The last Week in Pont Aven has been bittersweet, we are all super excited to go spend our last week in the mountains, but we are sad that the time has come to leave.  This week has been full of activities, like on Tuesday, we had our final Breton dance class.  This time we were surprised with a fantastic live Breton band, complete with accordions and chanters and lots of weird instruments.  For me its the little things I will miss, grabbing a sandwich at Café Au Centre or a pizza from the Tuesday market.  Predictable that most of my favorite things about this place have to to with food.  Wednesday we had our last French class with Carine, shout out to her for teaching us so much in so little time!  Thursday was a work day to finish our final history projects, the group chose to do everything from write a paper on renewable energy in Brittany (Dalton), to make a handmade book of paintings and descriptions of Celtic Paganism (Ben), to a breakdown of Breton legends by Izzy.  We worked super hard, but Friday, when we all got together and went over our final products, it was really cool to see the stuff we had all done, and really worth it.  Friday was also our art critique day, where we all looked at the body of work each of us had created on the trip.  Super cool to see everyones work from the beginning to now, everyone has developed such distinctive styles.  On to the present; Saturday, AKA packing day.  We all have spent the day packing up our stuff and giving gifts to our host parents and awkwardly trying to express our gratitude for having us, in french!  Tonight we have our final art show/good bye party at Sue's house, everyone we know from Pont Aven will be there, and we are heading out now to go set up the show.  It has been a crazy awesome nine weeks, and we will all remember this place forever.

-Ben

Henry here!

Monday:
After classes today we went out to the Isle de Raguenez for a coastal
hike. The fresh air and ocean scenery were incredibly refreshing.
After a short hike we crossed the tidal sandbar to the small island.
From the rocky beach we climbed through paths walled by vivid, yellow
gorse. Along the way we passed old testaments to WW2; German bunkers.
However nature had taken over and the bunkers were covered in gorse
and wildflowers. You should have seen the clearing on the far side of
the island; a field of pink flowers swaying in the ocean breeze. The
jagged point of island framing the ocean beyond. medieval farm

"Artists on the Isle"

 "A lone Maeve studies the scenery"

"Cazo on the Coast" 

"Dalton Scuba Diving"

 

"The Medieval Breton Farmer with his Oxen"

Tuesday:
What a day! After art class and humanities with Sue and Lies we took a
trip down to the beach. The name escapes me, but it was one of the
first beaches we hiked to and it was still beautiful. Angel smooth
sand and high, rocky coves; the beach was perfect with the bright sun
above. After some swimming in, um refreshingly cold?, water we each
found our little sunbathing spots. Dalton, Ben and I dug ourselves a
sunbathing hole, with thrones for each of us! While Izzy, Lucie,
Olivia, and Cazo listened to Maeve read Winnie the Pooh. However the
day wasn’t given to relaxation completely; after a delicious dinner we
walked to our Breton dance class. I have never in my life met anyone
with such strong pinkies; never mind the fact they were little, old
ladies! The dance was of course incredibly fun and we laughed with the
other dancers as we stumbled through the moves again. By the end of
the dance though we had gotten a hold on the shuffles and pinkie
whirls of classic Breton dance.

Wednesday:
After an enlightening class of art history with Caroline and a display
of our art we set out to finish our hike of the Breton coastline! After walking
the zig-zags of the various bays and inlets on the coast we found ourselves in
Concarneau. Hopping on the nearest ferry we motored over to the island
fort. This place was huge; imagine ten Putney barns lined up and you
get an idea of it’s size. Too bad the inside had been turned into a
tourist trap. Yet I have to say the exclusively air-plant shop was
intriguing. After our hike we retired to our respective homes for
dinner.


Thursday:
Art class and studio time with Sue in the morning. We worked on our
final projects for the big exhibition that was coming up. After class
we went to intermarché to pick up some lunch. You see every once in a
while we go and pick up some cheap baguettes, delicious cheese and
chorizo (spicy sausage) and make ourselves a delicious lunch. Of
course after lunch we had to book it to my house for French class.
After taking notes on a french movie and playing with Sofienne, we
worked on our french. After class was free time until dinner and we
each had our own little adventures. I for one went and explored the
Bois D’amour some more!

Friday:
We started the day with humanities class; discussing All the Light We
Cannot See. After arguing over how much responsibility German soldiers
had over their actions within the war and under Hitler’s control we
had lunch. Our afternoons were devoted to working on our final project
and ten art pieces.

