Journey to the French Atlantic Coast

Written by Nashua Springberry, Foster undergraduate

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An amazing thing about Nantes is its close proximity to the beach. It happens to be a quick 45 min train ride to the beautiful French coastal city of La Baule. On two separate weeks me and my crew of multicultural adventurers made the journey to La Baule. Our first trip to La Baule was plagued by inclement weather. We had gone to see a triathlon that was being set up by the French students from Audencia. The day ended poorly after frigid weather and rain forced our early egress from the city. The highlight of the day being when one poor French student organizer got thrown into ocean by his comrades after the swimming portion of the triathlon was drawing to a close.

The next weekend we repeated our trek to La Baule in a very packed TGV train. This time the forecast was fantastic and we were not alone in wanting use the last expected weekend of good weather before the fall cold really set in – it seemed like half of Nantes was with us. Our day at the beach was much more enjoyable this time around. We hung out on the beach, took in some sun, listened to electro music (the Europeans are obsessed with electro), drank some wine, hit the water, and even played a pick-up game of beach soccer in which my American led contingent dominated the match. Afterwards we all grabbed the very delicious and highly addictive doner kebabs (sliced meat served in a pita often with French fries – as opposed to meat on stick) to cap off a great afternoon. All in all it was one amazing day in which I came back exhausted but at the same time refreshed – ready to take on the next adventure France had in store.

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