So I have officially arrived in Rennes, France. It seemed like it was going to be an impossible mission but somehow I got there. This is my first time visiting Europe and living by myself so it’s been very interesting on both accounts. I am also here with my friend Sophie from Carleton and we are living in the same house together. The first 24 hours of leaving Canada and getting to Rennes have probably been the most hectic and crazy 24 hours of my life but it has also been a great learning experience.
Throughout this blog I will be giving some helpful hints for anyone planning on going to France in case you are ever in a similar situation.
It seems like a pretty straight forward thing to do but of course Sophie and I didn’t think it was important because we assumed that the plane was like any other normal flight we have taken where the plane was not so big. However, we were not sitting next to each other and we were in different sections of the four-part plane. The plane ride itself was nice and it was overnight so I got time to sleep and relax a little bit. I even got to practice my French with two young Parisian children. Once we landed, everyone rushed off the plane which made it impossible to find Sophie so I assumed that since we were in terminal 2E and we had to get to 2G that it really wouldn’t be that far and I could just easily meet up with her at the terminal.
It turns out that terminal 2G was nowhere near terminal 2E and to get to it you had to take a train, half a dozen up and down escalators, go through customs and security, and take a bus - all within the same airport! Also we landed at 8:40 a.m. and we had to get to our terminal for a 9:35 a.m. flight but boarding ended at 9:15 a.m. Of course it took about an hour to get to our terminal and I was just five minutes too late to board. I also had no idea where Sophie was. I looked around for about 10 minutes at the terminal and found out that she also missed the plane so we went to find a desk clerk to help us out.
We then had to find another way to Rennes which apparently was only by train since all the other flights were booked solid. After talking to a desk clerk for about half an hour we ended up getting tickets to Rennes by train and a free meal voucher for any restaurant in the airport for our inconvenience.
Before we got to our fancy restaurant we had to find our luggage. The desk clerk explained to us how to get our baggage but it was in another area you had to take a bus to get to, which was quite confusing. Once inside I asked four or five people to guide us to the area of our baggage, in French. If you speak English to people they will attempt to speak it back to you and some are much better than others but the people here are much more comfortable speaking French. At first I was scared to speak French but speaking English wasn’t working very well so I changed over. Just make sure that you are confident in what you are saying and they will try and understand you, even if you don’t make much sense. We finally found our luggage and went to the nearest and fanciest restaurant in the airport!
Our meal voucher included a free drink, meal and dessert. I ended up getting a salad with grilled chicken and Sophie got a potato pancake with smoked salmon. Once we got to dessert we were so full we couldn’t even finish them! I got a really good rhubarb tart while Sophie got a really chocolatey one. They were delicious and it was unfortunate that since we were so full from our actual meal, we couldn’t fully enjoy it. I ended up eating most of it but I had wished I saved more room for the dessert. The meal was a nice break from the craziness we had dealt with before.
After eating, we walked over to the train terminal within the airport, waited for a bit and loaded our bags onto to our train. The train took about three hours, which was longer than the original one hour plane ride we were supposed to take but the French countryside was beautiful enough that it was worth it. Unfortunately I did not take many photos as I slept for most of the ride because I was so exhausted. My goal for the next time I’m on the train is to watch the countryside.
Once in Rennes we took a very short taxi to our house which was on a very small skinny road with old-looking buildings. In Rennes all the streets and the houses are very old and so all the roads and the houses are very close together. It’s very different because in Canada things are very spread out, roads are very big and everyone has big cars. Here everything is smaller and more compact including the cars. I have only seen one van since we have gotten here. All other cars are very small.
At the house we were let in by one of our roommates, Jean-Lou,p who was very nice and switched between speaking English and French to us. We have two other roommates but they have gone away for the weekend so we will not meet them until Sunday or Monday. The house is large and spacious with a five bathrooms, but mostly half bathrooms (just a toilet or just a toilet and sink). There are also four cats that live next door who like to come and wander into our house, looking for attention. We met Happy yesterday who is a cute little kitten.
We eventually looked at our rooms which were made in a very strange way. We have kind of like an apartment within a house where we have our own little bathroom out in the open and two rooms that are separated by a wall but no actual doors. It’s a strange setup and not what we were expecting, but overall we have spacious rooms. We just need to make our own doors for each room with sheets or something.
I don’t think either of us expected how crazy today was going to be and neither us had ever expected we would have missed a plane! Just make sure you expect the worst and that way you are prepared for everything. After that experience I feel I can deal with anything but hopefully our next airport experience is not that hectic.
Until next time!
Jonathan