toussaint and obama!!!

pont aven ; 12th century chapel; quimper's own scotch

ancient celtic tomb; lighthouse x 3; guy we bought oysters from

rocky coastline cool cove

bernard and martine.................. glenn martine and i

loire valley

more loire

carnac...

what a great way to end vacation - am currently sitting in the Lieu Unique watching Obama's acceptance speech with tears streaming down my face and sniffling away. a little embarrassing but worth it.....

so i spent most of my toussaint break with the illustrious glenn gossett, world traveller extraordinaire. after a day or so here in nantes, letting him catch up on sleep, we were off to tours, where we stayed for the night and got horribly lost trying to get dinner. next day, off to taste wine in vouvray, chinon, and saumur. the rain held off long enough for us to enjoy the fall colors on the vines and take in some nice views of the river and the hills on either side. from there it was off to quimper, where we got lost again (sensing a theme here folks?) and where our mutual friend martine lives. she and her boyfriend bernard hopped in the car and the four of us spent the next 2 days driving all over the coast of brittany, seeing wonderfully rocky coastlines, ancient chapels, towering lighthouses, pretty little coves covered in beautiful pebbles and dotted with caves and german bunkers and of course dolmens and menhirs (celtic standing stones and tombs). had a magnificent dinner in pont aven, where van gogh used to hang out, at an old stone mill. also feasted one night on mussles and oysters and i was even brave enough to eat a RAW oyster! can you believe it??
anyway, back to nantes and spent his last night just chilling at the apt, enjoying treats from the traiteur such as homemade pates and tomatoes farcies, some tasty pastries and of course the lovely loire wine that glenn so graciously and generously obtained.

now it's back to work for me - ready to see my students again and continue my french adventure here in nantes....