Inside Student BlogsOf Fun and FireNantes, Spring 2012
This isn’t going to be a post about my normal weekend routine, because the only thing routine about my weekends is that I usually say yes to any adventure that comes my way. A while ago, that adventure meant going with some other students (a mixture of IES students and French students) to the beach of Saint-Nazaire, a city on the Atlantic ocean just a half an hour west of Nantes.
It was spectacular. I have never before really experienced the beach–not with the time to settle in for several hours, leaving shoes and socks behind, running, exploring, setting up a little camp. I did step into the water a bit, but it was far too frigged (while this post is coming after my post about St. Malo, it actually happened before). It made my feet hurt with cold just from stepping in. And yet the air above was wonderful. Once the sun has slid behind the waters which had been lit on fire by its descent, we started our own fire in the little area pictured below.
Then, a few weekends ago was the Carnival of Nantes, during which there was also lots of fire. Sadly, this was not the planned, controlled, or enjoyable kind. It also occurred right in the path of a parade that was about to get started, making it difficult to get to for firefighters, and requiring a massive crowd to displace itself to the parade’s alternative route.
Once we did find the parade, it wasn’t ready to get going. So, because the parade wasn’t going past us, fellow IES student Charlene and I walked pas the parade. The floats were mostly about different stories, and had a particularly enjoyable depiction of Hansel and Gretel.
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- Fellow IES student Jordan and I at the beach.
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- Looking out at the dunes of Saint-Nazaire
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- This was our little camp for our beach adventure.
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- Enjoying the sunset.
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- Our friend Yasmine at the beach.
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- Me with fellow IES student Kristin (who obviously isn’t nearly as into this picture as I am).
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- The Atlantic Sunset.
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- Our group absorbing the last few rays of sun.
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- Jordan, Adrien, and the sun.
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- You can see these people looking rather worriedly at the sky, which is full of smoke (ok, you can’t see that part).
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- Everyone fleeing the area where the fire was.
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- More worried looks.
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- Ok, here you can actually see the billowing smoke. When you were closer you could smell it too.
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- Here you can see the story of Little Red Riding Hood, nicely wrapped up in a parade float.
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- Here are the Spartans.
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- A float complete with Hansel, Gretel, and witch head.
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- A close up of Hansel.
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