Spicy Wanderer: Small French Islands and Small French Cars

June 27 -

We woke up in Lorient had breakfast at the Hostel, typical French style - juice, coffee, yogurt, croissants and jam.

We then headed to the train station to catch our train to Auray, bus to Quiberon, and ferry to Belle Isle.

We had a picnic on the seawall when we arrived:

We found our way to the hostel, which we loved but also think it must be advertised in a hiking France for seniors book somewhere because we were pretty much the only people near our age other than Holly, our new Scottish friend who worked there at the time. For dinner we utilized the large kitchen and made a shrimp pasta. We bought some pre-seasoned shrimp, Farfalle pasta, butter, Parmesan cheese, and pepper, mixed it all up and served with a baguette.

June 28 -

We decided to rent a car for the day to get a chance to see the whole island, only about 10.5 by 5.5 miles. We could have no doubt biked around the island, many people hike it. (people over the age of 70 I might add) but it was rainy and we were feeling a bit lazy. We we tried speaking to the car rental people - who you might think would speak English but on an Island this small it was less common to find an English speaker. A very nice woman helped us find a car to rent because we were not 21, the age the company states you have to be to rent from them.. Nonetheless, she called a couple people and even for a discount, offered us a car. A very special car. It was an old, dented, stickers scratched off the back, creaky, broken door, Twingo. But we took it! When we got in the car and realized it was a manual, our plan was to drive smoothly off the lot and figure out how to drive it around the corner, as I have no idea and zero experience with stickshift, and Abi with only a short amount of practice. No other car was avalible for the 17 year old American girls to rent, so... After stalling about 4 times the cute french guy, with very twisted ideas of the safety of a New York City subway at night... tried to teach me how to drive. Still, not making it out of the lot without stalling the older French man with an earring got in the car and taught me how to drive manual like a pro with zero English other than the words "stop" and "slowly". YAY! and we were off! We thought we were headed out of the city, Le Palais, until somehow we got turned around and ended up right back where we were and stalled. As we stalled, two cars stopped behind us. Abi waved them around and the French man with the earring got out of his car and knocked on the window. Very embarrassing. Once we assured him we knew how to drive we were off again!

We had such a nice day driving around the island, we stopped in Sauzon for lunch. We shared what I think is called "Croque"but when I Google it, it comes up looking like the right thing but as a sandwich? Toasted bread, with tomato sauce, mozzarella, big slices of brie, and some some spices. yumyumyum.

Then we picked up some candy from a small candy shop, then to a bakery for road snacks for the day. Wayyy to much food.

We continued to drive around then returned the car after several kind locals helped us reverse the car when we needed. Once again I must crush the stereotype of the French being rude or stuck up. Not one bit. When we got back to the car lot there was another man who spoke some English also returning his rental car (most vacationers who vacation on Belle Isle are French it seemed.) This man translated for us a little bit with the man who taught us to drive a manual car. I was very happy to find out he thought we were fun to teach rather than annoying or slow. We went back to the hostel and sat at the bar and chatted with Holly.

My drink of choice while on Belle Isle:

June 29 -

We went to the beach with Holly and finished the candy from the day before.

Then we walked around town, all three of us got matching Celtic bracelets.

It was so interesting talking to Holly in the same language and not being able to understand each other sometimes. There is much slang that is used in the U.S. that is not used in Scotland and much slang used in Scotland that is not used in the U.S.... also the way the Scottish pronounce girl is "gettel" and we pronounce it "gurl". We LOVED her accent. Our conversations about Scottish vs. American English reminded me of a U.S.A. dialect quiz my friend Rebecca, who is awesome and from New Jersey shared with me. It shows how different people from different parts of the U.S. can speak. check it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0

June 30 -

We went into town in search for a large breakfast to a heartbreaking discovery, after three restaurants that the largest breakfast you can find in France is Coffee and croissants - I had to explain to a very nice, confused Frenchman, as we walked away from the sad display of the 'breakfast buffet' "We are Americans, we need a big breakfast!". We ended up having coffee and bread outside at a restaurant on the harbor - my dad's perfect breakfast.

We then went to the grocery store and picked up some eggs, bread, sausage, potatoes, onions and milk and juice - for a real American breakfast.

By the time we made it back up the hill to the hostel, made breakfast, and ate breakfast it was almost noon, and at one we were meeting Holly, and the English girl, Makayla, who would be taking her place, and Holly's French friend Chlem who worked at the hostel before Holly did and lived on Belle Isle for

lunch. Obviously we were stuffed when we got to the restaurant we ordered a pizza to share barley being able to eat anything. Chlem recommended a Brittany (the region of France Belle Isle belonged to) traditional pizza. Very unfortunatly the name of the pizza I can not remember but It was a different kind of ham I had never seen before and an egg in the middle.

Again we spent the evening in the hostel bar. Holly was showing Makayla what was what and we played connect four and Chlem played Frozen soundtracks in French - so cute!

Holly left early the next morning back to Scotland then the Spain to teach English to Spanish children (a quick moment to acknowledge how cool Holly is, she can speak English, French, Spanish and German!!!)

July 1-