Saturday:
We began with a wonderful french class watching le apartment
espagnol. A movie which mirrored our lives as exchange students.  A
french college kid applies to the Erasmus program for exchange
studies. The movie explores his life living with an international
melting pot of seven roommates. Hilarious and filmed in an incredibly
original way; I highly recommend this movie! After class we headed
over to Sues to meet Tim Eriksson. One of Sues old friends, Tim is an
incredible musician and vocalist. Today however he became our teacher
as we learned how to sing Russia and Blow from on High Gabriel. This
was all to prepare for our small concert that night. After a
spectacular performance from a 10 year old guitar wizard and his dad
we were on. Even though I’m not the most musically inclined person I
thought we did just fine. Plus it was great fun when the rest of the
audience joined in. Of course listening to Tim perform was something
completely different. He was truly an incredible singer. Tim is on tour now
in the UK for ten weeks.

PS Unfortunately Blogger won't let me upload the rest of the photos, I'll try to fix this later. Sorry!

The week after Normandy (which was last week, apologies for not being on time with the blog) we started off with a Sunday of hard work at Caroline Boyle-Turner and her husband Hank's house, moving rocks. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time  until we found a snake that was in the process of regurgitating a full toad, at which point we decided that we'd probably done enough work for the day. We had a delicious lunch in the house, and went for a walk along the coast. The next day we had the morning off to settle in and catch up on homework, and then in the afternoon we had art class with Sue. On Tuesday, we had classes and then went and visited a dairy farm near caroline and Hank's, where we got to meet the farmers and watch the cows getting milked. They were very friendly and had a much more industrial set-up than our farm back at Putney. After dinner that night we went to a Breton dancing class in the town hall, which was a ton of fun. On Thursday we went on a hike along the Breton coast, starting up where we'd left off the last time and walking about 7 kilometers. Sue's host family joined us that day, with the dancer Guillaume Bordier and their adorable puppy Leia. The next day we had a dance and movement workshop with Guillaume in Sue's house. He taught us a routine and we all had a great time. That night we had our art opening at the Cafe du Centre. All of our host families showed up, along with other friends that we've made on the trip. Saturday night al of the students had dinner at Carine's house, and then went to see some live music at an open mic night at the Cafe Bois d'Amour.

Working at Caroline and Hank's

The dairy farm

A bunker we saw on the hike

Another bunker

Dance class with Guillaume

Leia

The art opening

From our week in Normandy!
Written by Olivia

Bonjour Everyone!

Monday: 

Today we said "bon voyage" to our host families for the next week and headed three and a half hours to Bayeux. A Medieval Town in Normandy, France. Which is home to the Bayeaux tapestry, a two hundred and thirty foot long embroidery from the 11th century. The tapestry Illustrates the Norman conquest of England. Depicting and giving glory to the earl of Bayeaux and his brother William the Conqueror. We took an audio tour of the tapestry that explained every section in detail. Then we had a few hours to walk around and explore. For the next two nights we stayed at La Ferme de la Gronde. We ended the night by watching the movie “Saving Private Ryan”. 

Tuesday

We started the day off with a visit to the D-day Museum, Omaha Beach, and the American Cemetery. It was truly an incredible experience being there on the sandy beach where thousands of American soldiers had fought. We spent several hours there walking the grounds, reading names of soldiers in the cemetery and watching old war footage in the museum. Later in the day we visited a cemetery for German soldiers. It was interesting to see the contrast of both sites. The American Cemetery portrayed a great deal of patriotism and honoring the soldiers who had sacrificed their lives, whereas the German cemetery reflected a great deal of regret. 

Wednesday: 

We traveled to see Mont St. Michel and took a guided tour of the commune. Apparently there are only 25 people who live there year round! Our guide also shared with us that there is only one exit and entrance out. From the outdoor balconies of the Cathedral, you can see for miles,all the way out to the coast. It turned to be quite the rainy day. By the time we got back to the vans we were all soaked! Sketchbooks and all. For the next two nights we camped out at the Chateau Hotel Du Colombier (which looks a lot like the Grand Budapest hotel). 

Thursda

It was another rainy day in France, but never the less we made the best out of it and explored the towers of the St.Malo History museum and walked the ramparts surrounding the city. We also got to see a photo exhibit of a French photographer; his subject was the Vietnam war. 

Frida

Today, we went to the town of Dinan and spent some time in the Foret du Broceliande. The same forest that King Arthur was said to have roamed and where Merlin the Enchanter is buried.Then made our way back to Pont-Aven!!! 

Satu

Off to Brest for art supplies! Then we all decided to see the newest Marvels Avengers in 

French!

D-Day Museum

American Cemetery

D-Day Museum 

The German Cemetery 

La Ferme de la Gronde

The Chefs

Mont St.Michel

Tour of Mont St. Michel

St.Malo

Chateau Hotel du Colombier 

Foret de Paimpont