, but it was just two stones (he and his wife are both buried here). But alas...

The cute houses we passed on our drive:

And we finished the day off (after searching in vain for the "giants' tomb") at the Chateau de Trécesson. It was just beautiful! Even though the water in front was brown, you couldn't tell because of how it reflected the castle and the sky. The castle was my favorite color of brick-- kind of a gray/purple color. Just beautiful!

All in all, it was one AMAZING weekend. We completely fell in love with la Bretagne (although our opinion might be a bit skewed because of the out-of-the-ordinary good weather. We'll need to go back and see if we still love it as much when it's pouring rain). We also couldn't get over how kind and welcoming everyone was, most especially the Harrises. It was so great to be able to stay with them and see what great work they're doing here with the Young Adults in their ward. We had some good laughs and good discussions together, and it was definitely one of our favorite weekends here in France so far. They sent us home with all kinds of snacks and the best bananas we've ever eaten in our whole lives. We would have loved to have been able to stay longer, but we had to get back to work here in Toulon.

Merci mille fois, les Harris! On vous aime!