Weekend in Bretagne

 There was nothing more perfect than escaping the sweltering Paris heat for a relaxing weekend by the beach. I was invited by some family friends to spend the weekend at their summer house in Val d'Andres, a tiny town on the coast of Bretagne in north-western France. 

Before leaving for the weekend I got to take a day off work to visit INSEAD, a leading global business school in Fontainbleu (about 30 minutes outside of Paris), with the Intrax group. The campus was awesome, very different from the typical French university in that it had an actual campus setting and felt very community-oriented. Most of us in the group are a long way from applying for an MBA, however it's never too early to start thinking about it if it's something you are considering. Especially if you want to go to INSEAD, since one of their admission requirements is that you test fluent in a second langauge. INSEAD calls itself "The Business School for the World" and they take that very seriously- no more than 10% of the student population can represent a single country. I may never apply to INSEAD or get an MBA, but I found the tour and the presentation from Andrew, the INSEAD marketing office, very interesting and it gave me a lot of important things to think about regarding grad school and finding your career path.

After INSEAD I left Fountainbleu early to catch my train to Bretagne. The train ride took about three hours but it went by really fast. There wasn't much to do in Val d'Andres except sleep in, relax on the beach and eat long, leisurely meals in their garden- perfectly fine by me. The family that invited me told me that the weather is usually very cold and rainy, and we lucked having amazing weather the whole weekend. There was literally not one cloud in the sky. 

The whole weekend I was not only there with the family that invited me, but also their aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, and friends. It was fun being in a full house with everyone speaking French the whole time. Everyone was so nice and hospitable and they made me feel right at home. And the food was ah-mazing. After living off of overpriced restaurant food or microwave meals in my room it was awesome to have home-cooked meals. My favorite was the authentic Breton galettes that we made, incomparable to anything I had in Paris. 

Here are some pictures from this weekend. 

View from the porch of the house i was staying at. 

A traditional Breton galette

With my friends who invited me- Victoria and Mathilde