Bienvenue à Nantes

So as part of my tedious degree in Mathematics and French, I am lucky enough to be able to spend a year abroad in Nantes, France. There are two of us from Exeter, myself and Louisa, and we have been here for about two weeks now. Seeing as so many people have told me how much of an unforgettable experience I am going to have over here I have decided that I don't want to forget anything so- viola! Mon blog! And what better way to start? I am sat in a quaint café with a cup of tea (feeling slightly too fragile to succumb to the French stereotypes and be drinking wine), with my new friends reflecting on the first two weeks of my “année sabbatique.”

When I found out where I had been placed I was so pleased, Nantes is paired with Cardiff and it wasn't until I got here that I realised how many similarities there actually are. The city is so much more beautiful than I ever imagined. It's lively and modern offering a remarkable student lifestyle, but still has such stunning architecture and the French elegance associated with cities like Paris without the touristic and cosmopolitan traits.

The weeks leading up to actually leaving I had such mixed feelings. Having had an amazing summer in Cardiff and at festivals with my friends, I was both nervous and excited. I was pretty impressed at how uncharacteristically calm I was, until it came to parting with my toiletries due to the weight limits on my case- that was a nightmare!

I flew out from Stansted on the 30th August armed with advice from so many people telling me to enjoy myself and to completely throw myself into the experience, and of course, the generation-typical word of warning from my Grandma- “Don’t you go bringing back any frogs when you come home!” I met Lou and her parents in the airport whilst frantically trying to get my suitcase down to Ryanair’s strict 20kg allowance and several pairs of shoes less, a few tears from Mum and some goodbye hugs later we were through security and already embracing French culture with a glass of wine.

We flew to Poitiers, about an hour from Nantes, and stayed with Lou’s Grandparents, Pat and Colin, for the first few days. They wined and dined us from the minute the bar opened at about 11am and I was treated like a princess. It was nice to be welcomed so enthusiastically when I was so nervous about my year ahead.

The day finally came when we were to move into our apartment Louisa had found for us over the summer (I will be eternally grateful for her amazing hard work in sorting out our flat). The car was packed with all our clothes, saucepans from Lou’s grandparents and a lovely set of bedding. Let me tell you about THE bedding. We’d had a lip-biting-to-stifle-the-laugh moment when Pat had ever so generously bought down the ‘beautiful’ bedding from Harrods for Lou. It was powder blue satin with blue frilly pillows and she was “not to get any ideas because it was very sexy.” Lou’s face was an absolute picture! Even the sheet was satin so she’d have been slipping and sliding all over the shop. The picture doesn’t really do it justice but here we go...

Anyway, back to moving in. After a tedious half an hour nodding and pretending to understand what our “gestionnaire” was saying, writing “lu et approuve” and signing pages and pages of French documents, we were given the keys and unloaded the car. I was so overwhelmed by how homely the flat felt straight away. It was so open and spacious with double beds and a huge balcony- perfect! Although we have no oven, which is apparently normal in France? I’m unconvinced, no frozen pizzas for us this year.

We set about our first day of French life in style with a two euro bottle of wine (or two) and lots of cheese and pâté on our balcony. It wasn’t long before we nervously got ready and decided that is was our mission to go and make friends in the centre. Off we went, spurred on with confidence from the questionable wine, we went to a few bars, ended up drinking a few too many cocktails, got offered a job translating randomly by a German guy, had a huge heart to heart and only met a completely weird man munching on monkey nuts. “Ah Shit are these your peanuts?” So Day one- mission aborted. However I found a pub with a Welsh flag outside, I will forever be patriotic, no matter how sick I get of explaining that I am from “Pays de Galles en Grande Bretagne” NOT England.

Day Two

Aims

- Enrol in University

- Open a bank account

- Get a French phone

- Set up our electricity bill

- Make friends

- Kit out our flat

Results

We bought a bin and a mop. We ran around like headless chickens trying to enrol. We couldn’t get a bank account until we had a student card (which requires successfully enrolling in uni) and proof of address like a bill or something which we couldn’t get until we had a bank account- stress galore. We got French phones, mine is just about colour screen. Louisa cried at some crabs in the supermarket. We both moaned and sulked because our (so far) easy adaptation to French life had come to an abrupt halt with a mental slap in the face having realised that we can’t actually speak French and the hours of time we spent translating passages by Voltaire or Rousseau was, just as we expected, COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY USELESS. Oh and how could I forget? I got bitten alive and had some sort of ulcer thing growing on my arm from an allergic reaction. BANGIN’. We were emotionally unstable that day to say the least.

On a brighter note, we did make friends! When we got home the night before, Louisa had a friend request from a guy that a friend had put her in contact with from Cardiff University. It turned out that I already knew him through my old Drama teacher at school as we had both applied for languages at Exeter and now we were in Nantes together. Liam- it’s fate babes. We went for drinks with him and three girls (Claire, Ellie and Annie) who we got on with really well with straight away. It made me realise what a small world we live in when I realised that I went to primary school with Annie for a few years, and have so many friends in common with them all. It was so nice to talk about home and it really cheered me up after a pretty stressful day.

