"Let's go somewhere!"
And that we did. We decided on a nice little port town called La Rochelle about 3 hours southwest of Paris via train.
Our plan was to leave early Friday morning spend the night and leave Saturday evening. This would give us enough time to both enjoy and relax on our weekend. Though the trip wasn't going to be cheap, round trip tickets ~120euros each, hotel room ~40euros each, Michelle assured me this was our vacation and that it was a small expense for the experience.
Friday morning came and we ran to Montparnarsse. We managed to find the SNCF TGV train station with ten minutes to spare. We went to one of the ticket kiosks and only managed to get our return tickets, not our departure. Unfortunately, we were unable to get them. Since they were through iD-TGV, a special company, we had to print them beforehand. We attempted to print them the night before but Deutsch de la Meurthe has 4 Compaq computers and 1 nonfunctioning printer. So alas they were nonrefundable. It was too late to turn back so we painfully purchased another set of tickets. The coast would be waiting for us and it would all be worth it. After shooing away pigeons pecking at our pain au chocolat crubs we got on the train. No seats and little sleep for us. Oh how we clung on to the idea of the coast.
We arrived around noon to this quaint little place (which we later found out wasn't so quaint). It was grayer and cooler than expected but it was a nice change from the heat wave that we had to endure in Paris. Onward we went to the hotel to check in and drop off our stuff! Kyriad Hotel was nice with very interesting complementary origami flip-flops. We walked over to the town with our trusty map. When we got to the harbor we noticed a lot of people walking about, performers in the street, instruments left and right, and a lot of sales tents. Turns out we arrived on the festival of Francofolies. A festival originating in La Rochelle celebrating francophone music. The port city was bubbling with people, music, and neat attractions. It was a nice scene and we found everyone to be very kind. Michelle and I strolled along hoping to find neat gifts we could bring back. There were some neat clothing tents; one that we drooled over in particular sold Zeena brand. Bongos, ice cream, puzzles, small animals walking on tight ropes, portrait drawing, henna tattoos, an assortment of too many things to list in this blog. As late evening approached we decided to visit La Rochelle's aquarium.
I had never been to an aquarium before come to think of it and this was a very impressive aquarium. We hopped into a dark elevator made to look like the inside of a submarine room. When we stepped out we were in a Plexiglas hallway surrounded by water and tiny floating jellyfish. I'll admit, I was freaked out for a second. Progressing through we saw children, carpeting, tanks of neat little sea critters surrounded by non-offensive beige wallpaper. So it felt less like we were lying in the deepest depths of an ocean. There were sea horses, chambered nautili, sawfish, parrot fish, jelly fish, sponges, anemones, sharks, piranhas (right below rope bridges), turtles, and a fish Michelle called 'the fish that became man.' The piano playing over our heads and the water and marine life flowing around us brought up so many questions in our minds. Despite having all of these unanswered questions, like why would matter bother turning into a jellyfish, we couldn't help but stare and feel at peace. It really felt like one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had.
We left pretty late with some awesome gifts for family back home. Francofolies was far from over and we ran into some neat street performers on our way to Kyriad. There was a very lean, healthy young man in, and there's no better way to describe this, a large cloth diaper. I know what you're thinking, 'that doesn't sound enjoyable at all', but in fact it was. He was very charismatic and had audience members assist him as he juggled fire and displayed some acrobatic skill. The funniest part I will say is when he decided to sit on one assistant's head. A little further down the street in front of a church was a ensemble, 2 accordions, a clarinet, and a guitar. They were dancing and playing passionately, making us laugh (even though I didn't understand about 70% of what was being said) between songs.
Those extra train tickets were a thing of the past and long forgotten by the end of the day. This. This is what life's about.
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