OuiOui: The extra kilos and a chateau

Hello world, it's me again. Your friendly neighborhood Sam. So guess what? It's vacation in France! It's a bit complicated, but vacation technically starts in a week but because my class at high school went to Liverpool this week I can just loaf around the house for the time being. In fact, I'm loafing around the house right now. I did just go on a twenty minute jog around the fields with Vick, the scary guard dog. Vick is such a ferocious animal that when this house was broken into some time ago he didn't make a single noise and let the burglars lock him in the walk-in freezer. Vick is one of the nicest giant dogs I know; he makes me happy and he loves running with me because it's an opportunity for him to pee on everything.

I'm running because... I've put on some weight. We all knew it would happen. A girl who loves food goes to France, land of good food, and doesn't gain weight? Impossible. So I've gained a couple of kilos which roughly translates to 5 pounds. I knew I couldn't eat pastries next to every single day and not gain a bit... but I can always hope. Now that's its vacation it will be a lot harder to find pastry shops though; there are three within 10 minutes of my highschool but only one about twenty minutes away from my house. At school I would get very bored in between classes and walk down and get a tartelette aux pommes... (Apple Tart) Here it's not worth the sorrow to walk 20 minutes for a quick nibble of something delicious but calorie-laden. So yeah, I've been jogging now and will jog every day this week. And try to avoid putting too much nutella on my morning "pain complet". (Complete Bread)

Saturday I went shopping around Nantes. All I want is a really cute bag and a new pair of shoes because my turquoise converse are dying, my black heeled boots are in their death throes, and my cut-out oxfords are withering and getting stained with French things. My fake toki-doki purse is also stained and too big for my evolving fashion tastes. Now I want a old school canvas knapsack. This is uninteresting, I'm going to stop talking about what I want to buy and will wait until I've actually bought something... So I didn't buy anything saturday, but I did go to a creperie and got a crepe titled "chevre chaud", which means hot goat cheese. It was incredible. Readers, if you have never eaten a crepe before, leave your house right now and find the nearest one. Go inside, buy a crepe. Eat it and never be the same....

Sunday! Sunday I went to the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne in Nantes. (The Castle of the Dukes of Brittany) The Chateau was very pretty, but my favorite part was the huge museum that was installed in one of the main chateau buildings and afterward sitting on a bench watching a French dad play 'cache-cache', hide-and-go-seek, with his daughter who had obviously just learned how to walk. I was surprised watching the dad and his daughter. He would just put her down and then run and hide behind a bush about 20 feet away. She would stand there, slightly wobbling, and then start walking/running/stumbling in any odd direction until her dad would call out her name. Once she would hear her name she'd fall over, get back up like a frog launching off a leaf and toddle over to wherever she heard her dad. They played this game for 15 minutes and I watched and laughed the whole time... It was more entertaining than watching the European Championship Handball match between France and Denmark. (France Won)
PICTURES!