We arranged to meet them again for lunch the next day and cemented our routine for the next few days- card games, wine, mocking welsh accents and baguettes. Bloody baguettes! So unbelievably sick of bread right now, but with the French people’s laid back attitude to their working lives resulting in the most bizarre opening hours, baguettes have become a staple food in our diets. That night we had pre drinks in our flat, all of us were feeling slightly more comfortable now we actually had friends, albeit English speaking ones, and then we made attempt one of hitting the Nantes nightlife. After munching on carrots (the only decent food we had), a rowdy tram journey with phantom earthquakes and what Exeter “lads” would deem “BANTERRR” on the tram we traipsed round the city looking for a night club. Having dragged Annie away from heroin addicts as she desperately tried to practice her French we eventually got to the club and it was full. Nantes nightlife 1 Etudiants Etrangères 0.

We made several attempts after that to conquer the night clubs of Nantes but failed every time. For Claire’s 21st we tried again; after drinks with her lovely family we went to another club, but the no flip flop rule meant another failed attempt. The third time we wanted to go to the gay bar, but everyone wanted to save themselves as my friends were visiting the next day. And the fourth time, we walked for a good half an hour (with one boy on crutches) to find that the club was closed for one night only for maintenance. When we have eventually figured out the nightlife I hope to be able to give a more positive description, however I have found some amazing cocktail bars which do killer margaritas, so you can’t say I don’t have my priorities right- You can take the girl out of Wales...

To try to further our experience of French culture we decided to go and see “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” in French. After I got over the giggles of seeing the Harry Potter trailer dubbed over in to French, with Voldemort shouting “’ARRRYYY POTERRRR!” I must say I became quite accustomed to hearing Nicholas Cage speak such eloquent French.

One of the main tourist attractions of Nantes was the mechanical elephants so many people had told us about so we went on a mission to find them. With Ellie moaning about how she was never going to drink again, and us all rocking the post-night out glow we got to the elephants only to be completely confused as to why someone would make a 20foot mechanical elephant. It was absolutely fascinating but just so weird.

We have already experienced our first strike. I could not believe how big it was! On a scale of one to ten on the havoc scale, it was an absolute pain in the arse. The crowds swarmed the tram lines in such masses only comparable to Cardiff on a Rugby International day. They had marches, speakers and make shift bars going on with little children running around with signs, it was crazy! However, I fought temptation and obeyed our international co-ordinator’s rules not to get involved with any strikes under any circumstances. No fun.

I had my first visitors yesterday, Sam, Ollie, Matt and Dale, came to visit on their journey down the west coast to surf. It was so lovely to see them and I had such a good night. Ollie was on crutches bless him but the boys fitted in well. Highlights were Liam’s flooring comment to Dale:

*Dale weeing in public* (LAD)

Liam- Oh my god your willy is so small!

Dale- Well the women at the clinic were impressed

Liam- What, impressed with your confidence?

Hahaha it really made me laugh. The night finished with the closed club, drunken cooking, lots of chats and group tooth brushing. All-in-all it was très amusant.

It’s been such an emotional roller coaster being here. I have laughed a lot and really enjoyed making new friends and immersing myself in French culture. Apart from the one mare of a day when we failed miserably at sorting our lives out, today was the first day I got upset. It is my sister’s leaving for university/birthday party and I just really wish I was there. It is days like this when you realise how far away you actually are and that it’s not like being at Exeter where I could just jump on a train when I needed to. I really miss my friends and family at home, along with the comforts of being looked after. However I am so thankful to the friends I now have here who have been my safety blanket whilst we all try and adapt to our foreign surroundings. I am pleased to say not all French people fit the stereotype of being rude and they are all really helpful when you start your conversation with “Bonjour, je suis une étudiante Erasmus.” I was so surprised by how many homeless people there are though. Some of the people are so beautiful, but then there are also so many sleazy men and some of the people have the weirdest fashion sense I have ever seen! They seem to be extremes here- really fashionable and chic people you would imagine to live in Paris and then people who walk around in parachute trousers and bandanas- très bizarre. Nantes, like I said, is an absolutely stunning city and it is fast becoming very homely. The vast amount of kebab shops and the fact they have H&M and Zara also make it feel more like I am back in Cardiff but just with a few more ornate buildings and a less aggressive accent!

Thus far, I have thoroughly enjoyed my first two weeks in France. I have made friends I feel so comfortable with, we have settled in to out flat, we are pros at getting the tram and have done the cowboys of the Wild West proud on the card-playing front (a card laid is a card played). We start university on Monday which will bring an end to our current day-to-day life of lazing in cafés and spending money on ridiculous things. Ellie has her bras, she has defrosted her mince and has bought her bin bags, Lou has embarked on a quest to find herself a French man, Claire and I have become wifi queens, Annie (Madame) has successfully become card-bearer and Liam has perfected being able to disguise his saucy talk with his boyfriend on Skype whilst in a room full of French students. I on the other hand still can’t speak French, have somehow run up a huge phone bill even though it is free for people to ring me and have lasted two whole weeks without my beloved BRITISH diet coke. I feel I have grown as a person.