The runway

Because my abroad program works on the local university schedule we had another week-long break last week. I traveled to Italy with four other girls on my program. We found a flight for 35 euro that was direct Nantes-Rome (super rare!) for the Thursday night before the vacation. Thursday we got in quite late so we just got settled in our airbnb and got some rest before our packed sightseeing schedule in the days to come.


Friday we did a loop of all of the major Rome sights. It was lovely to walk around the city and see everything! We visited the Roman Forum, The Colleseum, the Trevi Fountain, and the Panthenon. We also of course ate pasta, pizza and gelato! One of the things I miss most about home is my mom’s Italian cooking! So it was great to have some real pasta!

The Roman Forum

Saturday we visited the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. I loved seeing the Sistine Chapel, definitely worth such a long wait in line! Funnily enough, I ended up running into one of my friends who is studying in Rome in the Sistine Chapel. Such a random and funny run in, and great to see another friend from school abroad!

Mules abroad!

Sunday the weather was BEAUTIFUL! We were all able to wear sundresses! We walked for a bit along the river Tibre to the Jewish Quarter. We had lunch there and I got this delicious fresh pasta with artichoke sauce. After lunch we walked nearly from city limit to city limit to get to the modern art museum that is just barely in Rome. It was quite a walk, but the beautiful weather helped us! The museum was really cool and definitely worth it. We ate an early dinner on our way back to our airbnb to prepare for the next leg of our adventure the following morning.

Monday morning at 9am we were picked up by the driver that took us to Positano! Positano is a small town on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. It was definitely the most beautiful place I have ever been. The town is mostly vertical with winding roads of beautiful villas, stores, merchants and restaurants that wind all the way down the beautiful cliffs until you get to the small inlet beach. On our way to Positano we stopped in Pompeii and saw the ruins of the ancient civilization in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius. I think this was my favorite day in Italy because we got to see such a cool archeological site as well as the breathtaking views of going to and arriving on the Amalfi coast.

Driving to Positano. Incredible views!

On Tuesday we hung out at the beach for most of the day. The air was warm and it was so sunny. The water was a little bit chilly, but once we got used to it it was beautiful. We also did a lot of shopping in the little shops all around Positano.



Wednesday we had another beach day before heading back to Rome. Wednesday was a bit warmer so we went swimming more. The water was also clearer this day (if that’s even possible). It was so easy to swim because the water was so clear and very salty so we floated very easily. Swimming out far in the beautiful turquoise Mediterranean with Brigit and Fernanda and looking back up at the cliffs of Positano, and down the rocky coastline was definitely my favorite memory from the trip. If I could live in that moment forever, I would.


Wednesday we went back to Rome before we would all split off Thursday morning. One friend would stay in Rome, I headed back to France to spend the remainder of the vacances with my host family in Piriac, and the others headed to Venice. We stayed in a small airbnb that was owned by an old Italian couple. They didn’t speak English but the man spoke a little French so we got by on that. I got pasta for my last dinner in Italy before going to bed early to prepare for my 5:30am wakeup to get to the airport to head back to France.
I felt very accomplished arriving in La Baule and seeing my host parents pulling up to pick me up! I had lots of legs on this international voyage from Rome to a tiny beach town in France and I did it all by myself! My first time traveling alone I was a little nervous so I’m glad it all went off without a hitch.
The next few days in Piriac were lovely! Unlike two weekends before there was not a cloud in the sky. It was great to relax and spend time with my host family! By Monday when I returned to school I had gone five days without speaking a word of English. Even though I was on vacation, I did a lot of learning this vacation too! I was almost always referencing words in my French-English dictionary app when I heard my host parents conversing with their friends or one another. I filled up quite a few pages in my language journal.


And now I have returned to Nantes for the last time…how can it be?
Brigit, Hannah and I started planning our final trip to Marseille and Nice. My flight home was originally for the day after my program ended around 11am, meaning I would have had to catch a 5 or 6am TGV to get to Paris in time. Thinking about leaving Nantes in such a hurry and in the dark of the early morning sounds dreadful, so I’m glad I don’t have to do that (Thanks Mom and Dad!) Our flight to Marseille is the evening after our program ends, so I will get to spend Saturday with my host family before saying goodbye. I’m so excited to spend my last week in France with Hannah and Brigit! After spending a semester in rainy Bretagne it will be lovely to end in the south and to be done with school. Definitely the best start to summer!

Life in France has been wonderful lately! It makes me so sad that I am leaving less than three weeks. I truly can’t believe it.

Before jetting off to Italy for the vacances I had some memorable moments here in Nantes!
Friday, April 1st, “April Fool’s Day” in America is “poisson d’avril” in France. In this holiday, celebrated by French schoolchildren, the students make small paper fish that they stick on their teacher’s and each other’s backs. I had my teaching internship with one of the younger, rowdier bunches and I certainly left with fish on my back. My favorites were one carefully decorated by one girl, Madeline, who thinks I am her long lost older sister because we closely resemble one another. Her fish (top) says: “Tu sens le poisson!” (You smell of fish!”) The one on the bottom has a message written on the back: “Ce n’est pas une blague. Tu es tres belle et tu es tres gentille je t’aime.” (It’s not a joke. You’re very pretty and nice I love you.)

Merci les filles!

That weekend I visited Angers, another city in France with two of my friends. I missed a museum field trip when I went to Strasbourg so I had to make up the visit and luckily Hannah and Fernanda were willing to join me. It was quite fast on the TGV, only 40 minutes. The museum was lovely and it was nice to see another nearby city.

Having some fun in the Musée des beaux arts d'Angers

When I got home from the museum on Saturday afternoon, my host family decided that they wanted to go to their beach house in Piriac for the night into Sunday. I joined them and it was lovely! We went out to dinner on the way which was really fun. On Sunday my host dad and Louis showed me around Piriac-sur-mer, a small, typical Bretagne beach village. It is very old-fashioned and charming!

petit Louis!

Loving life in Nantes and can’t believe I have to leave so soon.