Nantes (Part 1*)

I can't begin to describe how refreshing and wonderful was my weekend to Nantes. I went to this sixth largest city of France this past weekend to visit Alyssa (lyssybee123!) and see a little bit of "la provence," also known as not-Paris. I took my first TGV ride and arrived in beautiful, rainy Nantes late Friday night. It rains a lot in Nantes as it's only an hour away from the Atlantic Ocean, but even under gray skies I had a wonderful time exploring the city and catching up on Saturday with Alyssa. My favorite part of the day was spending some time in a small Salon de Thè in downtown Nantes with Alyssa and her friends. It was there, under the benevolent presence of the handwritten chalkboard menu and shelves of tea in white paper bags that I discovered Speculoos. What is this odd sounding thing you ask? I don't know exactly. All I can say is it looks like peanut butter and tastes like cookies and heaven. There was an open jar at our table, presumably for spreading on the house desserts at the Salon de Thè, but I might have employed a different method of degustation...needless to say my pantry now has a (half full) jar of Speculoos.
We spent all of Sunday with Alyssa's host family, which shall be referred to from now on as the greatest family of all time. They so generously allowed me to stay at their house while I was in Nantes, and on top of that, invited me to dine with them the entire time! I had a delicious weekend of traditional French meals (miam miam "crumbles"!) and I can now verify that Alyssa truly is "gâté" (spoiled). They also took me along with them on their day trip to Mesquers, an adorable seaside town where they have a small summer cottage. And the sea! It was so lovely walking along the beach listening to the childhood stories of Alyssa's host mom about her summers in Mesquers. My favorite was the one about how when she was little, there was a "bar à huitres," or oyster shop, right by the beach and the kids would pick the cutest, blondest child to go up to the bar and ask from way beneath the counter to have two servings of fried oysters. And as the owner was "vraiment gentil" he always gave them an entire bucket instead, which was duly shared with all the other children.
I left Sunday evening, after a delicious dinner and several rousing games of UNO and Dobble (I won like every round) with Alyssa and her host siblings. Paris seemed so large and "pressée" afterwards, but I am very glad to be back home. I missed my darling city of lights.

*I have so much I want to share about my weekend in Nantes, I'm relying on your sustained interest to read Part II! Pictures to follow :)