Best weekend of my life!

Hey there all!  Life in France is going well as usual.  At this point I am pinching myself because I can't believe that it is real.  I received some great news!  My contact professor at my school told me that I have the opportunity to stay in France through the end of their school year, so of course I said yes.  Now instead of coming home at the end of April I will be coming home in the beginning of July.  I am so happy I can barely stand it!

Now for a little bit about my past weekend.  On Friday I went out about town with a few of my English speaking friends and met some of my friend's French friends who were super cool.  They apparently thought the same thing about me because the next day I was invited to a party at one of their houses.  The only thing was that the other American who was coming wasn't going to be able to arrive until around 12:30am so I would have to go alone.  I sucked it up and ignored the fear and went alone.  It turned out to be amazing!  I walked in and everyone was nice and wanted to have conversations with me (in French of course).  The next day I was invited to go hiking in a town 20min by car outside of Angers called Rochefort (where the bleu cheese is made).  Obviously I said yes so we all (there were 5 of us) hopped into the Nissan Cube and drove to the cute little town of Rochefort. 

The Cathedral at Rochefort

The town was absolutely beautiful and we went on an 8kn hike through the vineyards.  On the hike we saw a bunch of small, local French farms with animals.  It was absolutely picturesque.

After the beautiful hike we went to a small bar in Rochefort to buy some bottles of wine from the vineyards which by the way was excellent.  As we were sitting there having our wine and wonderful conversation the church bells began to ring.  Again, I can't believe that this is my life.  After awhile these two local older men sit down at the table next to us and we begin to discuss wine with them.  They told us that they had a cave de vin and that they made their own wine and that we should come back and taste some of it.  We said yes and all piled back into the Cube and were off.  The house was built in the 15th century and was absolutely beautiful.  The man let us try three of his wines which were all exquisite and he talked to us about the history of the area which was captivating.  Only three families had owned the house since it was built in the 1400s and at one time it had been a tannery.  He told us about the pirates that used to go down the Loire river and about the history of the wine in the area.  We ended up staying and talking until 11h00. 

We got back to Angers at 11h30 and STARTED to make our dinner which was a traditional French meal made from fresh local ingredients.  It was to die for and of course their was more wine.  Definitely the best Sunday of my life and we have all decided that le dimanche est le nouveau jeudi (Sunday is the new Thursday)! 


There is a large grêve (strike) in Angers and in all of France today concerning the rise in the required age for retirement.  As an American I find this absolutely hilarious that in the country where people work the least in the world they are striking because they might have to work a little more.  Anyways because of the strike the students at the lycée where I work also striked and barricaded the entrance so alas I did not have to work today.  I guess we will see what tomorrow brings.