The Final Part of the Adventure (Rennes)

So I had left my job in Brittany and ended up completing my Year Abroad in Rouen. But I still had a non-refundable hotel booking and flight in Rennes. This meant that I needed to finish my lessons early on my last day of school, take a train to Paris St-Lazare, go on the metro to Paris Montparnasse, and finally take the train to Rennes. It was a bit of a stressful journey in rush hour traffic, and it was already night by the time I arrived.

However, the good thing was that my flight was at 13:15 the next day, so I had some time to explore the city in the morning. And this is what I saw...

Palais Saint-Georges

La Mairie

The Opera House

Basilique Saint-Sauveur

Cathédrale Saint-Pierre

Portes Mordelaises

Tour Duchesne

Église Toussaints

I didn't know much about Rennes before I went, so I was surprised at how many beautiful and ornate buildings there were in the city centre. Overall, my stay there was like a mini holiday, and it was a really nice way to finish my Year Abroad.

This was the last place I visited, but I haven't quite finished with the blog yet. However, my next post is going to be my final one...

Le Havre

One weekend, I decided to take the train to Le Havre, as I particularly wanted to visit Musée Malraux, an art gallery with many impressionist paintings.

The gallery is right by the ocean and has glass walls so you can see the sea, which makes it a really nice setting. Another advantage is that it's not too busy, unlike other galleries I've visited over the last year, such as Musée d'Orsay and the Uffizi gallery. I enjoyed looking at the impressionist paintings in the permanent collection, and also the exhibition that was taking place at the time (Né(e)s de l'écume et des rêves), an art collection inspired by the sea.

Afterwards, I explored the city, which was mostly destroyed during World War Two and rebuilt in the years that followed.

Buildings I saw included St. Joseph's Church...

...the cathedral...                                 

...and the city hall.

Before going back, I went for a ride on the funicular railway. There are very good views from the top. It made me think of Valparaíso!

I found Le Havre to be a really interesting place for a day out, especially for people who like art.

One of the good things about being based in Rouen is that it's easy to get to other nearby cities on the train. Le Havre is 50 minutes away, and Paris St. Lazare is about an hour and a half away. The closest city is Dieppe, which takes 45 minutes to get to. And that's where I went next!

Rouen

So eventually I ended up in Rouen for the last five weeks of my Year Abroad. I did three different placements during that time - two weeks of work experience at a vet, one week of work experience in a cat café, and two weeks at a language school. It was fun to do three very different things in a short space of time. I particularly liked working at the vets, as I learnt a lot there. I got to see various surgeries carried out, which was really interesting. Working in the café wasn't quite as exciting, but it was lovely to be surrounded by adorable cats all day!

The centre of Rouen is very historic and picturesque. However, the city's not really that different from towns in England, so it felt much less exotic in comparison to other places I've seen on the Year Abroad. But overall, I enjoyed my time there.

Here are some of my favourite parts of the city:

Le Gros-Horloge

Jardin des Plantes

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen (Every night during the summer, two short films are projected onto the wall of the cathedral, which is when I took these pictures. It's really impressive and definitely worth seeing!)

Square Verdrel

Place du Vieux-Marché (This is where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.)

Church of Saint-Maclou

Passage de la Petite Horloge

Tour Jeanne-d'Arc (This is where Joan of Arc was imprisoned. It used to be part of a castle, but now just this tower remains.)

Rouen wouldn't have been my first choice of city to spend the majority of the French part of my Year Abroad in. But although I preferred Montpellier and the south of France, I still liked being here. It's a city with a lot of history and culture.

I also visited a few other towns and cities in Normandy, and there will be short posts about them coming very soon!

The First Week and a Half in France

For the last six weeks of my Year Abroad, I was supposed to be working at a animal park in Brittany. However, once I got there I realised that the job wasn't what I was expecting. So I moved on to Paris to look for work and accommodation there, but wasn't successful. But I did get the opportunity to see lots of sights around the city, which was great! I'd only been once before for a couple of days for my 18th birthday, and I'd wanted to go back ever since. I had hoped to spend a bigger part of my Year Abroad there, but it wasn't to be.

Here are some of the things I saw:

Jardin du Luxembourg

Notre-Dame de Paris

Moulin Rouge

Le Café des 2 Moulins (This is the café featured in one of my favourite films of all time, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain.)

Mur des je t'aime

Sacré-Cœur

The Eiffel Tower, of course!

Arc de Triomphe

The Chilean Embassy (I came across it while exploring the city and just had to take a photo!)

Versailles

Place de la Concorde

Tuileries

Bois de Boulogne

It was really fun spending a week exploring Paris and the surrounding area. Aside from the attractions in my pictures, I also visited other interesting places, like the Musée d'Orsay, Roland Garros and Le Parc des Princes.

It hasn't been easy adjusting to life back in Europe after being in South America for so long. I was really happy with my life in Chile, and didn't particularly want to leave. But I had to complete the Year Abroad (not to mention the final year of university)! So I tried to make the best of my time in France, and overall, it went pretty well. I had the chance to visit plenty more places, and I'll be writing about them very soon...