London

Well, well, I’ve made it back to Nantes in one piece!  After a full month of traveling, I’m back sitting in my little French dorm room, getting ready for classes which resume in just a day.  I’m quite excited about it actually, because this semester I am taking real classes with real flesh and blood (and cigarettes and nasalized vowels) French people!  Youpi!

Mais avant de crouler sous les devoirs, I’ll try my best to make some posts about the past month of travel…First stop: London!

I took a short flight from Nantes to London and met my friend, Shelly, at Victoria Station.  From there, we were off and into the night (3 pm sunset!), with mandatory stops at Buckingham Palace and a lovely pastry shop.  Missing France already, Sar?  Oh laaa…

By the time we had finished roaming the streets, it was late and I was sleepy, so we hopped on the tube to Pinner and called it a night.  But then we were up early the next morning to go back into town to explore some more.

At the Apple Market in Covent Garden, Shelly and I found a stand selling some beautiful desserts.  I couldn’t pass up one of these raspberry and orange tarts (Shelly had a tiny tiramisù!).  Delicious!

But let’s keep in mind, of course, that the day’s temperature was in the “definitely-not-remotely-warm” range, so between darting into museums (the National Portrait Gallery had an amazing collection) and various bookshops, cafés and bookshop-café hybrids for warmth, Shelly and I decided to hang out at…the ice rink at Somerset House?  Well, we didn’t lace up our skates or anything, but we did find a place by the window in the heated (aaaah!) tent nearby to comfortably watch people skating (and occasionally falling).

What a lovely start to the trip!  There’s more to come soon!