Daily activities, Breton dancing, and more!

Hello everyone!

I meant to post an update at the end of last week, but due to a lack of internet connection, I was unable to do so. With that said, I will attempt to fill you in on what we've been up to the past week.

Last week on Monday (June 25th), we had our first concours de desserts. For this event, each stagiaires is charged with making a dessert with their family that we then bring to school for everyone to enjoy once classes are finished. They were also asked to find the story behind the dessert (if there is one), and to acquire a copy of the recipe for future enjoyment. In attempt to avoid an overwhelming amount of desserts, we split the concours into three parts according to the color of their group (red, white, or blue) and decided to have 3 different days for the concours (the 25th, yesterday, and next monday). Last Monday was the Blues' turn, and MANY delicious desserts were brought and enjoyed:

Then, this week, we enjoyed the Whites' desserts:

We eagerly await our final concours this coming monday (July 9th)!

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Apart from the concours, we have also been busy preparing for the end of the séjour farewell show. While each stagiaire will already be participating in either theatre or the chorus, we have decided to supplement our acts with some short skits, which will act more or less as commercials. Below you will see some promos of what they've been cooking up:

Some pics from a different day's rehearsal:

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As I mentioned above, we have also been working on a couple plays and numerous songs for the farewell show. Since Amber and I run the theatre portion, I can fill you in a little on what we've been doing. Due to time constraints, we typically spend our theatre time rehearsing and trying to better understand the slight nuances of the language itself. Below you will see a couple pictures of our repetitions:

(I hope to get some pictures of the chorale soon!)
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Finally, this past Friday, we had an really fun night of traditional Breton dancing. Below you will find 3 links to 3 different videos of the dancers that came to demonstrate and then teach us the steps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftSiAfr-CC4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sElWzn3_8_c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ3cJO4ETqU&feature=youtu.be

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All in all, we have been having a great time and everyone is shocked at how fast the time is flying by. Only a little over 2 weeks left before Paris! Madness!!

But yes, tomorrow is our reception at City Hall, so I will be sure to take some pictures to commemorate the occasion and will surely be updating soon.

Bonne journée !

Jamie

Two-day excursion in Normandy!

Howdy!

Quite a bit to talk about this time, since this past Thursday and Friday (June 21 & 22) was our 2-day trip to Normandy!

DAY ONE

Rising quite early, we headed out of Saint-Brieuc at 7:30 in the morning to start our little adventure. After our relatively short bus ride, we arrived at our first destination:

Mont Saint-Michel


Although I could go on and on talking about Mont Saint-Michel and its history, I'll just give you the following link which leads to the official tourism page if you're interested: http://www.ot-montsaintmichel.com/index.htm?lang=en

Below you will find a couple pictures:

(I would like to thank Larry for these pictures, as my camera decided that it was a perfect time to malfunction. Merci !!)

Mont Saint-Michel!

A semi-successful group photo (the friendly passerby
unfortunately didn't realize that we wanted Mont
Saint-Michel in the background...)

Le cloître ... which I think we call the cloister (?)

The second pillar in is an original!

Some of the stagiaires trying to keep dry while
eating their lunches

After the long hike up to the Mont and our exploration of both the Église and the town, we headed off to our next destination:

La Pointe du Hoc


This marks the start of our exploration of WW2. La Pointe du Hoc is a reminder of the war's devastating effect on the landscape. It was here that the U.S. Army Ranger Assault Group attacked the German soldiers during Operation Overlord. Read more about the Pointe here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointe_du_Hoc

After our time at the Pointe du Hoc, we headed off to...

The American Cemetery and Memorial


After taking their first steps back into the US in a couple weeks (where, despite being the States, they were still required to speak French!), the stagiaires had the opportunity to explore the cemetery itself, the museum, and even walk on Omaha Beach. Read more about it and watch a short video here: http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/no.php

Although it was nice and sunny for most of the visit, as soon as we got to the beach, it decided to storm for a whole 3 minutes. Enjoy our feeble attempts to protect ourselves below:

Just before the storm...

After our trip ended, we headed to the hostel for dinner and some much deserved rest.

DAY TWO

We awoke early the next day and headed off to...

La Cambe: German Military Cemetery


After having experienced the American Cemetery the first day, we started off the second day with the German Cemetery, the stark contrast of which is remarkable. Read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Cambe_German_war_cemetery or here: http://www.cpmac.com/spip/spip.php?article100349

Tumulus and statues 

The contrast between the German and American cemeteries
is outstanding

After this, we went directly to Bayeux, the home of the famous Tapestry.

The Bayeux Tapestry


Here, the stagiaires had the chance to see this tapestry, dating back almost 1000 years, and also visit the cathedral where it was once housed. Read more about the tapestry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry and the cathedral: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Cathedral

A quaint spot before we reached the Tapestry.
Which means...

Group photo!!!

The cathedral

A peek inside

After this, we headed back to Caen to see...

The Caen Memorial


I didn't happen to take pictures while inside the memorial, but the sheer magnitude of the place and the overwhelming amount of information and history cannot really be expressed by pictures anyway. Feel free to click this link to see the memorial's website: http://www.memorial-caen.fr/portailgb/

Another group photo just outside the Caen Memorial

After the memorial, we took a stroll through the British Garden, where everyone, very tired, decided to take a little rest on the grass before heading back to Saint-Brieuc.

Well, that's about it for now. Our next excursion isn't for another two weeks, but I'll surely be updating before then, since our Breton dance night is this upcoming Friday. It's going to be great!!

à bientôt,

Jamie