So I am in La Baule, France right now visiting AnneJulie. For the ignorant (ok, I didn’t know for a while either…), La Baule is in the western part of France, and is on the Atlantic Ocean. I really like this town. It is, and I use this term loosely, a European Santa Barbara. I will be taking some pictures soon and will post them online. It is hard to explain exactly what this place is like until I get some pictures up. I have taken a few but they were at night and I do not feel they capture what this town is really like.
Saturday and Sunday, AnneJulie and I went to the beech. It is very nice. The water is warmer than the Pacific and the beach just smells nicer. The beach was packed both days we went.
To walk to the beach, we walked through the main street, which is similar to State Street in Santa Barbara. Once you finish walking through the street, you cross a 2 lane road that parallels the beach. There are a lot of apartments and buildings overlooking the beach, which is amazing. It reminds me of pictures that I have seen of Rio de Janeiro, just on a smaller scale.
There are a lot of American tourists here, according to AnneJulie’s brother. I haven’t seen many as it hard to really tell who is who. Her brother, Antoine, would know because he sells ice cream on the beach.
The language makes things difficult, but I am definitely getting better (the only way I can go is up, lol) at French. Of course, I still completely suck, but at this rate, I could be fluent in, oh, 200 years. The food has been really good so far. We always eat outside in the backyard since the weather is so nice. For those who are curious, they DO have Vanilla Coke here (Coca-Cola Vanille), and it tastes the exact same (Pepsi tastes slightly different). I love the bread here. It’s funny because in America, I don’t like a lot of the bread – I hate white and sourdough, which a lot of things are. Here, there hasn’t been a type of bread that I have tried that I did not like.
I am driving tomorrow, which will be interesting. AnneJulie’s mom broke three ribs (ouch!!!) so it is difficult for her to drive. We checked into it and my California Drivers License is good enough. The car covers me on the insurance, minus a deduction, if there is any accidents. I am not too worried about driving: things are different, but it’s not that different. I’ll just be more cautious. And NO, Europeans do NOT drive on the “opposite” side of the road. It is just like in the US. England is the only country that is opposite – and some former British colonies. If it were the opposite side of the road there would be NO WAY I would drive. That is just too weird for me.
Saturday and Sunday, AnneJulie and I went to the beech. It is very nice. The water is warmer than the Pacific and the beach just smells nicer. The beach was packed both days we went.
To walk to the beach, we walked through the main street, which is similar to State Street in Santa Barbara. Once you finish walking through the street, you cross a 2 lane road that parallels the beach. There are a lot of apartments and buildings overlooking the beach, which is amazing. It reminds me of pictures that I have seen of Rio de Janeiro, just on a smaller scale.
There are a lot of American tourists here, according to AnneJulie’s brother. I haven’t seen many as it hard to really tell who is who. Her brother, Antoine, would know because he sells ice cream on the beach.
The language makes things difficult, but I am definitely getting better (the only way I can go is up, lol) at French. Of course, I still completely suck, but at this rate, I could be fluent in, oh, 200 years. The food has been really good so far. We always eat outside in the backyard since the weather is so nice. For those who are curious, they DO have Vanilla Coke here (Coca-Cola Vanille), and it tastes the exact same (Pepsi tastes slightly different). I love the bread here. It’s funny because in America, I don’t like a lot of the bread – I hate white and sourdough, which a lot of things are. Here, there hasn’t been a type of bread that I have tried that I did not like.
I am driving tomorrow, which will be interesting. AnneJulie’s mom broke three ribs (ouch!!!) so it is difficult for her to drive. We checked into it and my California Drivers License is good enough. The car covers me on the insurance, minus a deduction, if there is any accidents. I am not too worried about driving: things are different, but it’s not that different. I’ll just be more cautious. And NO, Europeans do NOT drive on the “opposite” side of the road. It is just like in the US. England is the only country that is opposite – and some former British colonies. If it were the opposite side of the road there would be NO WAY I would drive. That is just too weird for me.
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