The Land of Butter

What are the three secrets to French cooking, you ask? Butter, butter and...you guessed it: Butter!! That is right! The French overall are known for their delicious pastries and desserts. This past weekend, however, I got to visit the butter capitol of France as I traveled to the province of Brittany, located on the western coast. This was such a fun diversion from what I have been experiencing in the busy city of Paris. Life in Brittany is quieter, more peaceful and relaxed. Brittany is known for their gourmet butter cookies and rich crepes of every variety. I was excited to try out some of the region's specialties and see a part of France that I had never been to before!

My friends, Emily and Allen, are living near Lannion this summer. Allen is doing an internship with a university here and they invited me to come out and stay with them for the weekend. To make this trip, I bought a ticket on the TGV: France's most powerful and high speed train. I had never been on one of these before and I was a bit nervous and excited for the experience at the same time. I packed my backpack and arrived at the train station 45 minutes early. When I got to the train station in Paris, I joined a crowd of hundreds of people, also carrying luggage. You sit in front of the huge Departure board and wait for it to show you which section of track that your particular train will be departing from. About 15 minutes before my train was set to leave, it came up: Voie #8. Everyone grabbed their bags and started running towards the train. Once we got there, we only had a few minutes to punch our train ticket and then jump aboard. It was a bit stressful, but I made it! I have a short-term memory in France and forget that the weather is always changing: super rainy one day and then hot hot the next day. I didn't bring a jacket on this mini-excursion because it had been so hot at Euro Disney the day before. When I got on the train, it started pouring rain. It was fun to watch the water droplets slide across the glass from inside the warm train. The only problem with this was that due to the inclement weather, the train had to stop several times on the track. They kept coming on the speaker and announcing floods ahead. I got so worried because this train was headed to St. Brieuc and I had two more trains to catch to make it to Lannion. As it turned out, I missed the connecting trains. We arrived in St. Brieuc an hour late. I wasn't the only one, thank goodness. We were left in the cold at St. Brieuc's train station for over an hour until another TGV could pick us all up and take us to Lannion. I was wishing I had remembered my jacket. I arrived in Lannion at 11:00pm--just two hours late. Emily was there to pick me up. It was so fun to see her!

I was exhausted from traveling and crashed in the bed they had set up for me. Saturday morning was filled with so many fun adventures. I surprised Emily by bringing her bagels from a specialty bagel shop in Paris. She was so excited to see them because they don't have bagels in Brittany and she had been missing them. We had bagels and cream cheese for breakfast and then we took off to see four different beaches, all very close to their home. They were all so beautiful! We tasted some of their buttery pastries that were being sold along the beaches. They were rich and tasty.

Emily and Allen were the best hosts. They said I could choose anywhere I would like to eat for lunch. They gave me some options. One of those included a Patatarie--gourmet baked potato restaurant. Potatoes are my favorite food! I chose that one. It was so fun! They had every option to choose from on the menu. Some interesting-sounding ones were a Boeuf Bourgignon with Bacon Potato and a Mussles with Roquefort Sauce Potato.

I ordered a Four-Cheese baked potato with salad on the side. It was so delicious.

At night, they had something special planned for me, knowing how much I loved folk dancing. I was a folk dancer at BYU and teach my French classes several dances throughout the year. They planned a visit to a Festival Breton. There, we got to do all sorts of fun folk dances in circles and with different partners. It was such a memorable night! Afterward, they made me some homemade wheat crepes with ham, egg and cheese. The time few by so quickly. I really had an amazing time! Thanks to you both!